Me
Nick Walters
Alex Driggs
Justin Simpson
Jeff Powelson
Morgan Douglass
so I was passing to Nick in packs 1 and 3. As is the standard with Innistrad format drafts, the teams were randomly determined after the draft, so these picks were made without advance knowledge of the teams. The teams ended up being me, Driggs and Jeff vs. Morgan, Justin and Nick.
Pack 1 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Relentless Skaabs
In triple Innistrad, Green/White was always a powerful and consistent contender, and a good standby. I wanted to take Thalia because it seems like a perfect fit in that strategy: comes down early, not easy to block, disrupts opponent reaction. On the other hand, I really wanted to take Skaabs and try for a U/R deck featuring Faithless Looting, which (as of the prerelease) is my favorite Dark Ascension card. In the end I decided to be conservative and go for the white card.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Elquad Inquisitor, Fires of Undeath
I only consider the Inquisitor because it's on-color. I don't think it's better than "fine" otherwise and I'm not comfortable taking it 2nd overall over a solid removal card like Fires, which I end up taking.
If I took Skaabs first pick, I'd take Chill of Foreboding here and see what I can cook up with that.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Thraben Heretic, Midnight Guard
Two good on-color cards. I like the 3 butt of the Guard, but the heretic is a 2 power 2 drop, with a reasonably relevant ability, that can actually stop some problem cards like Makeshift Mauler before they even enter play. Basically everything you want in a good, aggressive white card in this format.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Niblis of the Mist, Skillful Lunge
I don't think any of the non-white cards are worth deviating for, yet. If I knew I'd end up in G/W for sure I'd consider the Ulvenwald Bear, but as is I don't feel like that card is a strong enough indicator that green is open.
As far as guy vs. trick goes, I feel like the lunge isn't as good as the easy comparison, Moment of Heroism, since the lunge doesn't offer any "swing the race" benefits but more of just an occasional surprise removal spell. Since the 2/1 guy is a flyer that can have kind of have a mini-impact on races, I go with that.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Hollowhenge Spirit
Now THIS is an awesome card that I'm happy to see so late. 2/2 flyers for 4 aren't always a bad deal (see: Abbey Griffin), and this guy has some really strong combat implications. Easy pick.
If I'm going for the blue mill deck here, I'm very happy to take Screeching Skaab.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Midnight Guard
Not as good as the last pick, but still an easy pick since his stats are good for the price and he has almost-sometimes vigilance.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Burden of Guilt, Heavy Mattock, Thought Scour
I like Thought Scour as a card, so I think about taking it here, but it doesn't really fit in the deck I'm trying to draft so I pass on it. I have some humans so I think the equipment could be nice (even though you have to work harder to get vulshok morningstar which feels like kind of a rip off), but I end up going with the removal-esque card.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Wild Hunger, Kessig Recluse
I still don't really have a second color so I think about taking the Recluse (which looks awesome and not necessarily deserving of going so late), but I didn't see enough green to think that jumping into it would be a good idea so I pass on it (and take a green card anyway). Seriously though, Wild Hunger looks like a pretty nice trick for an attack deck that sometimes has reach problems, and since I have a red burn card already, I could even go for the doublesplash if it came to that.
It's possible that I should have looked at the 2/1 werewolf (who I think is decent and deserves a bit better than 9th pick) or the torch fiend, since I have a red card, but R/W was pukey in triple INN and I didn't really want to start off a new format by launching a crappy archetype revival movement.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 11:
I'm happy about this. I'd like to play this card.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
A couple of decent late black cards kind of gets me in the B/W mindset, although I'm not sold on anything yet. Still, splashing my red removal card in a B/W deck sounds awesome since I get the flashback half too.
Pack 2 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Olivia Voldaren
Wow, what a pack! If only I took the blue card first and went mill because you get a table out of this pack easily. But, I guess I'd get yelled at for passing Olivia in a team draft. Since there's like nothing else even close and I'm leaning towards W/R or W/B, no matter which one I end up in I can splash the other one for both this and my damage spell.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Spectral Rider
Ahhh, back to what I know. Taking Wolf and going green now would be a sick (and devious) move since Morgan or Jeff to my right probably worked pretty hard to cut it in pack 1, but I forget about it since I have Olivia and just go with the safe pick.
(By the way, I hate this stupid block and what it's done to Magic. Beyond all of the cool runechanter's pike / snapcaster mage or phantasmal bear / sword of war & peace awesome combo decks that are popping up in Standard, it causes me to make statements like "hmm well since I have a black/red gold card, I should take this double white 2 drop" and have them not be total nonsense.)
