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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 8:26AM
#31
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2009
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A guy at FNM drafted Sands and played a dedicated mill deck, including three copies of Mind Sculpt  (I would never even run one copy of this card). It did not go well for him. I think Sands is actually better in the non-mill deck, but it's still not something I'll auto first-pick in any pack. I would still take any of the cards I listed before over it. Sands is good, but it's not unpassable.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 6:06PM
#32
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Date Joined:
Jun 18, 2012
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A couple weeks ago, I took Yeva instead of Sands on P2P2. It was a tough call because I already had a lot of  creatures, so stalling out the deck and milling a couple dozen cards would have been a great path to victory, but giving those creatures flash was better. That said, the Sands deck went 3-0, and only lost a single game that night.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 6:29PM
#33
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Date Joined:
Sep 23, 2011
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A couple weeks ago, I took Yeva instead of Sands on P2P2. It was a tough call because I already had a lot of creatures, so stalling out the deck and milling a couple dozen cards would have been a great path to victory, but giving those creatures flash was better. That said, the Sands deck went 3-0, and only lost a single game that night.
Yeva is quite amazing in the right deck, steps in the path of aggro, and beats down efficiently. I don't blame you.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 8:49PM
#34
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2009
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A couple weeks ago, I took Yeva instead of Sands on P2P2. It was a tough call because I already had a lot of creatures, so stalling out the deck and milling a couple dozen cards would have been a great path to victory, but giving those creatures flash was better. That said, the Sands deck went 3-0, and only lost a single game that night.
That's a good lesson. I am curious to see Sands overall record -- if you get it late it can be a 2 turn clock, like it was in my most recent 6-1. I am still amazed people pass me Sands, a colorless one card victory condition is such an asset to any deck.
I mean... people used to think Increasing Confusion  was a bomb rare, this is not only colorless, but it doesn't penalize you for playing it early. Then you just devote as much many as you can to it every turn and volia -- a victory every single game.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 9:21PM
#35
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2009
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This thread is getting extremely ROTy. The logic seems to be, because a decks run Sands, they do well.
This is treading on dangerous teritory IMO.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 10:03PM
#36
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Date Joined:
Nov 27, 2011
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There's way more than 4 ways to deal with Sands of Delirium  : Smelt  , Naturalize  , Torch Fiend  , Acidic Slime  , Duress  , Encrust  , Negate  , Oblivion Ring  , Planar Cleansing  , Rewind  . Yeah it's not easy to answer but there's still alot of answers, and quite a few of those are main decked.
Ok I did miss a few, I just did a search for "destroy artifact" and forgot about Encrust and O-Ring. I don't really consider counters as answers because they're easy to play around, and those two are not commonly main deck. Duress is sort of the same, they're all only good if drawn before Sands is out.
I did a draft today where I got a first pick Jace, second pick Sands. I forgot to ask the guy what he took over it, but I was very happy with it. Having those two early I knew I was going hardcore U/x control, which turned out to be black. I ended up with 2 Essence Drain (3rd in sideboard), 2 Cower in Fear, Public Execution, Crippling Blight, Murder, Downpour, Rewind (great with Sands, but wouldn't often maindeck it otherwise), and Essence Scatter. I also had Sphinx of Ulthuun, 2 Harbor Bandit, Welkin Tern, and Bloodhunter Bat, which did some game winning as well, and Veilborn Ghoul for some inevitability. Gem of Becoming to accelerate Sands (among other things) and picked up a few red cards for sideboard. Said sideboard included 2 Duress, Mind Rot, 2 Hydrosurge (did good work against an Exalted deck), Mark of the Vampire, Rise from the Grave, Chandra's Fury, Switcheroo, and Mindclaw Shaman. I passed a couple earlier Searing Spears that I wish I had taken, I should have known that Gem would come to me. It always does when I run those colors.
Heavy control seems to be the best way to run Sands, because you generally don't have to worry about your opponent's removal. You can run only the best creatures and no filler, load up on all the removal you can fit and still have a solid win condition. I even used Downpour on aggro one game.
I split for the win with that. I think I could have won, but I wanted to go eat.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 10:44PM
#37
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Date Joined:
Jun 18, 2012
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This thread is getting extremely ROTy. The logic seems to be, because a decks run Sands, they do well.
This is treading on dangerous teritory IMO.
Sure. And I don't think that single pick was why this opponent won the tournament and I didn't. His other picks were generally better than everyone elses' as well--he took our other game without Sands hitting the field. He asked why I passed Sands on P2P2, though, even though my deck ran no mill cards.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 12, 2012 - 7:19AM
#38
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Date Joined:
Jun 14, 2007
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This thread is getting extremely ROTy. The logic seems to be, because a decks run Sands, they do well.
This is treading on dangerous teritory IMO.
Of course. Sands is not an autowin despite your deck. But if you can control or stall, it can push you over the top.
A couple weeks ago, I took Yeva instead of Sands on P2P2. It was a tough call because I already had a lot of creatures, so stalling out the deck and milling a couple dozen cards would have been a great path to victory, but giving those creatures flash was better. That said, the Sands deck went 3-0, and only lost a single game that night.
That's a case of two rares in one pack, which is a perfectly viable reason to not take Sands.
Anyway, I'm going to guess that the people passing me Sands fall into one of these:
1) They got lucky with two Rares in one pack
2) They got one of the powerful uncommons that fit their colors
3) They don't value sands highly at all, whether through difference of opinion or just being inexperienced (I am not saying these are one and the same, just that they are the two reasons)
Thanks for the input, everyone.
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