Kai Draft #13 (8-4)

This draft is one I did with fellow Rusty Machete writer Jacob Elkon. As luck would have it, we were seated next to each other. It's a pretty wild ride, strap yourself in. :) Jayelk has posted a companion article to this, so enjoy the 2 birds eye view of the draft!




Pack 1, Pick 1:

My Pick:


My favorite deck in this format is Grixis control. This pack is packed full of goodies for that deck. But early on I take the most powerful card, which is Brimstone Mage by far.

Pack 1, Pick 2:

My Pick:


I take Battlements as it pairs well with the Mage. Whereas the Vindicator is an abstractly stronger card R/W is pretty bad.
Pack 1, Pick 3:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 4:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 5:

My Pick:


I would windmill slam it early in pack 1. Which is exactly where I am now. By this point I'm pretty sure someone on my right in some token strategy since I'm getting cut pretty hard in my base colors, both of which should have heavy token makers coming in.
Pack 1, Pick 6:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 8:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 10:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 11:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 12:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 13:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 14:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 15:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 1:

My Pick:


I'm more interested in the 10/9 as a finisher than the level up dragon. Since the 10/9 will provide a more immediate game ending effect as well as added card advantage. Plus I will be base green in this deck to get Battlements on curve, so dragon is lackluster.

Pack 2, Pick 2:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 3:

My Pick:


2 Battlements is better than 1. It's better than Hatcher as the early game is the deck's weakest and Battlements helps get out of the early game faster.
Pack 2, Pick 4:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 5:

My Pick:


Don't need another Crusher with one already and an Artisan. The acceleration is much appreciated by my deck and Jacob should be fine getting another piece of candy from this pack.
Pack 2, Pick 6:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 7:

My Pick:


Jacob gets Spawning Breath to go with his Brood Birthing plan, so we aren't fighting too much.
Pack 2, Pick 8:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 10:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 11:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 12:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 13:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 14:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 15:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 1:

My Pick:


I would normally snap take the Consume the Meek. But given that I have no black cards it's not really an option. Narcolepsy is the strongest removal and easily splashable.
Pack 3, Pick 2:

My Pick:


I can't reliably cast the 8/8 given my 2-color deck, and Gnarlid is good with Penon Blade.
Pack 3, Pick 3:

My Pick:


WE'RE GNARLY!
Pack 3, Pick 4:

My Pick:


Also good with Gnarlid. And fine with Hatchers.
Pack 3, Pick 5:

My Pick:


Very good with Eldrazi and 2x Battlement.
Pack 3, Pick 6:

My Pick:


We hate levelers. They are too fast. This'll slow them down a lot.
Pack 3, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 8:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 9:

My Pick:


I was concerned that I would lack finishers, so Hand gets the nod over the third Breath.
Pack 3, Pick 10:

My Pick:


While Battle-Rattle is very good with Gnarlid, I shouldn't need him. The fetch helps cement the Narcolepsy splash.
Pack 3, Pick 11:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 12:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 13:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 14:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 15:

My Pick:


The deck:

The 22nd card was either Hedron Matrix or Hand of Emrakul. While the Matrix is very good with Gnarlid, I felt the finishing power of the 7/7 was better. I figured I would need to natural fat more than would need to move around the +X/+X bonus. In retrospect Hedron was probably the right call. The Mnemonic wall is pretty min value, but synergizes with the battlements and can recycle Breath or Discoveries or the SB Naturalize.

Round 1: emperorclobbersaurus with B/W tokens.

Game 1: I keep a 2 lander double Battlements hand on the draw. He snap Vendetta's my first wall. I miss my land drop next turn and play the second wall. Meanwhile he's played Knight of Cliffhaven +Level once and Corpsehatches on Gnarlid the following turn. I dig out my mana with Ondu Giant a bit too slowly and am very dead to his Nomad's Assembly + level 4 Knight.

SB: nothing. I didn't see Guard Duty or Mammoth Umbra so I didn't bring in Naturalize.

Game 2: I mull on the draw into Hedron, Spawning Breath, Narcolepsy, and lands. I draw a Battle Rampart on 3 but should've avoided casting it to play around the Bala Ged Scorpion, which he obviously had the next turn. I had nothing I needed/could give haste to next turn, so playing the 1/3 just gave him value. I Spawning Breath Kor Line-Slinger and then cast Hatcher. I draw a land so I cast Artisan getting Rampart back. Artisan meets Guard Duty and my Rampart is Scorpion'd a 2nd time. I Narcolepsy his Knight of Cliffhaven to return the favor and Hatcher stares down his 2/3's. Hedron draws me three cards and he has added no further pressure so I'm pretty far ahead. Dread Drone doesn't really change the situation. His Nomad's Assembly does, however. He is bad and blocks my Hand of Emerakul and allows me to exchange for 4 tokens and Bala Ged Scorpion with damage and 1 token to Annilator so the rebounded Assembly is very weak. We stall out with him having Skeletal Wurm and me still having my 10/9 on defense. I draw Momentous Fall with 12 cards left, and use it to draw 7 with Valakut Fireboar attack instead of 10 with Artisan to allow Brimstone Mage to kill him before I deck myself. I draw the Penon Blade and suit up Gnarlid with it which kills him from 15 in one hit.

