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By: Jester123, Dylan Pratt
Oct 26 2010 3:42am
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Welcome back to Lovin’ Limited! After a brief hiatus due to busy-ness and a lack of an interesting format to draft online I’m excited for Scars. I haven’t played the format nearly enough to claim any great insight, but here are some thoughts so far:

-White and Red seem like the best colors, in that order, and both want to be metalcraft, so I think RW metalcraft is the best deck in a vacuum.

-Infect can be a great deck, but is vastly dependent on how many players are trying to draft it. There isn’t enough support for more than two infect drafters at a given table, so make sure its open before you jump in.

-Blue is the worst color, not by a landslide, but its trying to do similar things as Red and White and falling short.

-Every deck does *not* have to be metalcraft or infect, there are enough quality cards outside of those decks for diversity.

And now for my first ever SOM draft on MODO:

And the build:

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This deck is a little unorthodox for this format, but I think its quite good. It has an amazing mana curve with lots of synergy, and ways to force damage through late-game. I would've liked a Goblin Gavaleer or two but there was never a good time to pick one up. I just couldn't make myself cut the Battlesphere, even though it is almost certainly correct. The other build of this deck is cutting Battlesphere and a Mountain for Bladed Pinions and Seize the Initiative. This gives it more tempo and reach rather than having a 7 mana bomb stranded in hand. Obviously I ended up siding into it every game.

Match 1 Game 1 (vs Atanis):

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On the draw, an easy keeper. Atanis starts with 3 mountains and a Rust Tick while I draw a Plains in time to have Khemba’s Skyguard and Embersmith in play on turn three. I chose that over Palladium Myr since the Myr will just get tapped down anyway.

Atanis follows up with a naked Corpse Cur, still on all mountains, telling me that either he’s color screwed, has nothing else to play, or is short playables (or some combination thereof). Either way I can only play a the Palladium Myr, swing for 2, and pass back. Atanis untaps, taps down my Myr with his Tick, and swings with the Corpse Cur. Now at this point Embersmith is no better than a Goblin Piker considering my hand and the board state, but is it right to trade with the Cur? At the time I was thinking 2 infect power = 4 normal power so I don’t want to race it, but I didn’t consider the obvious possibility that he has another Corpse Cur in hand. Or rather, I did consider it, then decided I didn’t care and chose to block anyway. Obviously he has the Cur post-combat to make me look foolish.

This is the current board state:

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Considering he now has the infinite Corpse engine going, I definitely want to Arrest that Cur and keep swinging. Again I misplay and run out a Sunspear Shikari. Please forgive all the misplays, I haven’t been playing nearly my best magic lately, perhaps because I wasn’t playing much for so long. Anyway, Atanis gives me a couple poison counters before dropping his other Cur, an even more odd play than last time. I hold my flier back to block this time and have a land to play Bloodshot Trainee. Atanis swings with both, I block both and he has a third Corpse Cur post-combat. Stop the madness!

I play Hearstoker to kill his Tick and unlock my Myr, along with an Infiltration Lens. I manage to drop the Battlesphere as his Cur continue to trade with my bears to keep me alive, but he has Shatter for it as well as an Arc Trail to leave with with the Trainee and three tokens to his double Corpse Cur, with one in hand(2 other cards). Turn to Slag takes care of my Shikari and Lens and I’m forced to try to race his infectors. It is not to be, and Atanis shows me Koth for the overkill.

Match 1 Game 2:

(sideboard out Battlesphere + land for Pinions and Seize, which I do every game from now on)

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Is barely a keeper, but its decent enough not to send back as any creature in the first few turns will look pretty good. Atanis keeps and we’re off to the races. My first few draws are land and an Arrest, as Atanis has Culling Dais and Tumble Magnet to keep my Hawk at bay. Trigon of Rage adds to the creature enhancements and Atanis has a Corpse Cur and metalcrafted Blade-Tribe Berserkers to put me to 2 poison and 14 life. Shikari shows up just in time to force the last Tumble Magnet counter, and I Arrest a Barrage Ogre before it gets out of hand. Atanis can’t find a way to deal with the massive Shikari and succumbs.

