Drafting a win.
So I don't draft much. I mean it. I draft about 3 - 4 times a year. However I have this nice arrangement with a friend of mine, Larry, who likes to play Magic, but doesn't want the cards and only plays limited. He buys a box of the current set, whenever he's in town. We play sealed deck with the packs, and I keep the cards afterwards. It's a pretty sweet deal for me, I admit! Thanks, Larry!
So Larry was staying with us for about a week while he was in the USA, and we played Magic ... a lot. So I've got a much better feel for the M12 format than I have had for most other limited formats, since I've now played a LOT of M12 sealed. I know, I know, draft and sealed can play out pretty differently. But they do have some similarities. Here are some of the things I've learned about sealed, and by extension, draft.
1. This is a fast aggressive format. No, really, it's FAST. One mana 2/2 commons are in the set people... One mana 1/1 unblockable with almost no drawback. Oh and a one mana player pinger (might as well be a 1/1 unblockable) all at common. Fast.
2. Bomb rares are still good, but there are a LOT of ways to push through damage in uncommon and common. Good drafters know this already, but you have to build your deck with your commons. Go in with a plan for dealing with fast aggression, or you'll die to it very quickly.
3. Play guys, and lots of them. No creatures = quick death. I opened six packs and three planeswalkers, Gideon, Garruk, and Chandra. All bomb mythics and a huge pool of removal. I totally killed with that deck right? Wrong. There were no creatures. My largest creature pool was in green (which is bad in M12) and it had eight. Seriously? Eight creatures? In GREEN!?!? Sigh. Even with Garruk and a lot of removal in red and black, making the choice of secondary color interesting, I got run over by a deck with almost no removal at all. Larry played eighteen creatures in his deck that match. I was dead on board by turn 4 or 5 almost every game, despite two or three removal spells. It was brutal. My walkers never really got into it because I couldn't slow the initial onslaught of guys. The few times I did win, it was because Garruk took over the game and Larry's lack of spells to deal with it let me stall until the ultimate just won me the game. In that time I was still BARELY able to hold off Larry from killing me or Garruk even with making a 3/3 every turn. Moral of the story: play creatures at every CC on your curve, with an emphasis on turns 2 and 3 (even turn one if you get them).
4. Crumbling Colossus is really good. Really really good. Try playing with him, and you'll see what I mean.
5. If you don't have an aggressive deck, get yourself some Peregrine Falcons, because the first strike is a really good tool when trying to win combat. It's an underrated card and can put the brakes on aggressive decks pretty fast.
6. Lightning Elemental is better in M12 than it was in other sets.
So here's the deck I played to a 6-1-1 record on the night.
1 Unsummon
2 Phantasmal Bear
1 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Fling
1 Incinerate
2 Azure Mage
1 Crimson Mage
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Goblin Piker
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Skywinder Drake
1 Greatsword
1 Lightning Elemental
2 Gorehorn Minotaurs
2 Crumbling Colossus
2 Chasm Drake
1 Volcanic Dragon
9 Mountains
8 Islands
19 Creatures, 1 Equipment, 3 Tricks, 17 land.
3 1CC Creatures
5 2CC Creatures
3 3CC Creatures
3 4CC Creatures
4 5CC Creatures
1 6CC Creatures
During the draft I passed a Sphinx of Uthuun for a Chasm Drake, and I stand by that choice.
Let's look at some of the synergies here:
Chasm Drake + Crumbling Colossus or Fiery Hellhound = a lot of damage.
Goblin Tunneler + Fiery Hellhound = unblockable Fireball
Fling + Fiery Hellhound or Crumbling Colossus = dead opponent, especially if you fling the colossus with the sac trigger on the stack (or unsummon it at the same time).
Greatsword + the entire deck (minus the illusions) = must block threats of every 1/1 and 2/1 in the deck (bonus points if you make your azure mage unblockable with Goblin Tunneler and THEN equip the greatsword).
Crimson Mage + every creature except the bears, the dragon and the elemental = an entire hasty deck.
Let's talk about the matches for a minute.
Most of the games played out like this:
Turn 1 Bear, or Land Pass.
Turn 2 Attack with Bear, play land cast a Mage.
Turn 3 Play a high power threat, like Sky Winder Drake or Fiery Hellhound
Turn 4 play a 5/5 for four, or a hasty 4/1
Turn 5 play a Colossus or Chasm Drake
Turn 6 Win.
At some point along that path the opponent would kill one of my guys or bounce one, but I'd just keep swinging for the face.
Match 1 I played Will, who had some mana issues in our three games. He was able to stabilize in one of our three games, and win, but in games one and three he mulled to five and I won in the fashion described above.
1-0
Match 2 I am paired up against Larry and his untargetable Dungrove Elder, who with the help of a
trollhide, was able to grind me out Game 1, but I proceed to win games two and three rather handily.
