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It's been almost two weeks since I last drafted. That draft saw me break into the prize rounds in the 8-4 queue for the first time. I have another Shards of Alara and Conflux draft for you when you hit the link.
This one is in the 8-4 queue again. Let's get it rolling.
Pack One
Pick One:
Wow, tough first pick. But not really. The only two choices here are the Naya Charm and the O-Ring. The Naya Charm is versatile but it's a pretty committing card for a first pick. I can pass it here for the Ring and still end up in Naya depending on what comes from the right. Or, I could end up with 5-color or Esper, that's the beauty of first picking a card that leaves you open.
Pick Two:
Dang, I could have started with two foil Naya cards. I'm going to pass on the Thoctar for now. I do like the idea of the aggressive early drop and maybe I can start to slant my picks towards using the Paladin.
Pick Three:
I almost took the Jhessian Infiltrator here because I couldn't continue to cut the white as there is no white in this pack. That would be a full blown branch out into Bant though and I figured if I had to branch out, I would branch out but still leave myself a bit more open. The battle trick fits the bill here.
Pick Four:
Yes, the Canonist is here, but it's not a card that draws me to play Esper. I would rather have the Sighted-Caste Sorcerer for the deck that I currently am trying to build. I would rather have the fixing than that guy though.
Pick Five:
I'm not sure I'm ready to go into blue for a Cloudheath Drake. I do like multiples of the Blessing though. I will attempt to pick up efficient creatures to go with my good picks thus far.
Pick Six:
OK, this pack threw me for a bit of a loop. The best cards are the Couriers Capsule, Druid of the Anima and the Sanctum Gargoyle. Even the Viscera Dragger deserves some consideration. I think though that I have a chance at a fine white card and I can't ignore the Esper any longer.
Pick Seven:
Some nice fixing to go with my last pick.
Pick Eight:
Nothing in this pack is anything I want to play at this point and things are not looking good for me.
Pick Nine:
More not so hot cards. I don't think I have the right cards to go with much.
Pick Ten:
I think I should have taken the Gift here, but I was a little lost at this point.
Pick Eleven:
Pick Twelve:
Pick Thirteen:
Pick Fourteen:
Pick Fifteen:
Pack Two
Pick One:
A lot of good cards here. If I had gotten better cards for an Esper deck, the Master of Etherium might be more of a consideration. I think the double Gargoyle opportunity is too good to pass up here.
Pick Two:
I went into this pack putting aggressive creatures higher than removal as I'm lacking. I don't think I need any more battle tricks when there is an excellent three drop for me.
Pick Three:
If I already had some one-drops I wanted to play, I would take the Ranger here. I like the idea of the Squire from this pack. Plus, it's so strong of a pack, there is a good chance I'll get something back from this one.
Pick Four:
OK, I didn't cut any of the good red cards and I don't think the Stinger has any good reason to be here. I think I could go with it here if there wasn't a pick in the archetype I'm going for. I know this pick doesn't seem good probably to some, but I was in a zone here and I didn't even consider it for very long before taking the Steward.
Pick Five:
More good cards that don't go in my deck. I'm also hoping now that that Ranger comes around.
Pick Six:
Ah, here is a perfect pick for the deck I want.
Pick Seven:
OK, Squire times three.
Pick Eight:
Here's my top of the curve guy.
Pick Nine:
Nothing for me here.
Pick Ten:
Card I most don't want to see on the other side.
Pick Eleven:
Well, no Ranger, but two good picks. I'll happily take another Steward here over the battle trick.
Pick Twelve:
Pick Thirteen:
Pick Fourteen:
Pick Fifteen:
Pack Three
Pick One:
Not the kind of pack I was hoping to open. At this point, I was thinking of going only two colors and figured the best card, Armillary Sphere, wouldn't do me any good. To this point, I did not have any five drops on my curve, time to change that.
Pick Two:
Everyone knows I like the Meditant. I also seriously considered dropping my idea of a two color deck for the Cormorants. However, there is a better four drop that is on color. The cheap Behemoth can really swing games and with the amount of Exalted I have already, he could be quite amazing.
Pick Three:
I was hoping for a couple of these Outlanders. Nothing else in the pack has any draw for me.
Pick Four:
I like the Bodyguard but the Gleam is definitely the pick here and I probably won't even use it to search for land.
Pick Five:
The Gleam I just took was the last battle trick I want in the deck. I could use another five drop and it's really the only choice I've got.
Pick Six:
This was another tough choice. If I had taken the other Cormorants, I would have definitely taken the second one. Since I passed on the blue in my deck, the choice here is between the Meditant and the Purge. I figured the Purge would probably be a sideboard card while I would definitely include the Meditant in the main deck.
Pick Seven:
Not much for me here. I hope I never have a deck where I'm playing the Tukatongue Thallid so it's the tempo swinger for me out of this one.
Pick Eight:
I know I mentioned no more battle tricks for my deck, but I don't really feel that another six drop or another Behemoth is good for my deck while the Might might make my deck better.
Pick Nine:
OK, sideboard card now with the Fracture.
Pick Ten:
Yet another aggressive two drop.
Pick Eleven:
This is a good card for wheeling, I won't play it though.
Pick Twelve:
Really? Isn't this guy pretty good?
Pick Thirteen:
Pick Fourteen:
Pick Fifteen:
Final Deck
I was tempted a couple times, but I think I ended up drafting properly. Hyper aggressive drops and cards meant to abuse that fact. With the two Stewards, I played only sixteen land which let me include both the Lapse and the Nacatl Savage as my last additions.
Matches
I'm currently sitting at 1787, but you guys know that. I'm expecting some high caliber opponents for this draft and I'm not disappointed as my first opponent is rated at 1735. I have a pretty good opener:
I'm expecting openers like this the whole time though, I keep. I have a nice aggro start getting another Squire for turn two with an attack for three. The Ascetic comes down on turn three.
Things are shaping up nicely and since I'm doing fine with cards, I choose to play out the Cliffrunner instead of drawing a card on turn four.
Just when he plays a creature that can exchange with my bigger guys, I get my last Squire and he is unable to block effectively and goes down to three life. I continue to attack with one of my boosted guys while he chumps. After an attack with the Cliffrunner, he has a Coma Veil to lock it down. He looks like he's 5-color and though he stays alive for a while, he sees the writing on the wall and allows a lethal attack through after emptying his hand.
I side in the Fracture for the Lapse of Certainty and it's on to game two. I start fine again:
He did have a lot of black and artifact creatures so these guys should be able to get through nicely, I keep. He has a turn two Deft Duelist. I topdeck a Steward for turn three and on turn four, I draw a Sigil Blessing. I swing in expecting him to allow the attack through seeing the battle trick and then play my Meditant. He blocks though and I cast the Blessing on the Valeron and the +1/+1 to the Outlander kills his creature. He ends up missing some land drops and he concedes fairly early.
Thankfully too as I was looking a little out of gas. Round two is fine with me though. That match got me up to 1794, so close. I'll be facing an opponent rated at 1733 for this round, here we go:
Ouch, one Forest in place of any card but the Steward and this is a keeper, gotta throw it back for these six:
I can't win any game with this hand, five?:
It'll have to do. Any creatures and I should be good to go. I do get a Valeron Outlander for turn two and take out his Feral Hydra on turn three. I have my Angelic Benediction for turn four and things are looking good.
Also looking like another five color player for this round as well. My opponent tries to take out my board with an Infest, but I have the day saving Sigil Blessing.
He plays out a Rhox War Monk after the Infest and I swing him down to three by tapping down his guy. I just need a little more oomph, but I've drawn a ton of land this game. It's then that he drops a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He steals my Paladin, and attacks with the War Monk gaining some much needed life. I can't let the Planeswalker sit around for another turn though as I did not draw my other Blessing which would have allowed me to win. I take out the Bolas, but I'm not looking too hot.
He then plays a few consecutive good 5-color cards and I'm looking to win the next two.
It took a mull to five, land flood and a Planeswalker to beat me though so I'm feeling good about my chances. I have a fine opener for the next game:
Easy keeper and I have a turn one squire, a turn two Steward of Valeron and a turn three Savage Nacatl. After swinging him down to ten, I play out the turn four Beacon Behemoth. He matches that with his turn four Brackwater Elemental. I draw one of my Blessings though and swing for the natural kill on turn five.
I knew my deck was good, but it's been a while since I was able to do twenty damage by the end of my turn five with a limited deck. On to game three with my hopes up:
Not terrible, but with his slow deck, I might just have enough to get the job done. I keep and draw fairly decently. He uses an Ignite Disorder on my turn four Sanctum Gargoyle, but I follow that with a turn five Behemoth. He uses an Absorb Vis to stay alive another turn, but when I play out my other Sanctum Gargoyle picking up my killed one, he has a concession for me.
He didn't really have mana issues, he just didn't draw anything to stop me and my draw was average for that game. I'm happy with the win there as it brings my rating to exactly 1800. Now, I just need to keep it above that threshold.
Won't be easy, as my first challenge for that task is right now. My opponent for this round is rated at 1718. He asks if I want to split, but I decline with a disclaimer. I tell him that if we go 1-1 in the first two games, I'll take the split. I just don't want to get here and draw my way out of the 1800 range. He says cool and we're off:
This one is a bit dodgy, but I have a nice three drop and I should be able to recoup a card with the Meditant on turn five, I keep. I draw a bit fortunately and get down a Squire before the Ascetic and things aren't looking good for him right quick. He allows some bigger attacks through and then devours 2/3 of his team with a Thunder-Thrash Elder. I have yet another Exalted guy for him though and I am able to take out his Elder with the Ascetic completing the three-for-zero. After that turn, he concedes the game.
Looking like another five color deck yet again. Sounds good to me. Here's my opener for game two:
A trick and some good early beaters, I keep. I draw some exalted guys which allow me to press my attack early but I'm flooding a bit.
After the flood subsides, I am able to take out his biggest creature while tapping down his best blocker every attack.
I trade my Behemoth for two of his guys and he is trying to stay alive but he is in chump block mode, I'm just waiting for him to stop playing creatures. It happens eventually and I lock up the win.
Been a long time coming, but I loved the feel of my deck and felt I had a focused game plan compared to my three opponents.
Summary
That win nets me another six rating points up to 1806, the highest I've ever been on any account I've ever had and a whopping eight packs. The first pack felt a little train wreckish while the second pack solidified my desire to play efficient beaters. I think everyone else was taking the best cards for their 5-color strategies, but it left me exactly what I needed to destroy that strategy.
The project's not over just because I eclipsed the 1800 rating. Let's see if I can continue it on an upward note and see how high it can go.
Until the next one,
draftbetter
13 Comments to “MTGO Draft Eighty-Nine”
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Sick, sick deck. Good job and congrats on breaking 1800.
So I have never posted but I figured since I have read every article you’ve posted now was the best time to say THANKS for all the work and money you’ve dumped into such a cool project. Oh and congrats! awesome that you hit 1800+ and won the first 8-4 of the project at the same time. HAZZA
Congrats on the 8-4 win and the 1800 crossing.
I think you could have drafted U and had more power, however, it would have detracted from the power and cohesiveness of the deck.
And the deck, the deck was just gross, so it was definitely the right strategy.
Ales
Like I said last night… not much to say about your draft. I would have jumped on the foil Thoctar p2 but I think you made the smarter paly there. i just love foils.
grats!
Congratulations DB for breaking the 1800+ Mark and for having won that 8-4 draft.
About the drafting, you chose a strategy early (as early as p1p2 I think with the pally) and managed to stick to it despite the temptation, way to go.
I wouldn’t have gone the same way as you though.Seeing such a strong pack 1 I would have taken the O-Ring here,knowing that someting playable on an Esper Deck would table.Considering that (and also the fact that by passing a Naya Charm AND Wooly T there’s a good chance you’ll get cut Naya on p2) I would have tried to cut as many Esper cards as possible and get some rewards (hopefully) on p2/3.
