Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick:
Blinding Mage is just the most powerful card in this pack and conveniently it’s white which I love to draft.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
A bit more interesting. The only card that’s better than the white ones is Magma Phoenix (and maybe Garruk’s Companion but if you’ve been following this series you know how I feel about green cards) and while the Phoenix would’ve been completely insane in some formats it just isn’t good enough for me to branch into a second color here. So for me the choice is between Squadron Hawk and Assault Griffin and while the solo Hawk isn’t very good I think my chances of getting another one is good enough that taking the first here is better than the Griffin.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
Once again the non-white cards (Quag Sickness and Mana Leak) aren’t good enough to branch into a second color.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
And the same reasoning applies here. Nightwing Shade is maybe a slightly better card than the Pridemate but no way am I going into black at this point.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
Wow we certainly are in the right place and Armored Ascension is just a stupidly good card.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
Okay finally we can’t pick a white card. The valid options in my mind are Giant Growth Mind Rot and Act of Treason. After passing all these black cards I’m not that interested in going black and with an Armored Ascension in my pile I’m most likely looking for a small splash. Act of Treason doesn’t really fit that well with this plan since ideally you want Fling to go with it but that means you need double red. Also Armored Ascension goes really well with Sacred Wolf and Giant Growth is a very nice addition to an aggressive white deck.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Giant Spider is a pretty obvious pick here after taking the Giant Growth last pack. Doesn’t fit that well into an aggressive white deck but we don’t really know exactly how aggressive we will be yet and Giant Spider is also an excellent card against us.
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
The choice here is between Ice Cage and Naturalize. I never really end up maindecking Naturalize and we also aren’t married to the green cards yet so I just pick Ice Cage in case we end up going blue.
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pretty ridiculous that the Infantry Veteran wheeled out of our first pack. This is obviously excellent news since it means not many are drafting white.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
Don’t really want to touch the red cards here; passing them will increase the chance of someone after us going red giving us better picks in pack 2.
Pack 1 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
A really interesting pack. Garruk is obviously a bomb but at the same time it might be a bit awkward on the mana (with Armored Ascension). Also that second Squadron Hawk is really important and since it’s the only white card in the pack it probably won’t come back to me. I really think this pick is very close but in the end I went with the powerful mythic.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
And immediately I regretted it. If I’d picked Squadron Hawk last pack I would easily have picked the Mind Control here. But with that extra green card it just seemed counterproductive to pick Mind Control since I obviously can’t play both green and blue in this deck and green for Garruk is basically as good as blue for Mind Control in this deck.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
At least the white cards are flowing. A third-pick Serra Angel is obviously a great gift.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
The second Squadron Hawk might not be better than Garruk but it’s obviously better than Wild Griffin.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Inspired Charge should be pretty awesome in our deck and the rest of the pack is pretty unexciting.
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Even if we do end up green we can’t really play Garruk’s Companion while Infantry Veteran is excellent in our deck.
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
We might actually want more than one Inspired Charge in this deck but not enough that we pick it over Wild Griffin.
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
None of the cards in this pack should make the maindeck. Leyline of Vitality could maybe get boarded in against some weird matchup (although unlikely).
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
Never really thought that the Hawk could possibly wheel in this pack (stuff like Brindle Boar and Negate got picked over it) and I guess we might be the only white drafters. Right now our deck looks like it could be completely ridiculous assuming the white keeps coming in pack 3.
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
We still aren’t locked in on playing green but if we do play it two Giant Growths should be very nice in this deck.
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Once again no one picked the white card we left in the pack. Excommunicate is obviously awesome in this deck.
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:
Kai Budde told me the other day that he doesn’t really like having more than three Squadron Hawks. Or rather he picks the third Hawk much higher than the fourth. His point was that with four you greatly increase the risk of drawing two and I guess that makes sense. Looking at my curve and adding in the fact that Squadron Hawk is more likely to wheel than the Wild Griffin it was pretty easy for me to follow his advice.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
Vengeful Archon is a pretty sick card but I had no plans of playing games that lasted until I had mana to cast it. I guess that Garruk can accelerate into it but if you have the luxury of doing that with Garruk then you probably won anyway.
