Artifact

[Alan]

I'm at 4-0 with the my first expert draft (with Drow, Omniknight, and Prellex).

I ended the run 5-1. Got my ticket back along with an Incarnation and and an Oath

[Jonathan]

Congrats! I haven't gotten anywhere near a perfect run.

[Jonathan]

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.

Looks good, but that flop is deeply suspect to me.

[Alan]

It should be PA, Sorla, Ogre flop, Kanna turn, Tinker river

[Jonathan]

I'm 0-3 in draft.

My first draft had some problems.

I thought this second draft was reasonable, except I picked up a Prellex fairly early in the third pack because I decided I'd rather have the Prellex than a J'Muy. If I had held back, I would have picked up Zeus instead.

https://www.playartifact.com/d/ADCJRsAJ ... BwEkARMBBw__

Glaring problems?

[Alan]

The Blue cards seem too weak to justify playing two blue heroes. The Black Green with Prellex with DP has decent synergy but CM doesn’t add much. Was there any chance of adding a few green cards with Farvahn and cutting out the Ventriloquy, better late for never, and one or both of cunning plan and compel? I think you want to maintain pressure and those cards lose you too much tempo. And I’m not sure Incarnation is enough to justify going strongly in blue. You probably want to be putting down Thunderhide at the end of your matches, so if it goes beyond turn 5 that probably means you’re in trouble. I can't really see a way for you to have a board state that lets you play Incarnation into emptying your hand with Disciple & Arm the Rebellion that lets you 80 the Ancient. It looks like your win condition is having blue/black in one lane (or 1-2 barracks in that lane with a black hero instead) and green in another. Prellex dies very easily but if she can put down at least one barracks and stay alive enough to generate like 2 creeps and cast DP that can make enough of a difference.

I think overall your deck is set up for an aggro/midrange strategy and the Blue cards other than Prellex and DP are working against that. If you have anything a little more aggressive that should help.

[Jonathan]

https://www.playartifact.com/d/ADCJFEAZ ... QMMFRMBBkE_

Here's what I drafted.

[Jonathan]

I won one with the list I put up before, because I was just trying to suicide the gauntlet.

Then I made the changes you suggested for this and won another, so 2-1 on this draft.
https://www.playartifact.com/d/ADCJcoAI ... QNEwcBAzQB

[Alan]

I think that looks better, though Restoration Effort might be worse than Corrosive Mist (which is saying something). Assassin's Shadow is pretty good in draft, if I had to guess I would bet you'd get more value out of that than Incarnation. But maybe one of your wins was due to going off with Incarnation?

Did you draft Incarnation and Annihilate relatively early? It seems like a lot of the blue cards are in there because you were trying to fill out a blue deck.

[Jonathan]

I think that looks better, though Restoration Effort might be worse than Corrosive Mist (which is saying something).

Whoops. Unintended.

Assassin's Shadow is pretty good in draft, if I had to guess I would bet you'd get more value out of that than Incarnation. But maybe one of your wins was due to going off with Incarnation?

Nope! Switched.

Did you draft Incarnation and Annihilate relatively early? It seems like a lot of the blue cards are in there because you were trying to fill out a blue deck.

I sure did.

[Alan]

It's too bad you couldn't get a red hero or a 1-2 more quality red cards. Pretty much all of your red cards are draft playable, but just barely not enough to justify splashing Keefe (since you need Prellex for your deck). If you had almost any red hero (Beastmaster would’ve been perfect I think) you could totally justify playing all those red cards plus the red hero plus Keefe instead of going green. Or if you had say an Ogre Conscript and something like a Red Mist Pillager you could even justify going double Keefe.

[Jonathan]

Here's what I've been working on for a day 1 purchase. I'm curious how much this will cost.

http://playartifact.com/d/ADCJTIL6bkCBU ... dGVnZXJpZQ__
...
Probably I'll change lots of stuff, even the heroes, once I get the game, but I think I'll probably iterate on that idea for a while.

So, with some struggle, I have iterated until I got here:
https://www.playartifact.com/d/ADCJV4aq ... IGNyZWVwcw__

Storm Spirit is critical to this idea because of his signature mobility. In fact, I think Storm Spirit is so crucial I've considered dumping Sorla for PA. I haven't actually run that; I've run it without Tinker, without Necrophos, and with neither but I like this best.

Drow goes wherever she can be safe. I really like the idea of extending my hero kill reach turn 1, but it's so infrequent as to be worthless vs. just rivering Drow.

There's other BG lists, but this is the best I've made on this idea of upkeep killing a creep so I can get in tower damage. I spent $50 on cards thus far, so experimentation cost me about double what my day one deck cost.

I go back and forth on the no-creeps policy. Obviously, it has synergy with Oath, but anti-synergy with Mist of Avernus. Blowing away creeps with Hip Fire/Relentless Pursuit/Pick Off/Gank lets me get damage on tower without going wide. I have tried adding lots of creeps and couldn't put up enough creeps versus a real zoo deck to be worth a damn. I like Vandals over Censors, but I'm not sure either is needed.

