Yablo's DII Draft #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=35gvy

This was probably the best deck I've ever drafted in my short drafting career.  Ended up going 2-1 but probably could have been my first 3-0 if I hadn't ran into a sick Spider Spawning deck that out tokened me.

Recap:

R1G1 - stalled on forests so was stuck only playing white.  Was able to equip up a Hallowhenge Spirit with Avacyn's Collar, the Pitchfork, and the Cleaver and lay the flying vigilence 7/7 beats on villain for the win.
R1G2 - stalled on forests again and got some white dirtles out.  Was able to represent lethal after I dropped Increasing Devotion combined with a Selfless Cathar ready to pop for +1/+1.  Villain scooped.
R2G1 - stalled on forests AGAIN?! Seriously I had 7 of them and had only seen 2 by this point in the night!  Was holding my own with a Pitchforked up flipped Youth until villain Claustrophobia'd it.  Worst thing you can get to happen to your Youth!  No way to deal with it.  Villain milled himself a ton and then dropped a spider spawning that spat out 7 spiders.  No green so I couldn't play any of my creatures in hand.  Dead.
R2G2 - Finally got forests going but lost the battle of tokens.  I Increasing Devotioned and then flashbacked for 15 humans.  He spider spawning twice for 20 spiders.  He drops a Falkenrath Noble and I'm boned.  Dead.
R3G1 - Villain playing a UB mill deck.  Made a risky play with a unflipped Grizzled Outcast who was holding a pitchfork - put a bonds of faith on him.  Would have been screwed if villain let him flip but he never did and I beat him down.
R3G2 - Curved out very well but was getting milled crazy style by villain.  Lost my 1st mayor but surprised him with a second.  Played Increasing Devotion and got 5 2/2 humans.  With the threat of my Selfless Cathar popping making them 3/3 villain scooped.

Spider Spawning guy ended up winning the draft so I guess I can't feel too bad losing to him.

Looking forward to the feedback!

Yablo

Deranged_Hermit's DII Draft #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34qne

I was again, a bit excited to see how this deck would perform.  I went into deckbuilding after the draft not with a good feeling (but i drafted 35 tix worth of rares so i wasn't too upset). but then after looking at my available options, and seeing my late 42nd pick burning vengeance, it all kind of came together.

so i'm RG splashing white for a few durdles, rally the peasants, and travel preps flashback. the RG is a typical werewolf and aggressive 1, 2, 3 drop plan (no 4 drops in the whole deck aside from a smite the monstrous (should've been cut if i had more early drops)).

but here's the interesting synergy that i'd love to test more to get the right balance.  i have 9 flashback spells. geistflame, faithless looting, wild hunger, 2x travel preps, 2x rally the peasants, burning oil and night birds clutches (plus a gnaw in the board.

combine that many solid combative and aggressive tricks and pump spells, combine it with burning vengeance to clear the path... and i think you have a good formula for success.

now i lost in the 2nd round to a fellow clan member that had a solid UB control deck (remember how open blue and black were), and he eventually went on to win the whole thing... so i dont feel so bad. but were the deck fell short was generating enough actual early threats in order to actually use my pump spells. plus i went with 15 basics and an evolving wilds which was a little light. didn't realize how intensive the mana requirements are for getting enough flashback spells out there. rally really needs 6 mana to operate, and i rarely got to 6 lands.

also, this deck needs at least 2 or 3 faithless lootings. they allow you dig for threats, and dump either excess land or your flashback fodder in the yard. on top of being a flashback spell in of itself.

the werewolf route was ok. not a cog in how the deck should operate, but fine in of itself. the immerwolf itself isn't great because it's intimidate is weak, but the ability to keep your guys flipped is really good when you want to play out travelpreps w/ flashback.

in this particular build, i would've cut the smite, and cut the moonmist for another darkthicket and reckless waif. even could cut one rally for a pilgrim or something. 15 creatures is probably min for this, with your combat tricks acting as removal. oh yea, village ironsmith would be amazing too as first strike with combat tricks is win.

