Local Game Store M15 Draft

Howdy, everybody!

After literally not playing a single game of Magic since the paper Born of the Gods prerelease, I went down to my local game store to make some friends in my new town draft.

This place has two drafts on Saturdays, FNM draft and a draft on Friday afternoon at 3PM. I call that one "the unemployed special". With my current state of joblessness, I biked over to do some afternoon draft.

There were not enough players to do a sanctioned draft so we put together a six-man pod and everyone else vetoed my moneydraft suggestion.

First pick was unexciting, I took a Spectra Ward over not much else, then second picked Siege Wurm. I remember this guy from Ravnica 1.0 and I hear convoke is good in this set. There would be no more green to be had for the entire draft. I picked up a couple decent white and black cards but then white dried up completely as well. There was a little late blue, so i dipped a toe in there and finished pack one with some black, some white, and some blue.

After the first three picks, pick order is approximate/fully from memory.

Pack two I opened nothing exciting. I take Gravedigger, then some artifact and black creatures. Sweet! The black is flowing and now I need to decide white or blue, depending on what comes. The end of pack two is not that helpful, with a late Divination, but no other useful blue and just a couple mediocre white cards.

The three-slot is getting a bit heavy.

In the last pack, I luck into opening Liliana, so I slam that. I follow up with a second black paragon, since it looks like I will be heavy black. Then the signal (finally) comes. Third pick Triplicate Spirit. I am in white now and good luck moving me off it. Fourth pick Devouring Light. Fifth pick Triplicate Spirit! Hooray for staying open and flexible. I fill out the pack with more junk and never get tempted by a strong blue card again.

A little expensive, but I won't say no to Sextuplicate Spirits

As deckbuilding progressed, we deconstructed the draft a little. The guy I was passing to cut white hard in pack one. The guy passing to me cut green hard. I stayed pretty open in white/black. Then the late blue came and we all three made a grab for it. I took a few blue cards, but the second pack I was being passed from a white/blue drafter, so there was little of either coming my way. Third pack, I was getting leftovers from a green/blue guy, with no white on that side of the table.

My only guess as to why Mr R/W would pass Triplicate Spirits is because he was balls-out "15-land" aggro.

My deack was quite heavy on three-drops, with little removal, but this is core set and I'm not exactly sure how much removal there is in the New Magic World Order. Wall of Limbs and Xathrid Slyblade were both terrible. I sided them out for Necrobite and Crippling Blight.

Needs more removal

In round one, I played the Green/Black drafter. Villain's deck had all the Typhoid Rats my deck could have used. I won game 1 on the back of Spirits plus Selfless Cathar then Sign In Blood you for the final point. In the second game, our boards were very close on turn 6 except I used all my cards and Villain had no forests yet and a grip with 5 green cards. When he did draw a forest, it was game over for our hero. Game three I got quite lucky. Lilliana Vampiric Tutored me a Triplicate Spirits, then Villain cut the second copy to the top of my deck, followed immediately by Selfless Cathar. I won that one.

Round two, I get paired down against the Blue/White drafter who hates me because I took "his" spirits in pack three. This Villain is mentally not in it at all after losing "in five minutes" round one. We play out our first few turns then on turn 5 I drop my fifth land, attack into an empty board with only one of my two creatures and he scoops. I had the Triplicate Spirits, but he didn't even make me show him. He says he only had one flier in his (Blue/White) deck. Game two he mulligans into oblivion and I get a reasonable curve-out.

Round three, the pairings break because the 0-2 Blue-White guy took his cards and went home. A 1-1 player gets a bye into third place, but at least the 2-0s play each other. The other finalist is the Blue/Green drafter passing to me in packs one and three. This game afforded me the chance for the sweet play of Lilliana, discard your last card, please. Then on seven land, Vamp Tutor up Spectral Ward to the top of my deck, Sign in Blood to draw it and cast it on my Will-Forged Golem. The pro-all colors 6/6 took Villain from 18 to 0 in three turns while my other guys were on chump duty for his bigger green creatures. Game two, he kept a sketchy two forest hand because it had Naturalize and I showed him artifact targets and a sweet enchantment. I curve out while he draws forests and blue cards from what I can tell. The only spell Villain plays all game is Natualize on my Spectra Ward, but the 3/2 lifelinking Child of Night and the Midnight Guard made quick work of his life total.

I took it down and earned 6 packs for my trouble, but no planeswalker points. I never drew Gravedigger or Oppressive Rays, but I could imagine a world where the one-white aura is quite good. As I said earlier, Wall of Limbs was not very good and Xathra Slyblade did everything Marshall and bwong said it would: sometimes it was unblockable with threat of activation, but definitely super scary when the Villain has open mana. If they block it, they probably have a trick and you have to use that four mana then get blown out. No, thank you. When I draft again, I will watch more for curve considerations. Too many threes should not work out so well.

I think this format is one where you can stay open and find the color that is flowing. So far with a sample size of two, Loreto and I both found this to be true. Also, I am an old man and I don't like change, but put me down for "no" on the new card frame. The frame just looks like the layout editor was drunk and didn't realize it was off-center. And double-U tee eff is up with this font?

blech