Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick:
Mind Control is just far and away the best card in the pack. Someone once asked me which cards I’d pick over Mind Control — and as is my style I gave
some sort of noncommittal answer. In truth I think first pick first pack I would just always pick it over everything. It might not be the
most powerful card in the abstract but I think the fact that blue is so good makes up for that. That’s also probably a sign that it was a mistake to
make it uncommon.
Oh yeah — and this pack is also nice because we can be reasonably sure that the guy on our left picks Pacifism.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
Another pretty easy choice I think. The pack is just weak apart from the two black cards. And Corrupt is just the better card even if I end up with a
deck with only 50% swamps.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
We continue the theme of getting seven-mana fliers on our third pick. Unlike the last draft though I already have cards in two
other colors and I have no problems passing this one down the line. Gravedigger is on color and one of the better cards in this pack.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
In this pack the pick is between Nightwing Shade and Mana Leak. I think they are at least comparable in power although Mana Leak has been really bad
for me lately. Also I felt it was more important to cut the black cards than the blue since we only have the Mind Control and we could be getting cut
hard in blue. For the rest of the first pack I kept picking black cards over blue ones whenever they were comparable.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 11:
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Pack 1 pick 12:
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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:
An early Christmas celebration for me! I guess we’re fighting for blue no matter what now.
While celebrating my good fortune I also note that Augury Owl will likely wheel or maybe even Child of Night. While I am a big fan of just
windmill-slamming in this situation (with an optional victory lap) it really doesn’t hurt to glance over the rest of the pack.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
Another close pick. Azure Drake is a better card on its own but the Skeleton enables me to play some nice tricks Viscera Seer and Bloodthrone Vampire.
That could maybe be important if the cards dry up and I am scrambling for playables so I picked the Skeleton.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
My decision here is mostly based on my mana curve. At this point I already had several five-mana cards so the Mind Rot won out over Nightwing Shade.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 8:
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Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
Man I could tell you some stories about Leyline of Anticipation. You see I just can’t help myself when it comes to that card. I know it’s not good
but it’s just so much fun!
Of course this pack doesn’t have anything remotely playable in it anyway so if we just don’t get enough playables maybe I just will run it!
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 12:
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Pack 2 pick 13:
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Pack 2 pick 14:
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Pack 2 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
I guess we’re going to have juicy targets for our Mind Controls! Aether Adept is a very welcome addition to my deck.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
As I have mentioned before I don’t like Sleep nearly as much as I used to making Foresee an easy choice here.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 6:
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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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1 Aether Adept
1 Assassinate
1 Augury Owl
1 Barony Vampire
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
2 Child of Night
1 Foresee
2 Ice Cage
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
2 Mind Control
2 Preordain
1 Wall of Frost
1 Corrupt
1 Gravedigger
1 Howling Banshee
1 Nightwing Shade
1 Mind Rot
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Viscera Seer
Sideboard:
1 Tome Scour
1 Cancel
1 Angel’s Feather
1 Arc Runner
1 Incite
2 Duress
1 Autumn’s Veil
1 Phantom Beast
1 Mountain
1 Nether Horror
1 Merfolk Spy
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Naturalize
1 Swamp
1 Back to Nature
1 Jace’s Erasure
1 Liliana’s Caress
1 Mountain
1 Act of Treason
1 Pyretic Ritual
1 Unsummon
Sadly — or thankfully? — I just couldn’t find room for the Leyline. Although if I wasn’t doing this draft for the article I probably would have
squeaked it in somehow.
Anyway this is obviously a very good deck. It has good early game with Child of Night and Ice Cage and then tons of card advantage and the Mind
Controls to close out the game. I like the seventeen lands with two Preordains and eight Swamps should be okay with this many scry effects to find
them with.
I guess a lot of people wouldn’t play both Ice Cages maindeck but I really think it’s a very good card. Sure sometimes you get wrecked — but I’d still
rather have my filler cards be answers to my opponents’ bombs than have some solid but unexciting card.
Quarters:
Game 1:
I keep three Swamps Viscera Seer Reassembling Skeleton Child of Night and Mind Rot on the draw. My opponent plays turn 1 Terramorphic Expanse into
Plains turn 2 Island turn 3 mountain and a Gargoyle Sentinel that shuts down my attacks from Child of Night and friends.
I Mind Rot him (he discards Harbor Serpent and Ice Cage so his hand is probably mostly spells and at least decent ones) and draw a Jace’s Ingenuity.
At this point I feel pretty good about my chances since he isn’t attacking me in any way and I can just draw extra cards and scry into whatever I
need. However my opponent just keeps drawing spells (one of them a Mana Leak for my Ingenuity) and his motley crew of Alluring Siren and White Knight
and Phantom Beast get me low enough that his Fireball can finish me off.
Game 2:
For game 2 I choose to draw. Like I mentioned in the comments on my last draft I almost never do this. My opponent however has a weird three-color
deck that doesn’t put much pressure on me at all and I have sideboarded in Duresses and Cancel to prepare for a longer game.
I keep Island Preordain Duress Child of Night Assassinate Mind Rot Mind Control. My first draw yields a Swamp and I Preordain into another one.
On turn 4 I Duress him and see Mana Leak (I had the mana to pay for it) two Fireballs Gargoyle Sentinel and Scroll Thief.
