Day 2 Draft #2

Part 1

Part 2

Drafted RBg and went 1-2. This draft felt like it went alright, but looking over it now I realize that there were a few problems. I think my first pick was Murder and don’t remember much beyond that. I think I saw an early Brawl-Bash Ogre and passed it, but eventually ended up in RB. Things felt alright, but my curve was definitely high. I believe pack 2 pick 1 was Bone Dragon, a solid but not spectacular card. I think my pack 3 pick 1 was vaevictus asmadi, the dire. I was excited to see that since I was already RB and had a Manalith. However, I had already passed 2x Foul Orchard which would have let me splash vaevitus asmadi, the dire essentially for free. The rest of pack 3 was bad and I ended up with 3 more Manaliths. I should have tried to get a low to the ground aggressive RB deck, but I tried to pivot into a slower “good stuff” deck. I grabbed Poison-Tip Archer with that plan in mind, but I think that approach was a mistake. The building process was agonizing because I was being pulled in too many directions. My 2x Brawl-Bash Ogre and 3x Act of Treason was pulling me towards a sacrifice theme, but I didn’t have any Goblin Instigator, Doomed Dissenter, or Reassembling Skeleton to help enable it. I had vaevictus asmadi, the dire and Poison-Tip Archer, but in order to splash them I needed to play multiple Manalith, which is not an impactful card. Especially when they are not helping ramp towards any payoffs, because most of my cards cost 4 mana. I did have 3x Lich's Caress so I was thinking they could help buy me time for my payoff cards, but honestly the only real payoff was Vaevictus. So the deck was very disjointed and played out that way. There was some power, but the curve was lame and there was little synergy.

MATCH 13 vs UB (1-2) Overall 7-6

I had such a difficult time during deckbuilding that I didn’t have enough time to sleeve my deck and played this entire round unsleeved. Game 1 I had a lame start trying to get some attacks in with Walking Corpse. I was losing the race against his Hired Blade because I figured I’d be able to catch up, but soon Snapping Drakes joined the party and even using Lich's Caress on a Snapping Drake wasn’t able to help me.

Game 2 went better. Poison-Tip Archer (sided in) was insane for me. I was able to get it out and initiate/force a lot of creature trades to deal massive damage. Actually, now that I think about it, Poison-Tip Archer might have dealt all 20 points of damage alone. Boarded out -1 Mountain -2 Act of Treason for +1 Forest, +1 Manalith, +1 Poison-Tip Archer.

Game 3 I mulled to 6 and lead off with Lightning Mare. Things looked alright for me because my opponent had lots of blue creatures, but then a lone thopter token stopped my Lightning Mare’s attacks. In hindsight, I should have just traded the Mare for the thopter because that little thopter ended up dealing a whole lot of damage to me. It especially hurt because Poison-Tip Archer finished off my Lightning Mare anyway. I ran out of action and my opponent used multiple Anticipate to make sure they drew action. Even 2x Lich's Caress from me couldn’t stave off the fliers. Opponent’s deck was very solid.

MATCH 14 vs GBu (1-2) Overall 7-7

Game 1 wasn’t close. My opponent had a fast and powerful start with a T3 Vine Mare into a T4 Two-Headed Zombie. I took a bunch, but was able to eventually kill Vine Mare by trading off creatures. Opponent used Gravediggers and Macabre Waltz to keep the creatures flowing and a late Poison-Tip Archer from them sealed the deal.

Game 2 I had T2 Viashino Pyromancer into T3 Skymarch Bloodletter and soon Brawl-Bash Ogre and Siegebreaker Giant also joined the fray on my side. I used Siegebreaker Giant’s ability to prevent Giant Spider from blocking and smashed in for 8 damage. Siegebreaker Giant died but I was able to Lich's Caress the spider away and open up more attack for the eventual win. At one point with 3 cards in hand, I discarded vaevictus asmadi, the dire and Lich's Caress to a Mind Rot and my opponent was wondering what the heck I kept (it was another Lich's Caress).

Game 3 was rough. I was under attack early and was forced to cast defensive Hostile Minotaurs. I was trading stuff off and killed off my opponent’s Poison-Tip Archer and Skyrider Patrol, but my opponent was able to get both of them back (and both are absolutely insane, hard enough to deal with once each). I used some more removal, but still died soon after.

MATCH 15 BYE Overall 8-7

I mentioned I had a hard time building the deck due to being pulled in different directions. Here are notable cards that I did not play but that I strongly considered: Poison-Tip Archer (sided in), another Marauder's Axe, Trumpet Blast, Recollect, and 3 more Manalith and was considering going off the deep end and playing all my good stuff including Knightly Valor. Not my best work.

THOUGHTS

Viashino Pyromancer is still great. I love it and once again wish that I had more of them.

2x Act of Treason was supposed to combo with Brawl-Bash Ogre and my (supposedly) aggro strategy. Never came up.

2x Brawl-Bash Ogre was very medium. Dies to almost all the common removal and I didn’t have any enablers to help it shine.

Siegebreaker Giant was pretty hit or miss. It’s easily killed off by lame creatures and almost all removal, but it can win you the game in a hurry if unchecked. Overall I’d say my opinion of it has gone down a bit.

vaevictus asmadi, the dire never came up for me, but I don’t think it is too spectacular. Not worth it enough to warp your deck like I did.

skymarcher bloodletter is really solid and I would have loved more of these.

Bone Dragon is alright. Huge fliers are always great, but it’s ability can be hard to actually pull off in limited. I think it’s shine a lot more in UB where you can fill your graveyard with Divinations and Anticipates.

I still love Abnormal Endurance, but I think it’s a bit better with a lower curve so that it’s easier to hold up mana for it.

3x Lich's Caress was not that specular for me but that’s because the rest of the deck was a mess. I was hoping that having so many of these would help recover and take over games, but it did not play out that way.

Manalith is annoying. I think it is justifiable to play it if you are splashing hardcore and/or ramping into amazing things. I wasn’t doing either of those things so most of the time it was a “do nothing” card for me. I’m much happier when I’m not playing these in my deck, because they dilute either you noncreature spell count or your creature count. I sided up to 2x of these after game 1s to support Poison-Tip Archer and Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire and it felt horrible. I wished I had those Foul Orchards instead.

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