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2/6/2013 2:57:01 PM
4
That game sounds super difficult.
They get my even more respect.
English
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Well, creating a functioning deck isn't too hard. There are five different colors of Magic: White, Blue, Black, Green, and Red, and you use five different lands to pay for those spells. Each color has it's own traits and strengths and mechanics, so a deck with more colors is potentially more versatile and destructive, but the drawback is that you're going to have difficulty drawing all the different types of lands you'll need to pay for your spells without color fixing support. The most basic draft strategy is to make a two to three color deck. Usually you decide on a color to draft, hopefully based on a bomb (really good card for winning games while drafting, could be a huge creature, or a card that generates a huge board advantage), and then picking up a second color by the end of pack two. You usually want to splash for the third color, so you can play maybe a few cards of that color that aren't mana intensive but are very strong. So it isn't too hard to make a deck, you just have to go "Oh, I opened a Dragon! Guess I'm grabbing red cards!" But it can get super super deep if you want it to be. Professional Players will actually pay attention to the contents of the packs as they come back around to them in an attempt to guess what colors that other people are playing. If a particular color is open (not many people are grabbing cards of that color), they might move into that color because if a good card of that color comes around in pack 3, people who aren't playing that color are less likely to grab it (though they could always hate-draft it). Sometimes pros will even pass certain good cards to their neighbors to ensure that they are playing a particular color or strategy. It's a great way to add to your collection because you filter out the cards you want, and it makes opening booster packs more exciting, and if you play with prize support, the winners can get even more packs. It's why the format is very popular and is a staple of competitive play. I'm curious to know what they drafted. Gatecrash is an interesting drafting environment because there are five dual colored guilds, the Black White Orzhov, the White Red Boros, the Blue Green Simic, the Red Green Gruul, and the Blue Black Dimir. Rather than choosing two colors to draft, with the abundance of multicolored spells, you usually choose a guild, and then splash a guild with allied colors.
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Yeah, both Double and I sacrificed all of the packs we won over the Prereleases on the weekend (we both played 5 Prereleases, yikes!) for the purpose of preparatory drafting. Did any of you guys go to the Prerelease events? I love what they're doing now with guild boxes and all.
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I only had time to go to a single prerelease for Gatecrash, I played as Gruul and I made a Naya Gruul Deck: [quote][b][u]Lands:[/u][/b] 6 Forests 6 Mountains 4 Plains 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366439]Sacred Foundry[/url] (Foil) 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366253]Gruul Guildgate[/url] [b][u]Creatures:[/u][/b] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366441]Experiment One[/url] 2 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366447]Disciple of the Old Ways[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366311]Firefist Striker[/url] 2 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366409]Scorchwalker[/url] 2 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366410]Scab-Clan Charger[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366264]Viashino Shanktail[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366422]Spark Trooper[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366287]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/url] 2 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366252]Zhur-Taa Swine[/url] 2 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366424]Rubblehulk[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366431]Foundry Champion[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366458]Skarrg Goliath[/url] [b][u]Artifacts:[/u][/b] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366443]Gruul Keyrune[/url] [b][u]Sorceries:[/u][/b] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366400]Angelic Edict[/url] [b][u]Instants:[/u][/b] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366450]Pit Fight[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366381]Arrows of Justice[/url] [b][u]Enchantments:[/u][/b] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366465]Blind Obedience[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366377]Madcap Skills[/url] 1 [url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366471]Verdant Haven[/url][/quote] My first match was against an Orzhov Player who seemed rather new to the game, in Game 2 he used an Orzhov Charm on my Disciple of the Old Ways despite the fact that he had seen that I had even larger and more terrifying monsters in the previous game. He also thought that Regenerate allowed him to put creatures onto the battlefield from the graveyard, I gave him some tips after the match was over. The second and third matches put me up against hyper aggro Boros Decks with those Skynight Legionnairs and Daring Skyjeks. I lost both rounds (though it was close in game 3 in each!), if I had more mana acceleration or Crocanuras or even Gruul Charms I think I would have faired much better. The final match was against a friend's Simic Deck which, like most Simic Decks, was rather inconsistant, and was an easy victory.
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We were able to draft a few times with our pre-release earnings and we found that first picks in Gatecrash often weren't the colors we stuck with in the rest of the draft. It's a very swingy format, so it's definitely best to pay attention to the colors that still have creatures in them later on.
