MTG Draft: Self-analysis #6

Just came back from my local FNM where I once again piloted a 5-color morphs deck with Trail of Mystery! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it and didn't keep most of the cards - I just leave my commons/uncommons in a pile to whoever wants them.

Draft
[image loading]

I first picked Master of Pearls, with only other good choice being the Sage of The Inward Eye, and from there some random dual land. Then picked Highspire Mantis. Next two picks were just dual lands Tranquil Cove (WU) and Wind-scarred Crag (WR). Murderous Cut came my way like 4th pick and I snagged it easily. Then Trail of Mystery came and I moved in on it. Amazingly, The Sage of The Inward Eye wheeled, so I happily took that. I ended up with the usual strategy for building 5 color morphs here - taking Arc Lightnings and the like for removal, good morph creatures such as Abomonation of Gudhul, and plenty of fixing. Otherwise taking good gold cards that I could easily support like Abzan Charm. I've gotten really good with my prioritizing when drafting 5 colors thanks to a lot of practice. Arguably I could have dropped Trail of Mystery and just went full Jeskai with this deck, but what's the fun in that when I have fixing and Trail of Mystery at my FNM?

Deck

For a 5 color deck, it was pretty heavily Jeskai with Jeskai Windscouts, Sage of The Inward Eye, Seeker of the Way, Jeskai Flying Technique, Efreet Weaponmaster, Force Away, 2 Arc Lightnings, Highspire Mantis etc. Also had Murderous Cut (4th pick in pack 1!), Force Away, Winterflame, Abomonation of Gudhul. Oh and 11 dual lands!

Round 1
Vs a Mardu warrior token deck, pretty mediocre one. Just some bad maindeck picks like the Cavalary 1/1, Siegecraft, the 7cmc 5/4 flyer guy. He also was fairly new to magic, casting all of his spells during first main before combat so I had no tricks to worry about. Pretty easy 2-0.

Round 2
Vs a Mardu mid-range deck. He flooded out the first game and was mana-screwed the next. I just played stuff and got the dream Trail of Mystery on turn 2 in one of them. Lotsa grabbing lands and reshuffling my deck was to be had. Even got to tap out with Dragon's Eye Savant with Trail in play, and blow out his morph next turn and see his hand. That was fun!

Round 3
[image loading]

We both talked a little after the draft and knew what our decks were. He had multiple Debilitating Injuries and a Death Frenzy in a Sultai deck that just focused on playing "good stuff". Sultai Flayer, Sagu Mauler, Bloodsoaked Champion and the likes. I was able to bait out a Debilitating Injury with some patience on keeping my Monastery Flock morphed and attacking for a few turns, then unmorphed it when he cast the spell.

I won game 1 in the skies with my Jeskai Windscout giving him the old Welkin Turn treatment pecking away 2-4 life each turn. He also flooded out and mostly just pinged me turn after turn with Archer's Parapet.

Game 2 I flooded out a little and saw his hand with my Dragon's Eye Savant only to see 2 Debilitating Injuries, a Murderous Cut, a Death Frenzy, and a Jungle Hollow (golgari dual). Geez I knew I was in trouble there. He just stomped me pretty soundly, playing out Sagu Mauler and removing all my guys with his multiple removal spells.

Game 3 was an extremely close game. My Jeskai Flying Crane Technique with 3 creatures on board swung the game heavily in my favor, bringing him down to 1 life and unable to block my Jeskai Windscout or Sage of The Inward Eye. I was down to 4 life and next turn he attacks with Heir of the Wilds and Sultai flayer. I chump the Sultai Flayer and just hope he doesn't have Become Immense. He starts tapping lands and I start worrying, then he reveals his hand of two swamps and offers a handshake. Bastard! lol

Round 4

I've played this guy before and he's one of the best players in our store. I knew it was going to be rough playing him and his 3-0 deck. He curved out perfectly game one with Mardu aggro deck and I couldn't stabilize. He Act of Treasoned my Sage of The Inward Eye flyer just when I thought I might be able to get back in this.

