Kelley Draft #5 (8-4)

Pack 1, Pick 1:


My Pick:


Recurring Insight is a fine card but it's not P1P1 worthy unless the pack is absolutely rancid, which this pack is not.  The best cards are: Wildheart Invoker, Brimstone Mage, Forked Bolt, and Skywatch Adept.  I could literally pick any of these and be fine with the archetype I am moving into, but I think the best raw power is the Mage.  If I was the guy on my left I'd probably take Forked Bolt which means I'm passcutting him, which is always +EV.

Pack 1, Pick 2:

My Pick:


This is not the kind of pack you want to see P1P2.  No removal, no really great cards, just a few decent ones.  The pick is between the two levelers, and I personally think that Adept has more raw power then Enforcer, even though I've lost plenty of matches to unblockable Enforcers.  U/R is fine, probably not as strong as B/R, but I'm keeping an open mind on my colors after this pick.  Maybe the mythical Kiln Fiend deck will come.

Pack 1, Pick 3:

My Pick:


Ugh, another bad pack.  The Pawn and Revelations are the best cards and 50% of the time they don't even make the cut for the deck if I'm in the colors.  Might as well stick to the colors.

Pack 1, Pick 4:

My Pick:


This draft is shaping up to be pretty rancid.  I take the best card, Griffin, which almost always makes the cut in a white deck.  I may have to abandon a pick or two if white is open.

Pack 1, Pick 5:

My Pick:


Here's a good pack, finally took P1P5 to get a decent card.  I want to stick cutting blue if I can, and think that Sea Gate Oracle is better then Regress, at least for the first Oracle.  Funny, I had 4 of the cards in this pack in my overall deck and another one from this pack I didn't play.

Pack 1, Pick 6:

My Pick:


These guys are fine in multiples, though if I'm in blue I always want a Deprive or two.

Pack 1, Pick 7:

My Pick:


Looks like blue is open, this guy is very underrated in 8-4's, though I'm not sure why.  If you are playing against a blue deck he is your win-con and otherwise he's a big blocker until you need to level him and attack.  Double Surreal Memoir has been passed, so I'm nervous about the Bone-Wand deck already :)

Pack 1, Pick 8:

My Pick:


I guess Gloomhunter is a decent card to just hate, but I have ways to deal with it being in blue/red.  I took the Strike hoping that I get some Kiln Fiends.

Pack 1, Pick 9:

My Pick:


A card I want to have in every blue deck.

Pack 1, Pick 10:

My Pick:


Guess no one's in the Raid Bombardment deck.

Pack 1, Pick 11:

My Pick:


Def not.

Pack 1, Pick 12:

My Pick:


Card is alright, I put it in the board and sided it in most matches because I needed to tap down fliers (to win) or big guys (to live).  

Pack 1, Pick 13:

My Pick:


Yes we maindecked this.  Just needed to live.

Pack 1, Pick 14:

My Pick:


This came out of the board for when I wasn't playing spawn decks, but I probably could have maindecked it. 

Pack 1, Pick 15:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 1:

My Pick:


Sometimes you need a plan, and I just found mine.

Pack 2, Pick 2:

My Pick:


This pick I thought about, no reason to hate the green cards when there are playables in the pack, though Beastbreaker is a problem right now.  Do I need Sea Gate Oracle #3 or the wall?  Right now I have no good targets for the wall, just Revelations and See Beyond.  I took the Wall hoping I'd get removal, well you'll see I didn't but I ran it anyways.

Pack 2, Pick 3:

My Pick:


Wasn't sure about this either, but I figured that this card is always great while Drake needs levelers and then can get blown out by well-timed removal.  I love Purists if I'm in white.

Pack 2, Pick 4:

My Pick:


Hated this card because there are no playables in my colors and I'd have a hard time beating 2/2 spawns otherwise.  Deck doesn't need Hedron Matrix right now.

Pack 2, Pick 5:

My Pick:


Again, I took my time because I wanted to hate draft the Invoker, but I stuck to the colors hoping I'd get removal.  Yeah obviously I didn't and this didn't make the cut.  Sure looks like there are no green drafters on my left.

