Draft Report: 3-5-16. When it's the deck you don't expect

Drafting at the Gamma Ray!

Super crowded today, which is always fun to see. I think they had four full pods running. as always, bottom left is Pack 1 Pick 1, going up and right (so Weapon Trainer was P1P6, Makindi Aeronaut P1P11)

Pack 1

As you can see, I kind of flailed around in pack 1 for the first few picks, trying to see what was flowing to me. But the pick 7 Ondu War Cleric (one of the best 2 drops in the set) swung me pretty convincingly to white and I was paid out by a super confusing THREE Makindi Aeronauts in a row. In the last four picks! Also, it's a little blurry, but there was a pick 10 Joraga Auxiliary which makes me think that white/green is totally uncontested.

Pack 2

Aside from opening a Saddleback, I don't see a lot of green. In fact, I start to have a crisis of confidence when I see a sixth pick boulder salvo. But a quick Joraga and Lead by Example set me back on track. I feel pretty good about my curve but I'm worried about my spells. And a near total lack of removal. Oh the Needle Spires was for my land collection because there was jack-all else in the pack.

The 9th pick Jori En was a goofy pick. Here's the pack:

So... you're saying that no one is in the surge deck I guess?

Pack 3

I crack a pretty decent B rare (4 to summon 4/4 vigilance & trample is no joke). I took it over a Gideon's Reproach which I still stand by.

Deck

One Drop

 

Two Drop

    

Three

   

Four

   

Five+

   

Spells

   

Land

 x10  x7

Sideboard of Note

    

Draft Position

Andreas:  
Joe:  
Dale:  
ME:  
Chris:  
Ryan: 
???;  

I remain slightly baffled how we ended up four green drafters in a row. White was clearly the right choice for me (confirmed by the three Aeronauts in a row) but I could tell I just couldn't find a second color. I thought I would have seen more red, but clearly didn't.

Results

I navigated this to 2-1. I lost to a red/green aggro deck that just had all the really good red/green aggro cards. I compiled this with a misplay of trying to out-aggro him on tempo. I got caught up with the idea of the white/green weenie-support overrun deck but that wasn't what I had. I clearly had a control-ish, get some fliers and use Joraga Auxiliary to make my creatures unstoppable and win the game. As such, I probably should have dropped the two 1/1 fliers (though they did decent work on a few sweet curve-outs) and one of the mighty leap. In exchange put in the Angel & Sentinel and an extra land. The Pulse of Murasa is also probably worth considering for similar reasons.

The lesson learned is to always look at your deck and make sure you know what *it* wants to do. Yes, the sweet-support weenie curve out deck is sweet but there are other decks that can work in white/green. Like my slow, burly deck. That's why we love this game when we don't hate it.