f13.net

Yeah I could just go find out, but I thought I'd ask.  I'm also wondering if you all are expecting to do a bunch of drafting and other fun stuff still?  I think I would rather work off 8 years of rust getting kicked in the head by people who aren't just random douchebags, better the douche you know then the...  well you see my drift.

Then again I've been debating MTGO for about 2 years so who knows if I'll actually do it, I have had issues with CCG spending in the past.

9th Ed is going up online end of August.  I believe that we're going to have a private draft of it,  with any F13 or Corp folks that decide to show. (Cost would be 3 packs of 9th and 2 tickets,  approx. $14.  You keep all the cards you draft).

If you want to get started in constructed,  there's a F13 card pool you can borrow from.  Also,  a few of us have more than enough commons/uncommons to spare a few.  Just stay out of the "serious" rooms until you get your legs and a decent card pool to build decks with.

Speaking of....

Who would be in for the private draft?  I'm game,  and can rearrange my schedule as needed. 

I would possibly be interested in the 9th ed draftage.  Depends on the day though.

I'm game.

Xilren

I bow to your superior laziness. Not being arsed to go look on the offical website would be lazy, but not being willing to look two threads down; that elevates it an artform.

 :wink:

I am in for a draft. As far as a deck building pool, I have started toying around with constructed now but nobody from Bat Country is ever online so I've been selling rares for tix and then buying what I need, which is a pain in the ass.

Not that my constructed decks are particularly good, but whatever. I like to make decks that are not cookie-cutter, and that can win. Maybe not be the best deck, but win.

Heh.  I did look, but went right over it.  Home from work with a sinus infection, and wanted to get to bed.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  :wink:


Okay, Monday August 29th it goes on sale.  Release events start September 1st.  I'd suggest later in the week or on the weekend as a good day.  Is there a particular day or time that's better than the others?  A full 3 round draft with card selection and deck building takes approx 3 hours so I'd suggest 9pm at the latest. 

I'm a complete noob as to setting up a private room and starting the draft.

I'm in for a private 8th draft or two.  And I think private drafts may not require the standard two tickets, just packs. 

Ahhh, great then.

The 9th release I did (cardboard) had a shitload of pain lands turn up.  Painlands should be worth good dough,  if you don't decide to keep them.  I think drafting 9th you should come out pretty well value wise.  Not alot of fat in that set.

Casual Play -> Limited Games -> New Trn -> Enter details -> kick anyone you don't like



I'm travelling most weekdays for a while, but if it's a weekend and uk-practical I'm in.

Back when all the cool kids played CoH TFs; 0900 Pacific / 1200 Eastern / 1700 UK / 1800 Euro worked pretty well for ppl.

Ok I actually installed this and the fear of $$$ going down the drain to VIRTUAL CARDBOARD almost made me remove it twelve seconds later.

But yeah it is still installed and at this point I still tenatively intend to play whatever practice system they have to get used to which buttons to push and then n00b it up bigtime when 9th comes out.

It actually takes a lot of practice to learn to stop screwing things up, for example when I started I constantly missed regenerates.

Welp it did not take long for me to have to stop practicing with those shit pre-made decks, gah I think I'm going to do a 8th ed draft just to practice how that works...  hopefully I wont piss anyone off too bad by taking too long at something.

You'd better hurry up - server goes down to remove 8th ed in... oh, gone.

9th edition up and on sale within an hour or two.

EDIT : 9th now available.

So I buy three packs in the store just for the heck of it..

First pack rare:  Verdant Force.  Nice! 
Second rare, opened 10 seconds later:  Verdant Force again...?  Well ok
Third:  Mana Clash.  Boo. 

Weird.  I think I'll go see if I can sell the forces for 10 or so  :evil:

When are we drafting?   :-D

I have no money.

Get a job.

I have no mouth, but I must scream.

(http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Simpsons_Scream_Lo.jpg)

Sorry, I could not help myself.

I'm gone all this weekend, but any time before or after then is ok with me.

Someone come up with some details for this, and if I can attend, I will.

I know its short notice, but how about tomorrow night for a private draft?  Say, 8 or 9 central time.   Anyone know if we need exactly 8 people for this?

