THS #2 - Fabiano style low land aggro

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Hard pick. Voyage's End might be in my top 5 commons in this format and Mistcutter Hydra is pretty strong (it resembles a fireball in some games, swings the race in your favor in many others, and heaven forbid you ever have it against a blue deck). I don't know though, I've been losing to ordeals soooo often and I've gone from thinking they were marginally playable to very good and now I think they are elite. Having a one or two drop immediately followed by an ordeal basically demands your opponent to have a very specific card to stop it or they are likely just dead.

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I know I just went on about how good the ordeals are, however:

-The green one is the worst one
-It looks like I'm likely to be red
-I don't want to be red/green, I don't really like that color combo
-I don't know for sure that green is open to my right and I'm wary of the ordeal being a green signal because I doubt other people are valuing them as high as I do

I think the ordeal might be the "hard mode" pick but I took Titan's Strength since it's the second best card and it matches what I have better.

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Damn, what a sick pack. It's a tough choice for me between Akroan Hoplite and Gods Willing. I went with Hoplite because it's a 2 drop creature and I think it's easier than it sounds to end up with too many awesome spells and not enough creatures in this format. I'm optimistic about white being available since there's a Gods Willing, so that calms some of my fears about shoving on a color combo so early. I really really hope the Akroan Crusader wheels.

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omg

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I have been liking Purphoros's Emissary less and less lately. In the decks that I think are the best in this format, an overwhelming time he just comes down as a 3/3 that is not very threatening and easy to trade with, and his bestow feature (which is his best feature IMO) is rarely ever used. Knowing that, and also knowing that I have a Titan's Strength and an ordeal already, I went with cerberus. I think this pick is right.

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Tough choice between Eidolon and Lightning Strike. I went with strike because it's very likely to be the only removal card in my deck. I also don't have a Wingsteed Rider yet.

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I thought about this pick for a while. It's between Athlete and Labyrinth Champion (i.e. not considering Spearpoint Oread at all). I don't actually think Labyrinth Champion is very good. Athlete is a 2 drop and, considering the deck I want to end up with, helps contribute to my goal in a much more effective way.

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I took this card over Cyclops because, given what I have so far, I want to be playing a low land aggro deck that is not likely to monstrify the Cyclops.

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Tough pick. I really want Philosopher but the Onlsaught is too nice of a trick.

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Fortunately I get to take one here anyway.

Side note, I think people are still undervaluing Aqueous Form. I think that card is extremely strong.

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Really hard pick. Curious to hear any opinions. Having already played with my final product, if I could go back to this pick I'd take either Ordeal of Heliod or Gods Willing. The hammer is just not really that impressive in a low land aggro deck because there's never a convenient time to play it (you'd rather just play another creature on 3, and it does nothing for your creatures that are already out after 3) and you don't really have that many extra lands to sacrifice to it. It's a very good card, just not really for this type of deck.

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wow sick. Sucks to pass another eidolon, and some lucky duck is gonna get a 3rd (or later) Bow of Nylea, but this is one of the best possible cards I could see for this deck.

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Somehow, this is even better.

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I think the Hoplite is the best card for my deck, but I decided to take the Table Challenge©. Spoiler alert, I did not win the Table Challenge©.

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Took this guy over Philosopher because I have a lot of humans and I think this guy quickly goes from mediocre to elite if you have a reasonable amount of humans.

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Honestly, it's close between Titan's Strength and Akroan Crusader. I went with strength because crusader is more likely to wheel, but I'm not sure I should be drafting with this philosophy since the Crusader is probably a lot better for my deck.

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This is another hard-ish pick for me. It's between Flamespeaker Adept and Chosen by Heliod. I took the aura because I figured it would be better with my two Arena Athletes, but I kind of neglected the fact that I have four good scry pumps and the Adept could get silly quickly. I feel like I should have taken the Adept. It's close I think.

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Believe it or not this pick was also close for me. I don't have a reasonable defense for my pick besides "Dauntless Onslaught is stronger in the abstract and could lead to more blowouts," but honestly I think my deck would have rather had another 2/2. Being a human for Cavalry Pegasus helps a lot too.

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I'm so unlucky because I don't get to take Akroan Crusader.

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I think this deck is very good. It's possible that I should have played only 13 lands, but I still can't bring myself to do it, especially in a deck that wants to assemble RR and WW. Shout out to Gerard Fabiano for shattering my belief that draft decks should always have at least 15 lands. I hated the hammer every time I drew it and ended up boarding it out.

I won round 1 vs. the guy that got all the Battlewise Hoplites. He beat me game 1 after having Voyage's End on turn 3 for my t3 Ordeal of Heliod on my t2 Cavalry Pegasus (another reason why I am valuing Voyage's End way way higher than I originally did, because it's one of the few cards that can stop ordeal autowin silliness) and I died to his t2 Battlewise Hoplite after he loaded it up with a bunch of stuff (turns out he got both of the Hopeful Eidolons I passed on). He had no creatures in game 2 and he died to my lots of creatures, and game 3 I managed to beat a 5/6 Favored Hoplite with two Hopeful Eidolons on it by getting the double Akroan Hoplite + Cavalry Pegasus draw.

Round 2 game 1, my draw was t2 Leonin Snarecaster, t3 Fabled Hero. My turn 4 was gonna be awesome because I had Dragon Mantle and Ordeal of Heliod in my hand, but my opponent conceded on his turn 3. To make things better (worse?) he conceded the match during sideboarding. Magic is hard.

I won round 3 very easily. My opponent had some 4 color nonsense. Game 1 I had my T1 Akroan Crusader, T2 Ordeal nutdraw. I played a very effective spell every turn of the game and I never had more than 2 lands in play. Game 2 I had a very aggressive start with a Cavalry Pegasus and two Akroan Hoplites. My opponent had some opposition in the form of Horizon Scholar, but I got him low enough that he couldn't survive even after casting Abhorrent Overlord (for a big two tokens).

The last match is a great example of the reason I think this style of deck (U/W or R/W low land heroic aggro) is the best type of deck in this format. My opponent played two expensive, heavy hitting cards in Horizon Scholar and Abhorrent Overlord, and he even cast the Scholar on turn 5 with help from Voyaging Satyr, and they just didn't matter. My super cheap, efficient cards were able to match up against them effectively.

In the limited Magic that I'm used to, if you play a 6 drop, it should be able to defeat any 2 drop in battle, unless the 2 drop receives serious assistance. Granted, my 2 drop did have serious assistance in the form of Ordeal of Heliod and Dragon Mantle, but the Mantle was a freeroll and the Ordeal would have turned my 1/1 into a card that trades with his 6 drop if it went unchecked for a couple turns.

It's pretty simple Magic theory that if the cheap cards and the expensive cards are equally effective, you should favor the cheap cards since you get to cast them earlier, and you get to cast more of them. In this format, I think the cheap cards are at least as strong as the expensive cards, and in many cases a lot stronger.