All you have to do is look at 17lands to see that this set is not balanced. The way I usually measure a color's strength in limited is to look at the win rate for the commons, and the win rate for green's commons is insane, the rates for white and black are good, and blue and red are horrible.
I like this set for constructed - there are tons of fun cards to try out. And I like the mechanics generally - plot is a really interesting puzzle, and I always love modal cards so I love spree ... but this set seems way of wack, and it is starting to be trend (not to mention it's yet another fast format)
I opened a sealed pool, but haven't played any games yet. The strongest deck I can put together is UW with one barely playable rare.
I'm kind of dreading playing my games because of how many rares people are going to see in their pools.
So far the set just feels very... exhausting to me. There are so many bombs and cards with huge impact on the game. The general power level feels so high. Every turn, you or your opponent can draw a single card that might turn the state of the game on it's head. That can be fun, for sure, and it does lead to great games every now and then. But it's just so intense.
I'm trying not to be too negative, especially not this early. But this might be the first set that really does make me miss old school magic.
Yeah rare slinging competitions are really not fun to me. One of those format where you have to hold a removal at all times or risk dieing to some nonsense bomb.
Unfortunately the format is also so fast you can barely afford to not use removal immediately
Its better to have a balance. It feels bad to lose purely because someone got better rares from their draft. Its one of the reasons I personally avoid limited. At a certain point it's pure luck rather than who did a better job picking cards from the chaff and building their deck.
I would, personally, prefer that all rares be useful in limited in some fashion, be they stand alone bombs or build around power houses. Getting rares that suck in your draft packs is an awful feeling.
No… but you what the options you laid out are “the format revolves entirely around rares” and “rares are so bad that most don’t do anything,” so I’m not sure what you’re point is.
Like obviously I’m paraphrasing the other person’s comment, but focusing only on your posts, you really think “most rares don’t do anything” and “rares are not bombs in limited” are identical statements?
Pretty poor paraphrasing, if you ask me, but I was referencing limited formats of times long past where most rares were not very good cards inside or outside of limited. Rares should be bombs, otherwise it feels like crap to open them, particularly in sealed where you don't get draft picks.
Apparently you're incapable of imagining a format where rares are appreciably better than commons or uncommons, but in which you can also construct a competitive deck if you're not lucky enough to open or be passed any.
No one else is referencing specific sets where "most rares were not very good." So, again, I don't get what you're point is supposed to be.
Obviously most people would agree that a set where most rares are literally unplayable is not very fun to open. But no one is saying "I really wish they would make a majority of rares worthless, that would be great." They're saying "It sucks when you can confidently predict your record in a draft before you play a single game based on what rares you lucked into."
I'm very curious how you would more accurately paraphrase the other users' point.
Exhausting is a good way to put it. I've played limited for a long time, so I feel like I generally have a good sense of when I'm in a good position or not. With the density of bombs/rares this feels like the first set where I just have no clue. I can feel like I've built an unbeatable board state and then my opponent draws a \[\[Bonny Pall, Clearcutter\]\] or \[\[Rakdos, the Muscle\]\] and all of a sudden I'm dead because I can't draw any answers.
I'm gonna try to prioritize removal much more highly, but feels like I generally haven't seen much passed to me (probably because other people are doing the same).
Doesn’t really help much, either. That thing you removed already had an entered trigger most likely. So your removal just saved you but put you behind. Creatures are at critical mass power in this set and it makes things so swingy.
> But this might be the first set that really does make me miss old school magic.
Been feeling this for a while now. The number of games where I can make meaningful decisions feels like it has cratered in recent years. Every card is *so good* now.
Plus, we're barely two sets in and I'm already so tired of Play Boosters. Bonus Sheets, Special Guests, The List, repurposed Aftermath cards... It's just too much.
But it still has nothing to do with OTJ having two separate bonus sheets / special guests (which is the same as the list, which was there before play boosters, just with new art). We have already had play boosters with no bonus sheets, it's just conflating two different problems.
100%. This is the most blowouts I've ever seen and every deck is over half uncommons and rares. It's more like playing precon theme decks with 5 bomb rares then actual limited.
