A Ravnica-Ravnica-Guildpact Draft Walkthrough

As promised, I have a Draft walkthrough for you guys on the new Rav-Rav-Guildpact format. This walkthrough is from a draft last Tuesday at CMU, and was rather hard to do since it was live and I had to be picking cards and writing down stuff at the same time. I do want to say thanks to anyone from CMU reading this who was in the actual Draft, since I know I was going slow and I appreciate your patience.

Before this Draft I had drafted a rather unusual deck that was built almost completely around the two copies of Hunted Dragon that I managed to pick up. I should’ve written down the list so I could post it here but I think we started another draft immediately afterwards and I didn’t get a chance. Some of the highlights were shooting my opponent on turn 2 with Sparkmage Apprentice quite regularly (a pretty awful play in normal situations, I might add), killing one opponent on turn 5 with a draw that only included one of the Hunted Dragons, and of course, playing a turn 3 Hunted Dragon off a Wild Cantor and a Signet. Schismotivate was awesome in this deck, as it let me kill a turn earlier, and the two Wild Cantors were of course nice for speed.

I have no idea what the point of sharing all of that with you was, but I guess I thought it was interesting since it was off the beaten path and still managed to 2-1 with a bit of luck.

I guess I should get on to the actual draft walkthrough now, eh?

The Draft
Pack One

Pack 1
Conclave Equenaut; Skyknight Legionnaire; Fiery Conclusion; Boros Recruit; Elvish Skysweeper; Boros Garrison; Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi; Roofstalker Wight; Induce Paranoia; Sunhome Enforcer; Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree; Auratouched Mage; Copy Enchantment

Let me start off by saying that this was a very difficult pick and I took much longer than normal on it.

The first thing I did was isolate the potential picks from this pack. Those included Equenaut, Legionnaire, Induce, Sunhome Enforcer, City Tree, and Auratouched Mage. It should be obvious even to the untrained eye that this pack is unusually Boros heavy, and that should discourage a Boros pick since someone downstream will also likely end up in those colors and take the cards in the second booster.

I first ruled out the Enforcer, because if I was going to take a Boros card I’d much rather have the Legionnaire. The rest of the decisions weren’t so easy, and I think you can justify a couple different picks from this pack depending on preference.

It’s a great time to pick Auratouched Mage, since it’s the first pick of the Draft and I’m almost guaranteed to get some good Auras for it with all of the packs containing playable ones. Sure, it’s not triple Ravnica, and some of the Guildpact Auras aren’t the best, but at least he’ll have targets.

Conclave Equenaut and City Tree are both leaning in the Selesnya direction, and I think I like the City Tree a little bit more than the Equenaut just because it doesn’t take up an actual slot in your deck. I know this may sound contradictory, but even though I like City Tree more overall, first pick, first pack I think the Equenaut is the stronger pick since it will be good in R/W, B/W, etc. City Tree limits your options too much this early in the Draft and too often will have to sit on the bench when you’re forced into other colors. This thinking allowed me to eliminate the City Tree as a potential pick because it’s just too early to be taking a colorless land that may or may not be helpful to my overall draft.

Honestly, thinking back over all of this I believe that the correct pick from this pack is the Auratouched Mage because of flexibility.

So what did I take? The Skyknight Legionnaire.

Why?

Who knows? Actually, I took it because as I explained in my first article on this format: if you go Boros you have access to any of the guilds in Guildpact. Not just that, but I felt that Legionnaire was the best overall card and Mike Patnik was also feeding me and has a preference for Blue from what I’ve seen. Because of this I thought I could get into B/R/W or G/R/W and do just fine with that.

At any rate, looking back on things I think I should’ve taken the Auratouched Mage because the mana requirements are much more open and he’s definitely worth splashing as a fourth color, if I get the targets for him later but still don’t end up in White.

My Pick : Skyknight Legionnaire

Pack 2
Strands of Undeath; Drift of Phantasms; Torpid Moloch; Terrarion; Coalhauler Swine; Flight of Fancy; Lurking Informant; Overwhelm; Flow of Ideas; Clutch of the Undercity; Ghosts of the Innocent

This pack contains one of my favorite cards in the whole format, Drift of Phantasms. How could I not take it?

