Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick:
Time to open the other sick uncommon I guess.
Red is a weird color in M11 since most of the time people just splash the good cards (Fireball Lightning Bolt
Pyroclasm) but I also think that it
is an okay “gambit color.” What I mean by this is if that if you move in early you’ll sometimes get a really sick
deck. Act of Treason and Fling often
just win the game when you get the combo and Chandra’s Outrage is really a sick spell. Even the bad commons have
some good synergy (Goblin Tunneler
and Fiery Hellhounds or just Hellhounds with Fling) and Lava Axe is also surprisingly good.
The problem is of course that if you go red early and someone else has the same idea you’ll probably end up with
a pretty bad deck. Anyway Fireball
is Fireball — and we note that the next card picked here is most likely Blinding Mage before moving on to the next
pack.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
A pretty shallow pack with the only real choice being between Pacifism and Pyroclasm — although if for some reason
you just love green (I don’t) I
guess you could pick Cultivate.
I think I like Pyroclasm more than most people do (it just crushes most white decks for example) and although it
isn’t quite as good as Pacifism I
just passed Blinding Mage — so I chose to stick with the red card.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
This is a more interesting pack. The valid choices are Sleep Scroll Thief Llanowar Elves and Assassinate. I guess
Assault Griffin is an okay card
too but after passing two white cards I don’t really see picking it. The other four cards are all at least
comparable.
I ended up going with one of the blue cards (big surprise) because I just like blue more than green or black. And
like I’ve said before I don’t like
picking Sleep early since it often either forces you to make suboptimal picks later on or turns into a card that
you almost don’t want to play. Sure
sometimes it’ll be great — but the Scroll Thief will always be at least okay and it has good synergy with
Pyroclasm (and Fireball I guess but
everything has good synergy with that).
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
I see no reason to stray from my previous picks here. Also there’s some added benefits to having two Scroll
Thieves since suddenly you can make
getting them through more of a game plan.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
And then the cards dried up. Picking Negate here to try and stay on color would most likely be a mistake; it
doesn’t seem like either red or blue is
especially open so it’s probably that I’ll end up with some sort of three-color deck.
Green usually works out better for that than white does and although I’ve passed some okay green stuff I have
passed even more white. I’m sure there
are times when Garruk’s Companion is much better than Spined Wurm but in this case it isn’t particularly close.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
The choice is between Fling Combust and Wall of Vines. I made a mistake here; I should have picked Combust a
card that I have no problem
maindecking. I just thought that taking Fling could open up the door to drafting heavy red with multiple Fling/Act
of Treason combos. Wall of Vines is
just a much narrower sideboard card than Combust.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
I could have picked another Fling here and abandoned the green plan but a seventh-pick Spined Wurm is just too big
a signal.
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
Harbor Serpent is an okay maindeck card and a good sideboard card — and nothing else in this pack is. Elixir of
Immortality can be pretty sweet in
some fringe decks (decks with a lot of removal and/or card drawing for example) but it’s useless in this one.
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Back to Nature is a very nice sideboard card; better than Hornet Sting.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
And we get another one.
Pack 1 pick 11:
My Pick:
I really don’t like Canyon Minotaur at all; it’s just outclassed by every other card that costs four mana. Leyline
of Vitality is okay if you get it
turn 0 but that still means that it probably isn’t playable. Giant Growth is a good trick that can generate good
tempo.
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
See previous pick. Greater Basilisk however I have found surprisingly hard to deal with.
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
Another really unexciting pack — but I guess I want a Cultivate for my deck so I can’t be too unhappy.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
I don’t think Royal Assassin is good enough that it warrants a hate draft here and the way it’s looking I will
most likely need every playable I can
get.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
I think I screwed up here. I had this plan that a green card could possibly wheel if I take Preordain (which I do
like about as much as Giant Growth)
but there’s just no way anything will wheel out of this pack. It just doesn’t have enough good cards.
The other problem is that my deck might not be playing that many Islands which makes Preordain somewhat awkward.
If I could go back I would have
picked Giant Growth here — but I don’t think it was that big a mistake.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
There is just no way my deck can support Cyclops Gladiator making Sylvan Ranger an easy pick.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Unsummon is a great tool for a deck with big creatures since you can use it either to buy enough time to get those
creatures into play or use
it to blow them out while double-blocking. Negate is a nice sideboard card to have and sometimes makes the
maindeck but usually there is no problem
picking these up late.