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
I really screwed up this pick. For some reason I equated Overwhelming Stampede with Overrun when it might often just be +1/+1 in this deck. I really should have picked Infantry Veteran here.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
My curve is already low and having a bunch of fliers gives me a better “late” game. I don’t really want to find myself in a situation where my whole offense gets stopped by a Maritime Guard.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
Wow another Armored Ascension is very fortunate. It does make the Garruk and Stampede seem less powerful though and mono-white now seems very tempting.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick:
More ridiculousness. Not sure how the rest of the drafters managed to lock themselves out of white to the point where they couldn’t get back in it later on. I’m happy to pick any of these four white cards sixth pick but obviously Blinding Mage is just the best of the bunch.
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick:
At least White Knight isn’t easily splashed making it more understandable that it’s still in the pack.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick:
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 Ajani’s Pridemate
2 Blinding Mage
1 Cloud Crusader
2 Infantry Veteran
1 Palace Guard
1 Serra Angel
1 Silvercoat Lion
3 Squadron Hawk
3 Stormfront Pegasus
1 White Knight
2 Wild Griffin
2 Armored Ascension
1 Excommunicate
1 Inspired Charge
1 Safe Passage
17 Plains
Sideboard:
1 Roc Egg
1 Fog
1 Ajani’s Mantra
2 Giant Growth
1 Giant Spider
1 Wall of Vines
1 Angel’s Feather
1 Wurm’s Tooth
1 Incite
1 Ice Cage
1 Thunder Strike
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Alluring Siren
1 Overwhelming Stampede
1 Holy Strength
1 Leyline of Vitality
1 Primal Cocoon
I really wish I didn’t pick the Overwhelming Stampede. This deck is one or two cards short (Palace Guard and Safe Passage aren’t great)
but I just couldn’t justify splashing green for Garruk when the rest of my deck is just so powerful.
Quarters:
Game one:
My opponent wins the roll and mulligans to six while I keep four Plains Blinding Mage Palace Guard and Inspired Charge. Not the greatest hand but
definitely good enough to keep.
He keeps on six cards and plays Forest and Mountain to Lightning Bolt my Blinding Mage. On turn 3 he casts Sacred Wolf that I match with Palace Guard.
On turn 4 he does nothing while I cast my freshly drawn Squadron Hawk (fetching two more) and attack him with my Palace Guard. At this point I want to
race since I’m holding Inspired Charge and Excommunicate and also he probably doesn’t want to trade his Wolf for a Hawk.
He stalls on three Forests and a Mountain for a turn while I keep attacking with my Hawks and Palace Guard. On turn 6 he finds another Mountain and
casts Shiv’s Embrace on the Wolf but Inspired Charge lets me trade a Hawk for his wolf and he takes nine damage.
I also drew Armored Ascension this turn so when he taps out for a Yavimaya Wurm I cast the Ascension on Palace Guard and attack for lethal.
I sideboard nothing.
Game two:
My opponent goes first and I keep four Plains two Stormfront Pegasi and Palace Guard.
He casts a turn 2 Llanowar Elves and has Hornet Sting for my first Pegasus. He has nothing on turn 3 while I play the other Pegasus and an Infantry
Veteran. He has a turn 4 Garruk’s Packleader that could be bad news but over the next turns he only plays a Sacred Wolf while I draw a Squadron Hawk
that fetches the other two and the race is suddenly looking bad for him. He plays Wall of Vines but apart from that is just stuck on four Forests and
a Mountain (probably holding some double red spells) and in the end my small fliers kill him.
During the game I just kept playing every single creature I had since I couldn’t possibly beat something like Pyroclasm anyway. Luckily he didn’t have
it.
Semis:
Game one:
I win the roll and keep three Plains Stormfront Pegasus Wild Griffin Armored Ascension and Inspired Charge.
My Pegasus and Griffin are met by three Islands and a Scroll Thief meaning he’s probably light on mana. At this point I’ve drawn my fourth
land and Palace Guard and I realize that I don’t really care if he can deal with my Guard and gets through with the Thief since I’m still so
far ahead.
