Oraymw's AVR Draft #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=3a6nv

I ended up in UG again, no surprises there, but it's definitely where I want to be. The draft portion went really well. I could have picked up some strong Red and White cards in pack 2, but passing them on seemed pretty good, since I really got hooked up in pack three.

My questions are as follows:

1. P1P9 seems like it shouldn't matter much, but I'm interested in what people think about taking the sideboard card over the distraction.
2. Should I have jumped into Red or White in pack two, or was I right to keep passing it down the line?
3. This is the big one. P3P3... do you take Mist Raven or Soul of the Harvest?

As for deckbuilding, I decided to cut the Deathwind / Abundant Growth package. Keeping it would have meant cutting both Spectral Prisons, which just doesn't seem right. However, there are plenty of matchups where Spectral Prison sucks, and in those matchups, I'd be perfectly happy to cut the Prisons for the Death Wind package. I also decided to leave out the Pathbreaker Wurm in favor of a second Nettle Swine.

So, my questions for this one are:

1. Do you put in the Deathwind package, or keep the two Prisons?
2. Do you put in the Wurm over the Nettle Swine?

As for the games:

M1G1 – I go up against BR. He gets down an early Scalding devil, but I rip two Islands in a row, and get down Fettergeist, and then Mist Raven on a Hanweir Lancer. Tandem Lookout + Mist Raven was a pretty severe beating. He managed to get a really big Havengul Vampire after playing Thatcher Revolt.  But Crippling Chill + Trusted Forcemage closed out the game.
M1G2 – T3 Fettergeist, T4 Mist Raven, T5 Druid’s Familiar is a pretty severe beating. I accidentally let my Fettergeist die, but filled my board with Borderland Ranger and Scrapskin Drake. Into the Void + Peel from Reality + Crippling Chill finishes him off.

Match 2 – My opponent was WB. The replays didn’t work here, so I can’t recount the games, but he mulled to five in the first, and I crushed him. Game 2, I got Fettergeist into Trusted Forcemage and crushed him again.

M3 was against clanmate Duerstine. His deck was a pretty good RG build. In the first game, I got off to a pretty good early start, and had him up against the wall, but then he dropped both Ulvenwald Tracker and Zealous Conscripts in the same game for a huge tempo swing. The next turn, he started picking off my guys. I had him at two life with a Scrapskin Drake, but he killed that. I managed to rip a Mist Raven, bounce the Tracker and survive the backswing. He didn’t have removal, so I won.

Game 2 was over pretty quickly. He drew all lands, I drew all creatures and tempo spells.

 Let me know what you think.

Zvazda's AVR Draft #1

Here's my first AVR draft.  The first pack was a little weird with signals, I think because the power level wasn't there, but I'm interested to see if you think I missed anything.

Deckbuilding:

I should have played moonlight geist.  Probably over wingcrafter?

This deck 3-0'd pretty handily.  The highlight was getting my 3 Sanctifiers in my graveyard, getting them back with my angel... while having my nephalia smuggler on the field.  I got to keep blocking with my sanctifiers... then gain 9 life.

Lemme know where you think I messed everything up.

Oraymw's AVR Draft #1

Oraymw brings us our first Avacyn Restored draft!

AVR draft!

When I first took a look at the full spoiler of Avacyn Restored, I knew in my bones that Blue/Green would be the best color combination. It wasn’t hard to figure out; I’ve aggressively drafted UG in every draft format I have ever played, even when it isn’t good. Every constructed deck that I’ve ever taken to a tourney has been UG. Essentially UG : Oraymw :: RW : Paul Rietzl. Avacyn Restored is sort of a mixed blessing. UG is awesome, but it is also a little bit overdrafted. I’m better at putting together a UG deck than most people, but the pieces might not always show up. But, it is with great pleasure that I get to bring you this draft as my first for the blog during the AVR season.

My main questions on the draft:

1. Do you think it was correct to move into Blue with P1P4 Into the Void?

2. Which is the better pick of P1P8 Flowering Lumberknot vs. Nettle Swine?

3. What do you think of Conjurer’s Closet (P3P5)?

For deck-building, I decided not to go with the Flowering Lumberknot package. Playing it would have probably meant cutting Bladed Bracers, Mass Appeal, and Conjurer’s Closet, but I just don’t think the upside was really there. If I put the package in, then I get one Lumberknot, but I have to have two Escorts. Although they seem fine in this deck, it seems like I can get a little more value out of the Bracers, Appeal, Closet package. The other big debate for me was between Abundant Growth, Fleeting Distraction, and Mass Appeal for the 23rd slot. I like all three cards, and I originally had the Growth, but I felt like the Appeal was going to be 2 or 3 cards often enough with 9 humans that it deserved the nudge here.

