FNM Draft 2018-08-17

This was my third draft in Core Set 2019.  There was still a high attendance, but it was down to 32, which meant only 5 rounds.

I was seated at a table with a lot of good players -- I recognized at least 5 of the 8 as people who regularly compete for top 8.  As it turned out, I think we all "drafted nice" and ended up with pretty good decks as a result.  Here's my draft, bottom left to top right:

Pack 1 I took the rare because it's just a ridiculously good card in the late game.  It wasn't a bad pack, but it wasn't a very hard decision.  Luminous Bonds was also an easy pick, and then I had a stretch where I was not seeing extremely good picks, until the 6th pick Angel of the Dawn came as a pretty clear signal that I wasn't fighting more than 1 other person nearby for white.  The rest of the pack wasn't super exciting, and I was white-blue based on the numbers but completely open to switching into any colors in Pack 2.

The rare in Pack 2 was Chaos Wand.  The table opened at least 2 Chaos Wands, and there was some lively discussion afterward about how good Chaos Wand is.  Sometimes it gets you a removal spell when you need it, and other times it gets you a counterspell or a pump when you can't use it.  I took the definite removal spell for 3 mana over the expensive unknown.  After that, I got passed a ludicrous series of white cards to reward me for seeing white was open in Pack 1.  My picks 4 - 8 were cards any white deck would snap up in a heartbeat if there wasn't a bomb rare to take.  Interestingly, no playable blue cards in this pack.

Pack 3 rare was Pelakka Wurm, a super strong rare that I was in no way going to play, so I went with the best white-blue card instead.  The rest of the pack was far less exciting than Pack 2, but I was very happy to get Switcheroo and Inspired Charge so late.

As it turned out, the player to my left was drafting blue-green, so he took my blue leftovers in Packs 1 and 3 and didn't pass me any blue in Pack 2, and the player on my right was taking some white stuff and ended up in white-black-red, so he was taking my white leftovers in Pack 2 and didn't pass me as much white in Packs 1 and 3.

I was happy with my cards and had a hard time narrowing down my deck.  Here's what I came up with:

This sort of played as a tempo deck, trying to get creatures out and then push them through with removal spells and team pumps.  Gallant Cavalry was kind of the center of what the deck is trying to do, because it combos well with so many other cards.

The interaction with Militia Bugler is particularly good.  From rough memory, I think I was about 4/6 or 5/7 on successful hits with Bugler, getting Cavalry at least twice.  Cavalry is a really sneaky hit because you're actually getting 4 power instead of 2.  It also works on curve and you end up with 3 vigilant creatures.

My sideboard was broad, and I mostly used it to play the creature size game or the draw/play game.  The bottom row above are the cards I actually used, and the top row were in consideration.  Loxodon Line Breaker is not flashy, but sometimes it could be better than Pegasus Charger or Oreskos Swiftclaw because it beats 1/3 creatures and trades with bigger X/3 creatures.  Likewise, Trusty Packbeast is good against 2/2s (with random upside of regrowing Skyscanner) and Gearsmith Guardian helps against anything larger.  Sometimes Pegasus Charger felt good just as a 1/3 flier, but I didn't have much heavy duty ground stuff to use its ability on, so it felt really bad when the other guy had fliers with 2 or more toughness.

Somehow I lost Salvager of Secrets from the photo above.  It seems really good, but I was already playing a bunch of 5-drops, and my best removal spells were enchantments rather than instant/sorcery.

How about the games?

Round 1 vs. Mardu Lifegain (white-black-red)
This was the person drafting to my right.  He is a good player, but his deck was not terribly cohesive and he was playing a few kind of bad cards, so I'm not sure what happened in his draft.  He also had some strong cards like Isareth, which I managed to Switcheroo or kill before it became a problem.  Win, loss, win.  2-1.

Round 2 vs. Blue-Green Stompy.
He was also splashing black for a couple cards.  He was the player drafting on my left, to whom I had passed Pelakka Wurm and multiple other good green cards.  It was no contest as he was able to go over the top of all my stuff.  Loss, 0-2.

