Cards I'm considering: Creepy Doll, Markov Patrician, Abattoir Ghoul
Ugh, what a bad pack. I never played with Creepy Doll before, so that's why I considered it. When I read it, it seemed way too slow to be useful in this format, and vulnerable to all the best removal anyway (dead weight, departure, claustrophobia) so I dismissed it. That left the two black creatures.
I really don't know how to evaluate these two. Markov Patrician seems better in aggressive decks because of the lower cost, but Abattoir Ghoul seems more durable. I went with the ghoul.
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Pack 1 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Bloodcrazed Neonate, Village Ironsmith
Even more ugh.
I don't really like divine reckoning any more, and there just isn't really anything else. Thinking about the card I took first, a good home for him would be an aggressive R/B deck, so that's where I think to next. That's why I'm considering the two crappy red guys. I end up taking the Neonate because the crappy werewolf won't really do anything in an R/B aggro deck if both players play a spell every turn, and I know that I at least want to be doing that.
I'm not happy with this pick.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Midnight Haunting, Screeching Bat, Rakish Heir
There's a lot more to this pick than meets the eye. I would really like to hear every opinion I possibly can about how to process a pick like this.
So far, I have two crappy cards (one black and one red) that I'm not necessarily married to. I could be trying to build a good R/B attack deck, which would make Bat and/or Heir good picks. On the other hand, Midnight Haunting is really good and in a good color, so it might not be out of the question to just take the better card and shoot for the stars. The problem is that I'd likely be starting from scratch, since neither R/W or B/W super thrill me.
I chose the bat because I'd be more likely to want to play the ghoul and build a black/x deck, since red sucks, and I didn't feel like starting over by taking haunting and having a positively messy first few cards. Typing this out after the fact though makes me feel kind of silly about it since, well, it's not like I'm leaving anything good behind.
Please tell me not only what you would've taken, but how you think through picks like this; which information you take into consideration, how you use it, and what makes the decision for you.
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Pack 1 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Silent Departure
For the most part, I'm done passing this card.
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Pack 1 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Silver-Inlaid Dagger, Armored Skaab
I've got two things on my mind with this pick. Do I want to be aggressive, or do I want to have a graveyard deck? I chose the dagger because I don't have good cards for a graveyard deck so far, and I don't super love U/B graveyard decks anyway.
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Pack 1 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Nephalia Drownyard
My thought process for this pick was, "hey, Drownyard is a pretty strong card and it's useful for either milling yourself to feed your zombies or as a win condition! I'm already B and kind of U so why not!" If I could go back, I'd at least consider the Assistant.
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Pack 1 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Geistcatcher's Rig, Claustrophobia
Is this pick bad? Deck dependent? I keep making it. I never get any good use out of the rig, because I prefer my decks to be low curve, and I have had mostly positive experiences with playing claustrophobia (and negative experiences being on the other side of it). I guess I feel like Claustrophobia always gets a guy, whereas rig sometimes gets a guy, if you live that long, and if they have one with flying.
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Pack 1 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Brain Weevil, Spectral Flight
When deciding between these two cards I kind of figured I wanted to make my deck around drownyard, so I took the more control-ish card.
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Pack 2 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Liliana of the Veil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN35wok4S9A
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Pack 2 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Dead Weight, Nephalia Drownyard
Ha, another drownyard! I was already thinking about making my deck around it. Having 2 could really drive that theme home.
Knowing what I know now, I'd have taken Dead Weight.
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Pack 2 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Think Twice
Probably the only card I'd play out of this pack.
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Pack 2 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Screeching Bat, Claustrophobia
Thinking about what I want my deck to do, Claustrophobia seems more useful to me.
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Pack 2 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Moan of the Unhallowed
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Pack 2 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Deranged Assistant, Blazing Torch
I kind of want some removal, but I don't have many guys, and I'm starting to like the assistant a lot.
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Pack 2 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Cloistered Youth, Memory's Journey, Hamlet Captain
I end up deciding to cut the youth rather than take the journey.
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Pack 2 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Markov Patrician
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Pack 2 pick 9:
Cards I'm considering: Traveler's Amulet, Village Cannibals
I need guys more than I need an amulet in a 2 color deck.
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Pack 3 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Fortress Crab, Battleground Geist, Spider Spawning
I had some good chats with Morgan Douglass after draft #16 about drafting a deck and not just taking good cards. That is why I seriously considered taking Fortress Crab here. Since I want my deck to just defend and mill them out, he seems perfect for it. But, I end up taking Spider Spawning because of its power level, and if I took a lot of creatures from here out (which I need anyway) I could make this card really good with assistant, liliana, etc.
At this point I don't really have any illusions of this deck being good, but I'm trying very hard to do what I can with it.
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Pack 3 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Nephalia Drownyard, Armored Skaab
Wow, drownyard #3! I never played with drownyard before, so I figured the more the better. I should have taken skaab though. But really, I should have taken Dead Weight over the 2nd one, so maybe I did want this one after all. Of course, what I actually should have done was taken that stupid midnight haunting so I could take Bonds of Faith here. I don't know man, I just don't know when to stay in color and when to waffle.
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Pack 3 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Fortress Crab
What a relief to see this. Nice white cards.
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Pack 3 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Civilized Scholar
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Pack 3 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Invisible Stalker, Makeshift Mauler
Well, since I have a dagger, I'd like to have a get out of jail free card, since my deck is pretty bad. Stalker itself is not that good in decks like this though so maybe I should have taken mauler.
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Pack 3 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Spectral Flight
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Pack 3 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Sensory Deprivation
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Pack 3 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Rotting Fensnake
This guy's better than he looks. I'm never in black enough to give him the field time that he deserves. Not that he's great or anything, but he's playable.
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Pack 3 pick 9:
Cards I'm considering: Fortress Crab
FEELIN CRABBY
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Yeah, this deck is bad, go to hell. I wanted to make spider spawning work so I played that over the 2 curses and the bell, but maybe it's too much of a stretch. Well, not any more of a stretch than me winning a single game with this deck so why not.
I got destroyed pretty rapidly in two games by Elder of Laurels. I even tried boarding out the cannibals and the spawning for the 2 curses and the bell, but without any real removal I couldn't deal with a guy that could mow down my crappy blockers every turn. I'm not really upset because my deck was a huge disaster.
I definitely went overboard on drownyards. I thought it was township-level good, but the township decks can probably win without township, whereas it's hard for me to imagine a set of cards that could win without drownyard, that drownyard would enhance.
I did get pretty frustrated initially about how my first couple packs just didn't have anything worth trying to build a deck around, but I guess that happens sometimes.
I guess maybe what I should be learning from this draft is that I shouldn't attach to hard to bad first picks out of bad packs. It looks like I could have had a pretty nice white deck if I took the haunting. And even if I didn't take it and still took the bat, I could have at least had a playable deck if I knew that drownyard isn't a serious strat by itself.
I'm glad I did this draft. And not just because I opened a foil Liliana.
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