Gatecrash has been available on- and offline for a while now, and players around the world are figuring out how to draft each of its five guilds. So far, the biggest lessons I have learned are to 1) stay open as long as possible to position yourself in an open guild and 2) prioritize a low curve whenever possible. This episode shows both of these concepts in action in my first Gatecrash draft for Simon Says.
Note: I didn’t manage to record my first pick due to minor technical difficulties. Please check out the opening discussion for an in-depth discussion of the very first pack.
You can follow me on Twitter @simongoertzen,
or check out my Tumblr entitled Strategic Thoughts.
Wow! Those were certainly entertaining matches!
The black splash worked out perfectly and very well played, I learned alot from watching this (and all your other) videos. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much Simon. Can´t wait for your next Draft
Stopped watching in G1 after you missed the kill when he played totally lost with burst of strength and wiper bloodrushing the drake
@Maarten: I agree! Thanks for your appreciation.
@ownage77: Ah, people on the internet. Always wanting more!
@Mamut3D: In M1G1 I decided to play around Aetherize by attacking with only the Keymaster Rogue. He turned out to have Totally Lost which meant that I killed him a turn later thanks to the Denizen counters and the interaction between Deathtouch and Trample. Saying that you stopped watching because I missed a kill which I didn’t is one thing to begin with, but I put a lot of effort into explaining my thought process in general and certainly at this decision point as well. It’s sad to see that these efforts are totally lost on some.
For those interested in the reason why I can safely afford to play around his tricks at this point is that I can be very sure that my evasive creatures (primarily the Rogue) will be able to race my opponent, as his removal suite in Simic is very sparse to begin with and I am far ahead in the race thanks to how the early turns of the game played out.
Ok, sorry for my bad response :-). You were totally right and i am going to see the rest of the matchups. Thx for the content and feedback. And once again sorry for the impolite comment.
i totally agree with Maarten. these were very entertaining and especially informative vids. nice job, simon! as always
@Mamut3D: a lot to learn you have, my little padawan. and maybe you should ask yourself whith what purpose you watch these vids? seems like your neither interested in entertainment nor information. so what is your point?
That last game was really intense. Great videos as usual!
Hey Simon,
i really like your drafts, i can learn so much of every G&G and SS you’re uploading. Keep on doing the good work!
M2G1: “how to beat Orzhov with Simic”. Didn’t you basically do that by being Gruul (Bloodrush) and Dimir (Cipher and Broker)?
Not quite done watching yet as I type this, but I like how you ended up with a somewhat unconventional Evasive+Cipher build after the regular Simic thing didn’t really pan out in the draft. Great way to show that you can still end up with a cool deck even if you seem to be getting cut on your guild’s mechanic by adjusting your strategy a little!
Thanks for the Gatecrash draft! I do appreciate your “thinking out loud” as you play. Don’t know how you do it – my son walks in the room, and my time just evaporates as I end up trying to discuss things with him instead of just playing! Imagine real life getting in the way of MTGO (just kidding)!
This is often how my “simic gone wrong” drafts go: few evolve guys and almost always ending up with a R or B splash. And relying on evasion and cipher, tempo and pump to win. I’ve been very surprised at the resilience and effectiveness of even the less than “on theme” simic decks in this format. Thanks for the vids as always.
@Simon comment: I see what you did there!
All in all great vids, while drafting I was sometimes confused because you didn’t follow a guild all they way through, but drafted power level instead far longer than I would have… And then you came out with a really strong deck that had some nice tactics. Amazing.
I think you showed us that cipher is maybe even stronger in simic decks instead of dimir, because simic has more flying/evasive than being commited to the black part instead.
Absolutely fantastic Simon! You are by far the very best drafter online these days. Keep up the great work.
Great content as always. Ironic that the game you sided into “safe” mana was the one you got hosed on color. Such is magic….
oh man, there was his incredible Boros deck going around….even with the Avenger to go with it. Guess it was to late to let the UG go, right?
I have been really struggling in this format. However following the advice from these videos I managed to make it to a finals for the first time in this format. I actually drafted a similar build: Simic splash Dimir. Lost to hyper aggressive Boros when I had to mulligan to 5. Not too bad for me
I look forward to more lessons from your videos.
Wauw I’ve been playing mtgo for a while now and i did not know about that death-touch / trample interaction (i assumed all the damage had to be resolved on the creature first regardless). – what happens if the creature is indestructible? do you then need to apply all the trample damage to its toughness or is 1 still enough??
Good stuff Simon!
M2G2: I do not think that your reasoning behind sideboarding black cards out was correct. You said that since you are one game ahead you don’t need to splash those cards and risk being color screewed. However, your percentual chance to win a game is always the same, no matter whether you are game ahead or not, right? In fact, when you are on draw you can afford being a little bit more greedy than on play.
Also in games you sided second Verdant Haven in, I think it would be better to exchange one swamp for forest.
Nevertheless, this was a great video, keep them coming