A Non-Blue RRG Draft Walkthrough

A couple of weekends back, I pulled my good friend Jeremy Darling out of retirement for the Two Headed Giant States event. Thankfully, Jeremy wasn’t very rusty despite this being his “prerelease” for Guildpact. Neither of us had ever played a game of 2HG before the event, but we went on to go undefeated and eventually win the whole thing, which was cool. I’ve been wanting to write this article since then, but have run into a few speed bumps along the way. The main obstacle for me has been that one of my friends recently introduced me to the TV series 24 and I’ve been too addicted to do anything productive since. Of course, there is also poker and spending time with the girlfriend, but most of the time I would normally be writing has instead been spent watching endless episodes of my new obsession.

Now that I’ve finally managed to pry myself away from the TV, this week I wanted to do a walkthrough on a Draft where I didn’t end up in some type of Blue based archetype. Most of my writing about this format has been on the topic of Blue, so I figure I should probably do something where I can show my thoughts on other colors as well.

This walkthrough is certainly not “standard” by any means, but the deck I ended up with was quite interesting and it’s worth investigating whether or not I could’ve done something different. The Draft I’ll be covering came from a 4-3-2-2 queue on Magic Online. I was waiting for a while for the 8-4, but nobody would join so I had to settle for this instead. As you’ll see, nothing extremely out of the ordinary happened that would make me want to avoid covering this draft.

The Draft

Pack One

Pack 1
Civic Wayfinder; Terraformer; Sparkmage Apprentice; Nightguard Patrol; Caregiver; Drake Familiar; Fiery Conclusion; Skyknight Legionnaire; Conclave Equenaut; Wizened Snitches; Putrefy; Life from the Loam.

While there are plenty of solid cards in this pack like Conclave Equenaut, Civic Wayfinder, Fiery Conclusion, and Wizened Snitches, the pick is actually between two of the other cards. Skyknight Legionnaire and Putrefy are the best options to open the draft with here, and I don’t find the pick to be that difficult overall.

You could possibly make a case for the Legionnaire based on color preference, or if you had some extreme taste for the UWR archetype, but Putrefy is simply a much stronger card. My intentions when I pick the Putrefy here are somewhat limited, however, because I am aiming for BGW or BGR primarily, or else I will want to splash Putrefy into a UBW or UBR control deck which will have plenty of time to get the Green mana to cast it later in the game. What I want to emphasize here is that you should not fall into the trap of drafting BGU, because that archetype is essentially garbage now with the addition of Guildpact. It can be tempting because of the Dimir and Golgari cards in the first booster, but you simply must avoid drafting the archetype as you’ll get nothing out of pack three.

Overall, I think Putrefy is the strongest pick from this pack.

My Pick: Putrefy

Pack 2
Coalhauler Swine; Dimir Aqueduct; Courier Hawk; Bramble Elemental; Benevolent Ancestor; Smash; Rally the Righteous; Dromad Purebred; Elves of Deep Shadow; Selesnya Evangel; Mnemonic Nexus; Carrion Howler; Nightmare Void; Bloodbond March.

This pack has a common missing from it and leaves me a few options in Green. First we have the Elves of Deep Shadow, which I think it just outclassed by the other Green cards in the pack.

The choice is then between Bramble Elemental and Selesnya Evangel, and both of them have their perks. If I take the Bramble I will stay in two colors at this point without having to narrow my pack three options just yet. The Evangel, on the other hand, is the more powerful card, but it also can tie my hands by putting me into three colors already with only two picks.

While I’m not exactly sure what it was, I believe the common taken from this pack was probably Blue (Entrancer or something) and it definitely wasn’t a Selesnya card. This is relevant evidence, because it means that I may get more good Selesnya cards this pack and it may not be necessary to take Bramble here and stay in only two colors.

Often in this format you have to weigh power against keeping your options open, and I feel in this case that I should lean on the side of power.

