Derek Boyko (theboyks) finally gets around to recording a Gatecrash draft. In this draft he tests a theory he has about the format and attempts to draft a super quick beatdown deck to punish the slow plays rampant right now. Unleash your inner Gruul in this Gatecrash 8-4.
Recently transplanted from the middle of nowhere to Seattle, WA, Derek 'theboyks' Boyko has been playing the game straight through since right after Ice Age and has always strived to squeeze out as much fun as possible in a game over any other goal. This and his late night recordings tend to lead to some pretty boneheaded mistakes at times, but it also brings out his creative side. Often enough, the entertainment value equals it out.
I guess you got a bit lucky in game 3 round 1 as your opponent should’ve played it safe and if he attacks only with the Syndic. Fluxmage could’ve boosted the horror to block a land and live. But that amount of removal was sick.
Still think Orzhov Dimir can be a Nightmare for this kind of deck. They have the most removal and usually creatures at 2/3 or 1/4 which mostly needs you having pump or some enhancements.
The infinite removal orzhov deck is sort of a nightmare, but that’s not too incredibly common for them to have as much removal as that first guy did. You can certainly push through it with a bit of luck and a quick draw.
dave c
Posted February 18, 2013 at 2:04 PM
according to the pro tour coverage this is how ben stark likes to draft gruul so you must be on to something. Also I think the bloodrush pig is playable in this archetype as another 3 mana lava axe with upside. Easier to cast then the scorchwalker and plays the same role.
I do think this archetype will lose value as people get better at the format and draft tighter curves.
In rd 2 you bloodrush your 4 drop to save your bear when you could have just cast your 2/4 and let your bear die. A strictly better play. I bring it up because you are far from the first player I’ve seen make this mistake. People see a profitable pump and forget to consider whether just casting it as a creature is better.
Yeah that was really an abusive amount of removal. in creature heavy matchups you really need some ways to make a large push like you had with gruul charm (or the red card i forgot the Name of:). If you Don’t manage to pick one of these up IT will get tough
Never mind my earlier comment. The first time I watched, the playlist skipped round 2. I went back and used the forward button and it found it. :) Great games, man. Really glad you got to rounds 2 and 3, because those were my favorites, even if round 1 was the most interesting. Keep it up; love your vids!
Yarias
Posted February 18, 2013 at 2:58 PM
Experiment One is pretty sick in this deck.
- It’s a one drop.
- It is easy to grow quickly with the amount of creatures the deck runs.
- Once it is a major threat (3/3 or 4/4) it is resilient to removal.
a. I flooded mad g2 and g3, I recall that match because of how poorly I drew g2 and 3 given the power in my deck and how shit your deck was
b. Youre a loudmouth jerk, and youre opinionated and ignorant.
c. kill yourself
Maeths
Posted February 18, 2013 at 4:04 PM
Yeah, faced this deck in the finals of a draft the other day and beat it with an average dimir deck with some removal, but I think he flooded a bit (might have been playing too many lands, dunno). It was definitely a scary deck though, albeit quite a boring strategy. By no means unbeatable but certainly scary.
Just something that annoyed me: you seemed to be mocking the boros guy for playing boros guildgate and smite in his aggro deck. Gate is actually fine even in aggro, since many of the good boros creatures have heavy color requirements (halberdiers, skyknight, guildmage, paladin) which means you have to hit your mana perfectly with most draws. Also, the boros curve starts at 2 so missing t1 is no biggie. As for smite, it’s certainly not a despicable 23rd card even in aggro. Would certainly play it over an 18th land.
Sean
Posted February 18, 2013 at 4:07 PM
@Max
cry more.
Derek Boyko (theboyks)
Posted February 18, 2013 at 4:07 PM
You sound upset. You should really go calm down. We’re talking about a game of magical fantasy cardboard cards that were played in a dark apartment by myself late at night and not a high profile sporting event. Nothing that is said “to an opponent” when playing in my room by myself is actually directed at my opponent himself if I offended you. I get it. Your “sweet” deck lost to my “terrible” one and the only reason is due to bad luck (you did get flooded). Thank you for reminding all of us how much cooler of a person you are. I hope your next draft goes well and you smash the “terrible” deck in the future.
