11/8 Draft Report

Apparently it was PTQ weekend in Seattle so it was a little light at Gamma Ray Games. But we fielded a full pod of eight (first time with a proper number in a long time). I'm expecting some goofiness here though I have the judge sitting directly on my right. Bummer

Pack 1

(first pick is on the right, all the way to the Tusked Colossodon as my 2nd-to-last pick)




Pretty uninspired first pack truthfully but I snag the Trail of Mystery as I currently have 5-color on the brain. I also kinda sorta think this group is going to let a lot of fixing, especially 'friendly' fixing, fall through. When a tri-land comes to me on the 5th pick I am slamming it and going 5 color for the first time ever. Basically I use the first pack to grab as many lands as possible and as much high value morph as possible. I feel medium successful here though I would have liked to have been closer to 6-7 dual lands rather than just five.

Sometimes when drafting your head gets in weird spaces. My fifth pick was super weak but somehow I started agonizing on choosing between


To paraphrase Triumph the Insult Dog, it's a who's who of who cares. Eventually I picked the warshrieker on the logic that maybe the mana would be helpful. With hindsight however, I should have picked the Dragonscale. I still might not have run it but the multi-morph deck leaves a LOT of mana untapped and a four-mana combat trick isn't quite as useless.

 vs 

Pack 2

Pretty unhappy early on but I snag some lands. A Death Frenzy (another great board clearer) comes, as does some surprisingly good Outlast creatures (the Falconer has almost no business going 7th) A Secret Plans causes some fist pumping and some general dumb morphs round out the set.

 Here's a fun dilemma for a 5th pick

  

Solid three drop, solid morph, or a tricksy morph. I picked the tuskguard as a speculative to see if more outlast would come my way. In hindsight, the Icefeather is the obvious choice. A bit of tempo/control as well as being a much cheaper morph to flip.

Pack 3

Incredibly uninspiring rare so I grab Ride Down (a sexy little removal) I am passed a Duneblast which absolutely makes my day. Slow-ass deck and mass removal? Yes please. Some more morphs, *another* tri land in the 5-hole. Then I hit up a sweet streak of removal in the middle set (Throttle, Master the Way, Sultai Charm) along with a sinful Kheru Spellstealer. More on her later. Very pleased with this pack: 3 more lands, two killer rares and some great removal. A little concerned with my creature base though to be honest. Total mystery: last pick Trumpet Blast. Is no one playing Mardu?

I won't lie, building a 5 color deck is terrifying. First I notice that I have nearly zero red cards or red fixing. So it's more like 4.5 colors with some dual lands and maaaaaybe using Trail of Mystery to flesh it out.

Land (18): Frontier Bivouac, Opulent Palace, Sandsteppe Citadel, Blossoming Sands, Rugged Highlands, Dismal Backwater x3, Scoured Barrens, Swiftwater Cliffs, Thornwood Falls, Forest x2, Plains x2, Mountain, Island, Swamp
Creatures (14): Monastery Flock, Sidisi's Pet, Kheru Spellsnatcher, War Behemoth, Witness of the Ages, Snowhorn Rider, Abomination of Gudul, Glacial Stalker, Hooting Mandrils, Sultai Scavenger, Abzan Falconer, Tuskguard Captain, Tusked Colossodon
Spells (8): Trail of Mystery, Secret Plans, Savage Punch, Ride Down, Sultai Charm, Throttle, Master the Way, Duneblast

Game plan is pretty damn clear: clog up and trade aggressively with early morphs and run them over with the big ones. Quality mass removal and decent spot removal will help me get there.