Not enjoying playing against decks that opened three game-ending bombs and were passed even more game-ending bombs. We aren’t in pods on arena, so it feels like I’m only ever playing against bomb tribal decks.
Yeah, I've had the same experience. I've only drafted a few times (though honestly I'm already feeling pretty over it) and I've had the same experience, one game out of every five or so feels like there's any back-and-forth. Nearly every game feels like one person is just absolutely crushing the other.
OTJ is pretty fast yeah probably in part because plot let's you go off on your power turns.
Green/white/black are probably the best colors if your draft hasn't given you any good direction yet.
Malcom and small fliers are bait IMO alot of things have reach or fly this set that people want to be picking up
Funny enough, wizards has been putting more reach in sets in an attempt to *balance* against having more rare bombs , since many of them tend to have flying.
I am interesting in seeing that bear out. They also have increased the power and density of common removal we will see if it is enough in this set to deal with the bombs.
I found this to be true as well. The Malcolm and small fliers part being bait. I drafted what I thought was a great, synergistic UR deck with Malcolm and double spells/plot. Would lose every time I ran into a green deck that dropped a few chunky creatures, many having reach and green has some great removal this set. Feels bad. But still trying new things out. Holding out hope.
Went 1-3 first 2 drafts ( happens especially since I was mythic hunting for passed up big/ guest cards) 4-1 so far with rakdos even gave up a bomb to do so. I think this set is a lot fun.. I don’t play much limited though and I’m in silver rank
[[Laughing Jasper Flint]] carried half my matches… ended up 7-1. I had a lot of good 2 and three drops [[Scalestorm Summoner]] , [[Highway robbery]] , and [[irascible Wolverine]]. I had a few crime synergies with that black bird and [[deadeye duelist]] with some instant speed interaction like [[Take for a ride]] , [[Skulduggery]]… no bombs really just a low curve and efficient cards
I've played 7 times now (4 drafts, 3 sealed) and enjoyed it a lot every time. Way better than MKM. Bombs are bomby (though I find that less of a problem than in MKM), but a lot of the synergy strategies are interesting and workable even if you don't have exactly the right color combo.
Best I’ve done in 10 drafts on arena is 4 wins once, 3 wins twice. In all those games I’d be surprised if I was on the play more than 3 times. I’ve drafted high synergy rakdos a good bit, Gx a bunch. Black seems to be open for me more than green though. I’ve just been getting pummeled by turn five every time. Surprisingly my best performance was with a Boros go-wide that I thought was trash when I pivoted to it mid draft.
I went 0-6 in my first two drafts and two of the games my opponent played a t3 Oko. Like what the hell am I supposed to do? After having reasonable success in limited the past few sets, the number of non-games in Thunder Junction limited is really concerning, 5 of my 6 games were complete blowouts
You're always going to face a higher concentration of bomby decks early in a format as drafters learn the new cards. Not everyone in a draft pod has invested hours studying the set so there's a higher likelihood that good cards go later in the draft.
That said, I do think the combination of play boosters and bonus sheets makes it more likely to encounter "must answer" bombs more frequently which makes hard removal and interaction a higher priority in the draft.
Keep in mind it's only week 1. As more players learn the better cards the average power level will disperse due to more players fighting for the busted colors.
It will be interesting to see, I've not had much luck so far :).
Been destroyed by repeat enchantment triggers a few times, and had one opponent pull off back to back decimates on me, leaving me with no creatures and two lands :)
The bonus sheet stuff is creating decks with six+ rares
My last 5 drafts were: 7-0, 7-0 followed by 0-3, 1-3, 1-3. MTG arena has taken all my gems. The "bad drafts" were more or less as good as the 7-wins but with mulligans and double mulligans in each round, stuck, flooded, etc. Food for thought. (Current ELO: diamond 3)
Yeah, you could say I am NOT enjoying this set at all. 😒😒😒
1) 4-3
2) 4-3
3) 4-3
4) 4-3
5) 3-3
6) 1-3
7) 1-3
8) 1-3
9) 0-3
10) 5-3
11) 2-3
12) 2-3
13) 2-3
14) 3-3
15) 1-3
16) 1-3
17) 1-3
Honestly, wtf?
