Lets get right to it. Draft is from bottom left to top right.
First pick was pretty easy, I thought. My rare was Endless Sands. Ominous Sphinx was a pretty easy second pick also. The third pack seemed pretty bad, so I went into deserts early. I have had trouble drafting deserts, so I made an effort to get them this time, and it worked out pretty well. After the red desert, I was totally open to changing colors, but I kept getting white and blue cards that were as good or better than everything else, so I drafted almost nothing else.
Second pack I forget what the rare was -- I know I saw Leave // Chance, Ramunap Excavator, and maybe Hazoret's Undying Fury in these packs, so it must have been one of those. Anyhow, Spellweaver Eternal is pretty sweet and I was doing my best to support it with good spells. Ipnu Rivulet is not an effect I needed, but I was high on deserts and I was rewarded with Unquenchable Thirst in the next pack. Scavenger Grounds was undoubtedly not the correct pick at #4 here, but I want it for Standard and it is a desert, so I reached.
Third pack I was torn between something aggressive and the Oracle's Vault, and I decided the Vault was powerful enough that I'd rather have the potential value. I was lucky enough to have two good white-blue cards come to me in Aven Wind Guide and Temmet, but I never had enough tokens to support their theme (Temmet of course can support his own theme).
I was generally happy with my draft. I think I was in the right colors, because I saw good cards throughout. There was nothing truly amazing, but many of the cards are high enough quality and I got a good curve.
Here is my base deck:
The deck was nothing terribly synergistic, more like a normal midrange deck where many of the creatures were undersized but almost all of them had an evasion ability. Cartouche and Khopesh gave me the ability to grow them, and the removal was all cheap and effective. I ended up with 5 deserts, which meant the bonuses on Desert's Hold and more importantly Unquenchable Thirst were almost always active. I didn't have enough tokens, zombies, or cycling to guarantee any of those payoffs, and I didn't have much exert to directly synergize with my three Dauntless Avens, although untapping a creature is generally useful anyway.
My sideboard had some good answers, although I only ever brought in Dutiful Servants, Honed Khopesh, and God-Pharaoh's Faithful. It's possible I should have had a Djeru's Renunciation or 2 in the main.
The tournament was 5 slightly shortened rounds, with no games after cut to top 8. This was so we could all get out before midnight, as a curfew was in effect after the hurricane. It normally would have been 4 rounds since we had 22 people (I think 24 is the cutoff for 5 rounds).
Round 1 vs. P.
I play against P fairly often at Standard Showdown. Here he was playing red-green with good tricks. The first game wasn't close, and the second game on the play I made a better effort but still lost. I noticed one minor mistake in this match -- I attacked a 2/2 into another 2/2 with Vizier of Deferment in my hand, but I forgot to play my third land before combat, so I couldn't use it to save my creature. Trading was fine, but it wasn't how I intended the turn to go (instead, I saved it until the opponent's turn 4 to prevent damage from an attacker). Loss, 0-2.
Round 2 vs. N.
This guy was not a usual drafter, and he was on the lower end of people I've played in terms of strategy and rules knowledge. He had a Jeskai (white-blue-red) deck with lots of big blockers -- God-Pharaoh's Faithful, Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs, etc. I played a very straightforward and clean pair of games against him and let him lose to his own deckbuilding and strategy mistakes. Win, 2-0.
Round 3 vs. M.
This guy was fun to talk to. He had played at a higher level for a while before losing his cards, after which he decided to just play Limited. He was 4-colors (sans-white) based primarily in blue-green. I played 3 very intense games with him, winning the first by a hair, losing the second, and then drawing the third when the match went to turns. He had several Ambuscades, and those kept him in the game. Game 1 was the one game of the night where Oracle's Vault just took over the game with a free play every turn. In my game 2 loss, I had sided in the 2/5 Dutiful Servants to counter his several 4-power creatures that I saw in game 1, and it ended up hurting me because he used Ambuscade to 2-for-1 me when I blocked a 4/4 with the 2/5. Draw, 1-1-1.
Round 4 vs. A.
