Pack 1 pick 1:
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I think this is the first really interesting pick of the draft. Picking Azure Drake here would be fine. We can keep cutting blue and it is a really solid card.
Despite that Archon is a very strong signal that white is open — and even though seven mana is more of a stretch in M11 than it has been in older core sets the Archon is still a bomb. If I didn’t like U/W I would probably have picked the Drake but that’s not the case for me in this format.
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Pack 2 pick 1:
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I think it’s a close call here between the Adept and Ingenuity. The problem with card drawing in U/W is that you can’t always capitalize on the extra cards because your best game plan is to race. In a more streamlined and aggressive U/W deck I would probably have picked the Adept — but in this deck I’m more likely to be trying to play a control game.
Also I feel like there are more cards I can pick up later that can fill the role of the Adept. The way my deck ended up I probably would rather have the Adept — but given the choice I would make the same pick again.
Pack 2 pick 2:
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Pack 2 pick 4:
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I’m sure many would not pick the Whispersilk Cloak for a deck like this one. My experience however is that Cloak just locks up so many games. Sometimes you just play a guy and equip the Cloak and suddenly your opponent is drawing dead.
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Pack 3 pick 1:
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This is another close call. I think Air Servant is a more powerful card… but for this deck which has several five-mana cards already (including another Air Servant) I probably should have picked Pacifism. I really didn’t know which one to pick (which hopefully means that whichever I pick I would at worst be making a small mistake) and in the end I decided on the Servant because that was the card I was most afraid of playing against.
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1 Armored Ascension
1 Blinding Mage
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Infantry Veteran
1 Palace Guard
1 Serra Angel
1 Silvercoat Lion
1 War Priest of Thune
1 Wild Griffin
1 Vengeful Archon
2 Air Servant
1 Augury Owl
1 Diminish
1 Foresee
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
2 Mana Leak
2 Scroll Thief
1 Gargoyle Sentinel
1 Whispersilk Cloak
Sideboard:
1 Siege Mastodon
1 Cancel
1 Fire Servant
1 Wurm’s Tooth
1 Duress
1 Solemn Offering
1 Blood Tithe
1 Mass Polymorph
1 Mountain
2 Rotting Legion
1 Safe Passage
1 Harbor Serpent
1 Goblin Piker
1 Jace’s Erasure
1 Forest
1 Holy Strength
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Mountain
1 Fling
1 Canyon Minotaur
1 Siege Mastodon
1 Mighty Leap
This deck turned out solid but not spectacular. The card quality is very good but it seemed like the packs had a lot of good cards for everyone and
my deck was somewhat lacking in focus (Silvercoat Lion and Palace Guards don’t exactly scream synergy).
The last card that made the deck was Diminish (over Mighty Leap and Cancel) since I figured my deck could need a way to get tempo back and deal with
bigger creatures. I’m not a big fan of Diminish and if I had an Unsummon I would’ve played that instead.
Quarters:
Game 1:
I win the roll and keep Island Plains Augury Owl Mana Leak Air Servant Whispersilk Cloak Scroll Thief. My opponent shows Island and Swamp while
I play Owl and Scry into Plains Island and Foresee (keeping all three on top).
My turn 3 Scroll Thief gets bounced by Aether Adept and he plays a turn 4 Juggernaut. His Deathmarks keep me from having three power to block the
Juggernaut and I go down to five. I struggle a bit and even get Whispersilk Cloak/Scroll Thief to draw extra cards but I only find lands. He shows me
a Mountain for a splashed Fireball and I lose.
I board in Cancel and Harbor Serpent taking out Diminish and Infantry Veteran.
Game 2:
I keep four Plains Island Augury Owl and Scroll Thief. My opponent mulligans to six. My turn 2 Owl finds another Thief and Blinding Mage (putting a
land on the bottom) and my opponent can only muster a turn 3 Alluring Siren. Assassinate kills one of the Thieves but he doesn’t find a blocker for
the other one (or a fourth land) before it’s way too late.
Game 3:
I keep Island Plains Silvercoat Lion War Priest of Thune Scroll Thief Jace’s Ingenuity and Harbor Serpent on the draw. My opponent plays a turn 3
Royal Assassin dashing my hopes of an early rush (this explains the Alluring Siren in game 2).
He also plays a Fireball killing two creatures and then plays Call to Mind to get it back. Luckily I drew my Cancel and was able to stabilize while
keeping counter mana up. My card drawing finds me more card drawing and scry and eventually the Whispersilk Cloak that gives me the game and match.
Semis:
Game 1:
I win the roll and keep a hand of Plains 3 Islands Blinding Mage Scroll Thief and Wild Griffin.
I play a turn 2 Blinding Mage and he answers with Garruk’s Companion off a Forest and Sunpetal Grove. I play my Wild Griffin on turn 3 since I still
only have the one Plains and want to be able to play for Thief and use Blinding Mage on turn 4. My Griffin trades for his Companion and he follows up
with Squadron Hawk fetching two more.
He keeps playing dorks and my deck doesn’t really offer up much except a Serra Angel that gets Doom Bladed (splashed with at least using a Sylvan
Ranger to fetch the Swamp) and an Air Servant that holds off his Hawks. I need to race a Steel Overseer which I have to chump block.
I topdeck Vengeful Archon with six mana to spare meaning he’s dead the next turn… But instead he draws his second Doom Blade and I die two turns
later to Overseer and a Siege Mastodon.
Game 2:
I keep 2 Plains War Priest of Thune Blinding Mage Armored Ascension Mana Leak Jace’s Ingenuity on the play. A somewhat speculative hand I guess
but I think it’s slightly better than the average six-carder.
I stall on three Plains for a turn while my opponent has turn 2 Hawk turn 3 Hawk turn 4 Obstinate Baloth. My Ascension gets Plummeted and after that
I’m on the back foot trying to survive. Jace’s Ingenuity yields three spells meaning I can’t play anything else that turn and his Excommunicate puts
me in an even bigger hole.
I had a theoretical chance to recover over the next few turns but he draws a Doom Blade and it’s all over.
That’s pretty much it for my first installment of the “Drafting with”-series. Sucks to lose in the semis but I think my opponent’s deck just stacked
up really well against mine and he also never really had any mana issues (like missing colors or drawing extra lands) which is just very hard to beat
in this format — especially when he had a deck with plenty of answers for my big threats.
Or maybe I screwed up somewhere along the way. Maybe I should have picked the Aether Adept or the Pacifism? Maybe I should have mulliganed that final
hand? Let me know in the forums!