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By: walkerdog, Tyler Walker
May 27 2010 12:38am
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I have become addicted to Rise of the Eldrazi draft.  It is a neat format, with a lot of viable strategies and approaches, along with random rares that you can build around.  It feels like the child of LLM and M10 getting together for a quickie in the back of a Dodge Dart on a Saturday night.  The set features all sorts of absurd creatures and swingy spells.  I am using raredraft.com to present this draft, and commentary is shown below each pack.

The deck came together nicely.  With a few wiser picks, I think it would have been a monster.

 

 

Unfortunately... I forgot to hit submit once I had built this deck, and I ran an 80-card deck.  On the plus side, I only drafted a couple of off-color cards!  Right!?!  I realize my mistake when I mull away a hands with a Plains and see 74 cards on the deck afterwards.

I keep Mnemonic Wall, two Islands, Shrivel, Dread Drone, and Thought Gorger.  He leads with a Plains.  I draw and drop an Island.  Prophetic Prism off of another Plains is his reply.  I draw and play a Swamp.  He has Plains, Gloomhunter. I draw another Swamp and play an Island.  He plays a Plains and hits me.  I drop another Swamp, Shrivel the 'hunter, and follow up with the Enclave Cryptologist that I drew.  He has a Swamp and a Totem-Guide Hartebeest, fetching Luminous Wake.  Eww!  That is an awful fetch to my mind.  I guess it kind of acts as a Pacifism on a small man, but yuck!

I untap, draw Dread Drone, and play it.  He plays Ikiral Outrider and levels it up.  His antelope hits me for two.  I draw and play a Plains, then level my Cryptologist three times.  I pass the turn.  He plays Luminous Wake on the Outrider and levels it up.  He attacks with both men and I draw Skywatcher Adept with my EC.  I take both hits down to twelve.  I draw Aura Finesse.  I play the Adept and then Thought Gorger.  I draw an Island off of EC and play it.  Finally, I level the Adept and pass.  He has the obvious Island and Narcolepsy for Thought Gorger, then Null Champion.  I draw an Island, then a Swamp off of EC, and play the Swamp.  I level the Adept fully and pass with two mana open.  He levels the Champ up to level three, and attacks with the antelope and the Outrider.  I double-block the Outrider, and he has Vendetta for the Adept, so the Drone goes down too.  I draw Venerated Teacher and Shrivel and die.

Game two, I side into something near the above configuration.  I mull a 1-lander, then keep Swamp, Island, EC, Wavewatcher, Lay Bare and Champion's Drake.  Island, EC is my lead.  He has Swamp-go.  I play Swamp and level up.  I neglect to dig on his turn.  I make the worst possible play pretty much, drawing Venerated Teacher and... leveling up once.  Meh, I am dumb!  Better would have been Wavewatch or Teacher.  Teach is probably best, to start drawing NOW, but Wavewatch is solid too.  He has Knight of Cliffhaven.  I draw and play a Swamp, then play Wavewatch and Champion's Drake.  Well, I guess not running into Vendetta wasn't awful... I dig and discard Lay Bare after drawing an Island. He has Kabira Vindicator, and ships back.  I draw Deprive!  Sweet.  I play Island and Teacher, and level up the Wavewatch.  My opponent plays his fifth land, levels Vindy, and passes with WB open.  I draw a Swamp and play it, then level the Wavewatch twice.  I swing for ten, keeping only the old man back. 

He untaps and levels Vindy, and tries Luminous Wake.  I counter it, swing for 10 more and he scoops.  I think that may have been premature, but maybe he had no outs to Islandwalk (he'd played one a turn or two back).

I side out the awful Shared Discovery for something else... Maybe a Dread Drone.  I keep Swamp, Island, EC, Mnemonic Wall, Arrogant Bloodlord, Nirkana Cutthroat, and Reality Spasm.  He leads with a Plains.  I draw Mortician Beetle, and play Island - EC.  He has Plains, Outrider.  I draw an Island and play a Swamp, then ding! goes my EC.  He plays Luminous Wake on his 1/2 and attacks.  I dig with EC, pitching Bloodlord and keeping the drawn Wavewatch.  I draw an Island, play it, follow with Beetle and another level up for EC.  

I dig, and pitch Spasm, keeping Lay Bare.  He has Eland Umbra for his crappy 1/2.  I draw a Swamp and play it.  Then I level up.  I follow with Wavewatch.  I draw a free Swamp.  He plays Venerated Teacher for a kinda-crappy 2/10.  He attacks and I Wavewatch-block it.  I draw Deprive and Dread Drone with EC.  I level Wavewatch once, then pass after dropping a land with Deprive-mana open.  He plays a land and attacks with both men.  I block one with my Wavewatch.  He tries Null Champion.  I Deprive him of his man.  I draw a Swamp and play it, then a Teacher off of EC.  I play Him and then level up the Wavewatch to level 4 and pass the turn.  He attacks with the 2/10, which I block, and the Shrivels away my EC.  Aww!  Only three cards off of him!  I draw a Swamp and level the Wavewatch and beat down.  I pass.  He attacks with both men.  We trade Teachers.  His Gloomhunter gets Layed Bare, revealing Crusher and Demystify.  I play Null Champ and level up once.  Afterwards I attack with WW.  He levels and attacks for two again.  I draw another Teacher and play Cutthroat and Teacher afterwards.  I beat for six and pass.  He has Kabira Vindicator, and stays home with his men.  I play Mnemonic Wall for Lay Bare.  Then I Islandwalk for six more.  He has two levels for Vindicator, and a vigilant attack for three.  I draw and play Champion's Drake.  Then I level up Null Champion to level four.  Six more damage Islandwalks across, to drop him to 21.  He has Training Grounds, and makes his Outrider level four.  Vindy gets a level too.  He attacks for four.  I block and regenerate.  I untap and draw Distortion Strike.  I play it on my Null Champion and attack for 17 that he can't block.  I level up the Cuttroat.  He maxes out his Vindy and drops another Outrider.  Then he attacks with the team.  I Wall his Outrider and Cutthroat his Vindicator.  He scoops.

