that was fun, now my turn!

Successful first draft last week. Let's do it again!

Getting it together

The booster boxes are in place. I'm figuring out the prize payouts now. Now I'm reaching out to anyone and everyone in the community to let them know this will be going on. It will be a joke if there's some underground group of drafters that don't hear about this because I spent my time farting around the apartment rather than promoting this the right way.

I'm going to hear out all suggestions regarding formats, prize pay-outs, systems and set-ups. Ideally, we can get enough of a voting consensus to keep it varied, and change up the kinds of drafts we do. If the participants are controlling what's being drafted themselves, continuous support will be easy.

I must call WOTC and see if they'll send me the promo cards.

MTG NYC LAUNCHING NEXT MONDAY 6/6/2011!!!!!!

getting ready

those no place for draft to get done well in the city. i'm going to start running my own on 51st and lex. that public space is open five days a week, you could hold them there every night.

The prize pay-out is something that I'm thinking about. I guess the way to conceive of it is that each admission fee is als ocontributing to the prize pool. So you take the amount of the unit that you're buying the packs boxes in. Let's say you buy one box for $100. Then divide that by the packs that are in the box. That's the cost of each pack. Then each player should be paying how much extra per the cost of pack to make it a sweet purse. Keep in mind you're going to be wanting to get a least two drafts out of one box. So let's say that all your winners want new phyrexia packs. You would be able to give any new phyrexia packs out of the next box.

Judging is also something that could come up. I'm pretty competent with the rules, but I'm no expert, and there are definitely times in tournament play, just draft mind you, that I have a question to ask as well.

The best way to do it, is definitely not in some wacky format like I used to play in China, where everyone has to play from the end, and you draft the winnings. That doesn't leave people free to rare draft/leave. People will want to keep the Karns they open.

Keeping rounds time and to a strict schedule is an issue as well. Without leaving work early I can comfortable get there at 7, fire off a pod, or maybe both, and get home by midnight.

To build on this, I'm definitely going to want to unify with a vendor figure, someone who knows the ebb and flow of the singles in the game and can steadily make a profit on it, I already have someone in mind.

Someone who is a certified judge should add credence to this operation, preferably he has a large enough  network to contribute to bringing the crowd as well. This would allow us to start running sanctioned tournaments in that space.

standard reiteration

4x despise
1x inquisiton of kozilek
2x mind sludge

7 hand destruction

4x go for the throat
3x geth's verict

7 targeted removal

4x sphere of black sun, it's like mutilate, but not
2x corrupt
1x haunting echoes

7 sweepers/game break/bad

1x liliana vess
1x sorin markov
1x karn
3x sign in blood
1x sphere of suns

7 finisher,s, no creatures!

7-8 slots open? your thoughts?

new face of monoblack standard

can't get over the reprinting of phyrexian obliterator! get all the things that care about swamps and throw em in a deck!

3x despise, no more cawblade
2x dismember, kill lotus cobra, don't draw 2 of 'em
3x sign in blood, no phyrexian arena in this format..
3x nantuko shade, swamps!
3x go for the throat, instant speed removal for anything but wurmcoil
3x gatekeeper of malakir, too black not to
3x vampire nighthawk, trade w/ big stuff, gain me life, fly!
4x phyrexian obliterator, can't kill me without damage? you lose!
2x molten-tail masticore, reallyyy good w/ mimic vat, use it to get around upkeep cost
2x nightmare lash, swamps! fun with night hawks and obliterators!
2x mimic vat, do it again obliterator/nighthawk/not you gatekeeper/you nantuko shade!
2x precursor golem, hey mimic vat!
2x mindsludge, swamps!
2x corrupt, swamps!
2x grave titan, also mimic vat

survive the early turns by knocking threats out of their hand with despise, killing their early plays, or trading with their creatures with nighthawk or gatekeepers. rarely you'll be able to start pushing through damage with nantuko shade if you have an opponent that's scared to lose their creatrues.

