Draft and Deckbuilding
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Match 1
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format. Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Sorry, no third match!
Standard Spike: M12 Draft
Posted on August 8, 2011 by _ShipItHolla
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format. Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format. Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.
The actual link tot he draft does not work, nor can you download it :[
I haven’t watched the matches yet, but they seem to work fine.
the draft link is br br br broken
Hmmm… It looks like a computer error caused the upload for the Draft file to stall. I was hopefully able to fix it, meaning it will be up by around 3:45am US East. Very sorry about that.
EDIT: Apparently the upload sped up quite a bit since it’s done as of 2:45am US East. Happy viewing, everyone!
think you’re really over-valuing Timely Reinforcements. The card is way too conditional to take over solid removal.
You lost both games in match 2 because you waited way too long… Skywander Drake is a cards you should play immediately, and 2 for 1 is perfectly fine with a Day of Judgment.
timely reinforcements over gravedigger or gideon’s lawkeeper? really? I don’t understand that pick :< it's such a conditional card, while the other two are really solid options. demon searching gravedigger is nuts and the tapper is nuts on his own, even better in a set with illusions/ice cages.
I don’t think Sacred Wolf gets enough credit in this format.
I am disappointed that you took goliath over bangchuckers. If you dont’ know how a card performs….try it out!!!
Stopped watching after pacifism was passed to the guy on one side and Gideon’s Lawkeeper was passed to the other side. Just seems like a good way to put other people into your colors …
… I lied. I actually stopped watching after he complained during a match that he didn’t have enough fliers after passing 3 assault griffons.
And at least 3 devouring swarms, some of which were extremely late, it’s like it wasn’t even considered?
Some observations on your draft:
-big mistake passing looters/tappers for timely reinforcements. Unless you think all of your opponents will be red aggro/lava axe.dek which seems unlikely.
-You moved out of black too early, it seemed like it was open the whole draft, with late doom blades, onyx mages, and evasion dudes.
-You passed a billion fliers in your colors, how did you expect to win with your control deck?
I certainly agree that there where a bunch of questionable picks during the draft and it should be valuable for any drafter to receive some feedback from fellow players but it definitively is easier to pass judgment after the fact. M12 is still quite new for many and I can understand the appeal of Timely Reinforcements but also think there are not better then good removal – and I count the Lawkeeper in that category. Considering that he is also taking care of all the illusion creatures in Blue and is a great tool in offense and defense it should always be a higher pick then the Reinforcements.
@ Kamikaze
Even after the draft, he seems to claim that timely reinforcements its some kind of bomb, when its just a really good hoser for aggro decks with smallish creatures/burn. Timely Reinforcements is def better when you have swords and stuff like that, but in draft its just another good card.
Yeah, I can see how it seems like hindsight, but it honestly isn’t. Obviously there’s no way to prove I was wincing while watching the draft portion :-P. I’ve drafted this a fair bit in RL and just thought I’d give my thoughts. My intention isn’t to dis the drafter but rather to engender discussion. It’s hard to value cards coming right from standard, where timely reinforcements is a blowout.
I do however LOVE the site design. It looks really slick!
In the second round, around 13:00, I think it was better to cast the Timely Reinforcements instead of the Day of Judgement. This would force him to play out other creatures, since the tokens would trade with the hound. Reinforcements is not good after sweeping, especially if you are going to play any creature immediately.
i think he should have played the day sooner, he let him loot too many times..
I think the problem is that his picks were guided by prior formats– where Black and White are typically hard to coincide together. What I see for his deck though was a good chance to splash Black. I’ve also heard that timely is a good card, but I don’t believe he was playing the card correctly (seeming to think that it only did something if you had less life totals). If he played more aggressively, the opp would have had to overextend into tokens beating him down. With the looter on board however (likely one or two he passed), he wasn’t able to get a good foothold in the match.
Lawkeeper would have been able to hold board position while setting up a better turn, and Looter would have been able to allow for a Black Splash. It seemed after picking a vanilla 2/4, he decided to go all in blue not play his 6/6 flying bomb.
He also picked an Auramancer over a BoneBreaker Giant before he really had a blue commitment. His next pick would have been the Minotaur 5/5 beater. I believe there was a good case for a W/R. (Late Shocks,etc.).
In disregarding Black he passed Sengir Vampires, Doom Blades, and multiple other cards (the only thing he really gained by going blue was a Mind Control). These, combined with DOJ, would have been pretty powerful.
What do you think about 2x (or 3x) Jace’s Erasure plus 2x (or 3x) Merfolk Mesmerist? Seems like you could definitely have gone control/mill with your Pride Guardians, blue 2/4s, and DoJ… Do you think that would be a reasonable strategy? I’m pretty new to MTG, so I’m not sure, but it seems like it.
Also, how did you discount black so early? You could have had several doom blades, sengir, and a few other decent things… What was it about blue that made you decide that?
Thanks,
Alcarin
You’re all making some solid points about the flaws in my drafting strategy. I have definitely been overvaluing Timely Reinforcements, most likely because I used it to great affect in previous drafts, but the card really is too conditional to be as good as I make it seem. Also, the speed of the format has been slightly exaggerated making Timely Reinforcements also slightly worse.
When picking in the future, I will at least be taking Lawkeeper ahead of Timely Reinforcements.