I'm going to join a release league or two - I saw a wizards employee using the new Maro avatar, and somehow they made it look halfway decent.  Unfortunately, they did the standard craptastic job on the caretaker avatar.

I can play Mon-Thurs from 7pm-1am pst.  Excepting Wed 10-11pm pst.

So I think (central is two hours ahead right?)  I can make that time if nothing unusual comes up.  How long do drafts usually take?

About three and a half hours. (though they are single elimination, so half the table is done within 90 minutes)

Did a little research - you DON'T need exactly 8 for a private draft.  Less people is fine, I assume more should be as well.  So anyone not in Bat Country feel free to come and play, more people makes for a better draft.  Yeah, I'm talking to all you lurkers  8-)  Rememeber, buy three packs of 9th before you try to join...      

Draft time can vary.  For those who lose first round, it can take an 1-1.5 hours (draft itself plus 2 out of three games). All the way to finals is about three hours I think, give or take some time for long/short rounds.  Haven't drafted in several months though, people who've been drafting more recently probably have better estimates.  

I'm thinking 8:00 Central time, which is 9 Eastern and 6 Pacific... that work for people?  And is Thursday (tomorrow) good?

Good for me. I can bring another person also, if needed.

EDIT: Any time between Thursday evening EST and Sunday evening is good for me.

I can't make 6, I have a 70% chance of making 6:30 and I can assuredly make 7pm PST but 6 is too early for me thanks to the whole public transportation thing.

Thurs or Friday would be ok, but 9am EST is a little too early for me.  10pm would be better...

Xilren

Thursday night any time is fine with me.

Lets make it 7 Pacific, 9 Central, 10 Eastern then.  Works a little better for me too.

I'm in  :-D

Name:  HoaxRe

....

Heh, sounds like I'm the only one on EST time.  Should be there.

I'm Margalis online. I'm in EST but I'm a night owl, late is fine. I can use an hour beforehand reading the spoiler to get some idea for what's in the set. Right now the only think I know for sure is if I see a Loxodon Warhammer I'm grabbing it!

Hypnotic Specter is going for about 18 tix right now   :-o

Fuck that warhammer.

Roflcoptor.

Hyppie isn't surprising, given that he's the most talked-about card in the set and is pretty playable. Right now you could probably make a pretty good black aggro deck out of blind creeper, ebon drake, hyppie and maybe some okiba-gang or something. 3 for a 2/2 flyer with a great special ability is pretty good, especially for black. How much hyppie ends up being really worth depends on whether he finds a home in any really good decks, but I'm sure he'll be very popular in casual decks either way. Although he probably only fits into mono-black or something close to it given his 1BB cost and early-game effectiveness.

Evasion (flying, fear, trample) critters are good.

Master Decoy is good.

Creature kill is good.

Don't be afraid of running 2 or 3 colors.



I'd rather that a draft could be Swiss (that is the 3 rounds, everyone plays, right?)  just to get some more games in.  If knocked out early,  I'd be up for just playing a couple games in open with draft decks.

By the way....

How do you quit a guild/clan whatever it's called.....  I"m still in one with real life folks who don't play much anymore.  And I get a headache whenever I try to puzzle out the Magic Online commands.

And I'm lazy.  Bah.

I don't know how to leave the guild, but if you figure it out post here and I'll get you into Bat Country.

Right after I get a job I'll be playing a lot more.

I'll be there, I have the packs and the two tickets, anything else crucial I need to know about?


*some? wtf*

Thats all you need.  And I think tix aren't needed for private drafts. 

Off to the release leagues!

Are there no prizes? Also how are we going to meet up, for people not in Bat Country?

Just go to the Limited Games room.  You can find it below the Casual/Anything Goes/Tournament level rooms.  There's usually only about 2 people in there anyway. 

Limited games room tonight at 10PM EST?  I can do that.  Look for CaptainRufus.

So what do I need to do if I want to join this tonight?

OPen a MtG:Online account, buy the needed items from the online shop, wait for delivery to your collection, and be in the room in 3 hours or so.

Is it better to pay the $9.99 and activate online or buy the CD-ROM set in the store and activate for free?

The online one comes with $10 worth of vouchers for product IIRC, so I don't think it matters. You should probably get moving because updating the first time is a bitch.

