Vaultborn is a huge, hard-to-kill creature that draws cards and gains life. Overwhelming Forces is a one-sided wrath that also draws cards. I think the evaluation was biased by the fact the last 3 draft formats were very aggro and punished this kind of expensive cards.
I think it was based in the fact that a 2/2 for 3 mana and ward 2 was the norm, which gives a huge upside to any 2/2 x 3 mana that puts another body like Prickly Pair and makes a 4 mana removal less exciting
I got an Overwhelming Forces in my sealed pool at prerelease and really hesitated before putting it in, just figuring Overwhelming Forces would never be castable before the game was over. I'm glad I ended up running it though, that won me every game it resolved, usually to a "What? Can I read that? Oh shit..."
Nobody can be faulted for thinking this set was yet another Lucy-Yanks-the-Football situation, where it would seem like it's a deep Johnny format but turns out to be a onedropsgood wheee ONEesque aggrofest. We just had two, arguably three sets just like that in MKM, LCI, and WOE. I developed a PTSD of stupid one and two drops, recurring nightmares of idiot bats, birds, dog walkers, inspectors, spearguards, rats just getting me while I stupidly sat there with a handful of good cards that were just too slow. Then when I saw Reckless Lackey, Harrier Strix and friends on the spoiler I groaned "here we go again". I am SO GLAD this set is much more like MotM limited than it is every other set this year (well with the exception that while Prickly Pair, while not bad ofc isn't the level of old PREEN PREEN).
we've come out of so many fast sets where a 2/2 on curve was the best thing you could often do, the slowness of this set took many by surprise I also feel like WOTC expected outlaws decks to be able to go a bit larger than they did. I've almost never seen somebody with more than a couple of those merc tokens at once.
The only Outlaws deck I ever had success with so far was a Mardu build that managed to get Jasper Flint, Ertha Jo, and a handful of strong support pieces, combined with a ton of removal. I’ve never seen Black Red that open again.
I think there is one thing you missing, some good cards might be hard to build a good deck with, which results in their low winrate, a lot of people don't understand that despite Kaervek is good card, mb it doesn't worth to play it if you have like 2 targeting spells and 1 desert in your 3 color deck ( for example) ? But in what world Kaervek and Drake are bad ? LSV literally got 7 wins with kaervek and said it was super good, because LSV knows how to build a good functional deck in general. In vintage cube tanglewire has pretty low winrate, it doesn't mean its a bad card, most of players just don't know how to support it.
Luis played Kaervek on day one of the format before it was even opened to the public. No one is putting Kaervek in a 3 color deck, because it require predominantly black cards to be in your graveyard and requires double black pips. Pretty sure lsv stated in future drafts that the card wasn't actually that good and passed over it. Its not a bad card, but hard data across 12k games says its also not great either. Perfectly fine if you need a 3drop in a mostly black deck, but requires too much set up in most cases to be great. You may have had success with it, but numbers don't lie.
@@jamesesdad i get you 👍 but that’s what you just said “it’s not a bad card” that was my point, like its totally fine to put the drake as a filler into deck, it’s “good filler” i’d say. So yeah mb guys overrated them, but in general those are still fine cards
The paying 2 life is what pushes Kaervek down so low. That and being a weak body until you have a black card in the graveyard and can commit a crime with mana up.
One note: If you wanted to juice these up you could get the 17Lands data and your former write-ups on the screen while you're going over these but honestly you'll get a watch out of me either way.
Hey Reid, I love these videos! It looks like the microphone you’re using may be the Rode Podcaster. It’s an end-address mic, which means you might get a better sound if you were to point it directly at you, as opposed to pointing down towards your desk. Hope this helps! Thank you for everything you do for the Magic community!
Fblthp has been good for me, but I never play it on curve if I have other plays to make. I more often played it late in the game when I was running out of cards in hand.
you may have been lucky to have some success with it, but the numbers don't lie. The card has an abysmal sub 50% when rate on 17 lands, sitting right between slickshot vaultbuster, and high noon. This is a card you probably shouldn't put in a deck. Its incredibly slow, easy to kill, and even if you drop it late game, you still have to wait for your spells until next turn. God forbid you have multiple lands on top, then its just a 3 mana 1/1. I'll take the pro's opinons, backed up by 17 lands data.
@@jamesesdad nummy still thinks card is good, not a bomb by any means seems to just win on board stalls tho. havent gotten chance to play with it but once and seemed deeece
17lands is a fantastic baseline to build your decks around. The LSV/ChannelFireball ratings we get in the Untapped overlay are so far out of alignment with reality that I can't believe they don't get updated a couple weeks after a set comes out to prevent embarrassment. Years ago as a noob I used the overlay but have long since uninstalled the Untapped companion.