So I just play the Guard and attack with both fliers. Turns out he only has another Island on his fourth turn and even though he finds a Swamp for
turn 5 letting him Stabbing Pain my Pegasus he has no answer for Armored Ascension and dies in two turns.
Although I didn’t see much of my opponents deck in game 1 it feels like Safe Passage would be very bad against a U/B deck so I board in Holy
Strength for it thinking he may have Ice Cage or Phantom Beast – or maybe the Strength will let me get through a stall.
Game two:
He chooses to play first and I keep two Plains Holy Strength Stormfront Pegasus Ajani’s Pridemate Excommunicate and Wild Griffin.
He has Stabbing Pain for my Pegasus and Cancel for Wild Griffin while Holy Strength deals with his Phantom Beast. Pretty nice when a marginal decision
in sideboarding works out.
He stalls on four lands the next turn but has Gravedigger for Phantom Beast. I have no choice but to Armored Ascension my Pridemate and hope he doesn’t
have anything. At least I’ll get through for seven before he can deal with it. Turns out he doesn’t have an answer and dies in two turns. Ascension is
such a stupid card.
Finals:
Game one:
I win the roll and keep five Plains Squadron Hawk and Cloud Crusader. Surely not a great hand but any hand with one Hawk is at least okay. I
obviously draw another Hawk on my first draw step and cast it finding the third one.
My opponent is U/R and casts a turn 3 Fiery Hellhound and has Ice Cage for my fourth-turn Cloud Crusader. I draw Serra Angel for turn 5 though and his
only response is to Act of Treason it to get through for some damage. At this point I’m still ahead in the race but the way he’s playing tells
me he should have some Lava Axes or maybe more Act of Treasons possibly with some Fling action thrown in. Turns out to not matter though since he
can’t find a fifth land before I find Excommunicate to bounce his Hellhound and seal the deal.
Although Holy Strength has at least one good use (his Ice Cage) I don’t want to board out Safe Passage against a deck filled with Act of
Treasons and (presumably) Lava Axes and the other cards are just too good to exchange for Holy Strength so I sideboard nothing.
Game two:
He chooses to play first and I keep two Plains two Squadron Hawks Silvercoat Lion White Knight and Armored Ascension. Two Hawks is obviously not
awesome but the rest of the hand is pretty good.
I topdeck an Infantry Veteran that gets Ice Caged and on turn 2 I draw my third Squadron Hawk (obviously) and play White Knight. He does nothing on
his third turn while I draw a Plains and cast Silvercoat Lion. The Lion trades with a Vulshok Berserker and I rip the fourth land to cast Armored
Ascension on my Infantry Veteran. He has Act of Treason and Fling on his turn though which clears the board and leaves me with only three Squadron
Hawks in hand. They do put him on a semi fast clock but he has Frost Titan and I can’t draw anything but land.
Game three:
I keep three Plains Stormfront Pegasus Ajani’s Pridemate Squadron Hawk and Excommunicate on the play.
He plays an Island on turn 1 so I play Stormfront Pegasus on turn 2. If he had played a Mountain this turn I most likely would’ve cast Squadron
Hawk to not let him gain tempo with Lightning Bolt. I keep playing Hawks and Griffins and Pridemates while he only has Alluring Siren Goblin Tunneler
and Vulshok Berserker – not exactly creatures that match up well against mine.
When he’s facing down three Hawks Pegasus and Griffin at eight life and doesn’t draw anything that deals with them he scoops. At this point I was
still holding Excommunicate Armored Ascension and another Wild Griffin so he definitely had no shot at winning.
This draft was just ridiculous in many ways but probably not the most interesting to put in an article. I just picked white from the beginning and
apparently no one else did giving me a pretty easy draft. My slight missteps into green were the only really hard picks in this draft and like I
said I really shouldn’t have picked the Overwhelming Stampede. I guess if I were still drafting M11 continuously I would’ve picked another
draft to write about but M11 is really winding down and hopefully this is the last M11 draft I do.
I’m really psyched about Scars of Mirrodin and can’t wait to start grinding a “real” set again.
Anyway questions and comments in the forums as usual.