Deranged_Hermit's ISD Draft #3

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=32iik

this was a really fun draft. i took a couple chances early with the curse and the drownyard, and they really paid off. i won in a multitude of ways in this swiss. only losing in the last match due to mana screw in both games.

my strategy was to go for the lab maniac win in G1, w/o curses (i've found the curses are too hard to control when trying to get the lab maniac out of the yard. especially in multiples. perhaps this in't the case, i just had enough playables to get by w.o them).  then in G2 i would side out the maniacs and the mem's journey and bring in the curses and additional 'mill-you' cards. and with the alchemist hitting the board in multiple games, it just gets you there.

neat combo btw... undead alchemist and occultist. mill them a few times with a dream twist/drownyard, get some duders from the alchemist, swing in and force them to either block or take 'damage' that creates more milling and more duders.

lost in the "finals" after a game 1 win, with two games of mana screw. M3G2 things were going fine. put a curse on him, then played armored skaab, milling my drownyard (frown). then he fills his board up, plays the skirsdag high-priest. i have victim in hand but i never find a second swamp and he beats me with demons about 5 turns later while he's at 11 cards in library (my math isn't great... but the drownyard over those turns would've gotten me there).

M3G3 i keep a one lander (forest) and a mulch in hand, on the draw. you know how it goes... no 2nd land until turn 5. he curves out and beats me before i get to draw/play the 2nd land. that's how it goes doesn't it

Deranged_Hermit's ISD #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=32asx

another disappointing draft that lacked a solid direction. i recognize this and know that i need to be more focused in my drafting strategy.  too many times i just take the best card in the pack, hoping that people surrounding me will pass me more good cards in the colors i decide to play.

if i was more adept at reading signals, i would've abandoned white a lot earlier, and gone BUG self mill with the spawning. dont recall however seeing a single gnaw to the bone. but had several shots for enablers in blue while it was being passed, along with overall solid removal and tempo adv.

BUG is my favorite archetype to draft, although i just didn't have the tools to take advantage of the spawning, or the juggernauts. if i had 3 or 4 total mulches, and sac outlet like a hauberk or disciple to untap and keep the juggs attacking, i would've been a lot more comfortable and would've had a great shot in the finals. but as it was, i steamrolled a couple of lesser opponents, and lost 0-2 to the very focused and solidly built UW aggro/tempo.dek


until next time

Lobster667 does some legwork...

Our good friend Lobster has gone ahead and compiled a list of all the tricks to look out for when DKA comes out at your prereleases this weekend.

I suggest printing and taping to the inside of your water bottle.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmneZSKBldAtdFVVemdNOHB2U0w0V2ItTzcxZ3ZZTVE&hl=en_US#gid=0

Fiffo416 ISD Draft #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=32bj3

A question I would like to ask people is

how often do you make "wrong" picks (something like midnight haunting
over curse of death's hold) in order to draft the deck you want to
draft? And which are the decks you NEVER want to draft? It's
green-black to me, and I don't even like blue-black control (but I
like a more creature heavy blue-blac deck like the one I drafted
here!) A deck that I like but most people don't is green red.

deranged_hermit M12 #1

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=32due

M1G1: mulled to 6 on the draw, but have the hydra in hand. playing against GR. his first play is jade mage, which is quickly webbed to stop any shananigans. next turn i play an elf and manalith which is responded with a shock and manic vandal. talk about wrong place at the wrong time. i know he has burn so i have to play the hydraw at a high enough initial total so that it doesn't meet a chandra's outrage or incinerate or something stupid. i play him at 9 life with 5 counters, he had just played a greater basilisk. now i know i have to kill him in one swing which means i have a 3 turn clock. the math doesn't work so i have to chump twice to stay alive. i'm at one life when i swing for 40.

