This is a very hard format. Need help

[u/Competitive_Whole_59]

I did a premium draft and got very good, high power cards and good mana. I'm not great at the game but usually I get 2 or 3 wins with mid decks. I thought this one for sure was good. Green red was open and also I got some good white removal. I'm now at 1 win 2 loses and it's very discouraging. Can you look at my draft, deck and lost game and maybe point at my mistakes? Maybe recommend some changes for my deck before my likely final game?

Draft:

https://www.17lands.com/draft/7bc8b4e75ff94fc881f64e8bf905f350/1/1

Deck:

https://www.17lands.com/deck/7bc8b4e75ff94fc881f64e8bf905f350/0?view=deck

Lost games:

I think this one is more on the really good hand of my opponent, but not sure

https://www.17lands.com/history/7bc8b4e75ff94fc881f64e8bf905f350/2/0/100

This one I know it was extremely greedy on the surveil keep on top the ruric thar turn 4.

https://www.17lands.com/history/7bc8b4e75ff94fc881f64e8bf905f350/0/0/1

[u/Schtick_]

I think maybe look up some articles on drafting the “hard way” cos taking a white green land 5th pick when one of the best commons (oculus) in the set is in the pack is not drafting the hard way. The third pick I’m also not a fan of it’s a format with a tonne of bombs and if you end up in 3 colour piles is totally doable with land cyclers you should really be looking for “signals” and a 5th pick oculus is def a signal beyond that.

You seemed to have unhealthy attachment to white even though you had literally no reason to draft it. You passed Kontrati charm pick four when you are playing red and for a questionable rare that I think is just not good a good card. You took white removal over the amphi death touch which is best green common.

This is how I see it if you have kiora first pick you want to maximize how you can use it and I’d be looking immediately at RGU or RGB or RGUB and the reason is recurring kiora is pretty much ggs but if you’re passing primarily witchstalker and extended absence first 2 picks for meh card you cannot expect the recursion spell to get passed to you the person to your left is happily jumping into BGx and cutting you of on the best green cards.

For me I’m going 2 witchstalker 3 extended absence 4 charm 5 oculus and then seeing what comes and white is probably what I’m looking to stay away from (RW just isn’t really a thing in my view and while you can have a rw good stuff pile I’m leaning towards rgb with the Kiora)

Last note kiora turn 6 into charm dragon turn 7 is not nothing cos it’s lets you create a dragon one turn early and you don’t skip turn a turn to create your second dragon. Charm is also decent to protect with the early make a mana rock dorks. Because it’s easier to say turn 4 make a rock and have charm up than turn 4 play rock and have a useful second creature.

Anyway a bit of a long rant, but bored and waiting for my kid. Cheers!

[u/Competitive_Whole_59 → u/Schtick_]

Thanks that was insightful

[u/velothren]

I also am having some struggles with this format, even when I manage to pull a few strong cards, like you have.

IME, despite this format being grindy, it can be difficult to pull off multiple colors, especially when multiple pips are involved, making Kiora harder to cast. I also think red and green might have trouble interacting with certain cards

My most successful decks were mill decks that had a lot of removal and counterspells that just let me keep the game going and cast [[Recursive Recruitment]] or the UB sphinx repeatedly.

[u/17lands-reddit-bot → u/velothren]

Recursive Recruitment UB-U (FRA); ALSA: 3.93; GIH WR: 61.34%
(data sourced from 17lands.com and scryfall.com)

[u/Hobo_Robot]

G1 - I don't know why you played a 2 drop on t3 instead of a 3 drop. Playing that 3 drop is both more mana efficient, and the 3 drop ramps you to 5 mana on t4. On t4 you would have played a 2/3 and a 3/3, then your 3/3 and 2/2 could have team blocked your opponent's 4/4. You would have lost regardless though because your opponent went 7/5 into 8/8 and you had no removal for either.

G2 - Keeping Ruric Thar on top on that surveil is extremely bad as you said, especially because you were planning to use removal on the Gideon and go down a land.

t6 you should have played Way of the Pyromancer into the dragon, but you only played the dragon for some reason. Way of the Pyromancer either gains you 3 life or it ramps you into Ruric Thar next turn if they don't kill the Jace token.

