Cards I'm considering: Silent Departure, Galvanic Juggernaut
I'm convinced that the best two cards in the pack are Galvanic Juggernaut and Silent Departure, I'm just not sure which one is better. My intuition is that Departure is a little better, but I took Juggernaut to stay open. I don't know how good Manor Gargoyle is.
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Pack 1 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Falkenrath Noble, Fiend Hunter
Two really strong uncommons. The rare's missing. Here's another decision where I'm not sure which card is better, and I don't really have any color ties. The noble has the benefit of being the only black card, but I end up choosing fiend hunter because it's good by itself and has an immediate impact on the board.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Skaab Goliath, Makeshift Mauler, Travel Preparations, Gallows Warden
The only reason I'm considering Gallows Warden is because it's on-color with my 2nd pick, but I rule it out because it's not that great of a card. That leaves the blue guys and Travel Preparations. Given that I couldn't decide which blue guy would be better to take, combined with the fact that Travel Preparations is probably way stronger anyway, I took Travel Preparations.
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Pack 1 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Claustrophobia, Butcher's Cleaver
This pick might be a mistake. Cleaver is really good, especially in a GW deck with lots of humans, but I chose Claustrophobia because I feel like blue might be a good color to be in, based on the previous pack (and the lateness of this removal card).
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Pack 1 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Geistcatcher's Rig, Stitcher's Apprentice
I don't know if this pick is defensible. The rig is a stronger card in general (I think), but I like stitcher's apprentice. I like it with galvanic juggernaut, and I especially like it in U/W with cathars and doomed travelers.
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Pack 1 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Makeshift Mauler, Moon Heron, Travel Preparations
This is a pretty late travel prep, but I feel like the GW ship has sailed, so I dismiss it and it comes down to heron vs. mauler. I end up choosing mauler because of how big he is, and how easy it is to control the ground in U/W if you get some feelings of dread, which reduces the need to break stalemates by flying over. I think this pick could go either way.
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Pack 1 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Deranged Assistant
As much as I love Stitcher's Apprentice, Deranged Assistant is a really sick engine card, and I have a mauler to feed now.
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Pack 1 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Silverchase Fox, Moment of Heroism
I've been undervaluing Moment of Heroism in general, but I still think having cheap guys is important, so I take the fox.
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Pack 1 pick 9:
Cards I'm considering: Village Bell-Ringer, Lumberknot
I only briefly consider Lumberknot because of how good it could be with stitcher's apprentice and galvanic juggernaut.
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Pack 1 pick 10:
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Pack 1 pick 11:
YUS
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Pack 1 pick 12:
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Pack 1 pick 15:
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Pack 2 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Liliana of the Veil, Midnight Haunting
Look, drafting is expensive, especially if you lose every single one in round 1 like me. This is a strict rare draft because Liliana funds another draft by herself. If it were a pro tour, I'd have taken Midnight Haunting.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Grasp of Phantoms, Claustrophobia
I knew Claustrophobia was good, but it turned out to be a little better than I thought. Still, Grasp of Phantoms is excellent, so I can't pass it up.
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Pack 2 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Prey Upon, Rage Thrower
I'm unlikely to play either of these cards. Rage Thrower would be awesome with juggernaut and apprentice, but I end up chopping the card I'd rather not play against. Besides, if things go sour, I could always splash it with my travel prep.
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Pack 2 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Silverchase Fox, Feeling of Dread
I always lose to Jarvis's crappy U/W decks because he has multiple of these, so maybe that kind of skews my evaluation of it. I'm not sure if I actually need the guy more or not.
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Pack 2 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Stitched Drake, Cloistered Youth, Feeling of Dread
I consider another Feeling, but this time the guys are actually good. I love Stitched Drake, but perhaps I'm undervaluing Cloistered Youth in general. I never really liked it.
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Pack 2 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Forbidden Alchemy, Sensory Deprivation
I consider Sensory Deprivation, but Forbidden Alchemy will be excellent with my graveyard guys and two feelings.
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Pack 2 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Ghostly Possession, Cobbled Wings
How should I be evaluating Ghostly Possession? It doesn't seem good.