save your instant speed kill for creatures that have sword of feast and faminine (cawblade), swap or sideboard in more as necessary. play your midrange evil threats like masticore or oblitreator, nightmare lash or precursor, they'll probably have an answer for it, expect these games to not wrap too quickly. key blowouts will be landing your mind sludges, or corrupts on big creatures/their face. reload with your sign in bloods, they shouldn't hurt too much b/c of nighthawk and corrupt. finish off the attrition war with a grave titan, a nantuko shade, or drop a mimic vat early and start to see things go really bad.

this deck can roll over to dedicated sligh type decks. jace decks and cawblades and valaukut is the main problem. add in hexmage (goes good with mimic vat) or hex parasite to deal with a jace crowd. side in extra instand speedkill/inquisition of koziek for cawblade. i would guess the valakut wood need life gain/tectonic edges to deal with valakut. ideally you land an early mimcvat then instantly kill their titan and valaukuts with throat and tectonic edgess.

go even crazier with abyssal persecutors + phyrexian arenas. add in sphere of suns to get belligerent turn three beasties. plays here involve hitting them with early hand disruption and leading them into a big sweep using tumble magnent, and cleaning up with marsh casualties, blacksun's zenith, life's end, and massacre wurm. massacre wurm of course awesome with mimic vat as well but this version would rely on creatures to defend yourself.  geth's verdict, dismember, and plain old go for the throat/doom blade. keep the corrupts and mind sludges, come in strong with non creature finishers like liliana vess, sorin markov, haunting echoes.

there's something to be said for planeswalkers decks sporting the proliferate removal.

NPH!

New Phyrexia sealed is great, can't way to play in the next pod. Unfortunately was only able to do one four rounder at gray matters conventions. The rare gods were good to me across the packs, granting me bomb rares with powerful on-curve creatures and tons of removal. Here's the list that brought me to a 3-0, then an intentional draw in the final rounds.

1x Kiln Walker
1x fume spitter
1x pith driller
1x tormentor exarch
1x immolating souleater
1x leaden myr
1x necrogen scudder
1x slash panther
1x moriok replica
1x mortis dogs
1x steelkite dragon
1x necrotic ooze
1x phyrexian obliterator
1x hex parasite

1x Parasitic Implant
2x galvanic blast
1x sylvok lifestaff
1x volt charge
1x mycosynth wellspring

yes, lots of talent in this pool.

Standard run

the best standard decks right now seems to be ramp or caw-blade decks. from the top 8 in dallas deck lists, four had 4 copies of squadron hawk where the other 4 had 4 copies of lotus cobra. all 8 decks are running jace the mind sculptor. all desk are running early removal suites in lightning bolt, manaleak, digging for answers with preordain, oust, tumble magnet or accelerating into threats with explore. here's my attempt at a monoblack controllish deck.

4x inquisition of kozilek
3x vampire hexmage
3x sign in blood
4x sphere of suns
4x gatekeeper of malakir
3x phyrexian canceler (new phyrexia)
2x mindsludge
2x corrupt
2x massacre wurm
3x vampire nighthawk
3x mimic vat
3x black sun's zenith

this deck seeks to answer the earliest threats of cawblade while being able to accelerate and still stay dangerous against a ramp deck. let me know your thoughts.

Not infect

Here's the list I was running after one mirrodin besieged pack and two scars.

18 creatures
2x blightwidow
1x myr smith
2x plaguemaw beast
1x ghalma's warden
1x snapsail glider
1x tangle angler
2x ichorclaw myr
1x shimmer myr
1x plague myr
1x gold myr
1x myr galvanizer
1x bellowing tanglewurm
1x melira's keepers
1x abuna acolyte
1x alpha tyrranax

6 spells
1x lead the stampede
1x mirran mettle
1x dispense justicd
1x silverskin armor
1x trigon of infestation
1x untamed might

Despite going 2-0 and splitting the finals in the last round, as per the etiquette at the store, this is not my best work. the deck feels unfocused, and lacks a solid direction. each of my games ended in poison damage and proliferating through with plaguemaw beast, but there's only 7 infect guys. i feel like this was a lucky break; good match ups, less than optimal play from my opponents and some ideal draws on my side.

