12/8/18 Golgari @ Gamma Ray

Draft Log

Ugly draft as I didn’t move into Boros when it was clear, as I got overly attached to the single signal of a P1p5 Dead Weight. Yes, in disciplined drafters that’s a pretty strong signal. But there’s a lot more noise at an LGS. My deck is pretty messy, bland curve-out deck with some power.

Game Log

• Lost to a fellow Golgari that just had stupid 4/5 Dowser of Lights that just stone-cold blocks everything. Some very fun games
• Beat a bad Selesnya deck that was trying to run the Angel-maker… to limited success.
• Beat Chris in round three who was running a good Selesnya deck that was cruelly sabotaged when opponent #2 cut him. Had some sweet curve-outs topped by Izoni.

Learnings

The Glaive remained very useful in a deck that lacked finishers, quintessential “good card in a bad deck”. Also I need to work harder when the board gets confusing. I had a complicated match against Drew where the board was getting clogged and I gave him way too many outs by being slow.

Still averaging about a week between drafting and actually fitting in all three rounds. Though I have a better excuse this time: cross-country flights with the Baby Raptor. Yes, 6 hours of pick me up set me down I want to go over there high five high five high five no pick me up again no over there I’m hungry hahaha just kidding high five. It’s… pretty damn exhausting, I can definitely see why my sister ordered me to do a big trip *before* they turn one. She was right to do so.

Draft

Draft Details

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Draft

Draft Details

This was an interesting draft in a slightly different way. P1p1 Sarkhan’s Unsealing with a P1p4 Colossal Majesty pretty quickly cemented me into RG “ferocious”, especially once I got the P1p6 second Colossal Majesty! I get four 5+ power creatures in the first pack and I’m feeling pretty smug.

That feeling rapidly dissipates. While I eke out a P2p3 Shock, there is a whole lot of nuthin’. I think the first pack made me take for granted how easily I could get triggering creatures. In P2p9 I take a dual-land over Siegebreaker Giant, and P3p3 I take a druid of the cowl over a second Volcanic Dragon.

Deck

That’s… a lot of Sparktongue Dragons. Which is a good card, don’t get me wrong, but it clearly says “3 power” not “4 power”. I have 7 triggering creatures… which is a little light. It turns out the ramp isn’t that helpful (though getting to 8 mana to start turning my Sparktongues into 2-for-1s was helpful) in this deck. Hopefully you’re stable enough to slip in one of your enchantments and then start either drawing cards or burying them in resources.

It played out pretty entertainingly. I had a great R1g3 that came down to the final turn before I decked myself with double Colossal Majesty. I made a mistake putting my Talons on a 4/4 so it could attack past their Horizon Scholar… not realizing that I would have been better off making my Sparktongue Dragon a 4/4 to trade. The other two rounds were very straightforward.

Draft

Draft Details

Very strange draft. After a P1p1 Luminous Bonds, blue was pretty solid

Deck

Learnings

So I made (at least) two mistakes. One was reflexively using Hieromancer’s Cage to exile a lame 2/2 bear rather than the more threatening Marauder’s Axe (which made most of his creatures functionally unblockable). That was careless and making moves without thinking. The other was a little more subtle. Here’s the board state

With Cleansing Nova in hand, my game plan needs a 5th land. So I should CLEARLY bottom these guys, even though a 3/5 (5/5) Gearsmith Guardian is pretty good against this deck. I didn’t have faith in my game plan. Know your game plan. Stick to said plan.

I was able to start a third draft with Monsieur Chris but was sadly unable to finish it before I struck the forbidden hour of 10pm. What’s funny is that this was pretty close to my Pumpkin Hour in my 20s… well now it’s REALLY time to pass out. Baby Raptor is up at 6am and is sadly lacking a snooze alarm.

I could make a lot of money selling a baby snooze alarm.

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We draft! We parent! We draft again! (it’s possible that the Mad Max: Fury Road reference isn’t aging particularly well, but damn fine movie) Wasn’t able to comment on the draft, as the Raptor Momma was working, “saving the world from cancer.” Doesn’t she realize that we also need saving from bad drafting? Who’s the real hero here.

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Fresh on the heels of teaching Baby Raptor High five, a new core set is in! Apparently it’s called Core 2019 with the acronym M19. That seems clear.

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Onward into the breach! Baby Raptor has granted us the gift of sleep until 6:10am, occasionally going so far as 6:30. Truly we know what not to do with such a bounty of generosity.

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As we approach the threshold of sending the Baby Raptor to the toddler room at daycare, we have to ‘level her up’ in various skills before she can proceed. No bottles, one nap, and napping without a sleep-sack. I have every confidence that the Raptor is up to all of these challenges, but it’s a bit daunting to have to change the groove when this groove is so damn comfortable. I might as well get used to it.

Oh and screaming 20 minutes into the nap. I am not fluent in baby, but I suspect it was along the lines of, “Where the hell is my sleep-sack?!”

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