Limited Resources: Theros Draft #1

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Limited Resources

Theros is available online, and Marshall bestows us with his first draft video for MTGO Academy!




You can follow Marshall on Twitter @Marshall_LR
or check out the Limited Resources podcast at lrcast.com

 

  2. M2G2. To explain why he didn’t chump the 6/6. It was a green creature with intimidate. You were thinking of the bestowed guy as the color factor, when the color that matters is that of the creature it is enchanted to.

  3. M3G2. The much simpler option with the emissary would have been to put it on the Voyaging Satyr, making it a 6/7 with trample and only able to be blocked by the Unicorn. There aren’t any combat tricks for B that would stop it from working and it saves having to do all the math.

  4. It’s interesting to see you going BG, as my first draft in Theros (and my only draft in Theors so far) was BG, and the decks looked quite different.

    I went for a very synergy centered deck, with two returned centaurs, a commune with the gods, a march of the returned, and two Pherika’s menders to maximize graveyard interaction. This BG deck however is just “good cards”, and it got better results. Maybe synergy is not as important in this format as I thought.

  5. I badly want to drop a hundred-handed one against Deceiver-Twin combo and just hit F6 when they go off.

  6. Yeah, i like the play with bestowing satyr in M3G2 better as well, because your opponent had two open mana with Opaline unicorn. Meaning if he had a cure, coordinated assault, or lightning strike in hand, he would block and live and kill you on the crackback. Still you got there, and otherwise well played.

  7. Carrot, the only synergistic decks I have seen really going off are the aggro heroic decks (usually R/W) and the mono-black that Marshall was talking about that maximizes the gray merchants – chaining them together with Voyages to the Underworld is just broken!

    Most other great decks I have seen is just good stuff! The bestow creatures are usually very powerful if you are being aggressive. They are a bit less impressive if you have having to play defensive.

    Blue has a great tempo deck with all the bounce spells, but you have to have threats to get through damage while you are tempoing them out.

  8. in M3G2 you where dead on board with playing the Harpy going to 1:
    If he attacks with the Underworld Cerberus and his Harpy you need to block both, killing both in the process (your 3 blockers have either deathouch or 6 power), getting him his Harpy back.

    Playing the second Gray Merchant would be the save play

  9. BG is an awesome color combination, but I was dismayed by some of your picks here.

    Pretty early on you seemed to get an idea of this, but Pharika’s Cure isn’t an amazing removal spell. Your lack of Sip of Hemlock really was unfortunate overall.

    It’s also funny that your ideal scenario of using Time to Feed on Staunch-Hearted Warrior just makes it a 4/4 for 4. The fact that you only get parity even after heroic makes it drastically worse than the Centaur Battlemaster, and not really worth playing without a more dedicated heroic deck than the one you drafted.

  10. Voyaging Satyr, after my experience, is way better than you evaluate him. I wouldve picked up 2 of these.

  11. M2G2 you were at 8 and he had the Phalanx, Merchant, and the Discard-Devotion guy. You were asking what he could have and I didn’t here you mention Mogis’s Marauder, which seems like a likely one for the black devotion deck.

  12. Absolutely agree with you TSchocker, voyaging satyr has been an all-star for me as well and would have snap picked them up.

  13. In your third round, you could have cast Nylea’s Emissary on your Voyaging Satyr making it a 6/7 trampling GREEN intimidate creature. It can only be blocked by the Unicorn and the rest of the damage tramples through for 4 damage (more than lethal). Otherwise, good games.

  14. In the final moments of the last game of the finals, could you not have avoided the complex maths by simply bestowing Nylea’s Emissary on your already 3/4 Intimidate Satyr? That would make it a 6/7 trample intimidate, blockable only by his 1/2 unicorn, guaranteeing you 4 trample damage vs his 3 life. He had only 1 black mana up, and I don’t think there’s anything that cheap which could have blown you out. Unless I’m missing something?

    Also, I agree with the above commenters about Voyaging Satyr, with so many expensive creatures and abilities in this set it’s been awesome for me every time I’ve played it.

  15. One person said this already but M3G2 you were dead on board on his turn after you played the harpy and went to 1. I agree with Christian (previous poster) that unless we’re missing something he only had to attack with Cerberus and Harpy, both of which you needed to block. The only way to block Harpy was with your own which would kill it. You also needed to block the Cerberus and no matter how you did it, it was going to die…You had 2 deathtouch guys and the other 3 added to 6 power. This would kill the Cerberus, the Harpy would go back to his hand, and he could cast it for lethal.

    Everyone else agree or are we missing something there?

  16. Kieran, he could tap the unicorn for mana after blocking, meaning there were a few instance black and red spells that would have punished marshall really bad for that play.

  17. Just checked again and I was wrong, the unicorn ofc having summoning sickness. What i get for remembering the board and not the play I suppose.

  18. Thanks for the videos! Green has been my favorite color in theros so far, it feels like a somewhat complex take on its color pie. I always like it when green gets to do cool stuff while still being green.

  21. wow, this comment section should really read this comment section. i’m not sure i’ve seen more redundant responses in a magic article ever. one of the dudes even said he read the section but then posted the same thing as everyone anyway.

  22. @henridink — Marshall’s not a professional magic player; he said right at the start that he wanted to try out the Emissary because he had played lightning strike a million times. If you want to watch pros draft, you could do that. But if you’re going to hate on Marshall at least hate on him for something true– like his creepy love for Elmer.

  23. The latter part of this was a great demonstration of how even a very experienced player will make basic errors when tired. M3G1 he’s playing super cautious when his opponent had mulled to 4 and clearly had nothing. M3G2, he completely wasted the Baleful Eidolon by bestowing it on the harpy. This does nothing but protect it from spark jolt. Any other removal (pharika’s, magma jet, lightning strike) would still kill it and let the opponent’s harpy through, and by not having another blocker on the board, it made it much easier for the Cerberus to attack in. Just casting the BE as a creature would have practically guaranteed a dead Cerberus and a safe life total. Still, Marshall’s drafts are always great to watch, so thanks!

  24. Hmmm. That answers a qutosien I have long had. Unfortunately, it’s not the one for which I’d hoped. It means evil rather than stupid.For the situation where she calls a man out in front of others one could argue that, yes. However, when a woman does this to a man and they are alone it could be simply that she has lost control of her emotions and at that point is being simply stupid. When this happens she usually needs some time alone (By the man saying what you recommend and then walking away or by simply walking away). She may then be able to see what she did. consciously find it justifiable.I don’t know that you are going to find too many women who are conscious about it. I think they are absolutely out there and in higher numbers than I like to think about. However, for many woman it is more about what they feel. They feel power when they are being bitchy to a man. A sort of control. Then when the man takes back the control she immediately feels that loss. That is when she becomes embarrassed and looks around because she knows everyone else saw the loss as well. However, just like the hamster and the shit testing, I am not sure that many women could actually verbalize why they do it. So, I guess, upon rereading my post, they are conscious of the feeling produced but have not given much thought into the why of it other than it feels good. I would expect that that differs a great deal than a man consciously making a grab for control of a group of people.