My Pick: Selesnya Evangel

Pack 3
Selesnya Sanctuary; Stasis Cell; Roofstalker Wight; Centaur Safeguard; Leave No Trace; Boros Recruit; Boros Signet; Selesnya Signet; Veteran Armorer; Duskmantle, House of Shadow; Selesnya Sagittars; Crown of Convergence.

This pick wasn’t very difficult after the two I’ve already made. The only choices are Sagittars and Veteran Armorer, and it shouldn’t be hard to understand why the super-spider is better than the bear in this case. Sagittars also fills a hole that the BGW usually has, in that it can’t effectively block fliers.

My Pick: Selesnya Sagittars

Pack 4
Coalhauler Swine; Wojek Siren; Tidewater Minion; Stinkweed Imp; Smash; Golgari Brownscale; Seeds of Strength; Veteran Armorer; Chant of Vitu-Ghazi; Duskmantle, House of Shadow; Molten Sentry.

As you’ll see, one of the things I noticed while I was typing in the contents of the packs into this article was that a lot of the packs in this Draft had the same common runs in them, which lead to a lot of similar choices. This pack is the start of that theme, and presents a few possible options.

The standout cards for my deck are Stinkweed Imp, Veteran Armorer, Golgari Brownscale, and Seeds of Strength. At this point I was thinking that I wanted to be GWb, since I have the Evangel and want to cast it early. This pretty much ruled out the Stinkweed Imp, even though now that I’m writing this I feel like I should’ve given the Imp more thought than I actually did. The Seeds and Brownscale are both just worse picks than the Armorer as well, so that narrowed the pick down pretty quickly.

If I had to do it again, I would probably still take Armorer based on what I’d already drafted, since I could do GW with a double splash of B and R if I get something else splashable as well as fixers. However, I would at least give the Stinkweed Imp more of a chance because he is still not given enough credit by most players – including myself – in non-Dimir archetypes.

My Pick: Veteran Armorer

Pack 5
Dimir Aqueduct; Courier Hawk; Convolute; Surveilling Sprite; Leave No Trace; Drake Familiar; Selesnya Signet; Snapping Drake; Golgari Thug.

This booster offers the choice between Courier Hawk and Selesnya Signet as reasonable picks for the path I’ve chosen. I’ve always been of the opinion that Signets are less optimal in Selesnya than other color combinations because of Convoke, and my deck is leaning towards the aggressive side to begin with. Because of this I chose the Hawk here, but I could certainly see how someone could want the Signet.

My Pick: Courier Hawk

Pack 6
Strands of Undeath; Barbarian Riftcutter; Muddle the Mixture; Thoughtpicker Witch; Sundering Vitae; Wizened Snitches.

Not much to talk about here, as Strands is clearly the best card. The only other option is the Sundering Vitae, but there’s no way I’m taking that over the very playable Strands.

My Pick: Strands of Undeath

Pack 7
Thundersong Trumpeter; Terraformer; Lurking Informant; Sewerdreg; Boros Signet; Flight of Fancy; Lore Broker.

If you’ve noticed, the last few picks have been deep in Blue. While this made me sad, since we all know how much I love drafting Blue, there really wasn’t any point in the Draft when I could get into the color, and GWU and GBU are both poor archetypes in this format.

The choices here are Lurking Informant, Sewerdreg, or possibly Trumpeter or Flight of Fancy. I threw out the Trumpeter pretty quickly because he likes to come down early, and even if I did decide to splash Red, he wouldn’t be out in time to make a big difference. Flight of Fancy has been a great splash card for me when I’m in Green, especially if it goes on something like Bramble Elemental, but at this point in the Draft I decided to just stay on course and take the Lurking Informant. He’s under-appreciated in non-Dimir archetypes and can really help you dig through your own library for threats in the middle of the game. I would advise using him like a Darksteel Pendant if you aren’t trying to mill out your opponent, except he has the advantage that in the late game you can ensure that your opponent doesn’t topdeck out on you if you have the win on board.

