Hola fellow limited lovers! Last week I left you hanging as I drafted a very controlling BW build and reported on match 1. Let’s finish that report before moving on to this week’s draft.
Match 2 Game 1 (vs JakeAntonetz)
JakeAntonetz wins the roll and chooses to draw first. Opening hand: 3 plains, Cadaver Imp, Artisan of Kozilek, Survival Cache, Totem-Guide Hartebeest. While not amazing this hand is still a keep, as the Cache will go a long way in drawing into action while provided a life buffer. My first play is the Cache on turn 3 while my opponent lays 2 swamps, a plains and Bloodrite Invoker. I draw for turn 4 and my hand now consists of the Beest, Artisan, Imp, Guard Duty, Lone Missionary and 2 plains with a board of 2 plains, 1 mountain and 1 swamp. I play the Lone Missionary and pass.
My opponent somehow feels the need to Vendetta the Missionary before dropping a Wall of Omens and Null Champion as I draw a Caravan Escort and lay the Beast, searching up Mammoth Umbra. On my turn 6 I decide to wait on the Mammoth Umbra to draw out removal with the Escort, which I cast and level up twice. JakeAntonetz simply levels the Null Champion to its first level and passes back.
I draw Gideon Jura, finish leveling my Escort to its max and swing with it for 5 damage. Next my opp drops another Bloodrite Invoker and passes the turn. I draw another Totem-Guide Hartebeest and feel that the coast is probably clear for the Mammoth Umbra on my first Beest, since if Jake had removal he probably would have used it on my Escort. Unfortunately I am wrong and my opponent has Vendetta in response, going to 9 life. I am still at 25, so I’m happy swinging before Guard Duty’ing the Null Champion so I don’t take too much damage. Jake chumps with the Wall of Omens and has Emerge Unscathed to bin the Guard Duty EOT. Here is the board state:
Jake has a nice turn of swinging for 10 before returning and playing Wall of Omens with Cadaver Imp. I draw and play a mountain before playing Hartebeest so that I can protect Gideon properly next turn(fetching Guard Duty). Jake pumps the Null Champion to level 3 and passes back.
I draw Corpsehatch and play Gideon, forcing Jake to attack with everything before Guard Duty’ing the Champion again.My opponent has a Mammoth Umbra for his Cadaver Imp pre-combat, bringing Gideon down to 4 life but losing both his Bloodrite Invokers. I draw Dread Drone, attack with the Escort to bring JakeAntonetz to 4 life and play Dread Drone. Then my album finishes so I put new music on, forgetting to activate Gideon before passing the turn when I get back.
This is an important lesson in distractions. Usually I’m very good at focusing completely on a game of magic, but in this case I let the smallest thing distract me and it cost me. Always try to minimize any potential distractions before entering a game of Magic, regardless of where you are. Adjust lighting, music, take care of food or washroom breaks all before and in-between games, and especially try not to let anyone engage you in conversation. Seems simple, but its actually one of the most important aspects in tightening up your play.
Anyway back to the game: JakeAntonetz draws, plays Ulamog’s Crusher and swings with the Imp to kill Gideon. I cross my fingers for a swamp, but draw Dawnglare Invoker instead. I could play the Invoker and block/annihilate in such a way to win with an activation next turn, but that line if play is terrible if my opponent has any removal whatsoever. Instead I sac a spawn to drop Artisan, returning a Beest and fetching Hyena Umbra.
JakeAntonetz swings with the Crusher and flier on this turn, I block the Crusher with my Artisan after sacrificing a spawn and Beest. Post combat he plays his own Artisan returning the Crusher. I draw a Smite and go into the tank. Here’s the board, what’s the play?
At this point in the game I don’t have much chance of stabilizing even if I do draw the swamp, since I’ll have to sac 4 permanents next turn as well as deal with two fatties and 4 power in the air. Therefore my only avenue to victory is the Dawnglare Invoker. To win with it I’ll need 8 mana next turn along with at least 4 power on the board. I’ll also need to not die to JakeAntonetz’s attack. To do that I need two blockers after sacrificing 4 permanents. Luckily the Artisan can block the Crusher and live to swing back with the Invoker.
