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Editor: Dan Turner. Saturday 9 November 2002.
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And the Winner Is
Read the lead-up article to this article - Deck-building in Limited.
And the Winner Is…
Diversity. Apparently. Out of all the responses that were sent in (approx 20),
no two people built the deck in the same way. Quite surprising, considering
there were only 31 cards! I will reveal how I would build the deck later in
the article. Red Blue White A few statistics to begin with: · Every card listed made it into at least one deck 2 Pinpoint Avalanche As you can see, with only 12 cards considered good enough for everyone's deck, there seems to be quite a varied view on deck-building. The remainder of the cards all made some appearances in at least one person's deck: All decks but one: Solar Blast Only one deck: 2 Gustcloack Harriers (reasons were generally related to double white casting
cost) Then in the following order of most-to-least popular 1 Riptide Biologist The responses as to whether this would be a "good" deck were also quite varied. Anything from "Could this be an 0-3 deck?" to, "I think this is a good deck… solid removal… strong defence" In regards to what card would complete the "If I only had a…" sentence - most people chose some form of removal, with an additional Lavamancer's Skill being the primary choice. Only one person chose a creature. So as you can see, even given a small set of potential cards, the theory behind deck-building turned up many different decks. There were quite a few comments to the effect of "This was too easy," and, "given the number of cards, I am sure everyone else chose the same things, but here is my response…" So what does this prove? I suppose this depends on if there is a definitive right or wrong deck-build. Obviously the draft from which the cards were obtained would have some influence on the "correct" build. For example, if you passed a fat morph guy in every single pack, the Backslide may be a slightly better choice than if you didn't see many. A large number of "bombs" might bring the Complicate a bit higher up on the list, etc. However, even considering that, I would comfortably say that given the variety of deckbuilds, we can all use a bit more practice in Onslaught drafting/deck-building. When you look at the fact that some of the most respected players in Sydney responded with completely different decks, you may draw a conclusion that its not about the minor card details, but what you do with them and how you play the deck. As far as how I would have answered my own questions: I don't really need to comment on the 12 cards that everyone has chosen to use, as we all seem to be in agreement there. I will also leave off the 4 that only one person each has chosen to leave out - all of those would be in my deck as well. That brings the total to 16 cards. I will play between 16 and 18 mana, depending on the curve. I like a few of the higher casting cost spells in the deck but there are also quite a few early drops, so I would play 17 in this instance. The second Goblin Sledder. How many Sledder's make a Sledder too many? The answer is quite a lot more than 2. I drafted 4 in a Rochester draft recently, and decided to only run 3 of them - a choice that I now feel was a mistake. The Sledder is perhaps the best one drop in Onslaught Limited, and in this particular deck offers quite a few tricks. It allows a 3rd turn Skirk Commando go through unblocked and kill an opponents 3rd turn morph. It combos with Imagecrafter/Mistforms. As a one drop it allows for multiple plays a turn with future sight in play, it lets your Mistform walls kill morph creatures. The list goes on. Fever Charm. This was the 23rd card, and was included over the Choking Tethers
for a few reasons. It combos with the Imagecrafter to Lightning Bolt a creature
of your choice. It allows your Mistform Walls to block and kill morph guys,
Wretched Anurids, etc. It lets your morphed Riptide Biologists take down Treespring
Lorians and Barkhide Maulers and live (2/2 morph, charm him to 4/2, damage on
the stack, morph). At worst it is an extra 2 points of damage on one of your
fliers, which is not too horrible. Graxiplon. This card is expensive but on the table is quite insane. Even given the tribal nature of the Onslaught drafts, I have rarely had my Grax's blocked. Consider the situation where a Grax is in play on one side and a Harrier, a Glory Seeker and a Daru Crusader are in play on the other… three soldiers means the Grax can be blocked. In my deck I have Fever Charm, Lavamancer's Skill, Solar Blast, 2 Pinpoint Avalanches, Imagecrafter, 2 Sledders, Daunting Defender - all of which make for nifty Graxiplon tricks. 70% of the time, the Grax will not have the opportunity to be blocked - in the remaining situations, even if it is blocked, the deck should be able to have some way to make the outcome favorable. Add to this that he makes a reasonable wall while your fliers do in your opponent, and he makes the cut in my deck. The second Biologist. R/U decks can often have a problem with green decks and this is generally due to the copious amounts of Undoraks, Maulers, Lorians, etc that they can generate. The Biologists turn into Beloved Chaplins against these decks, often combining with other tricks (see fever charm) to kill at least one of them. A Grey Ogre is not bad either against decks without green, as they should be a better matchup for you anyway. Pacifism. We come to the white splash. There was a bit of a debate as to whether the white component was necessary and to what degree. I would argue that it is, as certain cards like Spitting Gourma, Aven Fateshaper, etc. can really ruin your day (not to mention a plethora of rares like Silvos, Spectre, etc). Even though you may not be able to play this early, when you can the deck has enough tempo with early drops and morph, combined with removal to sometimes give a quick kill. With the option of either including Pacifism and the next card or a couple of blue cycling cards, I feel that the mana inconsistency is worthwhile. Daunting Defender. This makes the white splash a bit more worthwhile. The Defender combos nicely with Imagecrafter/Mistforms, and in my opinion is quite underdrafted in the format currently. Equally good at defending and applying the beats (keep in mind that it prevents 1 from EACH source of damage, so blocking with 2 Glory Seekers will not kill it), the defender is a utility creature that will help your ground game immensely. And thus my final build:
I am a bit unsure of the mana base but I believe I would run 7 Island, 7 Mountains and 3 Plains. I have tossed up between 7/7/3 and 8/7/2, but I believe the Pacifism is as important to the deck as the Future Sight, and getting the first white source for two spells as compared to the third blue for one seems quite important. If I were to have one more card it would be a second Skill, much in-line with everyone else. I reckon this is at least a 2-1 deck. It will have problems with Mid-range G/R or G/B decks, but should do well against the rest of the field. I would not be dissatisfied to get this cardpool… I've definitely had worse. Mark Fabian came the closest to my particular deck. He chose exactly the same spells, but chose the 8/7/2 mana base. So there you have it. If I could prevail upon you to let me know if you like this sort of article, and what aspects of it… "I like it cause it was about limited", or "I hate it because math is bad", or "I like it because articles with the word Goblin in it are fun". I will continue or stop this thread accordingly. 'til next time Scott Hunstad [ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]
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