---

Apologies in advance - I let a couple of partially finished articles sit, and it looks like MTGO has cleared some of the replay database.  So this article is missing a walkthrough of the last match, which I won't be able to add in now.  I think what's here is still interesting enough reading, I hope you'll agree.  It also nuked the playbacks from a nice RoE draft I did, but never fear - I did a good one yesterday, and I'll be posting that one soon.  Hopefully with some M11 action in the not too distant future!

With very limited free time lately, and some 5 ZZW boosters still sitting in my account, I'd been unsure whether I wanted to draft ZZW next to use 'em up and get some more rares from those sets, or just draft RoE (more fun, and it'll only be around for so long after all!)

But I saw a queue with 6 - no 7 now people in it, ok, BAM.  I was in. I started out by mentally reminding myself of the ZZW basics, as I'm a little rusty.  Red, white and black are strong either monocolored, or any two of them (black and white pairing the worst).  Mono-green is sometimes wide open since a lot of people don't like it and you can get high card quality.  And of course "He who has the most two-drops wins".  (Less true since Worldwake got added, but still).  Ok, let's go!

  Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick: Hideous End
 
 

There's three quality black cards here, so we might start out passing bad signals.  But oh well.  I also briefly considered grabbing the Timbermaw Larva here, cutting green early and Going For It.  But that's a big gamble, and it's not going to pay off as often as taking one of the very powerful black cards here.  Vampire Hexmage is nice, but Hideous End is top notch removal, and Mind Sludge can practically win games all by itself sometimes.  Both require a heavy black commitment, but Mind Sludge requires it to be even heavier to be good.  It can also be irrelevant if they've emptied their hand quick, which Zendikar decks like to do.  I decide to take the Hideous End here, though I wouldn't fault anyone for taking Mind Sludge.  Into the Roil is the only other really decent card here, but it's not at the same power level as the black cards.

  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick: Crypt Ripper
 
 

Steppe Lynx is very good.  Pitfall Trap is removal, though it's doubly conditional.  (You can't hit guys that don't attack, and you can't hit flyers.)  But black/white is awkward because they both have double-mana-cost spells, and I'm already down that path in black with pick 1.  The Crypt Ripper lets me totally cut black in this pack, if I can keep cutting it maybe I can get hooked up with good black in pick 2.  And this guy's decently strong.  Kraken Hatchling is nice in this format, but not an incentive to leave my first color yet.

  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick: Surrakar Marauder
 
 

White may be openish, or this might be misleadingly just a very white-heavy pack.  Recluse is the other card of note, but an excellent black evasive, efficient 2 drop and again perfect signaling is nice, though it's a little worrisome that there's no packs coming with 2 black cards and I should watch for whether I'm getting cut from the right.
 

  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick: Paralyzing Grasp
 
 

Mark of Mutiny can be a nice finishing move sometimes, but it doesn't draw me into red & we've seen little good red so far (none actually).  Timbermaw Larva is nice for the alternate-universe me who took one in pack 1.  Paralyzing Grasp is removal, and with Kraken Hatchlings in the last two packs, we might be seeing more playable blue possibly.
 

  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick: Hagra Crocodile
 
 

A good aggressive black card is the easy pick here.  Reckless Scholar is a little more playable in ZZW than it was in ZZZ, but it's much harder to find time to loot here than in something like M10, and it costs one more mana to boot.  Crocodile's better, and I'd rather go heavier in black (and cut the color more), and blue is still a "maybe" with just one blue pick so far.

  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick: Welkin Tern
 
 

This is a significant pick for the draft, coming down to Welkin Tern or Guul Draz Vampire.  The Vampire sticks to the heavy black plan, keeps cutting the color strongly, and later in the game can hit harder (if they aren't in black or throwing out Stonework Puma in your way).  But the Welkin Tern is a more powerful and consistent card, one of the most aggressive & evasive two drops and a good sign blue is at least somewhat open.  I decide to commit to blue for now & take the flyer.  Goblin Shortcutter is a solid card also, but not as powerful as the Tern.

  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick: Sky Ruin Drake
 
 

A good sign I made the right choice for my second color.  Other than Brave the Elements there's no other really strong cards here.  This guy blocks almost everything, and when he doesn't need to he gets in the flying beats.

  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick: Guul Draz Vampire
 
 

And happily I get another chance at the Guul Draz Vampire.  Three power of evasive beats often finishes games if you can get this guy fully powered up.  Hatchling is nice, but a win condition is better - and this is the third Hatchling I've seen, so I can likely get one later.

  Pack 1 pick 9:

  My Pick: Magosi, the Waterveil
 
 

Lethargy Trap is the only card here that might actually do something in the deck.  But it's not great, so I rare-drafted here.

  Pack 1 pick 10:

  My Pick: Kraken Hatchling
 
 

In a format where everyone wants to be swinging for 2-3 damage with a lot of early drops, this guy puts a serious speed bump in their plan & gives you time to outrace 'em.  The low mana cost makes these guys very useful.