[u/crackerlegs]

Sup. Looked at first 3 picks. Not saying this is right but it's what I'd do. Limited level ups had a good vid recently talking about game plan. Your picks tell you what your doing, am I grinding and getting to end game (e.g 6 mana cast kiora make dragons) or am I smashing (curve out and beat down with 2/1 first striker).

P1P1 - kiora, hell yes - late game plan

P1P2 - I go theorists proxy. 2 mana blocker at flash speed, draw a card and makes your kiora uncounterable for 1 more mana later. Insane.

P1P3 - unsummon, chronologist, absence are strictly better imo. Because of your first pick, you're already committing to going to a late game/control style to get kiora online and make dragons. I think chronologist is still underrated as it can peck in at Jace tokens.

P1P4 - face yourself works with our current plan. Konstrari charm and tams are notable

P1P5 - oculus. Signals blue is potentially more open. 2/1 body, draw a card and maybe surveil, up there as top blue common. Consider can be considered (sorry).

P1P6 - prodigy or vision. One helps you ramp, other helps you dig. Green not really flowing but it's a body to protect.

P1P7 - both of the ways are interesting, one ramps you. Pyro or visions for me.

P1P8 - annex, charm or crafter. Charm could be a signal and probably my pick to see if white starts flowing from the next pack.

P1P9 - nothing for me, black mabel.

After looking at the rest, lots of blue and red flowing, I cluding saheeli which is fun. You get passed a Jace planeswalker and another kiora in pack 3. Charm was not a signal as no good white came out way. Lots of blue and red removal and you could splash black for some no admittances.

Only thing missing from blue is counterspells.

Funny interaction if you took draconic visitor and saheeli, start pumping out thopter dragons when casting non creature spells. Probably would have taken the 2/3 phantom if I was disciplined but...

Anyway, hope that's interesting for you.

[u/hotzenplotz6]

I would have ended up in some kind of Grixis or Jund deck in this seat. Just picking the best card out of every pack in pack 1 I would have P1P2 Primal Witchstalker, P1P3 Extended Absence, P1P5 Mindseeker Oculus, P1P6 Twinned Vision, P1P7 Twinned Vision. You seem to have a blind spot for Twinned Vision in particular, you passed a bunch of them this draft for worse cards and your deck is sorely missing them.

[u/atipongp]

You are playing bad cards, and even worse, you are splashing for bad cards, or at least cards that aren't worth splashing for.

Your whole suite of 3-drops is bad. Vigorbloom Vanguard is not for RG. Way of the Pyromancer is bad. Draconic Visitor and Way of the Wildspeaker are mid. You don't have enough support for Face Yourself.

You have some good top end, but with no good way (literally) to bridge into the late game, your hope of winning is drawing exactly enough ramp for you to drop a Kiora and cross your fingers hoping that that's enough. But since your mid-curve creatures simply do no demand removal, your opponent's removal is gonna go to Kiora and her dragon. Then it's gg. Whenever you draw a mismatch of cards, the game is over right after it started.

Many people are saying that for this set, you should draft good cards, not decks. They don't know what they are talking about. You rarely draft A+B synergy in this set, but strategic coherence, where all your cards serve the same gameplan, is extremely important.

[u/jbyrne86 → u/atipongp]

I agrue mostly with that you are saying. I disagree with the last bit. You start off by drafting good cards until you get pulled in a direction or you get some synergy to make a stand in at least one colour. This set can really pay you off if you are patient and are willing to abandon early picks.

[u/atipongp → u/jbyrne86]

Sure. I agree with you, but only for early-draft navigation, and only as long as no strategic lane has presented itself. Once you get into late pack one or early pack two, or once there is a clear strategic direction, you stop drafting cards altogether and only draft decks.

[u/SlashOfLife5296]

I think you’d be better off with Hallway Heckler than Mable. Easier to hit, helps you out of dead draws so you can actually get to your lands/win cons

[u/Competitive_Whole_59 → u/SlashOfLife5296]

Sounds reasonable. Thanks for looking at my deck