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
I almost picked Call to Mind but my deck only really has a Fireball that I’m excited to bring back. Having some
cheaper creatures is important.
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
Inspired Charge is the best hate draft.
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
More mediocrity. The elf can give some really good draws though and it’s not like there’s anything else I can
pick.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
I pick Negate here thinking that I might have to maindeck it (since the packs haven’t exactly delivered so far)
and I would rather maindeck that than
Harbor Serpent.
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
Crystal Ball might be the most debated card in M11. I’ve seen some people claim they would pick it over stuff like
Serra Angel while others seem to
think that it’s almost unplayable except for in certain decks.
As usually is the case when good players disagree I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. If you end up
with a deck that plays a good attrition
game (usually a red or black deck that’s heavy on removal) then Crystal Ball will be extremely good; just trade
for a while then use the Ball to make
sure you draw spells. Hopefully your opponent will draw more lands and lose.
On the other hand if your deck is more suited to play a tempo game (or has to play that way because it doesn’t
have good ways to trade cards with
your opponent) then Crystal Ball is usually going to be mediocre. Sure sometimes the game turns into a stall and
you can use it to get ahead — but
often you won’t have the time to play it or playing it means your opponent has time to recover.
So what’s my verdict? First pick first pack I wouldn’t pick Crystal Ball over any of the premium commons
(Pacifism or Doom blade or Lightning Bolt or
even something like Azure Drake) but I’d be very happy to pick it up later on for some of my decks.
I do think that some people pick it first pick first pack because they think that it keeps their options open.
This is only somewhat true since the
rest of your draft will still be affected by the fact that you have it. Another point that I haven’t seen made is
that Crystal Ball actually starts out
putting you down two cards (the ball and the land to activate it) which sometimes is too much.
Back to the draft though. In this deck Crystal Ball is a pretty clear pick since the rest of the cards
in the pack aren’t things I need.
Right now my deck is lacking some late game-punch and Runeclaw Bears or Diminish don’t fit that bill.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
Water Servant is a clear pick here. We need good big creatures not another trick.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
Another Sylvan Ranger to make our red splash even easier to cast is better than another Augury Owl.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick:
Sorcerer’s Strongbox is a fine card in red or black decks with lots of removal. In this deck however we would
rather have a big dumb creature.
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick:
I thought about picking another Yavimaya Wurm here but figured that I would be better served by another Giant Growth — which combined with Scroll
Thief would often be a removal spell for G.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick:
Volcanic Strength just feels like a stronger sideboard option than Hornet Sting here making my Thieves unblockable and huge.
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 15:
My Pick:
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1 Cultivate
2 Giant Growth
2 Greater Basilisk
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Plummet
1 Runeclaw Bear
2 Spined Wurm
2 Sylvan Ranger
1 Yavimaya Wurm
1 Augury Owl
1 Azure Drake
1 Preordain
2 Scroll Thief
1 Unsummon
1 Water Servant
Sideboard:
1 Demon’s Horn
1 Kraken’s Eye
1 Ornithopter
1 Inspired Charge
1 Harbor Serpent
1 Negate
1 Wall of Frost
1 Fling
1 Goblin Balloon Brigade
1 Goblin Piker
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Thunder Strike
1 Volcanic Strength
2 Back to Nature
1 Brindle Boar
1 Dryad’s Favor
2 Wall of Vines
I’m pretty sure if you look up the word “mediocre” in a dictionary this is what you’ll see. Apart from a Fireball this deck doesn’t really have
anything that excites me. Some mana fixing/acceleration and some big dumb green creatures and the only real way to get extra cards is two Scroll
Thieves that need to get through.
Looking back at the draft however I just didn’t see many good cards and I think the only way I have a better deck is if I move in on white — and
that’s assuming that white cards would be coming back to me in pack 2 which isn’t that likely.
Building the deck was pretty straightforward I think — I really don’t want cards like Negate maindeck when the biggest problem of the deck is not
drawing enough action cards. This because I am playing Cultivate and Sylvan Rangers and so on which dilutes the deck from real spells. I almost played
sixteen lands in this deck; if there was a card that I really wanted to play then I probably would have.