Can't do too much at work right now. If I miss it, I miss it.

As long as you start within the next hour or two, you should be fine.

I still need to buy my 2 boosters.

What do I need to buy from the shop?

2 9th ed Boosters, and possibly 2 tix (tickets, $1/each). I say "possibly" because I'm not sure that you need them for private drafts. If you end up not needing them after you buy them, you can use them to buy cards.

EDIT: Or is it Three boosters?

You need 3 9th edition booster packs.

Strazos and I (username: jaycorell) idling in the limited room now.

Until time,  I'll be busy trying to scrounge some fetch lands.

Are there prizes if you win? I assume not, since three boosters are required for drafting. I would also be interested in getting one more to do a 4-2-2 split or something, if not tonight then some other day.

Don't think there are any prizes involved.  You keep all cards drafted,  so you come out the same as if you had bought and opened the packs.

Also, I set up a TS channel...just because.

I was in the room, but now its not letting me connect into the game.  WTF?

Just wait 10 or 15 minutes.  Not uncommon when new sets are released to have servers go down for short periods of time.

Server back up.

If you get dropped in draft,  just log back on when you can.  It'll let you rejoin the draft,  without problems, within a certain time limit.

Three packs, no tix (pretty sure)

REMEMBER:  You DON'T need to draft any land, you can add as much as you want during the deckbuilding phase (which I think we should make 15 minutes instead of the usual 10, for the new people).  When building a deck, 17 or 18 land is usual.  That said, the painlands (Tap:1 colorless or Tap:  1 damage and add 1 of two colors) seem to be going for 4 tix right now. 

 

I've never liked the idea of hurting myself, in MtG or otherwise.

Pains are going for 6ish now.  Price fluctuated up.

We have 7 or 8 now,  but holding out for Raging T., Schild,  possibly Shockeye.

schild and I will not be attending, so don't hold out for us.

I need to get familiar with 9th before I start any drafting and schild is poor.

Schild is full of shit.

I'm in college, vacationed for half the summer, and haven't worked for 4 months.


it's $13....

Watch your step, youngin.

Not sure if somebody will put up a seperate thread but here is my cardlist, will put the actual decks up tonight or tomarrow night.

Blue:
1)Sleight of Hand
Flight
Sea's Claim
Fugitive Wizard (rawr)
2)Storm Crow
Lumengrid Warden
Fishliver Oil
3)Horned Turtle
Wind Drake
Time Ebb
Phantom Warrior
Crafty Pathmage
4)Aven Fisher
Sage Aven
Sift
Dehydration
Levitation
5)Tidings
Wanderguard Sentry
Aven Windreader

Black:
2)Contaminated Bond
3)Razortooth Rats x2
Serpent Warrior
4)Bog Wraith
5)Hollow Dogs

Red:
1)Reflexes
2)Goblin Brigand (shiney!)
Pyroclasm
4)Relentless Assault

Green:
1)Web
2)Rampant Growth x2
Treetop Bracer
Naturalize
3)Overgrowth
Needle Storm (shiney!)
4)Hunted Wumpus
Creeping Mold
5)Natural Spring
8)Scaled Wurm
x)Stream of Life

Quick recap, I got blasted trying to use Bu/G without any real kill conditions versus Margalis' well made W/R deck.  First game I had too much land, second game my deck was just no match for his, my aven got pwned by his aven, and so on.  Highlights included turning his land into an island in both games early, and bringing out the Wumpus while he had no red mana but was beating on me with his white creatures and being rewarded with Shivan Dragon comming out of his hand.

Also it was hilarious how we had rares go to the last card or second to last 3 times out of 12 packs.

I pretty much got taken out of the game in less than 20 turns.  Combined.

My list:
1 Gravedigger
8 Island
8 Swamp
2 Boomerang
1 Coercion
1 Foul Imp
1 Howling Mine
1 Levitation
1 Looming Shade
1 Mana Leak
1 Mind Rot
1 Ornithopter
2 Ravenous Rats
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Storm Crow
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Wind Drake
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Cruel Edict
1 Sage Aven
1 Slate of Ancestry
2 Fugitive Wizard
1 Kraken's Eye

Sideboard
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Enfeeblement
1 Exhaustion
1 Fear
1 Highway Robber
1 Natural Spring
1 Sift
1 Spineless Thug
1 Telepathy
2 Time Ebb
1 Urza's Tower
1 Wood Elves
1 Yavimaya Enchantress
1 Festering Goblin
1 Gluttonous Zombie
1 Sea's Claim
2 Counsel of the Soratami

I'm too lazy to post my full deck. It was red/white, won my little 4 person in straight rounds I think.

