Felorin's picture
By: Felorin, Dr. Cat
Nov 26 2010 2:40am
0
Login to post comments
3036 views


In some draft formats, I find myself discovering a few archetypes (or archetype families) that I turn to again and again. Though even in those, I have to "think on my feet" a lot the first few drafts.  Other draft formats prove to be rich mines of different possibilities to try.  Those are the best ones!  So before we go over this latest draft, I want to offer a few suggestions on how to play a game I'll call...

Build Your Own Archetype!

First I'll say, if there are well known and powerful archetypes you've read up on, favorite archetypes you've done well with before, etc. you go for those first.  Playing BYOA is generally a backup plan, for when your draft veers in odd directions, or you're not seeing the kinds of cards that give you an easy plan to jump into. That said, here are some things to keep in mind when boldly venturing into new territory.

Fatestitcher

1) Pick flexible cards early.  I always advocate this for Scars anyway. Cards that have synergy with more different other cards, or cards that can play more than one type of role in a deck, both keep your options open for some juicy idea to come up as you consider later picks.

Hoard-Smelter Dragon

2) Pick powerful cards early. When is this not true? Ideally you want cards that are both flexible, and powerful.  If you only have one or the other, take whatcha got.  If you have a pack with one powerful card and one flexible card - good luck!  Well hey, usually take the powerful card, right?

Glimmerpoint Stag

3) Know the set.  As you start to piece together your first few jigsaw puzzle pieces, it's valuable to know what else the set contains that could fit with possible plans you're considering. Especially knowing what's at common, and uncommons to a lesser extent.

Goblin Gaveleer

4) Know what cards are unloved. A bit of a corollary to the above, if you know certain colors and/or cards are usually snubbed and come around late, you can craft a plan based on stuff that's easier to find, or even get multiples of.

Long-Term Plans

5) Be fluid, re-evaluate your potential plans after each pick. You obviously don't want to be deciding on a plan near the end of pack 3.  But actually you want to get a ways into pack 1 taking good cards and reading signals before you even start having one or more "maybe" plans, then firm them up as you get further along.  And you may well want to be making major decisions or course changes in pack 2.  This is more true in Scars than most formats, as color issues are lessened, strong artifacts have a home in many decks, and ditching a few colored picks for a new color is sometimes quite viable.

Warped Researcher

6) Think outside the box. I've sort of implied it above, but you want to be crafting plans for types of cards that can synergize well, and what the overall deck's strategy would be. What is its plan to win? What is its plan to stop the other guy from winning, so you get to do your winning plan? One of the most exciting times is when you realize some cards interact in a way nobody's been using, and exploit it. But more commonly you'll be looking at more conventional things, like "Maybe 0/4 blockers are more significant in this block than people thought, and they enable more late-game cards to be played".  Which leads us to...

Teferi's Puzzle Box

7) Think inside the box too. Make use of what you know from other limited formats. Archetypes like evasion plus ground-gummers (often blue/white), red/black "lots of removal" decks, fatties plus removal, control. The roles of bombs, removal, card draw, counterspells, different sizes and styles of creatures, these are things you know about from previous sets. Then take that knowledge and temper it with whatever impressions you have about this set to fine tune your plan. Is this a fast set, or a slow one? Is weenie rush viable or terrible in this set?  Etc.

Master Warcraft

8) Measure your ideas against known decks. This is a bit more challenging.  But if I have a rough outline of a plan after 9 picks, I can stop and ask myself "How would this deck do against Infect?  How would it do against red/white metalcraft?  How would it do against blue/white flyers?"  If you see weaknesses, you can adjust the plan to seek more answer cards, or shift to a different plan altogether.  If you think it would be strong against the most popular archetypes - rock on, dude!

Predict

9) Develop your instincts. This is good advice for any plan in Magic, in any format of limited or constructed.  Best way to do this is just play a lot of Magic.  Nuff said!

I'm sure I'll think of other things later that should be on that list.  But that's a peek into how I approach building an archetype "on the fly", as I did in this draft (and in draft 18 too).  I will say also, that sometimes I play BYOA when I've heard just a little bit that a certain archetype might exist, or a certain card might be good, but I don't really know much about it. Again, that was the case both last week, and to some extent this week.  Some remarks I read in a recent Owen Turtenwald article strongly influenced my pack 2, pick 1 choice, among others.  Let's wade into pack 1 so we can get there and discuss it, shall we?

This draft was a 4-3-2-2 I saw about to fire and impulsively hopped into. So no punting in the first round like last draft, these are all elimination rounds & I have to play tight.  But first let's try to draft tight, eh?

 

Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick: Myr Battlesphere
 

Most of you will learn nothing from me in the first two picks here. But hey, if you didn't know already, "Take bombs".  Ok, that's out of the way. This is a strong pack, with Razor Hippogriff and Contagion Clasp both being great cards, and a number of good cards to go with 'em.  Always make a mental note of what you passed downstream before clicking on your pick.  Myr Battlesphere is expensive, but it's great on offense or defense, or to give you guys to feed to a sacrifice ability. It also gives you some reach! Plus the concept in the art is funny as hell.

  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick: Geth, Lord of the Vault
 
 

Pick Bombs.  Wow, someone passed this?  One uncommon is missing.  No uncommon compares to this guy, not even Oxidda Scrapmelter or Skinrender. Maybe someone overvalues Volition Reins? It's not as good in this format as it seems.  Geth, Lord of the Vault is hard to beat if you don't have an Arrest or Turn to Slag in hand to play immediately.  Revoke Existence is awesome, so after the first pack plus this, I will probably not see good white in pack 2.


