Draft recap here. Feel free to browse before I jump into my conundrums.
Pack 1 Pick 1
Hey check it out, another mythic common. Pretty easy call here.
This one is a little harder. Great 4 drop in the same color, great removal, and a great land that can provide great card advantage. I feel like the power levels are equal enough where staying in white is a good enough tie-breaker.
The rest of the pack goes pretty clearly white, with two good red cards (Zada's Commando as a good two drop, the Goblin Freerunner to power out some Surge). No other real clear signals, and almost no green.
Pack 2
I grab two quick white playables, and start to have a crisis of confidence in pick 3.Sticking to plan, I grab the flameseeker but I consider those two pretty solid green cards there. Joraga provides great inevitability and I really like the catrip-y fixing of the Oath.
Pick 4
Rattled by seeing a late Legac, and very little red for a few picks now, I take the Legac instead of the Steppe Glider. Absolutely baffling choice by me, no reason to panic there, except maybe I didn't want a second Steppe Glider with only two sources of support at the time.
Pick 5
Those are some good cards. I flip-flop again, grabbing another Flameseeker.
Pick 6
What the hell? Why is there a sixth pick Reality Hemorrhage and *no* other red card. Red that open? But those are three perfectly playable green cards too. I got back to red/white and stick to my guns.
The Jorga Auxiliary wheeled at pick 11. So clearly G/W was wide, wide open. But in pack 3, the Resolute Blademaster was available in pick 7, so it's not like I was fighting for Red/White either.
Final deck:
This is not an ideal red/white deck imo. Ideally you want more Surge cards (boulder Salvos, Freerunners, Chasm Guides) to make having a few 1-drops (and the ever popular Bone Saw) worth it. Get some late support and try to overrun your opponent.
Games
I actually go 2-0 with this deck! I just steamroll my first opponent that had a red/green... something. But my deck worked and constantly put him on the back foot. The second game was a more fun match, as I faced off against a black/blue control deck with Sea Gate Wreckage. First game he had answers for all of my fast threats and ground me down with a Zombie-maker. Second game I overwhelmed him. Third game he puts down three lands and then has three turns of screw. Considering how I had the Perfect Hand (2-3 drop into Relief Captain into Steppe Glider) he didn't really stand a chance.
Sadly I had to drop the third game because MTGO takes a LONG time (it is not faster than IRL) and I'm an old man. Still I was pretty happy with my draft and I like the ability to look over it! Next game I'm going to try and keep track of my mulligan decisions (or lack thereof) as well as a snapshot of the board state at the end of turn 4 as well as a snapshot at game end.
Keeping in mind that I am surely not better at this than you are :-) here are some thoughts on your picks:
ReplyDeletePack 1, pick 2: I don't think Sea Gate Wreckage is so good that I'd really consider it over the other two cards. I also wouldn't look too hard for signals here, though since the card picked from this pack was an uncommon, it's worth considering which uncommon are better than the two uncommon you're considering. Grasp of Darkness seems like the most likely card.
Pack 1, pick 3: Immolating Glare seems like the best card in the pack, and it's in your color. I'd take it over Netcaster Spider here.
Pack 2, pick 3: I think it's pretty likely that someone to your right is in Green and was cutting it in pack 1. And/or possibly that the first pack was light on Green. So it's not very surprising to me that you see a bunch of good Green cards early in pack 2. I think it's good that you stuck to your plan here.
Pack 2, pick 4: I think it's reasonable to take the Lagac here, as you did. I don't think the Glider is a must-have card, and there isn't much else here for you.
Pack 2, pick 6: Most likely pack 2 has been pretty light on Red, and/or this particular pack was stacked with 2 or 3 good Red cards. My guess is there are at least 2 other Red drafters at your table.
Pack 3, pick 1: I think I'd have taken Gideon's Reproach, here. Maybe I am too in love with these 2-cost White removal spells, but they always seem to work out well for me. (Also, I see it ended up wheeling, so what do I know?)
Pack 3, pick 3: Is Lavastep Raider any good? I'd have taken Gideon's Reproach here, too. Or Makindi Sliderunner, which might be better than the Raider in an aggro deck. Also, I think it's clear at this point that you cut White so well in pack 1 that no one to your left is in White!
Thanks for the great feedback! I haven't personally played with the Sea Gate Wreckage but I have been ground down by it a few times before so I figure it was worth a mention.
DeleteLiving the Full Dream in red/white is having a good number of surge cards that can be powered out by one drops & bone saw. I think that's why I grabbed the otherwise aggressively mediocre Lavastep.
Man drafting is nervewracking!
I thought Surge was more of a red/blue thing, while red/white was one of the Ally theme colors?
DeleteI'm skeptical of Surge as a really effective (and consistent) deck - does playing cards that are not really worth a card (like Expedite) worth making some other cards a little cheaper? It doesn't seem as strong as other strategies.
What makes Bone Saw a little more interesting is that it's free, and it's an Equipment (which means it's both persistent, and it enables some equipment capabilities if you can get those). But that's more building around Bone Saw than building around Surge.
And yes, drafting can be very stressful!
Oh I totally agree that U/R is "the surge" deck, and you're getting value from the Pyromancer's Assault and Jori En (god willing). But there are mild synergies in W/R where you lighten your curve, maybe add some of the BFZ one-drops to potentially power out the good red surge cards (Goblins, Boulder Salvo). It's a bit of the twisted cousin of W/G with 1-drops to maximize Support. You definitely wouldn't just throw in an Expedite to surge something out.
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DeleteWelcome to the community Michael. I don't think I've seen you here before.
ReplyDeleteI've been lurking for a while; there are not (or used not to be, when I found you) many blogs with draft rundowns. Seems like it's easier to find time to live vicariously through other peoples' drafts than to draft myself!
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