Key cards:
Icy manipulator
Bunch o' flyers (aven whateverers, skyhunter, pegasus)
Some helpful weenies (crossbow infantry, samite healer, veteran +1/+1 guy)
Pacifism

In red I had a few good cards like Shivan, goblin chariot and catapault, but they barely mattered. In most games I only had 1 mountain and couldn't cast either the Shivan or the catapault. Shock and volcanic hammer were both useful though.

In general my plan was to use a lot of flyers, use my tapping weenies to make the combat math in my favor, and destroy/pacify/tap whatever I couldn't handle. Worked like a charm.

I also had a Glorious Anthem but I forgot to put it in my main deck, and just as I was about to resubmit it started.

The white commons seem pretty good overall, flyers and annoying weenies with special abilities. Red was very underwhelming. From what I saw just at the draft, white and green looked a fair amount better than the other colors. Maybe I'll study the spoiler now and see if that is really true of it it was just the luck of the draw.

My deck was as thus:

6 Forest
7 Swamp

1 Beast of Burden
1 Disrupting Scepter

1 Bog Imp
1 Coercion
1 Enfeeblement
1 Fear
1 Highway Robber
1 Looming Shade
1 Plague Beetle
1 Raise Dead
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Spineless Thug
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Unholy Strength

1 Norwood Ranger
1 Elvish Warrior
1 Zodiac Monkey
2 Elvish Berserker
1 Giant Growth
1 Giant Spider
1 Grizzly Bears
1 Ley Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Reclaim
1 Rootwalla
1 Trained Armodon


A simple as pie creature deck with green mana acceleration, black dirty tricks, and extra surprises in the artifacts and Underworld Dreams.  Nothing really ingenious, but I'm not ashamed of it, given that it's my first-ever draft.  It served me well against Strazos in a slow-building first round where my creatures eventually overwhelmed him, and a second round in which he was fucked for mana.  On the other hand, filthy bastard Margalis drew the manipulator in both of the round two games, the second of which had me even more mana-fucked than Strazos.  I got the scepter out against him in the first game, but he countered it by simply playing all of the cards out of his hand, and I never drew the Beast nor Underworld Dreams, which may have helped turn the tide.

Ah well.  It was still a fun draft, despite being denied the ultimate victory.

It's hard to win when you are stuck on 2 lands and your opponent has Icy Manipulator out :)

Modify: I think leagues are a very good way of developing basic draft skills, even though leagues don't involve drafting. The nice thing about a league is you have a large card pool to experiment with, and you can play tons of a games in a week if you want. The most important thing in drafting is just figuring out the value of cards, and leagues can help you get good at that cost-effectively.

Typically if I'm in a league and not doing well or after I've played my 5 games that week, I'll just mess around and try a variety of deck options to get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

The problem with drafting is that you might not draft a very good deck (maybe through no fault of your own when someone switched into your colors and took your cards) but there isn't time to figure out why it wasn't good or how to improve it. Whereas in a league you can switch out individual cards and get a better feel for overall effectiveness over the course of many games. You may find yourself rolling your eyes when you draw a card that keeps turning out useless, for example. The sample size in drafts is too small. Also in leagues you can edit your deck after every game. Leagues also let you play a variety of other decks so you see what seems to work and not work in other people's decks, what cards are consistently winning games, etc.

I seem to consistently draw mediocre cards in leagues. It seems I can never seem to draw any "win condition" cards with anything else to support it.

Welp, I won the other 5 man draft.  Overall, having 9 people show was nice.  Hope we can do it more often.