I think because of the ramp and intense use of tapped lands both you and the opponent, the dinosaur and the black spell have the time to be casted. Also 1/1 mercenary tokens could help in the stall for time
The 2 damage Instant Outlaw/non-Outlaw sweeper works great with first strike and Trample. Not a high pick but game swinging if you play to its strengths.
My opponent playing vaultborn had been what allowed me to win both times I've faced it so far. Once with Aegis to turn my mercenary into a vaultborn, and the second time It gave me lethal via Threaten.
Consuming ashes makes sense after player. There are just so many bombs in this format and some of them require exile. The surveil also is nothing to sniff at. Probably why white's Orings are so good in this set as well.
Prickly Pair does play so much worse than it looks; I like starting out in either Green (obviously) or Red, so oftentimes I end up in Gruul-Beatdown and Rakdos-Outlaws, both decks I have had good success with. And in both(!) decks I almost always end up not playing them at all. In Green, the 4/2 Grizzly can reliably push damage on 3 and if I'm somewhat into the 4-power theme, Grizzly already has that. Many green uncommon creatures are on 3, too, so I mostly don't run out of things to do there. By the time Prickly Pair deploys, it doesn't serve a purpose anymore. Same thing goes for outlaws, really. While Vialsmasher into these seems tempting, playing cards that enable doublespells or push damage have been far more effective for me. 3/2 Trample Miner which brings in a treasure most often, Wolverine, Plunderer, all of those have been consistantly outperforming the Pair. The bodies just aren't needed, the power-buff on the mercenary redundant in many cases and the outlaw-deck plays as removal-aggro instead of trumpet-blast-aggro (which it could do in theory). The Pair doesn't have a home, in many other formats it would have been really good
Basically, the format is 3-4 turns slower than the last. Any cards that are 6-8cmc are 1-3 cmc « cheaper ». Cards need to be evaluated that way, but its impossible to know prior to playing.
I rekcon instead of doing them in categories you should show the card then what you both speculated and then give the results instead of top 5 and bottom 5
Wild that Kaervek has such a bad winrate, for me I really feel like he's easily my most winning draft pick. I've run multiple 7-0 decks with him as my best card.
Consuming ashes would have been complete garbage in the previous set with all the disguise creatures running around wouldn’t it have? Context matters, as Reid nicely explained in the vid
I normally like these kind of videos, but 17lands has really bad data with this set. A lot of good cards has bad stats because they are hard to make good use of. I think that this video only make sense for beginners who should play as straightforward/basic as they can.
Geyser Drake is only good in UW deck, and that deck is only good if you have enough removal. Went on a 7-1 premier draft win as Gold rank with that deck. Had a lot of enchantment exile effects with flash and 3 drakes, along with other UW past turn uncommon card payoffs.
Agree. The Azorius deck can be amazing, but you have to be able to pick up virtually all of the good cards and at least 6 removal spells. I had a 7-0 with it the other day, but I did not play even a single copy of the Drake. Also splashed green for the simic 5 mana card draw spell.
@@Journeyman2585 I only went with the 3 drakes because almost all of my removal cards could be played at instant speed, including the enchantments. I was very lucky to get 3 of those white flash enchantments; the one where you can pay 2 extra for flash.
Agreed. Don't play him early in the game if there are other plays that can be made. It's more of a mid-late game card advantage engine because plot is a slow mechanic.
This draft format is aweful, it feels like 50% of the time you are facing a cube deck. (I'm saulty because I had to mull to 5 and then got thought seized)
Vaultborn is a huge, hard-to-kill creature that draws cards and gains life. Overwhelming Forces is a one-sided wrath that also draws cards.
I think the evaluation was biased by the fact the last 3 draft formats were very aggro and punished this kind of expensive cards.
I think it was based in the fact that a 2/2 for 3 mana and ward 2 was the norm, which gives a huge upside to any 2/2 x 3 mana that puts another body like Prickly Pair and makes a 4 mana removal less exciting
Also green hasn’t been very good in limited lately except woe so everyone forgot that playing big creatures is good
@@nikhilchhagan7371 Green was arguably the best color in MKM
I got an Overwhelming Forces in my sealed pool at prerelease and really hesitated before putting it in, just figuring Overwhelming Forces would never be castable before the game was over. I'm glad I ended up running it though, that won me every game it resolved, usually to a "What? Can I read that? Oh shit..."
@@dismasthepenitent569 The best color was white in MKM
Nobody can be faulted for thinking this set was yet another Lucy-Yanks-the-Football situation, where it would seem like it's a deep Johnny format but turns out to be a onedropsgood wheee ONEesque aggrofest. We just had two, arguably three sets just like that in MKM, LCI, and WOE. I developed a PTSD of stupid one and two drops, recurring nightmares of idiot bats, birds, dog walkers, inspectors, spearguards, rats just getting me while I stupidly sat there with a handful of good cards that were just too slow. Then when I saw Reckless Lackey, Harrier Strix and friends on the spoiler I groaned "here we go again".