I think it’s a stretch to take Sewerdreg here as well, as it will basically never make the maindeck.

My Pick: Lurking Informant

Pack 8
Stasis Cell; Viashino Slasher; Clinging Darkness; Necromantic Thirst; Perplex; Mnemonic Nexus; Carrion Howler.

Bleh.

This pack is abysmal for my deck so far, and the only realistic pick is Clinging Darkness, which may or may not get played. I like the card in general, but not if Black is the tertiary color since it doesn’t kill most creatures. I prefer it out of the board to deal with Thundersong Trumpeter, or to slow down an opposing Siege Wurm.

My Pick: Clinging Darkness

The lap brings a Fiery Conclusion, Nightmare Void, Boros Signet, Wojek Siren, and Convolute. The Nightmare Void is really the only exciting thing here, and again may or may not make the maindeck like the Clinging Darkness.

Pack Two

Pack 1
Drift of Phantasms; Strands of Undeath; Coalhauler Swine; Scatter the Seeds; War-Torch Goblin; Boros Fury-Shield; Rain of Embers; Last Gasp; Viashino Fangtail; Flash Conscription; Carven Caryatid; Tunnel Vision

Spicy pack. My choice is between Strands, Scatter, Last Gasp, and Caryatid.

Clearly Strands isn’t even on the same level as the other cards, so we can throw it out right away. The fact that I already have a Strands also makes this easier. Scatter is a better overall card than Caryatid as well in my opinion, so I can easily narrow it down to Last Gasp and Scatter.

While the deck does have an overall want for tokens, Last Gasp is really just too good to pass, and I gladly took it from this pack.

My Pick: Last Gasp

Pack 2
Goblin Spelunkers; Greater Mossdog; Selesnya Sanctuary; Gather Courage; Sparkmage Apprentice; Nightguard Patrol; Smash; Rally the Righteous; Dromad Purebred; Disembowel; Sell-Sword Brute; Grifter’s Blade; Ivy Dancer; Hour of Reckoning.

Well now, a beam of light on an otherwise not so great Draft.

Getting passed Wrath is always a nice thing, especially when it probably won’t kill some of your guys anyway if they’re tokens! This pick is one of only a couple things that could tip you off that this was a 4-3-2-2 Draft. Honestly, though, I’ve passed the Hour before when I couldn’t support it, and I really don’t think this is that unusual since an Uncommon was taken and there are lots of good ones if you can’t support triple White mana. Ribbons of Night, perhaps?

My Pick: Hour of Reckoning

Pack 3
Golgari Rot Farm; Dogpile; Civic Wayfinder; Sabertooth Alley Cat; Bramble Elemental; Benevolent Ancestor; Golgari Brownscale; Dimir Signet; Fiery Conclusion; Nightmare Void; Savra, Queen of the Golgari.

Here’s one of the more interesting picks of the Draft, and one that some of you may disagree with. The viable picks are Bramble, Wayfinder, Ancestor, and Savra. While I’m as big of a fan of Savra as anybody, there simply isn’t anything to abuse her with in this deck as of now. If I had a couple Shambling Shells, or a Shell and a Dimir House-Guard, I think the pick would clearly be Savra here as I could always pick up a Thoughtpicker Witch or some other sacrifice outlet in Guildpact. This eliminates Savra as a potential pick. Ancestor also is just outclassed by the other cards in the pack.

The pick is then between Bramble Elemental and Civic Wayfinder.

I’m not exactly sure what the public opinion here is, but I tend to almost always favor the Wayfinder and this is no exception. The mana can sometimes be tough anyway in the BGW deck, and taking Wayfinder can also allow for the splashing of Streetbreaker Wurm or something else strong that may come as a later pick. Wayfinder has always been amazing for me and I only have Strands as a potential abuse of Bramble anyway. If I had something like double Fists of the Ironwood, Bramble would probably get bumped above the Wayfinder here.