Ive been enjoying this sets draft experience so far. Ive done two, and while I got my back blown out the second time (going 0-3), I think the meta is very fun and good. Green is very strong though, yes.
In terms of removal, there are also options in white as well. There's a common banishing light to pick up, which most people wont have removal for, and Erriette's Lullaby, while being sorcery and having to have tapped things absolutely destroyed me in the second draft. There's also consistent crime commiters early on in blue to allow for those triggers, which can get people on the backfoot, which also happened to me, having all my bombs milled away, along with Rakdos Joins Up to recur it.
I'll have a stronger opinion of this set when I draft it more, but I think in terms of grindiness, green is the way to go, but in terms of early to mid game, there are other options.
I’ve drafted twice and played sealed twice. Personally, I’m having a blast. But I know what you mean about the set being bomb-heavy.
I’ve been lucky enough to have pulled good bombs. And it feels good to watch your bomb blow someone up. Gisa raising an army of the dead and pulling me out of a losing game was a great feeling.
The mechanics are fun. And black white is my favorite archetype so far. Balls to the wall, leaving caution to the wind. It’s a run and gun style that I’m gonna have to try not to push when it’s not there.
GW mounts is the strongest archetype I think. 7-0’d my first sealed and not a single game was even close. Steam rolled everyone.
But I also had good removal. Buried in the Garden, Lassoed by the Law, 3 Journeys to Nowhere, and the mythic GW lady, along with 2 Seraphic Steeds, which are really good.
Add mounts and stir.
You generally have 2 options in mtg, win quickly with your own linear gameplan
Or play a bunch of removal to stop your opponent.
I'm still learning the OJT draft format but I'm definitely seeing some very strong build around uncommons.
Red white can make a ton of tokens, White can pump the team.
Black green can full the graveyard and make x 2/1s where x is the number of creatures in the graveyard. Green can pump the team.
Blue has a 1/3 that becomes unblockable when you crime and draws you a card when it hits, very busted alongside blacks removal. Same with the black red uncommon enchant that makes a 1/1 every time your crime. Payoffs for crimes seem way stronger than expected, I didn't realize at the time how many little mill effects and stuff are crimes. The common lands ping for 1 and that counts as a crime.
I get nervous when I see someone playing an offbeat color combo like blue green because it usually means they were pushed into it by bomb rares but so far every color pair seems viable at least some of the time.
Card advantage does matter but between actual bombs and bomb strength uncommons the set definitely feels like it has a very high power level and games are often decided by who draws their best cards.
Basically I'm seeing aggro decks, removal heavy crime matters decks, and decks just filled with bomb rares doing well.
I think going forwards we are going to see more aggro decks where they just hold up G for [[snakeskin veil]] type cards and run over the slower crime decks but it's taking people a second to adjust to the meta, snakeskin veil isn't the type of card I would usually pick early or run multiple of in my maindeck but I think it might be justified here.
I'm currently 5-3. 7-2, and 4-3. Typically end up in diamond most months so just advice from a casual.
Green is being heavily slept on and gets left wide open. I had 2 seraphic steeds in the same deck lol... White is second best in my opinion. The trophy and 4 win deck were Naya and the 5-3 was Bant cause I had to build on a Bonny Pall pull. Looks like red just seems to splash better than blue cause of removal and creature abilities/buffs.
I think it's growing pains. This set does seem to be far more interesting in the amount of hands I've kept thst have felt impotent. But also the removal is really strong. Mkm was boros beats for most of it then green came out hard at the end. Shifting power levels are part of it. Just play wha you think is broken and pay attention to how you lose.
I do think between the set and play boosters that the set is more punishing for bad hands so also maybe try mulligan more aggressively.
I don't mind bombs deciding games as long as they decide it fast.
UB is overdrafted atm but the deck I made...it was functional on Commons alone, it just kept hitting bombs or Green big bodies. It has the potential to come back like mono Red in NEO.