Before I get ahead of myself, let’s examine the rest of the booster. Strands of Undeath and Flight of Fancy are both nice, and nothing else here looks even remotely exciting. Going back to what I said in the last pick, since Mr. Patnik was feeding me in this Draft I felt that unless he took Vedalken Entrancer from this pack that he probably wasn’t into Blue yet, since a common was missing. I’ve found that I want to be Blue in this format whenever possible, either U/R/W, U/R/B or U/B/W, and if he’s not going to take the Blue cards then it should give me the green light to get them in Guildpact.

I took the Drift of Phantasms with the idea of getting away from it if he should give me the indication that he snuck into Blue after picking Last Gasp or something. The thing about this pack is that the Drift is the best card, and even if I end up not playing it I’m not giving up much by taking it here despite my read on what could possibly happen.

Sometimes you just gotta gamble and hope for the best.

My Pick : Drift of Phantasms

Pack 3
Snapping Drake; Dimir Infiltrator; Golgari Signet; Viashino Slasher; Farseek; Boros Garrison; Induce Paranoia; Mortipede; Elvish Skysweeper; Boros Guildmage; Warp World

This pack provides another chance to make a mistake if you’re inexperienced in this format.

Most people pick up the pack, see the pretty 3/2 Flying Snapping Drake and take it without a moments notice. If you remember back to what I just said about Patnik’s preferences, you should see that there is simply a better pick in this pack.

The Boros Guildmage.

Not only is this card amazing in its own right, but it is very flexible with the two cards I’ve drafted so far. It’s completely fine in U/R or U/R/W if I go that route, or it also works with the Legionnaire if I should switch into B/R/W or some other combination. Since this pack really provides no other viable options in consideration with my first two picks, I think it is a much better choice to take the Boros Guildmage here since I still don’t know what colors I’m going to end up in. The Guildmage is likely to make the cut regardless. If I knew for a fact I was going to be U/R I’d want the Snapping Drake here, but since I don’t, the Guildmage is a much better pick.

This format is all about maximizing options for as long as possible, so that you don’t commit and then see that a certain guild is open that you could be reaping the rewards of in very late picks.

My Pick : Boros Guildmage

Pack 4
Greater Mossdog; Peel from Reality; Terraformer; Necromantic Thirst; Wojek Siren; Consult the Necrosages; Selesnya Sanctuary; Perplex; Instill Furor; Barbarian Riftcutter; Flame-Kin Zealot

This pack is largely unspectacular with the highlights being Peel from Reality, Flame-Kin Zealot, and possibly Greater Mossdog or Selesnya Sanctuary. I see no reason to dip into Green at this point, and Peel from Reality is absolutely amazing with a lot of Guildpact cards. Even if you’re someone who loves the Flame-Kin Zealot, you can’t really rationalize taking it here since it is hard on the mana and also makes it more likely that you don’t end up using Drift of Shadows. So what’s your third color now? If you’re U/R/W, you probably don’t want to be aggro and I’ve found Zealot to not be so hot in this archetype already.

I really don’t think this is that difficult a pick and I took the Peel without thinking too much about it.

My Pick : Peel from Reality

Pack 5
Thundersong Trumpeter; Ordruun Commando; Muddle the Mixture; Sell-Sword Brute; Sadistic Augermage; Rain of Embers; Spectral Searchlight; Grifter’s Blade; Overgrown Tomb

One of the problems you often encounter when trying to draft a U/R/W Control deck is that the stronger Boros cards in Ravnica want to be cast in the early turns of the game, and the mana requirements are hard to meet unless you have multiple Boros Garrisons or Signets.

Thundersong Trumpeter is one of those cards that you’d really like to have in play on your side in this archetype, and he is unfortunately very hard on the manabase. My suggestion is normally to avoid this guy unless you have no other options, or at the very least make sure you prioritize at least one Garrison to help him out.

This pack offers the Trumpeter, Ordruun Commando, Muddle, and possibly Spectral Searchlight as potential picks. In U/R I really don’t like the Ordruun, since there are plenty of four drops that do everything he does and do a better job of it. I considered the Spectral Searchlight to help my mana or possibly “ping” my opponent to death in combination with Tidewater Minion or something. Overall it’s far too early to take the Searchlight, and I’d much rather have bounce lands and Signets instead.

I took the Trumpeter from this booster, but I wasn’t really thrilled about it because it does make the mana tough if I end up staying in this color combination. It’s worth noting that he would be great in a R/W/B deck however, since I have Boros Guildmage and Skyknight Legionnaire already and could tilt the mana in that direction and splash Black removal or something.

