Flample! 10-29-16 Draft Report

Greetings loyal reader. Your intrepid hero drafted yesterday at a very goofy (though fun) 10 person pod at the Gamma Ray. 10 person pods are always kind of a mess but at least you don't have to worry about the wheel since nothing ever will.

Pack 1

Pack 1 was a poster child in staying open. Taking back-to-back Ovalchase Dragsters did not feel great but I swear to you there was nothing else. A perk up at a pick 4 Shrewd Negotiation (awesome with fabricate), grin at back to back Self-Assemblers (sadly a third never emerged). The Tidy Conclusion at pick 7 blew my mind but that would be the last black I saw for a bit. The late Thriving Turtle, Peafowl and Innovator, all decent playables, makes me think that blue is the most open. I also had high hopes for some black on the pack 2 since nothing was passed. Maybe I could move in!

Pack 2

At some point there is such a thing as TOO open, but saying 'no' to Renegade Freighter isn't it. I speculate on a Contraband Kingpin but that was the last black I ever saw. Green however opened up nicely, a *very* late Attune, Thriving Rhino, all good stuff. I feel a little more pot-committed to the energy deck.

Pack 3

Start your engines! I'm passed a pick 3 Confiscation Coup, which is a pretty sweet deal. The Empyreal Voyager fell to my pick 5 which was beyond fantastic, mostly because it gave me an excuse to say the word "Flample" over and over again. Finally, the ridiculous openness of blue was driving home with a late Glimmer of Genius (basically a four-mana draw three with some bonus energy tacked on) and an Era of Innovation.

I couldn't get the whole table, but here were my neighbors.

Ziad

Colin

Chris

Your Hero, Jed

Scott

Chris

That's what I call finding my lane! Though, oddly, me and Chris both accused each other of taking all the Gear Seeker Serpents but neither of us even saw one. Now that's just strange.


Tapped out Decklist

Sideboard

  

Didn't do a lot of sideboarding. occasionally I took out the Confiscation Coup when facing a low-to-the-ground go-wide deck or put in Select for Inspection against an aggro deck.

This deck was an absolute BLAST to pilot, one of the most fun I've had with a limited deck. What was striking about it was that each game was a little different. In one game I landed an early Thriving Turtle. But I kept drawing/playing energy cards to where I successfully grew it to a 3/6 final form. Other games I stalled the board state until I could get some card advantage with Era of innovation, scrying away lands (learned to call it "tucked" when placed on the bottom), and such like. There really was no MVP because it was so combo dependant. Sometimes I would be an aggro deck, sometimes laying back. But having so much energy (11-12 sources depending on how you count Era of Innovation and Aether Hub) leant it a great deal of flexibility.

I loved running 16 lands with the two Attune to Aether functioning as extra land/smoothing. Also the one combat trick

I ended up going 2-1, losing to Chris's full playset of Welding Sparks and black/red beats.

 

Those are two great tastes that taste great together. Oy. Fortunately I rallied from that to finish strong.