The simplicity of this set with the intersection of it being the first set of rotation feels very intentional. I just taught someone how to play MTG and I’m very grateful this is the first set I will have to teach him to draft. I think in general smaller sets will be more welcome as well especially considering how large the card pool is in standard now with the new rotation
You asked for recommendations: loved the idea for under-valued cards. For the UA-cam video, please make cards fill the left side of the screen. Your background is cute but needing to pause and zoom on my phone when the cards were so close to readable made me think its not worth. Looking forward to BLB!
Ben on Builder's Talent = my mom at an estate sale. "No I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it's so much so cheap! You're practically losing money NOT drafting this card!" @29:59
Only about halfway through, but the point of the grading scale IS when should I pick this which should directly correlate to play patterns. I don't know who has the better grip on the format, but I think Ethan makes better arguments. If he's wrong about the set then his arguments hold much less weight.
jammed some drafts in draftmancer + table top sim. I can confidently say expend is broken. The benefits seem small, but its a free trigger that asks you to curve out. grull is strong and you can easily win with commons. ill list bellow all the commons that together make a great aggro grull deck, of course any uncommons and epecialy rares will fit right in, but the strength of the archetype can be expressed with just commons; Agate Assault: lines up nicely with most non-augumented (1-4 drops) creatures in the environment. Roughshod Duo: a key card to get damage through since it gives your other creatures trample. Steampath Charger: the 1 thoughness is bad, but the flexibility to be a 2 drop or a 4 triggering expend by itself is what makes it great in the archetype, also enabeling Druid of the spade. Take Out the Trash: good on rate removal that is instant and can trigger expend mid combat, since the deck also has a bunch of raccoons you can sculpt your hand. Bakersbane Duo: the best 2 drop at commons for the archetype and enables the next common in the best way possible since your opponents will rarely want to kill a food and you should hope to not need to sac it either. Druid of the Spade: great common since most colors have a way to make tokens, giving you a 4/3 trampler for 3. Longstalk Brawl: ties it all together, making your 3 drops better on turn 4 increasing chances to get a expend 4 triggers. War Squeak: not good, but can give surprise haste and also close the gap from your 3 drops. High Stride: same as longstalk brawl and might of the meek, its a gap closer for your expand having 2-4 1 drops is great for the archetype, although the best 1 mana spells (especially creatures) are at uncommon or rare, so if lucky grab those. Polliwallop: not the best removal, but its instant which is great for huge combat blowouts. The discount sometimes makes you not able to expand, but i think the rares are too good in this set, so beeing able to remove most creatures for the least amount of mana in grull it doesn't get better than this. Treeguard Duo: the best curve topper you could hope for at this rarity expand 4's all over, comes down and makes one of your tramplers huge and gives vigilance helping a lot when racing with the opponent since you get a 3/4 and what ever else you targeted back on defense. Junkblade Bruiser: another great curve topper even if you dont have gas in hand to trigger its expend, 4/5 is big in this format. Dont take this as if other archetypes are bad, but i think this archetype has a strong common backbone for a good stompy deck.
I agree, I got recked by some guy named Pablo on tts/draftmancer who played expend 😢 I think the rabbits are also pretty powerful. Caretaker and Harvestrite host both make playing offspring and Hop to It really valuable. Throw in some repeatable pump from the elder or a way to get some counters, and I think only gruul goes over them. As a side note, the red/white mice seem strong when they can actually get the valiant triggers, but on average you'll only get one trigger per turn vs the entire board getting pumped with expend.
I watched a while back and now it's definitely a great direction you're taking! Great insight a d the commons and sleepers at the end fills in a really important space that LR misses. And you're under 2 hours : ) can't wait for my pre release and I might just drop some gems on sealed in arena.
Calamitous Tide seems like a fun curve topper, but I think it could also help grind out a more contorlly deck if you can bounce their thing and yours, to replay (which seems to be blues thing) or discard for 2 fresh cards. I think it will do enough.