My resources are 8 land, 5 creatures and a Hyena Umbra. Let’s consider my sacrificial options. Saccing 4 creatures causes me to die. Saccing 3 creatures and the umbra forces me to chump with Dawnglare Invoker. Therefore I need to sacrifice either 3 creatures and a land, or 2 creatures, the umbra and a land. Either way I have to topdeck a land and hope he has no removal, but this is my only path to victory so its what I’ll have to do. I play the Invoker, put the umbra on it and pass the turn. In retrospect this was a slight mistake, since any removal kills me anyway and if I put the umbra on the Artisan there is a slight chance my opponent will be scared off of attacking with his own Artisan, however unlikely.
Unfortunately JakeAntonetz has Repel the Darkness and Induce Despair to kill me on the spot. For game two I bring in Inquisition of Kozilek for Warmonger’s Chariot, since the Inquisition should have a lot of removal targets.
An important lesson to take away from this game is to not be too result oriented. Its easy to point at my manabase, see six black sources and conclude that I lost the game because I didn’t play enough swamps. However, if I had had a Flame Slash in hand and no mountains would more mountains have been correct? That being said I did debate for quite a while on whether to have 9/6 or 10/5 plains/swamps, taking the Evolving Wilds into consideration. Considering I only have four black cards, even with two of them requiring BB I would still build it as 10/5 now. What do you think?
Match 2 Game 2:
I choose to play last for the second game since both our decks are quite slow, and my opening hand is 2 plains, 2 swamps, Caravan Escort, 2 Guard Duty’s. A fine keep. I start with the Escort which JakeAntonetz Vendettas and follows up with Bloodrite Invoker. I have drawn a Flame Slash, Dread Drone and Mountain so I use the Slash on the Invoker, since I won’t want it to become active later on.
Jake plays draw go for a few turns as I drop a Dread Drone after drawing Plains, Luminous Wake and Dawnglare Invoker. One of my spawn dies to Bala Ged Scorpion, Jake cycles a Repel the Darkness and kills the Invoker with a Induce Despair revealing Ulamog’s Crusher. I trade the Dread Drone with his Scorpion after he drops Totem-Guide Hartebeest fetching up Mammoth Umbra. He follows up with the Crusher as I draw land. I Guard Duty the Crusher and pass. Here is the current board state:
Jake swings with the Totem-Guide Hartebeest and drops Wall of Omens, refusing to run his Mammoth Umbra into any removal I might have. I draw a couple more land and a Mammoth Umbra and my opponent decides to drop his own Umbra on the Beest. I decide to use Luminous Wake on it since it will result in only one damage a turn and I’m still at 14, so I can save the other Guard Duty for larger threats.
I draw and play Inquisition of Kozilek, forcing opp to discard Vendetta while revealing a plains and Oust. JakeAntonetz draws and plays Arrogant Bloodlord, to which I respond with my last Guard Duty since I’ve drawn a land. Jake proceeds to draw and play Artisan of Kozilek returning Bloodrite Invoker while I draw another land and call it “gg”. An unfortunate end to my first draft walkthrough, but not much that could be done about that game. Sometimes Lady Luck straps on the brass knuckles and goes to town!
On to the next draft!
I’m very happy about that draft. Some very strong cards, great removal and plenty of card advantage should lead to a 3-0.
Some interesting build decisions. Normally I would love to play Ancient Stirrings in a deck with three colorless cards, but I don’t have enough green sources to reliably cast it early which leaves it on the bench. I’m happy to run the Reinforced Bulwarks in this deck, providing early defence that won’t mind my colourful manabase. The Skeletal Wurm is necessary as another win condition that’s quite hard to deal with. I like playing one Lay Bare in this deck to compliment the double Regress and double Mnemonic Wall. Broodwarren is a fine sideboard card if I need a Durkwood Boar to serve blocking duty, and the Leaf Arrows and Naturalizes are amazing as ever coming off the bench. All in all I quite like this deck, it is exactly the style I’m looking to draft in this format.
Alas, here is where I have to leave you, twitching in anticipation for the game walkthroughs to come next week. Let me know in the comments if you want me to keep giving as detailed reports as this one or instead give only the bare facts of what happened. I’m happy to do either, but personally I’m always interested to see how the games play out after I follow along a draft.
Dylan Pratt – Jester123 on MODO
Artist / Film / TV Show / Book of the Week:
Ratatat / Mean Girls / Clone High / The World According to Garp
Barring a few minor exceptions, I was with you through most of the second draft. That said, I think you made some major mistakes in deckbuilding. First of all, I would not have played the Bulwarks. I'd definitely cut both of them for either the Fleeting Distraction or the Lay Bare plus a land. I might side them in against certain opponents, but given the nature of the format I can't imagine doing that often at all.