Round 3 vs. White-Green Stompy.
He said he had a tempo deck, but I felt like he was really all about getting a big board and then using Declare Dominance to win.  In Game 1 he was getting mana flooded, and he conceded at 18 life with me at 7.  I felt like I was at least 2 turns away from making it a serious game, but I had killed his stuff and he was drawing all lands. No complaint here.  Second game was going fine until he played Ghastbark Twins and Declared Dominance all over my little vigilance creatures.  Third game I was on the play and had a fantastic curve-out, but I had to Switcheroo away his Giant Spider on the final turn to attack for the win with my fliers.  Win, 2-1.

Round 4 vs. Red-Black.
He mulliganed to 5 in the first game, but we both played out a good board of creatures.  My creatures were slightly bigger, and I played Angel of the Dawn for what would have been a bad combat on his side, and he conceded at 18 life.  Game 2 he was on the play, but I had enough removal and knights to tempo him down and exactly kill him with my last card, Inspired Charge.  Win, 2-0.

Most people were able to intentional draw Round 5 to get into the top 8, but my opponent checked his tie-breaker against mine and felt like he had to play to get in.  So we were the only round 5 game while everyone else in the store played Secret Hitler.

Round 5 vs. Blue-Black Control (splashing red for Nicol Bolas, the Ravager)
This guy is a smooth player, playing very fast, and it took me a little time to get used to his pace.  I think I did a good job of slowing myself down to a comfortable rhythm.  I think he had Psychic Corrosion on turn 3 in all three games, and that is a nasty thing to have to worry about.  Assuming he has nothing to draw extra cards, it wins the game in 10 turns (from 30 cards remaining in deck, it mills 20 cards and I draw 10 cards).  I did manage to remove it but it wasted a lot of my cards.  His deck was all about slowing down my threats with removal, bounce, and blockers.  I lost Game 1 on the draw, then won Game 2 on the play (even with a mulligan).  Game 3 we both got big boards, but he had the better fliers and I got down to only 4 cards in my deck so I couldn't be aggressive with Mystic Archaeologist.  Loss, 1-2.

So I missed the top 8, but I went a respectable 3-2 in matches, losing against players who had 1 combined match loss between them.  My game record was 7-6.  This deck definitely wanted to play first.  I don't remember for sure, but I might have won every game I was on the play except against my Round 2 opponent.

Here is the value from the draft:

I drafted 4 rares, which is slightly above the 3 expected, and 7 uncommons, which is slightly below 9 expected.  All my rares are garbage in terms of dollar value.  Bugler is a popular card because it is getting played in Modern Humans.  Foil basic lands are always in demand by Commander players or other people who like them (they're legal in every format!).  And I honestly have no idea why Reliquary Tower is so popular because to me, if you have more than 7 cards, you're probably doing fine even if you have to discard a few.  There must be a combo or something, or maybe it's a protection against cards that reduce hand size.  Anyway, it's a $1.50 uncommon even with a bunch of printings.  My total value might be $3 at most.

Another fun draft!  I'm enjoying the relative simplicity of Core 2019.

FNM Draft 2018-08-03

Well apparently Core Set 2019 is super popular to draft.  There were 37 people there, which meant 6 rounds of draft.  Even 5 rounds and a bunch of people drawing the 6th round would have gone very late (after 1 AM probably), so I was considering dropping early even if I started out really well.  I love that it's popular, but that's just too late.

I did have one of my better drafts though (bottom left to top right):

Pack 1 was an unexciting choice between a powerful but expensive rare and some more flexible but unexciting commons and uncommons (highlighted by Lich's Caress, the definition of "solid but not exciting").  My second pick was common removal, but I had a hard time picking between it and the Siegebreaker Giant, and when the giant came back around to me it was clear that red was pretty open.  I had taken two Goblin Instigators on the off chance that I could draft WR "Go Wide," which seems to be popularly considered the best deck archetype in M19 draft, and after the Giant I actively sought out cards that fit the deck.