Sideboard: - Hand of Emerakul + Naturalize.
Naturalizing a Guard Duty is way better than playing a Hand since anything that is being put on Guard Duty is going to be better than the 7/7.

Game 3: I keep a hand without red mana and Spawning Breath, Brimstone Mage, Crusher, Penon Blade on the draw. I miss for a while and he Vendetta's my Gnarlid. I get the mountain for Mage and use it to bash with the Blade after putting his Knight in Narcolepsy. He plays Line-Slinger even though I can level up Mage and an Arrogant Bloodlord. Bloodlord is terrible against all my walls and spawn tokens, but the 8-4's were a bit soft tonight. He has Scorpion to kill Battlements, which conveniently shrinks the Mage with Blade on it so his guy connects for 4. I kill his Line-Slinger when he taps my Mage. A few turns later this happens.

This is the only time I've not hasted a Crusher so it could play defense. Eating a Narcolepsy'd Knight and some Spawn is not a good trade for taking 6 on the backswing. Can't always play on autopilot.

My opponent makes a terrible blunder next turn and sacrifices Scorpion and Knight to the annihilator trigger instead of irrelevant lands. He also makes the double block before he has regen mana available. The Spawning Breath shoots his head and makes my Crusher 12/12, and eats both of his guys for free. He topdecks a Guard Duty for my Eldrazi, but his spawn friend picks up Blade and goes to work, easily dispatching what's left of my opponent's life total.

Round 2: Lashkor with UGW

From scouting I know he has Gideon Jura, multiple Frostwind Invokers, and Wall of Omens. He has a small Aura Gnarlid theme as well, which I can fight with my own Gnarlids. The only card that worries me is Gideon, but his mana is terrible so I should be able to 2-1 the match easily.

Game 1: I keep 2x Island, Penon Blade, Aura Gnarlid, Brimstone Mage, Spawning Breath, Momentous Fall on the draw. I know his deck is very slow and the Gnarlid and Mage are both hard for him to deal with. He makes the sweet move of Regressing my land on my upkeep, when I had just naturally not drawn any lands anyways. I replay and discard a Hatcher. I finally get some lands and play Aura Gnarlid. He Guard Duties it since his board is 2 wall of omens. Cool dude. I suite up with the Blade since I have no 5th land for Hatcher. He plays his own Gnarlid and puts Spider Umbra on it. I get to play Hatcher on my turn. He attacks. I snap block with my Gnarlid. He casts Regress on my Penon Blade, so my Gnarlid is a 4/4 to his 5/5. Mine dies, causing Guard Duty to leave play, so his Umbra falls off of his Gnarlid and it goes back to 2/2. Nice 3 for 1 bro. He does a whole bunch of leveling on Halimar Wavewatch but I have Shared Discovery and Momentous Fall to draw into my Narcolepsy and more than enough guys to overwhelm him as he doesn't draw Gideon.

SB: - Hand of Emrakul + Naturalize.

Game 2: He mulls to 6 on the play. He puts Guard Duty on my turn 3 Gnarlid. Even though I've shown no other auras other than Narcolepsy in the match he just has the fear. I Naturalize and bash. He has his own Gnarlid plus Hyena Umbra. He decides to swing at me even though I played Mnemonic Wall and got back Naturalize. We trade beats. On his next attack I naturalize the Umbra, and he responds with Regress on the Umbra. I allow this, then double Spawning Breath the Gnarlid before damage and get to cast Shared Discovery the next turn. I play Hatcher into Artisan, and he has Guard Duty for Gnarlid and Narcolepsy for Artisan. The photo shows what happens next.

I cast Momentous Fall on the 10/9, then played Rampart and Hatcher, and then Shared Discovery. The turn after I play Crusher and Gnarlid, and haste up Crusher. He complains about mana screw and intentionally disconnects, holding up the draft for 10 minutes while MTGO waits for him to come back, then forces him to concede when he does not return.

Yes bro, you definitely lost because of the mana screw. Not because I outdrew you by 16 during that game.

Finals: jayelk with G/R tokens.
We split the draft, since it was all funded by my packs and tix anyways.

That, is how you ringer an 8-4. We were seated next to each other and even ended up in the same colors, yet both managed to make our way to the finals. :)

Hope you enjoyed our first double view of a draft, let us know in the comment section if you liked it, and we'll do more in the future if the feedback is positive.

Thanks for reading!