There's a Golgari Food Ramp deck that will either be brilliant or just fun jank, but I definitely want to build it it. Cards like Thornvault Forager (manadork that makes two of any colour if you forage), Heaped Harvest, Vinereap mentor, and then a top end with Lumra, bellow of the woods, and Ygra, eater of all. Overprotect is a brilliant card that punishes single target removal, and gives a real argument for green being good. Also p.s this is a sick commander deck with Camelia, the seedmiser. Squirells!!
Fowl strike was 100% main deckable with any of the adapt creatures. It was a straight up +2/+2 trample trick with Oozewagg. It blew out a decent amount of the removal. The reinforce couldn’t be countered. I day two’d the Amaterdam Pro Tour PTQ and some of the best moments were instant speed trample and blowing someone out who was trying to fanged flames Nadu. That isn’t to say *all* plummet variants are now playable but fowl strike in particular was good because so much of green cared about counters.
I think this will be a set that rewards you for finding the color pair that nobody else is drafting in your pod. Aside from the "duo" cards, a lot of the single color cards lean heavily into a color pair. For instance pollywallop is way over costed for anything but a deck with a high density of frog creatures.
Something they didn't mention about Mouse Trapper is its ability to tap down _two_ opposing blockers in some cases, by triggering Mouse Trapper once on the opponent's turn and once on your own turn. Definitely seems like its ceiling will be higher than Territorial Hammerskull, but its floor will be lower.
Parting gust in D+? That's a protection/blink spell or an exile removal spell for two mana? And don't get me wrong , giving a card is not great but that much flexibility, instant speed two mana is just great. I think it sees standard play.
As usual, Ben is looking at best case scenarios and Ethan is refusing to account for any archetype synergies in his evaluations. Balanced grades are somewhere in the middle.
Are the two expensive blue card draw cards not good Otter finishers? The game is going long, you draw 3 and stun something, trigger prowess, play another 1 or 2 mana spell that you drew, prowess again..? Or bounce 2 things, prowess trigger, swing?
Love you guys. Long time listener. I would just say you mention prerelease in the title but most grades and talking points don't touch on a lot of "sealed" interactions and deck building. Would love your takes on the sealed heuristics of deck building when examining a new set.
Builder's Talent: WW1, 0/4 defender, whenever you make a food token, put a 1/1 counter on a creature. That card is insane. You are both insane for not seeing it. Boooooooooooo. Also, you get a free card, 4W sorcery, return an enchantment to the battlefield. Which is nice with this uncommon, since you can endlessly loop two of them. INSANE!
It’s not compelling when two people disagree but are too polite to argue. Come on, let’s fight! If you don’t argue we don’t really have a good hold on the viewpoints
I think that they did argue their points enough to be compelling. Not sure what level of debate you’re expecting but they can’t spend that much time on each card.
The simplicity of this set with the intersection of it being the first set of rotation feels very intentional. I just taught someone how to play MTG and I’m very grateful this is the first set I will have to teach him to draft. I think in general smaller sets will be more welcome as well especially considering how large the card pool is in standard now with the new rotation
Yeah. It’s a breath of fresh air for sure.
I completely agree Joseph.
@@cordcro ❤️ finding love in the comments?
Really enjoyed the sleeper cards and new segments. Honestly, the longer the crash course the better. Make it three hours! lol
You asked for recommendations: loved the idea for under-valued cards.
For the UA-cam video, please make cards fill the left side of the screen. Your background is cute but needing to pause and zoom on my phone when the cards were so close to readable made me think its not worth.
Looking forward to BLB!
Ben on Builder's Talent = my mom at an estate sale. "No I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it's so much so cheap! You're practically losing money NOT drafting this card!" @29:59
Hilarious. It looks like it should go into U/W Birds. Control the ground and pump your flyers.
I would love to hear both of you talk about the top 5 rares (not mythics) and how hard you force them.
Nice to have a simple set for the first time in awhile. This is a great limited format for new players. We haven't had one of those in a long time.
I got started drafting with AFR and am getting nostalgia vibes.