Game 2 I had some early defenses down with Monastery Flock and Dragons Eye Savant, and then evasive creatures with Highspire Mantis and Sage of The Inward Eye, as well as Arc Lightning for removal on his morph and Leaping Master. Pretty one-sided.

[image loading]

Game 3 I mulliganed to 6 (had a hand of 7 lands), he mulliganed as well. The board developed with the race in my favor and he couldn't block my flyers but had some decent ground game with Mardu Roughrider and Mardu Heartpiercer still in play. I had Monastery Flock, Highspire Mantis, and Sage of The Inward Eye in play. He swung the game in his favor one turn by Act of Treason on my Sage, then Defiant Strike to grant his attackers life link. I was down to 2 life, and he was up to 16, but I still had a decent board after that turn. I should have played Treasure Cruise, giving my guys life link, and swung in for 6. Instead I played Efreet Weaponmaster face up giving +3 to a flyer and attacking with both. I had only Monastery Flock and Weaponmaster back to block, forgetting I was down to 2 and his Mardu Roughrider would stop one creature from blocking and I had to block both to live. Alternatively I could have played Efreet Weaponmaster and only attacked with my 3/3 (with +3 attack that turn) Flyer leaving back 3 blockers to keep me in the game. Pretty mad at myself for throwing the game like that.

Level ups
* Sage of The Inward Eye is much stronger than I initially thought. Her with Winterflame and other similar bounce/removal did wonders, as well as paired with some prowess creatures like Seeker of the Way and Jeskai Windscout. I had some nice life swings thanks to this.

[image loading]

* I never really got any blowouts with Master of Pearls. He just died or ending up playing out as a 2/2 each game. He's not very good in a 5 color morph deck but I wanted to give him a shot and had plenty of fixing to get double white anyways.

* Act of Treason is really good in this format. It used to only be good in M14 with sac outlets (which there were plenty of). In this format, where there's so many stalls due to a good blocker (0/6, 0/5, 2/8, outlasted big guys etc), or races with evasive creatures, using Act of Treason either swings the game heavily in your favor or outright wins you it many times. I've seen it do work multiple times this format and there's no playing around it or sideboarding for it really.

* I really need to pay more attention to the lands I'm playing and tapping with these 4-5 colors with many dual lands. A few turns due to misplay/mistapped lands I was unable to cast the spell I wanted.

* I need to slow down at important points in the game to make sure I fully understand the game state and the possibilities. I completely threw away the last game due to not taking my time on that crucial turn.

* I was afraid due to the recent GP where Ari Lax placed highly (won?) with 5 color morphs draft deck and talked about how to draft it, as well as recent discussions on LR and other MTG sites that more people would be trying to go 5 color. Thankfully I lucked out and 5 color was open at my table.

Other stuff
Due to my record and the people I played, I ended up in the top 4, earning myself 2 extra packs, so +5 packs for the night. I now have 16 KTK Boosters to sell! I usually sell them for $3 each so I'm about to list them and get my $50 or so back from these.

I haven't written here much lately because I've been messing around on MTGO doing New Player drafts just to get 5 drafts in for cheap ($10 total, and you get 5 event tickets to trade with my actual account after, so more like paying $5 for 5 drafts - you also can keep creating new accounts to continue doing this). With only 4 players, the decisions you make during draft are a little different since you get so much more information. You also get more opportunities to tinker around with cards you haven't played yet. Sometimes you also get totally ridiculous decks someone else would be fighting you for at a regular 8-man pod. Like one deck I had 3 Icefeather Avens!

I'm glad the KTK Phantom Sealed has finally arrived, since I've saved up like 30 phantom points on my main account. Not sure how I'll do in KTK Sealed and I think this format is much better suited for draft than sealed anyway.

Next time I'll try to remember to take a picture of my deck!

edit: card name corrections, some pictures to liven it up a little

MTG Draft: Self-analysis #6

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming