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Constructed Criticism – Drafting With Balefire Liege: M10 #4

Read Todd Anderson every week... at StarCityGames.com
Monday, August 31st – Before returning to Constructed with Zendikar, Todd Anderson has a handful of M10 drafts to play. Today, he takes us through another 8-4 draft from Magic Online, in which he leaves one of his most powerful bombs in the sideboard. Do you agree with his choices?

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Pack 1 pick 1:

















My Pick:

Here we are starting off similar to last week where Cudgel Troll is simply the best card in the pack. I could take Divination and force Blue but then I reconsidered.

Pack 1 pick 2:
















My Pick:

Weak pack overall but Borderland Ranger is better early allowing powerful splashes in packs two and three.

Pack 1 pick 3:















My Pick:

This pack is just garbage but I took the card most likely to be splashed while being a potential removal spell. Red is underdrafted online and Green splashing Red is a passable color combination. I almost took Ponder and I think I might end up regretting this pick.

Pack 1 pick 4:














My Pick:

This pick is between Craw Wurm and Seismic Strike (although Strike is much worse when splashing Red obviously). Seismic Strike is the most powerful card and Craw Wurm is just a fatty so I took the Strike. This pushes me toward a even G/R deck or base-Red.

Pack 1 pick 5:













My Pick:

I don’t like seeing the Sign in Blood this late and that leads me to believe that Black could be open. The Entangling Vines is an on-color removal spell so I take it just to be safe. Taking Sign in Blood would nullify the Sparkmage and Seismic Strike so I won’t delve into Black just yet.

Pack 1 pick 6:












My Pick:

All of the packs coming around seem pretty poor but Terramorphic Expanse is a pick that could help me should I decide to play 3 colors or just heavy one color with a splash of a second. The Kelinore Bats is still there but it isn’t great so I’d rather take the safest pick.

Pack 1 pick 7:











My Pick:

Okay time to switch. Red is dead and Black is plentiful so I think I’m going to make the gambit.

Pack 1 pick 8:










My Pick:

Blech. Disentomb is an alright card but I rather like Child of Night as Black lacks two-drops at common other than Drudge Skeletons and the Child of Night.

Pack 1 pick 9:









My Pick:

Nothing to see here…

Pack 1 pick 10:








My Pick:

I’ve yet to lose to Tome Scour but I would rather hate the card that might end up killing me rather than a card that is unplayable.

Pack 1 pick 11:







My Pick:

Too late for this card and I’m happy to pick it up. Hopefully I’ll get a bomb or two and be able to play it.

Pack 1 pick 12:






My Pick:

Solid late pick. People don’t like this guy too much but I compare him to Wind Drake most of the time. There are only a few cards that easily deal with Kelinore Bats that don’t deal with Wind Drake and a few of them are hindered by Weakness (Prodigal Pyromancer Griffin Sentinel).

Pack 1 pick 13:





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Pack 1 pick 14:




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Pack 1 pick 15:



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Pack 2 pick 1:

















My Pick:

Hrm. Time to make the decision. Lightning Bolt is a fine card but I’m thinking that after last pack the Black is going to keep on coming and I should go into it full force. Passing Mind Control hurts but I didn’t see hardly any Blue in the 1st pack so no reason to take it other than a hate-draft.

Pack 2 pick 2:
















My Pick:

Another great Black card! I don’t know what is wrong with these packs but there are very few playables here.

Pack 2 pick 3:















My Pick:

At this point I think I’m going to be heavier Black than Green so taking the Aristocrat is better than having Giant Growth or Rampant Growth. I like both of those cards more than Aristocrat but I’m short on creatures and like I said Black will probably be the dominant color in my deck.

Pack 2 pick 4:














My Pick:

I keep getting awkward signals on top of the packs being disgustingly weak and I take the bomb card that I might be able to play. However I’m not going to enjoy playing a card that requires GGG in a Black-based deck. But Overrun is Overrun and I’m not passing it when I could play it.

Pack 2 pick 5:













My Pick:

I don’t have much removal and Entangling Vines is still okay. Drudge Skeletons is a close second.

Pack 2 pick 6:












My Pick:

Woo!

Pack 2 pick 7:











My Pick:

x2!

Pack 2 pick 8:










My Pick:

Mind Rot compliments Mind Shatter but I’m getting a dangerous threshold of cards that don’t affect the board.

Pack 2 pick 9:









My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 11:







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Pack 2 pick 12:






My Pick:

A late playable. I’m not happy to play this guy but I don’t mind it if necessary. He’s better than something like Berserkers of Blood Ridge or Enormous Baloth. As an aside I hate Enormous Baloth. Seven-drops should win the game not be vanilla creatures.

Pack 2 pick 13:





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Pack 2 pick 14:




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Pack 2 pick 15:



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Pack 3 pick 1:

















My Pick:

Finally a solid removal spell! Too bad there are like 3-4 other good cards for my deck here. Hopefully one will table.

Pack 3 pick 2:
















My Pick:

So at this point I’ve passed 2 Mind Controls and 2 Sleeps. Awkward. This pick is kind of close against Dread Warlock and Deadly Recluse but I’m not sure how easily I’ll be able to cast Recluse on turn 2. I know that I don’t take him as highly as most people but I think Dread Warlock is really good. Hopefully all of these blue cards won’t end up beating me.

