Simon Says #52: Opportunities Arise (M14 8-4)

That is hilarious.

The 2nd divination over time ebb has to be a mistake, though – any deck with 2 opportunities only loses to fast decks, and aside from slivers, the other main fast deck is RW with shiv’s embrace/lightning talons/master of diversions. Having another early game response to those kinds of approaches is way more useful than having your 5th card draw spell.

Every time you step it up a notch, now with the post-game wrap up. Thanks again for what you contribute to the pool of knowledge and strategy. This bi-weekly video series is the best.

He Simon,

Great contents as always. For educational purposes your videos are by far the best of the web. The bonus feature was great.
Blue is simply by far the best color in m14 and heavily controlling blue decks are by far the best. I personally find that a bit boring, especially since that was pretty clear to the better drafters in less then a week into the format, but you did a great job on showing and explaining why.

Can’t really say anything about the play, most of it was just perfect and the rest was just jamming spells from 95% sure win positions with your eye on the clock.

Have some minor issues with just a very few deckbuilding and drafting choices.
- Since you cannot count on getting an elixer, I think passing the colossal whale for the mancer is not the right pick. Both are slow cards, but the colossal whale can just win games on its own relatively fast (which is valuable if you do not get your hands on an elixer) and is really hard to deal with for your deck as well, which is an issues for control decks since they often have to deal with 80% of a deck.
- Glimpse. Probably at its best in a deck like this, where you can search for your opportunities or else get closer to them in your library, still a bad card. I was never impressed when you cast it. It is just too slow in a deck that already has enough slow cards that gain it actual card advantage as opposed to essentialy filtering. Also, you are more or less obliged to pick elixer if you hit it, further reducing the flexibility.
-Sensory deprivation. The card is really good in decks like this, yet do not seem to think much of it. I think it is certainly defensible over seakite. It deals with the intimidate creatures or even things like baloths or the like really efficiently: perfect turn 4 play with divination, or turn 2 play into divination on the draw. It gains back some of the tempo you lose. I suppose playing 2 shocks, 3 mancers, makes it less necessary then in UB control variants, but still.

What I found really eye opening was the performance of disperse in your deck. In the deckbuilding I found myself rooting for time ebb over it, but the games showed me wrong. You really showed the versatility of the card. I still think time ebb is in general the superior card, but most of my blue control decks are ub and have more counters and more hard removal, making a card that can get rid of aura’s better, that can ebb+counter as hard removal or just buy me time without card disadvantage better and using the counters for the “should anything go wrong” role. In your deck disperse performed a truly vital role really well.

The deck you drafted turned out really well, not the best control deck I have seen, but still easily the best deck at the table. Though had I been the pilot I would have been concerned with the lack of things that dealt with truly troublesome permanents, such as whales, or air elemantels or just an early baloth or an 8-land behemoth (just one claustrophobia, no counters, outrages), but in the end you played really well and that did not come back to bite you.

Keep up the great content.

Hi, Simon!

Awesome deck. I really feel like blue is far and away the best in this format and sign me up for multiple Opportunities any time. Just a joy to watch. I probably would have picked Whale, but it’s hard to argue with your results. I think one of the areas you’re stronger than a lot of players is going for synergistic decks that work rather than drafting cards for sheer in-a-vacuum power level.

A nit-picky gameplay comment: in R3G2 wouldn’t you have been better to return the disperse rather than the shock? I think this works: you chump Blood Bairn, take seven, go to one, like you said. Then on your turn you play an Island and Air Servant, say go. Then you allow his whale trigger to go off, he targets Servan, exiling it. You then disperse the whale, get your Archaeomancer and Servant back. You can then return the Opportunity or play it safe with Disperse again. You block his two remaining guys and he sacks his Necromancer to pump his Blood Bairn and trade for your Air Servant. He replays Whale, but you still have Archaeomancer and Seakite on board, so you’ll get at least one more draw step. I think you’re only dead to corrupt and I don’t think we’d seen one from him at that point. You still would have needed some luck to pull it out and you got him in the end anyway, but I thought I’d point it out anyway. Because, you know, nit-picky internet guy.

Anyway – once again, great draft and grats on your win. Really like the brief recap at the end. Look forward to the next one.

If you posted draft videos 12 times a day, I would make time to watch all of them. The recaps are a great addition.

Keep up the good work, and congrats on your ptq win!

Hi Simon, thanks for doing a very cool episode this week. Awesome synergistic deck and some really good plays there.

One question I have is this: when you did the mega-block of Garruk’s Horde, why didn’t you also block with Wall of Frost? You were not risking anything and 1 extra turn without the Horde attacking might have given you a chance if your opponent actually had any trick to save his Horde.

Stumbled onto the website and clicked on a whim….holy shnikees this was great. Best commentary, great play. Love how you explain draft picks as in depth as you do. Listening to you think out loud possible scenarios as to what your opponents might have was awesome. The after game recap is excellent.

Everyone else commenting is spot on. I have watched hundreds of draft videos from streams, draftmagic.com, channelfireball, seemsgoodmagic and this was absolutely the best. I will be watching all of the vids you have posted in the past.

Thanks!

I bet Marshall puked his guts out when he saw you pass that scavenzing ooze :p

Great videos, great deck, though I wonder what happens if you don’t ever pick up an elixir… I guess you’d cut some draw spells and try to win with your fliers?

It just actually seems a little risky to me to go all in on draw spells and archeomancers because you might not find an elixir, of course it worked out this time.

Keep up the good work.

Okay, I don’t mean this in a condescending or sarcastic way, this is just a legitimate question (new to magic, insight is appreciated.)

How does this deck win vs. any sort of answers or reach. I feel like any combo deck would beat it, simply because they would have the time to beat it. Like for example, Marshall’s sanguine bond / angelic accord / life gainers deck. Once he got either combo going you would be simply dead in the water. I feel as if the deck can’t keep up with an angel + 4 life each turn or you losing 4 life and he gaining 4 life each turn.

Or like if the opponent just gets an aggressive start (t1 elvish mystic, t2 advocate, t3 baloth – yeah I know that’s a wonder draw) you’re in trouble.

And like I said, any reach… lava axes or geyser. I feel like his opponent’s decks were weak, but that might be just a noob observation of mine.

Love the content and great deck!

I probably would have taken Whale over the Archaeomancer only because it was early pack 1 and you are much more likely to see more Archaeomancer later in the draft. Although after watching the games it is hard to argue with the value the Archaeomancer brought.

Also, do you think it’s worth cracking elixir at 4 cards left round two when playing against blue in case they are holding an Opportunity?

Simon, Excellent play. I was weary to draft blue when I see everyone pulling all the blue out. I even ended up going mono black, or BG. But the blue really is strong. And it appears there is a lot of blue to go around as so many players were drafting it. In this case, I found your video to be very educational…. and I can see the core requirements, Card draw, Elixir, Archaeomancer are key components. And removal that can keep coming back to re-use…

Cheers for the video. I’ve recently plateaued a bit with my drafting skills and have started watching videos such as yours. I find your style to be the most helpful as you explain your thought process really clearly and the reasons why you make your decisions.
I’ve been finished off by Opportunity many times but I never really understood just what a game winner it is. Awesome deck and well played.

Yes, it does. It is a Youtube video.