Derek Boyko (theboyks)
Posted February 18, 2013 at 4:30 PM
As to the boros deck:
It’s more a question of what you want the deck to be doing. I feel that you don’t want tap lands which are only good on turn 1 and cards that don’t help you attack in your aggro attacking deck. Your plan should be to kill them, not sit on the defensive and stumble on your curve.
Maeths
Posted February 18, 2013 at 4:59 PM
Sure, but boros is a popular deck and sometimes you just don’t get 23 awesome cards, which makes smite fine. I mean, the card is good vs. other aggro decks and those aren’t that uncommon in this format. And yes, I’d still play a boros guildgate in my aggro deck, ’cause it’s still SO much better with a tapped land on turn 2 than going plains, plains, plains.
Draft decks just aren’t always what you want them to be which means that you have to make suboptimal inclusions at times.
The guy played three colors though, which is certainly a worse decision if you want to be super aggro than gates and smites are. He might also have been more midrangy and just happened to have a couple aggressive draws, who knows?
If you really are the round 1 Player you also have losz because you played badly in game 3 you got greedy in your attacks and got punished by a card you knew Derek had in his deck and which you could’ve played around.
Why don’t you Post a draft vid instead of flaming?
JFA
Posted February 18, 2013 at 9:00 PM
I would actually suggest that the person posting the flame is in fact a random troll and has nothing to do with match 1. This site attracts trolls like flies to… other trolls, and I find it exceedingly unlikely he lost round 1 and then knew where to look to find you to flame you.
Good draft, interesting attack on the meta. Probably not as strong as Greg Hatch’s version simply due to the different dynamics of the set (also random note – Greg Hatch credits his all one drops deck to some random German he met – so kudos to random German guy), but obviously a valid archetype.
apricio
Posted February 18, 2013 at 9:42 PM
Well done.
That mugging you passed in pack 1 though. Its the pick
i beleive.
Dude
Posted February 19, 2013 at 2:47 AM
Just ran this deck. It was super fun and 3-0′d. My question is i see my opponent has a blocker and white mana open and all i have on the field is emissary w/ mad cap skills; do i play around the smite and not attack or draw it outta their hand? Thanks. Keep up the good work!
random
Posted February 19, 2013 at 5:20 AM
Really lucky first round ;)
This style of deck is really fast, the risk is high to get 2 for 1 on bloodrushed creatures!
@Dude: You can’t alway play around cards.
a) Your opponent don’t have smite, so you loose on the damage-race if you don’t attack.
b) Your opponent has smite, and you don’t attack. Next turn he still have smite, but he has more time to find an answer to your emissary…
This style of deck looses, if you don’t try to race damage.
It reminds me to the black-withe enchantment deck with Ethereal Armor.
First time watching your videos Boyks, actually really good material. Basically the only drafter currently propping draftmagic.com up, since Marlon isn’t anywhere to be seen.
Max
Posted February 19, 2013 at 10:56 AM
@boyks…why act all above petty nonsense when your first round commentary is filled with immature condescending judgemental filth? If its just fantasy cardboard cards as you say, then there’s no reason to be such a judgmental little chode, is there?? But I get it, you had to thinly veil your apology with snarky remarks to mask how douchebaggy you are when you play…got it…
Hopelessly Johnny
Posted February 19, 2013 at 12:07 PM
Boyks I like to watch your drafts, but mostly because I think you are obnoxious and I like to see if you’ll lose. No offense, of course, it’s a style that seems to work for you and hey…it keeps me tuning in.
I’m pretty new to drafting, but I picked up on something you said during your picks. If you were picking the types of cards that “nobody wants” in green and red, were you really surprised that all the black/blue spells were snapped up, or did you expect they would get spread around more?
Alex
Posted February 19, 2013 at 12:46 PM
You are one of my fav drafters to watch, because you actually go into the draft with a plan and follow it to show us something.
I tried it today as well, but even playing 14 land didn’t mean the shuffler couldn’t flood me still.