  Pack 1 pick 11:

  My Pick: Kraken Hatchling
 
 

Ok, they both tabled.  I'm happy to have two, my early defense should be really solid if I want to build that way once I have all my picks to look through.

  Pack 1 pick 12:

  My Pick: Trapfinder's Trick
 
 

Could consider sideboarding this against a deck with multiple traps.

  Pack 1 pick 13:

  My Pick: Caravan Hurda
 
 

This might interfere with my plans more than the Seismic Shudder.  Don't like to see the opponent gaining life or shutting down attacks from my little ground guys.

  Pack 1 pick 14:

  My Pick: Swamp
 
 

Gotta make sure I have enough full-art lands to pimp out decks, haven't drafted ZZW enough yet!

  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick: Island
 
 

Pack 1 yields two full-art lands for the cause.  And a good start on a blue/black deck, not a color combo I've done before, but we'll see where it leads us.

  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick: Marsh Flats
 
 

Turn 1 Hedron Crab can occasionally steal games, but isn't hugely appealing.  Paralyzing Grasp or Giant Scorpion are both better picks.  I look up the Marsh Flats on MTGOTraders and it's worth $3.25, plus of course it's very good to have for constructed.  I decide to rare draft it - I'm not passing up amazing cards in my colors to get greedy here.  And it is playable, to trigger landfall at instant speed, and thin my deck a little.  It's even possible I could pick up a white card worth splashing, after the decent white I saw going by in pack 1.

  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick: Marsh Casualties
 
 

Looking back, I see that there were some other cards in this pack that don't suck.  While I was drafting, as soon as my eye settled on Marsh Casualties I stopped looking at the other cards, to adore it properly as it deserves.  This thing is a game winning bomb, especially with people liking to play so many weenies in this format - a one sided sweeper is bombalicious, it's bombtastic, it's bombariffic!

  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick: Blazing Torch
 
 

The Blazing Torch is bad-ish removal, but it's removal.  The other good cards, the Nissa's Chosen and the Steppe Lynx aren't in my colors, and make poor splashes.  Having two Hatchlings both help slow the game down enough to make Torch more usable, and also give guys I can throw it on that don't lose an attack step to torch someone, since they never attack anyway!

  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick: Quest for the Gravelord
 
 

I want that Sky Ruin Drake.  The Nimana Sell-Sword is also playable by himself, and opens up the possibility of getting more value if I can run a small ally sub-theme.  But I've seen no allies coming around in pack one, so probably not.  A one mana 5/5 dude though, that's hard to pass up.  Black removal helps activate this quest, too.  He can win games sometimes, or at least take out two blockers for one card and one mana.

  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick: Blood Seeker
 
 

I double check by asking myself if Spreading Seas, Quest for Ancient Secrets, and Ravenous Trap are not all, in fact, still constructed-only cards.  I answer by reassuring myself that yes, they are, and in fact nobody even plays the blue Quest.  Blood Seeker can sometimes put just enough extra pressure on to win a race, and put them in a situation where they have to hold back some of their creatures and only play the better ones.  Which is fine too.  Getting two of these in play early can really make life difficult for your opponent, though I'll run stronger cards if I can.

  Pack 2 pick 6:

  My Pick: Merfolk Wayfinder
 
 

A trifle more flying, plus some possible card advantage.  Cancel is often too slow for this format.  I guess I should have considered Shoal Serpent, but talk about slow!

  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick: Hagra Crocodile
 
 

Whiplash Trap is quite good.  Hagra Crocodile bites people's faces off.  I like that.  I need more beaters, and I neatly avoid the double-blue cost at the same time.  Did I mention he bites people's faces off?  Cool.

  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick: Grappling Hook
 
 

Grim Discovery and Into the Roil are both fine cards, and the former gains a little value because I have Marsh Flats.  Most people say Grappling Hook is too slow for the format, who has time to spend 8 mana before the game's already over?  But if I'm going into a controllish archetype with removal and big-toughness blue guys, that can slow the game down enough.  And if you get to actually equip this thing, it's way powerful.  My dream is to put it on one of those two crocodiles, drop a land, and swing in big!  Also yay, I got another cheap rare for my collection, right?  Mainly I'm drafting this for the high power level of the card, though.

  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick: Paralyzing Grasp
 
 

I don't need fixing much if I'm staying in two colors, and this is still removal (though it's still bad removal).

  Pack 2 pick 10:

  My Pick: Blood Seeker
 
 

Nothing else exciting here, so I go for having the double-bloodseeker plan available.  If Sprout Swarm were in this format, I'd love this guy!

  Pack 2 pick 11:

  My Pick: Caller of Gales
 
 

My raredraft senses were tingling after I clicked the Caller here.  It might occasionally make a croc fly, but I shoulda grabbed the Ascension for my collection, as I almost certainly won't be maindecking this unless I'm desperate.  I have no desire to build the Pyromancer Ascension deck, but I could trade this to some kid that does.  Or bask in the joy of knowing there's one less rare I don't have yet.  They're like Pokemon, I gotta catch 'em all!