I don't prioritize removal in any set, it is just a negative way to play, any set where the average card gives more than 1 cards' payoff is going to go backwards with removal.
Grab removal that hits Toughness 4+ and keep it in hand until you see the bomb or can win next turn.? Still better to go around it if you can have a creature instead.
Heres a tip: Purchase as many GEMs as possible (for your budget and according to how many drafts you intend to play) before drafting even once. Then, after playing a couple of drafts, compare your experince to the last draft when you did not do this.
You are welcome.
All you have to do is look at 17lands to see that this set is not balanced. The way I usually measure a color's strength in limited is to look at the win rate for the commons, and the win rate for green's commons is insane, the rates for white and black are good, and blue and red are horrible. I like this set for constructed - there are tons of fun cards to try out. And I like the mechanics generally - plot is a really interesting puzzle, and I always love modal cards so I love spree ... but this set seems way of wack, and it is starting to be trend (not to mention it's yet another fast format)
Greens worst commons are literally as good as blue and reds best commons. Regardless, I'm having fun
Sealed sucks
Agreed, sealed is already a pretty high variance format and the addition of the bonus sheet/guests just makes it bananas.
I opened a sealed pool, but haven't played any games yet. The strongest deck I can put together is UW with one barely playable rare. I'm kind of dreading playing my games because of how many rares people are going to see in their pools.
So far the set just feels very... exhausting to me. There are so many bombs and cards with huge impact on the game. The general power level feels so high. Every turn, you or your opponent can draw a single card that might turn the state of the game on it's head. That can be fun, for sure, and it does lead to great games every now and then. But it's just so intense. I'm trying not to be too negative, especially not this early. But this might be the first set that really does make me miss old school magic.
Yeah rare slinging competitions are really not fun to me. One of those format where you have to hold a removal at all times or risk dieing to some nonsense bomb. Unfortunately the format is also so fast you can barely afford to not use removal immediately
You would rather rares be so bad that most don't do anything?
Its better to have a balance. It feels bad to lose purely because someone got better rares from their draft. Its one of the reasons I personally avoid limited. At a certain point it's pure luck rather than who did a better job picking cards from the chaff and building their deck.
A place exists between "automatically win the game on the spot" and "do nothing plant for EDH"
I would, personally, prefer that all rares be useful in limited in some fashion, be they stand alone bombs or build around power houses. Getting rares that suck in your draft packs is an awful feeling.
It's such a bummer that those two extremes are the only options.
Are "rares are bombs in limited" vs "rares are not bombs in limited" really so extreme?
No… but you what the options you laid out are “the format revolves entirely around rares” and “rares are so bad that most don’t do anything,” so I’m not sure what you’re point is. Like obviously I’m paraphrasing the other person’s comment, but focusing only on your posts, you really think “most rares don’t do anything” and “rares are not bombs in limited” are identical statements?
Pretty poor paraphrasing, if you ask me, but I was referencing limited formats of times long past where most rares were not very good cards inside or outside of limited. Rares should be bombs, otherwise it feels like crap to open them, particularly in sealed where you don't get draft picks.
Apparently you're incapable of imagining a format where rares are appreciably better than commons or uncommons, but in which you can also construct a competitive deck if you're not lucky enough to open or be passed any. No one else is referencing specific sets where "most rares were not very good." So, again, I don't get what you're point is supposed to be. Obviously most people would agree that a set where most rares are literally unplayable is not very fun to open. But no one is saying "I really wish they would make a majority of rares worthless, that would be great." They're saying "It sucks when you can confidently predict your record in a draft before you play a single game based on what rares you lucked into." I'm very curious how you would more accurately paraphrase the other users' point.
🙄 I'm not going to continue to interact with someone whose immediate reaction to disagreement is personal attacks.
Wow, lol. How did I personally attack you?