I didn't draft anything spectacular, but I went with an agreesive heavy R lite U with a good number of flyers and haste guys, and oddly, all of my combat tricks were in red.  No real creature removal beyond some burn spells, so I was a little worried.  I should have main decked Firebreathing; great card on little evasion critters.  In my last 2 games against Raging Turle I subbed in 3 forests, Zodiac Monkey and Treetop bracers.  My firebreathing monkey won me that game :-) I did sub in the sea monster in a game and it was big help vs a deck with islands.  I saw some very nice cards go by in drafting, so overall I think 9th is a good set, even if I did have a Kird Ape played against me (and blessed Orator, who I hate).  I almost maindecked Polymorph, but felt in the end is was too expensive and risky.

Good times.


1 Aven Fisher (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Aven[Fisher)  flier1 2/2
1 Aven Windreader (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Aven[Windreader) flier 2 3/3
1 Confiscate (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Confiscate)  MVP in a few games
1 Crafty Pathmage (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Crafty[Pathmage) makes cirtter unblockable
1 Puppeteer (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Puppeteer)  tap/uptap critters
1 Wind Drake (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Wind[Drake) flier 3 2/2
1 Dream Prowler (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Dream[Prowler) unblockable
 

1 Anaba Shaman (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Anaba[Shaman)  Red tim
1 Enrage (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Enrage)  red howl from beyond
1 Goblin Brigand (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Goblin[Brigand) 2/2
1 Goblin Chariot (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Goblin[Chariot) 2/2 haste
1 Guerrilla Tactics (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Guerrilla[Tactics) 2 dam burn
1 Lava Axe (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Lava[Axe) 5 to player burn
1 Lightning Elemental (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Lightning[Elemental) 4/1 haste
1 Ogre Taskmaster (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Ogre[Taskmaster) 4/3 no block
1 Panic Attack (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Panic[Attack) MVP up to 3 critters cant block
1 Shock (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Shock) 2 dam burn
1 Viashino Sandstalker (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Viashino[Sandstalker) 4/2 haste
2 Goblin Sky Raider (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Goblin[Sky[Raider) 1/2 fliers 4 & 5
1 Flowstone Crusher (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Flowstone[Crusher) 4/4 pumpable
1 Flowstone Shambler (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Flowstone[Shambler) 2/2 pumpable
1 Sandstone Warrior (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Sandstone[Warrior) 1/3 first strike pumpable
 
[Other]
1 Tanglebloom (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Tanglebloom) tap for 1 life

10 Mountain (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Mountain)
7 Island (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Island)

Noteable SB

1 Raging Goblin (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Raging[Goblin) 1/1
1 Reflexes (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Reflexes) enchant first strike
1 Shatter (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Shatter) destroy art
1 Stone Rain (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Stone[Rain) destroy land
1 Firebreathing (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Firebreathing) pumpable enchant
1 Goblin Mountaineer (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Goblin[Mountaineer) mountain walk 1/1


1 Flight (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Flight)
1 Sea's Claim (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Sea@s[Claim)
1 Sea Monster (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Sea[Monster)
1 Wanderguard Sentry (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Wanderguard[Sentry)
1 Polymorph (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Polymorph)
 

1 Norwood Ranger (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Norwood[Ranger)
1 Tree Monkey (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Tree[Monkey)
1 Treetop Bracers (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Treetop[Bracers)
1 Zodiac Monkey (http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=Zodiac[Monkey)

Xilren
PS Drizzarian's export enhance is great.  I highly recommend it when posting decks here.

I think I just have a problem with all of MTG in an online format. The shuffler in leagues likes dealing me either all lands or all spells with no lands.  It doesn't matter my mix, percentage of lands, etc.. if I can get screwed, I do.  Thing is, it only happens in leagues and drafts.  Casual constructed I can hold my own against folks, but I just get raped in any event situation.

Then it also seems that any leagues I join only consist of PST players. Sure, there's 255 people in the league, but when I'm online I only see 5-6 people in the room, max, unless it's after 10pm EST or it's the weekend. Being that I have kids and relatives nearby, weekends are prettymuch out for MTG, and a 10:00 league game will take until 10:40 or so (Unless they've gotten the 'killer combo')

I dunno, its also just not as fun as it was in college.  I never played for the winning aspect, I played for the social aspect of hanging around with friends, like the weekly penny poker game.

