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)
Once again, it’s time for the happiest day of the year: pre-release time! The loving Momma Raptor gave me an afternoon pass. So it was day-drinking, ramen with King Ziggy & friends, and then cracking some packs. Unfortunately they went back to “seeded packs” for this pre-release. While it’s nice for me to pledge my loyalty to Azorius, I dislike how it renders a bunch of the cards you open unplayable. There’s not a lot of splashing tools, so I knew any red card I opened would be nearly unplayable.
Read moreBetween the holidays and already mentally moving on to salivating over Ravnica Allegiance, it’s time for me to put a capstone on my Guilds experience. LR and Lords of Limited have already put together their excellent sunset shows, so rather than parrot their talking points (the weakness of the green guilds, gate decks, &c) let’s try and take a look at my personal learnings.
Read moreAlright, we’ve had to sneak in some Basic Land updates. First to add some variety and then to, uh, add some variety. This is important dammit!
By “celebrity” I mean “fairly popular podcaster”, but I’ll take what I can get. I had a fun round 1 versus Mister Metronome of Lords of Limited. My deck wasn’t particularly special, but it was an interesting matchup against his very good Dimir deck. I recommend the watch!
(I made it a little more aggressive against him in subsequent rounds, taking out the walls and putting in sideboard material and some low drops)
Benalish Dad 