Draft last night

Here is my deck from last night; I think it is pretty good, but it was a multi-pod draft and I lost twice to a B/w Allies deck that almost always played lots of black creatures vs. me...

Vampire Lacerator
Goblin Bushwacker
2 Surrakar Marauder
Plated Geopede
Goblin Shortcutter
2 Ruinous Minotaur
Bladetusk Boar
Shatterskull Giant
Heartstabber Mosquito
Geyser Glider

2 Explorer's Scope
Burst Lightning
2 Zektar Shrine Expedition
Grim Discovery
Marsh Casualties
3 Hideous End
Inferno Trap

Relevant SB cards: Magma Rift, Slaughter Cry (main?), Demolish, Crypt Ripper (wanted to reduce my black reliance, and have LOTS of RR spells)

I killed one of my opponents on t5 both games, as well as killing an opponent who went t2 Tern, t3 Raptor, t4 Tsunami...then he died.

I basically lost to infinite Scorpions and very average-below average draws. I died one game holding 3 Hideous Ends and a Marsh Casualties, with 7 lands (1 swamp) and an opposing board of black 2/2s.

I also passed a p1p1 Luminarch Ascension for a Burst Lightning. I'm convinced that this was the correct pick, as this format is SO fast that Ascension just isn't worth hoping to draw it and trying to defend it. Am I wrong? I basically drafted:

p1p1: Burst Lightning
p1p2: Hideous End
p1p3: Hideous End
p1p4: Ruinous Minotaur (weak pack)
p1p5: Geyser Glider

and was in R/B.

-AA

3 hideous end is awesome

playing against black with 3 hideous end... not so much

good looking RB deck, you seem to have all the usual RB suspects in there save for the nighthawk and the gatekeeper.
(speaking of which, at the PTQ last week i was watching my friend Ted draft since he is one of the better players i know [he top 8'ed the Philly Type 2 PTQ with his vampire deck] and 1st pack 1st pick he keeps gatekeeper, then p1p2 he gets passed a nighthawk... Pack 2 pick 1 he opens and keeps gatekeeper, then p2p2 he gets passed...a nighthawk! he and i both laughed out loud, i couldnt help it -that was just sick, but the guy to his right gave me the evil eye, so i walked away)

Everyone around me has been dissing Zektar Shrine... is it just one of those cards everyone likes to hate on?
I mean, either you have an answer for it, or you dont, right?

Speaking of which, an opponent a few weeks ago tried to tanglesap my Zektar and i shook my finger like "no-no-no" and he got PISSED. ha

Someone (maybe LSV) recently said that Disfigure is a definite pick above Hideous End, I imagine because Disfigure doesn't get the black cockblock. I think that came out wrong. In any case, it's open to debate, because I personally like to kill my opponents' creatures with toughness over 2.

And Tanglesap for the double loss...

One for playing it against a trampler. Two for playing it... period!

This seems like a good enough place to brag about, I mean list the deck I ended up with tonight. I don't think I had anything noteworthy in the unused pile.

2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Vampire Lacerator
2 Guul Draz Vampire
2 Welkin Tern
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Crypt Ripper
Hagra Crocodile
Umara Raptor
Aether Figment
Hedron Crab
Nimana Sell-Sword

3 Hideous End
Quest for the Gravelord
Into the Roil
Whiplash Trap
Grim Discovery
Ior Ruin Expedition
Jwar Isle Refuge

It ended up working quite well. Won the first two rounds, drew the third for the split (though we played one game for the hell of it, which I won quite handedly). The only game I lost was due to a bit of land flood in the second round.

Out of my packs for splitting, I ended up getting:
Marsh Flats
Arid Mesa
Armament Master
Guul Draz Specter
Hellkite Charger
Sadistic Sacrament
and a foil Plains.
I think it was worth it.

Your deck was disgusting.

