FNM Paper Draft Report - April 24, 2015

Last night I decided to try something a little different at draft. I've been playing a lot of black lately, and I've hardly touched green or white at all in this format, so when I had the chance to try a Naya deck last night, I took it.

I didn't know I was going to be able to pull this off until the Fate pack, but thankfully I picked up enough fixing to make it work.

I had to prioritize it highly, but I got enough to make a solid green splash viable.

 

 The real motivation behind the deck came from my pack one pick one. I've played Gleam of Authority once before and found it okay, but not great. A friend played it in green/white, and said it was fantastic, though I think he was operating under best case scenario mentality. I probably wouldn't have picked it, except

that I had a completely mediocre pack.

My second pick wasn't much better, as it was a Glade Watcher. I honestly didn't have much hope for the deck at that point, but quickly thereafter I got something which turned the deck around.

Dromoka Captain isn't a great card in and of itself, but it gave me a direction. I'd already taken an Atarka Efreet and a Tail Slash, but when I saw it I decided to try going for a bolster deck. Gleam of Authority came back in, and I continued to take both red and white Megamorphs, as well as things which can bolster. I was nervous about mana until it came to the Fate Reforged pack, but I managed to scoop up enough mana fixing to make the deck.

I wish I'd had better luck with the deck, but again, Gleam of Battle only ended up in my hand once, and I didn't have a creature around long enough to play it. Dromoka Captain was far more effective. I think I won every game that he came out, but that was due to the fact that I was playing good creatures every turn, not just because of him.

At the end of the day due to one thing or another, I ended up 1-2. Not a great record, and some of it was due to variance, some was due to the deck, and the second round in particular I lost to an absolutely fantastic Kolaghan deck (seriously, it had a warbringer, an ambuscade shaman, and a suite of dash creatures, not to mention a magmatic chasm to punch damage through).

I think I'd try Naya again if the cards were right, though so far I prefer going two colours in this format. I hope everyone else's FNMs went well. I'll be back next week with another draft, and another deck.

Thanks for reading,

-Step.

Draft #46 - "Kolaghan, feat. Atarka" - April 24 2015

The draft this week comes with no real surprises, oh, except that Jund is awesome! That's not really a surprise though.

Our deck wasn't really Jund, more just Kolaghan with a splash. We could have gone Atarka early on, or Golgari again, but both Tams and I prefer black/red in this format. Tams agrees after rewatching this draft that she should have been more open to green early on, but as it stands, the deck was well drafted and well built.

It helped, too, that so much came to us. If we'd been in green red at the beginning of pack two, we probably would have taken and played Dragonlord Dromoka, and I don't think we would have had enough removal in that deck. Death Wind, Ultimate Price, and double Butcher's Glee won us more games than a single dragonlord would have.

In the end, good luck and good play helped us to take down the draft. Hopefully we can do it again next week.


Thanks for watching,


-Step.

Tams' League Sealed Report

I love sealed. It's probably my favorite format, so I'm always excited to get to play it, as it has a different set of challenges than draft does. Where in draft you have a large amount of agency in how you draft your deck, it is much less so in sealed. All you can do is built the best deck you can with the packs you are given and hope your pool is kind to you.

Today I was pretty lucky with my league sealed, opening some really powerful cards- the trick was choosing the best way in which to fit them together into a cohesive whole. This task was made much more difficult with my lack of fixing.

My white pool featured a Soulfire Grandmaster, which is a terrific card, but without enough instants and sorcerys, it's just a 2/2 with lifelink.

Blue brought me an Aven Surveyor, Lotus Path Djinn and double Ojutai Interceptors, but not much else. 

My green cards were faily good and included Salt Road Quartermasters, double Whisperer of the Wilds, Tread Upon and and an Assult Formation, which could be fun to build around.  

I pulled five gold cards, the first three being Harsh Sustenance, Cunning and Pristine Skywise- none of which were strong enough to pull me into their pairings. 

In the end, a strong black/red pool and double Kolghan- The Storms Fury, made the decision for me and I wound up crafting a hybrid dash deck. 

I ran six dash creatures including a Warbringer, to help cheapen my dash costs. I also had a couple of haste creatures and some smaller ground fodder that I didn't mind sacking to the Rakshasa Gravecaller, or chumping or trading up, using a combat trick. I added a Gurmag Angler, Marsh Hulk and the aforementioned Gravecaller for later game. Here's the deck as it looked for the tournament.

Kolghan did a ton of work, mostly dashing in for five and pumping up my other creatures. He's quite the value card for five mana. 

