Artifact

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Jonathan
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Re: Artifact

Post by Jonathan »

RG Control by me

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

Alan
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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

Here's the deck I drafted. Steam Cannon probably doesn't really fit. I might swap that out for Intimidate. Or Roseleaf Bloom? Ravenhook? I don't have many good 5-7 cost cards. Could also go with Murder Plot. I was presented with a lot of pretty high impact black cards but never saw a black hero (I don't count Lion).

I won my first game! Went up against a Black/Blue deck, with PA, Necrophos, Debbie, Ogre Magi, J'Muy. He took control of left lane, I easily won mid lane, and we battled for like 5 rounds for right lane. Dark Seer's lane movement ability came in really useful, bc I was able to threaten his mid ancient forcing him to defend both mid and right lane until I was able to Gank his Ogre Magi and secure the win. He bought himself an extra 3 rounds when he played "Buying Time" and Ogre Magi multi-cast it twice in a row. He was able to cast it twice in left lane, used a TP on Ogre Magi, then cast Buying Time again in mid lane with J'Muy. My entire hand was locked and that nearly let him make a comeback.

This is the most fun card game I've ever played.
Last edited by Alan on Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

Jonathan wrote:RG Control by me

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
Looks good to me. I guess the strategy is to grind out wins with creeps that are super tanky until you play your finishers?

Why Mazzie instead of Bristleback?
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Re: Artifact

Post by Jonathan »

Yes, have big finishers while defending face.

Mazzie has the Steel Reinforcements for more stall.

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Re: Artifact

Post by Jonathan »

The marketplace has been a volatile place in its first 48 hours—even more volatile than I expected—and there is more market speculation going on than in a typical new set release in Magic.

The main spotlight is on Axe, a powerful rare Red hero that was expected to become the most expensive card in the game, as Red is a popular color and Axe is a staple in every Red deck. When the market opened, Axe was fetching a Magic mythic rare price at $40—for a single card! The prices quickly began to fall and for almost a day, you could buy Axe for $14. However, this story has more chapters to it: prices began to rise again on Thursday and Axe hit a high of $28, doubling in value from its low point. This price again proved to be unsustainable, and it's currently at $21.
Looks like my Drow is about $15 today.

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Re: Artifact

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I dropped my first draft game pretty decisively, so I played the Call to Arms event last night and put up a 7 game win streak with Green Machine. Nothing is more satisfying than deploying Dark Seer left and then moving a unit downstream for the win. I did that with a Thunderhide Alpha and got an instant surrender.

Lots of players will play out a whole turn even though I've got the absolute nuts on the next lane. Not sure if BM or just not too bright?

I've been watching the WePlay tournament. Xixo and Hoej brought a BR Aggro list with Tinker and 3x Oath that is mighty fun, and hasn't dropped a game yet. Definitely my pick to win. They both put Sorla on the turn instead of the flop which makes me wonder if I need to change my deployment in my Tinker/Sorla deck.

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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

I ended up losing two in a row after winning my first two.

Spent a ticket and drafted this deck in Expert Phantom Draft. Wish it were a keeper draft :P.

Then instead of trying it I chickened out and drafted a free Phantom deck. Double Luna is kind of crazy. Won my first game with a 7 charge Eclipse that wiped his mid-lane and let me push for the win.
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Re: Artifact

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Hoej beat Xixo in the quarterfinals, then lost to Hyped playing UG Storm. There was another version of UG Storm that didn't play Avatar and another that didn't play Zeus, but those didn't make the final 8.

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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

UG storm is similar to a TESL deck that was (maybe still is) top tier. It also does a lot of mana manipulation in order to set up an infinite combo. I watched the hyped vs LifeCoach games (total stomp), then the first of the two finals matches.

There was a really cool mind games moment in the second LifeCoach match. On turn 3 in left lane LifeCoach had Axe vs Drow and Kanna, and helm of the dominator in hand, and hyped had 2 stars aligned, diabolic, incarnation, prey on the weak, and annihilation in hand with no Gust. LifeCoach was dominating mid lane and right lane had 2 blue heroes with Legion Commander for LC. Hyped should have known that LifeCoach had Helm, since he had spent 19 gold for one item during the buy phase, but hyped didn’t really have any good plays in any lane except to try to take control of left lane and maybe draw into his combo. Hyped played Stars Aligned as if he was going to start the combo, and LifeCoach responded the way he should have if hyped had Gust, with a Primal Roar. Hyped drew Gust and essentially won the game the next round.

