Modern Masters 2015 paper draft report - June 12, 2015

Tams and I recently went to a MM2 draft at The Gamer's Emporium, and it was a lot of fun. I didn't open anything of great value (though there was a Tarmogoyf, a Kiki-Jiki, an Ulamog, and a foil Vendilion Clique opened at the table), but the deck I put together was really fun to play. Take a look.

My first pick was a Sunlance, as my rare was of little value. I figured that good removal which fits into at least three decks was pretty solid. Artifacts were being passed to me in great number, and I thought I could get away with affinity. Once I got my second court homunculus and a frogmite almost last pick of pack one, I knew I was correct. As it turned out, someone else at the table was also drafting affinity, but they prioritized blue cards while I snapped up all the good artifacts. Throw in a couple of Narcolepsys and a Arrest, and my deck was a force to be reckoned with.

The one outlier of my deck was the Hearthfire Hobgoblin, but when the Izzet Boilerworks wheeled the table, I decided to include both.

I wasn't sure whether muldrifter, as a five drop, or Qumulox, as an eight drop would be castable with only 16 land in my deck, but as it turned out, I was generally able to play both by the time they ended up in my hand. At one point I cast both in the same turn, which felt fantastic.

Although I tried to draft fairly tight to my archetype, I did end up with a few off colour cards which I thought about playing.

Agony Warp might have been worth splashing for, and I'd considered splashing black for Duskhunter Bat, Vampire Lacerator, and Sign in Blood. I thought about running Electrolyze, since I was already in blue with red fixing, but at the end of the day consistency won out.

I also had a number of artifacts which I decided to leave out, and that decision was a bit more difficult.

Leaving out the Skyreach Mantas was easier after I decided not to splash, as a 3/3 flyer for 5 just wasn't as good as the other things I had going, and ramping off the Cathodion seemed unnecessary since I intended to dump my hand, and extra mana would just go to waste, but I wasn't sure whether a 1/1 for 1 which left behind an artifact was good enough. It would have worked well with Myrsmith, but in the end I decided that triple Court homunculus and a copper carapace were enough one drops, and the rest of my deck was better.

I ended up going 2-1, losing in the finals to some green jank, but I'm satisfied with my play, and the draft was really fun. I'd suggest you give this format a try. Also, look forward this Friday to our online Modern Masters draft, where hopefully we'll open a foil Tarmagoyf and never have to pay for a draft again.

Thanks for reading,

-Step.