Worst. Draft. Ever. 10-4-15

Pack 1 Pick 1

  

Drowner of Hope is a pretty clear win here as it's pretty close to a quadrant all-star. 7 points of stats for 6 mana and a non-insignificant ability to break a stalemate is pretty sweet.

Pick 2

 
Here I make my first mistake. I get excited by seeing two quality blue cards not really noticing that the rare is gone so it doesn't mean much. In fact, the second pick will almost always be entirely devoid of signals. But mentally I start to lock in waaaay too much. I take the Skyspawner on stats though I think the ceiling of the Tidecaller is higher and I should have nabbed that instead.

Pick 3

 

This is where fate plays a cruel cruel trick on me. Coastal Discovery is awesome sauce. Like most awaken cards, read it instead as a creature, e.g. 4/4 for six mana that draws you two cards. I mean, that's amazing. Also a moderately powerful white rare makes me suspect white is open up the line.

Pick 4

  

Total lack of blue in this pack but really solid white. Let's go blue/white!! I love blue/white!! BLUE WHITE IS JUSTICE. This is the point where I stop thinking and just start forcing. Resulting in the following draft:

Note how the blue REALLY dried up and the shockingly good Kozilek's Sentinel actually wheeled. That was THE BIG CLUE that in fact the black/red devoid aggro deck was wide open. Did I pay attention to said clues? I did not!

Pack 2 Pick 1

   

My good friend, Akoum Hellkite is back but, once again overly locked in, I pick so-so removal. Tightening Coils is actually a fine card but MUCH better in a control deck where making something useless on the attack does a decent Doom Blade impression.

Pick 2

 

Panicking about my 2 drops, I take the guide. I reeeeeally should have taken the trick here.

Pick 3

 

I choose the Roil's Retribution, as I like the capacity for more 2:1s. Pretty sure that's the right call.

Honestly, this is getting too painful to recap, let's just throw down the cards.

Isn't it awful? It's because the guy on my right was in blue right! And so was someone else at the table (to be fair, it was a 10 person draft) Check out this blue/white flier/ally/monstrosity.

Two Drop

 
    

Three Drop

 
  

Four+ Drop

   

Spells

      

Recap!

Match 1 against Emily, I face off against what appears to a mostly mono-green deck. No, as it turns out she was just missing her black mana. I curve out rather nicely, dropping on 2, 3, and 4 putting some beats on. Then I run into the one card counter for this deck.



(okay, so it's a Giant Mantis or some such in Zendikar now, but gotta go with the classics). That pretty much stone colds everything in the air and the ground. Fortunately, I land an Awakened Coastal Discovery and I use the Coral Merfolk's unblockable ability to sneak in 4/4 the last three turns as I'm getting pounded down. Whew.

Game two I had a similar quick start with my air force online and then she drops on turns 4 & 5

 

Nooooooooo! Fortuantely I topdeck the one card that can save me: Adverse Conditions to tap them for two turns, and I follow up with the +2/+1 Inspired Charge to drop her on one turn.

(2-0)

Round Two

Island island nothing for land. Yeah that's a game I'm going to lose.

The second game I build up a pretty good board state but I make a key timing error. Let's review: Roilmage Retribution vs. Cliffside Lookout

 

I attack, look at his stack of untapped mana, and thoughtlessly boost my team for +1/+1 to crack in for 4 more damage. He responds by casting Roil's Retribution. Since that goes on the stack first, that wipes out three of my weenies before the Lookout's boost can go off. I think I knew this but I still get confused sometimes by the old way of 'waiting' to do damage assessment. The proper play was to acknowledge the risk, and leave my five mana to cast in response to his attempt to Retribute me.

I almost recover from that three-for-one; I get him down to 5, but he rebuilds his board state and uses Ondu Rising to land a fatty, gain 9 life, and undoes me.

(0-2)

Round Three

Game one my opponent, Manuel only dropped plains and I pretty efficiently machine him down. My deck DOES curve out nicely most of the time. So yay for that.

Game two I see some forests, a Hedron Archive and kind of out of nowhere he boosts out a pair of monstrous Eldrazi. Yikes! No answer for that.

 

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Game three, I 2-3-4, land a third flier, and Inspired Charge him down

(2-1)

UGLIEST 2-1 I've ever played, did not deserve that at all with my draft. The lesson that I learned is to just pick the best card in the pack for the firs three and THEN start looking for signals. If I get lucky and I crack open great blue cards and blue is open, fine. But finding the open color > using Pack 1 Pick 1.