  Pack 2 pick 12:

  My Pick: Caller of Gales

 

The universe mocks me, showing me I coulda had one anyway.  Still, if you want to maximize the chance of flying crocodiles (with double landfall from Marsh Flats and double-strike from Grappling Hook) then clearly you need to run TWO of these, right?  Right?

Pack 2 pick 13:

  My Pick: Expedition Map
 
 

If I get some super-awesome utility land I guess I might even run this.  Is there a black Valakut or a black Emeria in this set?

  Pack 2 pick 14:

  My Pick: Island
 
 

Yay more full art land!

  Pack 2 pick 15:

  My Pick: Swamp
 
 

See pick 14.  Also since these were in my colors I pimped out my deck with 'em.  The deck's looking ok so far, not great but it's got reasonable card quality.  Lets see if it can come together to a good deck in pack 3.

  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick: Calcite Snapper
 
 

Aether Tradewinds and Ruthless Cullblade are solid playables.  The Calcite Snapper is a great, under-appreciated card that I've run 4-of in Constructed play and kicked butt with.  He shuts down the early aggro that's so popular in Zendikar, even better than Hatchling.  And sometimes he swings in for 4 damage too.  I considered the Hammer of Ruin also, and I think maybe it's the better pick here, though I didn't have a lot of good guys to put it on yet.  Still it's a really fine equipment for this format, and I think looking back I should take it here over Snapper.  Nice Terastodon btw, hope someone doesn't beat my face in with it later.

  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick: Bloodhusk Ritualist
 
 

Lots of goodies for blue/black here.  Enclave Elite is nice, but I really, really want that Horizon Drake very badly, as I'm low on aggro and it's got evasion and super-efficient mana cost.  Mysteries of the Deep, Kitesail, and Halimar Depths would all be fine in a pack that didn't have better goodies.  But it's down to the Drake or the Bloodhusk Ritualist, which I've both been blown out by & wiped out other people with in past drafts.  He's Mind Sludge plus a bear in a lot of situations, and you can often wipe someone's hand and wreck them with this guy.  I reluctantly take him over the drake, which surely will not table.  I somehow forgot that Dead Reckoning is removal here, glancing at the "return a creature to top of your library" part, but it's not as good as Ritualist anyway.
 

  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick: Calcite Snapper
 
 

I first considered the sundial, which can be great card advantage, though it's pricey and slow.  Walking Atlas can be crazy early mana accel or can do nothing, and if I'm going controllish having my mana faster early on isn't as awesome.  Having a second Snapper really appeals to me though, I can totally change the tempo and character of the game from what quick aggro decks want it to be, and with the shroud they really can't do much to change that.  Convertible Turtle it is!

  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick: Tomb Hex
 
 

Brink of Disaster is bad removal.  I looked longingly at the Shoreline Salvager, which wants to be in my exact colors & could be big card advantage sometimes.  But he has no evasion to make him really great.  Tomb Hex is premium quality removal, it's the easy pick here.

  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick: Smother
 
 

I really, really want Horizon Drake in my deck still!  Damn you, Smother!

  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick: Nemesis Trap
 
 

I've never played this card, but it seems like it could do very powerful things sometimes.  It is definitely highly situational too though.  Quag Vampires would be a solid pick here, and Quicksand or Treasure Hunt are both ok too.

  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick: Calcite Snapper

 

Wow, a third Snapper!  Ok, I'll bite.  Oh wait, actually that's his job!  This is like the umptieth time I've passed Bojuka Bog, which could sideboard against 1 deck in 50, and Walking Atlas also.  I still don't love you, Walking Atlas!  Not in this deck anyway.  Turn 2 Atlas is a beating in some decks.

Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick: Calcite Snapper
 
 

Ok, now I am playing him like a constructed deck.  I considered Mire's Toll briefly, also should have considered Aether Tradewinds.  I passed every blue bounce spell I saw so far, generally for better cards. 

  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick: Ruin Ghost
 
 

I uncommon-drafted here, though I did think about the Garden.  (Not for long!)  I want to play this guy in Constructed with a bunch of utility lands & maybe ways to tutor them up too.  A protection spell every turn, or a cheap plant token, or 2 lifegain a turn are all nice, and this guy plus the bog totally kills any graveyard strategies.  Ok, I just saved a nickel towards getting my playset, yay me!

  Pack 3 pick 10:

  My Pick: Dead Reckoning
 
 

Ok, out of the pack loaded with goodies, the Kitesail and the Dead Reckoning are all that tabled.  This time I notice that Dead Reckoning is removal, and take it.  Though a hang-gliding croc would be an awesome, awesome thing!  Dead Reckoning is weak in my deck because I have a lot of low power guys.

