Parenting, in a nutshell, is a huge crunch on time. Sure you thought you were busy before, but now everything takes twice as long and five times as much effort. And that doesn’t even count getting out of the house! So here is my life-hack: the Benalish Briefcase! Everything you need to keep a Benalish Initiate alive for at least four hours.
Pretty straightforward Orzhov draft. One interesting wrinkle was getting two good pieces of Azorius removal (Deputy & Lawmage’s Binding) and wrestling with whether or not to try and splash it or not. Still, anytime you have three Blade Jugglers, you feel pretty good.
Also of note:
P1p7: I think I should take Grasping Thrull over Summary Judgment here.
P2p7: The splash versus the Grasping Thrull is a hard choice. I took the gate because I felt like the upside of getting two pieces of solid removal is worth it. I don’t think it worked out.
Well that certainly felt like an Arena draft, pre-gate adjustment. Getting the Gates Ablaze and Colossus back-to-back certainly felt pretty clear. It was interesting weighing taking gates over good playables. A gate over Skewer the Critics? I think pretty good removal is better than a gate in the abstract.
Ooof, tough draft. Obviously nothing wrong with opening a Zegana, followed by a Frilled Mystic. Sending two Basilica Bell-Haunts downstream did sort of hurt. The big question was whether or not I should have moved into black with the P1p4 Grotesque Demise or stayed “on plan” with a Temur gate. I think I made the wrong choice and stuck to my guns a little too much, rare for me.
Not wild about my P2p3. Yes, removal is nice. But the Trollbred Guardian is a card that demands answers, which is better than a splash conditional removal.
Oh, but I did record the draft portion! I can’t exactly play magic and talk, but I can draft. Well, sort of.
Sticking to a plan is good. The tempo threat of the Aeromunculus is very real, definitely the 3-drop of choice. This just seemed like a solid value Simic deck.
Draft Log
Frilled Mystic vs. Grotesque Demise is an interesting P1p1 showdown. I take the flexibility over the power, as though Frilled is a two-for-one, it’s narrow in both deck and utility. Then come very close to taking one card of each color before a late Sphinx of New Prahv moved me into Azorius. Then nabbed some late gates, passed a Gatebreaker Ram and the game is officially afoot!
I gotta admit, it was weird seeing Amplifier wheel. It feels bad not having a single savage smash, I think someone on my left was Gruul (pack 2 was a little rough). But I think the control shell was correct. Bummer to be in Gruul without Savage Smashes though.
Gruul control is tricky, and 3/3 for 3s aren’t really a card if you’re not smashing down with Savage Smash. A little unlucky with draws, but really just not a very good deck.
Opened the mass manipulation! Only to not catch the faintest WHIFF of blue for the entirety of the draft. Powerful card, but also impossible to splash. You need a lot of blue. After that I took some Radkos, but a surprisingly late Sauroform Hybrid tuned me Jund-ish. Then some early gate payoffs had me go ham into flexible, gate-y, control-y, something-something. Really defined by the two Gate-payoffs in pack 2.
So my first draft felt rough. Thought the last Frilled Mystic was a strong signal, but I should have kept myself more open to the red in pack 2.
Game 1: pretty easy win against a very slooooooow player. Almost enough to make me switch to Arena. Had a bad keep in the first game but easily stabilized and ground down a bad Gruul deck.
Game 2: faced against a similar Temur deck. I won the first game on pressure, then oppo had a SWEET moment using the Galloping Lizrog to make a bunch of +1 counters then the red guy with the falter effect up to the number of counters. That was an alpha strike. Then he manascrewed, which was a shame.
Game 3: faced a MUCH better temur deck and promptly lost. As I should have
Very strange draft. I felt like I locked into Simic a little too early on the P1p6 Frilled Mystic, and should have been WAY more open to the red in packs 2 & 3. Really hurt letting that P3p1 Electrodominance go by and the late Clan Mages. Gameplay-wise, given the hilarious lag between the draft and being able to play the games, I felt like I didn’t have much. Don’t forget about the +1/+1 and untap trick. (First of seven times I’ll need to remind myself of this btw)
Benalish Dad 