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 ;)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lobster667's TSP #1

... I feel like I really stuck to my guns in this draft and made a good work of claiming Red to myself early on and only branching out when there was nothing really in my colour. I was kind of surprised at how late some cards were going (the Ivory Giants in pack one, per example), but even then I felt like I did a fine job of abandoning those cards if the support wasn't there.

The deck ended up making the finals, where I lost to another really good R/G deck after winning the first game and narrowly losing the second. I mulled to five in the third game and never got a shot at establishing a board position before I was killed by huge beaters and a suspended flier. It was a really interesting match with a sort-of disappointing finish, but I was still perfectly fine with it, and I won three packs, which is great.

I made some pretty sick plays in the first two matches.. One game, I curved out with Turn one suspend Halberdier, turn two suspend the other halberdier and crack Terramorphic, turn three Totem, turn five Fomori Nomad. My opponent conceded and I never even got to play the Sprout Swarm in my hand!

I did in another game, though. In fact, I got to play it seven times with buyback, and then with 10 creatures on the board to villain's 3, cast it without buyback, then casting the Haze of Rage first with buyback and then without, for a total of five copies. I swung for 67 on turn 10 and obviously absolutely murdered my opponent.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this draft and with playing the deck. If you want to try your own Time Spiral Block draft deck against it, just catch me on modo, I'm "Diamondeye" on there :)

-Lobster667.