1-7-17 Draft Report: Don't fuck it up

Hello loyal reader!

Drafting down at the Gamma Ray. Pretty entertaining bumping into people getting their caffeine fix at Cherry St. and generally all the chemicals you need to get the ultimate fix: magical cards! Let's bring this KLDx3 season to close with a bang, shall we?

Cliche for a reason

Pack 1 Pick 1... pain train! Well it's a cliche for a reason: it literally fits in any deck imaginable. The real surprise was getting a pick 4 Metallurgic Summonings. With visions of the last LR in my head and Owen exhorting me to "Build a bomb!!" I went for it! My whole LIFE is thunder. The good news is that the blue signal held up, with solid playables flowing through the pack. White was cut really hard after the pick 3 Skywhaler's Shot (that pact was apparently a foil Smuggler's Copter and a mythic Noxious Gearhulk. It also had a Snare Thopter; what a pack)

I think I'm seeing double: eight swords!

Ah the most valuable skill in magic: opening mythic rares. I wasn't wild about it with how cut white felt in P1, but coupled with a top notch removal I felt lie I could go for it. Good thing too, with the Wispweaver following. Also black felt alright, with the p5 Tidy Conclusion. Felt like a nice pack needless to say.

Yeah okay. Fumigate opened, passed the Ancient, then DOUBLE cloudblazer. That's... that's just unbelievably fantastic luck.

So to summarize. I have the following legit, grade-A bombs:
  

The following really really good cards

    

And pretty good supporting cast, though my early drops are a little soft. So if I survive to 5-drops, well, I'm feeling pretty good.

Deck Listing

It felt funny cutting Tezzy's Ambition but my high end was already set. Would have been nice to have a few more good 3/4 instants or sorceries, but I wasn't going to overload my high end even further.

Honestly looking at it, I was a little nervous. There is absolutely no excuse to underperform with this level of card quality. None.

Recap

Game one was against Cameron and he had some bad draws. In the first game he got stuck on 2-land for a while which allowed me to durdle safely into Pain Train & Wispweaver Angel. That'll be plenty to get through. Game two was more of the same until I could assemble the Aethersquall Ancient and infinite energy loop to bounce the board every turn.

Game two against Micah was a little rough. He had a VERY sweet red/green/white energy deck. He put me under some pressure until I was able to stabilize with Cloudblazers and then the Angel of Invention for the coup de grace. The second match had RELENTLESS pressure from him, including a combo I've never seen before.

 

You know, the 2-toughness liability of the Terror is mitigated a great deal when it's being flung in the air at you. Also bouncing his creatures that create more energy is... of limited usefulness.

Game three Micah had to mull down to five which meant he wasn't going to have a lot of answers for the Cloudblazer crewing the Renegade Freighter who is then blunk for more life & cards by the Wispweaver angel. Yes please.

The final match against Sam was fun but both times I assembled the Infinite Energy Combo

  

Three energy on upkeep, cast the turtle and theorist, bounce the board. Attack for six. Recast. Bounce the board. &c &c.

So yeah, finished 3-0 as this deck damn well should have. Whew! It won a lot of different ways: sometimes just bashing in with the pain train and protecting it, sometimes card advantage, one time I had the mill-engine up with the Minister (but killed him before decking him).

Table

Sam
Cameron
Chris
Brent
Peter
Your Hero, Jed
Tom()
Micah  ()

Interesting draft. Funny to see that much white drafting at the table and I'm still squeezing it in as a main color. But I put myself in a position to win, can't ask a great deal more than that I guess.