  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick: Sylvok Lifestaff
 

Okay, I don't know what kind of deck tops out at those two bombs, other than it probably contains black and wants mana acceleration.  Those two are 900 pound gorilla cards, that sleep wherever they want to. I pick the card that's versatile enough to work in multiple archetypes, plus helps buy time for expensive cards that expect to crush in lategame if the game lasts till lategame. All the other playables require us to commit to a second color and/or to metalcraft.

  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick: Grafted Exoskeleton
 
 

Poison looks like it might be open? I seriously consider the Tel-Jilad Fallen here, as in the stalling plan he can block artifact creatures all day and shrink even a Rusted Relic. On offense, against someone with only artifact blockers he's a four turn clock even if you have no other poison sources.  He does involve moving in strongly on a second color, though. Grafted Exoskeleton means no color commitment, it can go on weenies or mana myr to make great blockers to stall to late game, and can turn any fattie into a two turn clock.  Seems fun.


  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick: Clone Shell
 
 

My first four picks still have me headed for no archetype I know of, and this pack doesn't clear things up.  Glint Hawk and Sky-Eel School are fine cards, but don't seem to have any synergy to do with the cards I have so far. Plus the Hawk is risky after I passed killer white in the first two picks. (I did, in one Sealed Deck event, bounce a Battlesphere with a Glint Hawk to replay and get 4 more myr tokens.  But that's a corner case.)  Carrion Call seems the pick if I'd taken the poison elf last pick, but I didn't. I did get poison equipment so I could consider it, plus it can flash in as pseudo-removal.  Stoic Rebuttal is even less reason to branch into blue than the flyer. Clone Shell keeps color choices open and is good for fetching up & cheating into play my first two bombs, so it seems fine. What archetypes use Clone Shell again?


  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick: Tangle Angler
 
 

Wow, another Fallen.  I could have had two of them, and someone else probably will, pretty good! Strider Harness is a pretty good equipment, and if I draw one of my bombs after I'm at cost+1 mana, it could get haste, and it's colorless.  Trigon of Thought - too dang slow. Poison is showing as fairly open here and I might want to move in - in any case I'm willing to try committing to a second color here, as green pairs multiple ways with black, has been seeming fairly open (playables in most packs, and 3 here), and I love Tangle Angler in almost any kind of deck. He blocks well, he takes out little utility guys, shrinks big guys, and sometimes plays the lure game for alpha strikes. This is a great card! I have two equipment to put on him too, if you pump this guy's power he's insane.


  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick: Untamed Might
 
 

If I'm going into poison, this is a fine card in that deck. If not, it's still usable, though not as great. Anyway green/black poison can run a couple of big bombs that can win games by themselves, just like a non-poison deck can run Skittle (aka Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon).  So my first two picks aren't wasted anyway.


  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick: Dross Hopper
 
 

If we're not ending up in poison, early drops to trade and keep me alive till Bomb Time will be welcome.  And hey, this could carry the Grafted Exoskeleton if I'm lucky (and have a guy or two to sac), right?


  Pack 1 pick 9:

  My Pick: Infiltration Lens
 
 

This is good on poison guys, creating a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" blocking decision.  It's crazy on Tangle Angler, who can pay to force the entire enemy team to block him, and then draw two cards for each. This is how I lost the only match I ever lost to poison - his angler/lens let him draw four extra cards the turn he swung in with it.  Tel-Jilad Defiance is a fine pick here too, and might have gone better with my eventual deck - but I'm not psychic!  Still, it's so versatile even in a poison deck you could make a case for it here, and it cantrips.  Great and underappreciated card.


  Pack 1 pick 10:

  My Pick: Golden Urn

 

Nothing for me here. Off color cards, Foundry sucks in 99% of all decks.  The urn does stall towards lategame with a bunch of cheap lifegain, but I'd only play it if very short on playables or very amazingly needing lifegain.  I'd rather save it to sideboard in matches where I know it's potentially good, rather than maindeck it.


Pack 1 pick 11:

  My Pick: Golem Foundry

 

If I get a million proliferate cards and artifacts I could do something with this.  Maybe I should have taken Blunt the Assault instead.


Pack 1 pick 12:

  My Pick: Psychic Miasma
 
 

This is black, and I suppose you stall them a little if you get them to throw away their worst spell.  It might be a creature sometimes. I hope not to need filler this badly though.


  Pack 1 pick 13:

  My Pick: Loxodon Wayfarer
 
 

I don't even want Echo Circlet in my sideboard, so I take the off-color spell. Probably there's some reason for the Circlet to exist though and I should have been Thinking Outside The Box.  Let me try that now.  Ok, I'm thinking a deck with midrange or fattie creatures could sideboard this in against a poison deck that tries to swarm in the last few points.  Blocking and killing two of the swarm with one creature is some good, I guess.


  Pack 1 pick 14:

  My Pick: Alpha Tyrranax
 
 

Pretty late for him.  Maybe "fatties" could be the strategy for this deck.  Looking back, at pick 6 I see this pack was 100% playables, so I guess that's why I get this.  Most people don't want these guys, but a few people do.


  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick: Vigil for the Lost
 
 

Someone wanted the basic land, I guess.  Sweet, an extra uncommon to build up my Scars collection with. I need to put this in my constructed infinite mana combo deck.  Just because it's stupid.

