Insidious' Sunday Drafts

[Insidious]

Hello again,

Seeing as the Limited board isn't exactly flourishing with posts I figured I could make my posts a recurring thing as I draft weekly or more. My first thread about the Ravinca block draft sparked some slight discussion and I think it would be great to have some more of that. My idea is to report about how my drafts went and hopefully get some comments, learn about the different blocks and get better at it in general.

Contrary to the rumors, the upcoming draft will be TimeSpiral block and while I know TimeSpiral, Planar Chaos and Future Sight fairly well card-wise I can't really think of a good strategy other then go with whatever comes up in the first few picks and go with that. The only things that came to mind were Thallids and Slivers as possible aims but seeing as you need a decent base for both these tribes they probably wouldn't work so well if you don't get the right cards for them.

So, I guess I'll start off with a plea for help; has anyone drafted this block before and found a certain strategy to work or a certain color combination to excel? Maybe a card that I should definitely get if I open it up? I would love to hear it!

[FuDaWg45]

Actually, the guys who won the two-headed giant draft tournament went slivers and wrecked everyone else. They require dedication, but they can be viable.

Other than that, I recall that red is pretty powerful in Time Spiral. There's lots of red removal and solid red dudes (and dragons).

[lionden_56]

I've done well with R/G in that format (Battering Sliver plus Stonebrow, Krosan Hero is good times). But blue is generally considered the strongest stand-alone color, with black being the most shallow (a decent amount of really good cards and then a bunch of really bad ones without much in the middle). slivers is fun but can generally be tough to pull off, because you aren't always sure to get the good slivers you need.
As far as cards not to pass...the bomb rares are fairly self-explanatory...Jaya, Teferi, the Dragon, Spectral Force etc...but as far as uncommons and commons go, Tromp the Domains is considered by many to be the best card in the format, rare or otherwise, Firemaw Kavu shouldn't be passed unless you open an extremely savage rare. Sudden Death is insane, as to a lesser extent is Strangling Soot.

[Insidious]

Thanks a lot for the tips Lionden. You seem to be right about black being the weaker color in the format, when doing some virtual booster openings I noticed there's not much of a middle ground like you said. I got one sick pack last night too: in the first pack I opened up an Akroma, with a second pick Crovax, I was giggling like a girl then. But probably no such luck in the real thing :p
I'm probably going to try W/R, or G/R if the cards allow it, but definitely something with red. Like Fudawg said, thar be dragons and you can't go wrong with dragons ;)

That Kavu looks nasty, it's like a Mudbutton Torchrunner on steroids o_o

[lionden_56]

Or the card it was originally reference, Flametongue Kavu, which was also an unpassable card. B/W sounds iffy to me. I haven't seen it tried that often (if at all...)

[Insidious]

No, the white shiny Crovax, not the evul perverted one ;)

And I actually built a B/W deck just now, I'm going to do some playtesting with it tomorrow. I'm looking forward to Sunday too, both seeing what cards will come up and how I'll fare in a less focussed block (I like tribes and guilds and stuff. Matching cards make my inner autism happy).

[lionden_56]

I'm actually an idiot and can't read, I read your B/r as B/w for some reason...B/r is fine...just be sure to draft enough creatures. I was b/r at the pre-release and got stomped because I didn't have enough guys to supply threats (see here (http://magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0155.htm))

[FuDaWg45]

I thought I heard somewhere, maybe Starcitygames, that black/red was one of the worst color combos of the block? I've actually had good luck with green in time spiral, since there's lots of good beefy dudes. Green/red is definitely a strong combo. A buddy of mine was green/red and got 2 Stormbinds in a draft. That deck was just nasty.

[lionden_56]

B/r is hard to pull off well...so yes, in that case it is probably the worst combination in the set because it sort of relies on bomb rares to make it work. But that doesn't mean I've never seen anyone win with it.

[Insidious]

I'm actually an idiot and can't read, I read your B/r as B/w for some reason...B/r is fine...just be sure to draft enough creatures. I was b/r at the pre-release and got stomped because I didn't have enough guys to supply threats (see here (http://magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0155.htm))

Thanks for the article link, was an interesting read. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and I hope I'll get some luck with opening the packs and the people I have to play :)

[Syphon]

Easy advice: Green, poop out creatures, go. Pack removal and you're set.

