This is the place where I will try and record all my draft decks. To not be a dick at the table, I'm not going to write down every pick, but I will write down my card pool here, what deck I ended up playing, and any lessons learned!
Future installments, I will also try and throw in some HILARITY.
So I drafted today with a group of new friends (yaaaaaaay new friends!). Hopefully I'll play with them again, but I won so they might avoid me in the future.
Format: Zendikar/Worldwake/Worldwake
Note: Because playas [sic] wanted more Worldwake cards and this was just a friendly draft, we ended up going Zen/WW/WW instead of Zen/Zen/WW
Final Record: 3-0 (6 game wins, 3 game losses)
Note: What's up?! WHAT?! Yeeeeeeeah! I don't gloat in person, so I can do it on this blog.
Notable Pics or Passes:
- My two big rares were Day of Judgement and Talus Paladin - Day was 1st pick, 1st pack. Paladin was 1st pick, 3rd pack.
- Twice I passed Halimar Excavator, and twice they came back to me.
- I hate drafted Territorial Baloth, Quest for Renewal, and Deathforge Shaman. Out of these, the only one really worth hating was the Baloth, as I misread the Shaman (he only damages players, not creatures), and the Quest probably isn't as good in limited.
- I passed I think 2 copies of Halimar Depths.
Card Pool:
Here's what I ended up with after 3 rounds o' pickin'. Cards that got cut in Italics.
White
Join the Ranks
Fledgling Griffin
Kor Sanctifiers
Apex Hawks
Perimeter Captain
Kazandu Blademaster
Iona's Judgment x2
Makindi Shieldmate
Talus Paladin
Day of Judgment
Refraction Trap
Lightkeeper of Emeria
Caravan Hurda
Guardian Zendikon
Kitesail Apprentice
Kor Cartographer
Blue
Cancel
Halimar Excavator x4
Umara Raptor x2
Treasure Hunt
Mysteries of the Deep (x1)
Sejiri Merfolk
Surrakar Banisher x2
Archmage Ascension
Twitch
Mysteries of the Deep (x1)
Selective Memory
Mindbreak Trap
Land/Artifacts:
Sejiri Stepp
Khalni Garden
Hedron Scrabbler
Hedron Rover
Other:
Quest for Renewal
Territorial Baloth
Deathforge Shaman
Grim Discovery
Final Deck:
White
Join the Ranks
Fledgling Griffin
Kor Sanctifiers
Apex Hawks
Perimeter Captain
Kazandu Blademaster
Iona's Judgment x2
Makindi Shieldmate
Talus Paladin
Day of Judgment
Refraction Trap
Lightkeeper of Emeria
Blue
Cancel
Halimar Excavator x4
Umara Raptor x2
Treasure Hunt
Mysteries of the Deep
Sejiri Merfolk
Land
Sejiri Stepp
Plains x10
Islands x7
How'd I Do
I won! Games that I lost, I lost by pretty close margins thanks to my ability to reset the board with the Day of Judgment. But I was able to beat my opponent pretty brutally when I did win - the final game of the draft was over pretty quickly thanks to my four Halimar Excavators.
What'd I Learn?
For those keeping track, and counting the Join the Ranks as 2, my Ally count was 11. This was insane, I got some huge Umara Raptors, and my Kazandu Blademaster was often swinging for 5 first strike damage. But the real beasts were the Excavators! Having two on the board meant that any time I played an ally I was milling my opponent for at least 6.
Did I Overvalue Anything?
- Kor Cartographer was fine and all, but I never really wanted for land or smoothing. Most cards in my deck cost 3 or 4. I ended up taking him out and putting in a Mysteries of the Deep and it worked out so much better.
- Similarly, in my first game I ran 2 Surrakar Banishers, but they quickly proved to more annoy my opponent than anything else. They got yanked. My buddy Welchiz advised me to play all four of the Excavators when I pulled these out. He was totally correct.
- Sejiri Stepp looks great on paper, but any time it was in my hand early game I was pretty bummed out - I couldn't drop it and use it, and giving one of my creatures pro-any color that early was not a game changer. Looking back, I would have rather played a plains or those sweet sweet Halimar Depths I passed.
- Apex Hawks is card that I ran, but could not get to work for me. I got beaten down pretty badly by an opponent's at one point, but this deck ran on so little gas that I would almost always rather play 2 allies than the Hawks with kicker.
Anything A-May-Zing?
- Treasure Hunt got me 3 cards pretty frequently. Once it even drew me 4 lands and an Umara Raptor. This card is ridiculous.
- That's it, I guess! I just played a lot of cards I knew were great so there were few surprises.
Tell Them What They've Won!
Here are my choices from the rare backdraft -
- Day of Judgement
- Talus Paladin
- Marshall's Anthem
- Archmage Ascention
This makes my 2nd Day of Judgment, and my 3rd Talus Paladin. I think I'm going to try and turn this draft deck into a for realsies deck. What I really wanted was the Bloodghast someone took right before my 2nd pick, which would have made a play set for me! Garrrh!
There were a lot of decks running a lot of Blue cards - Gomaza and Roil Elemental were seen in other decks... but this just meant that I was able to focus on shutting most other players out of white by taking strong elimination and creatures, and splash blue to support the Ally theme and to draw me some sweet sweet cards.
Okay guys, stay tuned for future drafts, and please comment it up comment school if you're equally nerdy and have something to say about my horrible horrible mistakes.
-casey-
If you're serious about pursuing Allies outside of draft, I'd recommend either mono-white or UG.
ReplyDeleteMono-white is basically white weenie with an ally theme, and can be run with or without Baneslayers. Your ally base is Hada Freeblade, Kazandu Blademaster (who is NUTS), Kabira Evangel, and Talus Paladin, with Join the Ranks giving you crazy explosive power. Your other creatures are generally Knight of the White Orchid for mana accel and first strike (and great synergy with Path), Steppe Lynx if you feel like being more aggro and own playsets of the fetch lands, Baneslayer if you're rich, and possibly Emeria Angel. Brave the Elements is ridiculous in this deck; "W: Counter target removal spell, all creatures you control are unblockable this turn" is stupidly powerful. Toss in a few Honor of the Pure and Marshal's Anthem for beef and Path for removal, and you've got a damn powerful deck.
UG is basically just a mash of the powerful allies in those colors, with a curve topping out at Turntimber Ranger and Sea Gate Loremaster. You run Harabaz Druid and Harrow to accelerate into Ranger, and you run Rite of Replication to really go nuts on the allies. This one lets you run Excavator as an alternate win condition, but it's probably not as powerful as monowhite.
You can run other combinations, of course, like WU (as you suggested) or Bant colors, but I consider WW and UG to be the strongest.