Comments on: Limited Resources: RTR Draft #3

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 21:33:36 +0000

Did anyone else notice MTGO suggesting 0 islands at first, but when Marshall added the fountain it suggested 1?

Also, liked the deck. That guildmage can can some serious damage.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 06:36:46 +0000

You played a good draft, better than most idiots on youtube, thumbs up

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:26:19 +0000

@Simon I think he was quite serious, security blockade is a card that I’ve gained a greater appreciation for after drafting selesnya literally dozens of times. An army of knights may not win you the game outright, but they do an excellent job of stalling and providing 2 for 1′s until you can get to the late-game, since they can double-block 3/3′s or in combination with rootborn defenses provide some blowouts.

The damage prevention also tends to be more relevant than I initially thought it would be. Board stalls are fairly common, so stuff like Lobber Crew can slowly ping you to death and win a game. In those situations, security blockade will generally gain you much more than 3 life, and the token would be more useful than the 3/3 body if you drew populate cards w/o token makers. The fact that it sets you back a mana isn’t generally relevant at the stages of the game where that ability is most welcome.

So I agree with Healer being a much better card all-around, I understand the argument for both. While the healer does a better job of getting you [b]to[/b] the late-game, blockade does a better job of enduring it. After further thought, I do think Healer is the correct pick. It’s early in the draft so he has plenty of time to pick up token producers, as you ideally want to be populating 3/3′s anyway. I could see myself taking the blockade midway through pack 2 or early pack 3 if I didn’t have many token producers though.

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:25:12 +0000

I stopped watching after the last video.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:56:24 +0000

Agree with Brian on the R1G2 decision to let the 4/5 through. Avenging arrow does not need combat damage to a player, it needs damage. Chump it with a 1/2 then kill it with arrow.

By: Simon Goertzen

Simon Goertzen — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:15:10 +0000

There is a chance that chippy’s comment was not meant seriously. Even with Growing Ranks and Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage (which can produce tokens if necessary), Centaur Healer is far superior to Security Blockade. I would pick almost any good Selesnya common over a 2/2 token for 2W. It would have been a mistake to pass on a card like Centaur’s Herald, however, because the board impact of a 3/3 (token or not) is just so much higher. It is difficult enough to push through with a board full of 3/3s, but I have never seen an army of Knights and other 2/2s accomplish anything in this format.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:38:35 +0000

@sweat_hax & chippi:

It’s not that clear-cut of a pick. Even with the guildmage and growing ranks, an argument could be made for the healer. It does a better job of slowing aggressive starts, and the life-gain can be crucial against cards like stab wound in racing situations where the blockade is useless. To simply stop watching because of that pick is absurd. He’s only going to draw growing ranks <50% of games, and in those games the healer is going to be much, much better than the blockade. Even in games where he does draw growing ranks, one would hope he's populating centaur tokens. Consider this curve:

T2: Guildmage
T3: Blockage
T4: Populate

It's actually pretty unimpressive. If your opponents deck is any good, chances are he'll have something better than 3 2/2's. Something like:

T2: Guildmage
T3: Healer
T4: Towering Indrik

Is arguably quite a bit better for Marshall's deck because it sets up for the late game, where he can simply pay 6 mana to make a centaur and start populating from there. Once you get to the late game, a single guildmage is all you need, so a good argument can be made for Centaur Healer over a mediocre token producer. I'm not sure it's what I would have picked, but it's not near as clear-cut as you seem to think it is.