Now despite the Master of Etherum on p2 there was no rewards but maybe it was gimped by the fact that you (on the real draft!) let the esper cards going.
Anyway I think you ended up with a better deck that I would have get going for Esper,so nice playing.And yeah G/W beatdown is pretty cool against 5-C.
GG and keep up the good work,really wish we could do a draft at the same “table” one day
P1P2: “If I’d known I was getting passed a Wooly Thoctar…” Hmm, If we’d P1ed the charm, the Thoctar is obvious, but now we are looking at a neighbor who has likely taken Naya Charm or Mosstadon. If we take the Thoctar we’re just setting up for a Naya fight. That leaves Sigilied Paladin, but there aren’t many other formats where a double-color in the casting cost is more oppressive than Alara. The other problem with the Paladin is that it’s fairly Bant-y, which still leaves us fighting heavily with Naya to our left. Not a great spot either way, but the Paladin seems like the better pick regardless.
P1P3: Sigil Blessing to keep GW aggro open as an option, or Infiltrator to embrace Bant. Because there are lots of common pump tricks, I take the Infiltrator here. Leviathan seems too pricey for what it does.
You say: “I almost took the Jhessian Infiltrator here because I couldn’t continue to cut the white as there is no white in this pack. That would be a full blown branch out into Bant though and I figured if I had to branch out, I would branch out but still leave myself a bit more open.”
You really can’t go Naya at this point, so I don’t see how Blessing leaves you more open than Infiltrator unless you specifically mean GW aggro as opposed to “Naya.” That being said, you have a Paladin wanting WW on T2, which conflicts with Infiltrator wanting GU on T2, so I don’t mind too much.
P1P4: Screecher or Canonist, both of which leave Bant and Esper as
P1P6: WTH? I’d love to see what was taken from this pack. Gargoyle or Druid?
P2P2: oof, can we please go back and first-pick the Naya Charm? Jeez, what are we doing, exactly? Are we Bant, or Esper? Are we Dragger or Ascetic?
Yuck, looking over the picks, we have 5 non-mana playables in Esper, and 6 in Bant. If we take the Dragger, we can hope to get a bunch of Pumpgoyles (TM) in Conflux, but Ascetic is the better card in the shard we have more playables for. But Esper seems open with that super-late Gargoyle in P1. I think I take the Dragger, I could play it just for cycling if I have to.
Yeah, you take the Ascetic. I’m really confused at this point in the draft. Frustrating spot, straddling this Esper/Bant line. You don’t even mention the Dragger, which suggests to me you are mentally rooted in GW aggro or Bant by this pick.
P2P3: Ugh, if we could just stick that Squire in the pack behind, the Ranger is an easy pick. Sadly, I don’t think the Ranger is pickable for us, three picks into pack two. We effectively have five more picks to find more Squires, as I can’ thtink of a common G/W one-drop in Conflux that we’d be excited to target. I’ll take Squire and keep on the GW aggro path.
P2P4: Late stinger, but we can’t be concerned with it. Gimme the Steward.
P2P5: Nice, another Squire.
P2P6: Sorcerer is shaping up to be just a Squire for twice the cost, I’ll go with the Benediction.
P2P7: Aw, man. Hindsight! Who would expect to get two Squires in five picks, though? Still, while Ranger + 2x Squire would be very nice, 3x Squire ain’t too shabby.
P2P11: Wow, three of the five cards left in your archetype. Steward the best of them, given your two Blessings already.
P3P1: Not the pack we were hoping to open. Bummer. Are we really first-picking a Beacon Behemoth and shipping that great Esper/5c stuff? No matter where I click in this spot, it is physically painful.
P3P2: Cliffrunner is great even as a 5/3 for 4. Lifelink is gravy.
