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By: walkerdog, Tyler Walker
Aug 19 2014 12:00pm
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I've started to round into form a little bit on this iteration of the cube.  I'm not sure I'm any good, but I'm feeling less bad.  The hardest thing for me has been determining when to commit to a color, a second color, or move out of what I am thinking is my primary color.  The huge amount of artifacts and swingy effects that come with the cube being Powered do not help either, because it can be too easy for me to default to either the colorless or "WHOA THAT CARD IS REALLY GOOD!" plan. 

In the case of colorless-grabbing, it doesn't signal much to the people I'm passing to, and it also can make it feel like an easy out when I'm really being cut on a color.  "Well, there's no Blue card, but there is YET ANOTHER artifact that isn't as good as these White, Black, and Green cards. I'll stay Blue by taking the artifact!"

That is dumb, but I'm dumb sometimes.  Or always.  In the case of the very powerful cards, it can have the opposite effect - think opening Ancestral Recall in the third pack.  You're already RDW, but you do have one Scalding Tarn... So you take it over, say, Goblin Guide or some other premium RDW effect and regret it.   You later take a Steam Vents so you can get Blue, but you pass another good Red card to do it.  These situations CAN work out, but most of the time they don't (for me).

Let's check out the draft.

  Pack 1 pick 1:


We will see an easy first pick today.  When there is one colorless card that is the equal or superior option to every other card you can take, especially early in a draft, that's the way to go.  I could see some sort of argument against Skullclamp if you are just allergic to creatures, but even a control deck can play a lot of token-makers, so I probably wouldn't agree with that argument anyway.  Better yet, the other strong cards aren't THAT strong.  Animate Dead, Lightning Bolt, Port, Show and Tell (which is better early if you're getting to build around it for the rest of the draft), Opposition, and Elspeth are all really good, but none of them approach Skullclamp's level.  

You can happily Clamp in RDW, in Green ramp (with ramp creatures), Blue and/or Black decks with 187 effects, and in WW decks (who also often have loads of critters!

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 2:


YESSS!  FIREMANE ANGEL!!!! (said no one ever, good work @dasdzy).  Firemane Angel is pretty embarrassing - at least Lightning Angel would be played a small percent of the time.  Firemane is that card that you play 1/50 drafts and it's not even amazing there, just okay.  If the curator of this cube wants a card that would actually be played occasionally, and they're stuck on Boros, even Warleader's Helix or Aurelia would be better choices.  Or Gisela. 

On to our pick - my favorite Skullclamp deck is RDW.  You have cheap dudes, you put the +1/-1 to good use in getting in for a bit more damage, and the card draw is really powerful when you're drawing into burn effects.

If I wasn't so inclined towards RDW, I think the best pick is Shriekmaw.  He plays great with Clamp as well.  This pack has a lot of fine picks.  We'd like to wheel the Phoenix, but Maze, Watery Grave, Shriekmaw, Path to Exile, and Miscalculation are all solid starting points.  There might even be an argument for Academy, but that tends to run against the Clamp, where you want a lot of creatures, not so much in the way of other artifacts.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 3:


  There is a solid selection of cards here.  The best cards for staying open are the Marsh Flats and Mox Diamond.  Then you have solid stuff like Ajani, Mystic, Necropotence, and the Signet, which is probably inferior to the Mox, but still is a fine card.  I end up going with Diamond.  You don't always want that effect, but in RDW it can be a good reason to play 17 (or even 18!) lands, if you end up with 3+ of the really good colorless/spell-like lands - Strip Mine, Wasteland, Mutavault, Mishra's Factory, Barbarian Ring, Rishadan Port, and so on.  It also lets you start with a 2-drop, or start Clamping a boring creature away earlier.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 4:


 Another deep pack, and now we're starting to see some great Red cards.  Koth is a really solid finisher.  The other options in my mind are Griselbrand (just because he is so powerful), Tamiyo, Firebolt, Ember Hauler, Elves, uh... this pack has a lot going on.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 5:


Maybe we're not even Red!  I would have a hard time abandoning the color, but SFM is one of the non-Red cards that works really well with Clamp.  I considered that it might be right to just pass Mystic and take Earthquake.  It's also rough passing Sacred Foundry.
  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 6:


