Draft

Up at the cabin with the nerds on our Boys’ Weekend Escape. Sure there are some social board games (Root was fun), introducing Breath of the Wild, and grilling truly preposterous number of steaks. We even talked about our feelings a little!

Draft Log

Early Picks

P1p1: Spectral Sailor over Cloud-Kin Seer. Doesn’t feel great but a clear choice.
P1p2: Not a great pack but I think Boreal Elemental is the best choice. I wouldn’t mind taking the Temple, but I want to make sure that I’m definitely one of those colors before I commit.
P1p3: Hmmm, I wouldn’t call this a LATE Shock, but it is notable.
P1p4: Scampering Scorcher does reasonable work. I’ll try it.
P1p6: Skipping ahead to pick six, I see a Dawning Angel. Not a signal, but definitely what I’ll take over nothing.

Pack 2: I open Baby Chandra, who is excellent, and I happily take it. After being passed a Loxodon Lifechanter, I start taking white. Blue gets cut, but a wheeling Gauntlets of Light feels pretty good.

Pack 3: I crack open Empyrean Eagle, grab some splashing tools, and solidify a UWr Skies deck.

Assessment

How did I do Drafting the Hard Way ™? It felt pretty good, if anything I delayed too long committing to a color. But red was so cut in pack 2 that it made it hard to get in there, especially since it wasn’t that open in pack 1. Playable deck, low on interaction & removal though.

Deck

What’s the plan? Pretty clear Skies deck. Get in the air and turn them sideways. Dangerous lack of removal, but that’s sort of what happens when you veer across the Jeskai colors.

Results

• Round 1 vs. Sultai: Opponent landed a quick Steel Overseer which won the game once their spiders stabilized. In game 2 I kept a 2-lander, only to not a draw a land for several turns (three to be exact). Fortunately the oppo had to mull to five and I overpowered them. Game 3 I got to live the dream of plopping Gauntlets of Light on a Griffin Protector with a boarded-in Smuggler to zip through 5-6 points of damage a turn. Why, it’s like the Azorius Knight-Arbiter never left town!
• Round 2 vs. 4c?: I got stuck on 3 land, while oppo stabilized from a slow start with double Syphon and 3 dual lands. We traded Baby Chandras but they had no answer for my air force. Game 2 was just a brutal race where I double-cast the Eagle and an axe to supplement 3-fliers. We won that one.
• Round 3 vs. GW: I mull on the play and get trapped on 3-land. I was trying to race Metropolis Sprites vs. an Ironroot Warlord. I topdeck a clutch Empyrean Eagle that just barely rolled me over the line. I got a nice piece of luck when they used Rabid Bite on their Warlord and not the hexproof troll. That allowed me to neutralize it with a Befuddle. Game 2 I open a 6-land hand, but one of the lands is a Scry and a Cloudkin Seer. This felt like a 5-lander, so I kept. I went for the aggressive play early (putting Gauntlets of Light on a Sprite) and got got by Aerial Assault. In my defense, they only showed us Rabid Bites in game 1. However, I kept clawing and my mana-flood paid off with an on-curve Loxodon Restorer, which they had no answer for. Trophy!

3-0