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Counting down now to Magic 2010 at least a couple more Shards/Conflux/Reborn before that happens though. Click the link for the next exciting episode.
I was going to go for a Swiss draft to get out my slump but it stayed at zero in the queue while the 4-3-2-2 filled up twice so I jumped in.
Pack One
Pick One:
A pretty weak pack for the most part. Two picks that leave me open and one that closes me off. I think that the Charger has more potential for building a good deck than the Spray.
Pick Two:
I already have a green card in my pack and the Knight is mostly green anyway. I'll take the good two-drop here.
Pick Three:
I like the Shrine, but I don't think it's a better pick than another Knight. I think I would rather have a good card than good fixing this early in the draft. Plus, at this point, I'm thinking Bant or w/g at this point.
Pick Four:
Tough choice here. I always like the Naya Battlemage but I think the Squire is a little more aggressive while the Battlemage is a little more controlling. And I haven't had a lot of luck with controlling decks recently.
Pick Five:
Now I'm glad I took that other Squire because I'm going to take this one here as well.
Pick Six:
The Fatestitcher seems late here but also not very aggressive. I think the Guardians can play a similar role of stopping an attacker while beefing up my own attacker.
Pick Seven:
That's a lot of black cards. Too late really to jump into a color for a Marauder though. I'll take the fixing now, seems like a good time to do so.
Pick Eight:
OK, now I'm glad I took that fixing and it looks like the idea of a straight two color deck is moving to a red splash.
Pick Nine:
Sideboard card over the cycler.
Pick Ten:
This guy could get the job done at the end of the game.
Pick Eleven:
More sideboard now that red is looking like more of a possibility.
Pick Twelve:
Another late signal of red. Might not make the deck with a double red requirement.
Pick Thirteen:
Pick Fourteen:
Pick Fifteen:
Pack Two
Pick One:
I like the flying Squire more than the six drop. Much more aggressive.
Pick Two:
I have plenty of good creatures, time for a removal spell. The Path is way easy to take here.
Pick Three:
Liking the Archers from this pack more thant he battle trick and the Rioters.
Pick Four:
Another nice aggressive two-drop over the fixing. I think I want to be playing good creatures on turn two with this deck. The Outlander lets me continue to do this more so than the Spire.
Pick Five:
Even if I don't end up getting too many red permanents, this guy stops some of the Esper fliers just fine and can be aggressive on his own.
Pick Six:
If the Sylvan Bounty was a Gleam of Resistance, I would take it over the Outlander. Since it's not, I'm going to take the Outlander.
Pick Seven:
As much as I like the acceleration of the Mystic, there is no way I will be able to play it reliably on turn three so it won't be very good accel. Plus, I don't have much to accelerate into at this point. I'll go with the fine three drop that will hopefully be a 3/3 by turn four or five.
Pick Eight:
A nice time for the Meditant here. I'm lacking in four drops and this guy with his large behind can attack nicely with some Exalted triggers or hold off an army if necessary.
Pick Nine:
No Gleam, I have to go with the Bounty over the Spore Burst
Pick Ten:
Outlander number three over another Bounty.
Pick Eleven:
No free Upkeep for that Esperzoa from earlier.
Pick Twelve:
Pick Thirteen:
Pick Fourteen:
Pick Fifteen:
Pack Three
Pick One:
No bomb rare, but definitely a bomb in here for the top end of my curve. I'm happy to take this here.
Pick Two:
I'll strengthen my red commitment for more decent removal over the flier here.
Pick Three:
I was hoping for some of these guys here. A fantastic drop after a turn one Squire.
Pick Four:
More cheap removal. Looking like I'm going to need just a bit more fixing.
Pick Five:
Speaking of cheap fixing. This has to be a perfect time for the Borderpost for my deck.
Pick Six:
Now this pack is surpisingly empty of any pick that will end up in my deck. I like the Mage Slayer but I think I don't want to break tempo for it. I'd rather cut the Soul Manipulation.