I am SO GLAD this set is much more like MotM limited than it is every other set this year (well with the exception that while Prickly Pair, while not bad ofc isn't the level of old PREEN PREEN).
we've come out of so many fast sets where a 2/2 on curve was the best thing you could often do, the slowness of this set took many by surprise
I also feel like WOTC expected outlaws decks to be able to go a bit larger than they did. I've almost never seen somebody with more than a couple of those merc tokens at once.
The only Outlaws deck I ever had success with so far was a Mardu build that managed to get Jasper Flint, Ertha Jo, and a handful of strong support pieces, combined with a ton of removal. I’ve never seen Black Red that open again.
I think there is one thing you missing, some good cards might be hard to build a good deck with, which results in their low winrate, a lot of people don't understand that despite Kaervek is good card, mb it doesn't worth to play it if you have like 2 targeting spells and 1 desert in your 3 color deck ( for example) ? But in what world Kaervek and Drake are bad ? LSV literally got 7 wins with kaervek and said it was super good, because LSV knows how to build a good functional deck in general. In vintage cube tanglewire has pretty low winrate, it doesn't mean its a bad card, most of players just don't know how to support it.
Luis played Kaervek on day one of the format before it was even opened to the public. No one is putting Kaervek in a 3 color deck, because it require predominantly black cards to be in your graveyard and requires double black pips. Pretty sure lsv stated in future drafts that the card wasn't actually that good and passed over it. Its not a bad card, but hard data across 12k games says its also not great either. Perfectly fine if you need a 3drop in a mostly black deck, but requires too much set up in most cases to be great. You may have had success with it, but numbers don't lie.
@@jamesesdad i get you 👍 but that’s what you just said “it’s not a bad card” that was my point, like its totally fine to put the drake as a filler into deck, it’s “good filler” i’d say. So yeah mb guys overrated them, but in general those are still fine cards
The paying 2 life is what pushes Kaervek down so low. That and being a weak body until you have a black card in the graveyard and can commit a crime with mana up.
I don't believe geyserdrake is bad. I will continue to pick it highly
It is so helpful to see exactly how such astute and skilled Magic players can misevaluate cards in a new set. Like Reid says here, context matters.
Love these vids, Ried. Thanks man.
One note: If you wanted to juice these up you could get the 17Lands data and your former write-ups on the screen while you're going over these but honestly you'll get a watch out of me either way.
Hey Reid, I love these videos!
It looks like the microphone you’re using may be the Rode Podcaster. It’s an end-address mic, which means you might get a better sound if you were to point it directly at you, as opposed to pointing down towards your desk. Hope this helps!
Thank you for everything you do for the Magic community!
Fblthp has been good for me, but I never play it on curve if I have other plays to make. I more often played it late in the game when I was running out of cards in hand.
you may have been lucky to have some success with it, but the numbers don't lie. The card has an abysmal sub 50% when rate on 17 lands, sitting right between slickshot vaultbuster, and high noon. This is a card you probably shouldn't put in a deck. Its incredibly slow, easy to kill, and even if you drop it late game, you still have to wait for your spells until next turn. God forbid you have multiple lands on top, then its just a 3 mana 1/1. I'll take the pro's opinons, backed up by 17 lands data.
@@jamesesdad nummy still thinks card is good, not a bomb by any means seems to just win on board stalls tho. havent gotten chance to play with it but once and seemed deeece
@@veenee-
decent as your 20th-23rd card, but not more than that
17lands is a fantastic baseline to build your decks around. The LSV/ChannelFireball ratings we get in the Untapped overlay are so far out of alignment with reality that I can't believe they don't get updated a couple weeks after a set comes out to prevent embarrassment. Years ago as a noob I used the overlay but have long since uninstalled the Untapped companion.
Love these videos, always important to reevaluate once we have data.
I think because of the ramp and intense use of tapped lands both you and the opponent, the dinosaur and the black spell have the time to be casted. Also 1/1 mercenary tokens could help in the stall for time
The 2 damage Instant Outlaw/non-Outlaw sweeper works great with first strike and Trample. Not a high pick but game swinging if you play to its strengths.
I look forward to this video every set.
My opponent playing vaultborn had been what allowed me to win both times I've faced it so far. Once with Aegis to turn my mercenary into a vaultborn, and the second time It gave me lethal via Threaten.
It's all about format speed. Nobody has really been able to evaluate the speed of the format without playing it.
Consuming ashes makes sense after player. There are just so many bombs in this format and some of them require exile. The surveil also is nothing to sniff at. Probably why white's Orings are so good in this set as well.
