- The more I draft, the less I like Armillary Sphere. It's still great, and still a high pick, but I'd rather have an on-color cycler; a lot of my best games go turn-2 landcycle into turn-3 3/3 Rioters into turn-4 landcycle and attack for 4.
- Voices from the Void is criminally underrated. It's a 1st-3rd pick, but I've consistently been getting them 6th-9th; I can't understand how it ever tables. There's no spell I want to cast on turn 5 more than this.
- The protection bears are uniformly mediocre. The U/B one is solid mostly because it blocks Matca Rioters and turns on both Sedraxis Alchemist and Parasitic Strix (and Dark Temper); the U/W one's decent because it's an artifact to bounce for Esperzoa or to mini-drain with Strider. I'd be sorry to have any of the non-blue ones make my deck.
- A big part of the reason the bears are bad: there are a *ton* of great common 3-drops in the format. Between Matca Rioters, Aven Trailblazer (typically as a 2/3), Ember Weaver and even Wandering Goblins, it's hard to get in much damage with your 2/2 dork. Most of the time you're much better off landcycling on turn 2.
- Another reason it's so important to have the good high-end is because removal is at a premium; Drag Down is a first pick in large part because it's the only really good common removal spell. Temper is okay-but-situational, and Banquet is great for the slow 5c control decks but horrible for the decks that want to get there early and get rid of whatever blockers fall in their way. (One of the strikes against Wandering Goblins, incidentally, is their bad interaction with Wretched Banquet.)
- A surprsing amount of Exploding Borders' value comes less from the Lava Axe aspects of it than from the fact that it accellerates you to your six-drops(!) -- there are a few good fives in the format, but a lot of the better uncommons (Grixis Slavedriver, Hunt-Pride, Skyward Eye Prophets), are at 6, and those are the guys you really want to get to. That said, I'd still rather have the cyclers than Borders most games.
- I really don't think there's a good deck out there other than 5c and Esper -- and both at once, like my third-round opponent last night, might just be your best bet. None of the other options have enough synergy or raw power to compete.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
A few CCC thoughts
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Interesting thoughts. I haven't drafted CCC yet and don't know if I will get a chance, but reading your drafts/tips sure makes me want to.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more about Armillary Sphere. I started figuring it out pretty early, but it's a necessary card in the format for obvious reasons, so still gets picked pretty high.
ReplyDeleteYou have really turned me around on Voices from the Void. I pick it up all the time in the 6-9 spot but would take it at 2-4 if other people did. I have yet to have ANYONE play one against me, which is great. I even run it in the aggro Esper decks I have been drafting. One kinda cool later game play: Opponent drops a Fusion Elemental and passes with 2 cards in hand. I play Sedraxis Alchemist bouncing it back to hand, then Voices for his hand. This obviously doesn't happen too often given that you need 8 mana up, but Voices = strong.
Have to agree about the bears in general. I like the UB one, and I tend to side them in if I see 1 or more Fusion Elementals as they bring them to a halt. But as far as actually winning goes, they don't get you too far I don't think.
I agree with #7, and am happy to read it as I have come to the same conclusion myself without reading anything about drafting CCC.
One thing that I have also noted is how not great Volcanic Fallout is in CCC. It seems like the Bears are the only time you are getting a good board wipe out of it and that's just not enough. As you mentioned before, a TON of the playable 3 drops are 3 toughness+ , significantly weakening this Constructed powerhouse to almost passable in draft. I started out taking these very high but now I don't. Path however I still take really high.
Good thoughts overall btw.