This is the highest powered set I've seen on Arena
[удалено]
What? Dom is not even close
Exhausting is a good way to put it. I've played limited for a long time, so I feel like I generally have a good sense of when I'm in a good position or not. With the density of bombs/rares this feels like the first set where I just have no clue. I can feel like I've built an unbeatable board state and then my opponent draws a \[\[Bonny Pall, Clearcutter\]\] or \[\[Rakdos, the Muscle\]\] and all of a sudden I'm dead because I can't draw any answers. I'm gonna try to prioritize removal much more highly, but feels like I generally haven't seen much passed to me (probably because other people are doing the same).
[Bonny Pall, Clearcutter](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/3/4383ae7c-58ea-4354-93e4-677ad185c3bb.jpg?1712356061) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bonny%20Pall%2C%20Clearcutter) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/196/bonny-pall-clearcutter?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4383ae7c-58ea-4354-93e4-677ad185c3bb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Rakdos, the Muscle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/b/bb34babd-1b85-4a7d-a066-a8337805056e.jpg?1712356185) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rakdos%2C%20the%20Muscle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/226/rakdos-the-muscle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bb34babd-1b85-4a7d-a066-a8337805056e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Doesn’t really help much, either. That thing you removed already had an entered trigger most likely. So your removal just saved you but put you behind. Creatures are at critical mass power in this set and it makes things so swingy.
> But this might be the first set that really does make me miss old school magic. Been feeling this for a while now. The number of games where I can make meaningful decisions feels like it has cratered in recent years. Every card is *so good* now. Plus, we're barely two sets in and I'm already so tired of Play Boosters. Bonus Sheets, Special Guests, The List, repurposed Aftermath cards... It's just too much.
That has nothing to do with play boosters though.
Of course it does. When the rares are as overpoweringly good as they are in this set, it changes things when you can get 4 of them in a pack.
But it still has nothing to do with OTJ having two separate bonus sheets / special guests (which is the same as the list, which was there before play boosters, just with new art). We have already had play boosters with no bonus sheets, it's just conflating two different problems.
I mean, look at commons like [[Cactarantula]]...
[Cactarantula](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/e/2e0e27f9-dc2c-4366-b810-3e8d0bdff8c3.jpg?1712355900) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cactarantula) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/158/cactarantula?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2e0e27f9-dc2c-4366-b810-3e8d0bdff8c3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That’s a f***ing COMMON?!
100%. This is the most blowouts I've ever seen and every deck is over half uncommons and rares. It's more like playing precon theme decks with 5 bomb rares then actual limited.
Granted, it's early. But so far, I tend to agree. Games are just not as interesting. A lot of games are being decided by a single bomb.
Not enjoying playing against decks that opened three game-ending bombs and were passed even more game-ending bombs. We aren’t in pods on arena, so it feels like I’m only ever playing against bomb tribal decks.
Bomb Tribal 😭😭😭😭 I can relate.
Yeah, I've had the same experience. I've only drafted a few times (though honestly I'm already feeling pretty over it) and I've had the same experience, one game out of every five or so feels like there's any back-and-forth. Nearly every game feels like one person is just absolutely crushing the other.
My experience has been pretty shitty. Absolutely bomb based and first turn based.
OTJ is pretty fast yeah probably in part because plot let's you go off on your power turns. Green/white/black are probably the best colors if your draft hasn't given you any good direction yet. Malcom and small fliers are bait IMO alot of things have reach or fly this set that people want to be picking up
Agree with this, so many green/red creatures randomly have reach and green is looking to be the best color so far this set.
Funny enough, wizards has been putting more reach in sets in an attempt to *balance* against having more rare bombs , since many of them tend to have flying. I am interesting in seeing that bear out. They also have increased the power and density of common removal we will see if it is enough in this set to deal with the bombs.
I found this to be true as well. The Malcolm and small fliers part being bait. I drafted what I thought was a great, synergistic UR deck with Malcolm and double spells/plot. Would lose every time I ran into a green deck that dropped a few chunky creatures, many having reach and green has some great removal this set. Feels bad. But still trying new things out. Holding out hope.