P3P4: Bodyguard seems meh, but it’s on theme with Exalted. Gleam isn’t going to be very useful as a landcycler, but could be nice as a combat trick, but we already have 2x Blessing. I’ll sigh and take the Bodyguard. Hey, it’s multicolored, it has to be good! Man, the esper.dec looks to be pretty good this draft with 2x Esperzoa…
Yeah, Gleam is a fine pick, and it would have been a no-brainer without the Blessings in our pile. Gleam isn’t doing that much more than Blessing, but for three more mana. It does play quite nicely with Ascetic, though.
P3P5: Heh, P4 is moot. We get a Gleam and a Bodyguard either way.
P3P6: I would love that Meditant, but the Purge is a fantastic card from the board if not a maindecker in this case, so I’ll take removal.
P3P7: Lapse is a nice fit in this deck. Preserving the status quo on turn five or six is likely to produce a win for you.
P3P8: Underpowered pump or an out-of-place six drop? I supppose the pump is more likely to make the main deck, I really don’t think you want to play a six-drop that’s not a certifiable bomb.
P3P9: Wow, a $2 rare and the Esperzoa table? That’s sick. Apparently nobody has the killer Esper deck that could have been in this draft.
Final deck looks nice and aggressive. I think that late pack-one Gargoyle was the Esper signal, but you ended up with a deck that can really do some damage while the other side struggles to get set up.
And that’s what happens! Nicely done. I remember the first time my limited rating went over 1800, it feels great. I’ve slipped back into the 1770s after peaking at 1851, so savor it up there on the mountaintop! Grats…nice accomplishment.
The one drop guy in Conflux you should be thinking of is the artifact dooder that becomes a 2/2 if you have another artifact out. You can take the Ranger hoping to get a Squire in the last part of this pack and then look for the artifact guy in pack three. The problem with that is you dont have many artifacts at this stage so the little guy in Conflux is likely to stay little.
I think the picks you made are fine. However, I would have gone into blue for the Kiss of Amenisha and then taken the two 3/3 flyers in pack 3 but w/e. It all worked out.
So, Im a little confused about your match 3. Did the Naya guy cast the Ranger of Eos and then search out NOTHING? I see the Ranger in the GY and no one drops at all.
Seems like he had ample opportunity to drop them 1-drop guys…Was he really playing a 4-drop 2/2 with no search targets?
If so then Id have to say “GOD HES TERRIBLE”!
Still tho, a win is a win.
-M
Great job. I agree with you that is was starting to look a bit like a train wreck at the beginning but it looks like you were able to cut white off enough so that you were getting some real goodies in packs 2 and 3. Once again great job.
Congratulations on 1800! Just wanted to say thanks again for running this site, it has helped me immensely.
I think you probably had the most coherent strategy from what we saw of your opponents. They clearly couldn’t handle the rushdown, nice work.
P1/P3: I think you made the right call here. You already want to go heavy white with your earlier picks, namely the knight. I think you’d have to sacrifice the knight to have a deck that can consistently lay down the infiltrator on turn two(and frankly the knight is the stronger card), and I don’t think there is any serious disparity in strength between these cards.
P1/P5: I think the Drake is stronger than the blessing here. I don’t think it’s that hard to pick pump up for the aggro GW/x decks and you’ve already grabbed a blessing so far. Drake is a strong pick for the top of the curve if you wind up in bant or esper, either of which is possible at this point. You also have the fixing for him.
P1/P10: Your right in the sense that gift is the right pick, but I’m not terribly sure it would have gotten played. You want to stick with non-creature spells that pump your guys for damage/removal or to remove blockers in this deck. If you got an absolute ridiculous bomb later it probably would have made the deck but I don’t think this mis-pick really affected you much.
p2/p9: For the record, I hate coma veil. I really hate coma veil, and when I have to play it I make a very sad face. However, your not exactly going to be playing much removal in these colors. Your not splashing red so far, and the veil does combo with the Benediction since you don’t even have to wait for them to decide to turn the guy sideways. I don’t think the hate was necessary.
p3/p1: Rough pack. Even if you decided to splash though, behemoth was the right pick over the sphere since you really don’t want to waste your early turns doing anything but playing threats. There wasn’t much else here imo, good call.
