Dan Draft #2

Pack 1, Pick 1:



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Pack 1, Pick 2:

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I considered Battlements and Skyscout here. U/G isn't a very strong color combination since it lacks removal. Skycout is a fine card, but Adept has greater potential being a leveler to combo with Venerated Teacher or Time of Heroes. Early on given two cards of comparable quality I go for the one that has greater potential in the final deck.

Pack 1, Pick 3:

My Pick:


I believe I've found my second color. Brimstone Mage single-handedly beats some strategies and is a strong signal to go red.

Pack 1, Pick 4:

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Pack 1, Pick 5:

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Deprive's value goes up the more bombs you have to protect and the easier it is for you to leave up UU. While I don't necessarily know about the second part yet, Idefinitely would like to protect Sphinx.

Pack 1, Pick 6:

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Pack 1 was excellent, with strong bombs, quality removal, and good creatures. Nothing to complain about.

Pack 2, Pick 1:

My Pick:


Yes, it was nice.

Pack 2, Pick 2:

My Pick:


Here the pick is between Rage Nimbus and Keening Stone. Hatcher is a good creature but we lack Eldrazi to use it with. Stone is a pretty fast win con but cannot influence the board. Rage Nimbus is a defender for any Vent Sentinels we take as well as being a very effective way to remove small creatures. It is the easy pick for the deck.

Pack 2, Pick 3:

My Pick:


I am not drafting an aggro deck, so Kiln Fiend is out. there are many good cards in the pack in other colors and none of them are unanswerable, so I take the solid Lay Bare.

Pack 2, Pick 4:

My Pick:


Curve issues prevent taking the second Wall. Oracle is a solid guy in his own right.

Pack 2, Pick 5:

My Pick:


Wow second Mammoth Umbra and Dawnglare Invoker. Someone's going to be happy. We're content to take the excellent blocker. Surreal Memoir isn't fully powered up right now with just counters and Heat Ray.

Pack 2, Pick 6:

My Pick:


Late game fuel, insane with Sphinx, and can leverage us to Eldrazi mana with walls holding the fort. Great to see 6th pick.

Pack 2, Pick 7:

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Pack 2, Pick 8:

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Surreal Memoir has the same issues as before, but I still mispicked. With the deck featuring a heavy defender theme the goal will be to gum up the ground and win through the air. Lagac Lizard is unlikely to do anything.

Pack 2, Pick 9:

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Pack 3, Pick 1:

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Pack 3, Pick 2:

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Splinter Twin is strong with Mnemonic Wall but I go for mana consistency here as casting Sphinx is top priority. Also allows splashing Sarkhan, a consideration for later.

Pack 3, Pick 3:

My Pick:


While I do enjoy teaching lessons, the 2/2 is nothing compared to the amazing removal spell, which will help take down anything our walls can't nullify.

Pack 3, Pick 4:

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Pack 3, Pick 5:

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Solid creature over See Beyond is the pick. The walls should buy time to make the need for filtering less intense.

Pack 3, Pick 6:

My Pick:


Wow. Should be one of the best cards in the deck. Synergy with removal, counters, and Vent Sentinels.

Pack 3, Pick 7:

My Pick:


Hatedrafted. This card has potential to be very annoying against our defenders if we fail to draw Staggershock for it. Rampart will not be needed to haste up anything since the final deck will be very controlling. A 1/3 for 3 isn't that effective at blocking and maximizing Sentinels won't be a concern as we have many defenders already.

Pack 3, Pick 8:

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My decklist:
1 Rage Nimbus
1 Rapacious One
1 Skywatcher Adept
1 Sarkhan the Mad
2 Mnemonic Wall
2 Ogre Sentry
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Brimstone Mage
1 Sphinx of Magosi
2 Staggershock
2 Vent Sentinel
1 Deprive
1 Frostwind Invoker
1 Lay Bare
1 Guard Gomazoa
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Heat Ray
1 Sea Gate Oracle
7 Mountain
1 Swamp
9 Island
1 Evolving Wilds

Sideboard
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
2 Eel Umbra
1 Ogre Sentry
1 Merfolk Observer
1 Nighthaze
1 Enatu Golem
1 Soulsurge Elemental
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Stalwart Shield-Bearers
1 Arrogant Bloodlord
1 Champion's Drake
1 Mountain
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Lay Bare
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Lagac Lizard
1 Eland Umbra
1 Reality Spasm
1 Crab Umbra

This draft I think went pretty well. I was happy with the deck; it had removal, walls and bombs. Here’s how the rounds went.

Round 1
My opening hand had 4 lands, Skywatcher Adept, Ogre Sentry and Sarkhan the Mad. My opponent was playing UWG levelers, and he started with Knight of Cliffhaven and Skywatcher Adept. I missed my 5th land drop, but drew Guard Gomazoa. But he came back with Venerated Teacher into Time of Heroes and Drake Umbra on the Adept. I think he should have Umbra’ed the Teacher. I traded my Adept and a Staggershock for his Knight of Cliffhaven. He cast Survival Cache, and I was still missing my 5th land. Next turn, I countered his Pelakka Wurm with Deprive. Guard Gomazoa was still holding back a very large Skywatcher Adept, and I finally drew enough lands to play Sphinx of Magosi. When I untapped with Lay Bare, his death was inevitable.

Game 2
I started with Adept into Sentry again. He had Time of Heroes and Adept too. The Adepts eventually traded after I leveled mine to full, and I played Rage Nimbus. He played Stomper Cub, but it just traded for Sentry and damage. I then cast Brimstone Mage and he cast Ulamog’s Crusher, which traded for two of my lands, Rage Nimbus, and Vent Sentinel (Sea Gate Oracle survived the encounter). I had to play into a pump spell here, but he didn’t have it, and knowing that made the rest of the gameplay much simpler. I don’t think I could’ve won if he had a pump spell, because I wouldn’t have been able to beat his Crusher. I then drew the two Staggershocks, which killed a couple creatures. He had a Outrider, but I played Sphinx, and when I untapped with it, Deprive and Mnemonic Wall in my hand, the game was effectively over.

Round 2
He opened with Null Champion which got hit with Staggershock. I played a Vent Sentinel on 4, and started grinding him down, with an Ogre Sentry and a Guard Gomazoa. A second one, with Eel Umbra got Heat Ray’ed in response. Then he Corpse Hatched my Guard Gomazoa, and played Hellcarver Demon. He attacked with Demon, which knocked me to 13, and the only thing Demon did was go for a Scuttle. I drew another Ogre Sentry, he attacked again, which knocked me to 7, where he hit Vendetta and Cadaver Imp. He Vendetta’ed my Vent Sentinel, falling to 1 on the activation, and played the Cadaver Imp. I untapped, drew another blank, and attacked with my Sea Gate Oracle, and he chose to be on Team No Blocks…..(ps he died).

Game 2
He had Null Champion equipped with Warmonger’s Chariot, and I had Brimstone Mage which was leveling. The race was on. I played an Ogre Sentry, and he was missing land drops, so didn’t attack to trade Champion for Sentry, and just started leveling. He Induce Despair’ed the Brimstone Mage, but it was Lay Bared, showing his hand full of expensive blue cards and an Eel Umbra I would have to play around. I played Vent Sentinel, and had Deprive up, and chumped the fully leveled Champion with an Ogre Sentry, and Brimstone Mage’d him to 8. I untapped, played Sarkhan, made a dragon. He played a spell, it got Deprived, I untapped and and Sarkhan’ed him to the face.

Split the finals to pick up the QP.