2-0
Match 3 I lose to George with his double Jace's Erasure, Merfolk Mesmerist, Belltower Sphinx, Peregrine Falcon, Foil Timely Reinforcements, Alabaster Mage, Pacifism, Merfolk Looter, double Divination, double Ponder monstrosity. I did win game 1, but lost games two and three rather horribly. Game two I lost to getting decked, game three to damage. He played Timely Reinforcements against me for full value both games. It sucked. Yeesh, that card is a beating.
2-1
Match 4 I get paired up and play Shawn who is 3-0 with his four color double manalith all the removal you can wish for deck, that decides to give him a lot of land and not very many spells. I kill him on turn 5 in game 1 after which he asks me how I'm not 3-0. Then I kill him on turn 7 or 8 in the next game. It wasn't pretty.
3-1
Match 5 Versus Josh who is also 3-1, and we ID into top 8. Josh and I play it out and he wins 2-1. His deck was pretty good, and better at playing the tempo game than mine, with aether adepts, islandwalking crocs and Sphinx of Uthuun to draw him into five lands, no joke. Sorry you lost in Top 8, bro, but I'm glad I didn't have to play you again, heh.
3-1-1
Top 8 pairings go up and I'm paired with George again... CRAP!
Game one he wins the die roll and chooses to play first. I proceed to curve out, Bear, Mage, Drake, Elemental, Colossus, Dragon. I'm swinging for serious damage each turn, but he's racing with alabaster mage. He does the math wrong on his last attack taps out and swings for 8 lifelink while he's at three life to put him at 11 and I have exactly 11 points of power on the table for the swing back (my guys are all tapped out from swinging for his face every turn) and I go to 5, killing him on the return swing. He was pretty mad about the mistake, but I would have had him next turn no matter what with another colossus and a fling in my hand, with Crimson mage and exactly enough to play the colossus, give it haste, swing and then fling it after damage.
Game two is an epic battle where he gets repeatedly low on life and repeatedly finds the life gain answers in alabaster mage and timely reinforcements (GOD is that card good!) and I lose.
Game three I get him very low on life (16) despite alabaster and timely reinforcements AGAIN, and I set up Goblin Tunneler and Fiery Hellhound with a LOT of mountains, putting him on a two turn clock, during which he does not find another answer, and I win with fling in hand again, just in case.
4-1-1
Top 4 I play Mike. Mike was playing green and blue, but I honestly didn't see much of his deck. Our games went like this:
Turn two azure mage. Turn three azure mage. Turn four Fiery Hellhound. Turn five Chasm Drake. Turn six colossus, turn 7 win with another colossus in hand.
5-1-1
Top 2 I play Shawn again and destroy him again rather handily. Sorry Shawn.
6-1-1
Not bad for the guy who never drafts. Maybe I'll draft again...
So Larry was staying with us for about a week while he was in the USA, and we played Magic ... a lot. So I've got a much better feel for the M12 format than I have had for most other limited formats, since I've now played a LOT of M12 sealed. I know, I know, draft and sealed can play out pretty differently. But they do have some similarities. Here are some of the things I've learned about sealed, and by extension, draft.
1. This is a fast aggressive format. No, really, it's FAST. One mana 2/2 commons are in the set people... One mana 1/1 unblockable with almost no drawback. Oh and a one mana player pinger (might as well be a 1/1 unblockable) all at common. Fast.
2. Bomb rares are still good, but there are a LOT of ways to push through damage in uncommon and common. Good drafters know this already, but you have to build your deck with your commons. Go in with a plan for dealing with fast aggression, or you'll die to it very quickly.
3. Play guys, and lots of them. No creatures = quick death. I opened six packs and three planeswalkers, Gideon, Garruk, and Chandra. All bomb mythics and a huge pool of removal. I totally killed with that deck right? Wrong. There were no creatures. My largest creature pool was in green (which is bad in M12) and it had eight. Seriously? Eight creatures? In GREEN!?!? Sigh. Even with Garruk and a lot of removal in red and black, making the choice of secondary color interesting, I got run over by a deck with almost no removal at all. Larry played eighteen creatures in his deck that match. I was dead on board by turn 4 or 5 almost every game, despite two or three removal spells. It was brutal. My walkers never really got into it because I couldn't slow the initial onslaught of guys. The few times I did win, it was because Garruk took over the game and Larry's lack of spells to deal with it let me stall until the ultimate just won me the game. In that time I was still BARELY able to hold off Larry from killing me or Garruk even with making a 3/3 every turn. Moral of the story: play creatures at every CC on your curve, with an emphasis on turns 2 and 3 (even turn one if you get them).
4. Crumbling Colossus is really good. Really really good. Try playing with him, and you'll see what I mean.
5. If you don't have an aggressive deck, get yourself some Peregrine Falcons, because the first strike is a really good tool when trying to win combat. It's an underrated card and can put the brakes on aggressive decks pretty fast.
6. Lightning Elemental is better in M12 than it was in other sets.
So here's the deck I played to a 6-1-1 record on the night.
