Alright, fortified with a pre-release, half an episode of Lords of Limited (great LR 201, for when you run out of magic blogcasts on your commute), and–most importantly–a comatose baby, it’s time to run it back! Let’s draft it up!
The Draft
Honestly, it seemed like a really straightforward draft. Red was clearly open and definitely my seat. I finished pack one unsure if blue or white was my secondary color, received some good blue in pack 2, resisted the P3p1 Serra Angel, and ended up in decent UR spells-ish. Only one really interesting choice early in pack 1
P1p4
Tough choice here. In hindsight: no shortage of 4-drops. Even good ones (and we’ll talk more about the Keldon Raider). At this point I was very ensconced in red, with three pieces of quality red removal drafted. Is the Mirari Conjecture powerful enough to be the first blue card to draft? I remember LR being unsure about it so I took the lower variance choice of Keldon Raider. Looking back on it, this was a mistake. First, there are two great four-drops in red (the Raider and the Cyclops). Second, the Mirari Conjecture is functionally red/blue, since it only really has a home in the red/blue spells-ish deck. So it’s more like taking an on-color gold card. Finally, I think the power level has the potential to be there especially with good instants and sorceries (which I had).
Arguably the Chainwhirler vs. Memorial to Genuis (blue land) was another interesting choice. I passed on it (scared by the triple-red) but I snagged a second one that went around. I was very pleased by its performance (and what it can do against Saprolings).
The Deck
This was a fun control deck to play. Basically stall around until my 4-drops hit the field and kill anything that threatens them with my very pleasing removal suite. Keldon Raider was a very pleasant quasi-top end. The rummage ability is relevant for drawing into more action. The downside is that it isn’t great when you want to get to kicker, since most of the time you want to discard away extra lands.
Learnings
This deck went 2-1, losing in the finals to an absolute pounder of a deck with Karn, the Gravetide, the druid, and a bunch of control. A fast aggro deck could have given them trouble (multiple games nobody played a 2- or 3-drop) but not my deck. A bunch of the stuff you have heard on LR/LoL is true: syncopate is a great early drop, the games are slow, 1/3s are the trumping 2-drop. Specifically I learned about Squee.
I faced this little guy many times in my first two rounds, and boy howdy does he pull his weight. The slowness of the format means you can often recur him multiple times. He makes for fantastic double-blocks, endless chumping for non-tramplers, and some truly sick sacrifice synergies (great with Vicious Offering in particular). In a P1p1 vacuum, I would have Squee at a B+, with potential for an A- with some great black sacrifice synergies. I would take Squee above bad/conditional/expensive removal. A Squee vs. Shivan Fire P1p1 choice is very interesting indeed. Who ya got?
Benalish Dad 