Pack 3 pick 3:















My Pick:

I already have 2 Sign in Blood and I’m in desperate need of win conditions so I take the 4/3. On the whole I think Zombie Goliath is much stronger in M10 than Dreg Reaver was in Alara Block draft. People compare the two and underestimate him. Just because a card is bad in one Limited format doesn’t mean it is bad in another.

Pack 3 pick 4:














My Pick:

Okay okay. I’ll play 3 Sign in Blood. Jeez!

Pack 3 pick 5:













My Pick:

I don’t really like Looming Shade even in Mono-Black as he is such a drain on your resources. With curves in Black being so horrible having to use mana to deal damage is very inefficient. I’d rather take the Green fatty and just trample them to death while keeping my mana for other things.

Pack 3 pick 6:












My Pick:

At this point I don’t know what happened. I think I lagged or something because I tried to take Giant Growth. Either that or I just wanted the $.50!

Pack 3 pick 7:











My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 8:










My Pick:

I probably should have taken the Zombie Goliath here but Terramorphic Expanse might allow me to cast Overrun with enough Swamps for Tendrils of Corruption and Consume Spirit.

Pack 3 pick 9:









My Pick:

This making it back around makes me very very happy. If you remember back to my first M10 draft I didn’t take this card when I could have. It would have been very good for my deck at the time. Now I rate it much higher and am glad to be getting it 9th pick.

Pack 3 pick 10:








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Pack 3 pick 11:







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Pack 3 pick 12:






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Pack 3 pick 13:





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Pack 3 pick 14:




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Pack 3 pick 15:



My Pick:

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Here is the deck I ended up with:

1 Weakness
3 Sign in Blood
1 Black Knight
1 Child of Night
1 Mind Rot
1 Dread Warlock
1 Kelinore Bat
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Borderland Ranger
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Entangling Vines
1 Cudgel Troll
1 Mist Leopard
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Stampeding Rhino
1 Zombie Goliath
1 Mind Shatter
1 Consume Spirit

10 Swamp
6 Forest
2 Terramorphic Expanse

I opted to cut the Overrun as I had only 10 creatures (11 counting Rise from the Grave) as it was both a hindrance to my mana and only good if I drew 1/3 or more of my guys. Hopefully the 3 Sign in Blood will dig me to enough threats to take the match.

Round 1 against UG

He leads with Elvish Visionary while I fix my mana with Terramorphic Expanse and play Black Knight. I fail to match his Wind Drake on turn 3 but use Consume Spirit to kill it on turn 4 planning to Mind Shatter his hand next turn. He plays Deadly Recluse holding two mana open. However he didn’t have Negate for the Consume Spirit so I assume he has nothing except Essence Scatter. I Mind Shatter his hand and he discards Ice Cage Essence Scatter and Rod of Ruin. From there he topdecks a few fliers but I force him into chump-block mode when I keep applying pressure. A Tendrils of Corruption seals the deal when he gets low on blockers and life.

Game 2 is much the same. I use Mind Rot to rid his hand of troublesome late-game cards and use Entangling Vines for his flier as well as Tendrils of Corruption for his other threat. This game he is light on creatures and he’s dead after a very short game 2.

Round 2 against UG splashing White

Game 1 I get my opponent low on life but he ends up turning the tables on me by using Mind Control on my Cudgel Troll followed by Garruk Wildspeaker and Sleep. I can’t come back from these three bombs and he ends the game at 1 life. Blinding Mage was a particularly annoying threat and kept me from attacking or blocking profitably.

Game 2 is much the same as he Mind Controls my Stampeding Rhino followed by Blinding Mage Sleep and Garruk Wildspeaker. Such bombs are hardly beatable and even more so when your deck contains zero outs.

This draft was a great example of trying to switch colors a bit too late. I think that the packs were very weak and even the opponent I lose to had to play subpar cards along with his bombs. I saw from replays that he was splashing white for Siege Mastodon and Griffin Sentinel. While these are both fine cards they are hardly worth a splash but I’m guessing he needed a few more playables to fill out his bomb-heavy deck.

I learned a good bit from this draft but mostly to just draft Blue as much as possible. Even if you don’t get it early you’ll likely get a bomb at some point and that bomb will more than likely win you the game. I could have had 2 Mind Controls and a Sleep but had very little to back those cards up. However if I am base Green all I need to do is draft dorks combat tricks and mana-fixing to facilitate the use of my bombs.

I am becoming more and more a fan of Blue but it is just so over-drafted online and I rarely get a good Blue-based deck. The problem with Blue is that most of the bombs have UU in the casting cost making it hard to play Blue without a substantial commitment. However the cards are just so powerful that you can’t really afford to pass them up for such weak cards as Vampire Aristocrat or Dread Warlock. Unfortunately I drafted incorrectly and was punished by the very cards I chose to pass and it cost me the draft. I walk away with no packs a handful of mediocre rares and crushed dreams.

Todd

strong sad on MOL