p3/p2: This pick is a windmill slam. The behemoth will have lifelink with consistency, and a 5/3 with lifelink is ridiculous. The fact that you can ramp into him on turn 3 with your two stewards in this deck make him just that much scarier. I’d have been extremely happy to have this passed to me. You definitely made the right call as this is the strongest pick for you by far.
p3/p6: I think the comorants are pretty strong with the double sanctums and the metallurgeon. I wouldn’t have minded splashing them even if they were my only blue spell. Still, the meditant helps you gas up even if he isn’t as aggressive as the birds. It’s a tough call, I’d have grabbed the birds but I can’t say the meditant was a bad choice.
I might have splashed a little blue. You had the fixing to support it without losing too much consistency I think with the land cycler and two panorama’s. Still, your deck is ridiculously good and you did a fine job drafting it. You came out of a mediocre first pack to solidify a very impressive aggro deck. Kudos.
@metalman – He did in fact search up nothing with the Ranger. I was a little surprised about that one myself. Probably would have made the games a couple turns longer if he had, but I don’t see the outcome being any different. Also, I wouldn’t say it’s “Terrible”, not good, but 3/2 for four used to be the norm curve-wise.
@Goldenvinze – I was actually thinking Esper after my first pick, but the cards just weren’t coming. I think everyone just took the best cards and it left me wondering what my signal was supposed to be. At least the cards came great in pack two.
@alternativechris2 – Thanks for posting!
Thanks everyone on the congrats. I have to tell you that I literally jumped in the air after that second round win. Great feeling and honestly, I probably couldn’t have done it without the awesome comments from all the good players so thanks to everyone who posted from the beginning until now.
When I first started this project, the project itself kind of got in my way. I kept thinking about what everyone would say about my picks and letting the mechanics of the project distract me from playing and drafting optimally. But, I tried what people said I should be doing and when it worked out, I worked it into my strategy. Now, running the project is less on my mind and though I keep what people say in mind when I draft, I draft more instinctively now than I used to.
I hope I can keep this kind of consistency up for a while, be interesting to see how high I can make it.
db
congrats on the win!
Also, congrats on playing a strategy rather than a shard; GW beatdown is about one of the sickest draft strategies in SHA-SHA-CFX if the cards are flowing and I’m glad you had the chance to play it.
It also helps that you were playing 3 5-color players
Also from what I saw of the draft, I’m not sure what your fellow drafters were doing; Manaforce mace is a 2nd to 4th pick, especially with all the 5 color going on; that you got it 11th pick 3rd pack means that the people at your table didn’t know how to draft at all ><
Just 1 play tip: I think I would have sided out Gleam of resistance instead of Lapse of Certainty for Filigree Fracture after Game 1 Round 1. Your deck is so reliant on tempo and has so little color trouble that I think the earlier tempo counter spell is better than Gleam of Resistance, since that can potentially deny your opponent a much needed land draw for a turn; it really puts the pain on an opponent who stumbles in their development at all.
Great deck overall though. I love the 3 akrasan squire to 6 two drops. It is so incredibly fast!
As everyone else has said, Congratulations on your victory. Breaking 1800 on an 8-4 win is awesome.
It is somewhat difficult to argue against any of your picks when you take down an 8-4. The unconventional 2-color build (never thought a 2-color build would be unconventional) was really nice.
I definitely agree with your first pick (Stone) and that once you pass the Thoctar you give clear signals that you are not in Naya. With that said, I would have probably grabbed the Drake P1P5 over the blessing and the Ranger in P2P3. But, with how well your deck worked, your picks of the blessing and squire were clearly correct. I think the higher CC guys would have slowed you down too much and given your opponent an opportunity to build a defense and then an eventual offense.
Good job again. I cannot wait until the next one!
[...] to my fellow MTG blogger, draftbetter. He just broke 1800 on MTG Online with a sick, sick two color Green/White beatdown decklist featuring not one, not two, but three Akrasan [...]