During our first Origins draft, I waffled a bit on choosing a second color, but finally managed to buckle down and make a choice in the third pack, eventually settling on blue/red.
Looking over my draft, I was actually surprised to find out that I'd nearly drafted as many green cards as I had blue, and red was by far going to be my "base" color.
I debated momentarily whether I should run green over blue, especially with having a bomb at the top end, but I quickly decided that I should just stick to my original plan in blue/red. The screenshot above is actually a little deceiving. Mantle of Webs and Elemental Bond probably wouldn't have made the cut, and Woodland Bellower only has two targets it can tutor up if I went red/green, making it pretty likely that it ends up as a vanilla 6/5 for 6 half the time.
On the other hand, every single card in my blue picks was playable mainboard. On top of that, there's a solid game plan in those picks (tempo and board disruption), whereas the green card set just wants to throw creatures on the board and hope the opponent can't answer them. What clinched it for me was the lack of 2-drops in my green set; by the time I'm able to get any of my big beaters on the board, I'd likely be too far behind for them to do any good.
So, tossing my green into the sideboard (and the bonded construct for good measure), we end up with this.
On the other hand, every single card in my blue picks was playable mainboard. On top of that, there's a solid game plan in those picks (tempo and board disruption), whereas the green card set just wants to throw creatures on the board and hope the opponent can't answer them. What clinched it for me was the lack of 2-drops in my green set; by the time I'm able to get any of my big beaters on the board, I'd likely be too far behind for them to do any good.
So, tossing my green into the sideboard (and the bonded construct for good measure), we end up with this.
This is starting to look more like a deck. It even has a decent curve. However, there are 28 cards here, so we need to cut 5 from the deck to make room for land. Right off the bat, I know we can ditch the Bellows Lizard, Act of Treason and Smash to Smithereens. The lizard requires too much mana expenditure to be any sort of threat, Act of Treason doesn't really fit this deck, and Smash is a sideboard card.
That still leaves 2 cards left to cut. With our current suite of 2-drops, I feel comfortable cutting Maritime Guard, being the most defensive of the lot, and generally not working toward my gameplan of tempo and aggression. And finally, I decide to cut Ringwarden Owl as my last card; while a serviceable evasive threat, most of my aggression is going to come from my 3 and 4 cost cards, and if I'm going to pay 5 mana for a creature, I want it to seal the game quickly.
With those changes made, I'm left with my final deck.
That still leaves 2 cards left to cut. With our current suite of 2-drops, I feel comfortable cutting Maritime Guard, being the most defensive of the lot, and generally not working toward my gameplan of tempo and aggression. And finally, I decide to cut Ringwarden Owl as my last card; while a serviceable evasive threat, most of my aggression is going to come from my 3 and 4 cost cards, and if I'm going to pay 5 mana for a creature, I want it to seal the game quickly.
With those changes made, I'm left with my final deck.
It's a little heavier in the 4-slot than I'd like, but most of those cards either give me gas to keep up my aggression, stall my opponent so I can pile on more pressure, or just completely remove blockers from the equation altogether. With 17 lands, I should be able to play them on curve in most games, although I'm a little concerned with all the double-blue and double-red casting costs.
Unfortunately, with all my waffling around during the draft, I didn't get much in the way of sideboard cards.
Unfortunately, with all my waffling around during the draft, I didn't get much in the way of sideboard cards.
The obvious sideboard here is Smash to Smithereens, which I can sub in if I go up against somebody with a huge bomb like Mage-Ring Responder. Maritime Guard can come in if I run into somebody with a lot of two-drops and I feel like I need the defender to buy me enough time to get my deck online. Ringwarden Owl can sub in for a Seismic Elemental should I run into a grindier matchup, where the 3 damage in the air over multiple turns will do more than the sudden burst of slamming an elemental on the field. Finally, Act of Treason might come in if I face up against any large defensive threats that keep me from pushing through the last bit of damage on my opponent's face, since the only large removal I have in my deck is the single Claustrophobia.
I'd love to splash for Suppression Bonds, but unfortunately, this isn't a set where you can get away with splashing a third color very easily. The few times I've tried to splash a third color, I've completely wrecked my manabase, and I ended up drawing into the wrong color land in my opening hand more often than not. I'd say you probably can't splash unless you get 2-3 Evolving Wilds and/or pain lands (the latter of which are rares, so good luck with that).
I'd love to splash for Suppression Bonds, but unfortunately, this isn't a set where you can get away with splashing a third color very easily. The few times I've tried to splash a third color, I've completely wrecked my manabase, and I ended up drawing into the wrong color land in my opening hand more often than not. I'd say you probably can't splash unless you get 2-3 Evolving Wilds and/or pain lands (the latter of which are rares, so good luck with that).
Wrap-up
After struggling to dedicate myself to a color pairing, I barely squeezed out an acceptable blue/red tempo deck. It managed to work out for me this time, but I probably won't be lucky the next time it happens. While staying open is important during the first pack, I can see how dangerous it can be to put off making a decision for too long, especially in a set where I can't just fix my indecision by picking up a fistful of mana fixing in the last pack.
Overall, the deck is a bit light on actual disruption and I'd have liked some higher quality 2-drops, but it looks decent enough to do some work. If I can curve out properly, it should be difficult to stop the aggro pain-train.
Check back next Tuesday to see how this deck fared in our first Origins Stress Test!
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Overall, the deck is a bit light on actual disruption and I'd have liked some higher quality 2-drops, but it looks decent enough to do some work. If I can curve out properly, it should be difficult to stop the aggro pain-train.
Check back next Tuesday to see how this deck fared in our first Origins Stress Test!
<-Assembly Line Stress Test->
Back to the Drafting Table->