Draftcandy #18: Magic Origins Draft #3

Posted on August 7, 2015 by NovaSandler

Noah is back with more Origins action!

Round 2 opponent didn’t show!

You can find Noah on Twitter @Novasandler.

 

  1. Man! Some really hard picks in the draft. I really appreciate all the explanation you provide when deciding between picks.

    Your friend’s deck in round 3 looked awesome! In a super durdle way. I don’t think he should have bad talked it even if it didn’t appear to be the most streamlined. Tough beats on the flood.

    As a random aside, how do you evaluate Ghirapur Gearcrafter? I’ve heard mention that Boggart Brute should (in normal cases) get picked over it. I feel like that means I’m either overvaluing Gearcrafter or undervaluing the brute.

  2. Thanks! I think Gearcrafter is the second best red common, so I value it above Brute.

  3. Hi, In pack 1 pick 3 you made a statement that “green seems really open”. Pack 1 pick 3 is far to early in a draft to consider a color “really open”. By the end of pack one you only had 4 playable green cards, 4 highly mediocre green cards at that. I don’t think you fully understand signaling. Nevertheless thanks for your content. :).

  4. Maybe the word “really” could be left out, but seeing the best green uncommon and best green common in a pack means that unless one player picked a green rare (likely less than 1/5 chance without looking at the spoiler) or there was a foil green card in the pack (even less likely) both players to our right picked nongreen cards. It doesn’t mean that I’m locked into green yet, but it gives me about as much information as you can get pack 3 of any draft. Results oriented or not, it looks clear to me that green was indeed open in pack 1 and 3 by the number of strong playables received compared to other colors. (5th pick Leaf Gilder, 4th pick Skysnare Spider, 5th pick Valeron Wardens, 8th pick Orchard Spirit, 9th pick Pharika’s Disciple.)

  5. Thanks for the content, I always find it interesting. I like your style & explanations and overall agree to it.

    I was surprised when you said the blue mythic was a “really big signal” and was afraid you’d go for it, but you quickly reassessed and said it needs some work and that’s not the deck for it. Quite agree there!

    On the other hand, I agree with the Green signal thing, as in it was an early signal worth considering.

    @emporai: by the end of pack 1, he does have only 4 green cards, but for one thing, I really don’t think they’re mediocre, and also, the packs where he didn’t pick green were either by choice (early picks), or because the packs were very bad.
    Gilder P1P5 seems like a really good sign, and the only pack after P1P5 with decent other cards was the blue one with the owl & disperse, but all the others had rather crappy card no matter which colour he’d have been in.

    Anyway, always happy to see new content from you!

  6. Regarding Disciple of the ring, it is brutally underrated, at the very least in limited.
    I had picked this up twice now on a very late pick, it’s possible this even wheels, blue drafters seem to ignore it, they are wrong.

    Now you might look at it and say ‘ok look but this a 3/4 it’s garbage, what does it do without a lot of spells in your yard?!’
    The answer is – scaring your opponent, controlling the board, and forcing your opponent to make sub optimal plays provided you have at least 1 mana open and 1 instant/sorcery in your yard.
    It also leads to absurd blowouts when you have an instant in your hand and not in your yard and the mana to cast it and activate right after that.
    This card is the very essence of control magic.

    ‘But Lamb, surely this is just optimistic of you! so you threaten to counter 1 thing so what? I’ll cast it with extra 2 mana open!’
    But is the land in my hand an instant? can you be sure you aren’t in for a 2 for 1?
    Because it will be, when you least expect it.

    Besides are you really attacking here? because clearly I tap your blocker and swing next turn, that’s a lot of damage there, are you sure?

    This card destroyed me, and I since then pick it every time I see it, and even with 5-6 instants/sorceries in your deck you are winning the game more often than not as you not only force your opponent to play their removal 2 turns after they might have done so, but you also threaten to block with 4 power so they can’t really afford to attack, you threaten to untap some other blocker on your turn, you have the option to prevent damage by tapping theirs.

    More often than not, by simply forcing your opponents hand and forcing him to wait on his game busting enchantment or removal, forcing him to stay on his side of the board as you might untap that other threat you got or just striking fear in someone you already got with an instant into activation last game – is EXACTLY what wins you the game, the threat itself and not the activations.

    You don’t need a lot of resources to threaten and you can choose when to waste resources if your opponent dares disobey you.

    This card is a beast played alongside nonsense like disperse, negate, clash of wills or 1-2 mana combat tricks you could play with white or green, cards you would play regardless and are valuable to you regardless, this just makes them strictly better, and the best part is – you don’t care when you use them, play as normal and rip the rewards as you get to play Disciple.

    Just try it next time you see it, you’ll never look back.

  7. Hey, thanks for the input. It’s an interesting take on it, I admit I didn’t think so much about the “bluff” part.

    I’ll try it if I get the chance :)