So, coming out of pack 1 I'm not very happy with my deck.  It's unfocused, not a ton of synergy.  Not a great start towards poison with one infect creature and one infect equipment plus some support spells.  Not a great start towards metalcraft decks either, with artifacts that are expensive, and artifacts that are poor quality like the foundry. I'm anticipating possibly having to ditch a number of these cards for not fitting my final archetype well, which could be a problem, and I may need a lot of help from packs 2 and 3 to get a strong deck here. Thoughts of raredrafting alternate with thoughts of getting a weak round 1 opponent and stealing 2 packs. I push them down and think how I'm just gonna draft well and make my deck good.  Maybe.


  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick: Alpha Tyrranax
 

Ok, I only want about half these cards.  Nice pack!  Glimmerpoint Stag and Kemba, Kha Regent are very good. But in double-white they're hard to move into, and would probably mean ditching an existing color. I do have three equipment already for Kemba. But remember too, I passed strong white early in pack 1.  Perilous Myr is good & goes in any deck, not a bad pick. Shatter is splashable, and powerful removal. Untamed Might is betting hard on poison, too big a gamble with so little so far. Tumble Magnet is a very good card, and the top candidate for obvious pick to make here.  Darksteel Sentinel often isn't as good as the magnet, and Bleak Coven Vampires is out because I don't know if I'm going for metalcraft at all - it wouldn't beat Tumble Magnet even if I were.

But then there's that big green fattie.  It *might* even wheel.  But last draft my green fatties weren't wheeling and I went the 4/4 route. I remembered that tournament report by Owen Turtenwald, where he said most decks just can't answer the big dinosaur. Also he said Tumble Magnet is weaker than people think in sealed, where you often aren't aggro enough for three extra turns to make the difference and you play many long grinding control matchups where it just runs out.  Though in draft you often will be quick aggro to get good value from it.  But wait, if I'm playing slow early stall plus fatties, I'm not quick aggro right? Well, stalling 3 turns will often be enough for me to start throwing down 5 and 6 drops, maybe I shoulda grabbed Magnet and tried to wheel. I did find out there was another green fattie player later, that doesn't mean it wasn't the right percentage play here though.  Especially since one wheeled in pack 1!

As it was though, I decided to go "all in" on green fatties as my win condition here. What I want now is to look heavily for mana accel and black removal (or any removal), prioritizing those over most everything else.  And a couple more green fatties is fine, right?  Lots of fatties!  A deck that lays one fattie can see it fall to arrest, gang blocking, what have you.  In this format, a deck that lays 3 or 4 fatties will probably just win - sometimes as little as 2.  Since there's a lot of weenies and small removal spells, overloading on fatties sometimes leaves them with no viable plan.  So I do want some more fatties as well, even though I have a decent amount for most formats.

Also in Scars, a lot of decks have some good cards and bombs, plus utility cards, diggers like spellbombs, etc.  If my deck is crammed full of gas, it'll beat those decks by having more action & rendering their little myr irrelevant even if they have a bitty piece of equipment on.


  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick: Barbed Battlegear
 
 

I was thinking this contributes to the fattie plan by turning 2/2s into fatties (but I don't have any), or making my fatties quicker clocks (but they're quick enough, and this makes them more vulnerable to blockers and burn).  I feel this is a mis-pick on my part.  Exsanguinate got brief consideration as a staller & finisher, but it doesn't affect the board at all.  I sneer at the Spellbomb for not being "action".  I think Instill Infection is the correct pick here, looking back.  Removes utility guys, swings a trade into a blowout, canrtips.  Should have been my pick here.


  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick: Grasp of Darkness
 

Wow, you could argue that this pack has 7 removal if you count Untamed Might as bad green removal.  Six anyway!  (Eight if you run into that guy who swings into a tapped Soliton and gets all surprised when it untaps and blocks.)  Turn to Slag is hard to splash, but great.  Oxidda Scrapmelter is easy to splash, and great.  Bonds of Quicksilver is the suckiest, Rust Tick is quite good, Tumble Magnet can tap colored creatures unlike the tick, but not forever.  I'd be focused on Magnet, Tick, and Scrapmelter if not for the Grasp of Darkness which is on-color and quite solid.  I saw zero of these in draft 18, but one got to me this time.  There must have been a powerful rare and uncommon taken out of this awesome pack, which will give everyone at the table a strong card the first time around!

  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick: Bladed Pinions
 

I got visions of a 6/5 flyer here. Though Pinions is also good on defense, when you leave a blocker with first strike up.  Still, one of the small black creatures could provide more early defense.  Or Darksteel Myr is lousy against infect but great against most other decks, I've gotten good use out of one in the past.  Anyway my fatties don't need evasion, they just need to keep swinging in most matchups!  If I had it to do over I might take the indestructible guy here, or even the 3/2 reaver.  Light on 3-drops in the deck.

  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick: Heavy Arbalest
 
 

There are other viable cards here, but...  I love me some Arbalest.  This guy brings me up to five in my collection, and I haven't even drafted very many times yet.  Expensive yes, but repeatable removal.  I guess I would pass one of these if Contagion Engine was in the same pack...


  Pack 2 pick 6:

  My Pick: Nihil Spellbomb
 

Ok, I will deign to take the spellbomb if there's nothing else for me in the pack.  Not a bad filler as it will dig me to my bombs.  I should also remember this is in my dang sideboard against things like Corpse Cur or even worse, that Razor Hippogriff I know someone got outa pack 1.