This is a pack with much less going on as far as we are concerned.  Archangel is very strong, so I took her over the Welder or random pick outside of RW.
  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 7:


Cool, a burn spell.  Unexpectedly Absent or Hallowed Fountain would be alright for moving more into White, and possibly out of Red, and Enlightened Tutor is good if you want to be all-in on Clamp.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 8:


Whoa! I guess the Red cards are coming in the same 3-4 packs this draft. Powerwise, and usually pickwise, I'd probably rank these cards something like Shrine, Satyr, and Hellrider/Jet are roughly tied, with a slight edge to Hellrider, unless, like me, you have a four or two.  Satyr will do a better job in this deck as we have Clamp.  It does suck to pass the other THREE cards that won't come back though.
  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 9:


Oh, Bolt, that's a nice wheel.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 10:


And then Phoenix and Ape both made it back.  We have no reason to feel like we're heading into the Forest, so we'll take the Phoenix.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 11:


This is close, again, but Forge is a solid fixer, while Pup is just somehow a million times worse than Satyr, whose pseudo-firebreathing makes him a much bigger threat.
  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 12:


Yes!  We're very happy to see the two Red cards make it back again.  I went with Bolt, although considering Skullclamp, it is probably right to grab the Hauler.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 13:


Pretty sure I misclicked. I wanted Earthquake here.  Molten Rain is a fine SB card, but I really did want Quake.
  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 1:


Wurmcoil costs a lot, and Geddon is a gamewinner.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 2:


What a boring pack.  The only real options are Linvala (costing WW for a 3/4 flyer...) and Procession (WWW or costing 4+ to case).  I'll take Linvala as a solid "beats utility creatures" card.  I don't plan to play her, but I could see her making the cut.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 3:


And now we're back to an embarrassment of riches - Devil's Play, Epochrasite, Mirror Entity, Conscripts, Hero, and then even Hooligan or Xenagos are solid cards. I decided that Conscripts is too unique (and powerful) an effect to pass.  I'm hoping to wheel Devil's Play or Hero.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 4:


I don't think I'm running TNN, but it is the only card I'm very interested in.  Flickerwisp costs WW (but is very powerful, and could be taken), Knight would not be a card I want to take if I can help it, and Titan costs a million.  They're all fine, but TNN is REALLY strong, and also can crush me.
  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 5:


Well, this pack has a few nice ones for us.  I'll take Sulfuric Vortex, and hope that I get Ram-Gang back. This is possibly wrong, since we have the Clamp, but an RRR casting cost might be too hard for us if we end up at RW.  Vortex should be a tad easier to resolve, and it's very powerful.
  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 6:


Torch Fiend is not the most powerful card, but it can provide relevant disruption in a powered cube. We want the creatures, and creatures that have utility and die for Skullclamp (Skulls for the Skullclamp! Blood for the Skullclamp!) are nice to get.  Obviously it would be a sweeter deal if we could clamp the guy and still get to use his ability sometimes, but hey, this is a good deal.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 7:



This is a tough one.  Goyf, were we in Green, would be fine, but we're not.  Price can do some powerful things against some decks, but some decks end up with 2 or less non-basics when you have this much artifact fixing. Ravager is a game-winner - see Geddon, so that's where I'll go.


  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 8:


It's really frustrating to see the in-block synergies in the same pack, and we see that here with Geopede + Tarn.  Tarn is the "better" card, but Geopede fits our need a little more.
  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 9:


Prophetic Bolt is one of the sweet burn spells in the cube, but we can't rely on blue, so we'll take more Clamp bait.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 10:


This is a crappy pack to get back - great cards in almost any other archetype, nothing for us really.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 11:


Hero is a great game-ender and makes Clamp-bait even if they kill her during her first attack.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 12:


Clampbait + blowout potential vs Black-heavy decks.  Flickerwisp is really strong, but, as before, the WW cost is a slight turnoff.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 13:


This has been a really frustrating pack.  It doesn't feel like we're getting cut on Red, really, or Boros stuff, just somewhat screwed by the packs coming with 2+ cards we'd like to have, and then 0-1 we'd like.
  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 15:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 1:


Dang!  I have no idea which card is the right choice here. For this deck, I think Ruby is the one.  I could see wanting Pearl, but having possibly lots of RR and RRR costs makes Ruby better, in my mind.  It's also hard for me to pass Time Walk in an aggro deck (and it makes me think that Scalding Tarn in the 2nd pack was just correct - Geopede may have wheeled, and there are just a ton of broken blue cards that Tarn can support) - finally there is Mox Sapphire, inferior to the other two Mox for our deck, and Library.  Library seems a bit out of place for us, although obviously it can combine with Skullclamp to do silly things.