If you go back over the picks I’ve made so far, you’ll see that I really don’t have all that much in the way of Green cards and that is the only argument you could have for possibly taking Benevolent Ancestor here and moving into BWg instead. Civic Wayfinder is just too good for that option to have much weight, and would even make the cut in that archetype without much Green mana.

My Pick: Civic Wayfinder

Pack 4
Woodwraith Strangler; Strands of Undeath; Surveilling Sprite; Sabertooth Alley Cat; Lurking Informant; Flight of Fancy; Sewerdreg; Grifter’s Blade; Ivy Dancer; Bathe in Light; Chord of Calling.

As I said in the synopsis of the last pick, I don’t have all that much Green at this point.

Because of this I quickly determined that I couldn’t take the Chord of the Calling here, and I also don’t really have anything great to search up besides possibly the Evangel. The options then are Bathe in Light and a second Lurking Informant, and I decided to go with the trick. Bathe in Light has definitely gotten worse since the inclusion of Guildpact, but it is still a strong answer to any removal spell and can wreck someone in combat.

I do believe Lurking Informant gets better in multiples however, and that could make taking the second copy correct. I also think Bathe is much better than possibly taking a second Strands of Undeath, and I’d definitely rather have two Informants than two Strands in this deck without too many big men that may also be low on Black mana to use the Regeneration.

My Pick: Bathe in Light

Pack 5
Golgari Rot Farm; Consult the Necrosages; Tattered Drake; Incite Hysteria; Centaur Safeguard; Caregiver; Perplex; Nightmare Void; Boros Swiftblade; Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree.

Well now, this is an unexpected gift.

It seems that Selesnya is a bit underdrafted if I’m getting City-Tree this late. Either that or people are taking worse cards over it since this is a 4322, and they may not have appropriate card values. In either case, this goes extremely well with my Hour of Reckoning and the card is simply amazing in Draft.

My Pick: Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

Pack 6
Drift of Phantasms; Thundersong Trumpeter; Ordruun Commando; Leave No Trace; Golgari Signet; Indentured Oaf.

Not much to talk about here, except that there is yet another late Thundersong Trumpeter as well as Drift, Ordruun, and Indentured Oaf! Sadly the only card I can take is the Golgari Signet, but I did just get a fifth pick Vitu-Ghazi so I can’t really complain.

My Pick: Golgari Signet

Pack 7
Gaze of the Gorgon; Goblin Spelunkers; Clinging Darkness; Incite Hysteria; Thoughtpicker Witch; Chant of Vitu-Ghazi.

Since I already have a Clinging Darkness that may or may not make the cut, I decided to diversify a bit here and take the Gaze of the Gorgon as a pseudo-removal spell. It’s possible that I should’ve considered the Chant of Vitu-Ghazi as a sideboard card here, as it’s good in any matchup where there is going to be a lot of creature combat. I’ve found that if you resolve this version of Fog against someone playing GRW or another beatdown deck, you will usually gain about 20-30 life and they probably can’t win at that point if you have any kind of board presence at all.

My Pick: Gaze of the Gorgon

Pack 8
Convolute; Dogpile; Necromantic Thirst; Perplex; Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree; Hunted Phantasm

Woah. Okay, I attribute this to the 4322 as well.

Someone in this draft clearly made a huge error in not taking this card for their deck, and they probably took something like Bramble Elemental over it, which is just flat out wrong. My deck is in need of some help at this point though, and having the Civic Wayfinder should make it easier to run two copies of City-Tree. I should mention that bounce lands are amazing with City-Tree and other Guild Houses, since the colorless mana won’t hurt you as much if you can just bounce it to get your colors online. Unfortunately I only saw a couple of bounce lands in these packs, and there were very strong cards present that made it too hard for me to pick the bounce lands.

My Pick: Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

On the lap I got a Boros Fury-Shield, Dromad Purebred, Benevolent Ancestor, and a Caregiver. The Benevolent Ancestor was particularly exiting since I almost picked one very highly the first time around. As you’ll see, Caregiver was also very fortunate for me based on some picks from pack three.

Pack Three

Pack 1
Guardian’s Magemark; Burning-Tree Bloodscale; Cremate; Ghor-Clan Savage; Ogre Savant; Repeal; Scab-Clan Mauler; Izzet Boilerworks; Hypervolt Grasp; Drowned Rusalka; Feral Animist; Orzhov Pontiff.

As I was saying about Caregiver…

Orzhov Pontiff is quite powerful with a sacrifice outlet, since you can either give yourself a mini-Overrun effect or choose to Infest your opponent’s board.

The only real competition for the Pontiff here is the Ghor-Clan Savage. I do want to spend a minute and talk about the Savage, as I really do appreciate him and take him very highly when there isn’t something like the Pontiff present in the pack. Savage hits hard and is very difficult to deal with for most decks. If you don’t respect him you’ll probably end up getting bashed by him a few times until you change your opinion, so if you are the Green drafter the only fatty I’d pick over him is the Streetbreaker Wurm, and only if I was solidly in both Green and Red.

Not sure if that little paragraph made you understand how much I like the Savage when I’m Green, but he is simply excellent, and it’s not that hard to activate his Bloodthirst.

Pontiff is almost a bomb, and certainly the right pick from this pack.

My Pick: Orzhov Pontiff

Pack 2
Scab-Clan Mauler; Gruul Turf; Ostiary Thrull; Wildsize; Ogre Savant; Poisonbelly Ogre; Guardian’s Magemark; Wee Dragonauts; Repeal; Gruul Nodorog; Fencer’s Magemark; Revenant Patriarch; Gelectrode; Crash Landing.

This pack offers Wildsize and Ostiary Thrull for me, and both are excellent cards.

I usually take Wildsize extremely highly, but this deck already has a lot of tricks from Bathe in Light, Gaze of the Gorgon, and Strands of Undeath, so I felt that the Thrull was the right choice here. It also helps that I need more ways than Putrefy to deal with big monsters, and the Thrull is very good at doing just that.

My Pick: Ostiary Thrull

Pack 3
Izzet Signet; Orzhov Euthanist; Pillory of the Sleepless; Silhana Starfletcher; Pyromantics; Orzhov Basilica; Burning-Tree Bloodscale; Crystal Seer; Cry of Contrition; Beastmaster’s Magemark; Izzet Chronarch; Skarrgan Skybreaker; Drowned Rusalka.

The hits keep coming.

It seems that I did something right in this Draft, as I’m getting hooked up with lots of good Orzhov so far in this pack. There really should be no debate here that the best pick is the Pillory of the Sleepless, and that the second best card is the Starfletcher just for curiosity’s sake.

I stand a small chance of wheeling something from this pack too, preferably the Orzhov Euthanist, since there are a ton of busted cards.

My Pick: Pillory of the Sleepless

Pack 4
Restless Bones; Fencer’s Magemark; Wee Dragonauts; Silhana Starfletcher; Orzhov Basilica; Repeal; Ghost Warden; Exhumer Thrull; Orzhova, the Church of Deals; Orzhov Pontiff.

Double City-Tree? Double Pontiff? Is that a combo?

I think it just may be.

While some people may argue that I should’ve taken Exhumer Thrull for diversity here, my response would be that you simply haven’t played enough with the Pontiff if you’re suggesting that. Having double Pontiff means I may get to double activate even if I don’t have a sacrifice outlet, since I can have someone get haunted and then die in combat when they think that their team will still survive after -1/-1. At that point I cast my second Pontiff post-combat, and suddenly all of their guys are gone.

Orzhov is wide open in front of me, and it has been a great group of picks for my deck.