The other major problem that you have is your mana. Your green is basically a splash, not a main color. The problem is that two of your splash cards (the Tuskcaller and, more importantly the wurm) require a lot of green to work well while the other two are mana fixing (the growth spasm) and really weak in your deck (Jaddi Lifestrider with 10 total creatures and only one token producer). The black splash is a little easier with two vendettas and a last kiss. I can see why you are running the skeletal wurm -- it's not at all ideal, but you are badly hurting for finishers. The resulting manabase is a big mess though. You need more forests to make Pelakka Wurm viable, but it's hard to justify more forests for only four green cards. I'd definitely run 18 lands in this deck without question.
So all in all you have some very strong removal but will struggle to close out games with only the incredibly hard to cast Pelakka Wurm, Skeletal Wurm, and the very fragile Kazandu Tuskcaller as real ways to win the game. You have a ton of card advantage, but if your opponent has multiple removal spells you are basically screwed.
Man, that is a ballsy deck build. Running the Pelakka on 4 Forests + Prism seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
I probably would have ran 1 Swamp (which is really 4 black mana sources with Evolving Wilds, +Prism, +Growth Spasm) to cast your four black spells (all requiring 1B mana). That allows you to run two more Forests to make the Pelakka a bit more reasonable.
Eight critters (I'm not counting the awful Bulwarks) makes this deck look pretty bad. But maybe it's controlling enough to survive until your fatties hit? If your Cryptologist + Tuskcaller get Fork Bolt-ed, might as well concede on the spot.
I definitely agree with most of the comments concerning my manabase, I should have played 18 land including another forest. This would have raised me to 8 sources of green for Pelakka Wurm(including Growth Spasm) which is certainly fine for a deck as controlling as this. The manabase isn't actually that bad on this deck as it simply wants to stall out anyway and can afford to wait for land to come.
I do have to take a second to defend Reinforced Bulwark, however. I feel like everyone that savagely hates this card has never tried it in a super controlling deck. It actually does exactly what this deck needs: defends any kind of early attack while still being (fairly) relevant in the lategame. Furthermore, a deck with a less than stellar manabase is glad to have a couple colorless cards. Lastly, if I played Lay Bare and Fleeting Distraction instead of the Bulwarks this deck, it would have essentially two board-affecting cards it wants to play in the first four turns(Domestication and Tuskcaller), one of which isn't likely to be played on turn 2. This format is slow, but not that slow. Reinforced Bulwark is a little evil, but its a necessary evil and I definitely recommend trying it before you knock it.
On threats: sure this deck isn't winning any speed races, but Skeletal Wurm is actually an incredibly hard card to answer even if it is easily chump blocked for a while. Plus this deck has two Regresses with double Mnemonic Wall back-up in case they have infinite Narcolepsy/Guard Duty. It is definitely low on threats, but I wouldn't want more than two more or I would risk clogging up my hands early on.
I do apologize for knocking the Reinforced Bulwark. No, I've definitely never played with the card myself. That is due to a combination of my own evaluation of the card when I first was learning ROE draft, and because in over 75 drafts I've never seen a single Bulwark on my opponent's side of the board.
If you say the card has merits in an ultra-controlling type of deck, then I will believe you. I have no experience to counter that claim.
I think playing regress is fine for this deck in the first four turns. You've got a lot of card advantage, after all. And most decks don't play out serious early threats that the wall actually does much to stop. Most early attackers in aggressive decks are either going to have evasion or 4 power (Kiln Fiend, Beastbreaker, Wildheart Invoker, possibly Bramblesnap, Dread Drone (although that isn't really "early"), etc.) I think you can more than afford the 4-8 life from an "early" 2/2 or 3/3 in this deck.
Also, you forgot about last kiss... and with double wall I really wouldn't feel too bad about vendettaing an early guy too as long as you keep a narc or what not in your hand for a real threat.