Pack 2, Pick 6:

My Pick:


I figured Wavewatch #2 was better then Oracle #3 since I needed win cons and walls.  Not a fan of seeing Time of Heroes there so late.

Pack 2, Pick 7:

My Pick:


Worth half a ticket, though I should have hated the Wurm on hindsight.  I will learn next time.

Pack 2, Pick 8:

My Pick:


Not giving some guy 2 ways to beat me.

Pack 2, Pick 9:

My Pick:


Creature fodder.

Pack 2, Pick 10:

My Pick:


More fodder.

Pack 2, Pick 11:

My Pick:


Should have hated the Wurm but I thought I might be playing these cards if I got some more.  Ended up playing a guy with both the Wurms in his deck and it was almost a problem.

Pack 2, Pick 12:

My Pick:


Made the deck just to stay alive.

Pack 2, Pick 13:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 14:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 15:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 1:

My Pick:


Not sure if this was right, but even though Keening Stone is a win-con, Mage is insane and now I have two.

Pack 3, Pick 2:

My Pick:


Much needed removal.

Pack 3, Pick 3:

My Pick:


Shoutout to Max Williams in this pack (hint: Tuk....Tuk....Tuk...).  But we need more removal.  Something in this pack will table for me.

Pack 3, Pick 4:

My Pick:


Wow, yes please!

Pack 3, Pick 5:

My Pick:


Now I'm starting to wonder if I can lose.

Pack 3, Pick 6:

My Pick:


This I wasn't sure about.  I probably should have taken the Spawning Breath as some removal over Adept #2, but oh well.

Pack 3, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 8:

My Pick:


And we passed on another Breath to take the always good Hatcher.

Pack 3, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 10:

My Pick:

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:


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I don't have a screnshot of the deck, but it was:

2x Adept
2x Wavewatch
2x Cryptologist
2x Mage
2x Oracle
2x Lavafume Invoker
2x Hatcher
2x Narcolepsy
See Beyond
Mnemonic Wall
Ogre Sentry
Vent Sentinel
Lagac Lizard
Lord of Shatterskull Pass
Explosive Revelations

I ended up playing Lizard, Vent Sentinel, Sentry, 2x Lavafume Invoker just for dudes to keep me alive until I drew my win cons.  I sided out the walls almost every match for Unified Will and Reality Spasm.

R1 I played a guy that was g/u.  He won the roll but picked me to go first, and I played Wavewatch on two to his Forests.  I wasn't sure what his other color was until he played Growth Spasm on three to get the Island.  I knew this would be good for me.  He played a Wavewatch on four, and used two spawn tokens (Nest Invader) to actually level his up to max before mine, so he was winning the race, which frustrated me.  I played a bunch of dudes in an attempt to even the race, but he played a second Wavewatch on 6 and I had no chance, since I didn't draw a Narcolepsy.  G2 I had to mull to 5 because neither 7 or 6 had any lands in it and I was getting pissed I was going to get knocked out for this.  I kept a 5 with 3 lands, Cryptologist, and Adept.  Well, he had no outs to Cryptologist and I drew my Narcolepsys for his guys.  There was a turn where I left the blue mana up for Will and clutch counterspelled his second Wavewatch which would have caused me trouble.  G3 I had  Cryptologist on 1 again, then Wavewatch, and although he had Naturalize for my first Narco on his Wavewatch, I had the second Narco and I got there.