My Pick: Orzhov Pontiff

Pack 5
Gruul Scrapper; Gruul Signet; Infiltrator’s Magemark; Absolver Thrull; Leap of Flame; Train of Thought; Beastmaster’s Magemark; Wild Cantor; To Arms!; Vedalken Plotter.

I’m a bit shallow in the four-drop slot, and Absolver Thrull is one of the better options available when you don’t have too many of your own enchantments to worry about destroying. There’s not too much else in the way of options here for me, and it doesn’t bother me one bit to pick this guy this high as the format is full of juicy targets.

My Pick: Absolver Thrull

Pack 6
Poisonbelly Ogre; Leap of Flame; Mourning Thrull; Train of Thought; Orzhov Signet; Withstand; Thunderheads; Order of the Stars; Gruul War Plow.

Back in pack one I took Courier Hawk over a Signet, but that was with the intention of drafting a fast GW Convoke deck splashing Black for removal. Now that I’m near the end of the Draft, I can see that I’ll be playing a BW deck with a heavy splash for Green for the City-Trees, Evangel, and Sagittars. Because of this, Signets are now at a premium to help with the colored mana that will be lacking due to the presence of two City-Trees in my manabase.

So as you can see, even though Mourning Thrull is a much better card than Courier Hawk in my opinion, I am taking a technically “worse” Signet over the better one-power flier because of the stage of the Draft that I’m in, and because my goals have changed from what they originally were. I say it is a worse Signet because I’d rather run more Black and White mana in my lands, and then have Selesnya Signet ready to activate the City-Tree whenever the time comes. By doing it the other way it is harder to gather Green and White mana while at the same time also having City-Tree in play, since I’ll need three separate cards to do so instead of using a Signet and a bounce land. Hopefully that makes sense, and although it’s not a huge deal, it’s worth thinking about if you plan on drafting this format with any degree of seriousness.

The pick then is still the Orzhov Signet, since I have a bigger need for colored mana due to the City-Trees. I also have plenty of two-drop creatures already, and the Thrull isn’t going to be as good as usual in this deck because the slot is crowded.

My Pick: Orzhov Signet

Pack 7
Izzet Chronarch; Tin-Street Hooligan; Crystal Seer; Silhana Ledgewalker; Ghost Warden; Restless Bones; Castigate; Orzhov Signet; Torch Drake.

This pack is very strong for seventh pick, as all of the cards listed are playable. My only choices are the Ledgewalker, Ghost Warden, and possibly another Signet. I decided since I already have Golgari Signet as well that I’d like to take the Warden here. I did just make the other pick with the Thrull, but the Warden is also slightly better than the Thrull, and at that point I only had one Signet in my card pool. Another BW Signet isn’t going to help things enough to pass Ghost Warden in this spot.

My Pick: Ghost Warden

Pack 8
Necromancer’s Magemark; Gruul Signet; Cremate; Gruul Nodorog; Predatory Focus; Moratorium Stone.

Nothing much to look at here, and while I would normally take Predatory Focus it doesn’t do a whole lot in my deck since I would need eight mana to play Pontiff and Focus in the same turn, and Bathe in Light will sometimes do the same thing at a much cheaper price. I probably still should’ve taken Focus here, but I thought there was a small chance that I’d play the Necromancer’s Magemark in combination with the Pontiffs somehow, and I also wanted to keep my Green mana count low.

My Pick: Necromancer’s Magemark

On the lap I grab a Gruul Turf, Restless Bones, and Gruul Signet. Gruul Turf will certainly make the deck even though I’m just using the Green mana portion of it, just because it gives the deck more mana overall to power up the City-Trees while keeping the land count lower as a bonus.

