Dave Cube Draft #3

This was done in the same night as the previous, so I am afraid that terrible audio quality and drafting decisions still run rife.

Drafting and Deckbuilding

Matches

Dave Cube Draft #2 - Triumphant Return

Wow, been a long time since  have posted here, but since I just got back into drafting online, and there has been a definite shift from written articles to videos in the MTG strategy article scene, I figured I'd give it a go!  Apologies for the poor sound quality - I need to get a new headset asap.  The reason this is Cube #2 is that the first video encoded weird, but I will be posting 2 more drafts over the weekend.

This is drafting and deckbuilding

This is matches

Let me know what you think, but do be informed that these were more tongue in cheek than serious drafting.  Will also be doing some Gatecrash once it launches proper online. 

Dave Scars of Mirrodin Draft #1 (4-3-2-2)

 I hadn't managed to draft the set at all yet, and the only research I had done was to watch three sealed queues on Channel Fireball and read a couple of set reviews.  I surmised that Infect was extremely powerful and as a result would probably be overdrafted.  The other 'archetypes' mentioned were Metalcraft decks, revolving around White alone or mixed with Green, Red or Blue, or Good Card decks, which used lots of removal to stall the early game and made bombs in the mid-to-late.  After a long week at work I was in no condition to enjoy the first night of reasonably priced drafts on MTGO.  A refreshing 10 hour slumber later I awoke, jumped online and traded some tix for Scars packs.  1 minute more and I was digitally ripping the first one to see the following:


  Pack 1 pick 1:

 The rares are both cards I consider playables.  Geth is a monster, obviously,  but I feel like his only home is in the Good Cards deck, as he doesn't work well with Infect creatures - of which black has plenty.  With the aforementioned deck, I feel like you want to get your removal in place early, with the goal of leaving yourself as open as possible to make use of bombs you open, or are passed, later.  I also think that that archetype is difficult to build and would be much more comfortable taking one of the removal spells in this pack.  Arrest is a great removal spell in any deck, but I think Galvanic Blast is the better card.  Red is the strongest colour in the set I think, and certainly has the deepest removal, and I don't want to pass any of it.

 My Pick:

Imminent Return

Who doesn't love a good apology-for-not-updating post? Obviously it's been a while. I'm not blaming it entirely on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but lord knows it certainly didn't help. Allusions to a truly incredible TV show aside, I couldn't be bothered playing M11 any more and the other contributors were too lazy or busy to write any reports.

Well, Scars of Mirrodin is happening, as I write this there's the first GP of the new Sealed format taking place in Sydney, States will be showcasing the latest and greatest Standard tech (and FNMs around the globe will probably be showcasing some Infect decks) and MODOers like me will be tapping their feet impatiently awaiting some draft queues.

I played in my local prerelease tournament to a disappointing 3-3 finish. I opened a pool that looked almost capable of supporting Infect (13 infect creatures including a Putrefax, and braces of Ichorclaw Myrs, Necropedes, Cystbearers and Tel-Jilad Fallens) but I still wasn't totally sold that it would work and I wanted to start the day playing a deck I felt comfortable with.

I built up a RW metalcraft deck that splashed Swamps for double Trigon of Corruption. My colored spells were Sunblast Angel, Barrage Ogre, Shatter, Auriok Edgewright, Auriok Sunchaser, Dispense Justice and Khemba. I also had two Ferrovores, but I wanted to run as many artifacts as possible and deck contruction time was running short, so I ended up cutting them. In retrospect, playing one over the Sunchaser would probably have been better - at least Edgewright is a bear in the absence of metalcraft. My artifacts were something like this:

2 Perilous Myr
2 Mana Myr (1 red, 1 black)
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Myr Reservoir
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Lux Cannon
1 Rusted Relic
2 Trigon of Corruption
3 Snapsail Glider

On the day, the Contagion Clasp was probably the MVP. The deck was caught between having a lot of two drops and a weighty late game with synergy combos like Perilous Myr/Barrage Ogre/Myr Reservoir, Lux Cannon/Contagion Clasp, Contagion Clasp/Trigon of Corruption. I was relatively happy with it at the time, but cold medicine makes you relatively happy at all times, so writing this now and thinking about it again is making me sad. Myr Reservoir and Lux Cannon were just too slow. Barrage Ogre does not need cute combos to make him a game ender. If I had replaced the artifacts with Ferrovores, I would probably have needed to cut the Sunchaser anyway to add in another artifact (maybe Necropede since it trades up well in defense and has value with Ferrovore and Barrage Ogre).