the first game i'm paired against someone who should be named vlad, but is not. it seems like he hasn't been playing magic for very long, and spends and inordinate amount of timing thinking over each blocking and attack decision, and mulling over the different plays to make in his hand. when i'm in these kinds of situation, i'm very inclined to act as fast as possible when the play is on my side.

i see it as having a two-fold benefit. 1st, if it goes to time, which this match did, it stops the onus from being on my, i'm exonerated from any blame of slow play. the 2nd factor, which is a bit harder to measure, is overloading your opponent with decisions. keeping the ball in their court, with little time to think outside of what their next play is, keeps them under pressure and more likely to make a misplay. the longer they are thinking, the better it's going for your as they will eventually exhuast their mental resource. this works best against newer players and expert level guys seem to be able to spot the right play very quickly.

another fast example. you're in round 1 against a red-white deck. his board is a 2/2 dude and spin engine vs. your tumble magnet an 1/4 blocker. he declares his attack. i think situation, if i'm at 20 life, i'm going to let the spin engine attack until i fall to 11. the reason being, he has to go back and think if he's going to tie up his red mana in keeping my guy from blocking, which will start to gum up the play in his hand. whether or not it works is almosta moot point, we're giving him more opportunities to make the wrong decision.

back to the game, he has a decent red-white metal graft build with cards like rusted relic, mox opal, chrome steed, glint hawk idols, etc. i'm able to get through for early infect damage and end up sacrificing myr smith minions and trigon 1/1s to plaugemaw beast for the win. the first game takes the better part of of 40 minutes and we're left with 7 minutes to complete the next game.

never a fan of stalling for the win, i'm playing to kill, rushing out an ichor claw myr, until myr galvanizer and tangle angler. he has the arc trail to blow out my guys, but the tangle angle keeps coming in, getting him to two poison. i drop leonin abuna, and he keeps unloading his hand into glint hawk idol, and the 4/4 and 5/5 metal craft guys. i make a critical error during my second to last turn, forgetting how to count my mana, and using an untamed might to get him to 8 poison counters. from there i'm facing down lethal damage while at 2 life from the glint hawk and metal craft guys. i take my last turn and say go. he smiles to himself and attacks in with the team, i drop shimmering myr and snapsail glider with the instant flash play, use the abuna acolyte to prevent one of the damage from the glint hawk flier, and finish out the game at 1 life as final turns are finished.

again, this win shouldn't have been mine. with faster and more aggressive play on his part he would've had it.

second round i'm paired against mara, a ormal professional talking lawyer, ex-district attornies office now private. he has a very strong black and white deck, made from my idiotic passing of Geth to her in pack two. in retrospect i should've moved into pure black green infect once again to support geth.

geth aside, she has mirran crusader, spread the sickness, glint hawk, contagion clasp, sphere of suns, and all manner of other beasties. she makes a game breaking error in which she plays glint hawk but returns sphere of suns for more mana instead of her contagion clasp to kill another one of my guys. she swings with mirran crusader and the loxodon battle cry dude into my metalcrafted dispense justice, the rest is mathematic until i win with proliferate counters. in the second game she keeps a land heavy draw that she's can't draw out of. i'm able to punch through with blightwidow wearing silverskin armor and bellowing tanglewurm blanking out an potential blockers she might have had.

i apologetically point out the glint hawk play to her and she is visibly upset, but assures me that she much rather i told her than the alternative.

my last match is with a good spirited dude who has a monster deck and i'm only too happy to split. he's got the red-haste dragon, oxidia scrapmelter, grasp in darkness, metalcraft-shock, arc trail, the removal keeps coming. he curves out with turn 2 and 3 removal in oxidia scrap melter each time. i stabilize at 4 life with my trigon and myrsmith pulling overtime generating an army of blockers and i catch him with a dispense justice. unfortunately he finds his vampires that drain for four with a metalcraft board, and that's that.

lessons from this draft is to never throw in the towel, even if you've drafted a less than optimal pool. over confident and sloppy opponents will hand you wins if you keep your head in it and capitalize on their mistakes. this means making sure your own play is pristine throughout all games, understanding your deck and playing to your outs. in my case, the strategy developed into getting through for some early poison, then either evading in with tanglewurm intimidate, catching them with a pump spell or proliferating them out with plaguemaw beast and my dudes from myrsmith and trigon of infestation. so early and aggressive trades and clearly not in my favor, and i'm ok to sit back with blockers if it means getting through for less damage in the early turns.