  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick: Slice in Twain
 
 

Green cantripping removal at instant speed?  Yes please!  Craig Wescoe kicked my butt with these in both games of our match at the Austin Wizardworld $5K.  (And a bunch of other good cards too.)  This is one of the best green cards below rare level, easy pick.


  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick: Alpha Tyrranax
 
 

Ok, during the actual draft I wasn't thinking about going this heavy in fatties back at pick 1, I started thinking it here.  Absolutely nothing else for me anyway, but I figured hey, I kinda want to run all three Tyrranax and grab mana accel like mad.


  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick: Bleak Coven Vampires
 
 

Five drop spot is light, he might sometimes get his metalcraft effect which is nice gravy, if not he's still a solid sized body to beat down or block & trade.  Nice way to eat their good removal and then follow with a dinosaur, too.


  Pack 2 pick 10:

  My Pick: Dross Hopper
 
 

I think this guy will usually stall better than the Exsanguinate


  Pack 2 pick 11:

  My Pick: Vulshok Replica
 
 

Either off-color artifact dude can go in my deck. Both will block and kill a hill giant sized dude, but one does it for 2 mana cheaper, getting more in my lacking 3-drop slot.


  Pack 2 pick 12:

  My Pick: Twisted Image
 
 

I will twist through all sorts of contortions to avoid taking an Echo Circlet!


  Pack 2 pick 13:

  My Pick: Lifesmith
 
 

Sweet, a late card that helps stall!  I have enough artifacts to get some value out of him, potentially.  He is the WORST of the five smiths though, never forget.


  Pack 2 pick 14:

  My Pick: Glimmerpost
 
 

This gives me the fabulous option of colorscrewing myself occasionally to gain 1 life that will rarely make the difference in the end.  Awesome!

So pack 2 brought about a plan, and some cards for it.  I'm feeling somewhat better about the deck now, though I still don't think it's great.  Imagining its matchups though, fatties will be very good against infect creatures if I get them out in time, I could trade one Tyrannax for 3 little infect guys.  I should watch out for evasion dudes, tumble magnets, and bladed pinions. But I'm strong against tel-jilad chosen, with plent of non-artifact blockers.   Against typical metalcraft decks, I should be able to overwhelm their smaller number of big creatures and big removal spells with greater threat density, hopefully.  But I need to look out for getting outraced by their early 2/2 flyers.  A blue/white flyers deck could be the worst enemy for this deck, and I haven't got a single spider yet. If I get a ton of mana myrs, outracing them becomes an option too. The white flyers worry me more than blue, as they come out quicker.

 Pack 3 could bring help, let's see!


  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick: Copper Myr
 
 

This deck needs mana myr so much more than anything else, that this is a windmill slam. Revoke Existence is the most powerful card here, worth splashing for some decks.  Wall of Tanglecord would be quite decent for my deck, maybe it'll wheel?


  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick: Perilous Myr
 
 

I love Asceticism a lot, I play it in constructed decks.  It kicked butt in the one poison deck I ever drafted.  But this deck is probably the one it'd be weakest in, full of creatures that don't need protection nearly as much!  It's not useless, but it's expensive and we've got 'expensive spells" covered already.  Rust Tick is fine here, but Perilous Myr comes down a turn sooner and does a lot to gum the board up, creating situations where people skip attacking you for multiple turns so you won't take out their key creature by getting this guy killed.  They can't swing in with x/1s very well either or they get 2-for-1ed.  Great defensive creature, who usually has some utility in mid to late game also.


  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick: Slice in Twain
 

In most of my drafts I'd be debating between the Glint Hawk and his Idol.  Here it's between green's two top removal spells, Sylvok Replica and Slice in Twain.  I think the slice is the better of the two, happy to snag another one. Did I mention Craig Wescoe cast this thing on my dudes?  Anyway having two powerful cantripping removal in the deck is sweet.
 


  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick: Sylvok Replica
 
 

I thought about Genesis Wave here, I really did.  Then I did some crude tribal approximation of "math" in my head.  With 5 and 6 drops plentiful and being what I'm really shooting for, I need to cast this for 8 or 9 mana for it to be really good.  That's pushing my luck way too much.  Or I have excellent removal that blocks grizzly bears until it's needed and generally shores up my early game.  This guy's a great card, the only usual downside to him is the need to splash green to get full value. Not a problem for me!  Instill Infection got a little consideration here, but it costs more & only kills small dudes.  I can take a few turns beating from a 1/1 or a 2/1 & then plop down a big blocker.  Replica helps with some of my bigger problems. (And he can block an x/1 and killl it as dead as the Instill would kill it, in a pinch!)


  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick: Kuldotha Forgemaster
 
 

That Turn to Slag is kinda late.  I coulda hatedrafted it.  But this guy gives me more beef, and could occasionally tinker up my Battlesphere at instant speed.  Still no more mana myr, which is worrisome.


  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick: Wing Puncture
 
 

This can shore up my weakness to flyers, with my fatties I could even shoot down a dragon. There's nothing else in my colors, and the two artifact dudes aren't exciting either.


  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick: Wall of Tanglecord
 
 

Not sure why Cerebral Eruption is still here.  But sweet, a Wall for me!  It shuts down a lot of early offense, and also gives me more flyer protection.  Very nice for this deck to have.


  Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick: Molder Beast
 
 

Why settle for just 6 mana beef when you could have some 5 mana beef?  With trample?  Better than going top-heavy with the 7 drop.


  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick: Neurok Invisimancer
 
 

Dry as a bone.  I take the card that could give me the most trouble if my opponent had it.