My Pick : Thundersong Trumpeter

Pack 6
Drake Familiar; Boros Signet; Selesnya Signet; Leave No Trace; Vedalken Entrancer; Stone-Seeder Hierophant; Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree, Spectral Searchlight

Well lookie here, another City Tree and Searchlight.

If you take a closer look, you’ll also see Vedalken Entrancer here, and it goes without saying that he is amazing in any control deck. If you look at the picks I’ve made so far, it looks like my deck will be leaning towards an aggressive build, but I’ve found that most of the time that simply is not the case. Any U/R build is better off favoring control in my experience, and so even though it looks like I’m headed toward aggression here, I just haven’t had a shot at any of the good control cards yet.

This pick is obviously the Entrancer.

My Pick : Vedalken Entrancer

Pack 7
Goblin Spelunker; Rally the Righteous; Terraformer; Greater Mossdog; Stasis Cell; Gaze of the Gorgon; Infectious Host; Chant of Vitu-Ghazi

The options here include Rally the Righteous, Terraformer, Spelunker, and Stasis Cell. I’ll be the first to come out and say that I’m not a fan of Stasis Cell in the maindeck if I can avoid it, though it is a decent sideboard card against utility creatures like Fangtail or Trumpeter. Rally is of course more beneficial to an aggressive deck, or at least one with lots of evasion, which I don’t really have. As far as the two Grey Ogres, I’d definitely favor the Terraformer since it helps get the correct mana early in the game, and can also stop opposing landwalking or power up a potential Flow of Ideas.

I ended up taking the Rally from this pack, and I think it was almost definitely a mistake looking back on it. I should’ve respected the need for early White mana in my U/R decks and taken the Terraformer here to help with that. Rally needs a lot of good things to happen in order for it to become playable in this deck, while the Terraformer will usually make the cut. Sure, he’s not spectacular, but neither is Rally if it’s in my sideboard.

My Pick : Rally the Righteous

Pack 8
Dimir Aqueduct; Muddle the Mixture; Fists of the Ironwood; Dimir Signet; Sparkmage Apprentice; Dromad Purebred; Mnemonic Nexus

This pack actually has quite a few options for me at this point. There’s the Signet, Aqueduct, Sparkmage, or possibly Muddle the Mixture. Since I’ll probably table a Muddle and am not even sure I want one yet, I eliminated it as a choice right away. There was also another Sparkmage, and I find that people don’t like him so much and I’ll get him very late anyway.

Let’s talk about the Signet versus the Aqueduct in this situation. Most of the time I advocate taking the bounce land over the Signet if you can use both colors of mana and don’t have a desire need to accelerate to a four drop. This is, of course, referring to a situation where you don’t have any bounce lands or Signets yet, as if you have four bounce lands you probably want to take the Signet no matter what.

In this case, I can’t use the Black mana provided by either of the options, so it is much better to just take the Signet. The Aqueduct may or may not make the cut in the maindeck, replacing an Island (depending on how many other bouncelands I get), while the Signet will be of great value in this case accelerating me to Entrancer and whatever else I should pick up later in the Draft. Be sure you can distinguish when it is correct to take a Signet over a bounce land, as it’s very important and comes up often.

My Pick : Dimir Signet

The lap brings a Fiery Conclusion, Coalhauler Swine, Induce Paranoia, Instill Furor, Muddle the Mixture, and Leave No Trace. Overall, a nice set of late picks for my deck. I was especially happy to get the Fiery Conclusion and the Muddle, but felt that the Induce probably wouldn’t make the maindeck.

A quick recap of the first round of boosters shows some interesting picks, and I feel I may have made a mistake with the Auratouched Mage even though there haven’t been any significant Auras to find with it in my colors. Terraformer was almost certainly a mispick too. Going into pack two though I felt my deck was solid and had a lot of potential to improve, as I felt Blue was definitely open for Guildpact because of the late Entrancer.

Pack Two

Pack 1
Last Gasp; Golgari Brownscale; Viashino Fangtail; Smash; Centaur Safeguard; Fists of the Ironwood; Sparkmage Apprentice; Stinkweed Imp; Muddle the Mixture; Nightguard Patrol; Mnemonic Nexus; Devouring Light; Boros Guildmage; Autochthon Wurm

Quite the insane pack, and plenty of options to choose from.

The best cards are Last Gasp, Fangtail, Devouring Light, and Boros Guildmage, and all are “possible” picks.