also, straddling the line between infect and non infect is very dangerous game to play. suddenly with them on 9 poison and 20 life, makes all of your guys that don't proliferate or poison into dead draws. while blightwidow and ichorclaw myr feel good enough to play even in decks that don't plan to poison into the win, its very important to go all out in poison or not at all. considering that we were only playing with one besieged pack, poison was a little bit harder to pull off, as the stronger commons seem to lie in besieged.

Win one

Success! My first 3-0 since I started attending these damnable drafts. It seems almost as if the universe consipred to help, as I mentally review each of the games, each of my draft picks. My first pack doen't give me a clear indication as to which way to go, I believe I first pick a blightwidow as that card is great even in decks that aren't infect. 

The guy next to me is actually a relic from my past, in my early attempts to win a PTQ during the pitiable season of Kamigawa block constructed, he had sat on the motel floor with andrew and myself, and expounded on the pitfalls of not taking serpent skin of orichi trap weaver. oh yes, back in the day my brothers. however, he sends me a strong signal to go green infect by passing through a viridian corruptor. come into play destroy effects are extremely strong in limited. i'm a morbid plunder away from making it a real monster. 

by the end of pack one, I feel like i'm screwed. while im resolved to follow my infect strategy, i only have about seven infect guys, solid beaters like the afore mentioned blightwidow, but i'm also able to pick up blightsteel juggernaught, the garbage flestermite, phyrexian digestor, and two viridian shams to smooth out my mana. pack two is merciful to me, as the guy to my left doesn't have a real strategy in place, and is visibly struggling to make heads or tails as to which colors he's in. i feel like the only way that i recognize this face is having been there myself countless tims. or maybe he doesn't feel that way at all, and i'm just attributing my only past feelings to him. maybe i'm just seeing in others what i see, what i have seen, in myself. 

in any case, the kind gentleman passess me solid infect guys in picks 7, 8, and 9 consisting of blightwidow, scourge servant and the ichorclaw imp. in the packs where there are no infect guys to be had, and these occur quite often, i relied on equipment to round out my team. living weapons are great to mitigate the tempo loss that is inherent in playing something that's not a dude. imagine, they drop two creatures, and you drop one creature and one equipment, without enough mana to attach that turn. having the ability to hold off an attack is great, and it's almost as if you want them to run headlong into your germ, to avoid wasting resources to equip and lose it when it becomes a 0/0 again. a health sprinkling of equipment like piston sledge, bladed pinions, skinwing and bonehoard, which was my pack 1 pick 1 i believe, really went the distance for me. if i didn't have the three blightwidows, i would have taken cards like strand strider much higher for it's ability to block fliers. i receive a gift in pack 3 in skinrender, also awesome like viridan corrupter. i wasn't able to pick up any morbid plunders, so extreme blow outs of using each of those twice are not in the cards for me. 

final deck list

9 forrest

8 swaps (subbed for islands, this store is land poor)

3x blightwidow

1x phyrexian digestor

1x flestermite

1x darksteel juggernaught

2x viridian shaman

1x viridian corruptor

1x skinrender

1x blight mamba

2x scourge servant

1x ichorclaw myr

1x sceptic rats

1x myr sire

1x proliferate beastie

1x bonehoard

1x skinwin

1x bladed pinions 

1x piston sledge

1x lux cannon

match 1

round 1

my opponents name is jason and hasn't played magic in a long time. this is a common byline that is often a rouse, but is actually the truth, and becomes somewhat of a theme for the guys at our table. this can be a mixed blessing but more on that later.

i don't remember too much of either of these guys because he essentially got rolled. i have a draw of double viridan shaman in the beginning which trades with his flestermites and he's dead to blightwidows equipped with piston sledge and bonehoards in short order. he's happy enough with his draft, having pulled hero of oxid ridge and mox opal. he proceeds to crush my monoblack vampire/mimicvat constructed homebrew with his day of the dragons/warp word ramp deck. 

