Lobster 667's M12 8-4 #2

This draft opened up with a difficult choice, but I think I made the right call, and I stuck to my guns despite several temptations along the road. I was rewarded with a lovely deck that I felt could go the distance - and it did! I came out the winner of the 8-4, which was just what I needed to liven up the day :)

A pretty solid card pool, if without bombs! I think I could've gone mono-Black if I really wanted, but I felt like I could gain some efficiency while remaining pretty consistant by adding a few powerful Green cards, especially since I felt like I needed a few victory conditions if the games went long (and the Drifting Shades for some reasons weren't enough on their own). This is what I came up with for a build:

It played pretty nicely, although I wonder if I should've taken a third forest; I really wanted to up the quality of my Consume Spirits and Drifting Shades, but in hindsight perhaps 2 Forests just isn't enough to splash 3 cards, even if two of them are latecomers and none of them are intensive (then again, isn't the Mage intensive?). I'd love to hear some comments on this because it hits me now that I might have been even more consistent with as many as 4-5 forests (and that running these Greens with only 2 Forests seems like a kind of half-hearted splash that should be for good or not at all).


Anyway, on to the games! In the first match, I played against a White-Blue deck which seemed to sport few really good cards. Villain won a game on the back of an unanswered Serra Angel, if I remember correctly, but in the end I pulled out victorious! I made no sideboard changes during the match except perhaps to switch in the Deathmark, but I might not even have done that - I can't remember!


In the second match, I faced a White/Black deck, meaning that my Doom Blades were less effective (but still in the main deck after sideboarding, of course). His deck seemed slow, too slow to race mine, and Arbalest Elite and Royal Assassin are great to stop an attack, but they never lived long since I had forced him so much on the backfoot that he had to block with them to stay in the game (until I dropped the Gravedigger post-combat, of course!). I felt like this match-up was pretty good, though I grew to loathe his Stave Offs. Not regretting hatepicking one P2P2 so far.


I sideboarded in an extra forest and a Naturalize since he played Crown of Empires and Rusted Sentinel, and that really helped one game.


The finals was the most exciting match of the three; Villain played a fast R/G Bloodthirst deck with a fair bit of removal, as well as opening on Goblin Arsonist (the thing you hate to see if you rely on Tormented Souls and still want to kill it to avoid him getting bloodthirst). I lost game 1 handily, having a creature locked down by an Arachnus Web and another killed by an Incinerate while his Crocodiles and so on went to town on my Life total.


On the sideboard, I decided that I needed to be faster than him; My 5-drops both went (Stingerfling isn't too hot against GR anyway) and so did the Jade Mage, and in came three Dark Favors for a ultra-aggressive approach which just hands-down won me game 2 and 3; Dark Favor is great against Arachnus Webs, and even better with the Tormented Souls (which then can't die to Arsonist, which is a valid point in this match).


Anyway, hit me with any feedback to draft and/or deck construction you want to, and make sure to tell if my evaluation is off due to some ROT anywhere :)


If you want to listen along with me (like Zvazda usually posts in his drafts), just hit episodes 53 and 54 of Limited Resources ;)


(Thanks for the detailed writeup, LOBSTER.  And congrats on the win!)