The thing about it is that even if I still was considering R/W/B, to possibly keep Orzhov open in pack three, I would probably just take another Boros Guildmage from this pack instead of Last Gasp. The reason? Flexibility, and not wanting to waste a pick if that plan doesn’t come to fruition.

Getting back to the U/R/W build of this deck that I’m most likely going to end up with, I don’t see how I could take Devouring Light from this pack because it will be extremely hard to cast even with Boros Guildmage providing pseudo White mana through Convoke. So hopefully we are in agreement here that I simply cannot take Devouring Light with this pick. I also don’t really want or need a second Boros Guildmage in this type of deck, so I guess that makes it pretty clear that the correct pick is Viashino Fangtail.

I would also like to advise against anyone feeling all-powerful who looks back through the picks and sees Dimir Signet and is like “Oooooh, I can splash Last Gasp!” This isn’t a good idea, since Trumpeter and Legionnaire are already hard on the mana and I didn’t even take the Terraformer to begin with. Besides, Fangtail is almost on par with Last Gasp now, and some people even consider it to be the better card, so why not take it and keep the mana clean?

My Pick : Viashino Fangtail

Pack 2
Civic Wayfinder; Coalhauler Swine; Gaze of the Gorgon; Drift of Phantasms; Snapping Drake; Dimir Signet; Leave No Trace; Sundering Vitae; Wojek Siren; Grifter’s Blade; Stoneshaker Shaman; Chorus of the Conclave

So we again come to the decision between aggro and control with this pick.

Which do you think I’m going to advocate? In all seriousness though, I hope most of you realize that Drift of Phantasms is a much better card overall than Snapping Drake, if only because of the Transmute ability. Maybe I’m biased from playing mainly Dimir in triple-Ravnica, but I don’t think so. I like Snapping Drake as much as most people, but I’d rather have a nice hefty wall that can also tutor for my Galvanic Arc or Compulsive Research.

Then again, maybe I’m just a control player a heart. You decide.

My Pick : Drift of Phantasms

Pack 3
Golgari Brownscale; Shred Memory; Stinkweed Imp; Golgari Rotwurm; Ordruun Commando; Siege Wurm; Gather Courage; Sabertooth Alley-Cat; Tidewater Minion; Overwhelm; Reroute; Savra, Queen of the Golgari

These packs are just loaded with good Green stuff, and I’m pretty sure Patnik is enjoying all of the things he has to choose from.

Unfortunately, there aren’t too many tough picks to make here and there is only one card I can even consider taking, the Tidewater Minion. Don’t worry, I’m more than happy to do so.

My Pick : Tidewater Minion

Pack 4
Dimir Signet; Sell-Sword Brute; Roofstalker Wight; Torpid Moloch; Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi; Sewerdreg; Induce Paranoia; Smash; Boros Garrison; Festival of the Guildpact; Overwhelm

At this point I’m getting the feeling that my initial pack did set at least one, and maybe two, people downstream from me into a Boros archetype, since there are literally no cards here. Honestly though, that’s not so bad for this archetype since you mainly just want to get good solid Blue and Red cards in Ravnica and then pick up the Izzet goodies in Guildpact. So far, it looks like that is exactly what is going to happen, and I’m fine now picking up more Trumpeters to complicate my mana further.

The choice here is again between a Signet and bounce land, and this one is much easier since I stressed earlier the need for Boros Garrison to help with the RW Gold cards. Another Dimir Signet won’t help very much anyway, since I have double Drift of Phantasms now and they are plenty good at holding the fort until my later drops can get online. Taking anything other than the Garrison here shows a complete lack of understanding of the format.

My Pick : Boros Garrison

Pack 5
Centaur Safeguard; Elvish Skysweeper; Sparkmage Apprentice; Fists of the Ironwood; Rally the Righteous; Seeds of Strength; Sadistic Augermage; Boros Swiftblade; Festival of the Guildpact; Shadow of Doubt

I’m definitely being cut in this round of packs, that much is certain.

Boros Swiftblade suffers from the same mana issues that I’ve talked about with the Trumpeter with one downside. He’s much worse than the Trumpeter! I already ranted enough about how I don’t like Rally in this archetype, so the only logical choice here is the Sparkmage Apprentice.