And that opponent wasn’t bad either, so I don’t think this archtype is so imba that too many will jump on it.
Alex
Posted February 19, 2013 at 12:51 PM
@Max: Get over yourself, please. Derik didn’t say anything real bad, he was just annoyed about the amount of removal you got (@hopeless Johny: No, Derik didn’t pass all that stuff…).
Furthermore: You seem to have enjoyed the abuse, otherwise you wouldn’t have watched it till the end.
t dog
Posted February 19, 2013 at 5:01 PM
I’ve been forcing this deck (gruul version) from the prerelease and doing really well, just did a Draft and got cut bad so went simic , first opponent was playing a bad version of this deck , looks like its catching on , i hate you , never again will i pick up an ember beast 9th pick .
dragon7284
Posted February 19, 2013 at 5:33 PM
It’s Forced ad-uhp-tey-shuhn :) other than that, good content.
@Max: So you calling Boyks “a loudmouth jerk,” “opinionated and ignorant,” and “a judgemental little chode” and also commented that his commentary is “filled with immature condescending judgemental filth” when you yourself are being all of the things you just called him? Hypocrite much?
Derek Boyko (theboyks)
Posted February 19, 2013 at 6:14 PM
While it is true that this strategy is worse with the more people that know about it, there is a limited GP coming up where many will not try such a strategy and there’s always your local card shop if it picks up on Magic Online. I’d rather showcase something I’ve had success with and something I saw that was cool right now with the new set then just stumble around in a video trying to find what cards are unplayable. When I started drafting this a week ago, cards like ember beast, tracer, scab-clan charger, red denizen, forced adaptation, etc. were all wheeling, which is where the original idea for trying this deck came from. As the format progresses, it’s something to keep in mind if it starts to become under drafted again. As to passing removal, I’d have likely ended up Boros in this draft to begin with and black removal is heavily drafted in the set in general. I feel that, this draft anyways, black was just super open for the guy and my picks weren’t going to change that.
Andrew
Posted February 19, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Haha how is it that forcing gruul is something to show off about?
@Andrew
Posted February 19, 2013 at 7:56 PM
Maybe try rewatching the draft with his commentary and listening a little harder. Also watch Greg Hatch’s RGD draft re. the original archetype. Then if you still don’t understand how it’s different kill yourself.
matt
Posted February 20, 2013 at 5:17 AM
Forced adaptation. Ah dahp tay shun. Only halfway done the draft portion and it is driving me insane lol you leaving off half the card name bugging me! lol
It wasn’t so much that I don’t know how to pronounce adaptation as that I read the card as “adaption” for those annoyed by it. The rage is warranted as that isn’t even a word :(.
Sam Roads
Posted February 21, 2013 at 2:55 AM
Max: rages; doesn’t use apostrophes. Sir, you won the internet.
JOMO
Posted February 22, 2013 at 3:50 AM
adapTATion
sghu
Posted February 22, 2013 at 9:11 AM
You know, I tried this deck at FNM recently, and the archetype just sucks compared to the RAV version. People play much slower, durdlier decks, and all the cards you want are actual last picks.
This archetype in GTC, too many of the cards needed are just picked up by gruul players. And like it or not, people take Forced Adaption WAAAY earlier than you think they should be.
All in all, the archetype blows, but more than that, GTC sucks dick.
ZQS
Posted February 23, 2013 at 6:39 PM
@sghu
nice constructive comment there.
this draft makes me sad… all the missplays in round 2… sighs..
michael jordan
Posted February 24, 2013 at 2:33 PM
Thanks Derek, I’ve been enjoying playing fast gruul but its cool to see a build with stuff like forced adaptation, spire tracer, etc. don’t know why some folks are trolling, I didn’t think anything you said game 1 was disrespectful….anyways, please keep the content coming!
Phil Cross
Posted February 28, 2013 at 1:34 AM
After watching this video I decided to give it a try myself. I didn’t have many bloodrush creatures at all in my deck (maybe like 4 or 5 max) so I felt like I was playing a bad version of yours that could have easily been better. Ironically enough though I found myself getting flooded way more than I should have. One game I drew 12 of the 15 lands in the deck! The deck is pretty stressful at times but it came through in the end and I wound up taking first. Act of treason works pretty well in this deck too and helps activate battalion triggers. 3 bomber corps seems pretty good lol.
