The Draft
Full draft below, from lower left to upper right:
My first pack had Quicksmith Spy as its rare, and Maverick Thopterist and Treasure Keeper as other top picks. The Spy might be the better card, but I really didn't want to play blue control, and a 2/3 for 4 mana is a bad creature. Thopterist is also totally viable, but I favored staying open with the Treasure Keeper. Next three picks I was rewarded with white removal, and after a couple more white creatures, I found a couple Scrounging Bandars to give me a little direction toward possible green.
Pack 2 gave me a massive rare in the Freejam Regent. It also had a Monstrous Onslaught for green, but I decided if I was going to switch colors, this was the time for it. The rest of Pack 2 looks like an entirely different draft than Pack 1, almost all red (and good red at that) aside from an Sram's Expertise that I was gifted at fourth pick.
My Pack 3 rare was Bristling Hydra, which might have been enough to pull me back into green, but I had so much good red and white that I decided I needed more good cheap artifacts to support my Improvise cards (Freejam Regent and Sweatworks Brawler). I also passed an Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter. The rest of the pack wasn't super exciting, but I drafted a Blooming Marsh to make sure I at least got some dollar value from the draft. There was a drafting error somewhere and I only got 14 cards out of Pack 3, but it didn't really affect me since that would have been a land anyway.
The Deck
I stuck with the deck below for my main deck all night:
After a lot of hemming and hawing over the last few slots, I ended up with this deck, leaving the artifact removal out for the sideboard. I was low on creatures in color so there wasn't much room for utility spells, and I went with only 15 lands (treating my small artifacts as another land or two). I tried to argue for a more aggressive build, but the Regent is too good and I felt like it was worth having artifacts that do nothing but draw a card. They also serve as fuel for Ravenous Intruder.
I didn't dip into the sideboard much. Wrangle and Terror of the Fairgrounds were possibilities if I needed to be more aggressive, Destructive Tampering helps in stalled out games, Decommission and Tampering are both for bomb artifacts, and Alley Evasion and Acrobatic Maneuver might have come in if I was facing enchantment based removal (like my own white removal spells).
The Games
Quickly, if possible.Round 1 I played K, a teen who had a white-red deck with 51 cards. She was a pleasant opponent, but hadn't played Limited in close to a year. I won Game 1 pretty easily, and then Game 2 we both got stuck at 2 lands, but I broke out of it first and it wasn't a contest. 2-0.
Round 2 I played J1, one of the regulars, with white-red-green revolt. He had a Renegade Freighter and self-bounce like Acrobatic Maneuver in Game 1, and I fought through it for a tight win. I sided in my two artifact killers. I lost Game 2, but then Game 3 he got stuck with only Plains, and I won pretty easily. 2-1.
Round 3 I played J2, who also seemed like a good player (he was flicking his cards and had some "REL" habits like saying "Draw for turn"). He was blue-green with fliers and improvise. Game 1 I drew 1 land, then zero, then zero, and I kept my mulligan to 5 with the hope that scrying and Implement of Sacrifice would help me get to lands. It didn't, and I lost horribly (how crazy must your opponent think you when you don't play a Turn 1 land?). I won a well-fought Game 2, and sided in Destructive Tampering for Game 3. I won Game 3, but Tampering was stuck in my hand as all he had were fliers, non-artifact. 2-1.
Now I was in pretty good shape at 3-0. The other two guys at 3-0 took a draw, but I couldn't because I was matched against an opponent who needed a win at 2-0-1.
Round 4 against B. B was in white-black-green energy with a very strong deck. He had been sitting across from me for the draft, and I recognized some of the cards from my passes, particularly a Winding Constrictor. Basically everything he had made energy or +1/+1 counters. His deck turned out to be the perfect counter to mine. In Game 1, I had to decide whether to build my board or use removal first against his Longtusk Cub, Thriving Rhino, etc., and I decided to build my board first. I cast Audacious Infiltrator, Aether Chaser, and got a Servo token, and then he wiped me completely with Foundry Hornet. Second game he did the same to my Sram's Expertise tokens and Audacious Infiltrator, but I was doing a good job putting white enchantment removal on all his creatures (I actually had all 4 in play at the same time). I got a couple of 3/3's out, and he used his extra energy to put 6 +1/+1 counters on his Longtusk Cub (using Constrictor to get double bonus), then he had Monstrous Onslaught to kill my creatures. There was no chance of a comeback. Loss, 0-2.
Round 5 I was able to intentional draw with C to guarantee a slot in the Top 8. I got in a couple other games -- a Standard game where I got crushed by BG Delirium with my budget black Emerge/Recursion deck courtesy of a Kalitas that I couldn't kill, then I played my budget Frontier deck against a Modern Tron deck, and I actually could have maybe won if I had been a little more aggressive (he had a mediocre draw), but it was my first time playing this deck in its current form and I made a lot of strategic mistakes.
Wrap Up
When Top 8 was announced, there was one guy who wanted to play and 7 who were ok splitting, and they convinced him to go ahead and split. Since I was in the Top 4, I got the FNM promo for the month (Servo Exhibition), plus 6 packs of Aether Revolt and $12.50 store credit. I also traded my Blooming Marsh for an Inspiring Vantage, which was what I had hoped to do when I drafted it. So below is my winnings. The cards I drafted were relatively low value, but getting a share of Top 8 pays for it several times over.
Overall, I was 6-4 in games played and 3-1-1 in matches. Considering I lost one game by seeing 3 lands in more than 20 cards (including mulligans), I'm pretty happy with the result. From the draft, I had 3 rares, which is average, and 7 uncommons, which is less than the average 9. I saw a lot of foils and no mythics, and drafted neither.
Sram's Expertise played very well because I had a bunch of 3-drop removal and creatures, and playing it followed by any of those feels very strong. Treasure Keeper also worked well with 3-drops, but I didn't see it as often. All of the removal was great, especially the white ones that don't care how big the targets are. I wasn't sure when I picked it whether switching into red for Freejam Regent was a mistake, but it was powerful whenever I could cast it and it won me a couple games.
Good times, and can't wait for Amonkhet! I look forward to the challenge of learning a new format, but I'll miss some of the fun interactions and low-mana decks of Aether Revolt. AKH looks like it will be a bit slower and have a lot more mana sinks.
I love to hear any comments below!
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