 Round two was weird... Game one, I ride a Wavewatch to a quick win (Turn five scoop?) with Deprive to finish him off.  There was really no action to it.  Game two is similar after I build a proper deck.

He leads with a Mountain.  I have two Island, Swamp, Champ's Drake, Induce Despair, Lay Bare, and Dread Drone.  I draw a Cutthroat, play an Island and pass.  He plays Kiln Fiend.  I drop the Drake and pass the turn.  He has Forked Bolt for the Drake and I, and attacks.  I play the Cutthroat.  This is a big mistake in my opinion. I  think it would have been better to sit back on Despair.  Anyway, he has Staggershock and blows me out with dudes even after his man dies to Despair the next turn.

Game three I make a poor decision to keep a hand with an Island, four Swamp, an Adept, and a Teacher.   I lead with Adept, and he has a Mountain.  I attack for one and pass back.  I had drawn Thought Gorger.  He has an Island, and passes back.  I draw Beetle,  level the Adept, attack, and pass.  He has a Lavafume Invoker to bring the pain.  I draw an Island, play it, and drop the Teacher and the Beetle.  Four to the face, and it is his turn again.  He has Regress for my Adept.  I play it and the Wavewatch I drew, and level the WW up.  Teach gets in for two after he declines to block.

He plays the scary Drake Umbra on his Invoker and passes back.  I get a Bloodlord, play a Swamp, and max out on my WW.  Islandwalk is pretty good sometimes!  He has Surreal Memoir for his Regress.  I draw a money! Deprive, level up the WW once more and hit him down to five.  With SR's Rebound on the stack, he tries the Regress on my man.  I try Deprive.  I could also choose to let it resolve since he has RR open, and could draw another Island to make it live again.  This way though, he is tapped out, and I can drop two men on my turn, setting up an alpha strike a turn later, or even an Islandwalk-strike two turns later.  He draws his card and scoops.

In round three, I keep three Islands, a Swamp, Teach, a Drake, and Mnemonic Wall.  I lead with an Island.  He has an Evolving Wilds for a Plains.  I draw Bloodthrone Vampire... Oh right, an eighty-card deck.  Drake gets played.  He has a Forest and passes back.  I draw an Island, attack with Drake, and play the Island and the Vamp.  He has a Swamp and a Bloodrite Invoker.  Gogogo3c.dec!  I draw Merfolk Observer, play him, and see Inquisition of Kozilek.  Beats ensue, and he trades his 3/1 for my 1/1.  Cool.  Inquisition gets my Teach, and he plays another Swamp.  I draw Deprive.  He takes three on my attack, and I play a land and pass the turn.  He drops another Forest and passes back.

I draw Puncturing Light (no Plains, sweet!) and attack.  He takes and I pass the turn back.  He has a bomb, Awakening Zone.  I Deprive him of it (yay puns!), and he has land-go.  I draw ANOTHER land, play the Wall and draw back my Deprive, setting another potential pun.  He takes to nine, and plays land-go some more.  I draw another Merfolk Observer and play him.  I see a Forest on his deck.  He takes to six.  He plays his forest and passes the turn back.  I draw Arrogant Bloodlord, hit him for five, and pass.  He has another bomb; Mul Daya Channelers!  It reveals Bramblesnap.  I untap and attack for lethal. 

At this point, I'm 2-1 in game ones with a eighty-card main-deck, so I'm playing with house money.  Good times.  I build my normal deck, more or less, and start with an opener of 2 Swamp, 2 Island, a Beetle, a Teacher and an Induce Despair.  Evolving Wilds gets him a Swamp.  I draw Champion's Drake and play the Beetle.  He plays a forest.  I play the Drake, attack, and pass.  He has Aura Gnarlid off of a Plains that he added to his side.  I draw Arrogant Bloodlord.  He joins my side, and I beat with the Drake.  I draw Null Champion, who is the leveler I have been looking for.  I play an Island and attack with the Bloodlord and the Drake.  He takes it, and I drop the champ.  He plays land-go.  I draw Teach!  Solid.  I play one and attack with the Drake and Bloodlord.  He plays Haze Frog for the Fog effect.  Overgrown Battlement joins his team.  I draw land and play the Teacher.  The whole team swings except for the Beetle.  He trades the Battlement with my Bloodlord, and his Frog chumps my huge Null Champion.  He has Gelatinous Genesis for 3, and passes.  I attack with the Drake.  He untaps and has nothing and dies.

I think this draft had two main points behind it:  If you screw up and don't submit, don't give up!  You can still manage to pull out the win!  It takes some luck, but it is possible.  Secondly, UB Levelers is a really good deck.  Most of my wins came on the back of a bunch of commons in addition to the Enclave Cryptologist.  The deck is not bomb-reliant; it just needed some solid levelers and the appropriate support cards.  I didn't even get a Narcolepsy or a Regress!  I hope you enjoy the draft and let me know your thoughts on it also please!

2 Comments

I think I might have by Odindusk at Thu, 05/27/2010 - 12:55
Odindusk's picture

I think I might have rage-logged if I realized that I failed to submit my deck. But obviously that would be an unwise decision. Way to stick it out and play through it, man.

Thanks by walkerdog at Fri, 05/28/2010 - 01:20
walkerdog's picture

Yea, it's worth it to stick it out; plus you get games 2-3 to play your normal 40.