Opening Discussion
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Draft and Deckbuilding
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.DII Draft, Round 1
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The buffering on this site is usually really fast but it’s going slow this time. Anyone else? I’ll comment on the video after I’ve watched it.
It’s slow for me now, too. My suspicion is that high traffic to our site (and a high volume of streaming from our server) is reducing bandwidth per individual viewer. We’re working on finding a solution to this as our contributors’ fanbases continue to grow.
buffering extremely slow
unwatchable for me right now =(
says videos unavailable for me
My ranking of the captains is:
1) Drogskol Captain
2) Stromkirk Captain
3) Immerwolf
4) Diregraf Captain
I rank Stromkirk Captain below Drogskol Captain only because I think that UW decks are among the best in the format and that I have a higher probability of winning with a UW deck than a BR deck. However, Stromkirk Captain’s effect on the board is far more significant. While the hexproof granted by Drogskol Captain is nice, it’s often irrelevant because if the opponent has a removal spell, the captain is usually the most desirable target anyway. On the other hand, the first-strike that Stromkirk Captain grants other vampires shifts their power-levels by wide margins.
Stromkirk Captain turns the usually-mediocre Bloodcrazed Neonate into a nightmarish creature that can easily spiral out of control. Same applies to the Erdwal Ripper. Vampire Interloper no longer has its traditional flaw of dying to abundant spirit tokens. Markov Patrician, now a 4/2 first-strike lifelinker, is nearly impossible to race if the opponent cannot trade for it in combat.
Unwatchable here as well :(.
videos either loading extremely slowly or not at all, pleeeeeeeeeease fix it!!! apart from that i love the content you guys produce
I personally rate Immerwolf over Drogskol Captain in limited
The reasoning behind it is that G/R is equal in powerlevel compared to U/W. Especially with the powercard that is Wild hunger.
Next to that, werewolves + wolves are easier to draft then spirits. Also the hexproof part of drogskol is barely relevant in limited, because given any targeted removal people will use it on the captain anyways. If you have the perfect draft Drogskol far outshines immerwolf, however immerwolf is more consistent and still able to outrace fliers.
Nice deck :). You played the tempo well. I would have blown some of my spells a turn earlier and probably lost at least one of those games. Thanks for explaining your thoughts with so much detail. I watch all the good players’ videos, and I think your explanations are the best.
“Butcher” (Butcher’s Cleaver) is pronounced closer to “booch-er” instead of like the word “much”
Captains, I rank
1. Drogskol
2. Immerwolf
Those two are very close with Wild Hunger in the format, often going late. The tempo fliers game is the best in the format imo, but the Werewolves decks are possibly better because of their aggression, and because you can always pick up playable creatures when the draft isn’t kind to you.
3. Stromkirk
4. Diregraf
These two are also very close for me. R/B needs more luck than R/G, so while it is the most powerful of all the Captains with a great draw, it is also just a bad version of aggro unless you have many of the best cards to go with it. It’s the riskiest to take early. Diregraf is good on his own, but U/B already has enough ways to block, and you aren’t rewarded with enough good zombies most of the time. The deck is too slow and clunky for my tastes, most of the time.
Any of the Captains are good, but the only one I will first-pick is Drogskol, unless the pack is bad. I’m so glad there isn’t a G/W Captain! That would have been too much.
Thanks, Simon.
I’m heavily influenced by the overall strength of the resulting deck, and the spirit components of an U/W deck are outstanding (Niblis-es, Geists) which makes the card that promotes them a high choice.
Similarly, although Immerwolf’s intimidate is innately weakened by the wolf’s gold border, it’s still relevant. While First Strike and Deathtouch are arguably more relevant, the other vampire and zombie components themselves are not as good as the format’s Wolf choices.
This makes sense to rank Immerwolf more highly, after all, it’s just one card. None of these are bombs, and should not be evaluated as such!
This is a draft that rewards tempo, and both Intimidate and the efficient power/cost ration of wolves feed into a quick tempo.
Between the Vampire and the Zombie – I’ve played both decks, and neither one really works against Spirits, Humans or Werewolves without strong bombs/removal. So if you’re thinking about either, don’t put the cart before the horse — pick your Fires of Undeath, Farbog Boneflinger, Griptide, etc before thinking about moving into either captain. They’re strictly Tier 2, and should be drafted as such.
Buffering just fine now for me atleast.
Awsome draft as always.
I value captains simular to posters before.
1) Drogskol Captain
2) Immerwolf
3) Stromkirk Captain
4) Diregraf Captain
Immerwolf goes before stormkirk and diregraf just couse higher acsesability of bombs and playables in red green. The vamp deck is hard to draft couse other drafters take the removal and the zombie deck usualy wants to go towards selfmill more then zombies.
Just wanted to comment on the fact that since Orchard Spirit doesn’t actually have flying, Stormbound Geist wouldn’t be able to block it. Cool draft, thanks for posting.
i like your draft-videos quite a lot. It’s not only the fact, that you explain a lot and play very well, i always have the feeling, that my draft-skills are improving after seeing one of those, especially because of the intros.
i had good experience with immerwolf and red-green often being open so i would rank him 1st.
i think drogskol captain is 2nd, but only because he is in the best color combination, reasoning is that hexproof often doesn’t do that much, unless you have some big spirit, they would kill before the captain (like dungeon geists or drogskol reaver). opening lingering souls is a reason to pick this captain though.
i think stromkirk captain is fine but not spectacular because he is a ground creature without evasion, but i didn’t play with him much either. in theory, he seems quite nice in a dedicated vampire deck. ill rank him 3rd.
as ub-zombies is in general not a good archetype, diregraf captain is ranked 4th.
carpe diem, greetings from aachen!
Thanks for the introduction. It was like sitting in on a Magic: the Gathering lecture. For someone like me, who is a visual learner, I really liked the itemized list that helped summarize the main points.
With so many pro drafters (for example, most of the ChannelFireball crew) drafting quite loosely (not at all conservative) in their videos, it’s nice to see some conservative drafting.
I’m really curious how you go about deconstructing a new draft format. You mentioned in your intro how you broached the subject of the captain cycle in your preparation to Pro-Tour Honolulu, so I was wondering if you have any tips/advice for some fundamental questions you examine when faced with a new format? Have you ever considered text-based articles?
Thanks for the awesome videos and streams. =}
Why was the Wolfhunter’s Quiver able to deal 3 damage to Drogskol Captain when it is not a werewolf?
I usually pick up Diregraf Captains quick for Wolfhunter’s Quivers. It may not be the best combo, but it sure is fun.
Butt-chers cleaver.
Start using YouTube videos please !
Not to start an argument with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (thank you for Sherlock Holmes, btw!), but I LOVE the Academy video player… I never have any problems, and find it superior to YouTube videos…
Immediately after watching these videos I jumped into an 8-4.
P1P1 had the zombie captain, which I passed to take Wild Hunger.
P1P2 picked up Immerwolf.
P1P3 passed the vampire captain!
silly captains are everywhere…
In a big tournament in my country, a player managed to get three (!) drogskol captains and a deckful of other good fliers in the top 8. Needless to say, he smashed mine and all the other decks he played as easily as Chuck Norris can smash… well, anything
Torero,The quality of Infect guys isn’t there for the half/half deck. Necropede and Plague Stinger are both ptrety bad in the half/half deck since they present such a slow clock. That leaves him with Blightwidow as the only good Infect guy at the point of the Phoenix/Arbalest decision which definitely tilts things away from infect.