I went to the usual Hemel draft yesterday. It was M12, so this would be the third time I have drafted it so far I think. Last time I had a fast blue deck.
My first pick was a Solemn Simulacrum, can go in any deck, gets land, replaced itself when dies. An all round good creature. My next two picks I think were Gravedigger (over a Chandra's Outrage) and Stampeding Rhino (I can't remember what order). I also picked a few red bloodthirst enablers early on, to leave myself open for that.
In the second pack, I don't think I opened anything particularly interesting, then got passed a Doom Blade and Fireball. I also got a 7th pick Merfolk Looter (a first pickable card), so took it, but wasn't in blue so didn't play it.
This is the deck I ended up playing (I managed to pick up a Chandra's Outrage in the end int he third pack):
Not a all the cards were particularly powerful, but there are some good ones. The land ramp from Solemn Simulacrum isn't really needed as the mana curve tops out at 5 for two giants, but its good as a blocker or to get extra damage through, and it replaced itself to draw me some more cards late game.
Match 1
The first match I played was against Liz, who had a similar deck. I won game 1, which was a close match - she had a pumpable flier with a greatsword that I killed by pinging it with a Goblin Arsonist by sacrificing it with a Goblin Grenade. The next game was a race, which I lost, again evasion and pump is not nice to be facing. I just managed a win in the third game, again, both very fast decks.
Match 2
In the second match, I was playing another black red deck (they seemed popular). In these games, I had more creatures than they had removal and overwhelmed them on damage to win both games. My favourite play was using Act of Treason on their Goblin Fireslinger, pinging them with it, then sacrificing it to Goblin Grenade.
Match 3
In the finals, I was playing a Blue/White deck. I used a shock early on to kill a creature to get damage through to get bloodthirst, and was able to deal enough damage before they could play anything too powerful, even though they were maindecking black/red removal (they had looters, so were discarding them in previous matches).
Onto the second game, they opted to draw first to get more card advantage against me. I played a land and did nothing, so did they. I played another land and did nothing (my cheapest creature was a three drop). They played a Merfolk Looter which I Doom Bladed (I didn't want to have to deal with the card advantage they would be getting). I then cast my creature, and in the next few turns had a number of small creature out. They cast a Dijinn of Wishes (4/4 flier, can get free spells), and got some other creatures out to get a better board presence, but I was able to ping twice at the end of turn (with the Goblins), untap, ping again and cast Fireball for leathal (with Incinerate in hand as backup). Quite a powerful position to be in (between their last turn and the turn I ended the game on, I did 10 damage in total).
Prize Packs
Winning 3 rounds of swiss means I got three prize packs, so lets have a look...
First pack
Notable cards: Incinerate, Stormfront Pegasus, Vampire Outcasts, Cudgel Troll.
These are some interesting cards to pick from. I would go with Incinerate, as it is removal, and splashable (compared to the uncommons). Liz agrees (she does like some red).
Second pack
Notable cards: Acidic Slime, Gravedigger, Shock, Mana Leak.
Again some interesting cards, I think Shock and Gravedigger are the more powerful (and more splashable) cards. I would take the Gravedigger here, as it is some good card advantage. Liz would take Shock, which is also a fine pick (splashable removal)
Third Pack
Notable cards: Gideon's Lawkeeper, Blood Ogre, Stampeding Rhino, Belltower Sphinx.
My tough choice here would be between the tapper and the bloodthirst creature. I think I would go with the Blood Ogre because it is good in attack and defence, whereas Gideon's Lawkeeper is mainly good on defence. Liz would also take the Ogre (guess what colour she like to play...)
No comments:
Post a Comment