match 2

this guys name is andrew and i mistake him for a woman before he opens his mouth. the effect might not be completely unintentional. i don't mind losing the die rolls in this format and am more than please with going second, escpailly if i don't know what my oponent is running. i feel like the format is slow enough for it to be more important to hit all your land drops and curve out rather than gaining an incremental benefit of dropping a few guys earliest. a mulligan on the play can really spell doom for a number of decks. 

this guy was sitting next to me last round and was doing a strong amount of rules lawyering on his opponent who had made his first return to the game since apocolypse kitchen table format. combined with my recent self deprivation of cigarettes means i'm already not in the best of moods when the guy asks if he had drawn a card for his turn after he cracked a white spellbomb to block my viridan shaman. my policy on this is, if the ask if they dropped a land, if they drew a card, the answer is always yes. there's an important difference here. drawing a card is mandatory triggered event, and is not something that is governed by a 'may clause.' you WILL draw a card, such that if you run out of cards that will kill you to.

dropping a land is completely contingent on the other guy, and you not remembering to play a land is your own perogative. if they have let a turn pass that they didn't not play a land, pass the turn and seek to rewind to drop one, the answer will be a resounding no. your opponent may have handed you the game. if there is anything on the line, then you should take every advantage you can get.

strangely enough this guy asked me to to help him cut one card from his deck during deck construction. i suggested cutting the fake tutor distant memories. 

his deck includes things like steel sabotage, halt order, stoic rebuttal, 2/4 vigilance guy for white, 3/5 metal craft guy that loses defender and bombs like precursor golem and true conviction. i opt to go first, visualizing a situation in which his true conviction is a blank and he's not able to swing for being on too much poison. at one point he rules lawyers me about the timing of a block on his metalcraft serpent guy, when i attempt to sacrifice it with my green proliferate beastie, and the charge counters on lux cannon. the judge rules in my favor, that my timing is correct and that the other guy is a cock. i vindictively hold him to an attack in which he forgets to pay a white mana to activate his vigilence guy and swings in, leaving no blockers back and dying in a subsequent swing. 

in the first game, i curve perfectly with ichor claw myr, phyrexian digestor and blightwidow, running over his blockers and a skinrender eating his metal craft serpent down to a 0/2. game two is a little bit more of a fight with his spell bomb trading with my viridian shaman. my draw is slower, and the board eventually becomes clogged with blightwidow, sceptic rats, myr sire, skin render, bonehoard, green proliferate beastie and lux cannon on my side. his board is 2 precursor golem tokens, one had eaten the skinrender counters, 3/5 metalcraft serpet, 2/4 white vigilence guy and perhaps one or two other duche bags. 

my deck keeps serving up threats, and inevitability is in my favor, as lux cannon continously accumulates counters at an acccelerated rate tanks to proliferate beastie. i remember stalling on a clogged board, as he continously represents his counter spells, and i have a heavy fear of losing it to a counter spell. eventually i resolve to drop both bonehoard and lux cannon on the same turn, bonehoard first, thinking he'll counter that, but both resolve. there is one point in which he's able to bounce my bonehoard and then halt order's it on the way in. he doesn't ask if he drew a card for his turn after the halt order resolves, thankfully. 

round 3

greg is the guy that's sitting next to me. smart as a razor with a dry sense of humor, he works close by for some reasons i invision him making tons of money. he says apologetically that he would offer to draw if his deck wasn't so good. i don't blame him. he's packing peace and pierce striders, phyrexian ragers, massacre wurm, precursor golem, flameblast, myr sire, perilous myr and culling dias. not a single janky card to be found. 

round one he opts to draw first and i cure perfectly; ichor claw myr, phyrexian digestor, which trades with a guy, blight widow, scourge servant and phyrexian juggernaught. i drop a piston sledge on one guy and he's dead in short order.

