Brad Nelson
Brad got his start on Magic Online, but recently has been dominating live events with equal ease. He won Grand Prix DC 2010, and followed that up a week later with a Top 8 finish at Pro Tour San Juan. He also made Top 8 at US Nationals 2009 and finished 9th at his debut Pro Tour, Honolulu 2009.
why not strata scythe? Is it another one of those “tempo” “speed” issues?
That’s why you take Precursor Golem Pick one!
Stop laughing at me Kibler
hahaha
I stopped watching when I saw Nelson take the Arc Trail over the Precursor Golem P1P1. I moused over the bottom to see how many videos there were, and whaddaya know, he lost after round 1. Karma for making the wrong pick. Arc Trail is sick but you can’t just pass up that amazing Precursor Golem, so good especially with Untamed Might or Tainted Strike, and especially when there is another excellent red card in the pack, Arc Trail is weaker.
I stopped watching after the first pick as well.
Seems like the whole BREAD method starts with Bombs. Precursor Golem fills that role as 9 power for 5 mana. You pick that, and your card pool is far less schizophrenic because you’re not drafting 3 colours by pick 4. The Golem, then the Revoke, then Silver Myr, Soliton, off to the races!
Thanks for the draft!
tool
I stopped watching after pick 5. Tanglewurm outclasses Turn to Slag in that it has to be answered. It’s that good. Especially after you just committed to Dino.dek.
*cough*Geargrabber*cough*
But seriously, that dude should’ve been in the main. Your deck is nothing but fat, removal, and myrs. Geargrabber qualifies as fat; 4/4 is huge in this format AND your opponent is running millionequips.dec. I also like Flameborn Hellion more than most people probably should, but whatever. Better luck next time.
@Lenny
You’re horribly mistaken. Maybe in a core set. Maybe… But here, you seem to be overlooking the fact that Intimidate creatures can be blocked by artifacts. Slag was amazing for Brad in every game, and would’ve been solid even if his opponent hadn’t been running over 9000 equipment cards. If you’re playing red cards, Slag > Tanglewurm almost every time.
i just think this is the worst examples of “guest draft” i’ve seen so far. usually it’s good commentary, and insightful well thought out picks. however, it seems the two of you were fighting over correct picks, starting at pick one, and the decision splits obv. ate through both your clock time and your playing. Brad, when you saw the correct play of killing shikari, do it. end of story.
and p1p1 precursor golem leaves you more open, and it’s usually more accurate that resolving an unanswered golem will get you there more often than resolving that arc trail.
I actually enjoyed eric’s insight. He knows what hes talking about, and he was pretty entertaining. Brad should have listened to him and took the precursor golem P1P1
Yeah, if ever there’s a time to side in a Geargrabber, its against that deck.
Taking out Wing Puncture was highly optimistic. Why is anyone playing UW in SOM draft if they aren’t in it for the fliers?
Even listening to the commentary, I have no idea why you let his lifegain creature live. You are racing, and you knew the odds were that you were going to have to remove one of his creatures.
On the whether to attack with your 3/1 into his 3/3 flier, my take on it is that your 3/1 is at its absolute best as a pseudo-removal spell, if he makes the mistake of trading his good creature for your bad one, unless the damage from your creature going directly to your opponent is going to kill him that turn. Any creature he plays, or which is already in play, is going to be able to block the 3/1 in future turns. I think you attack and hope he makes the mistake of trading and save the Galvanic Blast for a different threat.
Aaaand the spoilertumbs are back…
Really don’t understand picking arc trail over precursor fp fp… for several reasons.
1.) The precursor is simply better, it just win you matches alone. 2.) It’s a creature. 3.) You stay colorless.
You guys should so not draft together, you obviously have 2 very different styles and as a result the deck was torn in between two visions and ended up nowhere. Aside from the Golem vs Arc Trail pick (which is pretty close imo), you shouldve committed to G/R earlier and actually built a solid Molder Beast deck.
@Chaos.. It’s not even close dude and I don’t forget shit. Wurm > Slag there every time
Im wondering if there is a way you guys could put up videos without us seeing the list of all the videos in the sequences at the bottom of the screen, but with the sequence remaining intact (one video follows up the next one automatically).
I say this because it IS a dead giveaway when you start up the thing to see the draft portion + 2-3 vids only. I already KNOW you will loose the first match. Still interesting and informative, but there is absolutely no suspense. 😉
@ Lenney and Chaos
Turn to Slag is much better in a vacuum, but if you are actually trying to go green dino, Wurm is a top pick. It forces your opponent to block your green fatties with their poor, usually smaller artifacts killing their metalcraft. Sometimes the Wurm can make your big green creatures deal 10+ damage when it hits the table. Brad just had trouble choosing his deck theme, usually the worst problem you can have.
Precursor first pick, let others fight over white red. Thanks for the draft.
@Lenney – No, rofl.
How many times did we see arc trail in hand again?
Arc trail is really the pick over golem there. As sweet as golem can be, it is still basically answered with almost any removal spell. Sure, sometimes it is just nuts, but arc trail will NEVER let you down — sometimes a well-placed arc trail is just game over.
Hmm this deck missed on all the Bombs and Evasion.. the R.A.D. deck just dosn’t cut it as much as the acronym would be cool.
I think Arc Trail over Golem is pretty debatable at least. Golem isn’t the most amazing of bombs. The only thing that might gives the Golem the edge is that it leaves his colors open.
Turn to Slag was definitely the pick over Tanglewurm in this draft. Tanglewurm is good and an all star in the dinos deck but at that point the only color he was certain he was playing was red.
I’d take the arc trail there too.
Jesus Christ. Taking arc trail over precursor golem?? that is just straight up misevaluation of card quality. i wonder if you would pick arc trail over wurmcoil engine. Thats pretty similar pick. Precursor golem is just that good, one of the top 5 rares in the set imo.
Furthermore, it is about 100 times better first pick than arc trail bc: it is colorless, it gives u metalcraft straight-up and fits into basically any color, archetype or strategy. Arc trail is great, but commits u to red, where u passed galvanic blast, and red is weak apart from the best removal. That was just straight-up wrong.
It was hard to watch the games after that. Especially, when your opponent punted like 10 times in the first game, and then u screwed up second game by not blasting his shikari when he equipped.
Just overall bad draft, not surprised you are out of worlds making 3:3 in draft.
STOP SMOKING so you dont cough so much
Arrest on Replica and you lose the match to that noob?
JEEZ
what’s with all the popups all of a sudden?
@Jan
Contagion engine
Hoard smelter
Mimic vat
Steel hellkite
Sunblast angel
All are better than the golem. Stfu, you wouldve have 0-6’d [email protected]&$ing Jan Brady.
@Jan
Why are you still flaming the professional Magic players who post free draft videos here? As for the points you’re arguing: first, Precursor Golem is nowhere near the top 5 rares of the set. See: Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Contagion Engine, Steel Hellkite, Sunblast Angel, Carnifex Demon, Hand of the Praetors, Spikeshot Elder, along with most of the mythic rares. Second, Arc Trail is one of the best cards in the set, and it doesn’t even commit you to red, as it’s worth splashing for. Third, “red is weak apart from the best removal” What does that even mean? Red has some of the best bombs, excellent removal, along with many good common “red” artifacts and some of the best uncommons, Oxidda Scrapmelter and Arc Trail; red is one of the deeper and more powerful colors in the set. And bashing Brad for going 3-3 in draft at Worlds? Are you competing at Worlds? No, you’re flaming professional Magic players. Constructive criticism and discussion is good, but your flaming is in no way constructive. Instead of assuming that your opinion or what you would pick is the only right thing, consider why someone says or picks something different than what you would. Maybe you’ll even learn something and improve as a person and as a player. Be grateful that you can watch these draft videos and read these articles free of charge, and please stop complaining.
@everyone claiming that the Arc Trail pick is completely wrong
For more insight from professional players on the power level of Arc Trail, read this article by Antoine Ruel: http://www.channelfireball.com/home/ruel-ultimatum-ask-the-pros-about-scars/
@ Unholy: This is not even comparable. Arc trail is way better on the draw if you got board disadvantage and even advantage. Same goes for Precursor Golem. Koth is not near that good cuz you need a good board to get him work. He works out pretty well playing Red/blue with replica and other Def as backup. Which does not mean Koth is a bad card. But not even close to the mentioned cards 2 Articles above.
It doesn’t make sense to me to use the Blast on the Hippogryph in R3. You go all-in on a 1-outer when you still have some options left. Maybe none of the options were great but they were certainly better than betting it all on 23-1 odds of drawing the Might.
Way to tap out at the end there and rep the x spell like a dirtbag (and u wouldn’t even play it for the full amt so your pretty much just wasting everyone’s time)…
I really think Precursor is the pick. Just that good. It combos with so many things and keeps you open! That plus 2 Molder Beasts would have made assault strobe and Untamed Might pretty sweet maindeck.
But it is funny, because in reality it is all pretty moot because you never drew Arc Trail once!
@Ginji He has a Wormcoil Engine. The other player seems to know what he is doing.
@xChaospherex Ogre Gear grabber! I did not see that either, that Ferrovore & Molder Beast would have been a sweet *magical xmas land* combo. my Timmy is aroused.
Thnx again Brad, LSV, TSG and Company!
Precursor Golem is the pick for P1P1.
Think about it, what would you rather be facing down in most cases:
Arc Trail (which can’t deal with Golem)
Or Precursor Golem, for which you must have a removal spell or bomb or you lose.
Pathetic!
You have to pick the precursor golem here. Does it die against removal? Obv, as a tarmogoyf dies against a doom blade. Is a creature bad ’cause it dies against most of removal in the format? I don’t care about an opp who could have his 1×1 removal if in case he hasn’t it I will have my tricky triple 3/3 turning games in my favour
Didn’t get the Arc Trail pick. Why commit to a color p1p1 when there’s a decent artifact bomb in the pack?
your cough is so terrible! seems like you have had it forever!
Eric does a much better job of staying politically correct during the draft than I would have. Brad says, “so we’re taking the Arc Trail?” and Eric, clearly leaning towards the Golem, says, “It’s…reasonable…”
You might want to give more consideration to your deckbuilding choices. You were talking about 18 lands, which would have been utterly ludicrous, but even 17 land + 3 myr + 2 do-nothing cantrips is a pretty clear recipe for flood. Poor choices throughout the draft led to the deck building conundrum, but there were better solutions available.
Whatever Precursor Golem’s merits and weaknesses may be, one thing is clear. Arc Trail is easily the most overrated card in the set. The CFB folks WORSHIP this card, as though getting a 2-for-1 on low toughness guys is an automatic win, even though that 2-for-1 is highly conditional. It offers little in the late game as well. It is a great card in the set, but you shouldn’t build decks around it.
You guys are absolute idiots to question brads pick.. precurser is one of teh strongest rares around,however arc trail is THE BEST uncommon in this set.. i wouldn’t be so quick to judge his decisions… after all. im sure he would spank any of you idiots.. try listning and learning from the drafts.. thats why he holds them
well Mr Nelson, actually you ended up in quite a train wreck this time. guess its not one of your day. arc trail vs precursor golem ……… well i lean toward the golem, but what do i know? i am not a pro player and yes an accurately timed arc trail just win the game. well i guess you had your mind elsewhere when you draft this time.
well as for the race for player of the year, good luck Mr Nelson. thanks for the video
@Brad – If you had to do it all over again, Arc Trail over Precursor?