Khans Drafting 10-11-14

Drafting!
The first pack was pretty unexciting. It was some elaborate three color, non-bomby rare. So I took a very reliable white two drop. After that I take the tri-land (couldn't believe that was passed to me. Works in Abzan obviously but also totally fine double-land in Mardu and Sultai) I snag another tri land and take my favorite 2 drop morph, Horde ambusher. I start to see some key Sultai cards (Scout, & Bitter Revelation) so I pick those up. I'm actually pretty happy with my opening pack, except for the lack of bombs.

 

 

 

Pack #2!! Opening choice is a doozy.

 

 vs

I stare at this for a long time. Stone-cold red bomb vs. pretty solid removal in my color. I flinch and stay in black. Arrrgh! I make LR cry. I guess I'm somewhat rewarding for my steadfastness with a Heir of the Wilds and Rakshasa Deathdealer, two quality two drops. Armament Corps is also pretty close to a bomb (if you squint a little) but I don't have very much outlast in my deck. There's also a fair amount of decent red & mardu cards coming my way... starting to second guess myself...

Round 3:

I'm super happy with my first few: great 2 drop Outlast, a flexible morph and evasion. But white and black are feeling really picked over and there's a lot of red slipping through. Nothing "OMG" but just solid white/red and Mardu tri-color. Should I have gone red? Probably? Maybe? I really liked the rakshasa...



here's my final deck, the four slot is a little too full, the two slot too unreliable with my splash in green being weighted earlier in the curve.

1 drop: Mardu hateblade (1)
2 drop: Rakshasa Deathdealer, Heir of the Wilds, Seeker of the Way, Ainok Bond-Kin (4)
3 drop/Morph: Krumar Bond-Kin x2, Woolly Loxodon, Mardu Hordechief (4)
4 drop: Unyielding Krumar x2, Alabaster Kirin x2, Salt Road Patrol, Longshot Squad (6)
5 drop: Armament Corps, Hooting Mandrils, Swarm of Bloodflies (3)

Spells: Bitter Revelation x2, Debilitating Injury x2, Throttle x1

18 Lands: Tri land x2, Forest x4, Swamp x6, Plains x6
Round 1
Faced off against Peter, running a red/blue/green Temur deck... but it was strangely heavy on the counterspells. In the midgame I was in a bad spot facing Snowhorn Rider with a Dragon Grip on it for 7/5 First Strike and Trampling. Except he was unduly afraid of my morphs and stayed off me for *far* too many turns. Eventually I got my shields up with the Wooly Loxadon and then I was able to grind around him for a win. The second game was even less remarkable as I landed my Armament Corps on curve and that was pretty much game over. Once I figured out that he was running 4+ counterspells it was pretty easy to play around them while he was tapped out. Morphs are also solid at dodging counterspells. We talk a bit afterwards and he was playing a control deck without the sweepers. That's probably not going to cut it.
2-0

Round 2
Playing against Conner running a Mardu deck... except it was all control-y with a bunch of outlast and 4 drops. However in game 1, the mana curve doesn't matter if he drops
  
... by turn 5. That's a lot of pressure! I'm down to six health facing a miserable board state and a 3/4 Abzan Falconer. Having no choice and facing an overrun I Bitter Revelation for an answer... that I pull! Throttle; so good. SO good. The board stalemates with my Rakshasa Deathdealer holding the line with a few random creatures versus an alarming large board with a bunch of 1/1 goblin tokens running around. I start playing very carefully since at 4 life I'm one X spell or counterswing away. But my Rakshasa starts murdering goblins and I establish the board superiority and work him down.

The second game I stayed confidently in control. Checking in at turn 5... the board was totally clear. I cheerfully traded and removed any threats. Eventually I establish my board and just winnow him down.


2-0

Round 3
I am facing off against the Sultai. He has a LOT of graveyard fixing and A LOT of Delve to go with it. We're both building slowly though he stays on five land and mills away two more land. This doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. We trade blows and we're at 13-18. I think I have him, my Blood Fly is at 9/9 and he only has one flying blocker left and one other creature. Then I make a fatal, careless mistake. He makes a pointless attack and I chump block with my warrior token to make my blood fly EVEN BIGGAR. He then Dead Drops, clearing my board. Next turn he sticks two huge creatures and I'm dead drawing. I was very upset at myself. It was clearly a pointless attack, my health total was just fine. Why block? Against a delve deck no less.

The second game was even shorter because he landed a 5th turn


I had one combat to try and Throttle it with some combat damage but he had the counterspell. So that was a very fast game. His deck was pretty stacked but it was slow. The classic deck that would have lost to a 2-3-4 curve out Mardu assault. Give how my deck was neither fast NOR slow, it puttered just enough to lose to it. I am angry that he had two stonecold bombs in Abzan that he splashed for successfully (the ivorytusk and Duneblast) that obviously should have been mine. Obviously. He had crazy mana-fixing. Good for him


0-2

Conclusion
Pretty happy with the 2-1, that felt like where the deck was going to be. I still got a little overly obsessed with staying on my colors when maybe splashing red was a stronger place to be at. Especially with that second pack Crater's Claws. I know Marshall/Brian would have taken it. Reviewing the table, we had a Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai (with the Abzan splash), a messy Temur and a four color mess on my right around Abzan with blue added. There wasn't anything egregiously open but I felt like maybe slipping into Mardu earlier would have been the right thing to do. Hard to say.

MVP

This guy is tits, talk about a quadrant theory all-star. He develops, he defends (so-so, leaving up mana isn't ideal obviously), he finishes, he breaks parity. Can't ask for too much more than that.

Deck Concerns
Breaking it apart, I was far too in love with my 4 drops. I had two of the 4/2 bears that weren't in the deck and I absolutely should have substituted out two four-drops for them. That would also help tilt me a little more towards green though I rarely hurt for mana. Those triple lands are absolute awesome. I think it's actually pretty important to try and regularly hit your 2/3/4 curve out. You don't have to be superstar racing but have some serious board presence to pressure slow decks. Next time I want to be closer to 5 or 6 playable two drops, and 4 or 5 playable three/morphs. This deck also felt very inbetween-y. Not enough outlast to really dominate the end game, though it could break deadlocks nicely.

Other Notes

This is really quite reliable. It did solid work against me, Brian's recap of "counter target spell you care about" is accurate.


Underperformed a little but not a lot. The evasion and 2/3 vigilance is pretty sweet and if I faced more aggro decks I think I might have liked it more.


Not BAD but not great. Takes a little bit to get up and running. Token creature deaths DO impact it, which is nice but not going to win any races with other five slots. A classic "five slot of last resort".


Was very pleased every time I drew this card, even without any real Sultai/delve synergies. Go digging for a card that matters when you know if you want land, creatures, or answers. Two might be on the high end without a lot of delve to benefit from it (especially with how crowded my 4-slot was) but greatly enjoyed. Would play again.