Only about halfway through, but the point of the grading scale IS when should I pick this which should directly correlate to play patterns.
I don't know who has the better grip on the format, but I think Ethan makes better arguments. If he's wrong about the set then his arguments hold much less weight.
jammed some drafts in draftmancer + table top sim. I can confidently say expend is broken. The benefits seem small, but its a free trigger that asks you to curve out. grull is strong and you can easily win with commons. ill list bellow all the commons that together make a great aggro grull deck, of course any uncommons and epecialy rares will fit right in, but the strength of the archetype can be expressed with just commons;
Agate Assault: lines up nicely with most non-augumented (1-4 drops) creatures in the environment.
Roughshod Duo: a key card to get damage through since it gives your other creatures trample.
Steampath Charger: the 1 thoughness is bad, but the flexibility to be a 2 drop or a 4 triggering expend by itself is what makes it great in the archetype, also enabeling Druid of the spade.
Take Out the Trash: good on rate removal that is instant and can trigger expend mid combat, since the deck also has a bunch of raccoons you can sculpt your hand.
Bakersbane Duo: the best 2 drop at commons for the archetype and enables the next common in the best way possible since your opponents will rarely want to kill a food and you should hope to not need to sac it either.
Druid of the Spade: great common since most colors have a way to make tokens, giving you a 4/3 trampler for 3.
Longstalk Brawl: ties it all together, making your 3 drops better on turn 4 increasing chances to get a expend 4 triggers.
War Squeak: not good, but can give surprise haste and also close the gap from your 3 drops.
High Stride: same as longstalk brawl and might of the meek, its a gap closer for your expand having 2-4 1 drops is great for the archetype, although the best 1 mana spells (especially creatures) are at uncommon or rare, so if lucky grab those.
Polliwallop: not the best removal, but its instant which is great for huge combat blowouts. The discount sometimes makes you not able to expand, but i think the rares are too good in this set, so beeing able to remove most creatures for the least amount of mana in grull it doesn't get better than this.
Treeguard Duo: the best curve topper you could hope for at this rarity expand 4's all over, comes down and makes one of your tramplers huge and gives vigilance helping a lot when racing with the opponent since you get a 3/4 and what ever else you targeted back on defense.
Junkblade Bruiser: another great curve topper even if you dont have gas in hand to trigger its expend, 4/5 is big in this format.
Dont take this as if other archetypes are bad, but i think this archetype has a strong common backbone for a good stompy deck.
I agree, I got recked by some guy named Pablo on tts/draftmancer who played expend 😢
I think the rabbits are also pretty powerful. Caretaker and Harvestrite host both make playing offspring and Hop to It really valuable. Throw in some repeatable pump from the elder or a way to get some counters, and I think only gruul goes over them.
As a side note, the red/white mice seem strong when they can actually get the valiant triggers, but on average you'll only get one trigger per turn vs the entire board getting pumped with expend.
@@童貞翻訳サービス LOL. Great games.
I watched a while back and now it's definitely a great direction you're taking! Great insight a d the commons and sleepers at the end fills in a really important space that LR misses. And you're under 2 hours : ) can't wait for my pre release and I might just drop some gems on sealed in arena.
Calamitous Tide seems like a fun curve topper, but I think it could also help grind out a more contorlly deck if you can bounce their thing and yours, to replay (which seems to be blues thing) or discard for 2 fresh cards. I think it will do enough.
There's a Golgari Food Ramp deck that will either be brilliant or just fun jank, but I definitely want to build it it.
Cards like Thornvault Forager (manadork that makes two of any colour if you forage), Heaped Harvest, Vinereap mentor, and then a top end with Lumra, bellow of the woods, and Ygra, eater of all.
Overprotect is a brilliant card that punishes single target removal, and gives a real argument for green being good. Also p.s this is a sick commander deck with Camelia, the seedmiser. Squirells!!
Re: Feedback
I liked all the cute animals, thank you
lol Ben is so wholesome, what a noble soul. He believes in his cards so passionately!
Fowl strike was 100% main deckable with any of the adapt creatures.