My Pick : Sparkmage Apprentice

Pack 6

Rain of Embers; Tidewater Minion; Sadistic Augermage; Perilous Forays; Wizened Snitches; Telling Time; Temple Garden

The nice thing about this format is that most people still think the Dimir mill strategy is unplayable (which it clearly is not), and therefore don’t pick Tidewater Minions highly since they are going for an aggressive U/B/x build. This leaves all of the Minions for my deck, and that is exactly what I want to happen.

It’s worth noting that I also really like Wizened Snitches in any deck with milling effects like Lurking Informant or Entrancer, and I would definitely take the Snitch over Telling Time if there wasn’t a Tidewater in this pack.

My Pick : Tidewater Minion

Pack 7
Dromad Purebred; Greater Mossdog; Courier Hawk; Barbarian Riftcutter; Golgari Thug; Golgari Germination; Cyclopean Snare

Wow. Nice pack.

As in… could it be any worse?

Amongst the slim pickings here are the Purebred, Riftcutter, Snare, and Hawk. The first two options are both five drops, and I’d much rather be casting Tidewater Minion in that slot so they are both unnecessary. I can’t see myself ever playing the Hawk in this configuration, so the only logical pick is to take Cyclopean Snare even though it most likely won’t make the maindeck. It’s a nice sideboard card against Green fatties though, so keep it in mind, though I’d almost never maindeck it in a control deck unless you had a lot of bounce lands to support the steep cost every turn.

My Pick : Cyclopean Snare

Pack 8
Sabertooth Alley-Cat; Shred Memory; Seeds of Strength; Golgari Brownscale; Peel From Reality; Gather Courage

Sabertooth Alley-Cat is significantly better with the release of Guildpact for a couple of reasons. Ravnica has a lot of common Defenders that can stop the Cat cold, making him either kamikaze or tying up your mana every turn. With one less pack of Ravnica, it makes sense that the kitty would become a little stronger. The other reason is that Red is now much more playable, and I really like this guy in a GR beatdown deck as he can often finish the job if you are a few points short when your opponent stabilizes.

While I do like the Cat in my U/R decks also, there’s no way I’m taking him over a second Peel from Reality.

My Pick : Peel From Reality

On the lap, I got another Sparkmage Apprentice along with Torpid Moloch as playables, and also picked up Overwhelm and Wojek Siren that were still going around so that they didn’t end up in someone else’s deck.

Overall, my deck is looking very solid at this point with double Tidewater, double Drift, Entrancer, Fangtail, double Peel, and some other goodies. I’m also very happy I got the Fiery Conclusion, as it’s one of the few good ways this deck has of dealing with fatties and you usually have a Sparkmage Apprentice sitting around waiting to be the sacrificial lamb for it.

Pack Three

Pack 1
Fencer’s Magemark; Restless Bones; Train of Thought; Morning Thrull; Silhana Ledgewalker; Absolver Thrull; Infiltrator’s Magemark; Pyromatics; Gruul Turf; Gruul Scrapper; Streetbreaker Wurm; Primeval Light; Martyred Rusalka; Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind; Abyssal Nocturnus

Well, this isn’t exactly the pack I was hoping to open.

What I mean is that it sucks. I don’t have any of the great Izzet commons like Ogre Savant, Steamcore Weird, or Hypervolt Grasp staring back at me. The viable options in this pack are Train of Thought, Absolver Thrull, Infiltrator’s Magemark, and Pyromatics. Not the best selection for a first pick, but I guess it’ll have to do.

My first thought was that there was no way I was taking the Magemark, since I don’t like it that much in a control deck. Look back over the cards I’ve draft and you’ll see that there are no creatures that are dying to be enchanted by a Blue Magemark. Second, it’s far too early to pick Absolver Thrull in a splash color.

So, which should I take, Train of Thought or Pyromatics?

In my experience, Train of Thought is not yet appreciated for its full worth and tends to go pretty late. There are some good cards in this pack in other colors, like Gruul Scrapper and Streetbreaker Wurm, so there is a decent chance that the Train will come back. Someone else may also take the Magemark over Train and that will allow it to table.

As far as power level, I really like both of the cards, but this deck is also lacking in the removal department and that led me to take the Pyromatics here.

My Pick : Pyromatics

Pack 2
Necromancer’s Magemark; Guardian’s Magemark; Wild Cantor; Poisonbelly Ogre; Beastmaster’s Magemark; Train of Thought; Absolver Thrull; Torch Drake; Gruul Scrapper; Gruul Turf; Dryad Sophisticate; Ghor-Clan Bloodscale; Souls of the Faultless; Godless Shrine

This pack offers another Train of Thought, Absolver Thrull, and Torch Drake in my colors. While I again considered picking the Train of Thought, I thought it was even more likely that one would table now with two of them next to each other and other solid picks in the packs. I also took a look back over my deck and noticed I was lacking in the four-drop slot in creatures, as well as in fliers.

