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!