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Bonds of Faith
Super easy pick. The only close cards are Rage Thrower and Shimmering Grotto, and they aren't close.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Moment of Heroism, Kessig Wolf, Pitchburn Devils
I get a little nervous about how white seems to be drying up so I think about going harder for red cards here, but none of them really make an impact on me except Crossway Vampire, and I've had more than enough Crossway Vamp / Spectral Rider decks in triple INN to convince me that it's not something I should actively be going for.
Instead, I go with what I know, the safe awesome main color trick.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 7:
Sick tables.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 15:
My Pick:
So after this pack I still don't know if I'm W/R with black or W/B with red, although I'd lean towards W/R with black since having more ping power with Olivia is generally better than more steal power (if you could only choose one).
Pack 3 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Geistcatcher's Rig, Blazing Torch
I don't like that this pack is helping me delay the firming of my second color decision, but I can't complain about having to choose between Rig and Torch since they're both awesome. I went with rig since it hits harder, deals with cards that are bigger problems for me, and having to tap a guy to use torch in a deck like this is kind of a dent sometimes.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Silver-Inlaid Dagger
Not really much else and I got humans for days. Back to back Sturmgeists is kinda weird.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Village Bell-Ringer, Into the Maw of Hell
Maybe I should have taken the removal and just said, you know what I'm gonna play red. But I wimped out, mostly because this guy is awesome anyway and I just took a dagger so I had visions of having a 4/4 VBR, which is kind of a powerhouse.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Unburial Rites
I'm actually really happy to see this card, even though the white cards are kind of drying up. I'm definitely in white and I'll almost certainly have swamps in my deck to accomodate Olivia, so this card is basically just two more Olivias.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Vampire Interloper, Silver-Inlaid Dagger, Into the Maw of Hell
I think about Maw again here, but since I just took unburial I'm riding the black momentum and feeling like I'll probably go W/B splash R, I end up taking Interloper. In retrospect I wish I had just taken the dagger.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Geistflame, Silverchase Fox, Hanweir Watchkeep
I love Geistflame still and hate to see it go so late, but I'm still interested making sure my creature base is solid. I don't think my red mana will be reliable enough to hit watchkeep on 3.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Feeling of Dread, Sturmgeist
I thought about taking Feeling here since half of a feeling isn't really all that bad, but I just cut sturmgeist because I felt like it was criminal to see it go so late.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 8:
AUGH COULD HAVE BEEN U/G WITH SPAWNING
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 15:
My Pick:
This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy.
Visit the draft converter today!
Here's how the deck ended up looking:
I played 9 plains, 4 mountains, and 4 swamps, which I was really happy with. I had enough Plains to hit Spectral Rider on turn 2, enough Mountains to make Olivia's red ability decent, and enough Swamps to cast my black spells.
My sideboard:
Sorry for the crappy picture quality.
I played vs. Morgan first. He had a G/W deck, which explains why I saw no green in pack 1 and no white in pack 3. I won the first game on the back of a turn 1 dagger, turn 2 Thalia, turn 3 equip and crack for 5. He was immediately on the defensive, and Thalia's sphere of resistance ability ended up being relevant since he didn't have enough mana to both play guys and save them with all his tricks. He flooded pretty bad in the second game and I was able to win easily.
Next I played vs. Nick and his R/W control-type deck, and the first game wasn't a game. He mulliganed to 4 on the draw, and the only land he played was the single forest in his deck to enable his Wolf Run splash. Game 2 was more interesting, since I had a slow but consistent early stream of damage, and he had a lot of removal to make sure I was only ever attacking with one creature at a time. I got him down to 1 before he eventually stabilized with Heretic's Punishment, but I drew my red damage spell to end it.
The last match was vs. Justin. His deck was B/W humans with a lot of sacrifice-type effects, with things like Elder Cathar, the new 2/1 guy that eats humans for +1/+1 counters, etc. In game 1, we play crappy ground losers out and the board stalls, but I eventually get ahead by drawing a dagger, flipping my Thraben Sentry and getting some hard hitting attack steps in. I drew bonds of faith to make sure he couldn't race back with his vampire guy and it was easy to win from there. Game 2, I have a slow Olivia hand, but he has a slow hand too with only one guy (that I'm able to remove with my 2R 2 damage spell). I didn't see a way for him to kill Olivia in game 1 besides Rebuke, so I resolve it and just continue to play out lands making sure not to attack into Rebuke. He can't ever find a good way to commit a guy to the board, so he concedes.
So, I went 3-0 in my first ever DII draft. Not a bad way to start the format out. It feels pretty similar to triple INN, just with different cards. I feel like the goofy less-traveled archetypes from triple INN (like red/white and black/white) improve a little with the new set, but I can't say for sure yet.
Jeff had a R/G Werewolves deck with Immerwolf, and Driggs ended up with a really powerful U/B zombie/mill deck, taking a lot of the awesome blue mill cards that were tabling. I forget what exactly their records were, but they each won at least 1 round, so we won the draft.
No comments:
Post a Comment