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Limited Resources: Magic 2015 Draft #4
Posted on August 22, 2014 by Limited Resources
Limited Resources Limited Resources podcast co-host Marshall Sutcliffe provides coverage on North American Magic events and writes for DailyMTG. He educates listeners about limited and heads the highest-prizing clan on MTGO.
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That last match was un-forge-anate
Gotta say, I’m not a huge fan of the red sliver. It’s merely okay in decks with enchantments to augment it or combat tricks to save it. Every other color has a common 2/3 for 3 mana that eventually forces a trade down for the sliver.
Not sure why you consistently play the Sliver before the Enforcer. The Enforcer was always unblockable, but you’d play the sliver and some awkward attack situation would arise.
Still watched only Round 1.
Imo the line you take with the second -2 on Ajani is pretty weird. The +1 gives first strike and +1/+1 (don’t think vigilance and lifelink mattered too much in that matchup), that on the belligerent sliver made it each turn a 4/4 first strike that could be blocked only by 2 or more creatures. The deathtoucher would have be in a serious pinch against first strike – let alone that by saving ajani, you could still use more -2s later on!
In round 1 game 2, why didn’t you use the Frenzied Goblin to either stop the insects from blocking or force him to block with the insects when you went in with the sliver and skirmisher? You had 4 red open, so you had 4 uses of the ability.
Yeah you made some really funky plays there. The second -2 on Ajani made no sense at all. I didn’t watch further than that because I was busy cursing at the screen.
@ Laboratory Maniac: That’s not how Frenzied Goblin works. You can only use the ability once.
Laboratory Maniac -
Frenzied Goblin is a triggered ability, not an activated ability. It triggers only once when it attacks and when the trigger resolves you can choose to pay R or not. So no multiple activations allowed.
the second -2 was wrong…
just +1 first strike on the sliver for the win
I agree with the above on the Ajani plays. I was very surprised at the lack of +1s to give first strike to one of your pretty large guys there. deathtouchers aren’t as good if they’re unable to do any damage to your guys because they die too quickly. Plus, keep Ajani around and your opponent gets more and more nervous.
If I was your opponent there, I’d have been cheering when you killed the Ajani, as it just made the stall worse instead of letting you pull ahead.
It’s funny how Marshall’s comment section is never anything but people mentioning all of his misplays.
Thank you Marshall for the content. Always love watching and playing Boros myself! Ignore the haters!
Of course, if he pluses Ajani and he attacks with his wasps in response, if one gets through, he titanic growths it or something and kills Ajani without ever being able to use the -2 ability again. I’m not sure if that was the play I would have made, but it wasn’t a terrible plan. I remember playing a game against an opponent with two hornet queens against my Soul of Theros. There’s absolutely nothing that the hornet queens could do against first strike on every single attacker. Ajani is not the Soul though and his ability would have been much more difficult to use, and Ajani is much more fragile as well.
> goes into g3 with a hand that starts to do things turn 3
> complains at end he didn’t open with one of five cards that were big in the matchup.
Having watched a few of your drafts now and really enjoyed your mulligan podcast, you certainly don’t practice what you preach.
Also, it felt like you were too confident in how awesome your deck was, as if it were a free eight packs from the beginning. You were bordering on insulting and certainly dismissive of your first two opponents and ramped up your bad draw gesticulating when you lost.
You’re better than that.
The first time that you just used Ajani twice and threw him away was very odd. The second time made some sense because your opponent was top-decking and you could significantly reduce the clock, but still questionable. Take one turn off to ensure his survival and make it even more difficult for your opponent.
Saying that your opponent might not “give you the chance” to kill his Cruel Sadist was misguided at best after you tapped out for a creature that basically had no impact on the board rather than keeping up the mana for your Pillar of Light in response to him adding another counter. That one was on you, not something that your opponent did or didn’t do.
Marshall – love the podcast and the vids. Just a minor request though: please use a visible phase ladder. Not only is it helpful for newish players trying to learn, I feel like not having the phase ladder as a visible reference point for the stops you have set will inevitably lead to mistakes from even the best player. This issue has presented itself occasionally in your draft videos (including rd. 3 here). The impact of including the bar on card visibility is negligible. Thanks!
The Ajani play in R1G2 was pretty close. If Marshal +1s then either: Ajani dies on the crackback and we get him low but are further behind on the board than after the -2; or we trade off our spirit tokens, Ajani goes to one and he’s left with two insects, enough to ensure Ajani dies the following turn (and we’re still behind on the board).
Agreed on the phase ladder though, it annoys me far more not having it than the minor increase in card size helps.
Hello, tanks for all the good magic.
Like washing you kick ass
When you draft the cards, i like that you talk about you different choices.
But the text of that cards are sometime hard to read, can you make the card bigger for a couple of sec, when you have something to say about them.
Thanks for the vids, enjoyable and informative as always.
Incidentally, M2 was clear demonstration of why Avarice Amulet is so bad. Some people evaluate it like; “Well it’s got the downside of my opponent being able to steal it, but the upside of getting to draw loads of cards if not.” But that fails to take into account the common downside, seen in that game, of it just bring far too slow – even if the opponent had lived another turn, they’d just paid 6 manna for a Divination!
Definitely agree with other comments about using that second -2 on ajani. The game was at a standstill and his +1 ability was crucial. Giving either the sliver or a spirit first strike meant you could plow through his hornets….
About the Ajani: the +1 is much much better than the -2, because when the opponent has his 1/1 deathtouch fliers, the size of your creatures hardly matters. However, by using the +1 with Ajani you could force his deathtouch fliers to attack – and then not block them – and then attack with all your creatures. The amount of damage you get through is worth much more than pumping all your creatures against an army of deathtouchers.
Cool draft. Entertaining. thanks! You faced some interesting opponents, haven’t faced off against mill much, looked viable with that grindclock.