Pick Seven:
I like the Armorguard, but I think I want another top end guy that does fixing as well. Plus, I'm betting that the one I saw earlier comes back around.
Pick Eight:
Wow, didn't think I was getting two of these. Easy pick here.
Pick Nine:
No, I don't like the Captured Sunlight. I'd rather cut a card.
Pick Ten:
Thought so, the Armorguard tabled and I'm going to take it and play it.
Pick Eleven:
That's just bonkers. This time, I don't have to pass anything remotely playable to cut the excellent Manipulation.
Pick Twelve:
Pick Thirteen:
These guys are better than thirteenth pick.
Pick Fourteen:
Pick Fifteen:
Final Deck
I don't think I've made a deck with 20 creatures in it since OLS. Three good removal spells and high quality creatures. My last decision was to add the Welkin Guide over the Guardians of Akrasa to fill the five spot in my curve with something.
Matches
Been a tough time recently for me. I hope to turn this one around. I'm starting this draft at 1747. I missed the graphic on my first hand as it was a one lander, and a Mountain at that. This is the following six:
Not great, but I am on the draw and I have access to green with the Rannet, or in the highly likely event that I draw a Forest early on, I have all three colors and some fine aggressive drops, I keep. I do draw a Forest for turn two and play out the two Pridemages on turn three and four. I even draw a Mountain before I can cycle the Rannet and I decide to keep it to play. He has good guys on his side and hasters and a bit of removal. His fast start trumps my start and when he gets me low and has armloads of tokens, I see that I cannot win.
I thought that was a good start, but his was even better. I put in the Guardians of Akrasa for the Welkin Guide in hopes of getting into a position where I can hold back his army a bit faster. I start pretty good:
I have access to a Forest via the Rannet if I don't draw it, plus, the Stinger will take care of his tokens all while the Outlander will hold off his Hackblades, I keep. I get down the squire and we are trading some damage early while I also have the Stinger and a Borderpost.
Playing out the Outlander completely stops his attacks and I continue to get in with the Squire while taking out his tokens. I get to six mana and drop the Wurm netting me another Outlander in the process. He plays a very non-aggressive card in the Wall of Reverence and starts to gain back some life while stopping my attack in the air. No worries though as I have a 7/7 Wurm that is play the part of The Abyss all while still taking out his tokens one by one.
I finally draw removal for his wall and continue to take out dudes, but not before he has gained back twelve of his life while I'm still sitting rather precariously low. Valeron Outlander number three earns a concession.
That was better, let's look at my start for game three:
Best starter yet, I keep. The Borderpost on turn one and the Pridemage on turn two go just fine. He has a turn three Putrid Leech which after my turn three Pridemage, I am happy to exchange the exalted guy for his guy and two life. He lets the attack through though and cracks back with the Leech using it's ability. I don't know about you guys but taking six and dealing four seems like a losing race. Until he plays a Spore burst for three tokens. I stop his attacks with my pro-bear. and the ground gums up a bit for a while.
I am still able to attack as my guys are getting bigger and better. He takes out one of my Outlanders and swing in for another attack, but I still have the board under serious control and he is low on cards. He must not have had a solution for the Wurm though as he again concedes earlier than I would have in the same postion.
Whew, slump; busted. For the single elimination drafts anyway. The win brings me up to 1750 and I have to say his deck was fine, but an aggro four color deck with that wall and no removal for the big guys says that I probably should have won this one.
Round two and I start with this:
Risky to keep, but I don't know what my opponent is playing and I have more ways to draw or fetch white mana than any other color in the deck, so I keep. I draw a Plains early and get my guys going. He has the Goblin Outlander though to stop most of my deck. Fortunately, I have a pinger to hit his life total while neither one of us attack. That is until we both play big monsters.
