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By: draftbetter, Draftbetter
Feb 05 2009 1:23am
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This draft article is part of an ongoing series appearing on my site draftbetter.com. Check it out for more draft walkthroughs and other Magic stuff.

This will be AAA, and I am in the 4-3-2-2 queue.

Pack One

Pick One:

p1p1

What is this like the third time I've opened this guy? I've been happy to do so every time. No reason to deviate from the rare here. Bummed about passing the Resounding Thunder though.

Broodmate Dragon

Pick Two:

p1p2

A couple of choices here but only a couple that are worth taking here. I like the Thunder-Thrash Elder, but I want cards like the Battlemage in my pile before I go taking him. The Scavenger Drake is also a valid concern, but the Battlemage fits so many different strategies that I don't want to pass him up here.

FOIL Jund Battlemage

Pick Three:

p1p3

Some good cards here again. The Fire-Field Ogre is probably the best creature, but there is a removal spell and it's in my color so I am not going to pass on it here.

Executioner's Capsule

Pick Four:

p1p4

The best removal spell to go along with my Battlemage from earlier. Not even a choice between it and the (Carrioni Thrash). I'm a little disturbed to see a late Tower Gargoyle in here.

Bone Splinters

Pick Five:

p1p5

I've said it before that I don't like the Infest that much. I like it, but not more than the Dragger at this stage of the game.

Viscera Dragger

Pick Six:

p1p6

Well, that's a little odd to see two (Infests)s in a row like that. I didn't take the first one, but there isn't a better choice in this pack so I'm going to take it. Black is wide open to my right.

Infest

Pick Seven:

p1p7

Ah, a nice time for an excellent discard spell.

Blightning

Pick Eight:

p1p8

Weak pack, this one. I'll take the Relic in case I find a hole for it.

Relic of Progenitus

Pick Nine:

p1p9

Any I wheel an Obelisk from my pack, seems about right.

Obelisk of Jund

Pick Ten:

p1p10

Some sideboard action.

Volcanic Submersion

Pick Eleven:

p1p11

Late fixing for two of my colors. I don't usually get this quality card this late.

Grixis Panorama

Pick Twelve:

p1p12

Savage Hunger

Pick Thirteen:

p1p13

Way better than thirteenth.

Kiss of the Amesha

Pick Fourteen:

p1p14

Hindering Light

Pick Fifteen:

Mountain

Pack Two

Pick One:

p2p1

The bomb rare is good, but it's not going in my deck. I have plenty of valid choices for my deck. Of those choices, I think I can narrow it down to another Bone Splinters or the (Blood cultitst). As much as I like pingers, I think the way to go here is the removal spell. Any more token type cards that I can pick up will be that much better with multiple of this one.

Bone Splinters

Pick Two:

p2p2

Geeze, and I wante the Drake from that second pick last pack. Easy for me to take it second pick from this pack.

Scavenger Drake

Pick Three:

p2p3

Another pack loaded for me. Again, I could take the Elder, but with the Scavenger here, growing him by two while sacrificing a token seems real good to me.

Fleshbag Marauder

Pick Four:

p2p4

Speaking of token cards. I've got a bonifde theme going here. No Unearth guys except for the Dragger, so I'm not going to take the Connoisseur here. Way to early for the Thrash as well. Token generator it is.

Dragon Fodder

Pick Five:

p2p5

So far, i seem to be pretty much Black/Red splash green, but there is nothing in this pack to stear me away from the elf. Not going to play the Reaver so...

Cylian Elf

Pick Six:

p2p6

Pick Six! I don't think I've gotten this one that late before. I'm not going to complain though.

Branching Bolt

Pick Seven:

p2p7

The king of token generators and nothing that I would rather have.

Necrogenesis

Pick Eight:

p2p8

It's either early card draw plus a token or a late game finisher, it's all things in one and a fine pick for me here.

Ridge Rannet

Pick Nine:

p3p9

Fine, I can take another Elf.

cylian Elf

Pick Ten:

p3p10

Dreg Reaver

Pick Eleven:

p3p11

Onyx Goblet

Pick Twelve:

p2p12

A nice later flier that might make my deck.

Skeletal Kathari

Pick Thirteen:

p2p13

Soul's Might

Pick Fourteen:

p2p14

Tortoise Formation

Pick Fifteen:

Island

Pack Three

Pick One:

p3p1

When I looked at this one, I figured the best card was definitely the Ascetic. The Thrash is in my colors, but I was betting it was just in the right place for it to wheel to me so I took the Ascetic thinking that I would have some tokens to beef him up.

