MTGO Draft 5-28-17

Well you know I've caught the bug when I'm drafting online again. I really do love the leagues. I know everybody says that. But I really love the leagues.

Here's the draft! Feel free to take a look now or check out
http://draftsignals.com/draft/-KlLfoTTW-coFbKqYOSz

Interesting Picks

Pack One

Pick 1
  

Mouth to Feed is a perfectly solid value play and Decimator Beetle is pretty much the reason to be in Black/Green, but neither really hold a candle to the instant-speed, nearly unconditional removal of cast out.

5-28-17 draft report: the ramp to nowhere.

Six-man draft pod with Chris, Sam, and some of the other NIRD/Gamma Ray renegades. The exciting news was that Drew flat-out won the PPTQ earlier that day so, being the kind, supportive people we are, we spent a majority of the draft whispering, "omg I can't believe I'm playing against a PPTQ winner" and "If I take a game off the PPTQ winner do I get his crown?"

Maybe it was the 'you had to be there' kind of funny. Regardless! We draft!

Poorly thought-out constructed decks

It's Johnny time people! Sure you could netdeck some mardu vehicle nonsense and win games. But let's be honest, if that's what you were into (winning), you wouldn't be reading this. No, with all due respect to my court-assigned therapist, we're going to delve the murky depths of Jed's mind and come up with...



A trash common that doesn't even make the cut in 99% of draft and sealed decks. Keep calm and make it work!

Amonkhet Draft, v0.1 5-2-17

Drafting with the NIRD Wednesday night group on a Tuesday as we wander for a new home (RIP Nird collective) like the Israelites in the desert. What's that? Sam has a totally awesome common area in his condo that has a fridge and an eight person table? Truly our long nightmare has finally come to an end.

Now let's crack them packs!

Yeah that's a "My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic" playmat. I'll fight you.

Amonkhet token time!

It's token preview time your one stop shop for ALL your obsessive token "needs". Amonkhet looks pretty goddamn sweet when it comes to tokens because we have CREATURE SPECIFIC tokens with the embalm mechanic!

 

How freaking rad is that? There are boatloads of Embalm creatures at all rarities, so I expect a vast majority of token cards will fill in those blanks. This is good because the relatively few 'classic tokens' are all pretty much fucked one way or another. Beasts are 4/2, not 3/3. A Wurm is 5/5 but lacks trample, insects are black instead of green, &c &c. So there are very few Perfect Fits if you want to show off some old tokens. But there are some near fits.

Pre-release report! Amonkhet 4-22-17

It's the happiest day of the year! Pre-release day! Everyone is confused, getting flabberghasted by bizarre cards and grossly ridiculous combos. I'm at the Gamma Ray with Rob and many of the other regulars as we crack them open.

On Limited Resources 382, co-founder Ryan Spain came on and talked about a bunch of stuff but one thing in particular caught my eye, errr, ear. When assembling a sealed deck, keep your rares secret from yourself. It's very easy to get seduced by a powerhouse rare rather than building the best possible deck of 40. So I tried to do that with the pre-release! When opening packs, I removed the last three cards (token, land, rare) and just sorted the commons & uncommons into Awesome, Playable, Garbage/Sideboard.

My green did not have nearly enough playables. My red & blue were alright, but I was pretty clearly pulled into a Black/White zombies tribal deck.

   

4/15/17 Draft Report: Going out with a bang

Last draft of Kaladesh folks! Down at ye old Gamma Ray in a 10 man pod with many of the regulars. Let's crack some packs!



P1P1 is a pretty easy Quicksmith Rebel. Reusable removal? Yes please. I get a pick 2 Narnam Renegade and generally stay in a R/G lane. A pick 6 Lifecraft Cavalry makes me think green is open, but a lot really dries up fast. Humorously, I end up with two Efficient Constructions (spit out a thopter for each artifact you cast) I know it's a bad build around but maaaaybe. Just maaaaaybe...

P2p1 is an even easier Aethersphere Harvester. I liked drafting Kaladesh a lot but I will not miss the 'duh' vehicles that go in literally any desk. I snipe a Bandar and a late Scrapper Champion but generally stay in red most of the deck. I still feel pretty nicely straddled between blue & green for my second color. I'm hoping for some fixing so I can say "both".

P3p1. Well I shouldn't be in green but opening a Verdurous Gearhulk certainly justifies it, HMMM. There is literally no green in picks 3 & 4, so I definitely somewhat misread that earlier signal. Still, I get bailed out with some late artifact creatures and gremlins.

Poor drafting (these are literally every single one of my playables) but absurdly high card quality. 10 solid artifacts, I went 16 lands with the four implements/map. Great high end and a good path to get there; feels good. I 3-0ed pretty easily (but lost to Chris in the unofficial real finals when he murdered me with a swift air force and I couldn't get an artifact to get my Quicksmith online). I did make it hard on myself, in game 1 I forgot to put in the islands (and I drew the Maverick Thopterist in my opening hand) I eked it out but was tilted the whole game. I also had a sweet moment when my first two turns consisted of dropping just 1-mana implements. Then on turn 3 I play a land, tap three artifacts, and slam in with an Enraged Giant (4/4 haste/trample).

A good way to end Kaladesh, very fun, very aggressive layout. Definitely excited for Amonkhet.