Torch Drake fills both of these holes and gives me a decent finisher once I have the board locked up.

My Pick : Torch Drake

Pack 3
Guardian’s Magemark; Leap of Flame; Streetbreaker Wurm; Bloodscale Prowler; Infiltrator’s Magemark; Izzet Boilerworks; Withstand; Poisonbelly Ogre; Gruul Nodorog; Fencer’s Magemark; Thunderheads; Shattering Spree; Dune-Brood Nephilim

Now I’m starting to get confused.

Either these packs just don’t have a lot of good Izzet cards in them, or Patnik opened something and decided to splash Steamcores or whatever. Or maybe Dr. Martel (two people in front of me) is in U/R and picking up all the good stuff.

All I know is that I should be getting better picks than these at this point in the Draft, and the cards just aren’t there.

Getting back to the actual pack, it looks like Leap of Flame and Infiltrator’s Magemark are the best spells in the pack, but I don’t think the pick is close at all as I easily chose Izzet Boilerworks. When I said in my last article that I picked bounce lands high, I really wasn’t joking.

My Pick : Izzet Boilerworks

Pack 4
Gruul Signet; Izzet Chronarch; Necromancer’s Magemark; Castigate; Ghor-Clan Savage; Tin-Street Hooligan; Vedalken Plotter; Caustic Rain; Storm Herd

Finally, I get something to be happy about.

Izzet Chronarch is the stone cold nuts with two Peels in my deck, if you weren’t already aware of that. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything else to say about this pack except that Vedalken Plotter is pretty strong and I’d like to table him.

My Pick : Izzet Chronarch

Pack 5
Burning-Tree Bloodscale; Izzet Signet; Cremate; Order of the Stars; Orzhov Euthanist; Skarrgan Skybreaker; Revenant Patriarch; Sanguine Praetor

The overall mediocrity of the packs continues here with no options except for the obvious Izzet Signet. It is nice however to get this card and not have to take something else over it, since it will help power out my Tidewater Minions.

My Pick : Izzet Signet

Pack 6
Repeal; Scab-Clan Mauler; Izzet Boilerworks; Restless Bones; Petrahydrox; Silhana Ledgewalker; Goblin Flectomancer; Thunderheads; Vacuumelt

This pack at least gives me something to think about with Boilerworks, Petrahydrox, Goblin Flectomancer, Repeal, and Vacuumelt.

I don’t like Repeal as much as most players — as I’ve expressed in a past article — but I do love Vacuumelt. When building your deck, you should essentially consider it to be a six mana Undo with the potential of bouncing extra guys with Tidewater and bounce lands.

Petrahydrox is a fine card, but seems too narrow for me unless there was nothing else to take over it. The problem is that something like Ghost Warden makes it completely useless and you’ll have to board it out.

I do like the Goblin Flectomancer, and he was good for me the one time I could cast him regularly, but I don’t think I can possibly pick him here with so many better options.

I ended up going with the Vacuumelt here, as I feel it is the best card in the pack for my deck. It gives me some late-game strength as well as adding another way to abuse the Izzet Chronarch if I get the mana online to do so.

My Pick : Vacuumelt

Pack 7
Tin-Street Hooligan; Castigate; Orzhov Signet; Runeboggle; Caustic Rain; Vedalken Plotter; Leyline of Singularity

Well, I guess I don’t have to hope that Plotter tables now that I can just take this one. I considered taking Orzhov Signet here to help with White mana, but honestly felt I wouldn’t need it since I am only planning on playing the Legionnaire and Trumpeter at this point, and I also have Boros Garrison to go with them. Plotter can also help fix mana by stealing a White source for me on occasion, but his main purpose is to take other peoples’ bounce lands if you didn’t already get the memo.

My Pick : Vedalken Plotter

Pack 8
Orzhov Signet; Izzet Chronarch; Withstand; Steamcore Weird; Wild Cantor; Crystal Seer; Skyrider Trainee; Vacuumelt

Okay… What!?

All Draft I am hoping for cards like these to come to me, and they have to wait until the eighth pick to do so!?