better luck next time. peace

Deranged_Hermit's DII Draft #1

So I was suuuper excited at the end of this draft... and I was absolutely certain that I was going to get at least to the finals, if not win it all with a deck this strong. I was able to draft my favorite archetype, BUG spawning.dek... with 3 legit bombs in splinterfright, ghoultree, and murder of crows. plenty of enablers, had thoughtscour, dreamtwist, 2x mulch, tracker's instinct, screeching skaab, and alchemy (potential of 10 dumpers when including flashback). even had excellent mana fixing with a wilds and woodland cemetery.

see the draft for how it all came together. its a fairytale is d-hermit land:

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34tq9

now to the match (read: singular)

M1G1: the replay didn't save, but no save was needed to remember this line of play. game started out pretty slow. on the draw i hit a couple of enablers early, opponent drops plains, plains, thraben heretic. so i'm thinking... "perfect" (sarcasm)... here goes my entire strategy, exiled out the window.

we go back and forth without much going on. he's played nothing but 4 plains and missed a land drop. the heretic and a durdle in play. 4 cards left in hand. i play a brainweevil and hold it, hoping to sac it my next turn and play banshee to get rid of the heretic. i miss on my 2nd black source but i sac him anyway to get some cards since he just missed a land drop, i know i can hit spells since he's either hurting on a second color, or has all big 5+ drops. maybe this was a mistake, but there's no way to know that i should've played around what followed:

so i target him and he discards: drogskol reaver and unburial rites.  F.  M.  L.

game ends pretty soon after that. i draw and play a murder of crows. let him get damage thru on his turn in order to copy the crows with a cackling counterpart. i do this main phase, another potential mistake as he EOT feeling of dreads me. attacks again for 6, draws two more cards, and plays requiem angel for the scoop.


M1G2:  i figure he's a blue white splashing black, tempo but possibly bordering control since he basically did nothing G1 but play a heretic. so in comes the crushing vines, death's caress, and two chills. dont know what i took out, if anything, but i end up with 46 cards and 19 lands. so perhaps my sideboard strategy wasn't correctly instilled. i'm a bit tilted at this point and just want to try anything to kill that reaver.  the chills were to outrace his GY hate, and possibly get his splash colors in the graveyard.

i open with a boneyard wurm, two chills, a death's caress and a mulch, woodland and swamp. pretty much a perfect hand for what i want to do. mulch for land drops. mill 10 consecutive cards, play a huge ass wurm, and kill the major threat he plays.

it plays out pretty much as expected. he goes turn one dagger (threw me a bit), and another turn 2 heretic. so i chill hitting him a spare from evil, fiend hunter, plains, warden of the wall... and a forest. FOREST??  wtf? didn't i see 3 colors already G1?  so now i'm losing to a 4 color bomb the f*ck out of me deck? sure, lets see what i milled... alchemy, stranleroot gesit, ghoultree, evil twin, and dream twist.   F.  M.  L.

turn 4 i play a screeching skaab followed by a 5/5 boneyard wurm, against his unequipped heretic, elder cathar, and lifelinking, spirit making inquisitor. turn 5 i start by death caressed his heretic. but what i should've done i think is attacked first all in with dreamtwist backup for potential combat trick. so he removed ghoultree in responsed, making the wurm a 4/4, and i do nothing. could've at least gotten 4-6 damage thru, and killed two potential dudes instead of nothing. next turn he fiend hunter's (2nd in deck) the wurm. trades the inquisitor for the skaab, giving him a token. then he drops dearly departed (3rd bomb flyer for him). play continues, and i have nothing but a makeshift mauler in play and he alpha strikes (wait for it... AFTER travel prepping with flashback and dagger equipped.) the old sawiing for 16 trick with your 3 splash colors. i'm down to 1. i chill looking for a gnaw. to at least drag this out another turn. dont hit it. and scoop.

so there you have it. variance at it's best. i'm really trying to learn from this experience. there were a few questionable (read: desperate) plays on my part, but you have to give credit where credit is due.  his consecutive turn 2 heretics COPMLETLEY threw me off my gameplan. and the bad beat G1 admittedly tilted me a bit to the point of questionable sideboard choices. he drew his bombs, and hit his lands he needed even w/o fixing (he said he had plenty of fixing in his deck, didn't need it apparently).

but lets take a look at the end game state. turn 7 i have 7 lands in play, no issues with colors (as predicted). a makeshift mauler on the battlefield with banshee and trackers instinct in hand. 3 spells  exiled and 16 cards in graveyard, guess how many were lands.... 3.  which means of my remaining 12 cards in library, 9 are lands. not quite the land to spell distribution you would want when milling yourself. spare a creature or removal spell in place of a land and this game... and match... could've gone different.

such is variance. better luck next time i guess.

Zvazda's DII Draft #1

A very interesting draft here gang and my first DII draft.

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34ui2

Suuuuper tough deck build.  Marshall said he takes out the Island, reap and Silent departure for Altar's reap and chant.  Those help out my charmbreaker devils, but you don't really want to be getting back Altar's reap with a charmbreaker devils.  Maybe my build was too greedy here, and two U sources is a little odd, but I really wanted to be hitting black (bloodline keeper) and needed to hit my red two drops early.  Do you get greedy, or do you keep it easy?

The Matches:

R1G1 - We both stumbled on mana a little, but when I finished I had a bloodline keeper.  He was able to Make a Wish to lucksack into a prey upon... but I had a ghoulcaller's chant in hand and was able to get him back.  I had to spend my next turn morkrut bansheeing his avacyn's pilgrim so that he couldn't use his Gavony Township and then could drop my bloodline keeper the following turn.  I trade my banshee for his darkthicket wolf and the board state resolves itself like this:

He drops an ironsmith and I drop a ghoul.  He drops a juggernaut and I draw a charmbreaker devils.  I attack him to 8 with my vampire token and drop a charmbreaker devils.

He slams in with everything and blocks go like this:

After the smoke clears... I'm at 10 and he's at 8.  I can attack for 7 in the air and flash back fires for the win... so I have to assume he sees this and that he has a trick.  Reap comes back from my charmbreaker devils so I make the choice to cast reap, and force him to trade off his juggy if he does have a trick.  He has a spidery grasp, which kills my keeper.  The devils trades for juggernaut and I put him to 4.  I flash back fires to kill his pyreheart wolf (and cast two spells!) which flips back his two werewolves.  He draws for his turn and concedes.  Needless to say, this game was intense and I felt very proud that I played around spidery grasp correctly, even though it meant sacrificing my Bloodline Keeper and my Charmbreaker Devils!

M1G2 - This game was less exciting because after he got stuck on two lands... I fires of undeath'd his pilgrim I drop bloodline keeper, (he fails to attack into it with his 2/2's which is a mistake).  Then I drop my charmbreaker devils for infinite fires and he snap concedes.

Modo is awesome and I lost all of my other replays so you guys are spared my writeups...  But there was an awesome game where I raced a stormbound geist and invisibile stalker, on the final turn getting to cultist and tragic slip his two blockers and attack for exactsies.

I end up going 3-0 (for the first time in FAR too long)

LISTEN ALONG WITH ZACH


Today I listened to Burn to Shine by Ben Harper and a double album of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance/ Trial By Jury

Lobster667's DII Draft #1

Hey guys! It's time to dive into DKA/ISD/ISD drafts! Check out the sweet draft I just finished:

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34msc

Looks sweet, right? I was really pleased with how the deck shaped up, and felt pretty confident going into the first match. I met a Green/Red werewolves deck which I killed pretty handily in game one. In game two, I had to mull to five and even then didn't get off to a great start, but I slowly stabilized. I knew I was facing a werewolves deck, so I was holding on to a Slayer of the Wicked so as to get some value out of his ETB trigger.

Well - I got more than I was begging for! It must be so hard to be the guy on the other side of the table here...

... I did end up winning that game!

In my next match, I met a really controlly U/W skies deck. In game one, I tried to go aggressive on him (as one is wont to try!), but he had picked up the claustrophobias and burdens I had seen at the draft table, as well as two midnight haunting, a mausoleum guard, and a drogskol captain. I managed to draw the game out a bit (and in truth, he gave me a few outs he shouldn't have), but was ultimately overwhelmed by his airforce.

I boarded in my Urgent Exorcism and Night Terrors (for the captain) and took out the Slayer and the Hauberk (since he had so good removal and no large creatures I needed to be able to deal with). In hindsight, the Scarecrow might actually have been a lot better, and a Paraselene would probably have made it in too if I had picked one up instead of my Maw.

Game two got off better for me but he slowly locked down the board, hiding behind a Stitcher's Apprentice converting stuff to tokens and infini-chumping, and I slowly ran out of gas. I lost staring at a board of six of my own creatures locked down by three Claustrophobia, two Burden of Guilt, and a Niblis of the Breath. It was devastatingly depressing to lose a match with a deck this good, but I swallowed my pride and congratulated my opponent on his great control deck (he went on to lose the finals 0-2 - against what, I don't know).

My match 3 was pretty uninteresting - I was facing a Black/Red deck which wanted to be a Vampire deck, which resulted in me being able to kill stuff like Erdwal Ripper, Falkenrath Torturer and Vampire Interloper with my Bell-ringers and Voiceless Spirit. He slowed my offence down one game with a Scarecrow (which I killed with a Skillfully Lunging Disciple of Griselbrand), presented a threat it Falkenrath marauders (which I ignored and attacked past for the win). His deck also had the nice traitorous blood + fling combo, and he almost got to reuse it with Past in Flames. His deck was too messy, though, and I easily wiped him out, going 2-1 with a deck I felt could've done a lot better. I don't think I did any (major) play mistakes, but I am beginning to suspect that I should have kept my eyes more open in the draft and made sure I had more Enchantment hate in my sideboard...

Comments and Critique is very welcome!
Cheers,
Lobster667.

Yablo's DII Draft #1

Here's my most recent draft:  http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34fuj

Ended up going 1-2.  It was a quick deck but light on creatures.  I started my DKA pack thinking I was going to be RG but once I got to the INN packs I switched to RB.  This sort of screwed me when it came to # of creatures.

Undying Evil saved my butt several times and those Hounds just create terrible match ups for villain.  Sadly I got stuck on 2 mana a couple games which lead to losses.  Those games I did get my mana drops I ended up either winning or losing with villain only having >5 life left.

As always any critique would be appreciated.  I think I need to know when to set my colors sooner.

Yablo

Lobster667's DII Draft #1

We've got a special peek on a draft of mine here - because the guy who beat me in round two and ended up winning the draft was kind enough to share his draft record file and decklist with me after the event! So without further ado, here are our two drafts (commented by me, both) and the resulting decks:
CptTyler's draft:

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34dix

Lobster667 (two seats "upstream" from CptTyler Pack one)'s draft: http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34eau

And the resulting decks:

As I said, CptTyler went on to win the draft. I recouped from my loss to him in round two and took home round three to end with a record of 2-1.

Please take a look and critique mine and CptTyler's drafts - and my critique of his draft!

Cheers,
Lobster667.

Oraymw's DII Draft #1

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34fuk

Here's the Raredraft link: http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=34fuk

And, here's a link to the screenshot of the deck: http://twitpic.com/8qut9s/full
This was a great draft. I ended up following every principle that I outlined in my article at http://puremtgo.com/articles/ars-arcanum-dark-ascension-limited-overview. I went with an enemy color deck. I built for the long, grindy game. I picked up extra mana sources. I even first picked a Cobbled Wings in pack 2.



As far as deckbuilding, it seemed pretty straightforward to me. The Cobbled Wings is key with my larger creatures. I don’t include Rotting Fensnake, since it is mediocre. I didn’t go with 18 lands since I have a Pilgrim and a Caravan Vigil, but if I didn’t have them, then this would definitely be an 18 land deck.



On to the matches!



Match one, I face off against a UW deck splashing red for Charmbreaker Devils, some removal, and a couple werewolves. Game 1, he gets a Village Ironsmith flipped early, and I get stuck on three mana. Lucky, I managed to get down an Avacyn’s Pilgrim, and I had all my colors available. A well timed Lingering Souls followed by Travel Preparations meant I could hold off his team. Jar of Eyeballs got some counters on it, which let me find some land, and then I managed to land Slayer of the Wicked and Black Cat in the same turn. From there, I could start applying pressure, and he couldn’t come back. Game 2, I didn’t get any early pressure, and I instead only got down a T2 Cobbled Wings, and T3 Jar of Eyeballs. Luckily, his first play was a turn 3 Voiceless Spirit. Next turn, he played a Drogskol Captain and attacked me for three, but I was able to rip a Strangleroot Geist, play it, cast Deadly Allure on it, forced the Captain to attack, get back a 3/2 Geist, and equip Cobbled Wings. T5 I got down an Ulvenwald Mystics with Cobbled Wings vs. his Voiceless Spirit and Chapel Geist. He tapped out for an Elgaud Inquistitor, and I flashbacked Deadly Allure to eat his Voicless Spirit. Slayer of the Wicked killed my werewolf, but then I dropped Geistcatcher Rig, killed his Chapel Geist, and got in for some damage. The next turn saw my guys die to Burning Oil + Flashback, and then I got down a One-Eyed Scarecrow, but not much else. He played Charmbreaker Devils. Blood Feud came down the next turn, and ate one of my guys, and then I had to chump the Devils. Luckily, Jar of Eyeballs allowed me to draw into Lingering Souls, which I played with Flashback. I was able to get in with a few damage here and there, but he kept eating my guys with Blood Feud, then I would draw two cards (Jar of Eyeballs). Eventually, I managed to force him to hold back the Devils instead of trading with a Geistcatcer’s Rig. I then got Strangleroot Geist and Deadly Allure, played the Geist and the Allure, attacked and forced the Devils to block, and the game was downhill from there.



Match two, I faced another UW deck. Game 1, he got stuck on mana, but landed an early Stitched Drake that I couldn’t attack into. Luckily, he thought we were racing, and kept attacking me, so I got him down low, and was able to alpha strike for exactsies. Game 2, I missed my third land drop against Lingering Souls. I had out a Cobbled Wings, but things were looking Grim. He had me down to where he could attack for lethal with Selfless Cathar, but I got down some creatures, equipped them with Cobbled Wings, and ate a few tokens to keep me at 3 life. Avacyn’s Pilgrim gave me some white mana, and I dropped Lingering Souls with Flashback to stabilize. Casting Deadly Allure three times in one turn, as well as Travel Preparations allowed me to eat most of his team. After that, it was a case of strategically equipping Cobbled Wings to keep back his flyers. Ulvenwald Mystics eventually flipped, making it the biggest creature in the skies. Regenerating Dragons are good. After a few good trades, I just out card advantaged him for the win.



Match three, I face yet another UW deck. This one featured double Divine Reckoning. Game 1, he gets there with Divine Reckoning at exactly the right times, and barely manages to beat me when I have lethal on the crackback. Game 2, I get stuck on three mana, with only a Skirsdag Flayer and a Black Cat on the board. I manage to Travel Preps them up, which is good since he only has a Spectral Rider for racing. I suspect that this means he has Divine Reckoning up, and he doesn’t want to play more guys, so I keep racing him for a few turns. Divine Reckoning eats one of my guys, but I managed to stabilize by playing Travel Preparations twice on a couple of creatures. This forces him to flashback his Divine Reckoning, holding back just his Silverclaw Griffin. He also has a Moorland Haunt, which will allow him to chump until he kills me with the Griffin. However, after Divine Reckoning, I rip Geistcatcher’s Rig, and end up winning the game. Game 3, I kept a one-lander with Avacyn’s Pilgrim and Lingering Souls. I rip lands off the top both times, and my turns go like this. T1 Forest, Avacyn’s Pilgrim, T2 Lingering Souls, T3 Strangleroot Geist, Flashback Lingering Souls, T4 Travel Preparations, Flashback Travel Preparations, Deadly Allure. The game was pretty much over after that.



The key thing about this deck is that while I had plenty of early action in things like Strangleroot Geist and Lingering Souls, I also had plenty of things to leverage the late game, which made my deck able to compete in the new format. The first two decks I faced tried to get tempo their way through, but they just didn’t have the tools to do it. The last deck had the Divine Reckonings, and he probably had an advantage over me, but that last draw was just so awesome that he didn’t have a chance.



Lingering Souls was amazing. Strangleroot Geist was as well. Deadly Allure was key to many of my wins. Jar of Eyeballs was great in the extended game. Cobbled Wings was superb. Overall, I liked this deck a lot.