Here was my deck:

Expedition Map
Trusty Machete
Hedron Crab
Spell Pierce
2 Oran-Rief Survivalist
Welkin Tern
2 Umara Raptor
Oran-Rief Recluse
Reckless Scholar
2 Cancel
Paralyzing Grasp
3 Stonework Puma
Living Tsunami
Windrider Eel
Sea Gate Loremaster
Sphinx of Lost Truths
Sky Ruin Drake
Sphinx of Jwar Isle


Mine was serviceable, and although i had nearly no removal i was fairly confident it could do well.
Oddly enough i saw not 1 into the roil or whiplash trap which i assumed i would. That through me off as i thought i could go mono blue if those had found their way to me.

I lost game 1 to a play mistake. We were both at 5 after i swung with my Sphinx of Jwar isle and I had trusty machete on welkin tern to block his ruinous minotaur for what i thought was the win the next turn, failing to read or remember the tern cant block ground creatures. FAIL.
Game 2 i drew 7, then mulled a hand that had decent land but all 4+ drops and my opponents deck was fast.
I drew 6, no land
I drew 5, no land
I drew 4 and drew Forest, Island, Welkin Tern, Oran-Rief Survivalist. The game lasted much longer than it should have, but i made a game of it all things considered.

I played the guy who drafted to my left round 2 and after thinking about it, i honestly believe he probably cheated to some degree in his deck build.
P1p1 i opened and kept Sphinx of Jwar Isle
P1p2 i took Living Tsunami
and so on and so forth, taking nearly mono blue the entire 1st pack.
P2 i dont recall being short on blue coming my way, i continued to draft decent blue along with whatever else was playable, unsure what i would splash if anything.
P3 i opened the other Sphinx and was getting passed more blue still...

So i sit down to play my opponent and i open a hand with the crab. I play it and mill nearly 2/3rds of his deck so i saw a good portion of it. It was nearly mono blue also. How the fuck that was possible i have no idea. There was nothing tremendous in his blue, but he had ALOT and i have no idea how he could have really unless he drafted 14 straight blue cards in the second pack, but why would he after i completely cut him off?
Eh, whatever, my deck played slow round 2, my allies did not activate whatsoever, and i couldnt find an answer for adventuring gear on Baloth Woodcrasher that dealt 11trampling 2 turns in a row.

Round 3 i was paired with Linnea who starts game 1 by play 2 turn Lotus Cobra then drops a Misty Rainforest. Talk about getting your money back in the draft. Yikes. Anyway, my deck finally worked and i served allies turns 2 and 3, paralyzed her cobra, then sat back on 2 cancels in hand for whatever she tried to play while i kept dropping 3 mana allies.
Game 2 i got both sphinxes out, it was win.

Meh, i enjoyed what i drafted and played, but just wish i had seen ANY removal.

So my draft was kind of weird, but it did turn out alright in the end.

Deck
2 trusty machete
1 soul stair expedition
1 surrakar marauder
1 ior ruin expedition
1 bloodseeker
3 welkin terns
1 merfolk wayfinder
1 giant scorpion
1 hagra croc
2 windrider eel
1 into the roil
1 nimana sell sword
1 crypt ripper
4 whiplash traps
1 roil elemental

1 soaring seacliff
1 jwar island refuge

I started the draft with pick 1 and 2 trusty machete. The next 4 pick were feast of blood, goblin shortcutter, welkin tern, and giant scorpion. I knew that I was sending decent signals that white was open, and I noticed that I wasnt getting any green my way, but none of the other 3 colors had good signals. I then got passed 3 whiplash traps and a welkin tern that actually tabled to me. I guess blue was my color. I was definately short on creatures of any kind though.

Second pack first pick was an absolute chokeslam of a Foil Scalding Tarn. Woot, I win. I just dont care anymore. Pick 2 is an absolute garbage pack, oh wait, the rare is still here, oh wait, its a freaking Day of Judgement. I win again. I can die happy. I was really suprised to see it also, because of the obvious white signals I was sending left. The guy turned out to be a pretty bad drafter though. Pick 3 wasnt much and all I got were a few more decent blue cards and shitty black creatures. My deck was looking really weak, with just the whiplash traps going for it.

Pack 3 had a hideous end and a mindbreak trap in it. Hideous was obviously the pick, but I wasnt confidant in the deck, and just decided on an extra couple bucks. I did get 2 windrider eels in this pack along with the roil elemental. The deck turned out better than I thought, but did have weaknesses.