Pack 2 gave me a great common for the WR deck -- the rare was Phylactery Lich, a card I love but can't really play in draft.  Second pick Reclamation Sage was the only time I wavered from the plan.  Fourth pick was another indicator that the deck was wide open -- I had a really hard time choosing between Volcanic Dragon and Heroic Reinforcements, and ultimately chose the Dragon because it was more likely to lead another player to draft red and it was less likely to make it back around the table.  Fortunately, another Reinforcements popped up 3 picks later.

Not much to say about Pack 3.  The rare was Dragon's Hoard, but I wasn't heavy enough in dragons to pick it over top quality removal.  The keys to the deck I was building are creatures that make more creatures (Goblin Instigator, Gallant Cavalry), creatures that are hard to block (Boggart Brute, fliers), and cards that pump your team (Heroic Reinforcements, Angel of the Dawn, Inspired Charge), and I found all of these in droves.  On top of that, my removal was really excellent also.

Here's the deck I built:

This was mostly really easy to build, in part because my first pack had a lot of off-color cards I wasn't even thinking about splashing.  I settled on Loxodon Line Breaker over Dragon Egg or Guttersnipe to bolster my 3-drop slot because its face value as a 3/2 is more consistent.  I also went with Knight's Pledge over a safer and trickier card like Mighty Leap or Make a Stand because my plan was to be aggressive and force the opponent to answer my attackers.

Here's the sideboard:

I sided out the Oreskos Swiftclaws when I was going to be on the draw because they're so much less likely to be able to attack well, and I typically brought in 2 or 3 of the white instants and sometimes Guttersnipe too.  I never played an opponent where I felt like I needed Dragon Egg, and the two red sorceries weren't really supporting my plan well enough to replace removal or synergy cards.

Round 1 vs. Blue-Green.
I saw Mystic Archaeologist a lot in this match.  Game 1 my plan worked as intended, and in game 2 I was cruising toward victory as well, attacking all out and representing lethal the next turn while my opponent only had a 2/2 flier and one or two cards and I was at 9 life.  Turns out he was holding the +7/+7 aura and killed me on his turn.  I had made a careful decision the previous turn to play Heroic Reinforcements instead of Angel of the Dawn because he had been casting a lot of Essence Scatters (which only counters creature spells), but if I had landed the Angel instead I would have had a blocker and lived.  I mentioned this after the match, and he said he did have Essence Scatter, so I was right to play around the counterspell.  Game 3 was anticlimactic, as I mulliganed a 5-land hand on the play into a 2-land hand that didn't draw a third land for 4 or 5 turns.  Loss, 1-2.

Round 2 vs. White-Blue.
The deck came back around in this one.  Game 1 I won easily.  Game 2 she got me by following Ghostform with Sleep on consecutive turns to get through in a race I otherwise would have blocked through.  Game 3 was an easy win.  Win, 2-1.

In between rounds I played against a friend, who was playing Abzan (White-Black-Green) with no specific theme as far as I could tell.  Game 1 he had Chaos Wand and destroyed me with my own removal spells.  I won game 2 without a Chaos Wand appearance.  Unofficial, 1-1.

Round 3 vs. Blue-Artifact.
This guy had an interesting mono-blue deck.  In game 1 I kept a hand with 3 mountains and an aggressive curve of white cards because I wasn't paying attention to the lands.  It worked out fine though and I eventually took over.  Second game I had to fight more but also got the win.  He was planning on staying and I wasn't, so I credited him with the tournament win and went home.  Win, 2-0.

I was very happy with this deck, and outside of one bad draw and some good surprises from my opponents, it rolled very smoothly.  Total record was 2-1 matches and 6-4 in games.

Here's the takeaway:

I only drafted 2 rares and 8 uncommons, both below expectations.  The total dollar value of my draft is generously about $3, and Remorseful Cleric is the only card with any chance of longer term value.  Foil Shock is kind of cool but not worth anything.

I kind of hope fewer people come as the set ages, because I can't do 6-round drafts and most of the people I talked to thought it was too long also.  Maybe they'll come up with another fix, like splitting into two 4-round tournaments.

I was happy to get more M19 draft in though, and a much better deck than the previous time.  Thanks for reading!