Pro Tour Born of the Gods is in the books. For this episode of Simon Says, I take a look at the Day 1 Draft Viewer to analyze what we can learn from the first four picks of the competitors. After that, it’s time to draft!
You can click here to view the coverage of PT Born of the Gods.
And you can click here to check out the draft viewer and follow along with my opening discussion.
You can follow me on Twitter @simongoertzen,
or check out my Tumblr entitled Strategic Thoughts.
M1 G2, i think you forgot your triton fortune hunter had flying, using crypsis/surge to kill chorus would have been good. Great video as always though : )
Hi, really enjoyed the vids and there were interesting things
Just a question: any reason you seem to not especially like the floodtide serpent in this deck? (your comment about siding in round 3 made me think of that).
The serpent is really awesome in a deck like yours – and it CAN keep the big enemy things at bay if you happen to have a wavecrash triton on board. Attack, get enchantment back to your hand, play it again – also works good with the fortune hunter. I think in a heroic deck w/ wavecrash & fortune hunter and a lot of very cheap enchantement triggers, it actually has great synergy there and can create powerful combinations, and at worse remains a solid blocker!
Hi simon, awesome content as always
and hell yeah i wanna see a day 2 draft analysis !
keep it up
Hi Simon.
Awesome draft. I didn’t really put much faith in your deck, but it obviuosly performed quite well. It looked to me like you were somewhat cut from both sides on at least one color.
On another note, I sorely missed this series for the last couple weeks. Your content is among the best. Also, what happened to your video series on planetmtg? The synergy with your brother is too good to just stop making those.
Keep up the good work!
Great videos! Alot of your thoughts seem obvious when you say them, but I wouldn’t have thought of them myself. A bit of feedback on the sound: sometimes your voice gets really loud and a bit distorted, like you are leaning close to the mic. Maybe you could fiddle around with the volume and distance to the mic to optimise that.
Excellent content Simon and very nicely played. Great information too. I saw one possible mistake in the drafting Pack 3, Pick 4 : You had the option to pick up Pharika’s Mender and you took Fate Foretold instead. You took a temple of deceit a few picks before that which made it an easy splash possibly replacing Karametra’s Acolyte which did not seem to fit well.
I also agree that Floodtide Serpent could have been amazing. You already had great card draw synergy and with this as well? Karametra’s Acolyte could have been the cut here too.
I agree with EuNi! Your videos are my favorite and I was distraught the last couple weeks with them! And I have also been wondering why your PlanetMTG videos disappeared.
Floodtide Serpent would have been great card draw if he managed to have the Fortune Hunter every game (which it seems he did… RNG…) but I can completely understand why he didn’t maindeck it. I’m definitely down for day 2 analysis. Good content as always, I seem to learn so much from your series compared to others. Thanks for the great work!
Simon, in M1G1 at approx 9:40, you cast Aqueous Form on the Triton Fortune Hunter to make it unblockable and draw a card. At that point, it seemed to correct to me to first attack, trigger the Scry, and then in 2nd main phase cast the Stratus Walk. You lose nothing by doing this, and gain an opportunity to Scry an unwanted card to the bottom of your deck.
Very glad to see a new video from you. Yourself and LSV are the only content creators that I get excited to see from.
Yes Simon and LSV are in the legendary status.
Boycott these opening discussions. They are pretentious to say the least.
Hello again, I noticed another odd play, this time in M3G1 at 2:40. You have Wavecrash Triton in play and are about to play Fortune Hunter, with the decision on where to enchant with Aqueous Form. If you enchant Fortune Hunter you draw a card, don’t Scry (this turn), and take 3 from the Cyclops. What you end up doing is enchanting Triton Hunter and attack, meaning you cannot block the Oreskos Sun Guide, so the result is no damage from Cyclops, deal 1 damage in your attack, receive 2 damage from the Sun Guide, and Scry 1. Not only this, but your opponent then gains 2 life from untapping the Sun Guide on the turn after his attack, so he is at a net gain of +1 life.
I’m surprised that you would rather lose 1 less life, Scry once and give your opponent 1 life instead of drawing a card.
In M1G1, I think it’s correct to play out Karametra’s Acolyte over the Nylea’s Emissary. It allows you to bestow the Emissary the following turn, so you would still be able to attack for the same amount of damage.
@mark & acheronn
Are you really serious about putting Simon’s and LSV’s videos on one level? While Simon’s videos are informative and extremly well played, LSV does not seem to put too much effort in his. He oftentimes clicks very fast through his picks without explaining and makes up for this with strange jokes… I have to say that Simon’s videos are simply the best you can find. By far.
Simon, thanks both for the quantity and the quality of your draft videos.
As I’ve learned more about drafting (by both playing and watching videos from folks like you), I’ve come to enjoy and appreciate your videos and analysis more and more. Your success in your drafts speaks for itself.
Please ignore Kezzerdrix. I find some of your opening discussions to be very helpful. Sometimes it’s like some of the format concepts (like people ignoring green to go red/white) are only apparent to me AFTER you state them (we can’t all be experts).
Simon, I do agree with some of the commentors that (in my experience) the Floodtide Serpent can be just amazing. It might be real helpful to get some deeper analysis of why (for example) you chose not to play it in round three when you opted to get rid of the Unravel The Aether (which I agreed with).
For one example, with Floodtide Serpent, Triton Fortune Hunter, and Fate Foretold, you could be playing Fate Foretold on the Fortune Hunter to draw TWO extra cards a turn. With Aqueous form on Floodtide Serpent, it can attack with impunity if you bounce Fate Foretold (or Stratus Walk) from the Fortune Hunter with it.
I realize there are trade-offs, which is why a deeper analysis from an expert could really be helpful to intermediate drafters like me.
Thanks