Hello fine readers, I hope you’re enjoying the latest base set. I’m actually finding it to be quite diverse and a huge step up from M10. There are more archetypes to explore and its fast enough that aggressive decks running bears are viable, which is refreshing for a base set. Let’s see what today’s draft brings:
This deck is exactly what every UG deck aspires to be when they grow up. It even has premium removal! With a bunch of solid creatures backed by 2x Sleep and Overwhelming Stampede I should be able to overwhelm almost any board state.The biggest worry is removal heavy RB decks that keep me too short on creatures to make my bombs effective, but I think I have enough creatures with large toughness to even overpower those decks. To be honest I’ll be disappointed with anything less than 3-0.
Building is interesting because I really do just want to run as many bodies as possible, causing me to run Runeclaw Bears over Mana Leak. Diminish vs Unsummon is super close and I’m not sure which is correct, but I tend to like Diminish a little better in these types of decks since it permanently gets rid of a blocker.
Match 1 Game 1 (vs ChrisBoucher42):
I kick off the match by winning the die roll, choosing to play first, and opening a hand of 2 Island, Forest, Runeclaw Bear, Awakener Druid, 2 Greater Basilisk. Nothing special but certainly keepable. Chris mulls to six and starts off with Swamp, Mountain, Reassembling Skeleton as I drop my Bear and draw Island followed by Cultivate. I play it safe by Cultivating turn 3 rather than Awakener Druid since I don’t want to get blown out by my RB opponent’s removal.
ChrisBoucher42 chumps my bear with his skeleton before dropping Fiery Hellhound, and I respond with Greater Basilisk. On his next turn Chris Mind Rots me, what to discard?
If you said anything other than “Island and Runeclaw Bear, n00b” then you must be a serious Winnie the Pooh fan. Chris passes the turn and I draw Mana Leak. Something can be said for playing out Awakener Druid and holding up mana for the counterspell here, but I like maximizing my mana by playing the Basilisk now. Next turn if I draw a land I can play both the Druid and Mana Leak while attacking with the hasty 4/5. Which is what happens after the Hellhound trades with my Basilisk, but Chris bolts the Druid before the 4/5 can wreak damage.
Assassinate on my remaining Basilisk helps Chris stabilize and he brings back the skeleton to stave off my bear. Meanwhile I draw Overwhelming Stampede and my nightmare is realized. My RB opponent killed most of my creatures! After a land I find Yavimaya Wurm, which promptly outrages Chandra with mana to make my Mana Leak look bad. The first skeleton is joined by a friend but I’ve managed to wane Chris down to 2 life thanks to help from a Sign in Blood, so I win for exacties via the most underwhelming Overwhelming Stampede I’ve ever witnessed: +2/+2 and trample to a single Runeclaw Bear.
See, Overwhelming Stampede is totally a game-winning bomb!
Match 1 Game 2:
I bring in 2 Negates while siding out Diminish and a Forest. My deck is running .5 too many lands with the elves and Cultivate so I’m comfortable taking a land out on the draw.
A solid opener:
Chris chooses to play but then laments that he did so after mulling to five. He starts with a Reassembling Skeleton with a Volcanic Strength attached but he remains stuck on two land for a few turns. Meanwhile my Water Servant is beating down before Awakener Druid joins it and even though Chris has a Thundering Strike to break out of my Ice Cage and 2 for 1 me, he’s too low on life to survive through my Cloud Elemental.
Match 2 Game 1 (vs V1P312):
For some reason MODO decided not to record this game, but I remember it being a pretty tight race. V1P312 was RW aggro and started off with some fast fliers in Stormfront Pegasus and Wild Griffin while I had bears and Greater Basilisk. V1P continued to provide flying pressure in Shiv’s Embrace but a second Runeclaw Bear provided enough power for Sleep to put it away, with a second one in reserve for rainy days.
Match 2 Game 2:
I sided out a Forest for a Mana Leak. My opener for game 2, on the draw:
Quite spicy! I would love to find a couple land waiting on top of my deck but I should be able to easily hold off any pressure with the counterspells.
V1P starts with 3 Mountains and a Mana Leaked Fiery Hellhound as I draw Overwhelming Stampede, Aether Adept and Terramorphic Expanse. Despite wanting creatures down for the Stampede I’m happy to hold onto the Druid for now so as not to get blown out by removal. Another Hellhound gets Mana Leaked as I draw an Island, enabling me to swing with a hasty 4/5 and my Llanowar Elf to bring V1P to 13 life. V1P must be flooded as he targets my Awakener Druid with Shiv’s Embrace before conceding.
Match 3 Game 1 (vs feefyfohfum):
Again MODO fails to provide the game replay. As I recall the first game is pretty one-sided as Feefyfohfum’s GW deck is poorly suited to face off against Sleep followed by Overwhelming Stampede, despite a nice curve on his part.
Match 3 Game 2:
Feefyfohfum chooses to play first and keep as I ship back 5 land, Llanowar Elves, Runeclaw bear for Island, 3x Forest, Cloud Elemental, Sleep. Not ideal, but better than five. The enemy starts off with a Wild Griffin followed by Palace Guard as I draw Island, Sleep, Cloud Elemental, playing out both Cloud Elementals.
Feefyfohfum has a White Knight and Runeclaw Bear after attacking with the Palace Guard. I draw and play Greater Basilisk and swing my opponent down to 14. Feefyfohum then Pacifisms a Cloud Elemental and plays Stormfront Pegasus. I draw and play Water Servant after hitting with Greater Basilisk and Cloud Elemental to take my opp down to 9.
