FNM Draft 2017-05-26

I got to go draft Amonkhet again on Friday.  I think there were 27 drafters, so that meant 3 draft pods of 9 and 5 rounds of Swiss.  Let's break it down!

As usual, the draft runs from bottom left to upper right.

My Pack 1 rare was the weird 5-color land, Cascading Cataracts, and nothing at uncommon seemed right, so I took the unexciting removal to start.  Pick 2 had a great rare in Cut to Ribbons, so that seemed the direction I wanted to go (unfortunately, one of the cards I passed on Pick 1 was a foil of the black-red uncommon minotaur).  Edifice of Authority was a great find at Pick 3.  I tried to find something to draft in red, but I kept coming up empty.  After pack 1, my draft looked like a mess, but I had seeds to go strong in black, white, or red.

My Pack 2 rare was Anointed Procession, which didn't fit with anything I had drafted yet, so I went with the Cartouche instead.  Then I met a string of excellent black cards, including the Trial to go with my two Cartouches.  Black continued to deliver, and I was still wide open for my second color (or near-mono black) going into the third pack.

Pack 3 I finally opened a good rare, Oketra the True.  Along with the two Binding Mummies, this pushed me into WB zombies.  I snagged the WB Wayward Servant, another Cartouche, Trial, and Binding Mummy, and a really late Fan Bearer.  7 picks in, I took a foil Anointed Procession, which looks to be a good enough Commander card that I expect the foil copy to retain some long-term value.

This was a tough draft, and I was worried I'd be stuck with a pile of mildly synergistic 3-drops, but Pack 3 really bailed me out.  Several cards I remember seeing that I wish I had drafted were Blighted Bat, Tah-Crop Elite, Horror of the Broken Lands, Wander in Death, and Gravedigger.  I don't remember now what I took instead, but some were casualties of my attempt to go lower on curve.

Here are my starting main deck and sleeved sideboard.

I felt pretty good about the main deck, and although my creature count was low, I had a ton of removal to make up for it.  I went with the low-curve 16-land build, thinking I could use mummy synergies and removal to break through combat enough to win games.

As I played more games, I realized two problems with the main deck.  First, Compulsory Rest is a nonbo with Trial of Ambition.  Second, my games were dragging out and I didn't have a good finisher, which led to me getting overrun by larger creatures.  I improved the first problem by eventually adding Splendid Agony and then Final Reward in place of Rest.  This was definitely the correct choice.  For the second problem, Ribbons would have been a huge boon to my deck as a finisher, but I couldn't make a good enough case for splashing Cut without going up lands, and I only had Miasmic Mummy and (horribly) Unburden as discard enablers.  In Oketra's Name probably belonged in as well, maybe in place of Pitiless Vizier, who did very little for me.  I also realized after dissecting the deck that my Supply Caravan would have been a good addition as a late-game blocker, but I didn't even have it sleeved so I forgot about it.

Round 1 was against A, a store employee and strong player, who was also in white-black, but more of an embalm deck with Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun splashed.  In Game 1, I drew no swamps and put up a little bit of a fight before fizzling out.  In Game 2, I had a lot of my better cards, and I got up to 29 life with him at 3, but he built up a barricade that I couldn't get through, and he slowly whittled me down with tokens that were unblockable thanks to Temmet.  I made a tactical error when I cast my Miasmic mummy with 2 cards left in hand, knowing that he had a Miasmic Mummy also because he had returned it to his hand.  I discarded a land and held Oketra, and he cast his Mummy the next turn and made me discard Oketra.  Loss, 0-2.

Round 2 was against J, who had a wild black-red deck that was playing a drain plan of having 5 copies of Trespasser's Curse and at least one Bontu's Monument.  In Game 1, it worked out very well, and he curved Bontu's Monument on Turn 3 into two Lords of the Accursed on Turn 4.  In Games 2 and 3, my deck worked much better, and I won fairly smooth if somewhat drawn out games, barely finishing before time was called. Win, 2-1.