He plays out another fatty to ensure that an exchange with my Wurm will happen and I draw some more good creatures and see that my opponent is playing at least four colors and buys time but my Welkin Guide has ensured that the game will end on schedule.
So far so good, here is my opener for game two:
This is just fine. I have some drops and if I get desperate, I can Path one of my own guys to get the land I need. I end up drawing fine and playing my guys out on schedule. We trade creatures while he gets in a bit more damage but I take out his guys as well. We kind of lock up the board for a bit in the early going.
He uses a Slave to Bolas to take out my Archers so that I just don't wreck his ability to attack even though it's pretty well wrecked as it is already. I draw some more guys and I am able to continue to push the attack in my favor.
His deck is resilient enough to handle my big guys and he gets the two-for-one with the Branching Bolt on my Guide and Pridemage. I knew that might happen though and I'm so far ahead on the board that I know it doesn't matter. He has some good cards in the end, but he is unable to stop my next flier and my Stinger.
On to the finals, been a while, happy to be here. I gained a few more points off of this opponent going up to 1759. Someone higher rated than me it would appear. Here's my opening hand for the finals:
Seems fine to me. I have two and three drops and when I do get that red mana source, I should be better off as it will add removal and make my Rioters bigger, I keep. We both have Outlanders for turn two and I play out the Rioters as a 2/2 on turn three with a Mountain soon on the way.
We trade off some guys and I use removal to take out his Outlander while shrinking his Hackblade and continuing to attack with more good stuff soon on the way.
He has hit me hard though and a Breath of Malfegor scares me a little, but at least there is no board presence.
I put him in position where I am winning next turn, I just have to not die. He scares me even more with a Blitz Hellion but he is mostly tapped out and I have the win on the board, I don't need the Squire for that win so he gets sacrificed for the cause.
My opponent asked if it was right to play the Breath then the Hellion as he had both at the time. I told him at that time that I wasn't sure as I didn't want to tell him that he messed up big time by playing the Breath first. If he had played the hellion first, I would not have blocked and I would have been at five life with him having the Breath in hand. A sure fire loss for me in that situation.
As he played it though, I take the win and we move to game two where I have this to start:
Similar to my last one, but perhaps even better this time around. I play creatures on turns two and three and he matches with a Jund Battlemage and a Yoke of the Damned on my Archers. I take this opportunity to use my Path on my own guy for the first time and fetch out a Mountain enabling the Stinger and the Backlash while making my Rioters bigger.
I take out his freshly played pro-white bear with my Backlash so that I can get my Wurm through but he is using the Battlemage to minimize his damage. I'm about to stop that though with the Stinger.
He sees that he will be unable to block with his token so he chumps with his Battlemage and makes a token afterwards. I take out the token and he draws for his turn and concedes.
Man, loved my deck. It's what I'm striving for most of the time but I never end up getting.
Summary
That finals win gets me up to 1764 and headed up for a change. I get the four packs as prize so my next draft is covered for a change as well. I did feel that my hardest challenge was my first opponent yet he was the lowest rated of all of them. I didn't have mana issues one time and lost the only game where I mulliganed. I should have another article this week for the statistics of all 100 drafts.
Until the next time,
draftbetter
14 Comments to “MTGO Draft 102”
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Good draft! I went on tilt this weekend and ran out of packs finally
no more ACR for me till next week when I get my free sealed set for opting out of the monthly champs 
annot wait for M10 er OK cannot wait for MED3 but M10 will be a nice break!
Nice draft. The two color GW deck strikes again (one that I have been saying is insanely good).
I dont agree with your comment about the tapper though. The Naya Battlemage IS an aggressive card. He can pump and hes a dood. He is the clear choice over the Akrassan Squire IMO.
The way the GW aggressive deck loses is an early fatty that you cant get around and the Naya Battlemage beats that. Mabye Im just jaded versus the Squire tho…Theres been so many games where I draw him late with a clear board and he ends up being poo where the Battlemage is almost always a huge game changing rip.