@lumbydan: that's a similar argument to people who tomescour away an opponent's lightning bolt and think it's negatively affected them. it's just as likely that there's a good card 6 cards down. Ancient stirrings has only 2 downsides to it:
it costs G instead of zero (making it effectively a land that comes into play tapped if you can reliably hit G on turn 1). an opening hand with a stirrings and 2 islands is pretty akward (or, worse yet, 2 stirrings and an island), but a hand with a forest, island, and stirrings is almost certainly better than 3 basics.
also, it can miss (though this is extremely rare).
so, there's some disadvantages. what do you get in return? well the biggest benefit of stirrings is it lets you run a card that, early game is a land, and late game is a land that sometimes is an eldrazi. running 3 or 4 eldrazi can be incredibly awkward as, normally, drawing more than 2 is overkill, and even drawing 2 early on can be disastrous. stirrings let you lower the eldrazi count. ramp decks, traditionally, have had a huge problem: sometimes you draw all your ramp. sometimes you draw all your threats. having a card that helps you find which ever of the two are lacking is extremely important. i am never unhappy playing 3 stirrings in an eldrazi ramp deck, and will normally run 1 or 2 (counting each as half a land).
I rarely run Ancient Stirrings because the last time I used it the spell completely whiffed and I felt rather embarrassed. I think my opponent "LOL"-d too.
whiffing is akward but it's worth noting that OPs deck has 20 colourless cards. in such a deck your chances of whiffing are 1/(2^5) which is about 3%. i suppose that's actually a lot higher than i was expecting. awkward. it's harder to whiff than gift of the gargantuan though...
Draft #2 went a lot better than Draft #1, I think. I don't disagree with a single one of your picks this time. The mana base seems off however; if ever there was a deck that needed 18 lands this is it. In fact, in ROE draft format I have found it is very rare that I play fewer than 18 lands, unless I have a ton of ramp. Even in the so-called "fast" decks like UW or UB levelers, you still have tons of mana sinks with the levelers so you're never at risk of getting flooded. In your deck you could probably lose one of the Bulwarks for another Forest, or put in your Ancient Stirrings as an 18th land and replace an Island with a Forest.
Regarding win conditions, three should be enough with the two Wurms and the Tuskcaller. I don't agree that this is too few win conditions, since your games will always go long with multiple Mnemonic Walls + removal, and you have counterspell and bounce backup.
Regarding cliffhanger endings, this is the great Dylan Pratt we're talking about here. Easy 3-0, not even a challenge.
11 Comments
Barring a few minor exceptions, I was with you through most of the second draft. That said, I think you made some major mistakes in deckbuilding. First of all, I would not have played the Bulwarks. I'd definitely cut both of them for either the Fleeting Distraction or the Lay Bare plus a land. I might side them in against certain opponents, but given the nature of the format I can't imagine doing that often at all.
The other major problem that you have is your mana. Your green is basically a splash, not a main color. The problem is that two of your splash cards (the Tuskcaller and, more importantly the wurm) require a lot of green to work well while the other two are mana fixing (the growth spasm) and really weak in your deck (Jaddi Lifestrider with 10 total creatures and only one token producer). The black splash is a little easier with two vendettas and a last kiss. I can see why you are running the skeletal wurm -- it's not at all ideal, but you are badly hurting for finishers. The resulting manabase is a big mess though. You need more forests to make Pelakka Wurm viable, but it's hard to justify more forests for only four green cards. I'd definitely run 18 lands in this deck without question.
So all in all you have some very strong removal but will struggle to close out games with only the incredibly hard to cast Pelakka Wurm, Skeletal Wurm, and the very fragile Kazandu Tuskcaller as real ways to win the game. You have a ton of card advantage, but if your opponent has multiple removal spells you are basically screwed.
damn these cliffhanger endings... what happens?!?
sucks about the gideon misplay. i hope you sold him immediately after the draft... out of spite.
Man, that is a ballsy deck build. Running the Pelakka on 4 Forests + Prism seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
I probably would have ran 1 Swamp (which is really 4 black mana sources with Evolving Wilds, +Prism, +Growth Spasm) to cast your four black spells (all requiring 1B mana). That allows you to run two more Forests to make the Pelakka a bit more reasonable.
Eight critters (I'm not counting the awful Bulwarks) makes this deck look pretty bad. But maybe it's controlling enough to survive until your fatties hit? If your Cryptologist + Tuskcaller get Fork Bolt-ed, might as well concede on the spot.
I definitely agree with most of the comments concerning my manabase, I should have played 18 land including another forest. This would have raised me to 8 sources of green for Pelakka Wurm(including Growth Spasm) which is certainly fine for a deck as controlling as this. The manabase isn't actually that bad on this deck as it simply wants to stall out anyway and can afford to wait for land to come.