  Pack 3 pick 10:

  My Pick: Lifesmith
 
 

More gaining life and trading with enemy bears, please.  I couldn't pay all the triggers if I got 2 in play.  But running 2 in my deck increases the odds that I get 1 in play, which is fine.


  Pack 3 pick 11:

  My Pick: Culling Dais
 
 

Nothing in my colors, Dais is playable in some decks.


  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick: Psychic Miasma
 
 

Won't be running two of these, they get worse in multiples and aren't amazing to start with.  But hey, it's in my colors!


  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick: Vigil for the Lost
 
 

For my infinte mana combo deck again. Srsly.


  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick: Flameborn Hellion
 
 

I'd better keep junior here off the streets, he could actually hurt a Tyrannax!

Well, I got more removal (for artifacts), but only one mana myr.  Time to throw this thing together.


This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy. Visit the draft converter today!

 

First things first - this deck should have 18 lands.  I considered starting it at 18/41, or siding into 18/41 or 18/40 sometimes.  But I ran this.  The deck can survive till 5-6 mana often enough, but it's stronger in any game where it hits fattie mana early rather than having to stall & giving my opponents breathing room.

Bladed Pinions and Infiltration Lens I didn't think were really necessary in here.  I've seen pros playing Golden Urn as another way to buy time for games that want to make it to late-game.  But I have no problems with leaving it out game 1, see if they're in poison (which makes Urn a dead card) or if they're a slow deck too, in which case I might not need it.  Dross Hopper, though, I should have worked one or two of those into the deck, maybe in place of a Lifesmith and/or the Grafted Exoskeleton.  A piece of equipment that's kinda "Meh" in this deck.  That's right, I said "Meh".

Hopper is tempting to exclude because of not wanting to sac stuff.  But you don't have to, and it trades for bears as well as a Lifesmith.  It's more flying defense, if it comes down to 2 for 1-ing yourself or dying, hey, nice to have the option.  Also I have Myr Battlesphere to provide tokens to sac, and Clone Shell and Perilous Myr actually get better if I have an option to destroy them for free at instant speed.  I should be maindecking a hopper or two, I sided them in a number of times.  I also sided in Untamed Might sometimes, and it was pretty good at least against Rusted Relic wearing an Accorder's Shield (yikes!) I did maindeck Wing Puncture since flyers are my biggest weakness - other than maybe super-fast aggro decks.

I wasn't really sure how good this deck was or wasn't, since I'd never played one like it before.  It seemed like it could be good if it drew well, but I wasn't sure how it'd really do.  Would have liked more mana myr and 1 or 2 more Grasp of Darkness.  Still, I was certainly ready to give it my best shot!

Round 1, Fight!

My first round opponent was in Captain America colors, red white and blue.  I had only my two opening land for a while, and he shattered my mana myr, and I missed land drops on turns 3 and 4.  My two Lifesmith didn't gain me any life, but I traded them with a Snapsail Glider and an Auriok Replica to keep my life total high.  After that he got out a couple of Riddlesmith and a Liquimetal Coating.  From there on I drew a land every turn, dropping Molder Beast on turn 7 (which got hit by Arrest), Alpha Tyrranax on turn 8, and a Myr Battlesphere on turn 9 which prompted the concession, with him still stuck on 4 lands.  My hand still had two more 5 drops waiting, Clone Shell and Bleak Coven Vampires.

Molder Beast Alpha Tyrranax Myr Battlesphere

These guys will get the job done.

Game two we both built up a huge board presence.  He got in some early damage with random two power guys and a Tumble Magnet, then I stabilized and gained some life back with Bleak Coven Vampires.  I got Geth out and fetched out his Snapsail Glider, then his Wall of Tanglecord, as he had two flyers out.  But I didn't try to play aggressive to force in damage or trade with some of his guys, or get some activations out of my Sylvok Lifestaff.  I did put the Lifestaff on Perilous Myr and left mana up for my Grasp of Darkness I'd been holding.  I had 7 land, and two Tyrranax and my Battlesphere in hand, but I thought it was more important to contain his flyers, I had 7 creatures on board to his 5, one flying blocker active and another I'd just Geth-ed up ready to come online next turn.  His library was down to 12 cards, and in two more turns Geth could just mill him.

And that's when he showed me why I should have been playing this game differently...

Venser, the Sojourner

This guy gets the job done too.

I'm at 6 life, but I can go up to 9 by killing my Perilous Myr with Grasp to activate the lifestaff.  If I use his 2 points to take out the attacking 4/2, the other guys will deal me just...  9 points.  Nice planeswalker ya got there, pal!

Well, in game 3 I'd know not to let him have an opportunity to venser in an alpha strike.  Attacking goooood.  Trading creatures gooood.

In game 3 I mulliganed down to 6 and was stalled for a while on two swamps plus Copper Myr.  But with that, Sylvok Replica, and Lifestaff I beat him down to 13, throwing Grasp of Darkness on his Sky-Eel School that tried to get in the way.  He had an Arrest for my Copper Myr, bringing me down from 3 mana to two, and cutting off my only green source.  (Unfortunately it was tapped at the time.)  I waited a couple turns till I drew forest, then sacced my Replica to kill the arrest, jumping from 2 mana to 4 and making the Tangle Angler and Slice in Twain in my hand live.  I sliced his golem - two of his creatures hit by removal so far.  When I got out the Angler, drooling at the thought of putting my freshly drawn Arbalest on it, he used (Liqumetal Coating) on it followed by Shatter.