It was a straight up +2/+2 trample trick with Oozewagg.
It blew out a decent amount of the removal.
The reinforce couldn’t be countered.
I day two’d the Amaterdam Pro Tour PTQ and some of the best moments were instant speed trample and blowing someone out who was trying to fanged flames Nadu.
That isn’t to say *all* plummet variants are now playable but fowl strike in particular was good because so much of green cared about counters.
I think this will be a set that rewards you for finding the color pair that nobody else is drafting in your pod. Aside from the "duo" cards, a lot of the single color cards lean heavily into a color pair. For instance pollywallop is way over costed for anything but a deck with a high density of frog creatures.
Neeeed that build around D! Great show as always guys :).
"This mouse is a HOUSE!" - Ben Werner talking about Mouse Trapper
LOL
Serenity now immediately got me.
Something they didn't mention about Mouse Trapper is its ability to tap down _two_ opposing blockers in some cases, by triggering Mouse Trapper once on the opponent's turn and once on your own turn.
Definitely seems like its ceiling will be higher than Territorial Hammerskull, but its floor will be lower.
Put on top or bottom = tobbum
The key point of Brambleguard Captain for me is that it can target itself. It's at base a 4 mana 4/3, not a 2/3.
So hoping that a Sultai food/forage Rat/Squirrel alliance deck can actually do well. We could use a slower grindy format as a change of pace 🤷♂️
I have the same hopes but I'm worried about the speed being hyper fast due to the many pushed one drops
I liked the depth and extra details
I'm looking forward to trying all the archetypes in this one. Looks like UB and BR will be a little less contested 😏
Parting gust in D+? That's a protection/blink spell or an exile removal spell for two mana? And don't get me wrong , giving a card is not great but that much flexibility, instant speed two mana is just great. I think it sees standard play.
It was amazing for me last night at prerelease I was shocked when they slammed it
I am totally for this (long) format (of video's)
Thanks for the insight guys!
As usual, Ben is looking at best case scenarios and Ethan is refusing to account for any archetype synergies in his evaluations. Balanced grades are somewhere in the middle.
Calamitous Tide reads: Destroy two Offspring tokens. Remember Divide by Zero?
Is Starforged Sword a synergy piece in the birds decks that can only target creatures without flying?
BEEN WAITING ALL DAY FOR THIS WOOHOOOOO
My brain just wants to copy sinister monolith with blue paw spell and drain my friends dry
Are the two expensive blue card draw cards not good Otter finishers?
The game is going long, you draw 3 and stun something, trigger prowess, play another 1 or 2 mana spell that you drew, prowess again..?
Or bounce 2 things, prowess trigger, swing?
I prefer when you actually talk about the toughness of creatures and how they line up against damage based removal
We gonna see July Arena Open drafts posted for either Ben or Ethan?
Everything in this set is p-p-p-p-p-powerful according to Ben lmao
Love you guys. Long time listener. I would just say you mention prerelease in the title but most grades and talking points don't touch on a lot of "sealed" interactions and deck building. Would love your takes on the sealed heuristics of deck building when examining a new set.
Thanks!
I think starforged sword is definitely c- or better in RW
Idk man parting gust was pretty good for me
Builder's Talent: WW1, 0/4 defender, whenever you make a food token, put a 1/1 counter on a creature. That card is insane. You are both insane for not seeing it. Boooooooooooo. Also, you get a free card, 4W sorcery, return an enchantment to the battlefield. Which is nice with this uncommon, since you can endlessly loop two of them. INSANE!
two wolves inside of me was AMAZING. LOL!
Builders talent is really great as a splash in a couple of them. I don't think it's good in a native white deck.
It’s not compelling when two people disagree but are too polite to argue. Come on, let’s fight! If you don’t argue we don’t really have a good hold on the viewpoints
I think that they did argue their points enough to be compelling. Not sure what level of debate you’re expecting but they can’t spend that much time on each card.
everything's a c, go home
((great episode as usual))
@lordtupperware Searing Blood is a bad card?!
Algo
Pog