Some cards that should never see the light of day: 
Flight (will infrequently help, but if the creature dies its a 2 for 1 card advantage),
Storm Crow (crap unless you have two equipment in your deck),
Sea's Claim (no),
Fugly Wizard (worst creature possible, except maybe orithopter),
Lum Warden (no),
Fishliver Oil (MAYBE a sideboard card, NEVER maindeck),
Craft Pathmage (Only if you have some amazing "when this does combat damage effect" creature),
Sage Aven - eh.  Not the worst, but not very good.
Contaminated Bond - Only useful about half the time.  Other times its a dead card. 
Reflexes - crap
Natural Spring/ Stream of Life - lifegain only stalls and does nothing to affect board position.

You're trying to poke your opponent to death with 1/x creatures.  After three or four turns, he'll be playing 3/3, 4/4 creatures and you'll be playing storm crows.   

Blue is a not a powerful color in 9th edition, and it takes skill and luck to draft it well.

Cards OUT
Howling Mine:  Do not play in draft
Underworld Dreams:  Do not play in draft.  This and Mine are a two-card combo that does 2 damage on your opponents turn.  That's a bad combo.
Ornithopter:  No no no.
2x Rav. Rats:  Rats are a great card, but I wouldn't play more than one unless I had no other good creatures/good spells
Sleight of Hand - any card drawing spell is better.  Like the Counsel of S. in the sideboard
Slate of Ancestry - this takes 8 mana to draw any cards.   Again, Counsel is better.
Storm Crow - no.
Fugly Wizard (2x!) hell no
Kraken's Eye - Life gain that can occasially beat down, like Soul Warden, is good.  All of the "Gain one life when X color is played"  are bad.  A creature card or removal is 10x better than something like this. 

Cards IN
Enfeeblement:  Removal is Good.  -2/-2 can kill many creatures by itself, neutralize a threat, or kill a damaged creature.  Always maindeck.
Exhaustion:  An interesting card.  If played at the right time, it can win you the game or just earn you a 'free' turn. 
Spineless Thug:  Not great, but tolerable filler.  Years better than Fug. Wizard.
Festering Goblin:  This will be included in most decks, better than it initially looks.
Gluttonous Zombie:  A 3/3 body with fear will win games. 
Counsel of the Sor.:  Both of these should be maindeck.  In a slow format like 9th, the person who draws more cards typically wins.  I might splash a few islands just to play these cards.   

Evasion is good, but fat is usually better.  That's why Hill Giant (3/3 common) is years better than Storm Crow (1/2 flying common).  You might peck three or four times with the crow but the giant will make up that damage in one attack.  Evasion decks need something to delay the fat of the other deck - Horned Turtles, Master Decoy, Icy, etc.     

I like your deck Xil (it did beat mine  :-P) but there's a few things I would change. 

I really don't like Tanglebloom.  Doesn't do enough IMO.
The 2x Sky raiders are bleh.  Not a great card and not good enough for two.
Polymorph I would always play maindeck.   A great way to deal with regen'er or something else thats causing problems.  Can also be used on your own pacified or no-longer-useful creatures to replace them. 

Yeah Bu/G was no good, I found once I put almost all of my black cards (which were drafted sort of as an afterthought) the deck actually stood a chance of dropping somebody to 10 life or less.

The only thing I disagree with is I think Contaminated Bond is pretty cool (I'm sure it actually isn't) just because of all the 1power high toughness cards there are in 9th, it allows you to remove a pesky blocker and Lum Warden always was at least kind of usefull but that could have been because so many other cards were useless.

But now you need to do that to my league cards, I await your wisdom wise massa!

Evasion can be better than fat, IF you do a couple of things:

1: Evasive ceratures need to get out early, and be relatively efficient.
2: Evasive creatures need power, not toughness.

For example the white Pegasus is a nice card 2/1 first strike flying. Aven cloudchaser is 2/2 for 4, same power, costs twice as much. Then aven flock is 2/3 for 5. At 5 mana two attack power isn't so hot, even with evasion. By the time you can cast it your opponent is playing 5/5s and such.