M1G2: again i have to mull a no-land hand into 6 on the draw. during sideboarding i know i took out a land since i got a bit flooded midway into that first game. and with 3 mana dorks and a manalith, i figured i'd be ok. opening hand was 3 forests, two ice cages, and a sacred wolf. brought in the other cage since he didn't reveal any self targetable effects.

he turn two's a skinshifter, and it never attacks the whole game. this game goes pretty long, and my opponent was not very cordial about losing to the hydra once again. didn't know what to tell him, it was turn 21 when i drew it and played it. and the board stalled once again with me at 3 life, him at 20. isn't that how the game is played?  removal, trading, card draw, bomb for the win. sorry.

M2G1: facing a fellow clan member who has a good UB bounce and fliers deck. not the best for all of my enchantment removal, and single reach creature. plus he's playing the hydra's worst nemesis: gideon's lawkeeper (x2). game one goes pretty long like usual. i keep a slow hand with 3 removal spells and the spinner 6 drop. he curves out pegasus, skywinder drake, alabaster mage (which burns off the ice cage on the drake), cancel my spinner, then the board stalls a bit. him with a webb'd mage and a stingerfling. me with a looter and azure mage at 3 life. next turn carnage wurm for the win. down 0-1 but definitely winnable.

M2G2: this is the big one. i keep a greedy opening 7 on the play with forest, mountain, unsummon, doom blade, hydra, manalith, and spinner. i figured if i can get that one land in the next two draws to drop the manalith, i would be able to get this so long as i play around his counters. problem... i miss my 3rd turn land drop. i get it turn 4 to drop the manalith, bouncing the drake to try and save tempo, but he continues to drop all of his helpful little guys. alabaster mage, looter, drake, lawkeeper, aether adept bouncing a lawkeep'd hydra.

next turn i play a fleetwing and trollhide to halt his flying assault instead of replaying my hydra. and this is where i think he had a big misplay that opened up things up for me. he oblivion ring'd the trollhide so that he could continue to attack in with this hoard that consisted of, at that point: looter, two lawkeepers aether adept pegasus, alabaster mage, and skywinder drake against my one fleetwing. i doom blade the mage, trade with the drake, take 5 down to 6 life.

next turn i play arachnus spinner, pass. he taps the spinner before combat and i activate to fetch a web for his stormfront pegasus. attacks down to 2, he plays peregrine griffen. mind you this board state. he has not one, but two tappers, a looter, an adept, and a griffin that both attack for lethal. i have an unsummon,  and hydra in hand, with 7 mana on board. we get to talking a bit since we're clan members, and i've done everything but conceded at this point. then i just play it out... like you ALWAYS should.

i draw an ice cage. okay, this is removal. now i it's a math game and a blocking game. unfortunately, the math doesn't add up to where i could save my hydra if he attacked all in. i bounce his one lawkeeper, ice cage the 2nd. play the hydra for X=2. i'm tapped out. if he attacks all in, he kills my hydra, but trades his two relavant creatures, and would be left with a looter and a 'just-played' lawkeeper.

his turn, draw. loot. play lawkeeper. pass.  i web his other lawkeeper at the end of his turn. and i have survived!  saved the hydra, isolated his tappers, and made it so his attacks are no unprofitable. now i just have to hope he doesn't have another way to remove the hydra from combat (pacifism, frost breath, unsummon, adept, o-ring... these all insta-kill me. and his looter means he's filtering MUCH quicker than i can in top deck mode.

i top deck a skinshifter, pass.   he loots, plays a skywinder drake, pass. we continue to brick for several turns even with his looting, and me playing a divination. the hydra is now a 32/32 when he scoops.  WOOT!!!

M3G3: i curve out with the nuts. turn one elf into turn 2 manalith. turn 3 fleetwing into counter mana. then when he's tapped out with a looter on board, i play chandra. he does o-ring the chandra next turn but i EOT naturalize the play the spinner to get the scoop.

so i dont want to say that i won only because of my bomby cards (spinner, chandra, and hydra). but it does help. never giving up and playing the game out was the key lesson here. i was dead on board by a mile, at 2 life. bounced and isolated a few threats, got a few good draws, and won the match.

happy drafting!
d-hermit

Deranged_hermit''s ISD Draft #1

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=32ifa

Deranged Hermit makes his draft debut!

Acidrakken ISD #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=31qpi

Went 2-1 in this draft, lost in R3.

During the draft process, I felt like I was being pulled in two different directions and only barely managed to pull out a deck with enough playables without dipping into a third color for more than a splash.

Commentary on the games:

R1G1:

Pretty easy keep, Shepherd in hand and the mana to bring him out Turn 2.

Villain seems to be running some kind of four-color monstrosity, though I don't see any green creatures from him.  He is stacked with Ashmouth Hound and Village Ironsmith, making it difficult to attack profitably into him.  Villain becomes impatient and attacks in with his forces.  I pull Evil Twin, copy an Ashmouth, and start blowing up Ironsmiths/Ironfangs and Hounds, get Shepherd flipped and win.  I make a pretty bad misplay at one point here, attack with juggernaut, get blocked by Makeshift Mauler, + 2 Ashmouth Hounds.  Should have assigned damage to the hounds, then Corpse Lunged the Mauler with the Corpse Lunge in my hand.  On the other hand,  if I would have done that, the later E.Twin play wouldn't have worked at all.

R1G2:  I keep a loose hand after mull to 6, only draw land, Villain gets a quick start, and game is over fast.

R1G3:  Hand is suboptimal, but a quick bat, followed by Abbatoir Ghoul keeps Villain off my case.  He puts wings on his lone ironfang.  I respond by flipping my bat into the 5/5 beater.   He Temblors, getting rid of my Abbatoir ghoul.  I Ghoulraiser, Village cannibals flipping his Ironfang, Recast Abbatoir and get there on the back of my 5/5 ground based beater.

----------------------

R2G1: I've scouted this opponent, and they have a pretty strong UR deck.  Kinda concerned, but could get through with tight play.  Snap-keep opening hand, with the shepherd + mana combination.  More Ashmouth Hound from this Villain, but I'm not worried.  Shepherd gets flipped, he's golden.  Tribute his early play and get in with the shepherd.  He ends up losing Ludevic's Test subject to Desperate Ravings, but gets a mindshrieker online.  Then the crabs start coming down, invalidating my big beaters: juggernaut and fensnake.  Unfortunately my deck is kind of weak to mindshrieker, lots of stuff piled up at the 4-drop, not much flashback.  Villain uses a lot of mana to just activate mindshrieker on me, I suspect is trying to mill me out.  I also take a severe beating in the air until I hit spider spawning and use it to hold down the air while my Gatstaf Howler gets in for the last few points of damage.

R2G2:  Mulligan to six, but come up with the shepherd again.  Some unimportant early stuff happens, but then he keeps pounding 5 drops on me, Sturmgeist, Murder of Crows, Sturmgeist(!?) after I deal with the first one.  Not much for it after that.  So tired of these drafts where I've got some reasonable deck built out of uncommons/commons (because I open stuff like Rooftop Storm) and get wrecked by someone who opened/got passed multiple *good* rares/mythics.

R2G3:  On to game three.  Planning on saving E.Twin for Sturmgeist, but Murder of Crows becomes a relevant threat fast enough that I go ahead and grab it with the twin.  There's some back and forth, but a 4/4 beater in the skies when the rest of his air force seems absent is good, and I go ahead and put it away.   Especially when I'm looting off the incidental other deaths.

--------------------------------

R1G1:  Not sure what I could have done differently here.  I'm already at a disadvantage because Villain is green and, other than the shepherd (who loses much value against G), has much better green cards than I do.  An early trep blade on every guy Villain plays ends up causing me to lose to being decked out.

R2G2:  Side in the Naturalize, but not sure it matters, because Villain is still hitting big stretches of my best cards every activation of trep blade, as well as having a flipped Ulvenwald Primordials that I just have no way of dealing with.  Even Tribute is unhelpful, because there's always something alongside it to get eaten instead. Spider Spawning holds off the inevitable for a bit, but then I just draw into a brick, and lose.