[Insidious]

Well guys, it's Monday and I'm back from my weekly draftings. The format we drafted was Timespiral, Futuresight, 10th since we couldnt get our hands on Planar Chaos boxes D: Though I am slightly frustrated how things went it was still a good time and my deck worked out pretty sweetly. There were some new people around too and it's always nice to play against new people, keeps you on edge and stuff. So without further delays, here is the deck I drafted:


Land:

1 Forbidding Watchtower
1 Brushland
8 Plains
6 Forests
1 Dryad Arbor

Creatures:

1 Augur il-Vec
1 Angelic Wall
3 Canopy Spider
2 Ghost Warden
1 Outrider en-Kor
1 Zealot il-Vec
1 Amrou Seekers
1 Penumbra Spider
1 Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
1 Havenwood Wurm

Spells:

1 Aether Web
1 Lumithread Field
2 Quiet Disrepair
1 Aura of Silence
1 Return to Dust
1 Serra's Embrace
1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Cyclical Evolution
1 Chronomantic Escape

I thought things went really well during the drafting part, I was apparently the only one on white and green was being splashed only by a few others so I got a few really good cards. Cho-Manno shined ofcourse, but Cyclical Evolution and shadows are nothing to sneeze at either. My sideboard consisted of mostly hate-drafts, like a Greater Gargadon and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade.

The first round is what I'm still frustrated about, things were going really well for me in the first match; my shadows were swinging nicely and Cho was blessed by Serra and was a mighty force on the field. Then my opponent whipped out his first pick. A godforsaken argh Christ I forgot to sideboard in more removal Platinum Angel. Before this game I had left the Aura of Silence and Return to Dust in the sideboard in favor of a Ramosian Revivalist to keep Cho in the game and a Mwonvuli Acid-Moss to screw with people and get me some mana fixing. This game ended up a pretty bad stall with me at around 40 health and he around -35 when he nicked my second Quiet Disrepair with a Bitter Ordeal and I scooped. Because this game took so long we only had time for one more round in which I quickly pummeled him, but it still wasn't fast enough.

Round 1: 1-1 draw. Gah.

The second round was the most silly display of manascrew I've ever seen. He was running a mostly red deck with a large amount of small creatures. The first hand I drew had no land, so I went down to six only to find 1 land. I took another mulligan only to find yet ANOTHER 1 land hand and decided to keep because the rest was all 2 mana drops I would be able to play as soon as I grabbed a land.

After 5 turns of grabbing no land I gave up and looked through my deck, I wouldn't get any land for the next 3 turns either. Oh well, it happens.
The strange thing is though, the next match it went entirely the other way. Now I was getting stuff on the board and swinging away and HE was as mana-screwed as I was, it was ridiculous. He scooped too and we went for the final deciding match.

This time mana flowed just fine and our decks pitted against each other with me coming out the victor. Without spot-on kill a Cho-Manno is VERY difficult to get rid of and it kept his big threats at bay while my shadows buffed every now and then by a Cyclical Evolution made short work of his health.

Round 2: 2-1 and the silliest round of manascrew ever.

After the pairings came for the third round I was a little sad to hear I had been down-paired and the guy I had the draw with in the first round had to go at the 2-win guy. Oh well.

This round wasn't very exciting, my opponent was running a black deck and the only interesting thing that happened is that he was the first to actually kill Cho with a Terror. Besides that my shadows made short work of him, nicking me victory after victory.

Round 3: 3-0. Yawn

So that was it. Since I was down-paired I didn't get to go against the guy with 2 wins and lost my chance at first place. He did beat the guy with the Angel, so I got a complimentary second place, which is definitely not bad, but I think I could have won if it had not been for my reluctance to put in the removal at the first round. A lesson learned and an experience and some cards richer.

Any comments? Questions? Yelling about how noob I am for not bringing in the removal right away? I'd be happy to hear it all, well... most of it anyway ;)
Next week's draft is undecided yet so I'll keep you posted on that.