In game one of match one why is your Sangrinite Surge in hand? I dont know how the match played out but it looks like he only had one removal spell and yet killed off your Knight (double block Id assume) and your Sacellum Archers (Intimidation Bolt Id guess). I know in general you want to be the aggressor but sometimes its better to play defensively versus an opponents aggressive draw.
Grats again on the win!
-M
Im not sure about the tapper vs squire, and looking over how few picks you were getting late pack one i was worried you wouldnt be able to put together enough playables, but it worked out well in the end, as aggresive decks often do in this format. grats on the win.
Grats for the win – this is the kind of deck I like to play.
Couple of comments:
p1p1 Rhox Charger is the obvious pick, but I’d keep in mind Bant Charm too. It is IMO the second best of the Charms, if ther Charger were say Herald I might pick it over the Spray.
p2p5 I must admit, I really dig Rhox Meditant. I might pick it even over Ember Weaver at this point, card draw is just that good.
p2p7 Matca Rioters is pretty underperforming in aggro decks to my feel. I’m assuming it’s 2/2 most of the time, with my mana builds that is. Still, nothing better to pick from this pack.
p3p2 Messenger Falcons for me. Evasion, card draw over splash colour removal.
p3p7 Given how I’d have done p3p2, I probably wouldn’t have thinked playing R at this point. Leonin Armorguard.
p3p9 I’d have taken Captured Sunlight.
p3p12 I might have taken Stormcaller’s Boon just in case. It might be splashable in a pinch, it’s something that can take game for GWu. In UW it’s kinda out of place really – after all, most of the cards there have evasion already!
Deck:
Suggest +1 Plains, -1 Mountain, for 8 T1 sources of W for the Squires, 7 T2 sources of G. Also I might switch the Stinger for lowly Guardians of Akrasa with that mana and let the splash just be there for the Backlashes. Stretching the mana base to reliably play the Stinger early would be bad, and I don’t think it has necessary late game impact unlike the Sangrite Backlashes.
I probably would’ve ended pure GW if I’d drafted this.
Matches:
Match 2, game 1 would be mulligan for me.
Kinda funny how the Akrasan Squires seemed to evade your starting hands. They seem to do that, the buggers. Must be scared of that “Plains, Squire” -opening that always makes me cringe.
Anyway, probably very nice to hit finals and win for a change. Long streak of bad beats can be very disheartening.
Good draft! Congratulations on the win, and breaking a cold streak. Believe me, I know how it feels to go into a slump… Hope I break out of my own soon as well!
I think it was an excellent idea to put in the Welkin Guide, but I think I would have cut the Matca Rioters rather than the Guardians of Akrasa for this deck. I think you only had 2 Mountains, and 2 ways to fetch a Mountain (not including using Path to Exile on your own guy – heh, heh!), so the Matca Rioters would frequently be only a 2/2 for 3 mana (which is VERY sub-par in this format). Guardians of Akrasa are not quite as aggressive, but in a deck with 20 creatures their having Defender won’t matter much, and they are much better blockers than the Rioters (in addition to pumping your lone attacker with Exalted).
I also think that Naya Battlemage probably would have been a better pick than Akrasan Squire, though fortunately it looks like it ended up not mattering anyway. I agree with metalman that it is almost as good of a card early, and a much better card late in the game.
Congrats again, and thanks for having such an awesome site!
Very Respectfully,
DarthDorsey
I have to disagree a bit, I wouldn’t consider the Battlemage even in the same league for early game impact. The earliest it would do anything is T4, while in deck like this T1 Squire can easily end up eating 1/4 to 1/3 of your opponent life through attacks and exalted by that point.
Now in the late game Squire really loses a lot of it’s relevance, there Battlemage is superior.
My argument is that typically the Squire doesnt get out there turn 1. That early in the draft you have no way of knowing if youll end up with a GW aggro deck that COULD get the Squire out on T1 reliably so the Battlemage is a superior pick.