The deck won its first round against a UW metalcraft deck. I gained too much life with my Lifestaffs when we traded our identical guys for him to catch me in what was a long game 1. Game 2 he stalled on mana and by the time he had managed to put a team together I had Barrage Ogre, Myr Reservoir and Perilous Myr going to give me the reach, and Sunblast Angel in hand in case of emergencies. His deck was really good though and he ended up 5-1. I'm afraid my recollections of rounds 2, 3 and 4 are spotty at best - at some point I played my friend Stu (whose draft reports you can see below) and got thrashed, and decided that since I was unlikely to finish too highly to get anything decent, I would audible to Infect as a learning exercise to see how it played. My deck was:

2 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Necropede
1 Plague Stinger
2 Cystbearer
1 Contagious Nim
2 Tel Jilad Fallen
1 Blackcleave Goblin
1 Putrefax
1 Edge of Darkness
1 Lux Cannon
2 Trigon of Corruption
1 Contagion Clasp
2 Perilous Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Tumble Magnet
2 Sylvok Lifestaff

I figured that the Perilous Myr were just good blockers that could clear some space for my plagued army, since I didn't really have anything else that was too exciting. It went 1-1 in the last two rounds but I actually did like how it played. I boarded out Lux Cannon every game for something I don't recall - it's a nice card but without early proliferators it's just too slow to do much (and I got it Volition Reins-ed because I tapped for the third token in my main phase once...)

Really looking forward to draft, as I feel that this set benefits a lot from focus and it can be hard to get that in a sealed pool. I still want to play a lot of sealed though as I am Paris bound next February and want to try hard to qualify for the PT to take full advantage of the 5 days I'll be there. Sidenote: waking your girlfriend up and saying "How would you like to spend Valentines Day in Paris" accumulates enough points to then blindside her with the news of the 4 days of Magic preceding it and have her not get mad.

The release of Civilization 5 precluded my playing in the Release event. It's the perfect marriage of board and video game and ideal for the strategic minds that are attracted to Magic. My GFX card died two days after purchase, but if the company who sold it to me are good to their word, I will have it repaired or replaced by next Friday. Once I get that back up and running I will try and do a CFB style Draft video, although I fear that there is a chance my accent will prove impenetrable to some of you.

At the moment we are actively seeking contributors for this blog. If you are an active Magic player with something to say (one off pieces are fine, as are regular slots) please get in touch via the comments box or our Twitter feed.

Oh wait, there was supposed to be an apology... Sorry!

Dave M11 Draft #3 4-3-2-2

  Pack 1 pick 1:

Not the strongest of opening packs here.  Outrage and Pyromancer are a cut above the other options in pack, so I select the one with the most flexibility even though I dislike Red as a colour.  I'll be happy to let the pyromancer go if any other colour combination appears to be open. 

My Pick:

Stu Draft #1 M11 Swiss

Ok so let me preface this post by saying that I am not a good Magic player. I guess that makes me self aware. From reading Edd's first report I realise that I am way off in terms of understanding good draft strategy. I once spent 2 minutes deliberating over whether or not to pick futuresight when I had a blue deck.

Anyways I was at Edd's flat recently and he was testing for nationals. I got "the bug" and fancied getting back into it, and as an online gamer magic online is farmore appealing to me than testing constructed standard decks. I registered an online account under the nifty name JimHopper and tried to deposit with no success as they dont accept Maestro - another 30 mins spent fannying around with paypal drew me to the conclusion that if I wanted to draft tonight then Dave would have to let me pick for him. And so we begin...
 
Pack 1 pick 1:


 I mean there are quite alot of good choices here and basically I just had to make a decision on which color I fancied. I got it down to 3 choices - Black, Blue and White. Had I decided to pick white then I draft the crusader and with Blue I pick the sleep. Both decent cards I think, but I felt that even tho I would be passing two good black cards, black had the strongest options in the pack. I did consider passing 3 good black cards and having the 2 players to my left wasting some picks fighting over that color, but I also thought that I have right of first pick and I get to control all the black in pack one anyway, so I'm going to pick a black card. I didnt think there was too much of decision to make in terms of what the best black card was. But I didntlike passing the other two.

My Pick:

Dave Draft #2 M11 Swiss

  Pack 1 pick 1:


   Red has been getting a lot of hate in discussions amongst my playgroup lately.  The general consensus seems to be that the removal is too splashable (except Outrage) and the common quality is too low.  I'm still trying things out in this format, so I'm certainly willing to see where a 4/4 flier for 5 will take me, and whether he will have the support he needs or if I barely even get to cast him before I'm dead.  Other considerations apart from the Dragon were the Outrage (which I admittedly do not love passing while trying to be red, but it seems underdrafted enough that I hope I'll be fine), the Cloud Elemental, the Specter, and Sleep.  Elemental is strictly worse than the dragon despite being blue.  Sleep isn't the blowout it was in M10, but is fairly solid and a card that a lot of people seem to still rate highly, so passing that will almost certainly put someone to my left in blue (as if they needed the help).  Spider is a solid card, but you'd have to really want to not play red to pick it.

My Pick: