Each week I'll be bringing you the results of my drafts for your benefit, analysis, insight and criticism.Draft Strategy: Worldwake
ZWW Draft #8 3/30/10. Record: 2-1, 5-3Place: 2nd/6
Review: This deck was the saddest story of my drafting career thus far. There is no doubt that, barring the worst misplay of my life, this deck would have been dominant and won me a prize pool of 12 boosters, which were at stake. I'll discuss that more later.
Notes: NEVER FORGET THE LAND BOUNCE OFF A VAPOR SNARE! NEVER EVER EVER EVER!
Pick order:
Pack 1: This pack had Hellkite Charger amidst some other rubbish like
Bladetusk Boar
and a survivalist. I take the bombest rare red has to offer and move on.Pick 2: With the rare missing, it's hard to judge what color Ian took. I follow one of the golden rules of Zendikar drafting and don't pass up the Disfigure. Sheesh, red and black AGAIN???Pick 3: The other guys in the draft have been wetting their panties over this pack on the other side of the table. Its been clogging up the wait on picks. I'm eager to see what goodies remain. Oh shit. A
Burst Lightning
and a
Trusty Machete
. It was so stupid, but I took the burst - I thought the signal was clear. But I got greedy, you never pass a machete. Ryan, to my left, scoffs at me when I hand him the machete. No red comes my way at all for the rest of the pack, not even shitty cards. I also mistakenly pass a
Halo Hunter
, I didn't realize how open black would be. I get a
Shepherd of the Lost
instead, a skyfisher and some landwalker beauties along with the mvp of the deck, Adventuring Gear.
Pack 2: I don't even remember what else was in the pack. I just know that when I saw
Archon of Redemption
, things would get real.Pick 2:
Lightkeeper of Emeria
over jank. I like how bomby my deck looks.Pick 3: here was an interesting one. Colonnade passed. I'd been seeing some blue (and had a tern), and was wondering if it was at all possible to roll W/U skies, maybe with some equipment theme. I take it for fixing.Pick 4: Its between a severely late
Vapor Snare
and an
Apex Hawks
I grab the snare, not wanting to hope that blue is open.Ironically the hawks comes back to me later. A stoneforge mystic also tables.
Pack 3: I grab
Vapor Snare
as soon as I see it. Stirring Wildwood does not appeal to me at all.Pick 2:
Sejiri Merfolk
.I hate a lot in the pack, taking an urge to feed, jagwasp and 2 dead reckonings. But I end up with a late Ruin Ghost. He won me games.
Match 1: This was against Kevin, a middle aged guy with a cool poker face, going boros. First game I keep a 5 land hand (POOR CHOICE), and he comes out with Adventuring Gear, geopede, equip landfall, bash me for 5. I misplayed on my mystic, and failed to search for a
Blazing Torch
that would have saved me. Misplay #1, but I had already given up hope on that game.Game 2: much smoother. I curve hard, getting a
Cliff Threader
equipped with a gear, and just bashing him into submission. Game three, his double geopedes by turn three got zero fuel for an attack.
Sejiri Merfolk
really was wonderful here. Not wanting to trade, the life totals went to 14/24 by like turn 4 or 5. I win.
2-1, 2-0
Match 2: I got paired down in the 6 man pool against my homie Bodhi, playing G/B ramp. All about getting creatures out early, he has a baloth out by turn 4 and a vastwood gorger out by turn 5 or six. I play an archon to stall, then turn the tides by snaring his gorger for my own, but he still has a fat board after a Bestial Menace. He bashes me down to three with a Groundswell on his baloth (I didn't block because Bodhi doesn't bluff). He's at ten from a zendikon that didn't get tradewinded fast enough. Basically I play a Ruin Ghost and a Kitesail Apprentice from my hand, equip kitesail with adventuring gear. Can't leave myself too open though, since he has a river boa. After swiping me to one, he leaves blockers on his turn. I drop a land, (landfalling once), then use ruin ghost to replay my Sejiri Steppe and smash him with his own gorger and my 6/6 apprentice. Game two wasn't nearly as technical, I just won with small fliers.
2-0, 2-0
Match 3: Liam had drafted ALL the black that no one else was playing, and magically had some red of his own (by the way, THREE hellkite chargers in a pool of only 6 zen packs, wtf???). The games were like you'd expect. I won with fliers G1, he hit mad removal and got a
Halo Hunter
out which actually killed an angel for once. He wins. Game three, I have 5 guys out, both my threaders, a Kor Skyfisher,
Apex Hawks
and an unequipped Kitesail Apprentice. He plays
anowan, the ruin sage
, I vapor snare him. Next turn he makes me discard with kicked [bloodhusk ritualist]], but no attacks. My turn. Everyone is watching, discussing, and also, talking to me. Not their fault: it was a high stakes game. But, after sacking the kitesail to anowan, I had planned to bounce my Sejiri Steppe to get in for the death blow that turn... long story short, I drew a card... missing my upkeep, losing anowan, and the game and 12 boosters along with him.
1-2, 2-1
Aftermath: I threw my cards on the table afterwards, and wasn't very sportsman-like. With horrible rares left to pick from, I left the draft in a foul mood. It was my girlfriend who felt the brunt of my aggression during some angry sex afterwards.
The moral of ZWW Draft #8 is: Take your phases slow, o readers.
With much anger and resentment,-Tapanmeister