  Pack 3 pick 11:

  My Pick: Bojuka Bog
 
 

That Walking Atlas is like Eric Cartman's kitty.  I said NO, kitty!  I take the bog in case I run into that triple Soul Stair Expedition deck that nobody in this draft has.

  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick: Quest for the Goblin Lord
 
 

Uncommon-draft ftw!

  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick: Bojuka Bog
 
 

That Soul Stair guy is so screwed!  Too bad he's in some other draft, separated from this one by days of time, thousands of miles of space, and an incomprehensible metaphor.  Otherwise, I would totally kick his ass with my dual-bog technology.

  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick: Plains
 
 

I must hate this guy even more than I thought.  I'm going for the full-art lands over him!

  Pack 3 pick 15:

  My Pick: Swamp
 
 

And one more in the right colors to Pimp My Deck.  Let's see how I built this, there's more than 22-23 playables here.

 

 

So, with all four Snappers I figure I have a definite control deck here.  I decided to run both the Kraken Hatchlings as well, because in this format a lot of 1 and 2 drops can get in for significant damage.  I'd like a bit more finishing power, and a few more answers to flyers - a second or third Sky Ruin Drake would have been ideal.  Hopefully my removal suite will take care of those.  If you count the Grappling Hook, I have 8 removal.  Also when I have Snappers out, people need to be careful about being caught with no blockers - or one blocker when I have one removal.  Otherwise if I have a land, the turtles can hit in for 4 apiece.  I left out one Paralyzing Grasp and the Dead Reckoning and the Nemesis Trap, all of which can be sided in as needed.  I also decided to run 17 lands, but after a mana-shy first game I sideboarded to 18 land for almost all my game 2s and 3s.  I did briefly consider going to 41 for 23 land and 18 spells, but I probably just should have trimmed a hatchling or the underwhelming Merfolk Wayfinder for my starting build.  The mana curve is very heavy on the 3s anyway.  There's only two 2 drops, but the three 1 drops get me early defense, so probably the Wayfinder is the best cut.

Round 1, Game 1

I took a chance on an opener with 2 land (thankfully one of each color) and all 3 drops and 4 drops.  My opponent turned out to be black/red aggro, an ideal matchup for this deck.  He started out with Guul Draz Vampire into Vampire Lacerator, while I topdecked and played Quest for the Gravelord and then a Kraken Hatchling.  A Goblin Shortcutter let him get through it once, then I drew an island and played one of the two Calcite Snapper from my opening hand.  That card shuts down pretty much his entire deck!  I was stabilized at 16 life with him taking a point a turn from his own Lacerator.

After I put out the second turtle he just kept dropping 2/1s and 2/2s, while I waited to draw a win condition.  I put out Hagra Crocodile, my own Guul Draz Vampire, and a Blazing Torch equipped to the Kraken Hatchling.  He played a Tuktuk Scrapper that would destroy my torch, so I hurled it at his Hellfire Mongrel in response, the only creature he had with a relevant ability.  I drew into a Sky Ruin Drake, then the turn after a 5th land to cast it with.  I swung in with my landfalled 5/3 croc, possibly a mistake.  He double-blocked with Vampire Lacerator to stop the bleeding, and Goblin Shortcutter.

I put all 5 points on the Shortcutter, so he'll keep taking 1 a turn from the Lacerator.  But either way my Quest for the Gravelord becomes active, so if I intend to start swinging with my 5/5 next turn, he'll just make Lacerator help gang-block that.  If that's my plan I should have killed both, to knock him down to 4 blockers for my Gravelord instead of 5, and him needing to accept a 3 for 1 to gang-block, leaving him with just a 1/1 in play.  At which point my turtles can profitably swing in too.  I'm still in dominating position, but I could have played the hand better and more aggressively.

He dropped a surprise island - the deck has a splash apparently.  I drew a useless Paralyzing Grasp - none of his guys are attacking!  That's going out for game 2, surely.  Faced with 2 points a turn from my drake & 1 a turn from his Lacerator, he concedes the game at 10 life, and we're on to the next.  Control Deck works so far!  I sideboard out the Grasp, as his guys can't attack into Snappers & I have four of those, so it's not likely to do anything for me in this matchup.

Round 2, Game 2

On the draw this time, I keep a very risky hand of 3 swamp, NO islands, and two Calcite Snappers that I might not ever get to play...  It also has a Hagra Crocodile, and the delicious Marsh Casualties that can wipe his team if I draw any two lands.  Or a lot of it if I draw no lands and need to slow the beats by taking out his 1 toughness guys.