Cultivate and attacks to bring me to 13 are the response, and I pull the trigger on my first Sleep:
Feefyfohfum never wakes. Bye for now, and let me know when you get bored of M11 and want ROE or another format.
Dylan Pratt (Jester123 on MODO)
Artist / Film / TV Show / Book of the Week:
Jurassic 5 / One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest / The X-Files / Catcher in the Rye
Great articles about drafting M11. Your articles actually got me into drafting and have done 4 drafts now. I have not gone 3-0 in the swiss but have gone 2-1 for all except 1. I have drafted G/W with a black splash for my first 3 and went 2-1. And than went U/B and only won a pack for the bye. My last draft I did I went U/W and opened up a Frost Titan P1P1 and a Sun Titan P3P1 and went 2-1, could of went 3-0 but made stupid errors in my second match. I have it on the rare draft website if you want to check it out and let me know what you think of my decisions. Same user name as this site.
No problems with M11 drafts, it's much more interesting that M10 was. Awesome win with the stampede on only one bear. Like you said, probably the most underwhelming Overwhelming Stampede ever, but it still got the job done.
@Hellraiser: Great to hear, Swiss is an excellent way to get into drafting as you get maximum value out of every draft (actually getting to see how good your deck is) while taking it easy on your bankroll. I checked out your draft on Raredraft, looked very solid to me. Although what made you move into white with Siege Mastodon pick 7 over a second Awakener Druid? Guess you were planning on that Sun Titan? ;)
Another consideration is that you might be undervaluing Sleep, while it can be useless at times its often game-winning, I suggest trying it out. Nice draft though, that deck was sick!
Nice draft! I might have taken Spined Wurm over the Aether Adept in pack 3, as the deck never did get much in the way of fatties. The only creatures with power over 3 are one Yavimaya Wurm, and the glass-jawed Awakener Druid. Likewise I could see taking a second Yavimaya over the second Pacifism. Though with two sleep and a stampede, clearly the deck could get the job done with only 14 creatures, and the Pacifism could have saved you from an enemy dragon or such. The deck has less "pound you dead through ramp into early fatties, before I even draw sleep or stampede" potential, though. Since there's few fatties and little evasion/trample.
I definitely would have picked Giant Spider over Cloud Elemental, though. Since the deck is focused on having "decent enough" creatures rather than 3-5 Wurms, it has more chances of needing to stall the board, draw one of the three finisher sorceries, and then win. Cloud Elemental doesn't block ground guys, it doesn't block an Assault Griffin as well as the spider does - Spider's by far the better defensive creature, while adding the same 2 power to a Sleep or Stampede fueled alpha strike.
I can definitely see the argument for the Spider over the Elemental, but I my thought process is that I can gum up the ground enough with my Basilisks, and the Spider vs Elemental hold the air almost equally. I like having the option to go offensive with the Elemental more than the extra toughness. A very close pick, and I don't think mine is necessarily "correct", just personal preference.
7 Comments
Great articles about drafting M11. Your articles actually got me into drafting and have done 4 drafts now. I have not gone 3-0 in the swiss but have gone 2-1 for all except 1. I have drafted G/W with a black splash for my first 3 and went 2-1. And than went U/B and only won a pack for the bye. My last draft I did I went U/W and opened up a Frost Titan P1P1 and a Sun Titan P3P1 and went 2-1, could of went 3-0 but made stupid errors in my second match. I have it on the rare draft website if you want to check it out and let me know what you think of my decisions. Same user name as this site.
No problems with M11 drafts, it's much more interesting that M10 was. Awesome win with the stampede on only one bear. Like you said, probably the most underwhelming Overwhelming Stampede ever, but it still got the job done.
Rock on.
Underwhelming Stampede! Aren't you glad you ran runeclaw bear instead of another mana leak
Another excellent draft walkthrough. Picks were spot on with mine, so no real problems in that area. Great Job.
Thanks everyone!
@Hellraiser: Great to hear, Swiss is an excellent way to get into drafting as you get maximum value out of every draft (actually getting to see how good your deck is) while taking it easy on your bankroll. I checked out your draft on Raredraft, looked very solid to me. Although what made you move into white with Siege Mastodon pick 7 over a second Awakener Druid? Guess you were planning on that Sun Titan? ;)
Another consideration is that you might be undervaluing Sleep, while it can be useless at times its often game-winning, I suggest trying it out. Nice draft though, that deck was sick!
Nice draft! I might have taken Spined Wurm over the Aether Adept in pack 3, as the deck never did get much in the way of fatties. The only creatures with power over 3 are one Yavimaya Wurm, and the glass-jawed Awakener Druid. Likewise I could see taking a second Yavimaya over the second Pacifism. Though with two sleep and a stampede, clearly the deck could get the job done with only 14 creatures, and the Pacifism could have saved you from an enemy dragon or such. The deck has less "pound you dead through ramp into early fatties, before I even draw sleep or stampede" potential, though. Since there's few fatties and little evasion/trample.
I definitely would have picked Giant Spider over Cloud Elemental, though. Since the deck is focused on having "decent enough" creatures rather than 3-5 Wurms, it has more chances of needing to stall the board, draw one of the three finisher sorceries, and then win. Cloud Elemental doesn't block ground guys, it doesn't block an Assault Griffin as well as the spider does - Spider's by far the better defensive creature, while adding the same 2 power to a Sleep or Stampede fueled alpha strike.
I can definitely see the argument for the Spider over the Elemental, but I my thought process is that I can gum up the ground enough with my Basilisks, and the Spider vs Elemental hold the air almost equally. I like having the option to go offensive with the Elemental more than the extra toughness. A very close pick, and I don't think mine is necessarily "correct", just personal preference.