azuresorrow
in
mtg
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Some of you might remember my post about Sphere draft. I've put together a Sphere stack and my friends and I have played in 3 Sphere drafts since. Overall, Sphere is really fun in small doses. We really enjoy the drafting, and have fun playing the first few games, but it does get old after a while. I highly recommend trying it; it's an opportunity to play with a lot of cards that would normally sit somewhere collecting dust, or be made into proxies, or just plain be thrown away.
Here's some thoughts on Sphere, if you're interested.
Building the Sphere stack:
When building the Sphere stack, I took into consideration nibor's warning: the absolute worst cards in magic, after all, simply can't win a game (any card that is a potential win condition is inherently better than those horrible cards that just do nothing). So, in order to avoid just having a pile of useless cards, I enumerated the categories of cards that would have to be in the pile: creatures, removal, mana-fixing, and Other stuff.
I. Creatures
For creatures, I started by using Grizzly Bears as the standard of what would be too good for the pile. In other words, a creature would have to be worse than Grizzly Bears to qualify for Sphere. From there, I developed a standard of what would be acceptable for each mana cost, with one drops being the only creatures allowed to have power equal to their mana cost. For one drops, the standard was Mon's Goblin Raiders - so cards like Starved Rusalka, Wandering Ones, Goblin Chirurgeon, and Icatian Moneychanger were all acceptable. The standard for two-drops was Filthy Cur. Cards like Spineless Thug, Arctic Foxes, Merfolk Assassin, and Goblin Elite Infantry made it in. The three-drop standard was Scathe Zombies, giving us cards such as Dream Fighter, Snow Hound, and Orcish Veteran. The four-drop standard was Hill Giant - Ghor Clan Bloodscale, Chaotic Goo, and Mercenaries were all included. At five mana, things got tricky. 4 power for 5 mana isn't really terrible in Magic, so I decided a 3 powered with a decent ability was acceptable - cards like Aven Archer, Balduvian Warmakers, and Adakar Sentinel were put in. At 6 mana, we saw cards like Sea Serpent, Arachnoid, and Deathcurse Ogre. Most creatures over 6 mana were fair game, with notable exceptions, of course.
II. Removal
Most cards in this category were vastly superior to other cards because even if it's bad removal, at least it's removal. I didn't really develop a standard here, but in general, high mana costs, limited targets, or "tapping"-type enchantments were fair game. Cards like Merseine, Plague Spores, Paralyze, Kamahl's Sledge, Serra Bestiary, and Venomous Vines were included.
III. Mana Fixing
We thought that mana-fixing should be available to smooth out mana, since many of the cards are multicolored, and many have high mana costs. So we just included in cards like Sol Grail, Rocky Tar Pit, Charcoal Diamond, and School of the Unseen.
IV. Other Stuff
Terrible cards that didn't fall into any of the above categories, but were still downright horrible: Tidal Influence, Cursed Land, Cooperation, Blood Funnel, Seeker, Thoughtlace, etc.
A sample Sphere deck:
This is the deck I drafted last night:
Screeching Buzzard
Flailing Drake
Ghor-Clan Bloodscale
Deathknell Kami,
Kami of the Waning Moon
Starved Rusalka
Wall of Wood
Goblin Elite Infantry
Gobin Digging Team
Plague Spores
Tor Wauki
Paralyze
Vine Kami
Orbweaver Kumo
Scaled Hulk
Flying Carpet
Implements of Sacrifice
Sol Grail
Wall of Diffusion
Goblin Snowman
Ann-Zerrin Ruins
Spineless Thug
Foul Presence
Patriarch's Desire
Here's some thoughts on Sphere, if you're interested.
Building the Sphere stack:
When building the Sphere stack, I took into consideration nibor's warning: the absolute worst cards in magic, after all, simply can't win a game (any card that is a potential win condition is inherently better than those horrible cards that just do nothing). So, in order to avoid just having a pile of useless cards, I enumerated the categories of cards that would have to be in the pile: creatures, removal, mana-fixing, and Other stuff.
I. Creatures
For creatures, I started by using Grizzly Bears as the standard of what would be too good for the pile. In other words, a creature would have to be worse than Grizzly Bears to qualify for Sphere. From there, I developed a standard of what would be acceptable for each mana cost, with one drops being the only creatures allowed to have power equal to their mana cost. For one drops, the standard was Mon's Goblin Raiders - so cards like Starved Rusalka, Wandering Ones, Goblin Chirurgeon, and Icatian Moneychanger were all acceptable. The standard for two-drops was Filthy Cur. Cards like Spineless Thug, Arctic Foxes, Merfolk Assassin, and Goblin Elite Infantry made it in. The three-drop standard was Scathe Zombies, giving us cards such as Dream Fighter, Snow Hound, and Orcish Veteran. The four-drop standard was Hill Giant - Ghor Clan Bloodscale, Chaotic Goo, and Mercenaries were all included. At five mana, things got tricky. 4 power for 5 mana isn't really terrible in Magic, so I decided a 3 powered with a decent ability was acceptable - cards like Aven Archer, Balduvian Warmakers, and Adakar Sentinel were put in. At 6 mana, we saw cards like Sea Serpent, Arachnoid, and Deathcurse Ogre. Most creatures over 6 mana were fair game, with notable exceptions, of course.
II. Removal
Most cards in this category were vastly superior to other cards because even if it's bad removal, at least it's removal. I didn't really develop a standard here, but in general, high mana costs, limited targets, or "tapping"-type enchantments were fair game. Cards like Merseine, Plague Spores, Paralyze, Kamahl's Sledge, Serra Bestiary, and Venomous Vines were included.
III. Mana Fixing
We thought that mana-fixing should be available to smooth out mana, since many of the cards are multicolored, and many have high mana costs. So we just included in cards like Sol Grail, Rocky Tar Pit, Charcoal Diamond, and School of the Unseen.
IV. Other Stuff
Terrible cards that didn't fall into any of the above categories, but were still downright horrible: Tidal Influence, Cursed Land, Cooperation, Blood Funnel, Seeker, Thoughtlace, etc.
A sample Sphere deck:
This is the deck I drafted last night:
Screeching Buzzard
Flailing Drake
Ghor-Clan Bloodscale
Deathknell Kami,
Kami of the Waning Moon
Starved Rusalka
Wall of Wood
Goblin Elite Infantry
Gobin Digging Team
Plague Spores
Tor Wauki
Paralyze
Vine Kami
Orbweaver Kumo
Scaled Hulk
Flying Carpet
Implements of Sacrifice
Sol Grail
Wall of Diffusion
Goblin Snowman
Ann-Zerrin Ruins
Spineless Thug
Foul Presence
Patriarch's Desire