He hits me with a turn 1 Skitter of Lizards with haste.  I topdeck an island.  Then I topdeck another island turn 2.  Turn 3 Snapper says only his Giant Scorpion is going to get in for damage, at a wimpy 1 per turn.  He does get a Teetering Peaks fueled 3 point hit I decline to chump block, going down to 13 life.  And then I topdeck the Grappling Hook so I can go nuts...  I swing in for 6 with landfalled croc and Snapper.  He chump-blocks the Snapper, I guess he assumed I made it a 4/1 and didn't check.  So he takes 5 rather than 1, fine with me!  I play out Hook and a Kraken Hatchling and pass the turn, with a land in hand.  He holds his scorpion back this time, realizing it's getting to be block or die time.  I equip the hook to the croc - living the dream!  I landfall him to 5/3 doublestrike, and the Snapper to 4/1.  Hook forces the Scorpion to block-a-croc, dying to first strike damage before he can deathtouch my guy.  I've topdecked an island, which will kill him next turn unless he plays a blocker or removal.  As the turtle has knocked him down from 15 to 11 life.  His play?

Buzz!  Wrong Answer!  Time to take 14 damage.  I decided to make my own Hatchling be required to block the Hagra Crocodile if it can - which it can't.  Why waste a perfectly good activated ability?

Send in the Brute Squad

So, I didn't even need the Marsh Casualties for that one!  Over on turn 7, and I'm up 2 boosters already, enough to be able to draft ZZW again for 2 tix.  I was the second match to finish, so I started looking at the other completed one.

Archangel23 has a really strong blue/white deck, and it has a lot of good answers to my deck, flyers, card advantage, etc.  He's got the Hammer of Ruin I passed and he's kicking butt with it.  He has the second Sky Ruin Drake I passed, and a Living Tsunami, 2 Kor Sanctifiers that will destroy my artifacts and enchantments for "free", 2 Umara Raptor and at least 3 other allies to pump them, including a Stonework Puma that will block my two intimidate guys.  He's also got the always awesome Refraction Trap and the Whiplash Trap I passed as well.  He knocked out siqshi's red/black deck with some allies and a Butcher of Malakir that he got out both games, but against the hammer (which also came out both games) it wasn't enough, especially when it got bounced in game 2.

I made up my mind that A) I didn't want to be paired against Archangel23 in round 2, and B) I think he's going to win the draft.  Almost every card in his deck is strong.  Another match soon finished, and I turned my attention to that one.  This was a green/white mirror match, and I quickly decided I'd happily play either of these guys over Archangel.  Bowmanguy won game one against Orehcro's Basilisk Collar, River Boa, and some allies by getting out a couple of Apex Hawks to race the lifegain, then playing a Mold Shambler kicked to destroy the collar, prompting the concession.  Game 2 Orehcro conceded on turn 4 for no reason I could see, so I only had seen 7 cards from Bowmanguy's deck total.

The third match dragged on almost till time, and was the only one that went 2-1 rather than 2-0.  I got paired against the winner of that match, Fritzkrieg.  He had beaten Omnibios's red/green/black deckwith his white/green/blue concoction, actually milling him out in game 2 with the Hedron Crab + Frontier Guide combo!  Fritzkrieg had at least 5 allies plus a Join the Ranks - seems everybody was taking allies!  He'd also shown fine cards like Sphinx of Lost Truths, Grazing Gladehart, Horizon Drake (jealousy!), and Terastodon.  Plus some clunkers like Kitesail Apprentice (he did have the one Kitesail in the deck, but still!), and two Spreading Seas.  Who plays that in maindeck??  He was also running the under-appreciated Quest for the Gemblades.

So we have a color breakdown of:

Red: 3  Blue: 4  Green: 4  White: 4  Black: 4

Very balanced all in all.  I think red was light in these packs, since I saw it looking dried up in my first few picks before anybody had time to even take much out of the packs!  Blue had at least one person who was just splashing it.  I think the red/green/black guy who was knocked out game was only running black as a splash, or red, or both.  I forget.

Round 2, Game 1

On the play I throw back a 1 lander, and get a 6 card hand with a swamp and an island, probably better than I'll see in 5 cards. Fortunately my first two draws are another island, then a Surrakar Marauder right in time to come down on turn 2 for a nice aggressive start.  Score!  My Marsh Flats comes next so I can curve out with Merfolk Wayfinder (which whiffs on finding any islands) and then (Hagra Crocodile}, while all my opponent's doing is dropping Expedition Map, Everflowing Chalice, lands, and doing his best impression of being a punching bag.  Fine by me!  He goes down to 18, to 15, then I draw another land to play out the croc so I can save the Marsh Flats for a potential double pump on its first attack.  Sweet.  With 7 mana available and 4 cards in hand, he passes back to me without playing a blocker.

