LD's Draft Log

[lionden_56]

So for those of you who don't know, I play a lot of limited. Well, I play a lot of Magic in general (I've played at least one match of Magic every night for about the past two weeks...), but I usually do about two drafts per week. I'm not claiming to be a pro by any stretch of the imagination, but I've seen a progression in my play since I started up this somewhat furious (for me at least) drafting regimen a few months ago. I'm going to use this post as a sort of blog/tournament report center for when I play in FNM (we do drafts at the store I play at), Sunday drafts at the store, or Sunday night drafts at my friend's place. I'm going to hopefully use it to see how my card evaluation changes and rant and rave when my should be 3-0 deck goes 1-2...and hopefully I can help you and you can help me with evaluations in the process.

So we start with this past weekend's FNM (I only got to do one draft this past weekend because of the whole "final exam week" thing in college...boo studying).

10 players sat down at the drafting table...and because we are seated according to pairings I know that my first round opponent is going to be former Pro player Julio Fontanez. Great...

Because this happened a few days ago and I'm typing this after midnight local time, I won't remember exactly what each pack had in it. I do remember opening my first pack and not being overly happy with it.
Rare = Crucible of Fire (which oddly enough didn't table...)
Uncommons = something bad, Rockcaster Platoon, and I think an ambusher.
Commons = only one I can remember for sure was the one I took: Executioner's Capsule.

My thought process was that it was the card that had the least amount of other cards going for it in its colors. I remember there was two decent jund cards, I think they were Rip-Clan crasher and the Devour 3, 7/7 on turn 3 guy...nothing for Grixis (what a surprise...) and something decent for Naya (the Platoon, Ambusher, and I want to say a Druid)...so I figured I'd look at a black base, and go either esper or Grixis depending on how the cards came.

Pack 1 pick 2, Courier's Capsule. Don't remember what was in the rest of the pack...that one was easy.

Pack 1 pick 3, Cloudheath Drake. So this Esper thing is coming together pretty nicely. Or at least I thought it was. It kinda dried up from there. I think there was an esper drafter three seats to my right, and he ate up most of hte artifacts from there on out. I did manage to snag a (really late) Fatesticher and a Skeletal Kathari (go go flying army), but that was about it. I debated switching into Grixis at that point...a Singleton Sanctum Gargoyle was my only white card at that point.

Pack 2, pick 1 made me happy. Hello Sharding Sphinx...I noted a Windright Mage and hoped it would table. Looks like I'm staying in Esper.

Pack 2 pick 2 made me happier. Prince of Thralls got shipped my way. So yes, I'm in Esper, but he's only a single color splash off. Two rares in a row into the pile.

The beauty of booster draft is that the second pack goes to the right, and they guys who didn't go esper pack one shipped a bunch of goodies my way pack two. Double Courier's Capsule, an Etherium Sculpter, an Esper charm like 8th pick, and that Windright Mage tabled as well.

I don't remember what my pack 3 pick 1 one was...I think it was Call to Heel. I remember the rare was Cradle of Vitality (Sidenote: I predict that a running theme through this log will be that I suck at opening...its really true. I played at a PTQ where my pool included Lich's Mirror, Immortal Coil and Gather Specimines. That tournament went well...) Anyway, it didn't matter, as I got shipped second pick Agony Warp (thank you God) and third pick Tidehollow Strix. Other highlites of that direction include a third Windright mage and another Sanctum Gargoyle.

In all, I would up with a solid Esper deck. Nothing to write home about (or on a message board...) but I was hoping for a 2-1 with it. Here's how it looked, curved out.