While this pack is just filled with goodies, the pick is actually only between the Chronarch and the Steamcore Weird, since they are what I need the most right now. The Chronarch of course has amazing synergy with the Peels and Vacuumelt, but so does the Steamcore. After thinking about it for a little while, I decided that I didn’t want my deck to be too slow and clunky. I also wanted a reusable piece of removal, so I went with the Steamcore Weird.

My Pick : Steamcore Weird

On the lap I grab a lucky Train of Thought, Leap of Flame, and a Gruul Scrapper as the only things of note. All in all, there were some interesting picks and I think I made a few small mistakes but I’m happy with the way my deck turned out, and I think I was in the right colors the whole time. The packs didn’t break so well in Guildpact, but that was mainly because Dr. Martel was taking all of my Izzet stuff two seats in front of me. There’s not much I can do about that.

Now, a few comments about the deck.

The Muddle almost made the cut because of the nice selection of two mana spells that it can search for, but in the end it had to go.

Torpid Moloch is awesome in this archetype. Yep, I said it. One of the reasons he is so good is that he allows you to play a bounce land on turn 2 when on the draw and not discard, since you played him on turn 1. He’s a fine blocker and trades with things that cost much more than he does. All in all he should give the deck more time to set up.

The second Sparkmage was also on sideboard duty, and I already talked about why Rally really wouldn’t be good in this deck. Tidewater Minion, blah, blah, I know what you’re thinking, but trust me it just doesn’t fit well.

The Matches
The nice thing about this Draft was that there were three dual lands opened. The way we play at CMU is that the Top 4 get to draft the rares. In this Draft, you’d be guaranteed a dual land if you won your first two matches. You could still get a dual by going 1-1 and then winning your third match, but you’d also have to win a coin flip against whoever got fourth, since we don’t play a tiebreaker to see who gets to pick third in the rare-draft. At any rate, I was hoping to 2-0 and lock up a dual of course, and felt my deck was up to the challenge.

Round 1
For my first match I was paired against Wes, who had a very quick deck featuring two Boros Guildmage, three Veteran Armorer, and two Ghost Warden. My deck should have a strong overall matchup against his because if I’m able to stabilize the board he only had Disembowel and Wildsize as strong tricks.

Game 1 went as planned, as he did drop a bunch of early guys but he was slightly mana-flooded. My Tidewater Minion and Entrancer easily held off his team. I had plenty of tricks in my hand, from Peel to Pyromatics, and the game ended pretty quickly when he realized he just couldn’t overcome my board.

Game 2, I kept a questionable two land hand on the draw, but it had Train of Thought to cycle and plenty of synergy like Steamcore and Peel. I figured it was fine. My deck disagreed and failed to deliver the third land so that I could function before he beat my face in with Armorers.

Game 3, I realized just how bad Pyromatics was in this matchup, as he played out two Armorers and a Ghost Warden which were essentially unkillable. He had Disembowel for my Drift on a key turn of the game, but somehow I managed to stabilize at seven life and eventually come back to win. The game was very close though, and for quite a while I thought I was just dead because of the Armorers in combination with Boros Guildmage and my inability to draw a Tidewater Minion, despite casting Train of Thought for three.

1-0

Round 2
This was quite a funny match.

I was paired against Ben Peebles-Mundy, who has been doing well recently on the Pro Tour and Grand Prix circuit. Ben’s deck was a very quick Boros build that featured about a million two drops, five of which were Sell-Sword Brutes. Ben also had two Rally the Righteous and was playing Warp World since he didn’t have any other spells in his deck besides the Rallies. The idea was that if the initial rush didn’t work, Ben would cast Warp World and likely win right there on the spot with two copies of Flame-Kin Zealot to give all of his men haste and attack for a ton. Quite the strong combo, I might add. One thing you should know about Ben Peebles is that Sparkmage Apprentice is always the stone cold nuts against him, and I’d board up to four copies any time I played him if I had access to them.

