Draft 1-23-16: the one drop of desperation

First ever draft! And we are at Gamma Ray rocking it out. Let's see how we do.

Pack 1 Pick 1

  





Not the world's most inspiring lineup. I don't even remember the rare. I take the tar snare for decent removal and maximum open-ness.

Pick 2
 

Uh, the Bushwacker I guess.

Pick 3
  

Literally no playable red or black. I take the Steppe Glider, even though that's more of a narrow build-around-me.

Pick 4
   

(cries) Jwar Isle Avenger is the most powerful of the bunch, but this just feels like a mess. No consistency in a playable color picks.

Final Draft Order:
            

How gross is that? Barely any reliably playables and just bouncing all over. Surprised to see the Soothsayer wheel. Maybe some clarity on pack 2?

Pack 2

   

Ahahahahaha, Nope. I take the red direct damage spell. The rest doesn't go poorly.

Draft order:

            

You can see the desperation starting to settle in as I take crappy 3/2s just so I have some bodies. Something. ANYTHING. Entering the third pack, here are my creatures in "my" colors

Two Drop: NULL SET RETURNED
Three Drop (3): Toll Collecter, Shrieker, Bushwacker
Four Drop (2): Freerunner, Null Caller,
Five Drop (2): Cinder Hellion, Soothsayer

NOT GOOD GUYS.

Pack three

C'mon, bail me out with a sweet rare. NO WHAMMIES STOP
  

...I'm pretty much fucked. Desperate for playables, I go for the following (p3p1 is on the right)

That's right, I drafted a Lavastep raider AND I PLAYED IT. That sound you hear is the remains of my optimism splattering at the bottom of the ravine. Here's the layout

Two Drop
   

Three Drop
   

Four Drop
  

Five Drop
   

Spells
       

17 lands: 9 mountains, 7 swamps, 1 dual land.

It's just a janky mess. Some really good colorless spells (The Skitterskin and the Shrieker) but not enough colorless to trigger. Some decent Surge, but not enough two drops to reliably trigger. Some sweet long term grinders (Soothsayer & Null Caller) but not allies or time to trigger. About the only nice part were the spells, but not enough of them. Overall short on playables and to jam in some really questionable cards (Lavastep Raider, Grave Birthing

Needless to say I went 0-2 and then faced the bye. I still count it as an 0-3.

Draft Position (Dave on my left, Emily on my right)

Dave:  
Jed:  
Emily:  
Sam:  

So I pretty clearly picked the TWO WORST COLORS POSSIBLE in my position. But where the the white in pack 1? What did I miss? I swear it wasn't there at all.

Lessons Learned
I thought I did a good job of staying open, maybe I just missed a signal somewhere. And some days you just have a bad draft.

Aggro needs two drops.
Surge REALLY needs two drops.
Sparkmage Gambit isn't bad (some X/1s, and using it to Surge out the Bushwhacker is pretty sweet)