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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 7:10AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jan 30, 2008
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Did you enjoy brewing in RTR draft?
Personally, I feel that the 5 main guild strategies were so powerful both in terms of speed AND synergy, that there wasn't a lot of breathing room for weird brew decks that try to win by cobbling together a synergy of weak cards.
Also, while the Guilds each had aggro and slow versions, they didn't necessarily seem to play that differently.
Could it just be a result of player perception? Were there rogue decks that actually worked well if we didn't get stuck with a certain stance and drafted it in a particular way?
Also, when you were drafting a guild deck, what were the cards that most created a decision point between whether you should go the aggro or control route? Did you find any sub-archetypes for Guild decks that felt distinct from a typical build of that guild?
Post any decks that you enjoyed drafting, as well as decks you wanted to make work but didn't quite work.
Goblin Artisans - A Magic Design Blog by GDS2 Contestants and Collaborators
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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 7:52AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jan 30, 2008
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One of my favorite subtype of Azorous decks was the Stealer of Secrets / Etherial Armor deck. Sometimes I would pick up some Stealer of Secrets very late and notice that it's being drafted particularly low in that pod. In subsequent picks I would start to prioritize them *slightly* higher over otherwise equal cards, because the more copies of them I had, the more confidently I can pick up the support cards for Stealer like Etherial Armor without fear of those support cards being mediocre because of not drawing it with a good target.
I've had two decks where I happened to end up with 4-5 Stealer of Secrets (although the of Stealers opened in an average pod will be less than that) 2-3 Etherial Armors, 2 Knightly Valors, many bounce and detain effects, etc. I liked how the white Common creature slots are stocked with many creatures that like being enchanted with Etherial Armor such as Fencing Ace, Armory Guards, even Trained Caracel. I would take those as late picks, as well as some Paralyzing Grasps to raise the Enchantment count.
I don't know how effective it is on average. Those two times, the decklists seemed perfect for what it was trying to do, but it played very swingy. The deck would completely dominate some games, but draw my cards in the wrong order in others. It was fun to play, though.
Goblin Artisans - A Magic Design Blog by GDS2 Contestants and Collaborators
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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 7:55AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2007
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My most successful deck (any my favourite as well) was   populate. Although this uses a lot of weak cards (or cards that were originally perceived as weak such as Druid's Deliverance  ) I really, really enjoyed it. For this style of deck you would often pick very highly cards that in other environments would go late (e.g. Rootborn Defences  , Eyes in the Skies  and Security Blockade  - I have first picked all of those at some point). Obviously, there were strong allstars like the Guildmage, Knightly Valour and Courser's Accord but this deck seemed the most 'brew' based deck out there. I generally enjoy those types of deck most and Spider Spawning/Self-Mill was my favourite strategy in Innistrad as well. I also drafted 5 colour decks twice both with good success rates (either 5-1 or 4-2 I can't remember). Here, cards like Seek the Horizon  were very powerful as the decks would often be designed to be slow with very powerful high-end creatures. The one deck I didn't draft and would have liked to was the Defenders deck with Door Keeper as the win con.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 7:56AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2007
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One of my favorite subtype of Azorous decks was the Stealer of Secrets / Etherial Armor deck. Sometimes I would pick up some Stealer of Secrets very late and notice that it's being drafted particularly low in that pod. In subsequent picks I would start to prioritize them *slightly* higher over otherwise equal cards, because the more copies of them I had, the more confidently I can pick up the support cards for Stealer like Etherial Armor without fear of those support cards being mediocre because of not drawing it with a good target.
I've had two decks where I happened to end up with 4-5 Stealer of Secrets (although the of Stealers opened in an average pod will be less than that) 2-3 Etherial Armors, 2 Knightly Valors, many bounce and detain effects, etc. I liked how the white Common creature slots are stocked with many creatures that like being enchanted with Etherial Armor such as Fencing Ace, Armory Guards, even Trained Caracel. I would take those as late picks, as well as some Paralyzing Grasps to raise the Enchantment count.
I don't know how effective it is on average. Those two times, the decklists seemed perfect for what it was trying to do, but it played very swingy. The deck would completely dominate some games, but draw my cards in the wrong order in others. It was fun to play, though.
Did you ever play Sphere of Safety  ? That card is brutal in decks like this and I have lost to it more than once.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 8:13AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 13, 2008
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That Rootborn defense  populate deck was actually my bread and butter. My local store's players would hate pick Roots and Druid's deliverance  knowing I may have drafted call of the conclave  or centaur's herald  s. My favorite decks were wicked Azorius tempo. Sunspire Griffin  and vassal soul  playing off of the super powerful soulsworn spirit  and voidweilder  s. Fun decks included volatile rig  aura deck with ethereal armor  , knightly valor  and detain/bounce. "big rakdos" helped me quite a bit as well
bulletd Guidelines: 5.0: I will take this card no matter what. Creature 1 or playable 1 or hate 1. Domri Rade  4.5: Bomb and splashable. Creature 1-2, playable 1-2, removal 1. Obzedat, Ghost Council  4.0: Excellent first pick first pack, will sway me into same colors. Creatures 1-4, removal 1. Rubblehulk  3.5: Excellent first pack pick two, will confirm colors or possibly sway into second color. Ground Assault  3.0: Good in-color addition, or splashable removal/creature. Creatures 3-9, removal 1-3. Kingpin's Pet  2.5: Solid pick in-color; creatures 5-12, removal 3-5. Mugging  2.0: Creatures 10-16; removal 6-7. Act of Treason  1.5: My 23rd or 22nd card, depending on removal. Gutter Skulk  1.0: 23rd card if I don't maindeck an additional land. Mental Vapors  0.5: This card will sometimes be sideboarded in. Shattering Blow  0.0: I will shred this card for counters. Frenzied tilling 
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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 8:26AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jan 30, 2008
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Goblin Artisans - A Magic Design Blog by GDS2 Contestants and Collaborators
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4 months ago ::
Jan 17, 2013 - 8:34AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2012
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In the beginning I really enjoyed GW aggro/populate, which eventually turned into a desire to play Junk. As the set got older, I found myself going into Jund A LOT, Azorius fliers occasionally, and finally I ended up playing pretty much straight Golgari. It's such a complex, fun deck to draft, build, and pilot.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 18, 2013 - 2:03AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2012
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4 months ago ::
Jan 18, 2013 - 4:01AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2002
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4 months ago ::
Jan 18, 2013 - 4:01AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2002
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