Thanik
Posted March 6, 2013 at 8:27 AM
Smite seems playable in boros, sometimes your guys do get matched across the table until you turn on battalion, and you don’t want to be trading your 2drop on turn 3 when you could be playing another 2drop and smiting their guy. Experiment One did all the heavy lifting here btw, getting 2 of those guys seems fortunate.
Derek Boyko (theboyks)
Posted March 6, 2013 at 11:32 AM
E1 is super good in the deck. Not to imply that you are saying this, but anyone can say what they want along the lines of “This deck isn’t even good, you just got carried” and dismiss it, because, yeah, the card was great those games. That said, even “bad” versions of the deck without E1, rampagers, etc. have regularly brought me to the finals. I’ll stand by the deck with the results I’ve had.
I guess you got a bit lucky in game 3 round 1 as your opponent should’ve played it safe and if he attacks only with the Syndic. Fluxmage could’ve boosted the horror to block a land and live. But that amount of removal was sick.
Still think Orzhov Dimir can be a Nightmare for this kind of deck. They have the most removal and usually creatures at 2/3 or 1/4 which mostly needs you having pump or some enhancements.
But nonetheless nice one :)
The infinite removal orzhov deck is sort of a nightmare, but that’s not too incredibly common for them to have as much removal as that first guy did. You can certainly push through it with a bit of luck and a quick draw.
according to the pro tour coverage this is how ben stark likes to draft gruul so you must be on to something. Also I think the bloodrush pig is playable in this archetype as another 3 mana lava axe with upside. Easier to cast then the scorchwalker and plays the same role.
I do think this archetype will lose value as people get better at the format and draft tighter curves.
In rd 2 you bloodrush your 4 drop to save your bear when you could have just cast your 2/4 and let your bear die. A strictly better play. I bring it up because you are far from the first player I’ve seen make this mistake. People see a profitable pump and forget to consider whether just casting it as a creature is better.
What happened to round 2?
Yeah that was really an abusive amount of removal. in creature heavy matchups you really need some ways to make a large push like you had with gruul charm (or the red card i forgot the Name of:). If you Don’t manage to pick one of these up IT will get tough
Shuko: Round 2 is there. No idea what you mean.
Never mind my earlier comment. The first time I watched, the playlist skipped round 2. I went back and used the forward button and it found it. :) Great games, man. Really glad you got to rounds 2 and 3, because those were my favorites, even if round 1 was the most interesting. Keep it up; love your vids!
Experiment One is pretty sick in this deck.
- It’s a one drop.
- It is easy to grow quickly with the amount of creatures the deck runs.
- Once it is a major threat (3/3 or 4/4) it is resilient to removal.
Agreed Yarias, Experiment Juan is great in the deck now that I’ve played with it. I may also need to give swine a second look.
Experiment Juan… you win the pun war!!!
Im your r1 opponent.
a. I flooded mad g2 and g3, I recall that match because of how poorly I drew g2 and 3 given the power in my deck and how shit your deck was
b. Youre a loudmouth jerk, and youre opinionated and ignorant.
c. kill yourself
Yeah, faced this deck in the finals of a draft the other day and beat it with an average dimir deck with some removal, but I think he flooded a bit (might have been playing too many lands, dunno). It was definitely a scary deck though, albeit quite a boring strategy. By no means unbeatable but certainly scary.
Just something that annoyed me: you seemed to be mocking the boros guy for playing boros guildgate and smite in his aggro deck. Gate is actually fine even in aggro, since many of the good boros creatures have heavy color requirements (halberdiers, skyknight, guildmage, paladin) which means you have to hit your mana perfectly with most draws. Also, the boros curve starts at 2 so missing t1 is no biggie. As for smite, it’s certainly not a despicable 23rd card even in aggro. Would certainly play it over an 18th land.
@Max
cry more.