I won round 1 off of 2 amazing hands. Game 1 was Island, Island, Swamp, Trusty Machete, Welkin tern, Welking tern, Surrakar Maurader. He died on turn 6 after a bounce spell. Game 2 involved more 2 drops and both trusty machetes.

I lost round 2 to the winner of the tourney. He was 2 seats to my right, and drafted R/b. I lost a close game 1 because he had cheap red removal spells for my early guys and my curve is too high to keep up with his cheap creatures. Game 2 I won off of trusy machete on cheap guys. He didnt have any removal this game. Game 3 he outtempoed me, and also had the cheap removal for my early welkin tern. I also mulled to 5 this game. If I had the extra cards I might have pulled it out.

I won round 3 in 3 good games, with a lot of racing. My early beats against his big green guys that could kill me in one turn. The hardest part was that he had kor hookmaster with 2 adventuring gear on it. I had to bounce the master a couple times, and that gave him time to get his big guys into play. I won game 3 because he didnt have the 2nd harrow to pump his landfall guys.

The deck was fun, and I obviously made money, so it was a pretty good night. The deck really only had a chance when it had a machete with 2-3 2 drops. If I ever fell behind, I couldnt really catch up, because everyone knows about whiplash trap and plays around it. Paying 5 to bounce two cheap creatures isnt a huge tempo swing unless I have my own creatures out.

last night's deck...

Pretty ridiculous, i blame the guy to my right with not knowing the game/set very well.

2 Guul Draz Vampire
Quest for the Gravelord
Trusty Machete
Blazing Torch
Disfigure
Marsh Casulaties
Gatekeeper
Luminarch Ascension
Kor Aeronaut (never drew it)
Kor Skyfisher
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Narrow Escape
2 Kor Sanctifiers
Pitfall Trap
Hideous End (never drew it once)
Vampire Nighthawk
Heartstabber Mosquito
Shepherd of the Lost
Malakir Bloodwitch
Piranha Marsh
8 Plains
8 Swamps

i went 2-0 in an 8 man pod, then the other 2-0 guy and i decided to split, but play 1 round to decide who got the higher end of a 60-40 split (store credit was the prize).

He won game 1, then we played another and i crushed, so we played the 3rd and he won outright when that flying 5/5 red thing hit the board, -although had i just drawn swamp number 2 early enough it would have been curtains for sure as i drew the ridiculousness of Bloodwitch, Gatekeeper, Nighthawk, Gul Draz, Swamp, Plains, Plains... but didnt draw Swamp #2 until turn 5 or 6.

Notable plays:
In round 2 game 1 went:
Turn 1 Quest for the Gravelord, Turn 2 Luminarch Ascension, Turn 3 Nighthawk, Turn 4 Journey to Nowhere his Gomazoa, Turn 5 Bloodwitch and he scooped. I had only done like 4 damage at that point hahaha.
Several times i busted out both Journeys early and my opponents gave me the eye like "are you sure?" only to realize i had 3 ways to put them back in my hand and replay them.

Your deck was outrageous. I like how you picked mine up, and said "wow, you and I had the same idea." Then when I looked through yours, you had every bomb I was missing, as well as every one I had. Yeah, we had the same idea... shame only one of us followed through on that...

I unfortunately went 1-2 last night, losing out in the 3rd round for a possible 2nd place to Glazing Gladeharts and Conqueror's Pledge. His deck didn't have any removal, he just played a shit-ton of creatures, and my deck didn't give me any of my really crazy starts.

Best plays of the night have to be T3 swinging with a landfall enabled Plated Geopeed and a kicked Bushwhacker to hit for 6. Worse would be using Spire Barrage to kill a Welkin Tern.

Fun night though, I just wish I had done a bit better. Also, getting a Nissa Revane with no Nissa's Chosen sucks...

redxxii wrote:Glazing Gladeharts

Jimglish strikes again

intrinsic wrote:

redxxii wrote:Glazing Gladeharts

Jimglish strikes again

ahhh, i think that's actually Jimgrish

redxxii wrote:Glazing Gladeharts

I'm imagining them sitting around saying "Time to make the doughnuts..."