MTG Draft: Self Analysis #7

Had another fun draft at my local FNM. I've been depressed with how poorly I've done in KTK Sealed lately and had a rough busy week at work fixing bugs constantly (software developer), so this was a much needed FNM. I missed the last two FNMs from a small Halloween party at my apartment with my gf and a few friends, and then the following week my gf and I had a mini-vacation in Syracuse for the upcoming Retro Con. I may love MTG but I can always play it another time.

Anyways... onto the FNM Draft!

Draft
I hadn't done too many drafts lately - just a few of the "New Player" drafts on MTGO to take advantage of the $10 for 5 drafts and 5 additional event tickets deal. But I feel very confident in drafting this set so I wasn't worried at all. I know when I start the draft I'll be able to navigate my way into a solid deck.

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I first picked Rakshasha Deathdealer over some decent filler cards. It's unusual for me to take a multi-colored card, even enemy colored, so early, but the pack had little else other than a random dual land and I both wanted to play Rakshasha and felt his power level was too much to pass up. Next pack had Armament Corps and other decent filler cards, but Corps is really good. I wasn't committing to Abzan yet, just keeping it open as a possibility. I took a few more lands and cards in golgari with some minor blue splashes (noteably, Abomonination of Gudul, so not even that demanding).

2nd pack I first picked the fetch Bloodstained Mire for a few bucks and possible minor delve enabler. I continued on course and Golgari was still flowing, picking up some Savage Punches, Alpine Grizzly, more Abominations of Gudul and a Dead Drop.

3rd pack I don't remember what I first picked. It was unimpressive, and I might have just taken a dual land. I only had 3 duals up to this point, and only one supporting white for possibly splashing Corps, so really only 2 duals since I wasn't going to ruin my mana base to try to splash Corps when I'm already 3 colors. I ended up with 5 playable duals and the fetch (that I only used to get a swamp).

I didn't see too much go by in the draft to make me wish I was in another clan. Sultai seemed fairly open and I was happy with how it turned out. I had heavy enough green and black base to have reliable explosive starts with Rakshasha, plenty of 2-3 drops to shore up the early game, decent removal, decent card advantage / selection, and a very strong late game.

Deck
Deck list if you can't read all the cards from the pictures:
+ Show Spoiler +

16 creatures
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Kin-Tree Warden
Smoke Teller
Archer's Parapet (x2)
Rakshasha Deathdealer
Alpine Grizzly
Abomination of Gudul (x4)!!!!
Mystic of the Hidden Way
Thousand Winds
Wooly Loxodon
Longshot Squad
Sultai Scavenger
Riverwheel Aerialists

6 spells
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Savage Punch (x2)
Debilitating Injury
Bitter Revelations
Throttle
Dead Drop

18 lands
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4 Swamps
6 Forests
2 Islands
2 Simic duals
2 Dimir duals
1 Golgari dual
1 Bloodstained Mire fetch (only playing for delve and getting a swamp)

Playable sideboard
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Disdainful Stroke
Scout the Borders
Rakshasha's Secret (x2)
Kheru Dreadmaw
Rotting Mastodon

Full deck

Lands

Sideboard

Abomination of Gudul has been my most played and most splashed card in this format. He's the best looter in the format overall being a 3/4 evasive beater at the same time and I feel looting and card advantage is very important in this format where games can tend to go long or get board stalls. It's very satisfying pitching basic lands and drawing a better card multiple times a game. He also helped fuel my grave for my only two delve card Sultai Scavenger and Dead Drop (expensive, but I felt I had enough incidental ways to make stuff hit the grave it would be fine).

I wanted to cut more of my blue cards, but they were so powerful and only one of them wasn't a morph. I debated many times during deck building if I should cut Thousand Winds, but I decided even if I just play him as a morph that will be okay because his potential upside is so powerful. I also only had to run 2 basic Islands to support my blue thanks to decent fixing.

