1. Loving the quotes! They are getting awesome. I thought you of all drafters would have picked the colonnade there and maybe gone white blue tempo. Would have picked up the hero in the third pack. ;)

  2. I’m probably wrong but I do think colonnade deserves respect in that pack. Plus hero and Baneslayer are not bad either.

  3. The deck missed some kind of ramp-spells, like worn power stone, thran dynamo…
    Really sweet round 1 ;)

  4. And finally I will state, I am glad you didn’t pick colonnade, because round 1 was awesome.

  5. Not that you needed to do much against it, but when sideboarding against the Turbo-Fog deck you remove Electrolyze because it’s ‘bad without creatures’ but leave in Path to Exile which is actually just *dead* without creatures.

  6. Seriously? Seriously…I know it’s getting toward the end of Theros now, but it’s been almost THREE MONTHS since Marshall’s last THS draft video. The set was not all played out back in mid November. I’m super disappointed every time a new video comes out and it’s yet another cube or old set, and I guarantee I’m not the only one. At least mix it up a little or get more people to submit videos more often. The content around here has sucked lately. The good drafts (Simon) and the entertaining drafts (LRR) are too few and far between with Marshall playing nothing but lame cube and old sets. I love his videos when they’re on the current set, and I don’t mean to hate on Marshall, but this is getting ridiculous. Three months…

    And to the inevitable white knights, this may be “free” content, but they still have an obligation to make it good content if they expect to keep any traffic on this site. And lets not forget that there is plenty of ad revenue, YouTube fame, MTGO bot sales, and other incentives for them to keep us around. As the recent increase in commercials can attest to, no one is doing this purely out of the kindness of their hearts.

  7. Considering that Ral Zarek singlehandedly won you your first match, I think the only appropriate follow-up is to wish you… a happy Ral-entines day. ;D

  8. I don’t care about anything else that happened in any of the videos. Going all heads on Ral was worth the price of admission.

  9. Well you’re part of a minority then, because CUBE/ OLD FORMATS >>>>>>> THEROS in every possible way.

  10. “I really hate cube” has all the wrong reasons for hating cube, i think he should be boycotted.

  11. Man, you are lucky… i was just thinking rolling earthquake is probably the only card that can get you out of the situation you were in in round1 game 2, and then you topdeck it and go on to ultimate Ral for 5 turn :-D.

  12. If I got $1 for every time Marshall says something stupid I would be a rich man, but I like the fact that he manages to make a good play nonetheless often enough. It’s like he learned not to listen to himself. ;)

  13. P1 P2 You said, that there were “Not anything particularly good for any deck”. I think that is not quite right. Chandras Phoenix is really good in the red deck. It does a lot of work by doing a lot of damage and is one of the best three drops for that kind of deck beside of shrine, I think.

    But with your first pick Kira is a nice follow up and I am looking forward for the rest of the videos.

  14. Got to admit it: I’m not a fan of Cube drafts. I appreciate you can put together some very powerful Cube decks. That said, it seems I’m always stopping the video to read the cards. While I’m at it, I’m not a fan of Modern either. Magic is costly in terms of both time and money, which keeps my attention first of all to the current limited format, and secondly to Standard.

  15. Ral zareeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!!

    This was awesome xD So sad that the internet decided to get on strike, i’d really have liked to see what that deck could do until the end :(

    @Theros/Cube: I have to say that as a player who restarted playing Magic relatively ‘recently’ and played only recent formats (M14/Theros/BNG), I’m also sometimes wishing for bit more Theros content. On the other hand – it IS a bit repetitive and offers less choice imo than the Cube, and getting to learn about all of these key cards and mechanics that have existed between Urza’s block (last time I played before M14) and now is an interesting thing as well.

    Meh, I guess I like both, especially if they’re backed up by Marshall’s friendly sounding voice/tone ^^

  16. Thanks for drafting all these old sets and cube. It’s great to see a format with more archetypes than Monoblack Merchants and W/X Heroic. Theros got old fast, cool to see you make an effort to switch it up.

  17. Just my unsolicited 2-cents re: Theros/Cube. 3 months is definitely a long while to avoid the limited set, and I’m sure we’ll be getting BotG vids soon. Regardless – the videos are entertaining and interesting. Marshall makes human plays and reaps the consequences of his mistakes – I’m here to learn, too, and seeing pros make similar mistakes helps me not forget to play around spells or pay more attention to my mana tapping.

    My only complaint is that it often feels like I’m watching the same videos week after week. This draft was marginally different than the last one, which was marginally different than the one before that, and the one before that. It’s like base-blue-control is the only deck in the cube. Same creatures, same spells. It would literally be the same deck each week if the packs weren’t randomized.

  18. Regarding Theros vs. other formats, I think the point is best illustrated by a Mark Rosewater analogy (he used regarding hybrid): say you go into a bakery and taste the best tart you ever had; does that mean you want to eat a 20 lb tart every day? No. The fact that it is a rare and small treat is part of what makes it special. At this point, that tart is Theros. Theros is special after months of drought. Cube and old draft formats are fun, but not exclusively. With that said, I’m also not really chomping at the bit to watch another black/green Theros draft. Anyway, Born is now online. =)

  19. How to Theros:
    1) take boring creatures
    2) monstrous/heroic up into a bigger boring creature
    3) get blown out by boring overcosted removal.
    4) flip a coin to see if you win.

    Once you realize, it’s easy.

  20. Theros is at every FNM, most tournaments, the currently most firing queue, standard, etc.

    Pretty sure in that analogy, cube/IPA/MD5 etc is the really nice tart, and you’re saying there’s been a little too much of it recently.

  21. Yes, what I’m saying is that there is too much other “special” stuff that it isn’t special any more. Rosewater was talking about how everyone loved hybrid in Ravnica but when they did a whole set/block about hybrid, people didn’t like it. I like Cube and old drafts, but as a nice once-in-a-while surprise instead of every week.

  22. Sorry to all the people who have to read the cards and only play the latest limited and standard: learn the cards of Magic’s past. Not only will it make you a better player, but it will open your enjoyment to a lot of other formats. The guy who said he’s on a budget so he plays Standard gave me a great laugh. Competitive Standard at budge. RIGHHHHHHT.

    Theros WAS boring by the end of November. If a site features the same draft for months on end, it will lose viewers. I really feel as if the people who said they are sick of cube and “old” formats just didn’t watch the drafts. First of all, the old formats are different nearly every time. AKA variety. Second, cube is, by definition, the highest variance-filled draft set available online. AKA variety.

    If the variety that Marshall does include – he actually includes quite a bit variety – goes away, the site will lose a lot of viewers, including me. Check out other drafting sites. Does LSV draft THS every time? Nope. And thank God for that.