He had out a Wall of Tanglecord and a Riddlesmith at this point, to my Copper Myr and Perilous Myr. My Lifestaff had negated the little damage he'd snuck in so far.  He brings out Snapsail Glider and I Wing Puncture it, my lifestaff giving my Myr the oomph to shoot it down.  3 creatures removed, he's not Vensering me to death any time soon!  His Tumble Magnet doesn't worry me either, and he's down to 1 card in hand.  I hit my sixth land, and throw Tyrranax onto the board.  Both as bait, and because once Geth hits the table my mana will be busy.  But next turn, he answers my Geth with Volition Reins.  Good thing he doesn't have black mana!  I swing in with Tyrranax, and he makes the trade.

He gets down a second Riddlesmith, while I drop (Bleak-Coven Vampires), draining him (life totals, 22-9 my favor), then Myr Battlesphere.  My threats are outnumbering his answers, as my deck is meant to do. He has Arrest, Shatter, and Volition Reins sitting in his graveyard now, and I've still got a powerful lineup staring him down.  I am a little concerned I've left both his Riddlesmiths alive, and he's able to filter his draws like crazy.  Still, does the whole rest of his deck have enough gas to stop me at this point, or is there not enough raw power in there to do it?  He drops a second Tumble Magnet, drawing two more cards and discarding two plains.  His library has 13 cards left.  He WILL get to Venser I assume, but with 4 attack power to my 22 life, does that matter?

I start burning through his Tumble Magnet counters.  He plays a Trigon of Rage, and discards Venser.  It looks like he wants to fly in for the win, dropping a 2/2 flyer and a 3/3 the Trigon could pump.  He has a counterspell for my Lifesmith, and a Shatter for my Myr Battlesphere.  But I hit 8 mana, and it's even harder for him to keep up with "In reponse to you equipping Arbalest, I tap that guy with the Magnet".  I finally squeeze off a shot at his 2/2, and with both magnets empty it's clear I'll double-shoot the 3/3, and then start on him or just bash in.  With 6 cards left in his library, he concedes on turn 19.  Whew!  Got there!

Ok, so I got 2 packs at least out of this concoction.  Let's go for some more!

Round 2, Fight!

MTGO lost the replays from this round, but I have my notes.  For my last draft, it lost like 5 or 6 games, so only losing 2 here is an improvement, I guess?

This guy had a pretty interesting deck, and because his round 1 had three games that went long, I was able to scout it pretty thoroughly.  He had a whopping NINE removal plus a flash creature.  Including four of the best against me, two Arrest and two Turn to Slag, yow!  Still, there was something odd about his deck...  Oh yeah, threats!  He had only 10 creatures.  Also 3 equipment, none of which was amazing, but nice to put on either his Kemba, Kha Regent or his lone Sunspear Shikari.  While you'd expect a red/white deck to be in the fast aggro category, this one was really more controlling with all the removal and maybe a swarm of cat tokens from Kemba to finish up.  Or his other oddball win condition...

Game 1 he gets out an early Grindclock and starts charging it up.  I suspect already this might be an unfocused deck.  He gets Leonin Shikari and his Kemba out, but I Slice in Twain his equipment right before he was gonna make a cat token, and he never got any cats or even played out a second equipment.  I got out Tangle Angler and Heavy Arbalest, then drew into Grafted Exoskeleton, I figure if I can win this game with poison he'll totally misread my deck and sideboard suboptimally.  Cool!  But when I equip the Angler so I can swing in and take a 3 point chunk out of Kemba or something, bam, he 2-for-1s me with Shatter.  Ok, so I threw Myr Battlesphere out there, started putting the Arbalest on myr tokens, and took the game over rapidly.  He milled me for 8 cards before he went down in flames.

Myr Battlesphere

They're so cute, who could stay mad at them?

I immediately sideboard out the Skullgear, sooooo bad against 2 shatters and a scrapmelter.  I take out my other equipment too, bad against double Turn to Slag.  I'm not worried about his deck overall though - his round 1 games lasted 12, 15, and 16 turns so I know he's not fast red/white aggro.  His 1/5 is useless against me.My 5-6 drops are mostly immune to half his removal.  Seems like a better matchup than a typical red/white might be for me.

Game 2 he stalls on 3-4 plains for a while, and I'm at 20 life when I hit 5 mana.  My hand is loaded with beef, so I go 5 drop (Arrested), 5 drop (Shattered), 6 drop (Slagged), 4 drop (seemed worth getting Tangle Angler, lure-lure-Untamed Might taking out Kemba and a mana myr (Yuss!), 6 drop (Geth I'd been saving).

Oh, what's that, you're out of removal for my Geth?  I looked over my scouting notes before dropping Geth, he only has one Turn to Slag left as far as I know, so I want to start Gething him before he draws it.  If he had Arrest I could draw into my Replica or Slice in Twain to reactivate Geth.

So I take his Kemba from the graveyard.  It mills his other Turn to Slag, buahahahaha.  The only other pickings are a Lifestaff and a Horizon Spellbomb he had already popped.  I could bring back and pop open the spellbomb every turn if I wanted a crazy card drawing engine.  But I got the Lifestaff instead, tapped, and put the tapped staff on Kemba to start making cats galore!  (That's one synonym away from a bond girl reference.)

So he shatters the Lifestaff, and my hope of a free kitty.  I hold back on defense.  I think I've seen his whole deck, and there's no dispense justice, but I am STILL not taking that kind of chance with Geth.  I grab his Lifestaff back and put it on Kemba again, and I take his Spellbomb too.  He plays Oxidda Scrapmelter, killing his equipment off Kemba again.  Dang, no cat token still!

