Saturday, January 29, 2011

A tough build

Well, I attended the Mirrodin Besieged midnight Prerelease last night but it didn't go as smoothly as Scars. I opened a Sword of Feast and Famine and a True Conviction but a couple bombs wasn't enough to get me over the hump. The deck had a decent amount of usable metalcraft dudes, a lot of conditional removal and not quite enough good artifacts to make metalcraft run. I chose Mirran so only the White and Red was usable (though the Green was marginally playable). Here's the pool, shorn of it's useless colors

WhiteRedArtifacts
Abuna Acolyte
2 X Ardent Recruit
Auriok Sunchaser
2 X Divine Offering
Ghalma's Warden
Glimmerpoint Stag
2 X Leonin Relic-Warder
Loxodon Partisan
Master's Call
Revoke Existence
Seize the Initiative
Sunspear Shikari
True Conviction
2 X Blisterstick Shaman
Burn the Impure
Concussive Bolt
2 X Crush
Galvanoth
2 X Gnathosaur
Goblin Wardriver
Koth's Courier
Kuldotha Rebirth
Rally the Forces
Turn to Slag


Argentum Armor
Bladed Sentinel
2 X Copper Myr
Echo Circlet
Grafted Exoskeleton
Leaden Myr
Nihil Spellbomb
Shriekhorn
Soliton
Spin Engine
Strider Harness
Sylvok Lifestaff
Vector Asp
Vulshok Replica
Auriok Replica
Copper Carapace
Darksteel Plate
Golem's Heart
2 X Gust-Skimmer
Myr Reservoir
Razorfield Rhino
2 X Silverskin Armor
Sphere of the Suns
Snapsail Glider
Sword of Feast and Famine
Throne of Geth
Viridian Claw



I wanted to run metalcraft but the pool is long on playable equipment and short on good dudes to carry it. Here's what I came up with, with less than a minute to spare...

CreaturesSpells and Land
Abuna Acolyte
2 X Blisterstick Shaman
Galvanoth
Glimmerpoint Stag
Goblin Wardriver
Leonin Relic-Warder
Loxodon Partisan
Razorfield Rhino
Sunspear Shikari
Vulshok Replica
Burn the Impure
Concussive Bolt
2 X Divine Offering
Master's Call
Revoke Existence
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sylvok Lifestaff
True Conviction
Turn to Slag
Viridian Claw
9 Plains
9 Mountain


How would you build this pool?

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sailing the seas of pirates

Alright, alright, alright everbody!

The pirate draft league has fired a couple more times and updated standings are below...

NameRecordPoints/Event
Jacob B.
Tim N.
Jonathan B.
Greg O.
Thomas C.
Brendan H.
Alexis R.
Matt R.
Bobby H.
Rob B.
Caleb R.
Ash O.
10-2
10-5
12-5
10-9
4-4
5-5
3-5
6-16
2-4
2-4
1-5
1-6
7.47
6.09
5.95
4.80
4.67
4.50
4.00
3.11
3.00
3.00
2.22
1.81


Ok! I am the only pirate with double digit losses! I could hit that after two more drafts! And you guys wonder why I think I suck.

Future drafts...Team Rochester! Ravnica Rotisserie! (I might retire the format after this) Besieged/Scars/Scars! Super cheap Shadowmoor/Shadowmoor/Eventide! (I am thinking $6).

Fun statistics.

Pirate Drafts: 8
Venues: 2
Formats: 3
Total Players: 25
Players with a winning record: 11
Players with a tied record: 2
Number of times Civic Wayfinder has killed someone: 1
Drafts I have 0-X'ed: 3

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

First Pauper Cube Draft

So I had the opportunity to attend a pauper draft hosted by Peter B. on Tuesday (1/18), and I drafted a very good aggro control U/B list. The list for reference:

Creatures
Looter Il-kor
Errant Ephemeron
Riftwing Cloudskate
Pestermite
Mneumonic Wall
Sea Gate Oracle
Mulldrifter
Boneshredder
Nekrataal
Hypnotic Specter
Marsh Flitter
Moroii

Spells
Exclude
Control Magic
Mind Control
Demonic Tutor
Necromancy
Dance of the Dead
Oubliette (Journey to Nowhere for 1BB)
Snuff Out
Terror
Soul Manipulation
Agony Warp

Mana
Mistvein Borderpost
Arcane Sanctum
Faerie Conclave
Wasteland
Evolving Wilds
6 Island
6 Swamp

Relevant sideboard:
Force of Will
Mindstab
Hymn to Tourach
Psychatog
Capsize
Infest

This deck combined the best of the things Blue and black do (Counter, kill, bounce, steal, and fly). I decided to play my reanimater spells over the Mindstab and Hymn because of the flexability of them (any graveyard), the fact that I had removal to kill and return their guy, and because 7 of my 12 guys have good etb abilities. There was a point when I could have cast Mulldrifter, but instead evoked it then played Dance of the Dead on it to draw 4 cards.


The draft was a bit awkward since we only had 5 players so we did a round robin.

Mital A. He was playing G/R/w/b? Mostly Red and green but a few white cards, and idk what the swamp was for (Mortify maybe)? I won handily in 2 games since I had flyers and card advantage and his beaters could not overcome my counters control magic and removal).

Peter with R/B/G. Much like my deck he had many aggressively-costed creatures with good etb effects (Shriekmaw, Fire Imp, FtK) as well as AEther Vial and Sensei's Top he won it in 3 after Blightning' me twice (regrowth) and then K. Torching me out, and again with the torch in game 3.

Jon B. had a W/U/r controllish deck that played some permission, big flyers and solid walls I got him in a close Game 3

Freiwald with R/W. He built a very aggressive deck, but saw none of his good burn against me, My counterspells stopped him from establishing a board presence while my flyers got the job done. won in two, but he was already a bit down after a key misplay in game 1 and conceded after missing a color

I took second to Jon due to the Sweep/ Swept/Heads up breakers. Awesome cube, it was nice not to have to worry about certain cards since only commons and uncommons are allowed. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and I would definitely like to do it again!