Relevant Sideboard
Nightmare Void
Boros Fury-Shield
Fiery Conclusion
Gruul Signet
Restless Bones
Poisonbelly Ogre
Necromancer’s Magemark
Wojek Siren

The last card I cut was the Nightmare Void, and I considered splashing Boros Fury-Shield and Fiery Conclusion off the Gruul Signet, Gruul Turf, and one Mountain. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth screwing up the mana in exchange, and that the maindeck was powerful enough on its own in just three colors.

The one tough decision was whether to run sixteen or seventeen land, since two of the lands were going to be City-Trees no matter what. In the end I went with sixteen land, since my spells weren’t too expensive and Hour of Reckoning can be Convoked out. I was a little worried about only having four sources of Green mana (counting the Golgari Signet), but there wasn’t much I could do about it without having any bounce lands. I also ran the Dromad Purebred in this deck because I felt like I would easily win if I could stabilize the board, and start making guys with City-Tree to then use with Hour of Reckoning or Orzhov Pontiff. Oh, and I wish I’d picked up some more sacrifice outlets to go with my double Pontiff, but as it was I had to rely on Caregiver to do the dirty work.

There were a couple of points where I could’ve made different picks that would’ve possibly affected the outcome of the Draft, and I’m interested to hear any opinions in the forums.

The Matches
This Draft took place about a week and a half ago and I forgot to write down the names of my opponents. Sorry about that, but the match summaries are also brief so it shouldn’t be a huge deal.

Round 1
This match my deck came out pretty strong.

In game 1 I curved out with Armorer, Wayfinder, Ostiary Thrull, and then Putrefied my opponents first four-drop and played Pontiff for the win.

Game 2 my opponent mulliganed, and stuck on three mana with what seemed like a slow GRB build. I again had a strong curve of guys with Courier Hawk, Wayfinder, and Absolver Thrull, and he was beaten down before he could really get going.

1-0

Round 2
My opponent in this round had the stone cold nut deck. And I’m not exaggerating. Highlights include Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind; Cerulean Sphinx; Ogre Savant; Steamcore Weird; Mark of Eviction; multiple Snapping Drakes; Ribbons of Night; and plenty of removal.

Game 1 my opponent plays both of his “dragons,” and somehow I deal with both of them (with Putrefy on Niv and Pillory on the Sphinx to make him shuffle back in). Just when I’m about to stabilize the board, my opponent plays Clutch of the Undercity and then digs it back with Izzet Chronarch to kill me.

Game 2 he again has bombs, and is starting Steamcore plus Mark of Eviction, which becomes very annoying. Finally I find an answer. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but my notes said that it was an extremely close game and Ostiary Thrull ended up pulling it out for me in combination with Vitu-Ghazi tokens.

Game 3 I mulligan to five on the play, and I’m already very annoyed since I feel like there’s almost no chance I can win now since it’s not even a great matchup when I’m on seven cards. My opponent’s draw, however, wasn’t so great, and I got up to Vitu-Ghazi mana and had both Pontiffs at the ready. Somehow I go on to win this game even after my opponent has assembled Vedalken Dismisser and Mark of Eviction, since I use Clinging Darkness after combat to finish off the Dismisser after it blocked a token. I wish I had more details about this game because I really was surprised to win on five cards against such a strong deck.

2-0

Round 3
This match was pretty much a blowout, thanks to Pontiff.

Game 1 my opponent plays Tin-Street Hooligan followed by Centaur Safeguard. My Pontiff wraths his side and my hand is strong, so soon we’re headed to sideboarding.

Game 2 is even funnier, as my opponent plays out three X/1’s over the course of the first few turns, and I again get him with Pontiff. He scoops soon after, since my spells just trump all of his.

3-0

I won the draft with somewhat of an unorthodox build, and I was lucky that I got such late City-Trees due to the fact it was a 4322. Sorry again about the brief match coverage, but hopefully you enjoyed the walkthrough.

Now it’s time for me to go start Season Three of 24, so I’ll see you guys next week.

Nick Eisel
[email protected]
Soooooo & ThatsGameBoys on MTGO