Typically if you go evasion deck (like I did) you are hoping to get damage early and often, then race them down before they can get all their big dudes online to turn the tides. Of course, cards like pacifism and Icy help immensly. Generally you either need to be able to take out some of their blockers/attackers (icy, pacifism, dehydration, burn, etc) or have a couple "finisher" cards that can do the last bit of damage fast. Xil's deck is a good example of that, with the Howl from Beyond and panic attack to squeeze out that last bit of damage. (Although his deck is less evasion than mine was)

Icy and Master Decoy are especially good because you can use them to tap out blockers, then when they get something big on the table use them to keep that down instead. If you start with say Icy and Pacifism in your hand it means you really don't have to worry until they get out their third big creature, and if you are hitting early and often you should be well ahead by then. I'll post my deck list later.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with Turtle on Storm Crow.

Storm Crow -- 1U
Flying
1/2

Generally,  Crow has evasion and fits a decent point in the mana curve.  I'd rate him much higher than most other 2 CC creatures,  the best of which are the "grizzly bear" types (2/2 for 2CC).

If you are running some pump like Unholy or Holy Strenth, or some equipment,  Crow becomes an unholy terror.


Crafty Pathmage and other of the "unblockable if power 2 or less" creatures are generally less good then they appear.  I'll take 1 pt of damage a turn if that means my opponent is tapping two potential blockers.


In 9th,  Wizards gave back to Blue alot of it's utility.  Global effects like Exhaustion,  color specific hosers like Baleful Stare (which I sided in against Xil),  polymorph, etc.  If you play Blue,  go with the utility cards over the much less good creatures.

I find counters to be fairly useful as well,  but I think I'm in the minority there.

Agree on the tanglebloom; dont know what i was thinking including that instead of firebreathing main.

The 2 sky raiders were actually very important.  Even though there just 1 power, getting a flier out early help get me racing and this was definately a beat em down quickly deck (cause taken as a whole it's critters just aren't that spectacular).  If i can get some one in the 10 life range it's usally time for an all out attrack with my red tricks and a haste creature, or lava axe.  Thus even point early is key.

Plus, they (and the wind drake) are good targets to suck out removal spells from my opponent.  Getting two fliers out, even piddly ones, against an opponent with no way to block them gives me a big advantage most people have to respond too..

The Polymorph was a tough call, just b/c it's so random as to what critter you would be replacing it with in draft.  In the end I didnt like the variability.

Sadly, i never got to use my puppeteer's ability even once...

Xilren

I was very wrong.  Blue rocks in 9th, and blue/green remains incredibly strong.  I've been kicking much ass with that combo when I can draft it.  Card drawing and fliers win win win. 

Storm Crow still sucks though  :evil:

Hey, it was my first time drafting.

And besides, I now have a Howling Mine and Underworld Dreams.  I want MORE of them now for my regular decks.
Because amazingly enough, my Black Green Kamigawa and my Black Green Red Kamigawa get a little old after a while, even if I wub my Thief of Hopes THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS much, even more when I combo them with Glitterfangs for the ultimate in "I don't care how big your creatures are, I get free life from your life total every turn.  Biyotch." play.  (Also helped through Hana Kamis, aka: Why cast an arcane spell once when you can get it back into your hand and do it AGAIN.)

(Sure its not OMG DOJO DOOD worthy, but I don't read deckbuilding articles on general principle.  Ill make my own stupid decks and learn that I have a nifty combo in play once it happens.  Been doing it since I got into Magic around Dark and see no reason to stop now.)

I think blue overall is pretty solid.

Tidings is huge.  Drawing 4 cards for 5 mana is unbelievable in draft/league.

Magpie and some of the avens are solid (the 3/3 flier is tough).  Puppeteer can be great.  I pulled an Archivist (1/1, 4 cc, tap to draw a card) which is unreal.  Dehydration is a nice card.

That being said,  I got whooped by a deck that busted out an Icy Manipulator, Disrupting Scepter, and Rod of Ruin.  Unbelievable.

Crafty Pathmage is good for creatures that do something special when they deal combat damage, or for pumpable creatures. Using pathmage on a normal 2 power creature is a bit of a waste.

Edit: Icy manipulator is a bomb in limited, especially when people don't run a lot of main-deck artifact hate. In most packs it's a first pick. It doesn't even commit you to a color.

motherfucking BALLISTA cockweasels hate hate grrrr. 

Flame Wave...

So many f'ing times killed by Flame Wave...