Is there any chance to get the link of the article written by Alex? Please 🙏🙏🙏
Those number 3 and number 4 wr cards have higher wr than Oko, thief of crowns btw
Geyser drake has a 51% winrate?! That's unbelievable. Card is insanely cracked. Does this set have no instants?
Prickly Pair does play so much worse than it looks; I like starting out in either Green (obviously) or Red, so oftentimes I end up in Gruul-Beatdown and Rakdos-Outlaws, both decks I have had good success with. And in both(!) decks I almost always end up not playing them at all. In Green, the 4/2 Grizzly can reliably push damage on 3 and if I'm somewhat into the 4-power theme, Grizzly already has that. Many green uncommon creatures are on 3, too, so I mostly don't run out of things to do there. By the time Prickly Pair deploys, it doesn't serve a purpose anymore. Same thing goes for outlaws, really. While Vialsmasher into these seems tempting, playing cards that enable doublespells or push damage have been far more effective for me. 3/2 Trample Miner which brings in a treasure most often, Wolverine, Plunderer, all of those have been consistantly outperforming the Pair. The bodies just aren't needed, the power-buff on the mercenary redundant in many cases and the outlaw-deck plays as removal-aggro instead of trumpet-blast-aggro (which it could do in theory). The Pair doesn't have a home, in many other formats it would have been really good
Appreciate this a lot.
Basically, the format is 3-4 turns slower than the last. Any cards that are 6-8cmc are 1-3 cmc « cheaper ». Cards need to be evaluated that way, but its impossible to know prior to playing.
They had to slow things down so that players have time to plot their cards.
Last time we had a format this slow it was dominaria and everyone loved it
Just on arena I’ve used dance of the tumbleweeds to get arid archway I don’t hate it lol
Sry but what do people with kaervak??? He was a bomb on every deck I had him and he is a bomb on every deck I see on TH-cam xD still first pick him xD
I rekcon instead of doing them in categories you should show the card then what you both speculated and then give the results instead of top 5 and bottom 5
This series is very entertaining 🤣
I really dont like prickley par,refuse to draf it again. Most of the blue traps
Wild that Kaervek has such a bad winrate, for me I really feel like he's easily my most winning draft pick. I've run multiple 7-0 decks with him as my best card.
I feel proud for leaving Fblthp in the bench in my prerelease
What does he use to look at card win %'s?
17lands
Black instants with exile effects are always good if CMC is
Consuming ashes would have been complete garbage in the previous set with all the disguise creatures running around wouldn’t it have? Context matters, as Reid nicely explained in the vid
The drake does not lower the casting cost on spree spells. I felt like this causes the drake to be less effective.
I’m not sure what you mean, drake does do that.
Rakdos the indestructible is insane.won me 6 out of 7 games.
Also,fuck Oko in limited. That guy is impossible to get rid of.
I normally like these kind of videos, but 17lands has really bad data with this set. A lot of good cards has bad stats because they are hard to make good use of. I think that this video only make sense for beginners who should play as straightforward/basic as they can.
Geyser Drake is only good in UW deck, and that deck is only good if you have enough removal. Went on a 7-1 premier draft win as Gold rank with that deck. Had a lot of enchantment exile effects with flash and 3 drakes, along with other UW past turn uncommon card payoffs.
Agree. The Azorius deck can be amazing, but you have to be able to pick up virtually all of the good cards and at least 6 removal spells. I had a 7-0 with it the other day, but I did not play even a single copy of the Drake. Also splashed green for the simic 5 mana card draw spell.
@@Journeyman2585 I only went with the 3 drakes because almost all of my removal cards could be played at instant speed, including the enchantments. I was very lucky to get 3 of those white flash enchantments; the one where you can pay 2 extra for flash.
I went 6-3 on my channel with white-blue recently, but I had the instant wrath to build towards.
@@toubeelo1979 well 4 mana is certainly better than 5 lol. The destroy attacking creature spell works well here also.
@@Journeyman2585 I was paying 2-3 mana because I usually had 2-3 drakes on the field when I casted those enchantments.
MH3 will be a long lasting draft format
I love abusing the consensus of "this is a slow format" only to draft white red go wide and win on turn 6 or 7.
Let's not talk about that ;)
Reid ! yaya
I still think people play fblthp wrong
Agreed. Don't play him early in the game if there are other plays that can be made. It's more of a mid-late game card advantage engine because plot is a slow mechanic.
More like Fblthp lost on the ladder.
I'm shocked at the overrated cards. Fblthp especially, LIke how can that be bad in a slow format? But here we are.
Commenting
This draft format is aweful, it feels like 50% of the time you are facing a cube deck.
(I'm saulty because I had to mull to 5 and then got thought seized)