1cc
1x Executioner's Capsule

2CC
1x Tidehollow Strix
3x Courier's Capsule
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Call to Heel
1x Agony Warp

3cc
3x Windright Mage
1x Esper Charm
1x Obelisk of Grixis

4cc
2x Sanctum Gargoyle
1x Filigree Sages
2x Fatesticher

5cc
1x Cloudheath Drake
1x Skeletal Kathari
1x Sharding Sphinx

6cc
1x Steelclad Serpent

7cc
1x Prince of Thralls

Land
2x Esper Panorama
1x Arcane Sanctum
and I think it was something like
5x Plains
4x Island
4x Swamp
1x Mountain
(I gave the lands back so I don't remember the exact make-up. It was something close to that)


There's some fun interactions, a few combat tricks (Strix plus Call to Heel is fun), but it felt a little slow.

Round 1 vs. Julio
Slow and steady doesn't win the race...
He wins the roll and drops turn 1 Wild Nacatl. My favorite card in the set is being used against me :(. I make an Island and say go. He plays a Plains, Smacks for two, Druid of the anima, go...Swamp, Courier's Capsule, go...Mountain, smack for 4, go...Sanctum tapped, go, he swings with Nacatl, I try to agony warp it, he has a pump spell (Resounding Roar)...I pretty much scoop to it (I played a few more turns, but I just wanted to see what he had in his deck).

Game two wasn't much better. Again, turn one Nacatl, again, he hits domain with it on turn three...I actually manage to kill it this time, but Cavern Thoctar makes sure I don't actually get any bright ideas about winning the game....

Yay for my deck being slower than a herd of turtles in peanut butter...

0-1 (0-2)

Round 2 vs. John Brostoff (Number 5 rated limited player in Milwaukee, he's top 35 in Wisconsin)

He was Green/X (I want to say Bant but I'm not sure)...
My deck decided to love me in this match, as it gave me answers to everything he played. I won on the back of Sharding SPhinx both games.

1-1 (2-2)

Round 3 vs. Will (not rated or ranked to the best of my knowledge)

So I'm still playing for prizes...yay

This match was the best example of punting I've ever seen. I really want to know what was going through my head.

I punted game one by allowing a Strix to die in combat instead of Call to Heeling back to my hand. I know I had a reason for it at the time, but for the life of me can't remember what that reason was, and can't believe it was any good. I had a sanctum Gargoyle and probably planned to regrow it with him, but I'm pretty sure the right play was the call to heel the strix and Gargoyle back a C. Capsule. He eventually overran me with all the usual Naya suspects.

If I have infest in my deck, I win game 2. Its pretty much that simple. He has an army of X-2 guys out, and I eventually get to Prince of Thralls. We figured out that if I could infest the board he'd have to pay something like 21 life...and since he doesn't have any life gain in his deck he loses to that.
But the real punt came on turn two when I went land-go, completely forgetting to play the C. Capsule that was in my hand. I basically set myself a complete turn behind on tempo (and I was on the draw), which doomed me. You can't fall behind tempo to a Naya deck...

1-2 (2-4)...

So I wound up finishing like 7th out of 10 or something like that. The deck looked solid, and I probably should have won my last match, just piloting errors killed me.

What I learned: Prince of Thralls is worth a splash. Steelclad Serpent is A LOT better than people give it credit for (I've known this for a while...I've always liked that guy). Infest seems really good when you don't have it.

That's it for this installment. I'm going to take about a two week respit because of the impending holidays (from drafting, not from the forum. I'm going back to the parent's place to visit them for a few weeks over the holiday, but I'll be back once the new year starts up again drafting away.

Comments, questions, things you saw that I could have done differently? (I know this one is pretty light on play-by-play of the games, but that's because I first came up with the idea to do this tonight and wasn't actively thinking about it while playing them out. There will hopefully be more for you to comment on in the future).

[Ryuzaki]

I will be reading this with anticipation. I'm very glad you did this. :P Depending on things I'll try to do some drafting while I'm over here. No other comments yet as I'm a bit tired and not on my laptop. Great idea though. :D

[death by aggro]

Ooh! If you don't mind, I'm so gonna log in one of my drafts during January! I love AAA drafting, and though I'm no pro, I'd say I'm a fairly decent limited player (2nd best rating at my card store, and the guy at the top rarely plays Limited anymore, so I'll catch him eventually:p). This looks like fun:)!