I’m not sure there’s a situation in which you would not lead off with Gust if you had the combo, so maybe LifeCoach should have allowed Incarnation to be played and then stolen it? Or would hyped have taken a different line? It didn’t seem like he had any. I feel like by starting with stars aligned he was telegraphing that he needed to get to 9 mana for Incarnation. So maybe LC thought hyped had Incarnation and Gust but not Sanctum? I guess that would make sense. But I think you would still wait for the second stars aligned to be played out to get a little more value from Primal Roar no?
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Re: Artifact

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Alan wrote: Then instead of trying it I chickened out and drafted a free Phantom deck. Double Luna is kind of crazy. Won my first game with a 7 charge Eclipse that wiped his mid-lane and let me push for the win.
Up to 4-0 with this deck. Game 2 was a little lucky, had two heroes (including a Luna) survive due to Cheating Death, which let me do a full clear the next turn with Eclipse. Game 3 and 4 were early forfeits by my opponent. In both games I was ahead in all three lanes going into turn 3, with strong Eclipse setups coming up.
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Re: Artifact

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Shit, I've been calling Incarnation Avatar for days now.

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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

Prices have been crashing over the last few days. I put in a bunch of buy orders on Tuesday night expecting a crash (tons of negative posts on Reddit, media criticism of the monetary model, Steamguard 7-day lock expiring). Hoping to get Drow for $7.33, Axe for 10.31, Kanna for 4.84, Annihilation for 4.63 each. Will be happy with those prices and won’t mind too much if I don’t get them since I’m still only playing Draft at this moment. Based on the low demand (inventory on everything has been going up) I think there’s a pretty good chance the prices will continue dropping for a little while longer, unless Valve makes some kind of announcement that boosts confidence today or over the weekend.
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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

Call it a gut feeling but I think it’s going to stabilize today. I adjusted my buy orders up a little.
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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

I ended up with Drow Ranger at 8.48, Kanna at 5.14, Axe at 11.50, 2 copies of Annihilation at 6.11, Emissary of the Quorum at 3.13, 3.19, and 3.24. Looks like prices have been pretty stable around those points (or slightly higher) for the past day or so.
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Re: Artifact

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Don’t know why I got all those cards. I still only play draft.
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Re: Artifact

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I'm at 4-0 with the my first expert draft (with Drow, Omniknight, and Prellex). My 4th match was really intense, against a B/G/U deck with Sniper, Tinker, Dark Seer, Farvahn, and Kanna. I fell behind big early on in mid lane and was considering abandoning it, but played a Barracks on turn 3 from left lane to stall it out. He effectively abandoned right lane and let my Omniknight slowly chip the tower down (He had Sniper there but never really tried that hard to contest it - I think this was a poor decision on his part). Through his Assassinating and Ganking my heroes I ended up being able to deploy Drow and Prellex to mid lane, allowing me to turn it around, while J'Muy and Farvahn stalled left lane. On the second to last round, I Arcane Assaulted left lane for initative, then was able to Intimidate his 13 attack Dark Seer into the left lane to get overwhelming control of mid. On the last turn we each had 2 heroes to deploy and I had initiative; he sent Tinker to left lane (to Assassinate) and Kanna to mid. I sent Farvahn to left and Prellex to mid. I Gusted, stopping the Assassinate and trapping his heroes in left. In mid I used items and Stars Aligned to stall while he played Prey on the Weak and then Dimensional Portal to block most of my units. I then played out Roseleaf Rejuvenator for lethal. In retrospect that was actually a misplay; I should have started with either Defensive Bloom or Satyr Duelist so that I could've played Rejuvenator outside of it to avoid a bad arrow.

People complain about RNG, but in most cases (like this game that I could've easily lost), if you lose due to RNG, it's because you made a mistake. Cheating Death is the one obvious exception.
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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

I'm thinking of putting together some kind of B/U aggro deck. Maybe something like this. Can't decide if Oath should go in it. Maybe take out Pursuit for Oath. And whether Bounty Hunter should be in instead of Lich (probably should, but I really like Chain Frost). Idea is for Kanna and Sorla Khan to do work while the others Gank or Assassinate from other lanes to protect them. I'm putting a big priority on being able to grab initiative to stop Annihilates and At Any Costs.
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Re: Artifact

Post by Jonathan »

