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By: walkerdog, Tyler Walker
Aug 10 2011 9:36am
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Here we go!


 

On a slightly humorous note, my number one concern was not getting blown out by Sorin's Vengeance, and I was REALLY hoping Cancel would be enough to not have this awkwardness occur.  I like the costing on that card.  Five years ago it would have cost BBBB5 or something.

UW Flyers
The timeless archetype
Creatures
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Alluring Siren
1 Griffin Sentinel
3 cards

Other Spells
2 Gideon's Lawkeeper
3 Pacifism
2 Armored Warhorse
2 Griffin Rider
1 Swiftfoot Boots
2 Benalish Veteran
2 Skywinder Drake
1 Scepter of Empires
1 Stornhorn Dignitary
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Peregrin Griffin
1 Cancel
1 Arbalest Elite
5 cards
 
Lands
10 Plains
6 Island
16 cards

 
Stormfront Pegasus

 

The biggest mistakes in my draft were passing a Lawkeeper for a Griffin Rider and compounding that mistake by taking a Skywinder Drake over a Rider-supporting Assault Griffin.  Other than that, the deck ran like a dream with 3 Pacifisms, an ORing, and 2 Lawkeepers as removal of sorts and fast beaters to overwhelm the opponent.

Round one was quick.  He used Tattered Souls to turn on Bloodthirsted 4/2 vampires.  I would trade Armored Warhorse for one, use a Lawkeeper to control the board, and finish with flyers.  The only speedbump was a Sorin in game two, but again, I play a ton of three-toughness guys who mauled the puny planeswalker.  His Onyx Mage tried to block my guy only to get mowed down by my Arbalest Elite of the 336th... and he responded with giving it Death Touch.  Nice.  Anyway, it went quickly.

Round two was a little funny.  After round one, my nephew called, wanting a ride to our place.  I raced over to pick him up, then hurried back with 16:16 on my clock.  By 13:56 my UR opponent had conceded the match.  Both games I had quick men, then let Lawkeeper or Pacifism keep him off balance with flyers pounding him to death.  The only interesting thing the second game was getting "blown out" by Chandra's removal on my Griffin Sentinal so that his Arsonist could trade with my Griffin Rider but even that was a speed bump in the path of beatdown.  At six life, he had a Drake out and a rando-dude on the ground, and tapped out for Fact or Phinxtion.  I untapped, used Lawkeeper on his Drake, ORing on the FoPh and killed him with two Drakes laying the smackdown.

Round three was funny (to me).  My opponent timed out, possibly because my round two took a while (2.5 minutes of play, 9 minutes of my afk and 3 minutes of my opponent's afk to start the round).

I might not have won round three depending on his deck, but I felt like this was a solid example of the UW flyer archetype (White-heavy this time) in M12.  It also showed a few mistakes in planning when I drafted the Rider over the Lawkeeper but not the Griffin over the Drake.  For the record, I think the Lawkeeper and Drake would be the BEST picks, but the Rider and Griffin might be the most fun. Good luck with M12 everyone!
 

 

10 Comments

Not a huge drafter, but I do by Scartore at Wed, 08/10/2011 - 11:20
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Not a huge drafter, but I do a little core set each year. I've played the Thran Golem. Its a bomb if you get pants on him, but that can be an if. I'm a timmy for aura's so I've used him a bit.

Where am I going wrong? by apaulogy at Thu, 08/11/2011 - 13:21
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I see you guys constantly winning with draft pools similar to ones I have drafted, and I keep losing.

I just don't get it. I can say that there have been some errors and bad keeps on my part, but how's a man catch a break?

Anyway, good work. I enjoy reading your draft reports, I just have a little "I bet those golden tickets make the chocolate taste terrible" (Charlie-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) mind set.

warstorm surge by chiznad at Wed, 08/10/2011 - 14:23
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I've drafted quite a few of these M12 drafts in paper with much success. In pack 1 pick 2 you passed the warstorm surge for the lawkeeper which worked out fine for you, but from experience the surge is a bomb. I was completely obliterated by it in rd 3 of a draft recently. there are so few ways to remove enchantments in this set and if left alone the surge = GG. Thanks for the article and congratulations on the win.

Scar - Thanks. I think Golem by walkerdog at Wed, 08/10/2011 - 17:52
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Scar - Thanks. I think Golem is obviously situationally amazing, but sometimes you want to gamble a little.

Paul - I think you have to try to plan your deck as you draft it. Check your curve constantly, look for synergies, and review your draft after ech pack. Other than that, maybe I've just been lucky.

chiz - i don't disagree about Surge entirely, but I have a hard time trying to play a 6cmc bomb that does nothing by itself. Obviously it's heck of a card, and I'll try it next time. I just love getting into UW early on.

Looter by dragonmage65 at Thu, 08/11/2011 - 00:13
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Passing on Merfolk Looter is a big no-no. Passing on Merfolk Looter four times is unforgivable. It's easily the best blue common in the set because if it isn't killed within a few turns, you will flat-out win every topdeck race. I can understand taking the one Pacifism over it, but the generic fliers you opted for are just flat-out worse on a comparative basis.

Not to mention passing a 7th by SwolyswoND at Thu, 08/11/2011 - 03:14
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Not to mention passing a 7th pick Divination for a Griffin Rider when he had like 1 Griffin.

Looter is not easily the best by walkerdog at Thu, 08/11/2011 - 08:55
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Looter is not easily the best common. It is arguably not the 2nd or third-best even. This set is much more aggressive than past core sets. Look to Zendikar for guidance. How often was the looting guy from that set a top pick? Very rarely; in fact, it almost was a sideboard card at times. Looter gains value in slower sets. In a set like this, people will laugh and swing past (or even offer a trade of something with one toughness) while you try to Loot and catch up. I would take either Drake and AEther adept over Looter.

Divination is similar except that I am allowed to draft more Griffin, so I could end up with as many as two! Sarcasm aside, card advantage and dig have a place in the format, but so far tempo is king.

There isn't an obvious best by char49d at Thu, 08/11/2011 - 09:58
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There isn't an obvious best blue common. Looter can let you splash and run more lands, and is probably the best card in a control deck, but they each have their place. I'm also personally not a big fan of the Griffin Rider Gamble but I agree with walkerdog about divination being pretty mediocre.

That being said, Master Thief over Frost Breath - that pick is just bad. Thief isn't even something I would run main, and frost breath is insane, don't be fooled. Decks cannot just race you when you are running it.

I totally agree. As walkerdog by Thisismich at Fri, 08/12/2011 - 02:24
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I totally agree.
As walkerdog himself reminded, tempo is a must here, and Frost Breath was clearly a better pick; even Ice cage was better than thief.

As for the looter, I agree with walkerdog; in my drafts tempo was much more game-turning than card advantage, the only time I got to play the looter his role was marginal at best and ended up trading with an x/1.

Great point... I missed by walkerdog at Fri, 08/12/2011 - 10:41
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Great point... I missed talking about how I basically drafted an extremely situational SB card over two cards that would make the MD (Frost Breath) or maybe make the maindeck (Ice Cage).