Generally, I deal about two dozen damage on a single tower on a round where I expend a lot of mana. I can definitely deal 30+ with some Assault Ladders and poor opponent deployment. The Cover of Night is a good finisher for this; I often need the attack instead of the siege. Good results come from forcing my opponent to commit to a lane or lanes and then abandoning them for a turn or two. I do prefer abandoning a lane turn 1 for damage instead of smacking a couple towers for piddling damage, but the highest priority is to keep my heroes alive turn 1.

The Corrosive Mist is a tech against gold ramp, which I noticed I am vulnerable to. I haven't actually played against a gold ramp deck with Corrosive in yet to see if it matters or not.

[Jonathan]

There was a really cool mind games moment in the second LifeCoach match.
...
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?

People ramp for reasons other than combo with this deck. I've seen Emissary, I've seen Incarnation, I've even seen double Thundergod's. Now, maybe Lifecoach could put Hyped on not doing any of those and taken it down, though.

[Alan]

Here’s the other half of what I had been attempting B/U Payday. Luna and Skywrath make a lot more sense than Kanna.

[Alan]

Here’s an anti UG Storm deck.

[Alan]

Here's my latest draft.

This is what I'm going with.

I think it's on the weak side. Not sure how it'll go. I'd like to get Winter Wyvern in but I think I'd weaken the deck significantly by cutting the blue cards and replacing them with the B/G cards I've left out.

[Alan]

Balance patch!? Valve kind of reversed themselves in a big way.

Seems like Axe and Drow will still be pretty strong but not dominant. UG Storm deck seems much less reliable (maybe dead?) without Gust being what it was.

[Alan]

So, with some struggle, I have iterated until I got here:
https://www.playartifact.com/d/ADCJV4aq ... IGNyZWVwcw__

Storm Spirit is critical to this idea because of his signature mobility. In fact, I think Storm Spirit is so crucial I've considered dumping Sorla for PA. I haven't actually run that; I've run it without Tinker, without Necrophos, and with neither but I like this best.

Drow goes wherever she can be safe. I really like the idea of extending my hero kill reach turn 1, but it's so infrequent as to be worthless vs. just rivering Drow.

There's other BG lists, but this is the best I've made on this idea of upkeep killing a creep so I can get in tower damage. I spent $50 on cards thus far, so experimentation cost me about double what my day one deck cost.

I go back and forth on the no-creeps policy. Obviously, it has synergy with Oath, but anti-synergy with Mist of Avernus. Blowing away creeps with Hip Fire/Relentless Pursuit/Pick Off/Gank lets me get damage on tower without going wide. I have tried adding lots of creeps and couldn't put up enough creeps versus a real zoo deck to be worth a damn. I like Vandals over Censors, but I'm not sure either is needed.

Generally, I deal about two dozen damage on a single tower on a round where I expend a lot of mana. I can definitely deal 30+ with some Assault Ladders and poor opponent deployment. The Cover of Night is a good finisher for this; I often need the attack instead of the siege. Good results come from forcing my opponent to commit to a lane or lanes and then abandoning them for a turn or two. I do prefer abandoning a lane turn 1 for damage instead of smacking a couple towers for piddling damage, but the highest priority is to keep my heroes alive turn 1.

The Corrosive Mist is a tech against gold ramp, which I noticed I am vulnerable to. I haven't actually played against a gold ramp deck with Corrosive in yet to see if it matters or not.

It seems like a vulnerability is how critical Drow Ranger is and how squishy and high-priority of a target she is. With the nerf maybe you were planning to remove her anyway, but I would guess that a big source of variance to how your deck performs would be whether Drow can stay alive and be in the right lane for you to play your cards. The 3 drops being playable in any lane are good, but there seems like a pretty high likelihood that you will have games where you're unable to use Gust, Intimidation, or Corrosive Mist in the lane you need to use them in. With the Drow nerf I wonder if mono-black will end up being more consistent for you. That would settle the PA vs Sorla debate. Lion might even be playable now with his buffs. His signature might help vs control decks too. With removing green maybe you can add Censers (though that violates your no-creep policy).

[Jonathan]

Balance patch!? Valve kind of reversed themselves in a big way.

Wow!

[Alan]

Here's my latest draft.

This is what I'm going with.

I think it's on the weak side. Not sure how it'll go. I'd like to get Winter Wyvern in but I think I'd weaken the deck significantly by cutting the blue cards and replacing them with the B/G cards I've left out.

It turned out to be ok, but really struggled against decks with beefy heroes.

Doing Prize Draft next,

Here's what I drafted

Here's what I'm playing

Was obviously hoping for a more offensive black hero, but will have to make do with Sorla and Lich. I was forced to take a lot of really bad blue cards.