Round 1
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Played against someone unfamiliar with the format and inexperienced at MTG in general. He played a bunch of White and Green cards. No real synergy or anything. Just Selesnya stuff... easy 2-0 win and nothing worth mentioning. Well, one game I did get the dream turn 2 Rakshasha Deathdealer start and that cat demon just dominated. He played Feed the Clan on me one game where I was clearly winning to gain back 10 life - just delayed the inevitable.

Round 2
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I haven't seen this guy before but could tell just from the way he conducted himself and his shuffling technique that he was a very experienced player. Apparently he was from out of state and was in town to visit family. As I chatted with him, I learned he has 1 or more decks for every format and plays in GPs a few times a year. I braced myself for some rough matches. He played an Abzan deck here.

Game 1
He had a turn 2 Seeker of the Way - so predictions on the game here? lol. I played a few threats, but Seeker of the Way was easily MVP of the game and anyone who has played against a turn 2 Seeker of the Way knows what I mean. Never brought him below his starting life total and think he ended the game up at like 28 life.

Game 2
I had a decent 1/2/3 start of Kin-tree, Parapet, Alpine Grizzly. He played a morph and I had Debilitating Injury in hand but decided to keep it. I hadn't seen him play a morph throughout Game 1 and knew I had more important targets... like that damn Seeker of the Way! Instead next turn he played Heir of the Wilds and that was a good enough target for me so it got fatally injured. I played Mystic as a morph and was feeling good about my board state - then Siege Rhino came crashing in. Ugh. I was up to 6 lands with Wooly, Abomination, Savage Punch (and a couple other cards I believe) in hand. I dropped the two morphs and passed. Next turn I just shipped the turn back and as if Siege Rhino itself weren't bad enough, he cast Incremental Growth on his 3 creatures (Highland Game, Siege Rhino, and Sagu Archer I believe) and attacked with the Rhino (+2+2 so 6/7) and Highland game (+3+3 so 5/4), I blocked the Rhino with my Wooly morph and flipped him up. Still took a huge chunk of damage. I knew next turn I was going to savage punch something, but it turned out even bettter than expected!

I draw a second Savage Punch off the top of the deck! My fatty Wooly punches out his Rhino and Archer and I get in for 13 damage (with Wooly at 10 power, and Abomination attacking for 3). The game ended up in a close race and I knew if he had Awaken the Bear or a Savage Punch of his own, he would beat me. He never drew them and conceded in a very close game. Definitely the best game I played that night.

Game 3
He got stuck on 3 lands for way too long and just as he started getting some lands and creatures, I used Dead Drop on him and continued the beat down. He conceeded shortly after. Sometimes you just need to get lucky, and I'll take it with my opponent getting mana screwed.

We chatted a little after the game and he was a really good sport about everything, approaching MTG the way I do. Sometimes mana screw happens and there's nothing you can do about it. He showed me his remaining hand of Timely Hordemate (to get back a Seeker of the Way I killed) and Wingmate Roc. Scary deck... Seeker, Siege Rhino, Wingmate Roc, Heir of the Wilds...

Round 3
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Playing against an experienced player here in Jeskai. It was my turn for mana screw this time unfortunately. I mulled a 1 lander and got another 1 lander, but two 2 drops and a Bitter Rev to help me stay in the game if I get to 4 lands and decided to keep on the draw (risky I know). I stumbled on 1 land for a couple turns, then got stuck on 2 lands for a few more turns. He curved out perfectly with Seeker of the Way on turn 2, Jeskai Windscout on 3, etc. The next game wasn't any better, I mulled a 2 lander (two islands and all the rest of my cards my base colors Black/Green) and ended up with a much better 2 lander (duals) and a playable 2-drop with Parapet. I still got stuck on 2 lands for a long time. He played out Wingmate Roc and lol concede.

