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By: MarcosPMA, nn
Aug 31 2016 12:00pm
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Hello and welcome to another edition of Sealed Success!  Apologies for not being here last week, I lost my voice while trying to do a set review for Conspiracy: Take the Crown and I wasn't able to finish everything that I needed to get done for last week.  It was probably for the best, I was trying to do too much in such a short window that I needed to step back and slow down.  Of course now there's no need for an actual set review, so we'll just move forward without it.  Speaking of Conspiracy, I drafted a lot of it when it released and I figured I'd touch on it before talking about Eldritch Moon. It's a fun format but there are some things you need to keep in mind as you're drafting and playing because it's wildly different than your standard draft format.

Conspiracy Draft

I drafted Conspiracy: Take the Crown five times this past weekend and it was an experience that I believe took a lot of people, including me, by surprise.  My friends and I are used to multiplayer magic and politics, but we're not used to a multiplayer draft format.  As such, decks that we drafted that we thought were good didn't necessarily end up winning a pod, or even taking out an opponent for that matter.  Some archetypes got significantly worse when we split up into 2 4-player pods and had more than one opponent.  I drafted a R/W deck that was able to go wide with tokens and Gleam of Resistance, but lacked any powerful plays outside of that.  Essentially I put myself in a situation where I could eliminate one player but lose to the other two players if they joined forces.  The other issue was that the only way for me to eliminate a player was to use a Windborne Charge, not a Gleam of Resistance so I could not keep back enough blockers to survive multiple attacks.  In the end I decided to choose my own fate and killed one player and accepted my defeat at the other two players.

Another draft I had a R/B deck with numerous 4 mana and 5 mana creatures that complemented a Grenzo, Havoc Raiser.  This is a pod I managed to win, but only because my three opponents decided to attack each other for chip damage and left me alone with my Ember Beasts and Goblin Racketeers.  It was likely better for them to all pool their resources and kill me since I had a board presence while being mana screwed, but that was not the case.  I managed to get out of mana screw, monstrous a Keepsake Gorgon to kill a Sphinx of Magosi then attacked with my Goblin Racketeers to make sure they couldn't team up to kill me.  I did have a nice simultaneous kill where my Grenzo's Ruffians dealt lethal damage to one player and its trigger also dealt lethal to another.  Neat!

Threat assessment is likely the best weapon you can have in a multiplayer draft as if you're able to identify the threat, you can convince your other opponents to take them out.  Sometimes you draft a deck but it lines up poorly against your opponents, or you draw a slow hand while they are ramping to bigger and better plays.  Rather than be the only one with creatures and have a target on your back, holding back and only getting in for chip damage until you recognize the threat is a better tactic.  Deck positioning is also important, but that's not something you can plan out in advance. Sometimes you end up with the wrong deck for the table and there's not much you can do about that.  I had another R/W deck that had a good top end in Skyline Despot and Stoneshock Giants but the table ended up losing to Selvala's Stampede backed by multiple enormous Vaporkins while our small creatures were held back by a 1/2 and 0/4 blocker.  After the Selvala's Stampede resolved that one opponent had 18 power in the air and 10 power on the ground and none of us had a board wipe.  Ouch.

Eldritch Moon Competitive Sealed

Going 2-3 overall in the league is disappointing, but we did play towards a 3-2 that just never happened.  My Sin Prodder kept showing up in the worst situations and only aided in my defeat rather than helping me.  Generally speaking my Sin Prodder would be played on turn 3 when I had no more land to play and it would show my opponent a land that I was not able to draw.  None of that is the fault of Sin Prodder, I'm just as likely to show a spell and draw a land underneath that card.  In that situation Sin Prodder is excellent but I wasn't in that situation too often.  A combination of poor luck and my opponents having good decks is what did me in.  I still believe I made the right choice, there were spots where the U/W deck would have instantly lost as opposed to having a chance with the R/W deck.  Blue just wasn't that strong in the end once you compare it to red and that made the choice of going R/W much easier.  One thing I should have done in hindsight is to play the Geist of the Lonely Vigil over Guardian of Pilgrims.  The Geists would have been much better in most situations and the 2/2 body in the Guardian of Pilgrims didn't do much for me really.

Eldritch Moon Friendly Sealed

2-1 into 2-3 is not where I want to be, but it is what it is for the moment.  My deck didn't get better after adding a pack while my opponent may or may not have improved greatly because of it.  The one pack doesn't actually affect you that much since at most you're adding 3-4 cards into your playable card pool, and even then they may not be better than what you already have.  Adding two packs is where you're likely to see actual improvements in your deck, but we are not there yet.  I still believe I have a solid deck so I'm not too worried about my positioning so far.  After I play one more match I'll be able to add another pack and then I'll be in the last stage of the sealed league.  Let's hope for a Liliana!!

Eldritch Moon 8-4 Draft

Thalia, Heretic Cathar vs. Subjugator Angel.  That's a tough pick for me and I'm still not sure what the right pick is, but I believe I should have taken Subjugator Angel instead.  Thalia is great on turn 3, maybe turn 4 and then afterwards is not that amazing.  Subjugator Angel is almost always going to be good whenever it shows up, so the real question is how good your Thalia is when she's not in play on turn 3.  It really depends on what you want to draft in my opinion as while they are both good white cards, Thalia wants to be in an aggressive deck while Subjugator Angel can play well in aggro or midrange.  Regardless of that I took the Thalia since I already knew how good the Subjugator Angel is.  For me taking Thalia allows me to learn how good Thalia is and whether or not she's a first pick card.  She likely is, although there are certain cards at uncommon that I could see taking over her.

As far as the match goes I feel like I could have won if I didn't make a mistake and accidentally remove the stop that allowed me to skip my combat and die as a result.  I was on low odds to win the game and I made an attempt to do so and I would have succeeded if it were not for that mistake.  Game 2 was not really in it for me and I ended up losing the match 0-2 instead of possibly being 1-1 with my deck on the play for a game 3.  It's disappointing, it really is but there's nothing I can do about that now.  The takeaway here is that I drafted a good deck and that's something I want to be working towards doing consistently.

Conclusion

Kaladesh previews are starting, which means we are getting closer and closer to the point where Eldritch Moon will no longer be a relevant draft format.  It's a little sad to say that given how little time we've had with it, but the exciting part is that we've had so many Magic sets come out this year that there's always something to be excited for.  I'm hoping to get at least one more sealed league in before we head to Kaladesh.

Draft Leagues are now going to be a thing on Magic Online and at first I didn't like the idea of cross pod play, and I still don't, but I think draft leagues are something I've been wanting for a while now.  It would make generating content on my own time much easier than it is now.  I'll talk more in depth about draft leagues once they arrive and how they can be improved and/or what the downsides are.

Next week I'll be back with my sealed league, an 8-4 draft, and some practice sealed.  If you have any comments, questions, or concerns leave them in the comments section below!

Thanks for reading/watching!