Draft

Another ugly draft, though so far there seems to be an inverse relationship between how I feel about my draft and how well it performed. A couple early planeswalkers into splashing as I see zero guiding commons. Looking back, I think I should have picked up the Huatli in P3p5 as it’s a higher variance card that could make some of my big butts work better? Not a great draft.

Draft Log

Deck

Results

• Round 1 vs. RB: not the best sacrifice deck, but enough to kill me as I mull and flood. Two Vraska’s Finishers do good work that I couldn’t play enough because I didn’t have time. Game 2 also goes poorly as Ilharg & Angrath. Bringing a Manticore in, amassing, and then doing it again is rough.
• Round 2: Feeling like you have to cast Gideon’s Triumph to remove their spider isn’t… a great feeling. Oppo gets the flavor win of Mowu + Jiang Yangu and that does go off in a hurry. With a Flux Channeler! Why, it’s all the cards I wish I had! Game 2 oppo stalls out a little as I stick the Wanderer for value (Elspeth, is that you?) and then grind them out. Sort of hoping to lose game 3, and that’s looking promising with oppo getting a fast proliferate start. I stabilize at 4 life with a clutch Wanderer, Sphinx it back to my hand, re-Wanderer to kill his swole dudes. I then live the dream with Evolution Sage, Wanderer, Arlinn and EVERYONE is proliferating on landfall since the Wolves & the Sphinx all have counters too. Well that part felt good!
• Round 3 vs UG: I start with a mull and oppo gets to Roalesk, Apex Hybrid. Not going to lie, that doesn’t feel… great. I rip The Wanderer (card keeps going up imo) just in time. Then I stabilize with Taimyo, start looping Gideon’s Triumph and win the first game. Game 2 I’m missing blue mana (for Taimyo and her Epiphany) Oppo is giving me a clinic on why bounce is bad when you’re behind on board. They then reload with Finale of Revelation, ouch. The Evolution Sage & Arlinn makes a lot of angry wolves. Game 3 my start is slow, though I’m grinding some value with a sideboarded in Erratic Visionary but once he sets up Arlinn + Sage it was all over.

Learnings

This deck needed either better cards with free proliferate (like Bloomhulk) or more cards with a free +1s. Having to spend a card slot on something like Courage in Crisis isn’t where this deck wants to be. As it was, the power level was just too low. It also fell victim to that classic combo deck weakness of drawing things in the wrong order.

Sidenote: Kasmina’s Trasmutation is excellent sideboard tech against passives, like Evolution Sage

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