Comments on: Simon Says #56: To Surf or Not To Surf (THS 8-4)

By: Yaravi

Yaravi — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 20:14:01 +0000

Simon, I think you showed one of your key weaknesses here in that you heavily favor control archetypes and lean that way during the draft even when a stronger aggro path is open to you. You saw a ton of great aggressive cards, esp. in red, but ended up getting a mess of a deck because you just don’t like to play that way.

It also cost you a bit one game because you kept holding back your guys, when racing was probably the better (of two not-so-great) options.

You’re definitely a strong player, and a fantastic control player, but you really need to be able to turn on an aggro mindset when the occasion calls for it.

By: El Camino

El Camino — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 01:42:31 +0000

Reminded me a lot of several of my drafts. Can’t make up your (my) mind about which colors to go with and end up spread thin and very mediocre hoping for perfect draws to make things work.

It’s an easy trap to fall into when the colors you want to run appear to be drying up.

By: mr0661

mr0661 — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 10:10:40 +0000

match 1, (game 1), at 10:32 you missed 9 point of damage by not attacking, later, that damage would have mattered

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 03:11:57 +0000

Thanks for the videos. Always very informative.
I think you should do a recap video on game 1. I didn’t rewatch the whole game but I can’t help but think that you should have won that game.
I know there was one turn when you bestowed the satyr, kept both creatures back and then promptly took 6 damage because you had no good blocks. I think you either need to make up your mind to race him or make sure you can block effectively and get his 6/6 off the table before you are all the way down to 7 life.

By: mperetti

mperetti — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 22:12:10 +0000

Intro video works now, so thanks for fixing it. Gold cards are still a very interesting proposition to me. Very often these cards go very late. I’ve seen the UW hoplite go 13th, and I also just 2nd picked it in my last draft. I first picked the phalanx leader and 2nd picked hoplite, but white was cut so I took a bunch of blue cards and then saw a very late shipwreck singer (yet another of these gold cards) and transitioned to BU and won the draft. I think seeing these cards late is a good sign people within a couple seats of you are not in those specific colors, so that helps some. In the end these tough decisions are what makes drafting Magic so much fun.

By: John

John — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 19:09:16 +0000

I’ve done 4 or 5 Theros drafts so far. Without a doubt, the worst sinking feeling is when you start green or black, then get a super strong signal in the other color and absolutely nothing else. There is so little early action in these colors that whenever I’ve wound up there (or watched a draft that wound up G/B) the deck was overloaded on 4s and 5s. When everyone at the table wants to have W, R, or U as a color and you start with G or B, it just feels terrible. I suspect that Simon felt this and tried to avoid the green signal, when perhaps the best course of action was to immediately switch (pick 2 or 3) and abandon the black.

It looks like G/R was the right combo for this seat, although decent W and U cards were coming late too. Having a starting core of Anthousa, Voyaging Satyr, and Reverent Hunter would have led to a solid deck.

I’ve seen at least one successful G/B deck (I think it was Marshall on this site?), but this still just feels like a weak combination. Maybe with multiple Voyaging Satyr, Baleful Eidolon, and Sedge Scorpion, but unfortunately all of those tend to be early-ish picks.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 15:47:05 +0000

Thanks for the content Simon. I think you we’re a little off your game today though.
I think you waited one or two picks too late to move into red. At that point I think you should have just abandoned it and had a very solid BG deck.
You also passed on a couple of Voyaging Satyrs while bemoaning your curve (at least I think I remember seeing a couple get passed – I could be mistaken.
Another point… you should never take Guardians over any playable or even a sideboard card. No one takes them as you could tell by ending up with 3 of them.
It also seemed obvious that your deck was going to be weak to flyers at the point that you took Nemesis over Nessian Asp which is a better card anyway unless you’re playing Commune With the Gods.
Finally, I think that your saying that you couldn’t beat his draw in the last game was a cop out. Given how weak your deck was to flyers I think that you had to kill the Wingsteed Rider as soon as possible while he was tapped out. It would have been an uphill battle once he bestows his centaur, but also much more winnable.