Draft Report! 2-13-16

Heading down to the Gamma Ray! After some frantic trading for lands (closing in on two more sheets: red/green and black/white) we cracked some packs.

Pick 1

  

A perfect encapsulation of what people are complaining about with Oath. Ruins and Seed Guardian are both fantastic cards that you can do interesting things with... but they aren't unconditional removal good! I take the strike





Pick 2
  

Tougher call. The commando and cleric are quality 2-drops. I like the visions a lot (almost as good as removal in a black aggro deck) but only about half the black decks are aggro. I take the Commando; good in every red deck.

Pick 3
  

I take essence depleter. Good in any black deck (except white/black)

Overall I'm pretty happy, black feels open though I'm unsettled in my second color. The late Lead by Example makes me think Green might be the way to go.

Pack 2

For some reason, I keep screwing up my order. Right hand column is first. I opened JUNK, taking a Tajuru Pathwarden. However a pick 3 Oblivion Strike rapidly brightens my day, as do some very solid black aggro cards. Still feeling uncertain about red vs. green as a second color though. Surprised to see Immobilizer Eldrazi so late (pick 5)

Pack 3

Open some good red removal, and after some hemming and hawing, I take it. More black flows along with an astoundingly late Slab Hammer and some Swarm Surges. Let's check out the playable count!

Deck

Creatures (5x two, 4x three, 4x four, 3x five+)

    


   

   

  

Spells (7)

      

Land (17, 7 mountain, 7 swamp)

    

Overall, I'm really happy with this layout. Good solid aggro curve with some ways to win late: Slab Hammer, Essence Depleter, and (sigh) Defiant Bloodlord. Four sources of colorless can activate some of my cool creatures. To the games!

Draft Positions

Chris: ? ?
Colin:  
Colin:  
Emily:  
Tim:  
Jed:  
Hersh:   
Phil:  

Huh. So the two people passing to me in pack 1 were also in black (though Hersh was all over the place, he was mostly green to start then moved in) Having both the Essence Depleter and Slaughter Drone fall through that seems odd. Also the total lack of white coming to me doesn't make a lot of sense either. I think it mostly worked, but clearly could have worked better.

Game 1

Facing off against Phil and a black/blue grindy deck. Both of us curve out, hitting all land drops through turn four. But it was here where the full glory and power of the Immobilizer Eldrazi became manifest.

 

vs.

 

So much for your defenses! I am able to regularly chop him down, holding removal for any significant threats.

Game two was an absolutely brutal loss where we both curved out and I wore him down to 1 life... but couldn't finish the job. A fair amount of mana flood drawing my flier literally one turn too late.

Game three was a return to the Immobilizer! Thank you friend, why yes I would like to attack with impunity. It also combo-ed really well with my Menace creatures as fewer blockers turns Menace into unblockable without unacceptable losses.

(2-1)

Match 2

Now playing against the other guy stealing my black cards. He was running a three-color mess that HOLY CRAP curved out like whoa. I maybe kept something I shouldn't with no action except for two four drops. He killed the first four drop (Elemental Uprising might be underrated; it FORCES a block. Like conditional removal... sort of) and I never really recovered.

Revenge was swift in game two, with a Menacing Kozilek's Shrieker powering through defenses paralyzed by the Immobilizer. He also had a lot of flood, and no answers.  Game three was similar, as I just overwhelmed him with threats.

(2-1)

Match 3

Holy crap! I'm in the finals!?

Facing off against Emily and this bizarre, effective green/white aggro. 

Game one, I curve out, and slam her down to 9 life only to have the big ol' wall come down:
   

That... as they say was that.

Game two was pretty entertaining, as we quickly had a board stall (as Oath is wont to do) Eventually we had this face-off between

 

vs.

 

YOU GET IN THERE DEFIANT BLOODLORD YEAH!!! I was able to gun down her Serene Steward before the +1/+1 counters got out of control. Eventually I topdecked a second source of colorless, and draining for 4 a turn was unstoppable.

Sadly, the rubber match turned out to be an epic tale not worth tellling. Here's the hand

      

Obviously a little light on land but early action and I'm on the draw. I keep. And I don't draw any land for four full turns (whiffing on two land drops). Emily got a solid start and I couldn't catch up.

(1-2)

Overall, I was very pleased with the deck and the games. I felt like it had a chance at the title but wasn't overwhelming. I'm still baffled how I ended up in black with two people on my right also in black, but maybe Hersh moved in on pack 2.

Awards

MVP

No brainer here. This guy turns boards and shuts down pesky 2/3s, 1/4s, etc. WHERE'S YOUR DEFENSE NOW HEINRICH

Overperformer

I admit I was a little surprised here. But a 5/4 menacing attacker does good work with some removal and such.