Since I still have my Mind Rot I can now pretty much set it up so that I get his last two cards with it. This works out as planned where he draws
land two turns in a row plays out his creatures — and then I get to Mind Rot both his Fireballs away. I then draw Mind Control to take his Sentinel
and he never recovers.
Game 3:
My opponent chooses to draw first and I keep Swamp Island Preordain Duress Augury Owl Reassembling Skeleton and Foresee. I Preordain into Island
and Swamp and keep both on top.
My opponent plays White Knight on turn 2 and I can’t find a blocker for. I am drawing extra cards with Foresee and Ingenuity but my opponent just
keeps casting spells and he has an Alluring Siren that makes it almost impossible for me to stabilize.
He makes a big mistake one turn where he makes my Howling Banshee attack and then chooses to trade his Gargoyle Sentinel for it. If he just takes
three there and attacks back I don’t think I could have won. But it’s still looking bleak when I topdeck a Corrupt that barely lets me win the race
with Nightwing Shade against his team of Armored Cancrix Palace Guard and Alluring Siren.
It’s really weird just how close this match was against a deck that I felt was mediocre at best. Sure he had two Fireballs — but they weren’t even the
issue. I guess it’s just very hard to beat someone who plays lands for the first six turns and then just draws spells.
Semis:
Game 1:
I keep Island Preordain Child of Night Barony Vampire Aether Adept Gravedigger and Jace’s Ingenuity on the play. I guess this is somewhat
borderline but I think it is the right choice since Preordain is virtually a land.
I Preordain into swamp and Ice Cage putting the Cage on the bottom. My turn 2 Child of Night gets met with an Augury Owl and they trade. I follow up
with Barony Vampire while he plays Cloud Elemental. I then stall on three lands for a couple of turns but he only has the cloud elemental — and I
have Aether Adept putting me ahead in the race.
We get into one of those situations where I am slightly screwed but he has no pressure and nothing good in hand… So if I can just draw a land or two
for my Corrupt or Mind Control or anything then the game is just over. He plays a Sleep that should only delay the inevitable for a turn (and lets
me Assassinate his one blocker)… but then his next two draws are Frost Titan and another Sleep while I draw no lands. I lose what felt like an
unlosable game.
I board out Seer Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodthrone Vampire for two Duresses and a Cancel thinking that they just won’t do enough unless I manage
to draw the combo. And even if I do he has many answers to Bloodthrone.
Game 2:
I choose to play and keep two Swamps Island Ice Cage Mind Rot Howling Banshee and Jace’s Ingenuity. Turn 2 I draw and play Preordain into another
Preordain and Island keeping both on top. My opponent plays Augury Owl putting everything on the bottom telling me he either has a hand full of land
or no lands at all. My Mind Rot shows that it is the latter — and even though he draws a land for turn 3 he only has Whispersilk Cloak. He’s just too
far behind before he gets any more lands and at this point I have both Mind Controls.
Game 3:
I mulligan four Islands Child of Night Preordain Nightwing Shade on the draw into Island Preordain Ice Cage Wall of Frost two Mind Control —
which I keep. I once again Preordain into lands and play a Wall of Frost turn 3 to match his Scroll Thief. But he has Pacifism and gets through for a
card.
On my next turn I try Ice Cage but he has Holy Strength (presumably boarded in) for another card. Luckily I hit five mana on turn 5 to steal his
Scroll Thief. My other Mind Control steals his Cloud Elemental and Assassinate deals with his Blinding Mage.
This time it’s my turn to keep drawing action cards while my opponent draws nothing. I win comfortably with Cancel still in hand.
Finals:
Game 1:
My opponent mulligans to six on the play and I keep two Islands Swamp Preordain Augury Owl Assassinate and Gravedigger.
My opponent manages a turn 2 Steel Overseer but his turn 3 Squadron Hawk fails to find a friend (the loneliest “caw” of them all) and he also doesn’t
have a land.
He finds land on turn 4 and then again on turn 6 while I’m not doing much at all except playing lands and Child of Nights that don’t do anything. He
adds an Ajani’s Pridemate to the mix and then runs out a Tireless Missionaries (!) that mean he can attack me for quite a bit. The Overseer also gets
to attack but I Assassinate him.
I manage to finally stabilize at four life — but he’s at twenty-six and seeing as how he has some red cards to go with the white (including a
Chandra’s Spitfire) I have to try and win as quickly as possible. Thankfully he doesn’t draw anything relevant over the next few turns while I draw
Mind Control to hasten the clock significantly.
Game 2:
I keep 4 Islands Wall of Frost and Child of Night on the draw. I really don’t like these kinds of hands but I felt like both cards were pretty
likely to buy me a lot of time against his deck. Turns out that my opponent kept a similar kind of hand with a turn 2 Stormfront Pegasus and turn 4
Assault Griffin.
The difference however was that I drew spells in the coming turns while he just drew more and more lands. He had to try and race with his fliers
against my two Child of Nights which didn’t work out well. He did manage to get a lot of value out of Safe Passage at the end but that was only
because I was so far ahead that I didn’t care if he had it.
So yes the double Mind Control-deck managed to 3-0. Shocking I know! But I think the fact that I was so close to losing both the quarters and the
semis show that it is just never easy. In fact if my opponent had played correctly in the quarterfinals I would have lost for sure.
If you have questions or opinions post them in the forums and I will try my best to respond.