1 Unsummon
2 Phantasmal Bear
1 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Fling
1 Incinerate
2 Azure Mage
1 Crimson Mage
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Goblin Piker
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Skywinder Drake
1 Greatsword
1 Lightning Elemental
2 Gorehorn Minotaurs
2 Crumbling Colossus
2 Chasm Drake
1 Volcanic Dragon
9 Mountains
8 Islands
19 Creatures, 1 Equipment, 3 Tricks, 17 land.
3 1CC Creatures
5 2CC Creatures
3 3CC Creatures
3 4CC Creatures
4 5CC Creatures
1 6CC Creatures
During the draft I passed a Sphinx of Uthuun for a Chasm Drake, and I stand by that choice.
Let's look at some of the synergies here:
Chasm Drake + Crumbling Colossus or Fiery Hellhound = a lot of damage.
Goblin Tunneler + Fiery Hellhound = unblockable Fireball
Fling + Fiery Hellhound or Crumbling Colossus = dead opponent, especially if you fling the colossus with the sac trigger on the stack (or unsummon it at the same time).
Greatsword + the entire deck (minus the illusions) = must block threats of every 1/1 and 2/1 in the deck (bonus points if you make your azure mage unblockable with Goblin Tunneler and THEN equip the greatsword).
Crimson Mage + every creature except the bears, the dragon and the elemental = an entire hasty deck.
Let's talk about the matches for a minute.
Most of the games played out like this:
Turn 1 Bear, or Land Pass.
Turn 2 Attack with Bear, play land cast a Mage.
Turn 3 Play a high power threat, like Sky Winder Drake or Fiery Hellhound
Turn 4 play a 5/5 for four, or a hasty 4/1
Turn 5 play a Colossus or Chasm Drake
Turn 6 Win.
At some point along that path the opponent would kill one of my guys or bounce one, but I'd just keep swinging for the face.
Match 1 I played Will, who had some mana issues in our three games. He was able to stabilize in one of our three games, and win, but in games one and three he mulled to five and I won in the fashion described above.
1-0
Match 2 I am paired up against Larry and his untargetable Dungrove Elder, who with the help of a
trollhide, was able to grind me out Game 1, but I proceed to win games two and three rather handily.
2-0
Match 3 I lose to George with his double Jace's Erasure, Merfolk Mesmerist, Belltower Sphinx, Peregrine Falcon, Foil Timely Reinforcements, Alabaster Mage, Pacifism, Merfolk Looter, double Divination, double Ponder monstrosity. I did win game 1, but lost games two and three rather horribly. Game two I lost to getting decked, game three to damage. He played Timely Reinforcements against me for full value both games. It sucked. Yeesh, that card is a beating.
2-1
Match 4 I get paired up and play Shawn who is 3-0 with his four color double manalith all the removal you can wish for deck, that decides to give him a lot of land and not very many spells. I kill him on turn 5 in game 1 after which he asks me how I'm not 3-0. Then I kill him on turn 7 or 8 in the next game. It wasn't pretty.
3-1
Match 5 Versus Josh who is also 3-1, and we ID into top 8. Josh and I play it out and he wins 2-1. His deck was pretty good, and better at playing the tempo game than mine, with aether adepts, islandwalking crocs and Sphinx of Uthuun to draw him into five lands, no joke. Sorry you lost in Top 8, bro, but I'm glad I didn't have to play you again, heh.
3-1-1
Top 8 pairings go up and I'm paired with George again... CRAP!
Game one he wins the die roll and chooses to play first. I proceed to curve out, Bear, Mage, Drake, Elemental, Colossus, Dragon. I'm swinging for serious damage each turn, but he's racing with alabaster mage. He does the math wrong on his last attack taps out and swings for 8 lifelink while he's at three life to put him at 11 and I have exactly 11 points of power on the table for the swing back (my guys are all tapped out from swinging for his face every turn) and I go to 5, killing him on the return swing. He was pretty mad about the mistake, but I would have had him next turn no matter what with another colossus and a fling in my hand, with Crimson mage and exactly enough to play the colossus, give it haste, swing and then fling it after damage.
Game two is an epic battle where he gets repeatedly low on life and repeatedly finds the life gain answers in alabaster mage and timely reinforcements (GOD is that card good!) and I lose.
Game three I get him very low on life (16) despite alabaster and timely reinforcements AGAIN, and I set up Goblin Tunneler and Fiery Hellhound with a LOT of mountains, putting him on a two turn clock, during which he does not find another answer, and I win with fling in hand again, just in case.
4-1-1
Top 4 I play Mike. Mike was playing green and blue, but I honestly didn't see much of his deck. Our games went like this:
Turn two azure mage. Turn three azure mage. Turn four Fiery Hellhound. Turn five Chasm Drake. Turn six colossus, turn 7 win with another colossus in hand.
5-1-1
Top 2 I play Shawn again and destroy him again rather handily. Sorry Shawn.
6-1-1
Not bad for the guy who never drafts. Maybe I'll draft again...
Chasm Brake is a beast in draft.
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