Go Black/Blue and hope you see a bunch of Phantasmal Fiends because it's by far the best common in the format.

Not true exactly, as all of the premium removal is better than fiend, but he IS probably the best common creature in the format.

Basically, drafting green 0% of the time is the key.

^^

Live mtg players are donks compared to online players especially at the FNM games. I get the most ridiculous stuff passed to me in live drafts and online the players generally know what they're doing.

+1

Same thing as poker, live is so much softer, but slower and it sucks to deal with real people.

I've been testing that naya block deck a bunch the past few days, and have gotten pretty sick results (constructed rating up 140 points, just won every single match in a daily event up until the finals where I lost to a 5 color aggro deck I've never seen before) I'm not usually a fan of aggro decks but the deck smashes everything in the format imo. (I'll post updated list if anyone cares)

I don't know if anyone here plays block at all, but here's some general metagame info. The jund/cascade/removal deck is good, but overrated. The bant deck is underrated. The 5 color aggro deck seems like it could be pretty sick if people catch on to it but it doesn't seem to be too popular as I have only ran into it once (noble hiearch, putrid leech, sedraxis specter, rhox war monk, jenara, bloodbraid, naya charm, not sure what else it runs). The aggro esper deck is good, but seems like it is pretty inconsistent. It's also pretty cheap to throw together.

What did you end up running? I ran a similar version to the one i posted before and another that took out thoctars and a few other things for a bit of removal and both seemed to do good but never top 8'd (prob 2 runs of each in a daily event) going 4-2 with bad breakers.

Unless the metagame has changed a lot in the last couple of weeks I doubt the Jund cascade deck is overrated, I got up to 1880 constructed rating with it from 1650 when ARB released !

Does your Naya deck have Blitz Hellion? The only annoying Naya deck I can remember playing in queues was running those.

meh i think its fine in multiplayer formats you don't have to take magic seriously all the time, I think it could be great with competitive HU too, since singleton really rewards good deck builders but decent chance it'd turn into a boring format if people really focused on building strong 1v1 decks

also blue has such a massive edge in card quality over the other colors(and a format with 40life really helps it too) that it might suck serious balls

i want to start playing this, seems there are a lot of different versions. which one should i download?

There's just the one version. Download it here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/digital...liii2/download

has anyone played 5c blood in t2? I think i've won 1 match with it. What exactly is this deck suppose to do?

turn 2 sygg turn 3 ram gang turn 4 bloodbraid into ramgang

or turn 2 leech turn 3 sygg turn 4 elf into ramgang

Yeah , i don't think I've had this draw once in about 10 matches. I actually don't think I've ever cast turn 2 guy turn 3 guy. The only games I win with this deck are games where I can't cast everything. If i'm able to cast everything, it means I'm flooded.

BOOM just won back to back alara block 8-4s. Maybe I am learning this game after all!

what are you playing?

You basically play the best cards in the format. All your creatures (except Sygg) beat for 3+, so as long as one's getting through, Sygg is refilling your hand. Elf cascading into Ram-Gang or Jund Charm is nuts...etc.

Also, Cryptic Command randomly wins you a lot of games.

Raptor maybe you can take your poker video making skill and start making some draft videos also.

http://averagedrafter.blogspot.com/

This guy makes some pretty good ones.

www.mtgovideos.com are where he hangs out nowadays
every once in a while they have an 8-way recording of a swiss draft (viewed from each person's perspective), which is pretty cool imo

Playing MTG with a friend live. Had to make a deck out of only 3 of my binders and nothing Past Mercadian Masques. Keeping in mind, I am short on basic land and and commons/uncommons what do you guys think of this deck? Playable at all? How is the mana? Is this even Type 1 legal?

4x Underground Sea
4x Reflecting Pool
1x Volraths Stronghold
7x Swamp
5x Island

4x Mox Diamond
4x Cursed Scroll
4x Masticore

4x Tradewind Riders
2x Morphling

4x Dark Ritual
4x Hymn To Tourach
4x Hypnotic Specter
4x Will O The Wisp
3x Sengir Vampire
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor

Again, don't have many other cards to choose from, but mana changes or simple recommendations (mana curve, more spells etc.) would be appreciated.

Thanks.

wow. I really think I'm going to buy all the cards for 5c bloodbraid and have them shipped to my house so I can rip them up. I've never hated a deck as much as I do this one.

what do you mean? like what cards? i went 6-1 with this deck..

magma spray
ignite disorder
sigil blessing
sangrite backlash
aven squire
ceredon yearling
stun sniper
mage slayer
ember weaver
matca rioters
topan ascetic
ajani vengeant
algae gharial
leonin armguard x 2
dreadshot minotaur
giant ambush beetle
vengeful rebirth
cavern thoctar
nacatl hunt-pride
realm razer
valley rannet
plains x 6
mountain x 5
forest x 6
naya panorama

Honestly i didnt think this deck was all that great, but it worked out pretty well i guess.

other deck i went 6-0 with, also naya
might of alara x 2
colossal might
sangrite backlash
aven squire x 2
bant sureblade
steward of valeron
branching bolt
godtracker of jund
qasali ambusher
glory of warfare (this card is nuts)
rhox brute
rhox meditant
souls majesty
gleam of resistance
rakeclaw gargantuan x 2
enlisted wurm
realm razer
sigiled behemoth
vagrant plowbeasts
plains x 6
mountain x 5
forest x 6
naya panorama

This one seemed quite a bit better, and i didnt really have any close games, just crushed everyone.

my play is definitely getting better, and from what i could tell i made only 2 play mistakes that didnt end up costing me anything. i think i draft relatively well, but my play could still use some work to be sure.

the first one seems too top heavy, Ajani can singlehandily end win the game, but i think the deck looks like it'd have trouble with the fast decks like UW, WG

same theme in the 2nd, enlisted wurm is obv great, I haven't played with realm razor much seems very situational, glory of warfare is insane

don't think either is bad, but they don't look like winning 8-4 decks to me, jund is the only deck I like an even mix on lands, and jund tends to have a fair bit more raw power in its cards to offset the inconsistency you get from 6/6/5 type land bases

For what it's worth I hate the deck as well though I fared a bit better with it than you by the sounds of it.
Actually if I'm honest, I hate *every* deck that's in Standard at the minute for some reason

the deck is type1 legal, however most of the cards aren't played at all anymore in legacy/vintage, some are pure trash(Will, Sengir, Tradewind)

they have really stepped up the power of creatures recently, the biggest 2 being Dark Confidant(~$10) and Tarmogoyf($~35)

legacy/vintage decks are incredibly fast and very tuned, a 5mana 3/3 with no disruption just isn't good enough anymore

if you look at the Dreadstill deck that won the SCG 5k you'd see how much things have changed, the deck abuses 2 interactions that WoC didn't intend

stifle allows the deck to ignore phyrexian dreadnought's drawback giving a deck a 12/12trampler for 1U

sensei's diving top lets counterbalance counter 1cc spells(by top-swap or having something like brainstorm in the top3), and 2cc, 3cc ones with decent regularity

vintage is even more abusive lol

i didnt think either deck was that amazing. i think one of my biggest flaws over the last cpl weeks of drafting was not getting enough top heavy cards, so my plan was to overdo it a bit here. maybe i just ran really good, no one seemed to have a really good deck against me either. try playing with realm razor, he can be insane.