Draft log

Yikes, well that went off the rails. P2p14 Frost Breath? What the what? That so confused me that I kept waffling between black and blue to the point where I didn’t really have a color.

Summary

Bad deck was bad! When you waffle and end up with two 75% decks, that doesn’t add up to a fully functional deck. Three quarters are not a dollar. Didn’t help that oppo had an Ugin.

Interesting Moments

Pack 1, Pick 6

I started with a strong slate of red cards: Geyser, passed a Dragonfire (!), Shock. Then a good black Scythe and then… this pack. I was thinking that I would try and “cut” red, but honestly Opt is a much much better card and at P1p6 is a borderline signal. Very weird thinking that Opt qualifies as a signal, but that’s the power of the RU spells-matter deck in this set.

Okay, we have got to start dragging the win rate up here people. This doesn’t feel like THAT hard of a format but I have been eating turf four drafts in a row. And three of them struck out 0-2 only for me to play a third round for literally no reason other than pride. It was very Greek.

Draft log

Here’s P1p1:

P1p1: Pretty easy Liliana’s Devotee. Only to get immediately pushed off black.
P1p3 cultivate over Opt. Allows splashing
P1p4: Shrine. Shrine deck? Multi-color stuff?

It started to hurt seeing all those Alpine Houndmasters go by. BUT SHRINE AWESOMENESS WILL NOT BE DENIED. Plus another 0-2 is really just a rounding error at this point. Unfortuantely, looking at my draft pile

Summary

Sadly, after all that work and alllllmost putting the shrine deck together, I go for the EV and build a very by-the-numbers RG big stuff. I led off against UR spells, though it didn’t seem very good. No doubt that the Drowsing Tyrannodon is the MVP. faced triple Conclave mentor but I powered through that with some pretty fun games. Then I went 2-0/2-0 in the final two rounds. My first trophy! And not a shrine to be seen…

Interesting Moments

I am on draw. Though I was not impressed with oppo’s deck speed and having the best removal in the format was a very comforting feeling. I kept, figuring any land turned this into a two-removal hand. I ended up immediately drawing a forest and putting a lot of pressure on. They landed Ugin, I responded with Soul Sear and that was that.

Happy 4th of July! All we have to do is stay inside, not look at fireworks, dwell on how to improve our nation. And maybe draft. Or remember how to draft. Or think about drafting.

Draft log

Tough Idol vs Siege? I took the aggressive card. Idol impressed me last game, but it’s more frosting rather than the cake itself. Mid-pack, no clear powerful signal so I keep ambling through white with a hint of UW fliers (my spirit animal deck for sure). In hndsight, I should have snagged Frost Breath at P1p9 over the Battalion and the Wall of Runes vs. Rousing Read at P3p6 is also an interesting contextual pick. Obviously the Read is the more powerful card, but I was dangerously low on ways to stay alive against aggro decks too.

Summary

First match I flooded out against a pretty fast BW (no lifegain, just beats). I almost pulled out game two, way behind on card advantage, with a Feat of Resistance to blow through their majority white defenders, but they played ooooone black creature to hold off on their final turn. That was a bit of a run-on sentence, but I feel the ‘near-win’ justifies that. I still go 0-2 and then trounce someone in the third round to salve my ego

Interesting Moments

I need to get better at snapping screenshots. I’m out of practice!

1-2

Draft log

P1p1: Pretty easy Basri Ket. Into… Glorious Anthem? I think I’m ready to fight for a 10 plains deck with everything I got. And fight I had to do as it was pretty clear that white was not terribly open in my seat. But I got enough in pack 2 to build a reasonably aggressive RW deck.

Summary

Opened with a loss against a very good RU spells deck. I would race them down to 5-7 life… then they would slowly stabilize and then grind me out with fliers. The tap-two for two turns card is just an absolute beating too. Then some bad luck in round 2 that caused me to play a fury round 3 (sitting at 0-2) and ruthlessly curb-stomp an unsuspecting foe when my deck actually functioned.

Interesting Moments

Last two cards? The Annointed Chorister is a decent 1-drop that is more on color where the Igneous Cur/Hobblefiend are probably better aggressive cards but stretch my mana further. I eventually went with the Chorister and was not disappointed (they did the fine, the rest of the deck I had words with).