I take the staff and a mana myr from his yard with Geth.  It puts a Flameborn Hellion in his yard.  I count my mana - dang not enough, next turn maybe!  He swings in with 3 guys, I block two of 'em.  One with his own Kemba.  His library is down to 8 cards, and he concedes.

Geth, Lord of the Vault

Geth wins.  Fatality!

Sweet, onto the finals.  Dinosaurs rule the earth once again!  Or the semifinals portion of the earth, at least.

Round 3, Fight!

My final opponent was blue/white metalcraft, and he had Rusted Relic plus lots of equipment.  I double-blocked the Relic when it was wearing Accorder's Shield and Strider Harness, so it was just a one for one.  He had Razor Hippogriff to bring back the relic.  I used 8 mana to equip a dude, shoot the hippogriff, equip my other dude, shoot the hippogriff.  I brought out Tangle Angler next.  He brought out Rusted Relic again, and the dang Strider Harness gave it haste so I took another 6 point hit before I could set up my plan.

So next turn he plays out Kemba's Skyguard, and goes to equip harness on it to give that thing haste.  In response, my Angler shoots it out of the sky.  He swings in with Rusted Relic again.  I activate Kuldotha Forgemaster, sacrificing Itself, Arbalest, and Wall of Tanglecord to fetch up Myr Battlesphere and I gang-block the Relic.  He sacs his Neurok Replica to bounce my Battlesphere so his Relic won't die.  I recast it and get more Myr.

He drops True Conviction.  Nice card!

True Conviction

I chump his Relic every turn with a myr token, as he locks down Battlesphere with a Rust Tick, and my first dinosaur with a Vedalken Certarch.  I keep sneaking in poison hits with my Angler.  I get out a second dinosaur.  It trades for a double-striking, harnessed Auriok Replica.  Then I draw Slice in Twain and take out his Rusted Relic.  Now I'm taking over control, it seems!  His two guys have to hold back my two fatties, and I have 4 other dudes on the field.

He draws a mana myr and suits it up with two pieces of equipment.  Rather than get my next chump block in with a token creature, I click through the declare blockers stage and die.  Whoops!

Leaden Myr Strider Harness Accorder's Shield

Yeah, I got beat down by this. Hey, he had doublestrike too!

Don't draft like my brother.  I wish I had finished that game to see how I could have done.  At least I put my game-losing blunder in round 3, which is where it belongs in single elimination pods!

Game 2 was looking ok, with just a Skyguard and inert Rusted Relic on his side.  I had an early Dross Hopper and Lifestaff, and plenty of land and 2 fatties in hand.  Then he dropped Accorder's Shield and Glint Hawk Idol, and was bashing in.  I had Myr Battlesphere and a Tyrranax in hand, but I was stuck on 5 swamp and 1 forest, didn't have the double-green for my 6 drop.  Still, necessity is the mother of invention.  I got out a Clone Shell imprinting another Tyrannax.  My lifestaffed Dross Hopper popped the Clone Shell so it could jump up and block and trade with Razor Hippogriff, the Tyrranax popped out and I was able to Untamed Might it for enough to take out his Relic even with the shield on it.  But my life was low, and he had two flyers left.

I topdecked forest, and ran the Battlesphere out.  If he swung in for 4 in the air and left his 1/1 ground blocker back, and played NO relevant cards (like a creature, maybe), I would drop him from 10 to 6 with Battlesphere's activated ability, then he could block my 8 power guy or my 6 and the other one would kill him.  With four cards in his hand, this plan couldn't possibly work.  But it was the only plan I could make, and a one in a million chance is better than zero in a milllion, right?

Turns out this was one of those 999,999 other times.  Well, 3 packs for my effort and a new archetype tried out.  He even played out True Conviction the next turn, for serious overkill.  Good game!

Bonus Section

Take a look at my last two opponent's decks.  One of them won 1 round, and walked away with 2 boosters.  The other won 3, and got 4 boosters.  Let's see his deck:

True Conviction
Rust Tick
Auriok Replica
Chrome Steed
Razor Hippogriff
Strider Harness
Golem Artisan
Darksteel Sentinel
2x Origin Spellbomb
Vedalken Certarch
Trigon of Rage
Sky-Eel School
Leaden Myr
Copper Myr
Accorder's Shield
Rusted Relic
Glint Hawk Idol
Kemba's Skyguard
Glimmerpoint Stag
Trinket Mage
Neurok Replica

I'm missing a few cards, but you get the idea.  This deck has a plan, and the different cards fit with that plan, and synergize with each other.  Nice.  Now let's look at that red/white deck from round 2.

2x Shatter
Kemba, Kha Regent
Copper Myr
2x Arrest
Grindclock
Sunspear Shikari
Strider Harness
Glint Hawk
Ghalma's Warden
Saberclaw Golem
Flameborn Hellion
Loxodon Wayfarer
Arc Trail
Galvanic Blast
2x Turn to Slag
Oxidda Scrapmelter
Bladed Pinions
Sylvok Lifestaff
Horizon Spellbomb
Darksteel Sentinel

This deck is full of cards that are powerful in the abstract.  But it has several different conflicting plans, and that makes it weaker overall.

Sunspear Shikari, Kemba, and the 3 equipment form one package.  But I want to see more Shikari, more equipment, and Goblin Gaveleer if that's your plan.  He's common, he's in your colors, and nobody takes him, there's no reason not to have one or two here.  Maybe the equipment theme was realized late with a pack 2 or 3 Kemba, or the drafter just was dividing his attention between too many types of goodies.