round 3 he opts to draw again for round two, and the board gets clogged as i keep a slow draw and am not able to apply enough poison fast enough. he's on one counter with a clogged board and i can no longer swing all out. phyrexian juggernaught is forced to keep attacking and i equipp it with bonehoard to make sure it still comes through profitably. eventually he double blocks with ogre resistor and something else and i think i can start breaking through. the main problem here is that i feel like i can't swing all out with my army profitably, he can't not block, but the only problem is that he might still have guys alive when the dust settles. it proves to be my downfall as a massacre wurm comes and eates my face and takes me down to 8, killing everything on my board except for blight widow, he wins that game.

game 3 i choose to draw first to mess with his game plan, hoping to catch him with a mulligan, no avail, he keeps and i mull to six. i reveal the first hand of 5 lands, blight mamba and piston sledge and he wholeheartedly agrees that it's the right choice.

i drop spellbomb, ichorclow myr, viridan corruptor for his mana myr, and blight widow. followed by piston sledge and skin wing. the critical play here is that i'm able to to play and equip a bonehoard for +4 when he's already at two poison counters. since viridan corruptor is already wearing skinwing, he has no flying blockers. in response to my attempt to equip, things get scary, he sacrifices perilous myr to culling dias, deals 2 damage to the corruptor then sacs culling dias to draw 4, digging for his flameblast, he doesn't find it and the match and the tournment is mine. 

my packs contain, myr incubator, contested battlefield, and two other garbage rares.

Pilot

It's noon and drizzly outside of the Starbucks on Ditmars Boulevard. I'm thinking the only way to beat the draft at Jim Hanley's Comics this afternoon is to just get everything I'm thinking out there and see if we might create a hive-mind of our own. It works for Standard, can it work for Limited?

The format is usually double Mirrodin Besieged and one Scars of Mirrodin. Three matches, first place gets five packs. I've yet to win those five packs. This afternoon will be attempt number five. 

I think there's a number of set archetypes that are pretty well understood by everyone in the pod. Infect is an obvious one. I've never seen a deck that didn't have a black base, but that kind of gives me an idea. I think that every 8 man pod can easily support 3 infect drafters. They'll either be black/green, black/blue, black/white. 

Solid green/blacks will have rot wolfs, blightwidows, scourge servants. The strategy is straight forward, but I don't like drafting infect unless I open a bomb rare, like the infect hydra, phyrexian crusader or inkmoth nexus. Other variants will use white for priests of norn, tine shrike, and maybe some removal. I feel like the best of these decks are the ones that can continuously provide threats. First, from having 17 solid infect guys and second, from being able to keep them coming. You can achieve this by using moriok replica to draw cards or morbid plunder to reuse your guys. Viridian claw should be a high pick for this desk as being able to instantly shrink a blocking creature in combat is difficult to deal with. 

The next deck that comes to mind received some exposure from Pat Chapin and seeks to bury opponents in card advantage by abusing ichor well spring. There are a number of different directions this deck can go, as each of the colors offers some nice options to get greater value out of it. White has leonin relic-warden, glimmer point stag, glint hawk and razor hippogriff if you can get the wellspring to the graveyard. Blue doesn't have any options outside of steel sabotage. Red has some nice sacrifice outlets in oxidia haste guy, the sac an artifact for three 1/1s, the big guy who gains trample. Can't forget about the 4/1 guy that regenerates as well. Ideally, you can combine your dudes that care about returning artifacts to your hand with other artifacts like tumble magnet, living weapons, contagion clasp, peace or pierce strider, sphere of suns, spine of ish sah, trigons. 

Mortapod is awesome. That's it. 

Mono-blue is a strategy that I've been seeing less success with as people recognize that blue has been under drafted in the past. I've seen opponents boards be shut down by a mirran spy holding off their blisterstick shaman, mirran 3/1 battlecry guys, etc. The 3/2 fliers that make people discard if they kill them are solid beaters, especially combined with the 2/1 artifacts that fly for 1 blue mana. Add in a few 2/2 unblockable dudes from scars, the flier that bounces things, the geyser and you have yourself a deck. 

I typically haven't seen hyper aggressive decks do very well, so the red-white speedy decks I don't see getting there too often. More often then not, I think it pays to stall up the ground and let your bombs or card advantage take over. Going second feels right in this format. But I'll let you know how it goes.