I draw a swamp, so I can definitely landfall next turn again whether I double-pump croc here or not.  He might have white removal, but I didn't see any scouting his game 1.  And even if he does I'm sending the team in here, he'll probably only take out one guy & I'll keep the beats going.  The only question is whether to hit him for 8 of his 15 life, or hit for 10.  Either way puts him dead on board next turn if he can't block.  And I have Tomb Hex in hand.  I decide to hold back the extra landfall from Marsh Flats, the damage isn't necessarily needed & I can pump Crocodile in response to shenanigans from him if need be - like an Arrow Volley Trap perhaps.  I hit him down to 7 and pass the turn back, with the Tomb Hex and a Paralyzing Grasp in reserve.  That's when he drops another land, taps all 6 along with the 2 point Chalice and drops:

  

Well, that's a fine kettle of fish - the Tomb Hex won't make a path through that!  Now that I'm looking at only 3 points of evasive guys that can get through, I'd rather have him at 5 life than at 7.  Well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.  Still, he's likely to want to race me with that Terastodon, which makes my Paralyzing Grasp live, and I'm still at a full 20 life, so things aren't too bad here.  A topdecked Quest for the Gravelord doesn't hurt either, 'cause some stuff is gonna die here for sure!  So, I drop Swamp, activating both landfalls & having a croc pump available from Marsh Flats still.  Then I play out the Quest.  What's the play here, who do I attack with?

That's right, everybody attacks!  I need all the damage I can for racing, and my Crocodile can't block & is guaranteed to at least trade with something.  Which is good for my quest too.  If he blocks with Terastodon I can Tomb Hex it for the trade.  If he blocks with an elephant I've also taken out part of his return attack, and I have the option to pop Marsh Flats to keep the croc alive.  At no point in this game can he leave my croc unblocked again or he's just dead.

As it happens, he blocks with an elephant.  I decide to save the Croc by popping Marsh Flats, then I Tomb Hex another elephant so I'm facing a maximum of 12 damage rather than 15 next turn, he's down to Terastodon plus one elephant token.  Looking back, I like the play of NOT pumping my croc a lot better here.  That puts 3 creatures in the graveyard rather than 2, letting me have the 5/5 gravelord token available for blocking on his turn & attacking on my next.  Also it guarantees a 2 turn clock with another Marauder landfall next turn, whereas if I don't rip land in my next two cards I might have trouble dealing the last 4 damage quickly here - who knows what might show up to block-a-croc next?

He drops another land, and swings in with just Terastodon, holding the elephant back as a blocker.  Then he drops - Ondu Cleric?  Ok, not exactly a powerhouse!  I topdeck an Island, and get my landfall plus the chance to attack again with my croc and still have gravelord in reserve.  The best case scenario is better with my croc saved, but the worst case scenario is what I should have considered.  Take gambles when you're losing, minimize things that can go wrong when you're winning, right?  Anyway I throw Paralyzing Grasp on the Terastodon, and he concedes on the spot.  Turn 7 win!  His hand was all about winning or losing with the Terastodon, and he knew it.  Grasp number 2 is definitely getting sideboarded in against this guy!

Round 2, Game 2

My opener has six lands and a Paralyzing Grasp.  I briefly try to talk myself into keeping it, but decide not to be stupid.  My mull to 6 shows me three lands and three spells, much better.  I've got a Caller of Gales I sided in to hoist more damage over his green fatties, Blazing Torch, and Sky Ruin Drake.  He has a turn 1 Kraken Hatchling, and I topdeck a Welkin Tern that looks to put me in good position to race.  I make Caller of Gales, and he follows up with Oran-Rief Survivalist.  I put the torch on my Caller, wanting to knock out his guy before it can get pumped to 3/3.  I briefly consider waiting till his turn, but I'm unlikely to gain from this.  It's not a leveler he can waste mana pumping and I can respond.  He's not likely to throw an enchantment on it, my scouting didn't show him to have any.  If he plays another Survivalist and I torch in response, I haven't really gained anything.

On the other hand, while again scouting didn't show any, I didn't see his whole deck & he could have Vines of Vastwood or a bounce spell in response to my torch.  Right now with his two lands tapped the torch is gonna work for sure, so I kill Survivalist before passing back.  I topdecked a Tomb Hex that can take care of any more important targets that come up later.  He throws Spreading Seas on my swamp, but I play the one in my hand and topdeck another - I had upped my swamp count by one in sideboarding, to ensure my access to black mana.  He has made sure I have double-blue for any Snappers I might topdeck, which is nice of him!  I run Welkin Tern out there, and he has Grazing Gladehart followed by a forest.  I think about giving it the hex right away, but when I topdeck a Snapper I decide to run that out first, holding back my 4th land so I can swing in with a 4/1 next turn and take out his Hatchling (or get in 4 more damage).  I knock him back to 20 and pass back.

He has Ior Ruin Expedition and then a Treasure Hunt that nets him 4 cards, another Spreading Seas and 3 forests.  He'll certainly be able to afford to play whatever fatties he gets, so I need to bring in the beats before he plays those all out - and kill that Gladehart, which has put him to 22 again.  I happily topdeck my Guul Draz Vampire, so I can make efficient use of mana.  Swamp comes out, making the Snapper a 4/1.  Tomb Hex gets the Gladehart out of the way.  I swing in with all 3 guys, the Caller will get 1 extra damage in if he chooses to block the Snapper - which he does.  I've got him down to 19, and all three of his early drops are in the graveyard.  After combat, I tap my last mana to play out the 1 drop Vampire.