Suggestions:
  1. There's no Gank in this list.
  2. 6 accessories is kinda iffy. You see pro players doing it, so it's not incorrect, but the decks that went deep like Hyped's had as few as 3 accessories. I'm also worried that 3x Blink is going to keep you from your first horn. Maybe more like 3 Stonehall Cloaks, because frankly I think black heroes need the health in a way that red and blue heroes don't. See this pro player's item list, for example.
  3. I've had a difficult time piloting gold ramp without red hero stats. You just don't do enough damage even with PA, and Sniper comes online late. Maybe flopping BH, PA, and Sorla gives you a fighting chance, but I think you'll get your horns late with Kanna on the flop. I think I'd prefer a different win condition than gold ramp into Horn here.
  4. 3x Disciple can feel bad. I've had more luck with 3x Oath. I can see the point of Disciple here, though, so I'd lean towards running neither as a three-of?
  5. The UG lists you see around have Ignite/Diabolic for better Preys. Swim has experimented with a Strafing Run, which might suit what you're doing? I feel like you need either a cross-lane or a low mana way to put some damage on a board for a good Prey. Edit: or play Tinker.
Questions:
  1. Any effect you have as a three-of is likely to be drawn, but not guaranteed. If the deck's strategy requires mobility, a six-of for the effect (like Mogwai's Storm Spirit deck) is way more reliable. Does that make the 3x Relentless a good tech or an underpowered dalliance that needs to be cut?
  2. I spent all yesterday building decks and getting my ass beat. A lot of my problem is I'm trying to make BG work, which isn't a color combo on anyone's power rankings. A big issue with BG is the poor stats coupled with the poor board clear. Mostly you see BR (hero killer and aggro) or UG (storm and swarm) in constructed right now. One has the stats for board state. The other has the board clear to deal with board state. Do you need some blue clear? I know it's contrary to the board state you're attempting to develop with Kanna.
  3. Is it more correct to write "Bu" instead of "BU" when you splash Kanna?
Protip: copy your deck code into your clipboard, then click the Load button in your Collection inside the game. It'll tack on Clipboard Deck to the list of decks. I couldn't find this info when I first tried to find it! (Edit: and it gets confused by https)

Jonathan
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Re: Artifact

Post by Jonathan »

I'm debating whether to fiddle around with UR Control. Day9 has a mono blue Prellex list that I think would be fun with some red. My RG Control seems unsalvageable.

I experimented with Drow and Rix yesterday. Drow's passive makes Rix's body less shit, and having a reliable silence wherever you want feels genuinely good. Bracers of Sacrifice are fun on Rix. Not sure where to go with this, though.

I might play some of Hoej's Aggro list to get some more constructed experience without being handicapped by my weird decks.

I'm almost certainly going to experiment with Mana reduction effects. It's pretty good against ToT, Call, and storm, so I think it could work in this meta. I really don't know what my win condition will be, though.

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Re: Artifact

Post by Alan »

Jonathan wrote:Suggestions:
  1. There's no Gank in this list.
  2. 6 accessories is kinda iffy. You see pro players doing it, so it's not incorrect, but the decks that went deep like Hyped's had as few as 3 accessories. I'm also worried that 3x Blink is going to keep you from your first horn. Maybe more like 3 Stonehall Cloaks, because frankly I think black heroes need the health in a way that red and blue heroes don't. See this pro player's item list, for example.
  3. I've had a difficult time piloting gold ramp without red hero stats. You just don't do enough damage even with PA, and Sniper comes online late. Maybe flopping BH, PA, and Sorla gives you a fighting chance, but I think you'll get your horns late with Kanna on the flop. I think I'd prefer a different win condition than gold ramp into Horn here.
  4. 3x Disciple can feel bad. I've had more luck with 3x Oath. I can see the point of Disciple here, though, so I'd lean towards running neither as a three-of?
  5. The UG lists you see around have Ignite/Diabolic for better Preys. Swim has experimented with a Strafing Run, which might suit what you're doing? I feel like you need either a cross-lane or a low mana way to put some damage on a board for a good Prey. Edit: or play Tinker.
Questions:
  1. Any effect you have as a three-of is likely to be drawn, but not guaranteed. If the deck's strategy requires mobility, a six-of for the effect (like Mogwai's Storm Spirit deck) is way more reliable. Does that make the 3x Relentless a good tech or an underpowered dalliance that needs to be cut?
  2. I spent all yesterday building decks and getting my ass beat. A lot of my problem is I'm trying to make BG work, which isn't a color combo on anyone's power rankings. A big issue with BG is the poor stats coupled with the poor board clear. Mostly you see BR (hero killer and aggro) or UG (storm and swarm) in constructed right now. One has the stats for board state. The other has the board clear to deal with board state. Do you need some blue clear? I know it's contrary to the board state you're attempting to develop with Kanna.
  3. Is it more correct to write "Bu" instead of "BU" when you splash Kanna?
Protip: copy your deck code into your clipboard, then click the Load button in your Collection inside the game. It'll tack on Clipboard Deck to the list of decks. I couldn't find this info when I first tried to find it! (Edit: and it gets confused by https)
I played it a few times and ran into the problems you pointed out. Gold ramp just isn't consistent enough to be worth trying in this deck. It's also a completely different strategy from what Kanna and Sorla Khan are doing. I didn't include board clear since having just Kanna meant that the lane I'd have a blue hero in would also be the lane I was pushing. But if I fell behind I had no way of coming back. I didn't include Gank mainly because I didn't own any copies and was seeing if I could put something together without buying anything :P.

I came across this deck which looks like a far better version of what I was trying. Ogre Magi adds Ignite along with Conflagration and March, and also allows you to do board clears.
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