[lionden_56]

I'm no pro
Trust me, I'm far from it myself...If you want to log, go ahead (feel free to start your own thread). The thing with limited is that the more you read other people's opinions the better your own game gets. I have a pick order of the cards I like...but if I read someone else's pick order and see that its drastically different, I'm going to try and figure out why, and because of that change the way I evaluate cards.

Like I said, I'm taking a bit of a break from this over Christmas, and I'm spending most of my time testing Legacy anyway (Grand Prix Chicago :)) but in about two weeks or so I should be back to some semi-consistent drafting. And I'm sure I'll have a big write-up after the pre-release as well.

[death by aggro]

Like I said, I'm taking a bit of a break from this over Christmas, and I'm spending most of my time testing Legacy anyway (Grand Prix Chicago :)) but in about two weeks or so I should be back to some semi-consistent drafting. And I'm sure I'll have a big write-up after the pre-release as well.

Awesome, what do you plan on running? If you're not sure yet, what decks are you looking at?

[lionden_56]

Alright, I'm back in Milwaukee and back to drafting. I only got to do one yesterday, because I did commentary for a basketball game instead of going to my friend's draft. I should have gone the draft, the team got killed...

Anyway, this draft was interesting, because it could have gone like 10 different ways. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out (would have liked to have won the draft, but can't have it all I guess).

Started with a bit of a tough choice.
I opened Knight-Captain of Eos, Tower Gargoyle, Knight of the Skyward Eye, and something red that I don't remember...might have been Vithian Stinger. I thought for a while, wound up taking the Gargoyle.
Next pack made me seriously doubt my first pick. Wild Nacatl (My favorite card in the format), Branching Bolt, and just an Esper Charm for me. I decided that since i shipped good white, and I would be shipping either a Branching Bolt or Nac, the best bet was to let everyone on my left fight over Naya and stick with Esper.
Pick 3 had another Nacatl (maybe I should have gone Naya), and another Esper Charm...I stuck to my guns and took my second charm.
Pick 4 was an Etherium Sculptor
Pick 5 was I believe a Sanctum Gargoyle
I got a late Courier's Capsule, and a lot of dorky stuff...didn't get any of the late staples you hope for in Esper (Strix, Windright Mage, etc...) I did get a 14th pick Yoked Plowbeast. Yay cyclers.
Pack 2 I opened...dun dun dun...Gather Specimines Remember that thing about me sucking at opening...Anyway, it was a pretty weak pack all around, actually. I grabbed a Cloudheath Drake and hoped that the Windright Mage I was shipping would make it around the table. I got a second pick Executioner's Capsule (I needed removal badly). Nabbed a Resounding Wave, fourth pick Infest (all of the black drafters were on the other side of the table), double Fatesticher, an obelisk, and a late Grixis Charm (easily splashable, as I'd picked up a Grixis panorama late pack 1). I also managed to table that Windright Mage (which was easy compared to what I pulled off in pack 3...keep reading)

Pack 3...big splashy rare...Cradle of Vitality. Ok, not so much...It didn't matter, because the rest of the pack was INSANE. Executioner's Capsule, Agony Warp, Tidehollow Sculler, Wild Nacatl, Vithian Stinger[card], [card]Viashino Skeleton! (ok, just kidding...). I decided I needed the instant speed removal more than the Cap, so I took the Agony Warp. I then pulled off the biggest steal of the draft. Executioner's Capsule tabled. Yes, I opened it, shipped it, and got it back. There were three black drafters at the table. One of them took the Sculler over it (he said he was really creature light), and I have no idea what hte second guy took over it. He was B/R, so I'm guessing Stinger, but I never saw the Stinger when I played him so I have no idea...but in any event, I got one of the best removal cards in the format back. I wasn't gonna complain.

