This week there were 29 players, and I was at the lone table of 8. Here's what I drafted:
First pack had Firemind's Research at rare, and I felt like the safer route was to just take the strong removal spell Lava Coil. After that, I went with whatever removal I could find and creatures that play well with it. Looking back on this pack is enlightening, because I only took one Boros card but two guildgates. The only thing certain after Pack 1 was that I wanted to play red.
Pack 2 had the Doom Whisperer, which is apparently just a given for me to open in GRN Limited (I'm 3 for 3 including the prerelease). Then a hint toward white with Luminous Bonds and Justice Strike, and mono black for the rest of the pack. Rakdos (black-red) is not a supported guild in GRN, but that was what I was looking like. There were a ton of good green and Golgari cards going through me this pack, including a couple great rares, but I never thought about switching or adding green.
Pack 3 rare was Thief of Sanity, another ridiculous bomb in draft. I wasn't sure if I could splash it in, and was hopeful to get some Izzet or Dimir guildgates. Instead, the rest of my Pack 3 was strong Boros cards, and I took the most controlling cards I could get my hands on because I had no shortage of finishers. The guy to my left was drafting a normal Boros aggro deck, which explains why I had no Boros in pack 2 but tons in Pack 1 and 3. He ended up without much removal because I was taking it all, but his creatures were good, so I don't think we cannibalized each other too badly.
Here's the deck I built. I realized later on that I needed more white sources, so I put in a Plains in place of a Swamp.
12 removal spells and 11 creatures is not a normal configuration, but I liked it. Boros aggro doesn't want the guildgates, and I was super happy to get 4 of them. It was the card I most wanted to see in my opening hand. The Selesnya Guildgate supported the possibility of casting Statue, but I could always cast the Status half with just black. I would have played Thief of Sanity if I had just 3 blue sources, but one Izzet Guildgate was not enough and I wasn't going to add Islands and make the rest of my mana worse.
I generally chose to draw first with this deck because my cards were mostly 1-for-1 and I had a lot of early game removal to keep from getting overrun, and also because I really needed my mana to work out and I couldn't afford to mulligan and play first.
My sideboard was pretty wide open, but I didn't use it much, really only dipping in for an occasional Sure Strike.
How did the games go?
Round 1 vs. Abzan (white-black-green). This guy is good, but the games were ridiculously one-sided. I achieved the dream play of Doom Whisperer plus Piston-Fist Cyclops followed by Resurgence to attack for 20. Win, 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Jeskai Tempo (white-blue-red). He was splashing blue into a mostly Boros deck, and my draws were much clunkier than in Round 1, as should be expected with an unsupported 3-color deck. In the first game I thought I had stabilized and he hit me with a Sonic Assault cast from the graveyard to get his attackers through for exact lethal. Loss, 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Grixis Frenzy (blue-black-red). This was a blue-black deck that had Experimental Frenzy and a couple other red cards. His other really annoying card was Murmuring Mystic, and in general he had a ton of low power high toughness creatures with abilities, which was difficult for my removal. Dead Weight, Direct Current, and Justice Strike didn't kill much, and Luminous Bonds is not worth much on Passwall Adept or Murmuring Mystic. In the first game, I got a long drawn out win, with 3 Luminous Bonds on his 3 Darkblade Agents at the end of it. He had Frenzy but gave up on it early in order to play an Island that he would have had stuck in his hand. Second game was more of the same, but I missed 2 Runaway Steam-Kin triggers that might have been pivotal in getting it big enough to attack. He got Frenzy out, and things were ok for me until he had a turn where he was able to play 4 creatures off the top of his deck. The third game was more of the same. He got an early Murmuring Mystic and I didn't have 2 red/white mana to kill it with Response. Late in the game, I was ready to get back in it with Doom Whisperer, but his Passwall was sending in 1-power creatures and I was behind on life. Pivotal decision point:
I am at 3 life and his creatures are tapped down from attacking. He has Passwall Adept and 2 other 1-power creatures with 3+ toughness, with enough mana to make them all unblockable, so I am going to lose on his next turn if nothing changes. I have Doom Whisperer and a couple 1/1 Rats and he is at 11. I also have a Direct Current in graveyard but no cards in hand to discard, so best case with the cards I have I can do 10 damage (discarding the card I draw this turn). I really need to kill his Passwall Adept but most of the removal in my deck won't do it. Should I pay 2 life to surveil 2 with Doom Whisperer before drawing for my turn? The downside is that if I go to 1 life, a card like Luminous Bonds no longer lets me live for 1 more turn.
I decided not to surveil, and I drew Mountain, attacked for 8, Direct Current for 2, and lost. Looking at the top of my library afterward, my second card was Dead Weight and my third card was Intervention, which would have given me the damage to win or at least the life to live another turn, so if I had surveilled, I would have dumped the Mountain and Dead Weight in the graveyard (since neither wins) and drawn it blindly. Looking at my deck, I think that was the only card that saves me at 1 life (in the moment, I couldn't remember how many good draws I had at 1 life vs. 3). I think I made the right decision, but man that was close! What do you think? Loss, 1-2.
Round 4 vs. 5-color Chamber Sentry (mostly Selesnya). He also had the Venerated Loxodon, which he curved into faster than I could get my lands assembled on the draw in Game 1. Game 2 ended up an easy win, and Game 3 was a nailbiter where he made one or two little mistakes that might have cost him the win, but I feel like I also played about as well as possible and led him into the mistakes. The pivotal moment was when he tried to burn me out with Chamber Sentry when I was holding Intervention. I was at 2 life, but Chamber Sentry had 4 counters. He activated it for 2 instead of the full 4, and I Interventioned it in response to end up at 3 life instead of 1. That might not have been a mistake in a vacuum, but in the game context, ending up at 3 life was huge because it let me attack more safely. Win, 2-1. I wasn't going to make Top 8, so I gave him the win and dropped.
In total, my score was an even 2-2 in matches and 5-5 in games. I really like this deck, and I think I could have done better with the mana. There were a lot of games where I had enough black (which is really just 2 Swamps) but needed more white and red to do things like cast Direct Current twice in a turn or with a second spell.
I got 4 rares (vs. 3 average) and 7 uncommons (vs. 9 average), but the rares were high quality. Doom Whisperer is still around $20, Steam-Kin (not pictured because I traded it) is about $4, and Thief of Sanity is around $2.50. Lava Coil has become a premium uncommon at $1 for Standard, but it has zero use outside of Standard so it will be bulk when it rotates. A good return on a $12 draft fee.
After I dropped, I made a few trades and ended up with the following new cards:
My Standard deck was full of Phylactery Liches before, but now that I have 3 Doom Whisperers, I have morphed it over to more of a Traxos/Doom Whisperer combo deck. The dream is that I have Doom Whisperer and high life total, and I can upkeep surveil to find On Serra's Wings against unsuspecting opponents. We'll see how well that works. Here's the list:
https://www.mtgvault.com/nathangw/decks/standard-wb-traxoscombo/
Thanks for reading!
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