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Draftcandy #57: Kaladesh Draft #1
Posted on October 21, 2016 by NovaSandler
NovaSandler Noah Sandler is a Magic Online veteran originally known for founding ModoSharks.com. He's been infinite from drafting for over a decade, won 36 consecutive matches in Odyssey Block flashbacks, and has eclipsed 2000 Limited rating on MTGO twice. He streams on Twitch as modogrinder1 and offers draft coaching via Skype.
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Great deck, obviously, but I feel you made some misstakes. First, you valued creatures way too low in the draft segment, like picking a chandra’s pyrohelix over a thriving grubs. In a W/R low curve aggro deck with multiple vehicles and combat tricks, 13 creatures are simply too low. You were sort of saved by the luck of being passed three veteran motorists in pack 3, otherwise you would have ended up with great cards but a bad deck I think.
Second, why play 16 lands? You had several mana intensive cards and a handful cards above 3 mana. Especially with card selection (three veteran motorists) you should always play 17 lands in this kind of deck I think, as it is so important to curve out.
Third, in game 1 match 1 you continually bottomed lands in order to find more creatures. However, your hand was stacked with gas but clearly bottle necked. If your opponent have had a removal for the freighter and continued to curve out while you were stuck a three lands, you would surely have lost. Very greedy play.
Thanks for the critique David. I’m conflicted on whether a deck like this wants to jam as many creatures in as possible. Freighters just require 1 creature to work, and I don’t know that I will win many games wth just cheap drops and pump spells. At a certain point in the draft I adjust if I am low on creatures, maybe I should’ve done so sooner and taken Grubs over Pyrohelix.
I’m very comfortable with 16 lands in this deck. The biggest lesson I learned is how painful flooding is with no mana sinks. I play 16 lands about 10% of the time in this format, and given the 3 motorists, how functional the deck is at 3 mana, and the pressure to fit more creatures in, it seemed clear to me.
I’m not sure which scry you are referring to, but when choosing my scrys I give a lot of weight to avoiding eventual flood. When I don’t need to find a specific card, I like to maintain a position where the top of my deck gives me useful draws for as many turns as possible.