All in all, it was pretty solid, 2x Executioner's Capsule, an Agony Warp, Infest, a Cloudheath, Sanctum, Tower Gargoyle, Sculptor, 2x Fatesticher, Grixis charm, Windright Mage...some decent stuff...

Turns out I was right to not jump into Naya, as over half the table was drafting it, and the guys to both my left and right were in it.

Round 1 vs. R/b
He kinda got color screwed...drew 5 swamps with a grip full of red cards. He did manage to make some dudes, but like a champ I ripped two Executioner's Caps off the top to deal with any shenanigans in game 1. He did have one techy play with a maindeck Relic of Progenitus that kept my Windright Mage off flying for a while.
Game 2 I basically had the god-draw. Turn 1 E. cap, turn 2 Sculptor, turn 3 Tower gargoyle...smash smash smash..
1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 vs. Naya
My opponent didn't win the match. Mycoloth won the match. That card is so insane...
Game 1 he made a Mycoloth eating three dudes, luckily I was able to bounce it with Grixis Charm before he could make an army. I got a pretty good board position, he stabalized with Resounding Roar, eventually replayed Mycoloth, and I scoop. My opponent did mention that I finished the game with 12 land in play...but I don't like using flood as an excuse...I had my chances, his deck was just better.
Game 2...Opening grip...6 spells 1 land (the singleton Mountain I'm splashing for Grixis Charm)...6 card hand, 5 spells 1 land (that damn Mountain again...), 5 card hand...4 spells 1 land...at least this was on color...I kept it, ripped a swamp off the top and was able to play Executioner's Capsule to sort of stabalize. He played a Mycoloth, I killed it, but not before it made a couple dudes. His Hissing Iguanar was a pain in my side all match, and wound up killing me. I had one draw phase left, ripped Infest, did the math, figured I could infest and be at one life and him at an empty board. Except I forgot about the tokens...yay for playing like a donk...
Oh yeah, he had Wild Nac on turn one both games :( That's supposed to be my move...
1-1 (2-2)

Round 3 vs. Naya (guy sitting on my left)
So I'm still playing for a pack at least...
I honestly don't remember this match terribly well. He had a middle of the road Naya deck...had some decent stuff but no real top end finisher. I killed off a few Nacatls (there were a lot in this draft)...flew over him with Windright Mage for the win in game one, got utterly thrashed by that Knight Captain I passed in game two, and smashed him down with Tower Gargoyle game 3.
In all 2-1 (4-3) good enough for a singleton booster pack. And hopefully a little boost to my DCI rating.

We'll see what happens next week.

[lionden_56]

FNM was sealed this week...
Here's my pool:


White
1x Akrasan Squire
1x Bant Battlemage
1x Excommunicate
1x Knight of the Skyward eye
2x Sanctum Gargoyle
1x Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
1x Welkin Guide
1x Yoked Plowbeast

Blue
1x Call to Heel
1x Cancel
1x Cloudheath Drake
1x Dawnray Archer
1x Jhessian Lookout
1x Protomatter Powder
1x Resounding Wave
1x Sharding Sphinx
2x Tortoise Formation

Black
1x Banewasp Affliction
1x Bone Splinters
1x Corpse Connoisseur
1x Cunning Lethemancer
1x Dregscape Zombie
1x Dreg Reaver
1x Glaze Fiend
1x Infest
1x Onyx Goblet
1x Resounding Scream
1x Skeletal Kathari

Red
1x Bloodhorn taunter
1x Crucible of Fire
1x Dragon Fodder
1x Lightning Talons
1x Predator Dragon
1x Resounding Thunder
2x Rockslide elemental
1x Soul's fire

Green
1x Algae Gharial
1x Cylian Elf
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Godtoucher
2x Jungle Weaver
1x Naturalize
1x Soul's Might
1x Wild Nacatl (My favorite card in the set :))