Topan Ascetic

Pick Two:

p3p2

More great stuff. I like the Stinger more than the Capsule and the Stinger is already better than the Soul's Fire and the Blood Cultist.

Vithian Stinger

Pick Three:

p3p3

Wow, I was hoping for one of these, but was about to give up. Easy pick for me here though in the excellent three drop.

Sprouting Thrinax

Pick Four:

p3p4

When I made this pick originally, I didn't even consider the Resounding Roar but looking at it now, I think maybe I should have at least thought about it. I remember just saying, oh, Scourge Devil, perfect. Maybe because of all the token stuff I already have in my pile.

Scourge Devil

Pick Five:

p3p5

Another pack where I'm not sure I made the right pick. I wanted some creatures so I was in that mode and I passed on a couple of good removal spells. I have to admit that I was already pretty loaded on those though.

Dregscape Zombie

Pick Six:

p3p6

I don't think there is any reason to play two necrogenesises so I again went with the two drop.

Dregscape Zombie

Pick Seven:

p3p7

A little early for a nothing pack don't you think. I just took the card that I most didn't want to play against.

Waveskimmer Aven

Pick Eight:

p3p8

I felt pretty loaded at the two slot and since my remaining choices or five drops, I decided to go for the ground pounder as I like him and he seems like a good fit for my deck.

Mosstodon

Pick Nine:

p3p9

Here's that Thrash I was hoping to see. Easy pick here.

Carrion Thrash

Pick Ten:

p3p10

Nothing now. Easy to start hating.

Resounding Silence

Pick Eleven:

p3p11

Cancel

Pick Twelve:

p3p12

Esper Charm

Pick Thirteen:

p3p13

Vectis Silencers

Pick Fourteen:

p3p14

Shadowfeed

Pick Fifteen:

Mountain

Final Deck

Final Deck

I didn't get the fixing I was hoping for, but the quality cards were just there. I also forgot to put in the Scavenger Drake and probably could have done so at the Cylian Elf's expense. All in all, one of the tighter decks I have drafted over the last few drafts.

Matches

Ah, my last draft. A real disappoing affair that left me at a rating of 1747. I'll be facing no chump for round one though with an online rating of 1729. here is my first opener:

r1g1 Open

A two drop that recurses, a three drop that survives the Infest and a three toughness four drop. I keep. My Dregscape Zombie gets popped by his Magma Spray and I don't draw my Forest until he already has two creatures on the board. I wipe his two excellent guys then drop my Dragon Fodder and I'm set up.

r1g1 Midgame1

I topdeck a land for turn six and drop the Broodmate Dragon. My opponent plays out a Tezzeret the Seeker and tutors up a Tidehollow Strix.

r1g1 Midgame2

After I snapped the above graphic, I swung with everything sending the two tokens at Tezzeret and the two dragons at my opponent. Tezzeret dies and so does my dragon token. I've gained advantage though and I'm still in a good position to win this thing. On his next turn, he uses a Skeletonize plus his Unearthed Stinger to take out my other dragon.

r1g1 Midgame3

I draw the (Mosstodon for my turn and play it out. He doesn't block when I swing then he draws for his next turn and concedes the game to me.

r1g1 End

I guess he didn't have anything and I feel OK about that as I just drew land. I'll happily take that one there and move on to game two where I have this openning seven cards:

r1g2 Open

I'm on the draw and I will almost assuredly have the Ascetic on turn three. I can cycle the Rannet for an extra draw on turn two as well, I keep. He has a kind of quick start though and an early Tidehollow Strix and Vithian Stinger have already hit my life total pretty good. My opponent used a Blister Beetle, his Stinger and a Blood Cultist to take out my Ascetic after he had been on the board for a while. I also had a chance to hit his hand with the Blightning and play out the Necrogenesis.

I have drawn the other colors of my lands though and I even got my Branching Bolt and used it to hit his Cultist while it was still small and his Strix. I then dropped the Executioner's Capsule.

r1g1 Midgame

Still not looking good for me, things are going to have to change fast. I use the E-Capsule on his Screecher during his next attack and on the next turn, I draw a second swamp and wipe the rest of his board away with my Infest. After that, I draw some lands and play out my cards and he can't remove them all. I finally take him out with beefed up Dragons.

r1g2 End

A nice win against a tough opponent. I could have dropped that game and still had a good chance on the third game, but I'm glad I stuck with it and played tightly to take this one on game two.

Second round now and my rating has gone up to 1754. My opponent for this round is rated at 1567. I don't want to take him too lightly though as you never know what you'll run into here. I start just fine:

r2g1 Open

Good removal, a two drop and the Blightning plus all my colors give me no reason to mull this hand. He has a tri-land for turn one and a Panorama for turn two to go with his Courier's Capsule. Not too shabby for any player. I draw a Mountain for my turn two and play it instead of the fetch land as I am going to play out the Zombie anyway. He meets that with his turn three Tidehollow Strix. I attack into it happy to exchange my Zombie if he wants and happy to trade damage as well. He declines to block and I draw my Broodmate Dragon with enough land in hand already to play it, I just need to get there.

He follows that with a turn four Fire-Field Ogre. I can't get through that with my Zombie so I use my Splinters on it right away and also crack the Panorama on my turn four. He is firing on all cylanders though and on his next turn, he plays a Viscera Dragger and his own E-Capsule. I Blightning away his last card, but don't have a play otherwise and he's starting to hurt me good now.

His turn six consists of Unearthing the Ogre and hitting me for nine total damage and I'm in a world of hurt. Here, I may have made a mistake in Unearthing my Zombie, swinginig for two then sacrificing it to the fleshback Marauder that I drew. I take out his Dragger and I have a 3/1 left behind to his 2/1 flier and two Capsule varieties waiting to be cracked.

I finally play out my Broodmate Dragon for the next turn. He uses the E-Capsule on the red token then draws some cards with the other Capsule. He plays out another Tidehollow Strix and I am forced to block the one that I can as his other draws were an (Onyx Goblet and a Grixis Battlemage. No way to win against that draw as I can't kill him before the Goblet finishes me off.

r2g1 End

Hopefully, his draw was just insane and I can pull out the next two games. I start game two like this:

r2g2 Open

It's fine as I have drops and removal. I do draw the Forest before too long, but I just keep drawing lands at the critical stages of the game and he uses the four land he drew to play out all his spells and even with what I have drawn, I can't stop all the fliers combined with his Onyx goblet when I'm already at five life and he has a two-power flier that I can't draw a solution for.

r2g2 End

That game, I ended up getting ten land out vs. seven spells, hard to win when your opponent takes out your guys with removal at every step and even though I got him on a two for one with the Branching Bolt, he just had more stuff than me.

Summary

Another tough loss there. I don't think I deserved that one. My only consolation from this draft was the fact that this sub-1600 guy went on to beat the 1800+ guy in the finals proving that he probably had the best deck in the draft. Unfortunately, I take a pretty big ratings hit and drop to 1741 for a rather largish net loss on the draft. I do get the two packs as a prize.

Conflux this weekend. Hope someone can help me with my question about finding a place to play. Seventy-Fifth draft is next and I'll throw in a curve for ya next week.

Until then,

draftbetter

9 Comments

Picks by Arkady (not verified) at Thu, 02/05/2009 - 11:29
Arkady's picture

Would have picked a second Necrogenesis (makes drawing them easier) and the Executioner's Capsule over Dredgescape Zombie.

That Zombie > Capsule is bad by TheMiseDotCom at Fri, 02/06/2009 - 12:10
TheMiseDotCom's picture

That Zombie > Capsule is bad in any situation

Yeah, definitely made a by draftbetter at Sun, 02/08/2009 - 20:45
draftbetter's picture

Yeah, definitely made a mistake there, I was just a bit creature shy, but still, should have made this one.

I understand your thinking by TheMiseDotCom at Sun, 02/08/2009 - 21:03
TheMiseDotCom's picture

I understand your thinking underneath but still Bone Splinter is quite a bomb in that kind of deck. Still good job and good column

Dragon's lovely, but by Rutger J. Bloomsicle (not verified) at Fri, 02/06/2009 - 13:51
Rutger J. Bloomsicle's picture

Maybe going into Esper would've been nice with such clear signals that it was open.

ridge rannet by Adam (not verified) at Sun, 02/08/2009 - 15:23
Adam's picture

It's either early card draw plus a token or a late game finisher, it's all things..

what do u mean by that? a token when u cycle it?

mail me plz

or answer here if u cannot by Adam (not verified) at Sun, 02/08/2009 - 15:24
Adam's picture

or answer here if u cannot see my mail adress..

His meaning - by Javasci at Sun, 02/08/2009 - 15:46
Javasci's picture

It's a creature, so it's a token when removed by Necrogenesis.

ah ok the necrogenesis.. by Adam (not verified) at Sun, 02/08/2009 - 16:07
Adam's picture

ah ok the necrogenesis.. thx!