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.
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Pack 1 pick 2:
Yeah so Ive picked a decent black guy pick one and get passed a corrupt in pack two. Not a tough decision.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
LoL when I got passed this pack I agonised over my tough decision. I kinda felt building a sick black deck could be a great idea, and I had passed some ok white anyways so maybe pick the spectre. Then I realised I had managed to get passed third pick best common. Blinding mage is just too good to pass up.
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Pack 1 pick 4:
I remember being a bit underwhelmed in this pack. Certainly seeing clone as a 4th pick led me to think that I might be able to get some decent blue coming in this pack and pack 3, but I also felt that the Mage signal was strong and that I would get decent white. I decided to pick the Sign in Blood because its good and black, but the more I think about it the more I think Clone would have been the better pick, given that its pretty splashable and Sign just isnt.
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Pack 1 pick 5:
I dont want to overthink obvious packs. Gravedigger is the best card for our deck
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Pack 1 pick 6:
Same thinking here I think, tho maybe I assume Fling is better than it is because I used to play a Draco deck ;) ? I picked the sickness, but the sentinel is also good. Obvious its not great passing swampwalk guy but, you know....
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Pack 1 pick 7:
Mind Rot can be good against decks with lots of tricks up their sleeves, or big guys that they build towards so I figured I would probably play this card at some point in the tournament. Do people just not like Giant Growth ? Dave says it just isnt that good but its quite like a removal spell isnt it?
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Pack 1 pick 8:
At this point I am devastated that I havent been drafting the pikers because we could have had like 3 of them by now. Having missed the boat on building the 2/1 dot deck (a deck that I would face down in the second round) I decide to pick solid side removal.
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Pack 1 pick 9:
Wtf?
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Pack 1 pick 10:
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Pack 1 pick 11:
So it was with a big sigh of relief that this guy wheeled. We gambled on picking the blinding mage early and it paid of, with the spectre coming back round. At this point I am thinking if I ever want to improve at ltd I will have to migrate to 4-3-2-2's or 8-4's...
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Pack 1 pick 12:
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Pack 1 pick 13:
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Pack 1 pick 15:
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Pack 2 pick 1:
Not a great pack to open really but its got a solid black removal card in it and I am happy to pick a second sickness up
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Pack 2 pick 2:
When I got passed this I instantly saw the pacifism and thought "nice!" more removal and colors coming together ok. The I see the Serra and feel a bit sad. I was thinking If I already had lots of decent creatures could I pass the angel and take the pacifism? Not really sure about that...
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Pack 2 pick 3:
Getting the choice of both knights was nice, but in a deck that is mostly black there is only really one option.
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Pack 2 pick 4:
I thought about picking the vampire as I was aware I maybe didnt have too many creatures, but then if I dont have too many creatures I didnt think I would want to sac any of them! So I went for the removal again and felt good about the amount of removal in my deck at this point.
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Pack 2 pick 5:
Total whiff here and Dave said this red rare gets used in constructed and would go for a tic or two... or .333 tics when we checked.
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Pack 2 pick 6:
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Pack 2 pick 9:
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Pack 2 pick 12:
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Pack 2 pick 15:
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Pack 3 pick 1:
Again we dont open up much here in terms of boom factor, but the ball is soo good at finding answers that it was an easy decision. I didnt really understand how the enchantment would work and that was another major reason I didnt pick it.
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Pack 3 pick 2:
Ive just said to Dave "again this was an easy decision" and people might argue in a deck with lots of removal I should take the griffin but I felt that I had gotten lucky with late pick Mastadons and Horrors in the last pack that I could pass up a creature for more removal.
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Pack 3 pick 3:
"Bliding Mage is just better than doomblade. Fact. I didnt misspell it mate" - Dave 2010
Plus we had just picked removal. Plus its a mage.
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Pack 3 pick 4:
Getting both parts of the vampire skeleton combo in one pack is annoying as there is little chance of getting both now, but the skeleton is clearly better and is just an immense card for so many situations.
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Pack 3 pick 5:
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Pack 3 pick 6:
I briefly considered picking the vampire because its cheaper and might offer me some more speed, but I had a look at the amount of solid fat in my deck and decided it wasnt enough.
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Pack 3 pick 7:
I doubted I would maindeck the priest, but its a great sideboard card to have and we kinda whiffed this pack.
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Pack 3 pick 8:
I really like inspired charge. I think there are situations where, in the right deck it could be a game winner. With that said... hes the Juggernaut, bitch!
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Pack 3 pick 9:
I messed up here I think. Hawk was unlikely to get played with only one in the deck and the plague was removal and a rare etc.
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Pack 3 pick 10:
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Ok so yeah dont have a decklist for you but its a solid deck and I 3-0'ed. Double Stabbing pain destroyed the 2/1 dot deck in round two and in round 3 the purge killed a Cyclops Gladiator which was hugely satisfying. The guy in round 3 had also made a sun titan turn six and I was able to Sickness it with Corrupt in hand to kill it next turn, but the the sickness in play I was able to just wait until I made 3 more swamps because Sun Titan wasnt as big as Serra Angel.
I think the problem with the swiss format is people dont pick properly! It seems obvious, but without playing against decent opponents you just are not going to improve as a player. However for the time being it is good to play ni a weaker field where I can learn how to use the interface properly. Round one was a good example of where I need practice online because having clearly the better deck I left myself only 9 mins to finish him off in game two leading 1-0.
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