So, the main questions from deck-building are as follows:

1. Do you think I should have gone after the Lumberknot deck more aggressively, just like I did, or passed it for the Nettle Swine?

2. Do you put in Mass Appeal for the 23rd card? Or something else?

Onto the Matches!

M1G1 – I went T2 Timberland Guide, T3 Timerland Guide + Bracers, T4 Mist Raven, T5 Geist Trappers, T6 Into the Void. He just played a few black creatures that all got bounced to his hand.

M1G2 – T3 Borderland Ranger, T4 Mist Raven, T5 Conjurer’s Closet. Everything after that was just a formality.

M2G1 – This was probably the best game of all. I play some Wandering Wolves early, and he gets down a Demonic Taskmaster, which I take down with Crippling Chill. I get a down a Timberland Guide, pumping up a wolf, and the next turn I lay out a Crippling Chill on his Taskmaster. He’s forced to Death Wind his own guy, but I’m stuck on three. He gets out a Gang of Devils and a Hound of Griselbrand and rips a Lightning Wrath to deal with my 4/3 Wandering Wolf (two guides). I get my fourth land, and get down a Mist Raven, and he’s forced to start holding guys back to block. He then drops an Exquisite Blood with a bunch of large creatures, and I have to start chumping his Hound of Griselbrand, since I can’t race it with my Mist Raven. I get Deadeye Navigator down and paired with Mist Raven without mana to spare, and his attack gets me to 14. I drop a Galvanic Alchemist, and get him to 1, but the Exquisite Blood means that if any creature connects, I’m in trouble. I bounce a bunch of guys, none of his get through, and then he drops a Demonlord of Ashmouth, sacrificing Gang of Devils to get my Navigator to lethal and deal one to me, which puts him at 2. He only has the Demonlord back for blocks, while I’ve got a Mist Crow and a Galvanic Alchemist. I rip a Bladed Bracers, equip it to the Alchemist, and attack for the win.

M2G2 – T3 Borderland Ranger, T4 Trusted Forcemage and Bladed Bracers. He then drops an Undead Executioner. I equip the Ranger and attack with both. He blocks the forcemage, the Executioner dies, and he puts the -2/-2 on the Forcemage, but I respond with Ghostly Flicker, saving my guy and getting a land out of the deal. He drops a Dread Slaver that seems like it should stabilize him, but I rip a Blessings of Nature, and miracle it for 1 mana. I attack, put him to 2, and he draws a card and concedes.

M3G1 – T2 Wandering Wolf, T3 Borderland Ranger. He drops a Searchlight Geist, and I get down a Forcemage paired with the wolf. He trades with the Ranger. He plays a Mist Raven, bouncing my Forcemage. I then get a Forcemage and a Timberland Guide, which gets the Wandering Wolf to 4/3. He puts a Tormentor’s Trident on his Mist Raven, so that it can block. Crippling Chill locks down the raven, followed by an Alchemist. Mass Appeal drawing three the next turn puts him out of the game.

M3G2 – I get stuck at two mana with a bunch of three drops in hand…

M3G3 – T2 Wandering Wolf, T3 Borderland Ranger, T4 Mist Raven, T5 Into the Void, T6 Deadeye Navigator. Everything else is just a formality.

This deck ended up being ridiculously good. There was one close game, and one game that I lost to mana screw. Besides that, they were pretty much all blowouts. This is the exact kind of deck that shows how incredibly good Mist Raven is in this format. It was also a lot of fun to do all the flickering shenanigans with my Ravens and whatnot. UG is really, really good in this format.

Lobster's Cube #1

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=36wl7

This was actually the third time I tried drafting the MTGO cube: After 2-1'ing two Swiss queues, one with Red-white aggro and one with a green-blue ramp deck, I decided to jump into an 8-4 and give the more competitive queues a shot - I ended up with a really good deck, too. Let's see...

My first match was against a White/Black reanimation deck: In game one, he mulliganed, groaned, mulliganed, paused, mulliganed two more times and conceded. In game two, he started out by stocking his graveyard with three creatures (Elesh Norn being the best of them), so I sat tight and only played my sword until I could cast Mirran Crusader and equip in the same turn. When he animated Elesh Norn on his own turn, my Crusader survived and I untapped, Swords to Plowshared the Cenobite and hit him for a kabillion damage, which caused him to rage quite a bit before conceding.

I don't recall a lot of game two; I think my opponent's deck was fine, but in one game I got in a hit with Hero of Bladehold, Raging Ravine and tokens; even though he dealt with the Hero and played a Glen Elendra Archmage to counter my sword and other gas in my hand, he had to chump-block the Ravine to stay alive and I won out that way.

The finals were really exciting; My opponent had a really good white-blue control deck which grinded my out game one. I got back with a relatively swift game two on the back of Primal Commanding Ruhan into my hand and fatesealing him with a useless permanent while I had a 5/5 knight on the table, which caused him to scoop. The final game was really long; I started out really well (Collonade T1, Fetch T2 (which I got the wrong land with - I needed green!), tutoring up sword and then ripping a green land like a lucksack. I unfortunately clicked through my turn without playing either sword or Rhox War Monk - the game lasted almost an hour past this, but it was really close to the end and I suspect that this turn might have been the one that costed me the game. I still had lots of fun and ended up winning four packs, though, so I am not complaining ;)

Cheers,
Lobster667.

Lobster's DII Draft #3

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=36pmy

Another deck with a lot of hard cuts, but I think the deck ended up really good! It can definitely mill people out, but it's also pretty good on the aggressive.

All three rounds were pretty challenging; The first opponent was a white/red deck which seemed kind of aggressive (he played ashmouth hounds and doomed travelers), but I managed to lock him down and killed him in the air with zombie drakes and murdering crows.

The next round was against a really powerful U/B Zombies deck with captain, ghoulraisers, chants and just lots and lots of zombies. He won game one and I barely dug out game two by milling him out with Increasing Confusion and a bell I dropped on T1. Game 3 I just aggro killed him. The matchup was really hard because U/B gets so much value from the graveyard, so milling him was actually not too sweet.

The finals was against a nasty W/G aggro deck which had Midnight Haunting + Increasing Savagery, which is a really hard combo to deal with! I lost game 1 because I pulled the trigger on Feeling of Dread the turn before he could actually flashback the savagery, which meant I died the turn before I could mill him out with Confusion. Luckily, I got back in game two and three and managed to win the draft.

Feedback is welcomed as always! :)

Lobster's DII Draft #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=36o39

Making the cuts from this deck was really hard, by the way, but I think it ended up pretty good!

I beat a confused 3-color mill-yourself deck in the first round before meeting a really sleek Vampire aggro deck in match 2, which almost got me (I sided in the Geistflame to great effect in games 2 and 3!).

In the finals, I met an opponent who was W/B with bad mana and the nerve to keep 1-landers on the play against an aggressive deck. He didn't last long ;)

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.

Lobster667's DKA Draft #2

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=33hwe


I really want some feedback on this deck - I felt like it was extremely promising, but I got out-aggroed by a R/G deck (splashing black) in the first match and was eliminated from the tournament. I want opinions on this: Did I make the right picks? Did I build the right deck? How good does my deck look? What would you expect of it?

Cheers,
Lobster667.

Smerle's DKA draft #1

I definitely went into this one wanting to force UW aggro, as I thought that archetype would be strong.  Turned out pretty well, especially with the Shield's Fateful Hour trick, but ended up losing to a BW deck that was just able to put out as many creatures and had the guy that would tap and create tokens.

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=33e1v

Finished 2-1.

LOBSTER667's DKA Draft

Dark Ascension's kicked off with the online prerelease drafts, and I bit the pricy bullet and gave triple Dark Ascension draft a shot! I have to say, it's an extremely interesting format when you take into account that it's three packs of the same small set. I enjoyed it a lot and I'm looking forward to the more reasonably priced queues of it that will be available February 22nd thru March 7th (I advice you all to give those a shot!).

I ended up going 2-1 in the swiss here, losing the first round to a really good deck in esper colors displaying several Hollowhenge Spirits, a Drogskol Captain and a Havengul Lich (who, in game two, ended up bringing my Drogskol Reaver back - it was epic, even if I was at the retrieving end of it!).

I don't recall a lot from my second match, my deck came really well together and just really squished my opponent, but my third match was really interesting - my opponent was in R/G, playing wolves/werewolves with at least two Immerwolves (he had both out at the same time in game two!), which made me bring in the Wolfhunter's Quiver (which sadly got eaten by a Crushing Vines). I had won the first game but was on the defensive the whole game two until I could flash back Lingering Souls and keep my opponent at bay for long enough to play my Reaver. It stuck and took over the game, which means I ended up winning the match 2-0.

What do you guys think? Did I make the right choices in the draft? Would you have built the deck otherwise?

(I already gave Lobster a hard time about doing a pre-release draft... you don't need to)


http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=338nq

Cheers,
Lobster667.

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

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