Match 1 Game 3:

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Not a bad keeper at all. Shikar and the Daredevil start the party as Atanis has Shatter for the Lens before I can gain any life, followed by Rust Tick. A couple of Heartstokers bring Atanis to 10 despite a Tumble Magnet and he tries to stabilize with an Accorder’s Shield on the Tick. Contagion Clasp lets me swing with everything but a surprise Shatter and Galvanic Blast let Atanis stay at 6 life while he drops Barrage Ogre:

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I swing with everything to bring Atanis to 2, losing my Ferravore, then play Pinions and Myrsmith to keep the pressure on. Atanis has a second Barrage Ogre and we start long, long game of me equipping a creature with Pinons and him chucking an artifact at it every turn. Atanis is a couple turns away from winning with Koth, but he’s down to one artifact and I’ve been sandbagging Seize the Initiative for just this occasion, which saves my Hearstoker from an Ogre while swinging for the win. Considering how great the start looked that was a very tight game.

Match 2 Game 1 (vs SEV111):

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Not ideal but still a keeper, and SEV lets me go first. Heartstoker hopes to let Shikari in for 4 damage but a Grasp of Darkness says no, and SEV follows up with an Accorder’s Shielded Auriok Replica. Contagion Clasp lets me swing into it anyway and SEV block/saccs to stymie Ferrovore and stay at a healthy 16. This is when he drops Steel Hellkite, and since my hand is nothing but land it doesn’t take long to get there.

Match 2 Game 2:

I play first and keep this saucy number:

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SEV keeps as well and starts with Copper Myr and Necrogen Scudder while my Shikari goes to town, joined by Glint Hawk Idol. Trigon of Rage makes the life totals 10 to 27 and Sylvok Replica deals with it before it gets out of hand. Heartstoker makes it 6/31 but a Bleak Coven Vampire brings SEV back up to 10.

Accorder’s Shield on a Copper Myr is slightly tempting to Turn to Slag, but I decide to wait for a big dragon instead. SEV delivers, but with Skithyrix rather than the expected dragon. Luckily he doesn’t have enough black mana for regeneration too and I take my window to kill it. Next up I have a second Infiltration Lens to put SEV in a rather awkward position…that is until Sunblast Angel leaves me with only an Oxxida Daredevil and SEV at 2 life. Luckily I’m at 25 life so I’ve got a bit of time, and even more lucky is that my opponent secretly loves me. He chooses to double block my incoming Daredevil, drawing me 8 cards instead of 4, and that is more than enough to finish him off. He shows me a Khemba, upping the SEV-bomb-tally to 4.

Match 2 Game 3:

For some odd reason SEV chooses to play last, and I mull a one-lander into this:

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If that Mountain was a Plains this would be an easy keep rather than going to five, but as it is I just can’t keep it. My five on the play:

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A little awkward since its almost strictly worse than the last hand, but what’reyagonnado. SEV keeps his full seven and I’m left praying for miracle(or at least I would’ve been if I was a praying man). Plains right off the top makes me look like a champ, but its still a ridiculously long uphill battle. SEV chooses never ever to block a creature with the Lens on it, even if his creature won’t die, which is partly why I love the card. Sometimes turning a Grizzly Bear into a Divination is better than the alternative people! Suck it up and block that Lens.