Quarters:
Game 1:
My opponent wins the roll and chooses to play last. I have talked about this before in the forums; basically I don’t understand people who do this
except with the most extreme decks. You need something like an R/B deck with a bunch of Doom Blades and Lightning Bolts but no early creatures where
you can completely ignore tempo and force an attrition game against anyone. Hopefully one day I’ll find someone who can explain the reasoning behind
this… but until then I’ll just say “Thank you for letting me go first.” (Also “Thank you for letting me know that your deck won’t try to kill me on
turn 5.”)
I keep three Forests Island Preordain Sylvan Ranger Pyroclasm. Preordain finds me a Giant Growth and Scroll Thief and I keep both on top. I play
Sylvan Ranger on turn 2 and Scroll Thief on turn three while he plays Manic Vandal with three mountains in play.
On my turn I draw another Scroll Thief and attack with both creatures thinking if he blocks my Sylvan Ranger I’ll just let it die. But he blocks the
Thief and I just play the other Thief and pass. He plays a fourth mountain and Canyon Minotaur which trades for my Giant Growth next turn. Then on
turn 5 he has no fifth land and only plays a Fiery Hellhound. I blow him out with Pyroclasm and draw two cards with my Thieves add Water Servant to
the board and the game is over.
…Except it isn’t. He finds an Island on his turn and plays Phantom Beast while my hand is just lands. So I can either just attack with Water Servant
(which trades for his Phantom Beast) or attack with all three creatures exchanging one Thief for a bunch of damage and a card. I go the latter route
since trading my Water Servant for his Beast is just awful when he’s holding four spells.
I draw into Azure Drake and play it. He kills the Drake with Chandra’s Outrage and I proceed to draw lands while he summons Stormtide Leviathan. I end
the game with thirteen lands to his eight.
I sideboard out Pyroclasm and Greater Basilisk for Negate and Harbor Serpent. Thing is even though Pyroclasm was awesome in game one he only showed
me two creatures that die to it. Also he might still try to play around it in games 2 and 3.
Game 2:
I choose to play first (I always imagine how happy my opponent must be: “Wow he let me draw first!”) and keep Forest two Islands Mountain Giant
Growth Spined Wurm Harbor Serpent. Not the most exciting of hands but this is not the most exciting of decks.
I draw a Preordain on turn 2 and scry into Forest and Water Servant. I thought for a while about just putting both on the bottom but I don’t think
random cards are better than being guaranteed creatures from turn 4 to 6 so I keep both on top. My opponent plays a turn 2 Ember Hauler making me
even happier to be on the play. He follows up with a turn 4 Canyon Minotaur but his turn 5 Foresee finds nothing exciting and my creatures just
outclass his. Negate for his Diminish on Harbor Serpent ends the game.
Game 3:
He lets me go first again and I keep two Forests Island Unsummon Giant Growth Scroll Thief Spined Wurm. My Scroll Thief goes unanswered (his
board is just two Mountains and Island) and on my turn 4 I can either play Azure Drake or Cultivate and keep mana up for Giant Growth. I figured with
Unsummon still in hand protecting my Scroll Thief would be better — and I cast Cultivate which he Reverberate(!). I certainly didn’t see that
coming.
He follows up with Cyclops Gladiator which I Unsummon to get another card and then play my Spined Wurm. He replays the Cyclops and passes back.
At this point he has six land on board (Island and Mountain) all untapped — but I figure that if he has Negate or some other counter for my Giant
Growth then I can’t play around it. So I attack into his Gladiator with both my creatures and he declines to block. This feels to me like he’s
holding a removal spell wanting to kill whatever creature I play to block his Gladiator and then kill the Thief for free.
Scroll Thief drew into Augury Owl and my hand was Spined Wurm Owl Azure Drake Giant Growth and Yavimaya Wurm. I settle on playing Augury Owl to see
wasn’t coming — and luckily I find Fireball. I play the Spined Wurm and pass the turn back. My opponent indeed has Chandra’s Outrage which kills the
wurm and then the Gladiator kills my Thief. He taps out for Prodigal Pyromancer — and when he declines to chump block with it I kill him with
Fireball.
