Draft log

Dang, what a P1p1: Roil Eruption versus Thundering Rebuke versus Shatterskull Summit. I took the mythic rare because A) mythic cards are always better in Limited (/s) and B) I think the upside of modal land + the flexibility of 5-mana for 3dmg x2 is better than the efficiency of the other two. Close pick and doesn’t feel good shipping that much good red.

That said, I went with the spell-land because smoothing out the mana base is very important.

deck

Type 2, below, is the improved version from Ethan. First, the Hellions were just better than the Colossus. Less “on theme” but simply a better card, particularly with 4 good spell-lands. Also added more Fissure Wizards, cutting the Blood Price (mediocre card draw) and Skitter-Sneak (mediocre without a reliable way to populate opponent’s graveyard)

game plan

I would describe this as an aggressive deck with some synergy value (Hellion’s picking up land, Rockslide with wizards). Early board presence to pressure.

round 2

Round 1 was a coaching session with Ethan and it went very smooth like butter. On to round two!

Game 1

A bit land heavy, though this is one of those perfect examples of the hidden value of spell-lands. Without the Rogue & the Fury, this is a snap-mull 6 land hand. With them… totally playable! Not IDEAL, but playable.

• 

• 

• 

It was unfortuante that my 3-mana Rogue got countered by the Force Spike, but I couldn’t reasonably play around it. Oppo’s air force was growing and I didn’t have an answer, so I threw my 2/2 at it only for another to join. I flooded pretty hard: 8 lands, 2 spell-lands, 3 spells proper. Not going to win too many of those games of magic.

game 2

Lovely hand. Blood-Priest before Sparkmage as removing a threat > doing face damage. Let’s do this.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Roost of Drakes in Azorius! The Sparkmage takes out their Kor Celebrant, which is just too big of a blocker to otherwise deal. Roost is a bit of a clock for me so I attack and trade aggressively and it proved to be too much for oppo to handle.

game 3

Bug-Catcher to Geopede to picking up the Kazuul’s Fury with the Hellion. Lock and load! Odd that they put me on the play too.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Whoa! The rarely seen turn 1 Roost! Opponent developed no board presence while I curved out nicely and just pounded down. I don’t think they even made a single Drake.

round 3

Game 1

Presume to rummage away a swamp with the Fissure Wizard, especially since I’m on the raw.

• 

• 

• 

• 

A beautiful turn 4 where I double-spell with the mana from the Electromancer into a Blood-Priest. I removal away their big dumb blocker and don’t really look back. Opponent never really had much of a chance, despite drawing a bunch of cards.

game 2

Here the big question is to use the Fissure Wizard to rummage away a land to go looking for a swamp. Or not I can delay the decision, casting the Bug-Catcher first. But we’ll definitely want, you know, both colors.

• 

• 

• 

Second question: I drew a black spell-land… do I still rummage away a mountain? I say yes. Still plenty of mana, would rather cast the Rogue than land it. But drew another mountain. Get in there black mana!

How to deal with the Lullmage’s Familiar? I could use the Subtle Strike combat trick or I could just Thundering Rebuke. I don’t love using a combat trick into open mana, so I settle on the clean Rebuke. No issues.

I don’t draw much more pressure, but continue to have great removal in hand. I break down a Ruin Crab and keep battering in. Oppo then reloaded with a kicked Field Research, then played a Brute into a bite. Kazuul’s Fury in hand, what to do?

The first impulse was to snap off Kazuul’s Fury to kill the Brute. You don’t kill me, I kill YOU. But that’s not the board state: they are low on life, I have direct damage in hand, and an unblockable flier. I went face for 3 damage and killed them easily next turn.

3-0

Well that’s probably a wrap for me with Zendikar’s Revenge. A good set, though I can definitely agree with the complaint that the tribal decks were simply too much more good better than the party/value decks.