I do have to take a second to defend Reinforced Bulwark, however. I feel like everyone that savagely hates this card has never tried it in a super controlling deck. It actually does exactly what this deck needs: defends any kind of early attack while still being (fairly) relevant in the lategame. Furthermore, a deck with a less than stellar manabase is glad to have a couple colorless cards. Lastly, if I played Lay Bare and Fleeting Distraction instead of the Bulwarks this deck, it would have essentially two board-affecting cards it wants to play in the first four turns(Domestication and Tuskcaller), one of which isn't likely to be played on turn 2. This format is slow, but not that slow. Reinforced Bulwark is a little evil, but its a necessary evil and I definitely recommend trying it before you knock it.
On threats: sure this deck isn't winning any speed races, but Skeletal Wurm is actually an incredibly hard card to answer even if it is easily chump blocked for a while. Plus this deck has two Regresses with double Mnemonic Wall back-up in case they have infinite Narcolepsy/Guard Duty. It is definitely low on threats, but I wouldn't want more than two more or I would risk clogging up my hands early on.
I do apologize for knocking the Reinforced Bulwark. No, I've definitely never played with the card myself. That is due to a combination of my own evaluation of the card when I first was learning ROE draft, and because in over 75 drafts I've never seen a single Bulwark on my opponent's side of the board.
If you say the card has merits in an ultra-controlling type of deck, then I will believe you. I have no experience to counter that claim.
I think playing regress is fine for this deck in the first four turns. You've got a lot of card advantage, after all. And most decks don't play out serious early threats that the wall actually does much to stop. Most early attackers in aggressive decks are either going to have evasion or 4 power (Kiln Fiend, Beastbreaker, Wildheart Invoker, possibly Bramblesnap, Dread Drone (although that isn't really "early"), etc.) I think you can more than afford the 4-8 life from an "early" 2/2 or 3/3 in this deck.
Also, you forgot about last kiss... and with double wall I really wouldn't feel too bad about vendettaing an early guy too as long as you keep a narc or what not in your hand for a real threat.
I am not a big fan of ancient stirrings. I played it and it seemed like I would have to ship a good card to the bottom for a land.
@lumbydan: that's a similar argument to people who tomescour away an opponent's lightning bolt and think it's negatively affected them. it's just as likely that there's a good card 6 cards down. Ancient stirrings has only 2 downsides to it:
it costs G instead of zero (making it effectively a land that comes into play tapped if you can reliably hit G on turn 1). an opening hand with a stirrings and 2 islands is pretty akward (or, worse yet, 2 stirrings and an island), but a hand with a forest, island, and stirrings is almost certainly better than 3 basics.
also, it can miss (though this is extremely rare).
so, there's some disadvantages. what do you get in return? well the biggest benefit of stirrings is it lets you run a card that, early game is a land, and late game is a land that sometimes is an eldrazi. running 3 or 4 eldrazi can be incredibly awkward as, normally, drawing more than 2 is overkill, and even drawing 2 early on can be disastrous. stirrings let you lower the eldrazi count. ramp decks, traditionally, have had a huge problem: sometimes you draw all your ramp. sometimes you draw all your threats. having a card that helps you find which ever of the two are lacking is extremely important. i am never unhappy playing 3 stirrings in an eldrazi ramp deck, and will normally run 1 or 2 (counting each as half a land).
I rarely run Ancient Stirrings because the last time I used it the spell completely whiffed and I felt rather embarrassed. I think my opponent "LOL"-d too.
whiffing is akward but it's worth noting that OPs deck has 20 colourless cards. in such a deck your chances of whiffing are 1/(2^5) which is about 3%. i suppose that's actually a lot higher than i was expecting. awkward. it's harder to whiff than gift of the gargantuan though...
Draft #2 went a lot better than Draft #1, I think. I don't disagree with a single one of your picks this time. The mana base seems off however; if ever there was a deck that needed 18 lands this is it. In fact, in ROE draft format I have found it is very rare that I play fewer than 18 lands, unless I have a ton of ramp. Even in the so-called "fast" decks like UW or UB levelers, you still have tons of mana sinks with the levelers so you're never at risk of getting flooded. In your deck you could probably lose one of the Bulwarks for another Forest, or put in your Ancient Stirrings as an 18th land and replace an Island with a Forest.
Regarding win conditions, three should be enough with the two Wurms and the Tuskcaller. I don't agree that this is too few win conditions, since your games will always go long with multiple Mnemonic Walls + removal, and you have counterspell and bounce backup.
Regarding cliffhanger endings, this is the great Dylan Pratt we're talking about here. Easy 3-0, not even a challenge.