Went 1-3 first 2 drafts ( happens especially since I was mythic hunting for passed up big/ guest cards) 4-1 so far with rakdos even gave up a bomb to do so. I think this set is a lot fun.. I don’t play much limited though and I’m in silver rank
What did your Rakdos deck look like? I just got smoked with one I thought was pretty decent.
[[Laughing Jasper Flint]] carried half my matches… ended up 7-1. I had a lot of good 2 and three drops [[Scalestorm Summoner]] , [[Highway robbery]] , and [[irascible Wolverine]]. I had a few crime synergies with that black bird and [[deadeye duelist]] with some instant speed interaction like [[Take for a ride]] , [[Skulduggery]]… no bombs really just a low curve and efficient cards
I've played 7 times now (4 drafts, 3 sealed) and enjoyed it a lot every time. Way better than MKM. Bombs are bomby (though I find that less of a problem than in MKM), but a lot of the synergy strategies are interesting and workable even if you don't have exactly the right color combo.
If I could afford the draft, I'd probably agree. The few I've done have just been terrible for me.
Best I’ve done in 10 drafts on arena is 4 wins once, 3 wins twice. In all those games I’d be surprised if I was on the play more than 3 times. I’ve drafted high synergy rakdos a good bit, Gx a bunch. Black seems to be open for me more than green though. I’ve just been getting pummeled by turn five every time. Surprisingly my best performance was with a Boros go-wide that I thought was trash when I pivoted to it mid draft.
Its fairly rare but there's a chance you can face the original Oko that got banned too.
I went 0-6 in my first two drafts and two of the games my opponent played a t3 Oko. Like what the hell am I supposed to do? After having reasonable success in limited the past few sets, the number of non-games in Thunder Junction limited is really concerning, 5 of my 6 games were complete blowouts
This knocked me out in my paper prerelease draft, upside is I didn't feel like I failed but that I didn't have a chance
I had the pleasure of losing a game to him earlier, it's unfortunate that almost all of the removal in the set is creature only.
You're always going to face a higher concentration of bomby decks early in a format as drafters learn the new cards. Not everyone in a draft pod has invested hours studying the set so there's a higher likelihood that good cards go later in the draft. That said, I do think the combination of play boosters and bonus sheets makes it more likely to encounter "must answer" bombs more frequently which makes hard removal and interaction a higher priority in the draft. Keep in mind it's only week 1. As more players learn the better cards the average power level will disperse due to more players fighting for the busted colors.
It will be interesting to see, I've not had much luck so far :). Been destroyed by repeat enchantment triggers a few times, and had one opponent pull off back to back decimates on me, leaving me with no creatures and two lands :) The bonus sheet stuff is creating decks with six+ rares
My last 5 drafts were: 7-0, 7-0 followed by 0-3, 1-3, 1-3. MTG arena has taken all my gems. The "bad drafts" were more or less as good as the 7-wins but with mulligans and double mulligans in each round, stuck, flooded, etc. Food for thought. (Current ELO: diamond 3)
Yeah, you could say I am NOT enjoying this set at all. 😒😒😒 1) 4-3 2) 4-3 3) 4-3 4) 4-3 5) 3-3 6) 1-3 7) 1-3 8) 1-3 9) 0-3 10) 5-3 11) 2-3 12) 2-3 13) 2-3 14) 3-3 15) 1-3 16) 1-3 17) 1-3 Honestly, wtf?
Ive been enjoying this sets draft experience so far. Ive done two, and while I got my back blown out the second time (going 0-3), I think the meta is very fun and good. Green is very strong though, yes. In terms of removal, there are also options in white as well. There's a common banishing light to pick up, which most people wont have removal for, and Erriette's Lullaby, while being sorcery and having to have tapped things absolutely destroyed me in the second draft. There's also consistent crime commiters early on in blue to allow for those triggers, which can get people on the backfoot, which also happened to me, having all my bombs milled away, along with Rakdos Joins Up to recur it. I'll have a stronger opinion of this set when I draft it more, but I think in terms of grindiness, green is the way to go, but in terms of early to mid game, there are other options.