Round 3 was against M, an experienced but also free-spirited player, who was in white-blue with a bunch of Slither Blades and Cartouche of Solidarity.  He had been next to me in the draft, and he passed me Cut // Ribbons in order to first pick Aven Wind Guide (the WU uncommon) just to try something different.  In Game 1, he got his snake/Cartouche plan going, and I found out just how bad Trial of Ambition can be when your opponent is making a lot of 1/1 token creatures.  Game 2 I flooded the board with Binding Mummies and made it impossible for him to block.  Game 3, I got up to 29 life and put him into single digits, but he mounted a slow comeback with a series of big serpents and 3/3 fliers.  We went to turns, and he had the definite advantage but I was able to stave off his horde long enough to get the draw.  Draw, 1-1-1.

Round 4 was against C, a very good player who is also a judge.  I can't always tell how much he's playing mind games and how much he's just a little bit obsessive -- he does odd things like not look at his own cards on the draw until I've decided whether to keep, and he always calls his own decks "bad."  He also makes bold statements about what I'm about to do based on my actions and facial expression, and he's often right.  This time he had white-green good stuff with no obvious theme.  In Game 1, I rode my lifelinkers up to 42 life and knocked him down to 3 as he was stuck on lands and had to discard several times, and then, with a lot of help from Oketra's Monument making 1/1s that made my Trials bad and bogged down my attackers, he slowly worked me down and won the game.  In game 2 he mulliganed down to 5 and I punished him with Unburden and matched his creatures with removal, and I was able to win easily.  Game 3 was intense, and I got off to a good start before he dropped a Crocodile of the Crossing next to Hooded Brawler and attacked me for 10.  We reached a stalemate situation where each of us had a Fan Bearer, and I put out Oketra with a Cartouche as well as Edifice of Authority to get what looked like a good advantage, but he held me back and kept throwing good shots my way.  I was stuck on 5 lands and never out of things to spend it on between cards in hand, Oketra, and my two tappers.  On a night of great marathon games this was the most mentally taxing game of all, and in the end I lost while a couple of other regulars watched us play.  Loss, 1-2.

After the game, C and the other two regulars gave me some thoughts about things I could have done differently.  As an aside, one of the hardest things to do as a human is to try your best, fail, and then openly accept criticism.  I often see players in that situation rebut the things that the observers say, and come up with justifications for making the wrong play.  But as much as I was tempted to do that, I did my best to listen and learn instead.  One person noted that I missed an opportunity to attack with a 4/7 lifelinked Oketra (not hitting the opponent but killing something and gaining 8 life), and while I don't exactly remember it, I do think it's plausible because with a Fan Bearer on each side I was having a hard time keeping track of when Oketra could make a move.

The other observer mentioned that I shouldn't have blocked a 2/2 with Wayward Servant and Sacred Cat (trading the 2/2s and keeping the Cat, which I was using as In Oketra's Name insurance and to gain 1 life).  Instead, I should have chump blocked with just the Cat, then embalmed it the next turn to get the ETB effect from Wayward Servant.  He was completely right.  I hate giving away something for nothing, but I think I make a mistake of trading (especially 2 for 1, although that didn't come up here) sometimes when it would be actually better to lose 1 creature for nothing.  Identifying when a chump block is better than a disadvantageous trade is something I need to work on.  In this particular case, the fact that Oketra is only useful with 3 other creatures in play made it even more complicated.

I think this is the case that shows where Limited can be more difficult than Constructed play.  In Constructed, you become familiar with your deck, your best play patterns, and common opposing play patterns for your particular format.  But in Limited, every set release and even every individual event brings new challenges, and practice is necessary to learn just the basic patterns of a set so that you can focus on the more unusual interactions that come up.

In any case, I dropped at 1-2-1 after the fourth round, with a game record of 4-6-1.  I also had four separate games that would have been the most amazing marathon game on a normal night, finishing in three losses and a tie.  I feel like my draft was very good, but my deck building could have been better and my in-game mistakes cost me a chance at a much better finish.

So, aside from a lot of lessons, what else did we walk away with?  Foil Anointed Procession is about $8, with potential to be a Commander and casual staple, so I expect long term value of at least a few dollars.  Cut // Ribbons and Lord of the Accursed are in the $1 range for Standard play, and the Lord should remain popular for casual formats but probably without retaining much value.  Oketra the True has gradually slid down under $3 as it becomes apparent that it doesn't have a competitive Standard deck, but it is again a good EDH/casual card.  This copy was immediately added to my Soulflayer sideboard.

All in all, another great night of Amonkhet draft, and I am happy to go even when I don't get everything right.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any comments.

Nate