His play?  Forest & Spreading Seas to take me down to 1 black mana source and draw him a card.  No creature, facing down my board of 4 guys.  Not good news for him.  I draw another swamp, powering up Super Snapper again so I can swing in for 8.  And it brings me to 5 mana, so my Sky Ruin Drake can come out to play too, with him down to 11 life.  Guul Draz Vampire is almost certain to get activated next turn.

He plays another forest, and pops the Ior Ruin Expedition.  He's at seven cards in hand to my zero, with seven mana to my five.  But I'm way ahead on life (20 to 11) and have five creatures in play to his none!  He taps three for a Turntimber Basilisk he presumably just drew, and passes back to me.

I know he'll be able to landfall that basilisk, but I'm not leaving him any targets.  The shrouded turtle will stay back.  Caller of Gales gives flying to the 1/1 Vampire, so they'll both end the turn tapped along with my natural flyers, and can't be forced to block basilisk.  And I can get 5 flying damage in, dropping him to 6 and activating Guul Draz boy.  Except he has Aether Tradewinds, bouncing my Drake and one of his forests, so I only knock him down to 8.  Still good.  I can't replay Drake this turn because of the mana I spent on Caller of Gales, and I keep my drawn swamp in hand in case I have reason to want a 4/1 turtle next turn.

He keeps his Basilisk home, and taps out for a fattie that can hold the skies:

Holy cow that thing's big!  Lucky I powered up my Vamp, who can provide a 3 turn clock on his own.  This guy has no black creatures, artifact creatures, nor any removal I've seen other than 2 bounce spells & he's used up one already.  Better still, the Sphinx can't swing in to race unless he plays another flyer, else my Welkin Tern will finish him a turn quicker.  That's "a tern for the worse" indeed, eh?

I draw Paralyzing Grasp, making racing even more unlikely for him.  I make the obvious plays of hitting for 3 and running the Sky Ruin Drake back out there.  He landfalls his Basilisk and forces my summoning-sick drake to trade with it, which is a good play for him.  Otherwise I can swarm in with 2 flyers in addition to my vampire, and kill him on my next turn.  This buys him at least one more turn to try and get out of it.  Then he drops another bomb rare.  And this one brings 3 little friends!

 

I just draw an island - only my second one, so I'd just now be playing my Snapper this turn if not for those Spreading Seas!  I drop it and swing him down to 2 with my vamp, and prepare to take my lumps.  But before passing the turn, I think about the Paralyzing Grasp a bit.  Unless he can bounce the vampire, which is unlikely, the game probably hinges on whether he has enough tricks to force through 20 damage next turn.  If he does, the grasp in hand does me no good.  If he doesn't, but can survive my vampire, I just grasp his Sphinx or Terastodon then - having thrown grasp on it a turn earlier doesn't hurt me in that case.  Indeed, he might have Vines or something when he's untapped, right now he's tapped out.

My thinking is, if I throw Grasp on his Sphinx now, there's a small but non-zero chance it makes him think "I better not swing with that Sphinx, or I'll never have it available to block flyers again".  And there's a small chance that might matter.  So I put Paralyzing Grasp on the Goliath Sphinx.  Always good to look for that tiny bit of extra edge.  I suppose there's also the tiny chance I get to use mana more efficiently, if I topdeck Bloodhusk Ritualist next turn - though that's getting pretty far-fetched (as if I wasn't already!)

He casts Explore, digging for an answer.  Then he casts Sphinx of Lost Truths, digging way deeper - only now he has no mana open to play whatever he might get.  Though it doesn't matter, it's a pretty lopsided board state.  He has 29 attack power to my 7!  The fact that the life totals are 20 to 2 is telling, though.  He swings in for a massive 26 - and I block 20 of it, falling to just 2 creatures left alive on my side.  And then I swing back for the win.  We chatted a bit, added each other to our buddy lists, and I moved on.

I'm going to say Spreading Seas definitely lost him this game.  I think sideboarding it out against anyone playing blue is called for - though you're probably better off not maindecking the card in draft to begin with.  His deck was good at digging to make sure he gets to fatties + enough lands to cast one.  But the Ior Ruin Expedition, Treasure Hunt, Spreading Seas type cards don't get the lands into play any faster, only his Everflowing Chalice and sometimes Explore will do that.  I did see a Horizon Drake go into his graveyard as one of his three discards to Sphinx of Lost Truths at the end - but all in all, he didn't have enough early game or enough accel to get his late game out quick enough.

If he felt he had to keep Spreading Seas in to cycle to his key cards, he still could have won this game by playing them all on my island (or his own islands).  But he couldn't have known I wouldn't get a second island till turn 9, that I would keep drawing and playing swamps so he couldn't shut me out of black mana, he couldn't have known that I'd need double-blue to win or that I wouldn't draw one of my double-black spells (I had 3 of those in the deck).  I think by the percentages, playing the Spreading Seas on my swamps was the correct choice for him to make.  He was just unfortunate enough to run into the corner case where making the higher percentage play actually loses you the game.  When that happens, you should just dust yourself off, not let that fool you, and make the same play next time you're in a similar situation.  It'll probably work better for you the next time.