Anyway the board state has developed into this ugly affair:

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At this point the only thing in my deck keeping me from a “right-click, Concede Game” is a lonely Trigon of Rage. Obv I peel it like a champ (is). Still, I haven’t nearly won since I still a dragon or two to deal with. SEV chooses this turn to finally block my Heartstoker, with Auriok Replica rather than Necrogen Scudder for some unknown reason. This draws me into a Skyguard and a sorely needed Arrest. Now instead of being forced to kill Skittles now before he has regen mana up, then chump-block Hellkite, I can afford to wait on Skittles and block the Hellkite with Glint Hawk so I can finish it off with Trainee. I think SEV was thinking I would block with the Hawk and pump it so that he could Fume Spitter before damage, but I’m not quite that bad and he loses his Hellkite EOT(not having to use the Trainee on my turn also lets me play around Sunblast Angel. Man that was a nice Arrest).

After the dust clears SEV and I are left in a state of constant pinging, as he has a Heavy Arbalest to match my Trainee+Trigon. However, the Infiltration Lens keeps him on the back-foot and a Turn to Slag takes care of his Arbalest. After that a couple random bears are enough to win this seemingly-unwinnable game. Definitely did not expect to make it to round 3 after that opener…

Match 3 Game 1 (vs Pie_filler):

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Is an easy keep on the play, although Battlesphere sure is making me look bad. My Myrsmith is matched by Pie’s, and the Myr start to pile up. Heavy Arbalest ends my Shikari + Lens but I have Contagion Clasp to keep the Myr advantage. Between Heartstokers, Trigon, Lens and all the Myr I’ve made Pie_filler can’t hold on for long, although a couple Razor Hippogriffs try valiantly.

Match 3 Game 2:

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I love playing 15 land…Pie keeps his 7 as well and finds his Myrsmith for turn 3, luckily I topdeck the Clasp to end it. A couple of Invisimancers start a race and luckily Pie_filler doesn’t have any artifacts to go with his double Hippogriff and Glimmerpoint Stag. Heartstokers and Infiltration Lens let me keeping swinging into his Hill Giants, but the race is looking super tight. I hold onto an Oxidda Daredevil as a surprise attacker with Pie at 6 life, and find a Panic Spellbomb:

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At this point Pie looks mighty safe from his point of view, but I only have to wait for him to leave 2 or less blockers up, and I run out the plains to make it look like I only have one relevant card. He correctly swings with both Invisimancers to put me on a one-turn window and runs out a blocker, but the Daredevil eats up my Lens ftw.

At least one game out of every match this draft was insanely-close, and there were plenty of important strategic decisions to be made. Drafts like this give me hope for a new format, and if even half the matches look anything like these this should prove to be a very skill-intensive format indeed. Looking forward to it!

Dylan Pratt (Jester123 on MODO)

6 Comments

r1g3 by corpse_grinder at Tue, 10/26/2010 - 10:37
corpse_grinder's picture

r1g3 you should've won the turn of the snapshot by dropping pinions, attaching to ferrovore, then saccing it to ferrovore after blockers.

I only see 4 mana in the by Thisismich at Tue, 10/26/2010 - 11:50
Thisismich's picture

I only see 4 mana in the screenshot you're referring to, so it's 2 to drop pinions, 2 to equip and then he wouldn't have mana left to pay for the ferrovore's ability (which requires R AND sac for each artifact).

haha by corpse_grinder at Tue, 10/26/2010 - 12:07
corpse_grinder's picture

yeah :\

dude, nice come back! i think by psymunn at Tue, 10/26/2010 - 15:13
psymunn's picture
5

dude, nice come back!
i think the only real difference draft wise i would have done is taken perilous myr over turn to slag, pack 1, pick 6. i also, apparently, underrate heart stoker. i forget it turns on trainee and there are a few other random interactions that are cute.

Pack 1, pick 4 - Strider by midi2304 at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 19:48
midi2304's picture

Pack 1, pick 4 - Strider Harness over black Trigon? Fairly certain that's a bad pick. Even without any black mana in your deck, Trigon is incredible in this format because of the overall low toughness of creatures.

'Twas the Green Trigon, which by Jester123 at Thu, 10/28/2010 - 15:00
Jester123's picture

'Twas the Green Trigon, which I don't like outside of infect, and even there I'm not a huge fan.