Even with the almost all GW deck that was drafted you only have 7 plains. That gives a pretty low chance that the Squire will get out there turn 1, which is basically the only turn where hes better than the Battlemage.
-M
True, Battlemage is indeed the safe and “right” pick early if you want to stay flexible.
But personally, after Charger and two pump Knights though I’ll easily accept the Squire offered and set my sights for GW aggro.
Take a situation where Rhox Charger and Knights would’ve been replaced with something janky. Then my picks probably would’ve gone Bant Charm -> Fatestitcher -> triple. Now Squire wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting, I’d have picked the Battlemage.
But for excellent aggro start this draft had, Squire for me as interrupt.
Squire in this format is mediocre at best…Even with the best draw possible: Getting Squire T1, Attacking for 2 and dropping a 2-drop 2/2 T2, you still only get in for 3 on T3…and its very likely that your opponent can just use one card (a 2-drop 3/2) to block and trade guys T3.
If the majority of 2-drop guys are only 2/2 then Squire is quite a bit better. However, the majority of 2-drop guys in this format end up being 3/2′s…making Squire average at best since your T3 attack can be a simple block and trade.
Add to that the Squires extremely low value in the mid and late game and I think its no contest between him and the Battlemage. Theres really only a 3-4 point or so damage loss by playing T3 Battlemage versus T1 Squire. Easily made up by the tapping ability.
Except of course that’s not even close to “best draw possible”.
Just looking at cards in this particular draft’s deck:
T1 Plains, Squire
T2 Forest, Qasali Pridemage, attack for 3
T3 Attack for 4, land, drop
Turn three and you’ve downed seven points, unless your opponent can produce some strong early counter that doesn’t hinder his development.
And I’d claim it isn’t some idealized play – with say 2 Squires and solid set of exalted 2-drops taking down 6 to 7 points by turn 3 happens a lot. Focused mana base means easily mulling mediocre hands to one that can give those early beats.
For the sake of discussion I’ll stress out: Naya Battlemage is a good, right pick in the situation. In no way a wrong one. My personal preference for aggro and feel of ACR limited meta just makes me prefer Squire after first three picks like this.
You know what guys, the Naya Battlemage/Akrasan Squire pick was definitely one of the hardest ones of the draft. I even had the Battlemage selected for the first 30 seconds of the selection time. I think either pick would have been fine in that situation but I am glad I picked the way I did. Tying up the mana in the early turns was a concern that pushed me towards the Squire plus, if I’m going to do a one-drop, this is the guy I want.
I think you made the right call on the squire. At this point of the draft you almost have to try to force GW aggro, your previous picks would just be amazing in that deck and I think I’d have made the same choice.
The other branching path in the draft I think was P1P7. I think you did just fine there picking the panorama, but the cheap flyer was another option. With the exalted you find in GW, a couple of fliers isn’t necesarilly a bad idea for a splash. The pick after that if you wanted to go for a U splash would have been the drake and it would have altered your draft a little bit. Seeing decent fliers late in the packs is a good sign that the table isn’t overdrafting blue and it is a strong color to pair with white.
Taking the fixing and going with a red splash is also strong, so what you did was solid. You have more removal to choose from in the following packs and ensured you had some way of clearing up the ground by getting into red. It’s a shame you didn’t see any pingers in the third pack to go with your stinger, but you cleaned up anyway. I liked your final build, and the only disagreement I have is that I felt the guardians should have made the final cut. I’d have cut either the rioters of the Weaver, since a good esper deck can be problematic I’d have left the weaver MD.
So I did a video response to this article, you can see it broken into 4 ten minute sections here on youtube. Basically I just go through the draft and talk about pick choices game play deck construction ect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWbEB_0Q8c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_RPWhZSrGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G105LHcJuIk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6Khmj56G_s
Xaoslegend-