You sound upset. You should really go calm down. We’re talking about a game of magical fantasy cardboard cards that were played in a dark apartment by myself late at night and not a high profile sporting event. Nothing that is said “to an opponent” when playing in my room by myself is actually directed at my opponent himself if I offended you. I get it. Your “sweet” deck lost to my “terrible” one and the only reason is due to bad luck (you did get flooded). Thank you for reminding all of us how much cooler of a person you are. I hope your next draft goes well and you smash the “terrible” deck in the future.
As to the boros deck:
It’s more a question of what you want the deck to be doing. I feel that you don’t want tap lands which are only good on turn 1 and cards that don’t help you attack in your aggro attacking deck. Your plan should be to kill them, not sit on the defensive and stumble on your curve.
Sure, but boros is a popular deck and sometimes you just don’t get 23 awesome cards, which makes smite fine. I mean, the card is good vs. other aggro decks and those aren’t that uncommon in this format. And yes, I’d still play a boros guildgate in my aggro deck, ’cause it’s still SO much better with a tapped land on turn 2 than going plains, plains, plains.
Draft decks just aren’t always what you want them to be which means that you have to make suboptimal inclusions at times.
The guy played three colors though, which is certainly a worse decision if you want to be super aggro than gates and smites are. He might also have been more midrangy and just happened to have a couple aggressive draws, who knows?
Also, Max might want to chill. Sh*t happens.
@Max
If you really are the round 1 Player you also have losz because you played badly in game 3 you got greedy in your attacks and got punished by a card you knew Derek had in his deck and which you could’ve played around.
Why don’t you Post a draft vid instead of flaming?
I would actually suggest that the person posting the flame is in fact a random troll and has nothing to do with match 1. This site attracts trolls like flies to… other trolls, and I find it exceedingly unlikely he lost round 1 and then knew where to look to find you to flame you.
Good draft, interesting attack on the meta. Probably not as strong as Greg Hatch’s version simply due to the different dynamics of the set (also random note – Greg Hatch credits his all one drops deck to some random German he met – so kudos to random German guy), but obviously a valid archetype.
Well done.
That mugging you passed in pack 1 though. Its the pick
i beleive.
Just ran this deck. It was super fun and 3-0′d. My question is i see my opponent has a blocker and white mana open and all i have on the field is emissary w/ mad cap skills; do i play around the smite and not attack or draw it outta their hand? Thanks. Keep up the good work!
Really lucky first round ;)
This style of deck is really fast, the risk is high to get 2 for 1 on bloodrushed creatures!
@Dude: You can’t alway play around cards.
a) Your opponent don’t have smite, so you loose on the damage-race if you don’t attack.
b) Your opponent has smite, and you don’t attack. Next turn he still have smite, but he has more time to find an answer to your emissary…
This style of deck looses, if you don’t try to race damage.
It reminds me to the black-withe enchantment deck with Ethereal Armor.
Also forced that Archetype in an 8-4 some hours ago. Got to the final and the split. I have the draft up on the web, you can find it here:
http://www.xcver.com/?p=50
First time watching your videos Boyks, actually really good material. Basically the only drafter currently propping draftmagic.com up, since Marlon isn’t anywhere to be seen.
@boyks…why act all above petty nonsense when your first round commentary is filled with immature condescending judgemental filth? If its just fantasy cardboard cards as you say, then there’s no reason to be such a judgmental little chode, is there?? But I get it, you had to thinly veil your apology with snarky remarks to mask how douchebaggy you are when you play…got it…
Boyks I like to watch your drafts, but mostly because I think you are obnoxious and I like to see if you’ll lose. No offense, of course, it’s a style that seems to work for you and hey…it keeps me tuning in.
I’m pretty new to drafting, but I picked up on something you said during your picks. If you were picking the types of cards that “nobody wants” in green and red, were you really surprised that all the black/blue spells were snapped up, or did you expect they would get spread around more?
You are one of my fav drafters to watch, because you actually go into the draft with a plan and follow it to show us something.
I tried it today as well, but even playing 14 land didn’t mean the shuffler couldn’t flood me still.