Draft log

I could feel that this draft went awry. Just the wrong cards at the wrong times.

Great feedback from Raiderray in the Lords of Limited discord.
P1p2 I don’t think Reanimator is what you want to be doing in this format, going from the latest episode. I could honestly see taking one of the white creatures instead (including Houndmaster)
P1p3 Idol or Savior next.
P1p4 looks flat, but tricky since you could also take Dub or Sure Strike.
P1p5 I’d be off black, taking Shock.
P1p6 Chorister

If I had taken Raiderray’s line, I end up in a pretty good RW deck. Hey, that’s only the two most powerful colors in the format! I probably need to go back to more disciplined drafting, asking myself “am I committed to my colors, leaning, or open?”

Summary

It’s difficult to get excited when you realize that you just flat-out drafted the wrong colors. But sometimes you go to war with the army you have and sometimes that army goes 0-2.

(yawning) whoaaaa, that was quite a nap. Hey, so how’s the world doing? (awkward pause…) I think for the first time in quite a while, I simply skipped an entire set. At first, I thought all this quarantine would imply that I would be able to binge Magic without interruption. But I found that I simply had no appetite for a mentally taxing game that demands making decisions with incomplete information. Seems like I was getting my fill of that every day.

Draft log

P1p1: Not sure why the draft log botched P1p1, but it was a showdown between Massacre Wurm vs Enthralling Hold.

A reasonable choice, but the Wurm offers too much value even if it is at 6-mana. Probably took me too long to decided between them, since a day after this LR proclaimed it “a clear A”. In P1p5, a late Hunter’s Edge (strictly better Hunt the Weak) I read as a signal to move into green. It was pretty clear that GB was my lane and I built a thoroughly average GB deck out of it!

Summary

Overall the deck performed perfectly decently. A curve into some removal with a couple of powerful cards at the top end is a reliable, if dull, recipe for success.

2-1

It’s time for quarantine drafting people! While I’m resisting the urge to reinstall WoW, I have been baking a lot. Black sesame oatmeal cookies anyone?

Draft log

NIGHTMARE MUSE. Let’s do this. Okay, I need to dig for it and cast it (assuming black gets cut, which is my baseline for MTGO drafting). With low expectations, I am never disappointed and I shift into a pretty open UG seat. Don’t see a lot of Constellation payoffs, but I get some good fixing options and draft a control deck.

Summary

Interesting Moments

I did totally chicken out and NOT take the Enigmatic Incarnation. If I didn’t already have Ashiok, I would have trying to build around it. But I just don’t have the guts. It looks too complicated for this humble farm boy.

Pretty embarrassing to go 1-2 with Ashiok AGAIN. But I ran into a pretty good mono-white deck that kept hitting me in the face with Chimeras and then a RGbu(?) deck that had more 4/4s than the good Lord intended. There were some fun snap concedes when I did actually draw Ashiok though.

1-2

Last draft before I turn 40! Also might kick off a long streak of drafting if the northwest goes into Wuhan-esque lockdown for COVID-19. I gotta admit, it still feels like it’s just an above-average case of influenza with a really good PR firm. Hopefully this post doesn’t age too poorly when we’re fighting over who runs Gas Town.

Draft log

Well, Heliod seems a pretty easy choice here. Shame I got immediately knocked off white. I eventually nestle into RB midrange. Not exactly where one wants to be here.

There was a very interesting choice in pack 2. Right after picking up the Skophos Maze-Warden, I was presented with the opportunity to “live the dream” with the Labyrinth. Or take a Mire’s Grasp.

I went with the Labyrinth, even though my heart knew that Mire’s Grasp was the correct choice. Given how light I ended up in removal, I guess I deserved it.

I had two different builds of this deck. At first I went my normal, allergic-to-18-land self. But then I looked again at my curve (2x Bleeps, lots of double-pips) and leaned into the game plan of slowing down. Added a Thrill of Possibility and cut a Rage-Hound (since they can’t block) to go up to 18 lands and hopefully a higher chance of running the game long to get to my more powerful cards. Feels a little bad that I couldn’t work Heliod into this at all, but such is life.

Summary

Ended up 2-1, making the finals. I lost to a mediocre GB deck that lacked win conditions, but I guess the same could be said of my deck as well I suppose.