I threw in a Mind Rot in as a 23rd card and in retrospect I think I would have preferred another creature, no matter how subpar

I didn't have a ton of removal, pulling a Flatten and Wild Slash as my only straight up removal and that had it's limitations. That said, Butcher's Glee out performed as usual, acting as removal and life gain. I also discovered that Ancestral Vengeance plus Wild Slash can handily take care of a 3/3.

When it came down to the rounds, I won the first two by getting in fast and keeping up the pressure. 

Round three I lost due to my old friend variance. The first game I mulliganed to five and couldn't catch back up and the second game was much the same. 

Round four was a mental challenge as I found myself facing Step and his 3/0 record. My getting in super fast, combined with him not getting what he needed saw me winning in two. 

By the end of it all I finished first with a 3-1 record. 

Moving forward from here, I'm looking to trade for more removal, get a Heelcutter and trade up a few creatures. 

Tuesday is our week one matches so we'll see if the deck continues to perform. 

Thanks for reading, 

Tams.

 

Step's League Report - Week 1 and Opening Tournament

Dragons of Tarkir league is here, and as usual, we started with a sealed tournament. If you don't know about sealed, I intend to write an article about it soon, but in the mean time, I'm sure there's lots of info out there on the internet.

Let's take a look at my pool.

That's a lot to look at, so let's ignore that for now, I just wanted to give you all a reference for later. I always start building a sealed deck by separating my cards by colour, and then taking out the unplayable cards and cards I don't really want to play, and seeing what's left. When I was finished, my pool looked like this.

That's still a lot to look at, with no real place to start. If you've had some experience with a format, you can sort of get an idea of what you want to play just by looking at this, but let's say for the sake of argument that I didn't already have an idea.
 My next step would be separating my rares and seeing which of them were playable, as well as whether there was any mana fixing in my pool, most notably, gain lands or fetches.

As it turned out, all of my rares seemed playable, except perhaps the green one. Five of my six rares even stayed within three colours, which isn't unreasonable for a sealed deck to play, so I decided to lay out an Esper deck using all those beautiful rares.

The curve seemed good on this deck, and I had both efficient creatures and removal, but the lack of fixing bothered me. With this deck I would need black mana early, and I wouldn't need blue until later, which was good as both of my double blues were sitting at five mana, but having Anafenza on turn two would be nearly impossible, and without a gain land or two I just didn't see this deck working. The next reasonable step was to take the core of this deck and swap out a colour to see if I could make it more consistent.

I knew I liked my red playables and I had a Swiftwater Cliffs, so swapping the black for red seemed like a reasonable first step.

This deck, too, looked like it had promise, but it always bothers me when I don't have anything to do before turn three, and I didn't think this build would have any better chance of letting me cast Anafenza early. It was true that I had a twin bolt to take out a morph, but in sealed, as in this format in general, I like to get in quickly while my opponent is still trying to set up. Besides, I had two good rares in black, and some good red removal, so I might as well try to build the deck I like best in this format and go Kolaghan

Unfortunately I didn't have quite enough playables to just run red/black, but I did have that Rugged Highlands in my pool, and some green playables, so I thought "Let's try Jund"

Finally, I had a deck I was happy with. A decent curve which started early, a couple of healthy finishers, and plenty of removal. I even had enough fixing to all but guarantee me my colours when I needed them. This was the deck I ran at the opening tournament, and it got me all the way to third place, losing only to Tams in the fourth round finals. Still, I was more than happy with a 3-1 record, and it's won me some games since.

I have had my pool for a few more days though, and I've been looking through it. Is this really the best deck available? Do I like Grim Contest more than I should? Should I have had a better look at that Swiftwater Cliffs instead of the Rugged Highlands? I had to put it together to find out.

Looking at this laid out on the table, I couldn't help but think I'd run the wrong deck. While it doesn't have as much power as the green at the top end, the removal is arguably better, as none of it requires a creature with which to fight. This build is far more tempo oriented, with a couple of fliers and big beaters for the late game. I've playtested this build around the house, and I think this is what I'll run for the remainder of week one.

Once I open my optional pack for the week, things may change, but in the mean time, it looks like I've got options.

If you're interested in setting up a sealed league at your local game store, talk to your judge at FNM. They should be able to help you out. It's a lot of fun and it makes good business, so the store owners are generally open to the idea.

Thanks for reading,

-Step.

Standard Report - Game Day Dragons of Tarkir

For a while now, I've been wanting to add a standard play section to this blog, and it seems like Game Day Dragons of Tarkir is a good place to start.

For the past year and a half I've been working with a three colour deck. I'm sure I'll post something about that here soon, but today I want to share my new creation.