Anyway, as I was saying, this was a humorous match and not because of the usual banter between us. Game 1 and Ben got a pretty strong start. I got stuck on three lands for quite a while. I had Drift of Phantasms though, and then Boros Guildmage and Leap of Flame to take out his Harrier Griffin which would’ve otherwise wrecked me. He then played Firemane Angel, and I still looked okay because of the Drift on my side and nothing else on his. That was until his next turn when he attacked and Rallied to kill my Drift, and it looked bleak since I had no answers to Angel in hand. I ripped the second Drift off the top and started laughing as I played it, but Ben simply Rallied his Angel again to get rid of my topdeck. Remember now, I was still stuck on three lands, but also at 20 life. Over the next couple turns I finally started to draw land and added a Vedalken Entrancer to my ground force and then eventually Tidewater Minion too, and when I was at 8 I was finally able to get the Izzet Chronarch/Peel From Reality “engine” online. At this point I was dominating the board, and would eventually keep milling Ben with Entrancer while I was using Chronarch to keep the Firemane Angel off the board since even though I could now kill it, he had the ten lands needed to recur it from the graveyard.

My hope now was to mill Warp World, so that Ben would have no outs and we could move on to game 2. Unfortunately for me, he ripped it on his next turn. I used Pyromatics to kill one of his men in response, leaving the permanent count at fourteen for him and twelve for me. Not good, especially since at this point he told me that he had two Flame-Kin Zealots to end the game right there.

We both laid out or Warp cards face-down and agreed to flip them all at the same time because it would be funnier that way. As we flipped I saw Vedalken Entrancer, two Tidewater Minions, Skyknight Legionnaire, some lands, and a couple of spells which of course would go to the bottom of my deck from the Warp. My initial reaction was that I was probably in a lot of trouble, if not dead immediately. I looked up at Ben, and looked over to see what he had revealed… and I could not stop laughing as I stared at eleven lands, two Sell-Sword Brutes, and a Sabertooth Alley-Cat. Pretty freaking unlikely, which made it that much funnier.

Anyway, Ben decided to concede this game a couple of turns later, when it became evident that he had no way to get through my Tidewater Minions while I was also milling six a turn.

Game 2 was exactly the opposite of this one, and Ben got an amazing start and kicked my head in with Brutes, Rallies, and a Flame-Kin Zealot. I was really never in the game.

Game three we both got decent draws, but my mana was a bit off and I got lucky to draw out of the color screw before Ben could find a second Mountain with which to start unleashing Flame-Kin Zealots on me. By the time he finally found it, I had the board under good control and Steamcore Weird ready to go with two copies of Peel from Reality.

2-0

Round 3
In the finals I played against Mike Patnik who had a strong G/B/W deck that was splashing for Flame Fusillade.

Game 1, I played Vedalken Plotter on turn 3, which stole his Orzhov Basilica and essentially color screwed him out of Black until the late turns of the game. A few turns later, he played a Selesnya Sanctuary and I spent my next turn Vacuumelting my own Plotter and stealing another of his Karoo lands! I did this because I wanted to slow him down, but also because I was holding Izzet Chronarch and Peel from Reality, and I really wanted all of that colorless mana later in the game to set up a Chronarch/Vacuumelt soft lock on him.

The game seriously took forever once I started abusing the Chronarch, and the only reason it did was because he couldn’t draw a Black mana to enable his Last Gasp. He was pressuring me with some ground men and a Screeching Griffin, but I still felt like I was in the driver’s seat until he set up Flame Fusillade and Last Gasp in one turn to foil my Chronarch. I had drawn a few extra cards from Train of Thought, but I was getting seriously flooded and stood a chance of losing the game once he broke free from my bounce lock. I actually wish I had written down more about this game, since the endgame was very difficult to play correctly and I found myself one mana short of killing him with Peel from Reality and Steamcore Weird when I transmuted one of my Drifts for Skyknight Legionnaire. Suddenly, he emptied his hand and it looked like I was going to lose… until I untapped and drew Pyromatics like a champ, dealing the last few points of damage. I also had another Peel in my deck that I could’ve drawn, but nevertheless it was a lucky draw as I was most likely dead in a couple of turns.

Game 2 I got bashed. I don’t remember the exact details, just that he played a lot of removal spells and I really couldn’t do much about it.

Game 3 he mulliganed to five. I mulliganed to six being on the play, and I got a strong draw featuring Entrancer and both Tidewater Minions. I think he may have been a bit color screwed or something, because he was always on the back foot in this game and I milled him out before he could finish the job with some fliers.

3-0

So, I won the Draft despite making a couple questionable picks. They weren’t that bad of course, and the Legionnaire was strong for me, but at least I learned something when looking back over this Draft and evaluating my thought process.

While there weren’t a ton of super difficult picks, I hope this walkthrough has shed some light on how to draft Izzet in the new format.

Nick Eisel
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