I was pretty bummed out to see nothing that we'd want will wheel, probably at least.  We're not really excited for most of the non-power type of cards.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 2:


I like the Legionnaire here. 3power 2drops don't come along that often.  I would really like to get Karakas back, or Ancient Grudge if I get a generous pair of RG or GW duals to support both halves with.
  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 3:


Wasteland is less good in a powered cube, but it still wins a game or two each draft.  The Temple Garden, Tangle Wire, or Mana Tithe would be fine wheels, and Bonesplitter (to go with our Magic Mystic Lady + Elder) would be okay too.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 4:


I don't really want Ajani V, but he's powerful and he also is pretty good against me.I'd rather just take Factory or Gargadon.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 5:


I have no idea what the "right" pick is - I think it comes down to Balance (which is amazing, but hard to break with an aggro deck) and Dragonlord, and I went with the creature.
  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 6:


It's nice to get the OG Wasteland a few picks later than you had to take Wasteland.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 7:


We continue to see packs with little we want and packs with 2+ cards we want - ideally we'd somehow get either the Foothills or Isamaru back, but don't count on it.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 8:


See the last comment.  If we had a few more good green cards, I'd have a harder time passing Savannah, but Helix is fine for us, and good against us.  It's like a better Ajani in this deck most of the time.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 9:


I guess we can hate-draft some fixing.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 10:


Our card wheeled, and we didn't get green duals, so it's Karakas for us.
  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 11:


Bonesplitter will be fine.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 14:


This was a misclick.  What is wrong with me?
  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 15:

  My Pick:


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Our draft was frustrating.  There was a lot of Blue flowing by, but not early enough that I caught onto it, and by the time I had, I felt too committed to red, and to some extent, white. 

 

 

We have a lot of playables, but the bad part is that we have too many 4-5 casting cost cards, and that there is too much RR, WW, and RRR costs.  I tried to focus on those cards for my cuts.  We kept 13 creatures (For some reason, Conscripts is thought to be a spell!) to try to use Clamp well. 

In round one, we took on BW.  We got a couple of creatures out and pressured the opponent.  Wasteland took out his white mana while I took him below 10.  He finished himself off by playing Bitterblossom, allowing me to start Clamping my guys off while he slowly drained, then firing off a volley of burn.  The second game had a little better result for him.  I had kept a slightly slower hand.  I hit him once or twice, but he started dropping Nekrataal effects.  Then he played Bitterblossom again, above ten life this time.  He started attacking, but Chandra's Phoenix, Vortex, and Spikeshot Elder were able to turn the race right back around and finish him off.

The second round saw us playing against URW.  He had plenty of Wraths and Planeswalkers, but my SFM/Skullclamp did a lot of work. I don't remember the games exactly, but they weren't fought on a fair "plane" so to speak, because he was trying to control the board, while I didn't care that much about creatures (or the Wraths and planeswalkers) - I just wanted to poke him once or twice with each creature and throw a burn spell or planeswalker activation or two at him to finish him.  We won this one pretty easily, although he did get us with Balance pretty good!

The final round was a UGb deck.  We lost a close game one when we drew too many lands after playing Skullclamp + Vortex and Clamping into.. well, too many lands. The second game saw him ramp into a turn 3 Eureka, playing out Woodfall Primus (hitting my Clamp), and then a turn four Natural Order, sacrificing the Primus, and cutting down 2 of my lands.  I died two turns later.

Had I chosen Balance, I could have had an out - similarly, had I NOT misclicked and passed Earthquake and Grim Lavamancer, our Green ramp matchup has up to 3 more really good cards that can blow out the opponent.  Had I been able to slow him down in game 2 by 1-2 turns, or draw into a card like Earthquake or Balance in game one, I had a fighting chance.  As it was, my mistakes in choosing (and clicking) during the draft sealed my fate.

I hope you guys enjoyed the powered cube.  I will probably share one more before heading into a different format.