My mono black is a home brew. I've played with net decks when I can afford the cards to build them, but for tournament play, I prefer to use my own builds. I went 3-1-1 for game day, which as far as I'm concerned is a respectable record. Today I'd like to take you through the intricacies of my deck, and explain how it all came together.

First, let's take a look at the whole deck. I couldn't get a good picture, so I had Tams make this lovely mock up!

As you can see, the curve is a little wonky, but it'll make sense as we go through it. This is my suite of creatures.

The one drops serve to hold down the ground and trade away while I build a more substantial board. I chose to put in one Typhoid Rats, one Pharika's Chosen, and two Ruthless Rippers. The Ruthless Rippers are there because if I draw them late, I might be able to deal some damage directly to my opponent by unmorphing them. I decided not to just run four of so that they can't all be taken out by a single Bile Blight.

My three and four drops work together to keep me ahead on board, and the Master of the Feasts may even kill my opponent before they get their legs under them.

The Fate Unravelers are there to take advantage of the fact that my opponents may be drawing extra cards, and they're big enough to eat or trade with whatever my opponents may be doing.

 

By the time a Gray Merchant  or two come down, it should be close to the end of the game, though if things go really long, I have my non-creature spells to help me out.

Most of my spells are functional removal, up until turn four when I drop a whip and start gaining life, and turn five, where I drop a palace siege. My first siege generally functions as graveyard retrieval, though if I've gotten my opponent down to single digits, I might consider using the Dragons clause to drain the last few points of life away.

You'll see that I count Merciless Executioner among my non-creature spells. With the Khans clause of Palace Siege, I can use him as a repeatable edict effect.

The first two turns will either go disowned ancestor, outlast disowned ancestor, tap land, typhoid rats, or typhoid rats, pharika's cure. By turn three, I should be able to cast any of my three drops, with the most important of which being my Master of the Feasts, though a removal spell is almost as good against some decks.

A deck isn't just creatures and spells, and even in a mono-black deck, having the right land is important. The great Scotty Mac convinced me to bump my lands up from 22 to 24, and he was right, but just as importantly is the type of land I decided to run.

Along with 16 basic swamps, I'm running two of Bloodstained Mires, two of Polluted Deltas, two of Temples of Silence, and two of Caves of Koilos. The fetch lands are there specifically to thin my deck and serve to delve out my Murderous Cuts, but the black/white lands are there for another purpose entirely. It would seem that there's absolutely no enchantment removal in black, and with all the premium playable enchantments running around, I had to take another tactic.

The pros will tell you that arguably the most important part of your deck is your sideboard, and I've chosen mine very carefully. With Erase as my insurance against enchantments, and an extra Palace Siege in case my opponents have their own Erase, much of the rest of my sideboard at the moment deals with token removal. I have two extra Hero's Downfalls against Planeswalker heavy strategies, and two Thoughtseize in case of anything I couldn't think of how to deal with (this turned out to be mostly counter spells), I was pretty much set. The only other thing I want to mention is Silence the Believers. It's rare to get an exile effect in black, and this is a pretty good one. If you come up against something indestructible, being able to remove it feels good.

That's all for now. If you have any suggestions on my deck, or questions about how it plays, feel free to comment. I'm always looking for ways to improve.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.

FNM Paper Draft Report - April 17, 2015

Last night's draft was a rather enlightening. I've been saying for some time that I don't like blue/black in this format, so it was high time that I got schooled. Luckily, I was on the right end of the lessons. Here it is, my very first Silumgar draft deck.

Our draft pool was made up of twelve, which made for a very strange draft. Besides that, I think I was just plain lucky when it came to my draft picks. I don't think anyone else was in blue/black at the table, as Soulflayer came to me fourth to last pick, but whatever brought me this fantastic deck, I was more than happy to run it.



One thing I want to mention is that my pack one rare was actually a Silumgar's Command. I decided to take the Youthful Scholar instead to stay open, and for a while it looked like I might have gone blue/red or black/red, but when I was passed a Sage-Eye Avengers third pick in the third pack, it became too hard to resist.

What I want to make clear is that even if I knew I was going blue/black from the beginning, I still consider Youthful Scholar a better pick. It might not have the same power, but in limited, creature always beats non-creature, and drawing two cards on turn five or six is just about perfect to stay ahead of the curve.




  My final record for the draft was 3-1, which put me in second, so apparently blue/black works well enough.



Heads up, our sealed league started today at the store, so look forward to both Tams and my reports on that coming soon.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.

