Day 2 Draft #1

Part 1

Part 3

This was somewhat rough. First pick Sigiled Sword of Valeron (over Murder) was great. I already got to experience its power. Second pick was Volcanic Dragon and I was looking to be in RW or RG aggro. However, soon some nice blue cards started coming by. When I saw a pick 4 or 5 Psychic Symbiont I hesitated and almost grabbed it. In retrospect I should have grabbed it because. Next came Sift which I took and then a stream of Skeleton Archers which I took (ended pack 1 with 3 of them). Unfortunately by passing both Murder and pychic symbiont I was pretty sure that the person to my left was UB as well. Then pack 2 the person to my left opened Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip which likely cemented them into UB. Pack 2 was pretty rough and now I saw a bunch of great red, white, and green cards flowing, but I was already committed by that point. Pack 3 ended up better, and I felt decent with 4x Skeleton Archer alongside Death Baron, as well as a Psychic Symbiont and of course Sigiled Sword of Valeron. Many of the other cards I picked up were not as great, but it seemed like a decent if not spectacular deck.

MATCH 10 vs UBr (splashing Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip) (1-2) Overall 6-4

Well I played the UB deck I was next to in draft. He was more blue than black and I was more black than blue so I don’t think we cannibalized each other as much during the draft, but it still probably impacted us.

Game 1 was a grind, I barely closed out with Sigiled Sword of Valeron after flooding out a bit. Almost died to Snapping Drake.

Game 2 was yet another grind, but I flooded again and this time it didn’t go well. I made a mistake playing a very late land (number 8 or 9) when Sift was still a live draw, I didn’t draw it, but I should have held the land back just in case. I wasn’t able to mount much of an offense against Surge Mare.

We were running out of time, so game 3 was a “rushed grind”. Kowing we were short on time and being stonewalled by blockers I sideboarded in 2x Aether Tunnel to try and punch some extra damage through. It maybe wasn’t a great choice facing UB which has lots of bounce/removal, but I was just hoping to sneak in some extra damage for the kill. I mulliganed and then had trouble getting enough mana. Death Baron did some work pumping my Walking Corpses and discouraging blocks. But I did get blown out at one point with dispose bouncing Death Baron to mess up my attack, I bounced a not-blocking enemy Aven Wind Mage thinking Deathtouch would take care of the blockers, not thinking about a response from my opponent. I should have thought through that better. I got them to 10 with pretty much just a Death Baron, a Walking Corpse, a Diregraf Ghoul, and a Vampire Neonate. I died to fliers such as Snapping Drake and with Lich's Caress and Psychic Symbiont in hand. I think a Skeleton Archer to kill the Snapping Drake (using Deathtouch) might have been able to turn the tide for me, but it was not so.

MATCH 11 vs Mono G (1-2) Overall 6-5

Game 1 was rough because I was facing a T4 Gigantosaurus. If that was all that I was facing I think I could have won, but it was then joined by Vigilant Baloth, and Bristling Boar. I was hacking away at their life with a thopter token carrying Marauder's Axe and chump blocking with everything else. Even bringing back both of my Aviation Pioneers with Macabre Waltz and recasting both for 4 more blockers didn’t save me.

Game 2 was close. My opponent was light on lands, but still got out Centaur Courser and Wall of Vines. Luckily I was able to equip Sigiled Sword of Valeron on a thopter token and start smashing in. I wasn’t able to accumulate knights very well because they were being killed when blocked by Centaur Courser. Eventually I got down Aven Wind Mage as well as Marauder's Axe to increase the pressure in the skies. Psychic Symbiont joined the fray and I killed them with multiple fliers.

Game 3 I was facing a Rhox Oracle with my Walking Corpse, Diregraf Ghoul, and Skeleton Archer and my opponent added Druid of Horns and put Talons of Wildwood on it generating a 3/3 beast. Now I was in big trouble. I had Disperse to bounce the druid of the horns but that was still bad for me because my opponent had plenty of mana to recast the Druid and return and recast Talons of Wildwood netting another 3/3 beast. Giant Spider and some other green fatties outclassed my creatures and then all my hope died when Pelakka Wurm came down and returned them to 20 life. I died not long after.

MATCH 12 was a BYE Overall 7-5

Not my best draft ever, but the matches I played all went to 3 games and some were pretty close. Somehow despite having 1x Death Baron and 4x Skeleton Archer I never got to use the combo. I think pulling that off would have turned the tide for me in some of those games. Notable sideboard options were: 2x Mind Rot, 2x Anticipate, 2x Aether Tunnel, and Fell Specter. And writing this down made me realize that I should have been sideboarding in Fell Specter against the decks with fliers and probably should have included it into the main deck because it’s a great equipment bearer.

THOUGHTS

Sigiled Sword of Valeron still amazing. This time I was trying to have a lot of fliers to attach it to and that worked well. Crazy good card.

Death Baron was great when I got to actually use it. Still pretty fragile though, better when backed up by Gravediggers.

4x Skeleton Archer did not impress me. Maybe these were just bad matchups, but the never seemed able to kill any creatures. Not being able to combo them with Death Baron hurt real bad.

Psychic Symbiont was nice. The card advantage is great and at that point of the game there’s a good chance that they’ll have to discard something nice to it. I regret passing the first copy of this early in the draft, would have probably changed the outlook of the whole draft for me.

3x Walking Corpse were pretty unexciting. They get stonewalled by blockers pretty easily they only shone when Death Baron was in play. They were mostly there for curve purposes and to have early equipment carriers.

2x Diregraf Ghoul only marginally better than walking corpse, but the ETB tapped downside can hurt when on the defensive.

Sift never really came up for me but seems good.

Vampire Neonate was great in this deck. Definitely helped me win or survive a couple of times. 2x Aviation Pioneer was decent. I was excited about equipping up thopter tokens and that did come up, but they can get outclassed pretty badly sometimes.

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