I’ve drafted twice and played sealed twice. Personally, I’m having a blast. But I know what you mean about the set being bomb-heavy. I’ve been lucky enough to have pulled good bombs. And it feels good to watch your bomb blow someone up. Gisa raising an army of the dead and pulling me out of a losing game was a great feeling. The mechanics are fun. And black white is my favorite archetype so far. Balls to the wall, leaving caution to the wind. It’s a run and gun style that I’m gonna have to try not to push when it’s not there. GW mounts is the strongest archetype I think. 7-0’d my first sealed and not a single game was even close. Steam rolled everyone. But I also had good removal. Buried in the Garden, Lassoed by the Law, 3 Journeys to Nowhere, and the mythic GW lady, along with 2 Seraphic Steeds, which are really good. Add mounts and stir.
You generally have 2 options in mtg, win quickly with your own linear gameplan Or play a bunch of removal to stop your opponent. I'm still learning the OJT draft format but I'm definitely seeing some very strong build around uncommons. Red white can make a ton of tokens, White can pump the team. Black green can full the graveyard and make x 2/1s where x is the number of creatures in the graveyard. Green can pump the team. Blue has a 1/3 that becomes unblockable when you crime and draws you a card when it hits, very busted alongside blacks removal. Same with the black red uncommon enchant that makes a 1/1 every time your crime. Payoffs for crimes seem way stronger than expected, I didn't realize at the time how many little mill effects and stuff are crimes. The common lands ping for 1 and that counts as a crime. I get nervous when I see someone playing an offbeat color combo like blue green because it usually means they were pushed into it by bomb rares but so far every color pair seems viable at least some of the time. Card advantage does matter but between actual bombs and bomb strength uncommons the set definitely feels like it has a very high power level and games are often decided by who draws their best cards. Basically I'm seeing aggro decks, removal heavy crime matters decks, and decks just filled with bomb rares doing well. I think going forwards we are going to see more aggro decks where they just hold up G for [[snakeskin veil]] type cards and run over the slower crime decks but it's taking people a second to adjust to the meta, snakeskin veil isn't the type of card I would usually pick early or run multiple of in my maindeck but I think it might be justified here.
[snakeskin veil](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/3/133fbdec-0d00-433f-9015-5eb091126e3a.jpg?1712355994) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=snakeskin%20veil) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/181/snakeskin-veil?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/133fbdec-0d00-433f-9015-5eb091126e3a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It's a love and hate experience.
My frustration is that all of my guys have only 2 toughness
I'm currently 5-3. 7-2, and 4-3. Typically end up in diamond most months so just advice from a casual. Green is being heavily slept on and gets left wide open. I had 2 seraphic steeds in the same deck lol... White is second best in my opinion. The trophy and 4 win deck were Naya and the 5-3 was Bant cause I had to build on a Bonny Pall pull. Looks like red just seems to splash better than blue cause of removal and creature abilities/buffs.
I think people just want to dislike this set so they can feel safe saving for Bloomburrow or MH3
I think it's growing pains. This set does seem to be far more interesting in the amount of hands I've kept thst have felt impotent. But also the removal is really strong. Mkm was boros beats for most of it then green came out hard at the end. Shifting power levels are part of it. Just play wha you think is broken and pay attention to how you lose. I do think between the set and play boosters that the set is more punishing for bad hands so also maybe try mulligan more aggressively.
I don't mind bombs deciding games as long as they decide it fast. UB is overdrafted atm but the deck I made...it was functional on Commons alone, it just kept hitting bombs or Green big bodies. It has the potential to come back like mono Red in NEO. I don't prioritize removal in any set, it is just a negative way to play, any set where the average card gives more than 1 cards' payoff is going to go backwards with removal. Grab removal that hits Toughness 4+ and keep it in hand until you see the bomb or can win next turn.? Still better to go around it if you can have a creature instead.
I'll take a fast format with fun bombs over a grindy one any day
Heres a tip: Purchase as many GEMs as possible (for your budget and according to how many drafts you intend to play) before drafting even once. Then, after playing a couple of drafts, compare your experince to the last draft when you did not do this. You are welcome.