Gold
1x Brilliant Ultimatum
1x Bull Cerodon
1x Carrion Thrash
1x Fire-Field Ogre
1x Hindering Light
1x Jhessian Infiltrator
1x Kederekt Creeper (or pissed off Caterpie, as we call it)
1x Necrogenesis
1x Qasalie Ambusher
1x Rakeclaw Gargantuan
1x Rip-Clan Crasher
1x Steward of Valeron
1x Swerve
1x Tidehollow Strix

Artifact
1x obelisk of Epser
1x Obelisk of Naya

Land
1x Seaside Citadel
3x Grixis Panorama (one foil)
2x Esper Panorama
2x Naya Panorama
Yes, I opened 7 panoramas. yay fixing...


So for quick reference, my rares were Predator Dragon, Sharding Sphinx, Crucible of Fire, Brilliant Ultimatum, and Cunning Lethemancer...2 playable but in complete wrong colors for each other.

In the end, I decided that Naya was the strongest overall...I didn't want to get sucked into black for just Infest with nothing to back it up. Overall, I felt it was fairly solid.
Here's what i came up with:


1cc
1x Akrasan Squire
1x Wild Nacatl

2cc
1x Cylian Elf
1x Steward of Valeron
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Knight of Skyward Eye
1x Rip-Clan Crasher
1x Dragon Fodder

3cc
2x Rockslide Elemental
1x Resounding Thunder
1x Soul's Fire
1x Excommunicate
1x Qasali Ambusher
1x Obelisk of Naya

4cc
2x Sanctum Gargoyle
1x Algae Gharial

5cc
1x Rakeclaw Gargantuan

6cc
1x Bull Cerodon
1x Predator Dragon

7cc
2x Jungle Weaver

land
2x Naya Panorama
5 each Mountain plains forest



Round 1 vs Mike (I think that was his name...he'd never played there before)
He was playing the Esper colors but was actually a bit light on artifacts. He did have a Scourglass, which scared me a little. Or a lot.

Game 1...I beat down with a Squire for a while while he set up. Gotta love that little guy. He eventually stabalized (read Blister Beetle), and went to beat-downing me. I managed to resounding thunder a flier, play a predator dragon eating some dragon fodder tokens (a good play both technically and flavorfully). I think he bounced it. I know it got bounced once. I don't remember if it was game 1 or 2...I'm pretty sure it was this game...
Either way, the dragon eventually got there.
Game 2...Smash...I pretty much played a boat-ton of dudes, played Bull Cerodon on turn 6, played Predator Dragon on turn 7...swung for like 30...

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 vs. Andy

The rare Naya vs. Naya matchup...they seriously need to come up with a rule limiting how many people can play Naya...its crazy...

I don't remember much of game one...but I know the turning point was when he had three guys on the board, I had just an Algae Gharial with just 1 counter on it. He played Branching Bolt, trying to target the Gharial. I reminded him it had shroud, and told him he could take it back if he wanted to. But he insisted that it be played correctly and killed one of his own guys instead. I proceeded to play Dragon Fodder and Predator Dragon and swing in the for the kill. If he doesn't make that mistake he wins before I can resolve the Dragon.
Game 2 can be summarized in 4 words: Turn 5 bull Cerodon (thanks to Steward). Rakeclaw soon joined to give him first strike, and that was all she wrote.

2-0 (4-0)

Round 3 vs. the other new guy, don't remember his name

Game one was probably the most fun I've had playing Magic in a long time. I knew my opponent's deck was nuts. First, he was also the only other 2-0...but second, he was playing all 5 of the rares he opened. He was 4 color, RWGU, but hit them all pretty consistently. It was a back and forth affair. I was off green for a while, and that let him get a bit of a lead on me, but I managed to stabalize. I beat for a while until he bounced a few of my guys. I built up a bit of an army and he made a LARGE Feral Hydra. It came down to a race...I was getting there in the air 3 damage at a time with Sanctum Gargoyle pumped by Squire, and he was swinging into my army with Hydra. It would come down to me continuing to draw chump blockers long enough for the Gargoyle to get there in the air. I made it with one guy to spare.