I looked back at my deck again to see if there were any adjustments I could make to help with mana consistency. I was actually playing 3 basic islands at this point and decided to cut 1 for a swamp. I tested the deck a few times and decided I was just going to 41 cards with a Swamp as my 19th land. I have 4 looters and a Bitter Revelation, so more lands is fine, and I feel like with my deck's strong late game, hitting my land drops is absolutely crucial. I would MUCH rather flood out in this format than get mana screwed. I had plenty of cards that could be hardcast for high mana for some immediate strong board presence, but could also be played to shore up the early game.

Round 4

Never seen this guy before, but I saw portions of his last game. He has a Mardu tokens deck and Zergo Helmsmasher is in there.

Game 1
We both were quickly developing our board, but he flipped up Ponyback and next turn swung with 6 creatures saying "I'm all-in" and I think I made some bad blocks here. I was at 23 life, him at 8 life. I figured he likely had Trumpet Blast here, and with Trumpet Blast he would do 22 damage. I had 3 creatures able to deal a total of 9 damage on board for lethal next turn. So I could try to trade off with some to preserve my life total, or let it all through and hope he miscalculated so I win on the crackback. He still had 4 mana available if he casted Trumpet Blast, so if he casts any creature or removal spell after combat, my crackback would no longer be lethal though. Because of that last part, I blocked two creatures to trade with and he surely enough had Trumpet Blast, bringing me down to 7. I only had 1 creature remaining and he had 4. I think my only winning chance there was not blocking at all and hoping he miscalulated or I drew a removal spell of my own to take out a creature if he plays another one. With that in mind, I misplayed that turn since with my current play to preserve some life total, I had only 1 out to POSSIBLY win with Dead Drop. If I take it all, he still has 6 creatures and I have 3, so I would need to win on crackback or play some combination of 3 creature/removal spells next turn with 6 or 7 mana which seems unlikely.

Game 2
I don't recall too much of this game other than I won with my multiple evasive creatures - Mystic, Abomination, and/or Riverwheel.

Game 3
I had a turn 2 Rakshasha Deathdealer for the perfect start. He mardu charmed it away turn 3 though. I developed my board quicker than him with morph after morph and Bitter Revv'd myself to refuel my hand. He again lost to my evasive creatures in the end. I remember two spots in the game that were awesome: Dead Drop to remove 2 of his 3 creatures, and double Savage Punch from Wooly to remove 2 of his creatures and give 2 prowess triggers to Riverwheel.

So overall the games went well. I wish I realized earlier on that 19 lands would be really good for my deck due to how much looting effects I had (FOUR Abominations of Gudul!) and how strong my late game was. I had a lot of 2-3 drops so I decided against it at the start. It might have gone better Round 3, but I could easily still have gotten mana screwed then anyways - still, I feel like cutting an island for a swamp, and possibly adding a 19th land would have given me a better chance regardless, so I didn't build the best deck I could.

Level ups

* Savage Punch though conditional and risky removal is really powerful with some big butts or a lot of Alpine Grizzly's / random 4 power creatures. I even pumped Rakshasha pre-combat to trigger Ferocious, Savage Punch the remaining blocker and get in for 6 one game. Awesome removal spell. It's jumped up a bit in my evaluation.

* I've gotten better at decision making overall, but still on crucial turns sometimes do not take the time needed to ask the important question "How am I winning this game?". Like with the blocks against the likely Trumpet Blast, I should have asked myself that and determined my chance to win from blocks or no blocks. Instead I thought about it for less than a minute and declared my blocks.

* I've become a bit of a celebrity at my LGS with my drafting recently. They all know me as that guy that takes all the fixing lol. Not really a level up, but it's kind of cool being recognized like that. I've made a bunch of "friends" at my LGS, but we only play on Fridays in the store. Some of them are clearly really into MTG like me, so I think I should ask them sometime if they want to play casually or practice competitively against each other. It would help me a ton with my Sealed Construction skills for sure getting others input, and would help with my gameplay with them letting me know their lines for turns and why. I think it would be cool. Perhaps even just going over MTGO replays with them over Skype and explaining my thought process and them giving feedback would be sweet. Well... next week I'll see if they're interested.

MTG Draft: Self Analysis #7

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