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Pack 2 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Smite the Monstrous, Feeling of Dread, Forbidden Alchemy
No clue what's right here. I think Alchemy would have made my deck draw smoother, but I still have such a high opinion of Feeling of Dread.
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Pack 2 pick 9:
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Pack 2 pick 13:
DINGDINGDINGDINGDING
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Pack 3 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Elder Cathar, Doomed Traveler, Silver-Inlaid Dagger
I kind of feel like I would only take Silver-Inlaid Dagger if I already had a stalker, and I don't know if that's right. As far as the guys go (and I think I still need guys), I like to have at least 1 doomed traveler but I think the cathar is way better.
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Pack 3 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Deranged Assistant, Elder Cathar
I consider the Assistant, but I'm not sure how useful another engine card would be. I think I'd rather just have another good 3 drop.
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Pack 3 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Civilized Scholar
Always happy to see this card.
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Pack 3 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Silverchase Fox
Not really much else.
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Pack 3 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Stitched Drake
At least the last few picks haven't been challenging.
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Pack 3 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Abbey Griffin, Dissipate
I don't know exactly what kind of decks want dissipate (or if it's even playable), but I decide that it probably isn't mine.
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Pack 3 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Makeshift Mauler, Battleground Geist
Kind of a hard pick. You have to work less for the Geist, and he's a better stalemate breaker, but I don't think I have any other spirits. What would you take here?
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Pack 3 pick 8:
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I'm actually pretty happy with this deck. I'm kind of miffed that I didn't get a single delver, but I guess I only have 7 cards I can ding it with. I've been playing 16 lands in a lot of these decks because they don't have drops bigger than 4. Would you ever play a 15 land deck in this format?
Round 1
Game 1, he has a darkthicket wolf on the play that I'm not happy about. My earliest play is a turn 3 (well, his turn 4) bell ringer, which manages to get his T3 markov patrician. He answers back with turn 4 screeching bat & diregraf ghoul, while I have T4 fortress crab, with a hand of 2 lands, 2 feeling of dread, and elder cathar. He has another walking corpse, and we start to bounce around in combat for a while. He takes out my crab with 4 damage from the wolf + a dead weight, and I trade my elder cathar for one of his zombies to make a super bell ringer. I draw stitched drake then mauler, to make use of my newly dead guys, and suddenly my board is looking pretty good, until he untaps with a victim of night for my bell ringer and another darkthicket wolf. I'm planning on using all of my feelings to try and race him out with my 2 huge guys, but he draws a prey upon to take out my mauler with his bat-transformed-vampire. I have a chance to draw a third feeling of dread with a forbidden alchemy to make racing actually plausible, but I brick out and can't deal with his 5 guys to my 2.
Game 2, I have turn 2 silverchase fox and turn 3 civilized scholar, but he instantly has a turn 2 zombie and a prey upon for it. FOrtunately he missed a drop, but unfortunately so did I. We both draw lands pretty soon, and the board becomes my fox + a makeshift mauler to his 2/2 zombie, darkthicket wolf, and screeching bat. He makes a goofy attack with just walking corpse and bat (but not darkthicket wolf) into my fresh mauler that I dont' know what to make of, so I just take it. Nothing happens, and he just has diregraf ghoul and passes. I untap and grasp his bat to crash him down to 8 and pass. He untaps and brings his entire squad, I trade my fox for his zombie, and then his follow up is a morbidized Festerhide Boar. (Now that zombie attack from last turn is making sense. I wish I'd have blocked.) I untap and play a Galvanic Juggernaut and pass, and he untaps and uses Prey Upon to take out my mauler and Victim of Night to take out my juggernaut, then attacks me down to 1. There's no card in my deck that lets me beat 3 guys at 1 life, so I'm dead.
Frustrating ass loss. I didn't feel like my deck was deserving of another round 1 loss. What's even worse is that his deck was nothing special. It was just a bunch of cheap guys and cheap removal, and he just never ran out of gas.
The only consolation I have is that this draft was essentially a freeroll because of the Liliana. I know it's results oriented and etc. etc. but I never drew Smite the Monstrous, the 24th card I played instead of the Midnight Haunting I would've had, so I don't feel too disadvantaged for not having it.
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