Semis:
Game 1:
I win the die roll choose to play first and mulligan three Forests two Islands Mountain and a Giant Growth into two Islands two Forests Sylvan
Ranger Water Servant. Sylvan Ranger fetches Mountain and I draw Pyroclasm while my opponent goes turn 2 Augury Owl turn 3 Wild Griffin turn 4 two
Squadron Hawks.
On my turn 5 I debate casting Pyroclasm leaving his board empty and me with Water Servant. The other option is to slow roll it one more turn instead
casting Spined Wurm. After making sure that Inspired Charge doesn’t kill me next turn I go for the latter.
This is of course a bit risky since he might be holding Negate or some other counterspell — but I just thought that the upside was worth it since I
couldn’t see him coming back from when I’d have two big creatures to his none.
I get lucky when he taps out during his turn for another Wild Griffin and Ice Cage on my Wurm (which the Giant Growth I am holding will deal with). I
Pyroclasm his team away and he doesn’t have Day of Judgment.
I board out Runeclaw Bear and Greater Basilisk for two Wall of Vines. I almost board in one Back to Nature but I had only seen the one Ice Cage and
even though he probably has at least one more enchantment I didn’t want to risk it.
Game 2:
On the draw I keep two Forests Island Llanowar Elves Scroll Thief Water Servant Greater Basilisk. My curve of turn 1 Elf turn 2 Scroll Thief
turn 3 Water Servant turn 4 Greater Basilisk turn 5 Yavimaya Wurm is not nearly fast enough against his Infantry Veteran Honor of the Pure Wild
Griffin Wild Griffin Blinding Mage Armored Ascension.
I board in both Back to Nature’s for Giant Growth and Unsummon. While Unsummon is still an okay card in this matchup I was afraid of boarding out too
many cards that actually do anything. Unsummon just felt like the worst card that I could afford to board out.
Game 3:
I keep two Forests Island Mountain Llanowar Elves Augury Owl and Pyroclasm on the play. My opponent keeps Plains Infantry Veteran and (I am
assuming) Augury Owl on the draw. He fails to find a second land before turn 4 and is facing down Yavimaya Wurm. He buys some time with Excommunicate
but then plays out a bunch of small creatures that die to Pyroclasm — and when I have Back to Nature for Ice Cage it’s all over.
Finals:
Game 1:
My opponent wins the roll and I keep two Islands Forest Giant Growth Runeclaw Bear Plummet Crystal Ball on the draw. He plays Swamp and Plains in
the first two turns and I draw Llanowar a turn too late. I still play it over Runeclaw Bears thinking I can start using Crystal Ball on turn 3. My
opponent plays a turn 3 Stormfront Pegasus and turn 4 Assault Griffin. I kill the Griffin with Plummet and set up drawing a Yavimaya Wurm next turn…
But then my opponent has a turn 5 Serra Angel and suddenly my plan isn’t looking that good. I try to scry into Fireball (my only real answer to
Serra) but never get there and die.
Game 2:
I choose to play first and keep two Islands Forest Llanowar Elves Giant Growth Azure Drake Spined Wurm. My Giant Growth trades for his Infantry
Veteran when the Elf attacks and I follow up with turn 3 Azure Drake turn 4 Spined Wurm. He has Blinding Mage however which in conjunction with a
Brittle Effigy kills off my offense.
Every turn the game slips further and further away from me with me drawing more lands and him stuck on six lands but casting Siege Mastodon and
Rotting Legion and such. I do eventually draw a Fireball that kills three of his creatures — but at this point I’m low on life and he’s still holding
spells. The game ends when I draw Pyroclasm (which kills nothing) and he draws Doom Blade killing my Spined Wurm.
I’m quite happy to have made the finals with a deck like this one. It feels like I beat better decks both in the quarters and in the semis mostly due
to lucky draws on my part and some fortunate Pyroclasms. I really don’t like the kind of deck I drafted this time since it just has so many cards that
don’t do anything (Cultivate Rangers Unsummon Crystal Ball).
But I also think that sometimes the packs don’t really give you a chance at drafting a good deck and that I did the best I could with the packs given
to me. Of course I could have picked Blinding Mage over Fireball first pick and gotten a good white deck — but I feel like that choice would on
average give me a worse deck. Maybe that’s wrong though; I know some people who would do almost anything to draft white.
Anyway opinions and questions are welcome as always.