Game 2 didn't last long. I was once again off Green, and he made turn 4 Battlegrace Angel...I scooped on turn 5...

Game 3 I saw just how good his deck was. He made an early Mycoloth, I bounced it before it became too much trouble. He then made Battlegrace Angel followed on the next turn by Mycoloth, which he managed ot build up to 8 counters on...Not much I can do about that.

2-1 (5-2)
So I finished 2-1 and took 3rd...yeah, I lost in the finals and took 3rd...basically it came down to the fact that the guy who got the first round bye also finished 2-1, and the guy I beat in the first round got the bye in the third round, and I took 3rd on the third tiebreaker (opponent game winning percantage) because of the two byes...sucks when 9 people play...

And apparently I'm the king of going 2-1...

One other announcement. I had hoped to be able to do a full write-up on the weekend of the pre-release...but it turns out I'll most likely be able to play in just one event, because I'll be judging for the rest of the day.

[lionden_56]

I sadly don't have time to type up a whole log for this one, but I will post the deck.
We did a Chaos draft. What the means is everyone buys 3 packs from different sets (the store stocks everything back to Ravnica) and you draft with those. Its a fun alternative to drafting nothing but Shards for the past few months. I opened Lorwyn, Ravnica, and Future Sight. Lorwyn has the most power at the top end (planeswalkers, commands, etc...), Ravnica was also a pretty strong set, and Future sight is just fun...and has the potential to open Tarmogoyf ;)

I opened Lorwyn first and had the dreaded money vs. bomb decision...Foil Gaddock Teeg and Brion Stoutarm...I took the money card. I'm distracted by shiny (even though I don't play foils myself...).
Teeg isn't actually that good in draft, so I wasn't commiting myself to Green/White in any way, I was actually thinking about avoiding red/white because of the Brion. Yet somehow I wound up Green/White anyway... Well, more of a W/g type thing, because the guy on my left was also green and he at up most of the good green cards coming through. But I was the only white drafter for like 4 seats in that direction, so I got insane white stuff.
In the end, it looked like this:


1cc
1x Goldmeadow Harrier
1x Wanderer's Twig (to support my blue splash for Waveskimmer)
1x Mosquito Guard
1x Condemn
1x Tundra Wolves (he's actually not that bad...)

2cc
1x Earthbrawn
1x Transluminant
1x Knight of the Skyward Eye

3cc
1x Bloodied Ghost
1x Silkbind Faerie (foily)
1x Guardians of Akrasa

4cc
2x Faith's Fetters
1x Guardian of the Guildpact (by far the MVP of the format)
1x Knight of Sursi
1x Hillcomber Giant
1x Skyhunter Patrol
1x Serra's Embrace
1x Changeling Sentinel

5cc
1x Mosstodon
1x Waveskimmer Aven

6cc
1x Lairwatch Giant
1x Chronomantic Escape (wich got boarded out for Teeg in my matchup against a guy with Overrun)



I went 2-1 (again) winning the first round, losing the second to the eventual winner, and winning the third. Another 3rd place finish...another 2 boosters...I can never quite make it to a draft set...
I'm probably doing 2 drafts again next week...both of them on Sunday, then the PTQ the following weekend, then the pre-release which I'm judging the weekend after that, then dealing poker for the casino company i work for...busy couple of weekends coming up for me.

[lionden_56]

I am the king of going 2-1 and it annoys the hell out of me, especially since I got paired down in the last round and should have won it...
Although to be fair I probably shouldn't have won in the second round, so I guess it evens out a little...