R2 I played the only guy I got to scout in the first round from videos, a u/b deck packing black levelers, double Last Kiss, double Null, and Drake Umbra.  Didn't see anything real quality besides Drake Umbra.  Well G1 I lost the die roll and had Cryptologist on one but he had Vendetta.  I played Lord of Shatterskull pass on four and he was pretty cold.  G2 I kept a gutsy hand, 2x Island, Unified Will, Sea Gate Oracle, See Beyond, and Explosive Revelations.  He didn't do anything and I See Beyonded into a Cryptologist and land and shuffled away the land.  I had hit two lands in my land draws.  I played Oracle on 3 to his Gloomhunter but his four had Scorpion which put me on a clock.  I played Adept and leveled it to block the Gloomhunter but he had Vendetta and I thought I'd lose this game when he played Escaped Null.  That card though doesn't really do anything but 1 damage a turn, even though I was at 14.  Next turn I played Revelations to kill his Gloomhunter since I couldnt block it and it was better then putting out creatures like Mage or Cryptologist.  He played another Null and I played Oracle #2 and Lavafume to block his null.  I killed a Null (was at 11) and he rebought it with Imp and played it, then I played Lizard and two Cryptologists and chumped one of them and killed a Null.  He was at DI life and I was at 8, but next turn I played Mage and leveled it to kill his Imp.  Luckily he didn't draw his Drake Umbra on any of these turns or we woulda straight up lost (no Narcos in hand).  Next turn we drew Hatcher and he couldn't do shit so I just leveled Mage to max and picked off all his guys.  He drew Domestication which I didn't know he had for my Mage, when I was at 6, but I had Lord out and just leveled it to max to kill my Mage.  Mission complete.

My R3 opponent wanted to split and I declined, first time in awhile because I figured he had no removal.  I played a g/b deck I had scouted which had double Treespeaker, double Skeletal Worm, double Ondu Giant, double Jaddi, and we didn't see any removal but Corpsehatch, so I knew my Cryptologists would get there.  G1 was interesting because he had T1 Treespeaker into T2 Battlement, into T3 Jaddi, even though that does nothing to me.  Two turns later he had a Wurm down to my board which had Cryptologist max.  I drew a bunch of cards and Narcod his guy.  He ended up with another Skeletal Wurm and I had to chump it for about 4 turns off tokens from a Hatcher until I drew Lord.  I leveled up Lord to max and attacked in and he had to save his Wurms so he only had two Jaddi's left to block, which I traded one for a Hatcher of mine.  He also had Mul Daya Channelers but it didn't do anything but let me see the top 3 cards of his library was land before I killed it.  G2 I kept a mediocre hand of 4x land, Wavewatch, Revelations, Hatcher, not sure if I could beat his nut draw.  Of course he had Treespeaker on T1 but he only had Prism T2 instead of Battlement.  I put Wavewatch down and obviously I had Lord on 4.  Sometimes it's just good to be lucky.  He had played a black invoker and I drew Narcolepsy.  He passed and I drew See Beyond.  I only leveled the Lord once because I wanted to See Beyond and hit a Cryptologist that I played.  He cast Skittering Invasion which I wasn't upset with.  I just leveled Lord to 4 since I'm sure it beats him.  He attacked in with black invoker and Treespeaker and I put him on Might of the Masses so I blocked accordingly.  He cast Skeletal Wurm and left a black up, and here's where I probably punted.  He had a token and Prism up for Might but I attacked in with Lord anyways and of course he had it.  I should have just Narcolepsy'd his guy and did that next turn but I didn't want him to play a second Skeletal Wurm off of Treespeaker, because I wasn't sure I could beat that.  Anyways I narco'd his guy anyways and all he did was Mainphase Naturalize it away (horrible play because I just replayed my second Narco next turn, if he waits til EoT he gets an attack in).  I leveled Crypto and looted.  He did nothing and I put down Adept and Lizard.  He cast Null Champion and leveled it twice and I took the chance and Revelations it hitting Mage.  Good thing because I was topdecking two land as well, then I cast Mage.  He cast Jaddi and I leveled Mage twice.  He did nothing and I leveled Mage and Adept as well as played an Oracle.  At this point nothing could really save him.  He cast Artisan next turn returning black invoker which I bolted.  Next turn I played Hatcher and max leveled Adept and swung.  Then he swung with Artisan and I blocked it with two 3/3s and bolted it, but I should have just chumped and bolted him and I woulda won a turn earlier.

Easy 8 packs :)  Sorry for the long writeup but I actually had these replays saved on MODO for a change.