And that opponent wasn’t bad either, so I don’t think this archtype is so imba that too many will jump on it.
@Max: Get over yourself, please. Derik didn’t say anything real bad, he was just annoyed about the amount of removal you got (@hopeless Johny: No, Derik didn’t pass all that stuff…).
Furthermore: You seem to have enjoyed the abuse, otherwise you wouldn’t have watched it till the end.
I’ve been forcing this deck (gruul version) from the prerelease and doing really well, just did a Draft and got cut bad so went simic , first opponent was playing a bad version of this deck , looks like its catching on , i hate you , never again will i pick up an ember beast 9th pick .
It’s Forced ad-uhp-tey-shuhn :) other than that, good content.
@Max: So you calling Boyks “a loudmouth jerk,” “opinionated and ignorant,” and “a judgemental little chode” and also commented that his commentary is “filled with immature condescending judgemental filth” when you yourself are being all of the things you just called him? Hypocrite much?
While it is true that this strategy is worse with the more people that know about it, there is a limited GP coming up where many will not try such a strategy and there’s always your local card shop if it picks up on Magic Online. I’d rather showcase something I’ve had success with and something I saw that was cool right now with the new set then just stumble around in a video trying to find what cards are unplayable. When I started drafting this a week ago, cards like ember beast, tracer, scab-clan charger, red denizen, forced adaptation, etc. were all wheeling, which is where the original idea for trying this deck came from. As the format progresses, it’s something to keep in mind if it starts to become under drafted again. As to passing removal, I’d have likely ended up Boros in this draft to begin with and black removal is heavily drafted in the set in general. I feel that, this draft anyways, black was just super open for the guy and my picks weren’t going to change that.
Haha how is it that forcing gruul is something to show off about?
Maybe try rewatching the draft with his commentary and listening a little harder. Also watch Greg Hatch’s RGD draft re. the original archetype. Then if you still don’t understand how it’s different kill yourself.
Forced adaptation. Ah dahp tay shun. Only halfway done the draft portion and it is driving me insane lol you leaving off half the card name bugging me! lol
It wasn’t so much that I don’t know how to pronounce adaptation as that I read the card as “adaption” for those annoyed by it. The rage is warranted as that isn’t even a word :(.
Max: rages; doesn’t use apostrophes. Sir, you won the internet.
adapTATion
You know, I tried this deck at FNM recently, and the archetype just sucks compared to the RAV version. People play much slower, durdlier decks, and all the cards you want are actual last picks.
This archetype in GTC, too many of the cards needed are just picked up by gruul players. And like it or not, people take Forced Adaption WAAAY earlier than you think they should be.
All in all, the archetype blows, but more than that, GTC sucks dick.
@sghu
nice constructive comment there.
this draft makes me sad… all the missplays in round 2… sighs..
Thanks Derek, I’ve been enjoying playing fast gruul but its cool to see a build with stuff like forced adaptation, spire tracer, etc. don’t know why some folks are trolling, I didn’t think anything you said game 1 was disrespectful….anyways, please keep the content coming!
After watching this video I decided to give it a try myself. I didn’t have many bloodrush creatures at all in my deck (maybe like 4 or 5 max) so I felt like I was playing a bad version of yours that could have easily been better. Ironically enough though I found myself getting flooded way more than I should have. One game I drew 12 of the 15 lands in the deck! The deck is pretty stressful at times but it came through in the end and I wound up taking first. Act of treason works pretty well in this deck too and helps activate battalion triggers. 3 bomber corps seems pretty good lol.
Smite seems playable in boros, sometimes your guys do get matched across the table until you turn on battalion, and you don’t want to be trading your 2drop on turn 3 when you could be playing another 2drop and smiting their guy. Experiment One did all the heavy lifting here btw, getting 2 of those guys seems fortunate.
E1 is super good in the deck. Not to imply that you are saying this, but anyone can say what they want along the lines of “This deck isn’t even good, you just got carried” and dismiss it, because, yeah, the card was great those games. That said, even “bad” versions of the deck without E1, rampagers, etc. have regularly brought me to the finals. I’ll stand by the deck with the results I’ve had.