Anyway

The draft started out pretty well...P1P1 Spearbreaker Behemoth, followed by double Rakeclaw Gargantuan...so right of the bat I'm thinking that I want to grab every single 5+ power guy I see. Too bad the guy two seats to my right and the guy on my left both had the same idea (one opened Godsire, the other Bull Cerodon. Probably the best thing that happened to me all draft was a 4th pick Sigiled Paladin. I noticed that there wasn't a lot of green or red stuff coming through, so I grabed him over a Sigil Blessing. I was still centered in Naya, but it just wasn't coming. A late Waveskimmer Aven put me in Bant for good. That and a 13th pick Jhessian Infiltrator...
P1P2 was a foil Skullmulcher (which will be up for grabs in my trade forum pretty much as soon as I'm done typing this...)...I don't remember much of this direction, except for part where I shipped Knight Captain of Eos and took a Bant Battlemage instead. This solidified the guy on my right into Esper (more on him in a minute).
P3P1 I opened: Devastating Shadows...yay for the sucking at opening thing...I did pick up a Bant Charm, though, and how this happened I'll never know, but tabled a Waveskimmer Aven. Not quite as big of a steal as tabling that E. Cap a few weeks ago, but still...

All in all, a farily solid Bant build

2cc
1x Deft Duelist
1x Sigiled Paladin
2x Jhessian Infiltrator
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Knight of the Skyward Eye
2x Cylian Elf (which boarded out for 2x Hindering Light against decks with a lot of spot removal)
1x Call to Heel

3cc
2x Obelisk of Bant
1x Qasali Ambusher
2x Bant Battlemage
1x Guardians of Akrasa
1x Bant Charm

4cc
1x Fatesticher
1x Angelic Benadiction

5cc
1x Skullmulcher
3x Waveskimmer Aven

7cc
1x Spearbreaker Behemoth

Land
3x Bant Panorama
1x Seaside Citadel
5x Forest
4x Plains
4x Island


Round 1 vs. Raymonds
I never like getting paired up with him. Don't get me wrong, he's a cool kid. He's like 12 or 13 or something close to that, and I always feel bad when I win against him.
I'm honestly not entirely sure what he drafted...I think it was Jund. He made 5 lands without playing a spell in game one...meanwhile I built up a board state that was too much to overcome. He did make one cool play...I had an infiltrator and something else (I think a Cylian Elf) on the board...gave the elf flying with the Battlemage, and he Branching Bolted both the elf and the Infiltrator.

He got me game 2...Ridge Rannet was bigger than anything I had on the table for a long time...and when he swung with lethal damage he had the Branching Bolt for my two defenders...on to game 3...

Game 3...I got there with Infiltrators and a timely Benediction after he managed to kill it. But he never got the chance to Stabalize.

1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 vs. Soly (a name vintage players will know well...)
So Soly was sitting to my right during the draft...he picked up 4x Kiss of the Amesha, 2x Infest and some other insanely broken stuff as well...This was going to be fun [/sarcasm]

Game 1
He wants to draw, I want to play, so no die roll needed here...
He gets to 6 mana, right on schedule...then 7 mana, then 8 mana..yeah, he flooded a bit. He did manage a kiss to get him back up to like 24 or something like that, and had an unblockable Shore Snapper hitting me for a while...but he never found any of his other Kisses and eventually I wore him down.

Game 2...Kinda like game 1, actually...
He Tidehollow Scullers away one of my avens, then like a champ I topdeck another one...I've got a board full of 2/2's and he's got the Infest in hand, but can't play it because I'll get my aven back and a clean board to attack in to. He once again fails to find a Kiss when he needs it, and I get there on the back of Waveskimmer and Guardians.

2-0 (4-1)

Round 3...I get paired down against Frywald (another name vintage players may know...)...11 people in the draft, there were three 2-0's...I got paired against he 1-1 :(

Game 1...he mulls to 5, then scoops on turn 5. Can't play Magic without lands, unfortunately.

