Magicanotes Draft #4: to boldly go where no casual has gone before (8-1-17)

http://draftsignals.com/draft/-KqVYrQ4ftGcpqzqEO_L

Let's break it down!

Pack 1

Pick 1

 



Cracked a mythic. Certainly not the most powerful of mythics, it's still respectable. 6 mana 4/4 flying draw 2 cards (or 1 really good one) would definitely be a B+. Ambuscade is seriously good removal but I don't think it's as good as something that demands removal.

Pick 2

 
Hoo, baby, I don't know. I don't think I'm ready for the Imminent Doom challenge. I respect it, and the most recent Limited Resources did make a good case for 'build a bomb' (just need a good set of one-drops to turn it on) but I dunno. The unsummon of Consign to Oblivion is a little safer.

Pick 3

 
Here I make my first mistake. Open Fire is definitely better than Unquenchable thirst. But I do already have two cards in blue and it's not SO much better that it's worth veering into another color. I should have taken the Thirst.

Pick 4

  

The gold card is great but we're clearly a million miles away from it. I take the Desert. I've noticed deserts are going earlier and earlier.

Pick 5

  

Here I feel I do make the right pick. The Spellweaver eternal is a fine aggressive 2-drop and the Frontline Devastator is a good 4-drop but I think the removal of Sandblast is significantly better that it might be a sign that white is open. So I take that.

I finish pack 1 with some good blue and some black cycling payouts. I'm able to stay in this track and get some good payouts (Bontu's last Reckoning for a sweeper etc.) I think that there was a medium UR spells deck open which is a shame that I missed that.

To summarize, I sort of backed into UB mill deck, mostly as an experiment. Is it a thing? I think I let a mediocre UR spells deck go by but all in the name of science!

Round 1

Facing a red/white aggro deck with a special guest star!



Uh, I get that it's a one-drop but that's not really where you want to be. It's a mediocre deck that didn't really have answers for my huge fliers and I win pretty easily.

Okay, not going to lie. Had a baby (welcome Helen!) a few days ago so I'm just going to throw up these recaps. Check out the sweet sweet top-deck in round 3 to salvage the game.

Round 2

Round 3

Hyperspeed Summary

Short version, the mill deck is not a thing. Because the common miller requires a card discard (unlike the energy from the Minister of Inquiries). So drawing multiples doesn't help you at all. If it read "Each time you cycle or discard a card, target player mills 3 cards" then that would be a thing. However there are some very real cycling synergies. I think they require bomb rares mostly.

 

These are great examples that you mill aggressively early and get your payoff and then churn out 4/4 zombies. There are other minor synergies that no one else cares about that you'll be able to get. So it's an archetype that exists but not one you can make work with commons and uncommons and being in the right seat. It has real power but needs some foundation rares to make work.

I was also surprised by how much work Sacred Excavation did.


a four-mana draw-two card is obviously not great, especially at sorcery speed. But guaranteeing to draw two cards that you know you want *is* pretty good. Makes it easy to cycle aggressively early.