I have played A several times, and he was also next to me drafting. He was on Naya (white-red-green) with some sweet bombs. First game we both had a bunch of commons and removal, and while I did get him down to 5, he eventually finished me off. Second game I got to see his bomb rares. I had the edge most of the way and even had him doing math on how to survive. He played Pride Sovereign and I locked it down with Unquenchable Thirst. Then he played Angel of Condemnation and a Dauntless Aven, and the ability to untap either Pride Sovereign or Angel to reuse their abilities made it an unwinnable game for me (he was at 3 and I didn't have any non-creature ways to do damage). I made an obvious mental mistake in one of these games, failing to play an Aven Reedstalker at end of his turn after holding the mana up for it. Loss, 0-2.
My 1-2-1 record wasn't enough to get top 8, so I quit after Round 4. My overall game record was 3-5-1, although 2 of the wins were almost free.
So what did we walk away with?
For the second straight draft, I had really poor dollar value, with Scavenger Grounds the only card over 50 cents. I drafted 3 rares and 9 uncommons, which is exactly as expected for 3 packs. A guy 3 seats away from me opened 2 Masterpiece Invocations (not sure which ones)! Lucky!
Anyway, I'm planning to go draft again tonight. Even if I'm not winning, I'm having plenty of fun and learning lessons.
Peace!
Round 1 vs. P.
I play against P fairly often at Standard Showdown. Here he was playing red-green with good tricks. The first game wasn't close, and the second game on the play I made a better effort but still lost. I noticed one minor mistake in this match -- I attacked a 2/2 into another 2/2 with Vizier of Deferment in my hand, but I forgot to play my third land before combat, so I couldn't use it to save my creature. Trading was fine, but it wasn't how I intended the turn to go (instead, I saved it until the opponent's turn 4 to prevent damage from an attacker). Loss, 0-2.
Round 2 vs. N.
This guy was not a usual drafter, and he was on the lower end of people I've played in terms of strategy and rules knowledge. He had a Jeskai (white-blue-red) deck with lots of big blockers -- God-Pharaoh's Faithful, Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs, etc. I played a very straightforward and clean pair of games against him and let him lose to his own deckbuilding and strategy mistakes. Win, 2-0.
Round 3 vs. M.
This guy was fun to talk to. He had played at a higher level for a while before losing his cards, after which he decided to just play Limited. He was 4-colors (sans-white) based primarily in blue-green. I played 3 very intense games with him, winning the first by a hair, losing the second, and then drawing the third when the match went to turns. He had several Ambuscades, and those kept him in the game. Game 1 was the one game of the night where Oracle's Vault just took over the game with a free play every turn. In my game 2 loss, I had sided in the 2/5 Dutiful Servants to counter his several 4-power creatures that I saw in game 1, and it ended up hurting me because he used Ambuscade to 2-for-1 me when I blocked a 4/4 with the 2/5. Draw, 1-1-1.
Round 4 vs. A.
I have played A several times, and he was also next to me drafting. He was on Naya (white-red-green) with some sweet bombs. First game we both had a bunch of commons and removal, and while I did get him down to 5, he eventually finished me off. Second game I got to see his bomb rares. I had the edge most of the way and even had him doing math on how to survive. He played Pride Sovereign and I locked it down with Unquenchable Thirst. Then he played Angel of Condemnation and a Dauntless Aven, and the ability to untap either Pride Sovereign or Angel to reuse their abilities made it an unwinnable game for me (he was at 3 and I didn't have any non-creature ways to do damage). I made an obvious mental mistake in one of these games, failing to play an Aven Reedstalker at end of his turn after holding the mana up for it. Loss, 0-2.
My 1-2-1 record wasn't enough to get top 8, so I quit after Round 4. My overall game record was 3-5-1, although 2 of the wins were almost free.
So what did we walk away with?
For the second straight draft, I had really poor dollar value, with Scavenger Grounds the only card over 50 cents. I drafted 3 rares and 9 uncommons, which is exactly as expected for 3 packs. A guy 3 seats away from me opened 2 Masterpiece Invocations (not sure which ones)! Lucky!
Anyway, I'm planning to go draft again tonight. Even if I'm not winning, I'm having plenty of fun and learning lessons.
Peace!
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