Game 2...I don't remember this one terribly well, actually...I know Sedraxis, the Traitor King was involved, but I Bant Charmed it before it could do any real damage. An unearthed Fire-fiend Ogre dealt the lethal blow.

Game 3...he got there on the back of Esper Battlemage and Blood Cultist. Most of my dude's have 2 butts, which meant he killed pretty much everything I played. Spearbreaker Behemoth wasn't even enough, as pissed off Caterpie (Kredekt Creepier) got there for the win.

2-1 (5-3)

Another dissapointing 2-1...I will win one of these eventually, I promise...

Also, if you have comments or suggestions about anything you see here, feel free to post them.

[lionden_56]

I'm not gonna log my deck or any of that from the pre-re, but I am going to discuss it little. I went 2-2, won my first two matches and lost my second two (after punting game 1 of my 3rd round and scooping to a friend in round 4 because I had to leave and didn't want to knock him out of prize contention and just walk away).
Cards that were really, really good:
Goblin Razerunners. I seriously almost lost to this guy (see my story in the other thread). Late game he's an absolute beast. He was shooting me for 6 a turn...
Nyxathid. I opened him and ran him to much delite throughout the day. Late game he's almost always at worst a 5/5, and early game he's basically 1BB: Time Walk. It makes life for your opponent very miserable, because they have to be very careful about what spells they play.
And now for the odd one: Pestilent Kathari. This guy was my MVP on the day. He single-handedly held off an army of guys. It can kind of slow you down early game, but once you get to mid/late game I honestly feel like he's the best card in your deck. I'm very, very high on the Pestilent Kathari bandwagon right now.
Banefire...everyone knew this already, though...But I love the art :)
Esperoza with Parasitic Strix. I got beat up by this combo in round four :(

Cards that didn't do as much as I expected them to.
Malfegor. I'm pretty sure this is just because the guy I watched played it horribly, horribly wrong, but the one time I saw it resolve it really didn't do a whole lot. I know its a great card, but my first impressions aren't to high.

[lionden_56]

I'm not gonna log this one either, but I just got done with a hybrid cube draft kinda thing (long story)...and I made the two greatest plays of my life.

Game 1: He's at 12 with a boat ton of mana in play. I'm at 9 with no board (he Wrathed it the previous turn.) He thinks for a while and says "hold on, I need to make sure I get the mana right." I go "Progenitus?" He smiles and says yep. So he figures out the mana and hard casts Progenitus. Says go. I'm like "sorry I made you do all that math..." Play Vigor Mortis with green, reanimate a Demigod of Revenge that was in my graveyard, swing for 6 over Progenitus' head, dropping him to 6, play Soul's Fire for the win.

Game 2 (yep, same match)...I'm at 5 he's at 8. I have Nether Traitor, he has Sedris, The Traitor King. I have no cards in hand. I untap, draw...Threaten. Nab his Sedris, unearth a 2/2 guy from my bin, swing for 8 and the match.

Two of the most exciting games of magic I've ever played.

[lionden_56]

I haven't updated either of the Conflux drafts I've done since the set came out...basically I'm 0-9 (with one bye) with conflux in the draft format...I'm drafting decent decks, but my mana bases are absolutely killing me.

[FrycHiKn]

I like your draft log :E

You should do a Magic show out of this one :D

[DreenDrej]

This is really interesting, so basically you and a bunch of aquaintances get together, throwdown some new deck ideas you dreamt up, then waste each other with them? and you get to learn combos all along the way and great advice......0.o

keep this thread going!

[lionden_56]

Not quite...
Do you know how a Booster draft works?

An I haven't forgotten about this. I've just been really, really busy and haven't had time to type up logs for any of my recent drafts. I do intent to pick this up, I promise.

[DreenDrej]

I actually do not, all i know is most of the rulebook, how to build a deck, and how to tell when im WAY in over my head :o