Glint Hawk wants to be in a fast aggro deck, but the cheese stands alone here.  Or, he wants to be in a flyers deck, but there's no other flying but a Bladed Pinions. Or he wants to reset an artifact with counters or a cool comes into play ability.  There is no such card here but Grindclock, and you don't want to reset the counters on that!

Speaking of Grindclock - yeah, that's another theme, and one that doesn't fit much with the rest of the deck except that it can stall fairly decently, possibly giving the clock enough time..  But if it stalls successfully and doesn't have an early Grindclock...  All it has are mid-game creatures, no finishers other than Kemba (and only if she puts on an equipment and both live).  There's only two evasion cards in the deck and the only fatties are an occasional 4/6 that's usually a 2/4 (low metalcraft count), a 4/2, and a 5/4 guy that can't avoid running into gang-blocks?

Still, the power of a "good stuff" deck like this is ok-ish, and it did win its match one.  But match two it ran into a deck that's got a focused plan, and one that trumps a number of his cards.  While the blue/white deck isn't specifically "built to beat fatties", it's built to be controlling, versatile, and focused, and to be able to beat anything on a good day.

Mini-bonus Section

How many of the cards in the final maindeck came from each booster?  Let's find out!

Pack 1: 7

Pack 2: 7

Pack 3: 9

I guess my pack 1 wasn't as bad as I thought at the time.  Fairly balanced, and you can get more out of the last pack since you know most strongly what your deck wants/needs.  I think Scars allows you to change things up and play more pack 3 picks that way than most sets, too.  Anyway this is one more way to post-mortem a draft, I might check this in some future drafts to see how they compare.

Heavy Arbalest

Da Bomb.

Hope you got something from this draft and my thoughts on it.  I know I did.  Never played Geth before, turns out he's super-awesome.  Kudos to WotC Development for making his goodies come into play tapped, so people facing Geth have a little chance to swing back in for a win before it's hopeless.  And by the way, that Heavy Arbalest kicked butt and took names in a LOT of these games.  I love me some Heavy Arbalest!

See y'all next time!

7 Comments

I'm a fanatical zealot for by StealthBadger at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 06:40
StealthBadger's picture

I'm a fanatical zealot for the Alpha Tyrannax (or T-Dog) cause, but looking through your packs I did begin to wonder what it would take before you considered moving into blue! I think I'd've been in itfrom the middle of the first pack.

Still, you can't argue with results (or Geth)!

Steve Sadin did quite well by Paul Leicht at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 11:01
Paul Leicht's picture

Steve Sadin did quite well with Alpha T-Dog at GP: Tenn this last weekend. So it is probably a good card. :p

Yup. I love the T-Dog. by StealthBadger at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 11:29
StealthBadger's picture

Yup. I love the T-Dog. They're just bigger than anything else short of rare (afaik the only commons/uncommons that even trade 1 for 1 with them are molder beast, scrapdiver serpent and turn to slaaaaaaaaag - only slagging of these sees much limited play usually).

If you happen to equip one with bladed pinions or accorder's shield, your opponent really does need to slag it immediately, or they're just stuck.

They also make excellent proxies for primeval titans!

Addition; I'm not sure if the term "slag" has the connotations in the US as it does in the UK?

Here it means turn to molten by Paul Leicht at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 12:04
Paul Leicht's picture

Here it means turn to molten metal. So I guess the vernacular would be "Destroy to its base elements." or "Kill." If there is a slang version beyond this I am unaware of it.

In the UK, as well as meaning by gaztaseven at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 13:57
gaztaseven's picture

In the UK, as well as meaning molten metal, slag is a slang term describing a person (though it is typically applied to women) as someone who likes to share their love, as well as other things, frequently with many people. It is an insult, and is often associated with being said in a cockney accent (think Ray Winstone or Jason Statham) - "shut it you slaaaaaaaaag!".

Slaggy slang by Felorin at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 18:14
Felorin's picture

I remember the slang term "slag" from the Viz comics I used to get at one of the local magazine shops that carries a lot of european imports. I think Viz started as a parody of Beano comics? The "Fat Slags" were one of the regular fixtures in Viz at the time. I miss it, I should try and get a subscription or something.

We don't have the slang term "slag" over in the USA. I must admit it makes the card "Turn to Slag" sound an awful lot funnier. I guess in England, it no longer kills creatures, but it does turn them into sluts?

Looking at blue by Felorin at Fri, 11/26/2010 - 18:22
Felorin's picture

Well, pick 1 and 2 had bombs that were non-blue, so I'd take those no matter what. Looking back at the packs with blue-o-vision switched on, I'm seeing Invisimancers, Sky-Eel Schools, Trinket Mage, Certarch, and Stoic Rebuttal. Solid but unexciting cards that wouldn't pull me away from another color. The best blue cards don't show till pack 3, where I see the excellent Riddlesmith and the "good but not as good as you think" Volition Reins, which is actually better in Sealed than in Draft.

Blue is a good color if you're playing in a setting where people underdraft it (which is very common), so you know you can get some quality evasive creatures even in late picks. But I don't force it like some people might, I take it if it seems more open than other colors and/or I don't get into something else strong first that's also open. Here I just saw a number of ok and good cards, not much in the way of great blue cards nor any packs with 4 blue cards making me think "this is wide open".

I am a bigger fan of the T-Dog now too, having tried it once I'm likely to try running them again. A common that sometimes takes over the game is not bad to have.