Draft #45 - "Golgari or Go Home" - April 17, 2015

With Game Day fast approaching, it seems like we've had no time at all to play with Dragons of Tarkir. That said, I'm hearing some pretty strong opinions about the "Best deck", particularly for draft. It's always nice for me to see some other style of decks which are possible. In the spirit of that, I think you'll enjoy seeing what we (and our opponents) managed to create this week.

Round one was probably one of the most difficult matches we've had in a long time. I'm the first one to extol the virtues of a black/red deck in this format, but our opponent went an entirely different way with it. It's a deck I'd like to try playing at some point. The key, just take all the removal. All the removal you see, and a few efficient dash creatures. He was able to keep the board entirely clear and dash his Lightning Berserker in to whittle us down to within burn range. It certainly was a deck.

Rounds two and three went much more as we'd expected. We played against a blue/green deck in round two, and a blue/black deck in round three, both of which were solid decks. In the second game of round three, our splash for Daghatar finally paid off. I won't give too much more away, but this draft is definitely something to watch. I hope you all enjoy it!

Thanks for reading,


-Step.

Draft #44 "Race to the Finish" - April 10, 2015

After a long week of waiting, we're finally here with Dragons of Tarkir on MTGO. Even though we didn't get a chance to post a prerelease, we were more than ready to draft this set. Check it out.

With several paper drafts under our belt, our end record wasn't surprising, but the trip didn't take as long as I expected. I think our first match was our shortest ever. It helped that our opponent didn't get to do much, but Magic is a game of high variance, and sometimes that works for you.

Something I'd like to admit after the fact is that we probably should have been running both of our Smoldering Efreets. It wasn't that I was afraid of the life loss, it was that I find that card personally insulting, and I let that get in the way of my better judgement. It's a bad card, sure, but this was the place to run it.

It also seems funny to me that I don't personally think of black/red as a particularly enjoyable colour combination, but I've now gone two in a row with Kolaghan colours, and I've not only done well, but enjoyed doing it. To me this is further proof that you should never ignore a colour or combination of colours just because it's not your favourite. In limited, playing everything makes you a better player, and in constructed, you'll be better if you have experience with all the colours, even if there's one you don't prefer.

We'll be back next week with another draft, and we'll also be bringing you exciting new content very soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Thanks for watching,


-Step.

FNM Paper Draft Report - April 4, 2015

Hey guys, I figured with the online prerelease not going as planned, I should head to FNM last night and see about making a deck worth writing about. Luckily, I managed to make one of the decks I've been meaning to since spoiler season started. Behold, the Dash deck!

Okay, so it's not really the Dash deck. I only had three dash creatures in the deck.

When I first saw Warbringer, I wanted to know whether Dash was a viable deck in Limited. I'm pretty sure it could be. I had to settle for getting a glimpse when my draws managed to work out.The problem, as I'm sure other, wiser drafters have already pointed out, is getting enough Dash creatures which you'd actually want to play.

In my case, I decided to play every two and three drop I could find, and I managed to find some pretty good ones. With a total of five warriors, including a Blood-Chin Rager, my attacks were difficult to block, especially as I had seven good removal spells to smooth the way. 

At the top of my curve I had one of the uncommon Dragons. It was well placed in my deck, as by the time I wanted to cast it I generally had at least one good creature in my bin. Once I brought back my Blood-Chin Rager from the graveyard and swung for lethal which my opponent couldn't block. That sort of versatility is strong.














All said and done, I finished second with a record of 3-1, and I very much look forward to trying this sort of deck again if the draft allows.

Thanks for Reading,


-Step.

Draft #43 "Rise of the Eldrazi Draft" - April 3, 2015

Well, it was supposed to be a "Good Friday", but it turns out that it wasn't so "Good" to draft. We were supposed to have a Dragons of Tarkir prerelease up for you to see, but the servers were so clogged that we could barely even play. After losing a round to timing out, we decided that it would be better to wait until things quieted down. I hope you're not too disappointed, but to make it up to you, we'll be posting a bonus paper draft review in the morning. In the mean time, please enjoy this glimpse into the past, in preparation for the future to come.

Our friend Garrett has joined us again, and this time we got to draft a set that none of us has ever played with before. In preparation for the fall set,"Battle for Zendikar", Wizards decided to put a triple Rise of Eldrazi draft up for a week on MTGO. We love getting our hands on older sets, especially those that we never got to play with when they were in paper, so we were ready to jump right in.

Our deck, a mono green ramp debacle, turned out to be extremely fun to play and fairly effective. There isn't much more to say than that. Round three went long, but I think it's well worth watching. It was a hoot.

Hopefully we'll be back next Friday with a Dragons of Tarkir video set, but in the mean time, enjoy these videos, and be sure to check out my draft report in the morning.

Thanks for watching,


-Step.