-Sid

[FuDaWg45]

You're not stupid for leaving out artifact/enchantment destruction from your main deck. That was the correct call. Not being able to kill that platinum angel is just a side effect of being white/green. Not much you could've done really; you skipped over planar chaos which would have likely resulted in some Sunlances. Then you wouldn't have gotten Cho-Manno though, oh well. That's draft for ya.

[Insidious]

Not much you could've done really; you skipped over planar chaos which would have likely resulted in some Sunlances. Then you wouldn't have gotten Cho-Manno though, oh well. That's draft for ya.

Too true. It's what I love about drafting though, you have to do with what you get and make the best of it. And yeah I reckoned with 2 Quiet Disrepair I had enough removal for the really bad stuff. A Bitter Ordeal is just well... bitter I guess ^^;

[lionden_56]

If you did a draft this sunday I hope it went better than mine. Yay for going 1-2 :(

[Insidious]

Aww, bummer. Yeah I did draft this week, but it wasn't very spectacular. We did another Rav-GPT-DIS block and I got out 2-1, but only because I played against not so interesting opponents. My deck was basically crap, I was hoping to go RWB again but ended up a sloppy RWG because there was absolutely NO Boros in the Ravnica boosters. I had all the mana-fixing I needed, 2 karoo lands and a boros signet but then NOTHING came through, no trumpeteers, no trainees, no nothing. I checked after the draft with the people and nobody really saw anything RW coming by. Bad luck I guess. Thinking back I should have gone something with blue as it was heavily underdrafted. Sadly when I came to that conclusion I was already pretty locked in my colors.

So yeah, hoping for some better luck next time. Pre-release of Eventide next weekend, I'll probably report a little more in-depth about that D:

[FuDaWg45]

Yeah, I've found you can still switch colors even towards the end of the first pack. I did that with a straight guildpact draft. I started green/red, but I figured out pretty early on that everyone must have been doing the same since nothing was coming. Blue/red was wide open though, so I pounced. I ended up doing really well in that draft, getting second place out of I think 6 of us playing. The power of gigadrowse is undeniable, especially with a few Izzet Chronarchs to keep bringing stuff back.

[Insidious]

Another sunday, another draft! The format this time was SHM-EVE-EVE and I rocked the house!


16 Mountain

Creatures:
1 Tattermunge Maniac
2 Stream Hopper
2 Duergar Assailant
2 Heartlash Cinder

3 Belligerent Hatchling (<3)
2 Duergar Mine-Captain
2 Hobgoblin Dragoon
1 Cinder Pyromancer

1 Horde of Boggarts
1 Impelled Giant

Spells:
1 Flame Jab
2 Puncture Blast
2 Ember Gale
1 Scourge of the Nobilis
1 Double Cleave

Round One: 2-0
The first game my early creatures came out crashing all over my opponent who had a much slower deck; a first drop maniac followed by 2 cinders the following turns hit hard and fast and the game was over before he could get started. The second game took a bit longer, I guess my low drops were tired or something because I didn't drop anything until the third turn. A Mine-Captain led the way but didn't do much, some early drops were used to keep his turn 4 Canker Abomination at bay till I blasted it. Then on turn 6 I discovered the lovely synergy between the Mine Captain and the Giant. On turn 7 I attacked with the captain and the giant, used the captain's untap ability, tapped it again with the giant, and repeated that 2 times. Result: One HUEG giant. Who broke his face. Badly. Huzzah!

Round Two: 2-0
Somehow I can't really remember much of this round, I think my opponent was mana screwed in the first game and color in the second. With my mono-color and mostly lowcost spelly goodness I didn't have these problems and won. Meh, I don't like winning over bad luck.

Round Three: 2-0
This round was really close. The first game I was mana screwed for the first few turns, stuck on two lands I could only play two cinders who did some early damage but fell short after that, being eaten by my opponents three and up drops. Then when I finally drew my third mana things took a turn, I put the Pyromancer on the table and he was my savior. Ping for one, flame jab, ping for one, blast to the head, ping for one. Repeat. I was down on 4 life when I finally pinged his last one off, but hey, you only need 1 life anyway! (Unless you're a Lich, but nobody likes Liches.) The second game was less interesting, got some hatchlings in play, ember gale for the win. I love that card.

So, another day spent kicking ass. My winnings were not so spectacular sadly, though I was glad to open up a Fetid Heath in my last booster.