Interlude: The other semi-final match!

I loaded up the replays of the 3 game match the other two guys were playing, and watched them after the draft was over.  It was a very good match, hard fought and well played.  After splitting the first two, the final game was particularly exciting and dramatic.  Bowmanguy got out two Apex Hawks and a Kor Skyfisher for good early pressure, but Archangel23 put the Skyfisher and one of the hawks under two copies of Journey to Nowhere.  Bowmanguy had the excellent response of Kor Sanctifiers destroying the Journey that freed up the Kor Skyfisher, which comes back and bounces the Sanctifiers back to his hand.  Then next turn, Sanctifiers comes back and kills the other Journey!  Now he's got 3 flyers and a Sanctifier out, to Archangel's board of Welkin Tern plus Umara Raptor, which can't keep up.  But a timely Refraction Trap, always a deadly card, slows the beats and almost evens things up.  He plays an unkicked Sanctifiers to block on the ground, but the 2/3 Skyfisher can still swing in against the 2/2 Raptor. It knocks Archangel from 6 to 4 down to 2 before he topdecks a last minute Makindi Shieldmate, which pumps the Raptor to a respectable 3/3 blocker and finally stabilizes with Archangel hanging on by a thread!

Bowmanguy plays a Vastwood Zendikon and swings in large, but Archangel throws Kor Sanctifiers in to chump block, then shows Bowmanguy isn't the only guy that can bounce those.  His Into the Roil returns it to his hand and draws him a card, then next turn it comes back down kicked and destroys Vastwood Zendikon!  He gets Hammer of Ruin and swings in with a 5/3 Raptor, leaving the skies suspiciously unguarded.  Bowmanguy takes the bait and attacks for the win with Kor Skyfisher, only to face a Twitch untapping the Umara Raptor to block and kill Skyfisher.  Archangel now totally owns the skies while the ground is stalled, and beats Bowmanguy down to 6.  Then the final (Apex Hawk) comes out, heavily multikickered, as a 5/5 that could trade with the Raptor.

Living Tsunami hits play for Archangel, giving him a slight edge in the skies.  But Bowmanguy plays Mold Shambler with kicker, destroying the Hammer of Ruin and shifting the balance back a little more towards his favor.  Though neither side can attack in the air in this situation, without possibly handing the game to the other fellow.  The final stalemate breaker?  A second Twitch from Archangel, tapping the Hawks for a turn and letting him swing in with his two flyers for a fatal 7 point attack.

What can I say - I gotta respect Twitch now!  It's clearly better than I gave it credit for.  Or at least, it is if you're Archangel23!  Speaking of which - that puts me in the final playing against the guy I predicted to be the winner.  His deck contains all of the following:

2 Kor Sanctifiers
Refraction Trap
Living Tsunami
Halimar Excavator
2 Umara Raptor
Stonework Puma
Sky Ruin Drake
Hammer of Ruin
2 Journey to Nowhere
Makindi Shieldmate
Reckless Scholar
Kor Cartographer
Whiplash Trap
Steppe Lynx
Welkin Tern
2 Twitch
Enclave Elite
Narrow Escape
 

Those last few may be sideboard cards, as I didn't see them in any game 1s.  Clearly my Paralyzing Grasp is bad against him, as his sanctifiers nuke it for free.  My Grappling Hook dies to his Hammer, my Torch is still ok against an active Hammer if I use it the same turn I play it.  Almost all his cards are high quality & he's a strong player, I'll have to be constantly aware of potential Refraction Trap blowouts and not walk into them.  I could possibly bring in my Trapfinder's Trick against his two trap cards if I want to gamble.  Though I'd be happier playing it against 3 or more traps.  In any case, this should be a definite challenge trying to beat this guy!

Round 3, Games 1-3

And this is where those replays are missing.  As I recall I was ahead in game 1 until I ran into a Refraction Trap I couldn't really have done much to play around.  I remember having 3 of those in a WWW draft we did at a local gaming store, they work on offense or defense & the only way to avoid them is to never attack or block.  Not very doable!  He turned game 1 around and managed to take it, his Hammer doing good work on me as it did against his round 1 opponent.

Game 2 I sideboarded out Grasp and my (Grappling Hook.  He got the hammer again but I got some good draws and managed to outrace him in the end.

While I was fortunate enough that he didn't draw Refraction Trap in game 2 or 3, in the end game 3 was decided by his superior card quality.  It was a tight race, with him low on life, but he won it in the end.

All in all I think this control deck worked quite well, and I love Calcite Snappers even more than ever!  Hagra Crocodiles are still stupid fun as well, and I did get to live the dream and Grappling Hook one up for the double-striking 10 point beats.  Hope you enjoyed this walkthrough, see you next time for some RoE goodness!