Pauper IMA draft 1/4/18

To be filed under "I'm just really bad at Magic" I did an IMA draft with the Super Happy Funtime Draft Friends. 10 person pod, so always a little random. The draft just feels absolutely miserable. I feel like I'm forcing U/R spells-matter deck but it's not there, neither does it appear that there is anything else. I get some support in pack 2 but then it vanishes again. I'm getting all ready to blame Helen for ruining my ability to think and then I lay this out:

It was nasty. Let's review the key pieces:

Or more accurately:

    

That's a lot of fiending kilns. 5 is pretty much expecting to see one in every opening hand. Natural hunting partner:

I chronically underrate this card. While drafting, I was not happy taking these as my main spell as I thought them too expensive. But how it really functions is that it taps down a blocker for one turn, next turn it neutralizing *two* blockers, and the turn after that, back down to one blocker. Combining that with any sort of 'spells matter' sub-theme triggering twice, and you got some spice.

This deck was capable of some filthy openings. Kiln Fiend, Kiln Fiend, Ojutai's Breath their 3/4 drop, smack for 8. Smack for 8 again on the rebound. Or my favorite: Kiln Fiend, Ojutai's Breath, to a turn-4 Illusory Angel. Guttersnipe with any sort of rebound just added up to a ton of damage. Two Tormenting Voices felt great: ditch a land and draw more sauce and trigger the team

About the only part I wasn't wild about were the bounce-lands. I kept hearing LSV et al. rave about how they are practically card advantage and I think that's true... when you're a slow control deck. They never really punished me, I could reliably bounce a tapped land since my entire curve is 2 & 3 drops, but they never really brought a lot to the table. 

I managed to go 3-0 with this deck. I steamrolled Dave's U/B quasi-mill deck and then ran into Chris's very good U/W spells matter deck. Each game came down to the last few points of life: he would furiously churn through his deck and try to stabilize with walls, Guard Duty, Student of Ojutai, etc. while I battered away. I eventually triumphed in three games, but it was very close. Then more U/W nonsense against Sam in the finals, though he was more spell-oriented with a Great Teacher's Decree (Inspiring Charge w/ Rebound). I took a game, he alpha-strike'd me with GTD in game 2 and then game three I'm building my forces on the front foot and he... attacks me with his team. I take five damage and then fearlessly crack him back. A classic example of not tracking "who is the beat down" I assure you, the guy with the two Kiln Fiends and the Guttersnipe is the beatdown.