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Drafting With LSV – Shards of Alara #21

Draft with Luis Scott-Vargas every day... At StarCityGames.com!
Monday, January 19th – Luis Scott-Vargas continues his daily Draft series, sharing each pick from a draft in the Magic Online 8-4 queue. He talks us through the difficult decisions in the forums… do you agree with his choices?

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1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Blood Cultist
1 Magma Spray
1 Hissing Iguanar
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Jund Charm
1 Resounding Roar
1 Violent Ultimatum
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Skeletonize
1 Viscera Dragger
1 Cavern Thoctar
2 Undead Leotau
1 Branching Bolt
1 Skeletal Kathari
2 Jund Battlemage
1 Druid of the Anima
2 Resounding Thunder
1 Volcanic Submersion
1 Savage Lands
5 Swamp
6 Mountain
6 Forest

Sideboard
1 Filigree Sages
2 Resounding Wave
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Cunning Lethemancer
1 Cancel
1 Mountain
1 Resounding Roar
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Kederekt Creeper
1 Agony Warp
1 Dreg Reaver
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Bant Panorama
1 Shadowfeed
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Cathartic Adept
1 Island
1 Island
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Esper Panorama
1 Bloodthorn Taunter

P1p1 Savage Lands is a solid first pick and although I may have taken Gargoyle in the past I no longer prefer to draft Esper.
P1p2 Necropolis is close here but given that I have Savage Lands I like the Ultimatum.
P2p1 Soul’s Fire is pretty strong but of the random seven mana guys Spearbreaker is the hardest to stop. Gotta kill them somehow and hes better than most candidates.
P2p2 As I have previously stated I don’t like Infest and certainly not over an excellent card like Magma Spray.
P3p1 I really debated between Warp Jungle Shrine and Dragger here but it looked to me at the time like I would easily be able to splash Warp and I didn’t feel fully committed to solid Green. In retrospect maybe the Jungle Shrine was the pick especially given that I didn’t play the Warp and Shrine is almost guaranteed to make the deck.

Round 1 versus Bant (with some Black)
G1 I never play a fourth land this game but Druid of the Anima does quite a good job of deploying my spells. Turn 2 Druid turn 3 Jund Battlemage turn 4 Hissing Iguanar and turn 5 Jund Charm my Battlemage when he blocks it with a Waveskimmer Aven is quite a formidable curve.

G2 He doesn’t play a third land or a single spell this game.

Round 2 versus Bant
G1 I was on the back foot this whole game after missing my 4th land drop for a few turns. The critical turn came about when I Resounding Thundered his Rafiq and Magma Sprayed his Cylian Elf. This wiped his whole board and let me eventually stabilize while at two life.

G2 and G3… I’ve lost my notes here… apologies. I won.

Round 3 versus Naya/Jund
G1 I keep a slow but removal-heavy draw but eventually get flooded and have no real way out of it without Violent Ultimatum (which I don’t draw). My removal spells killed his first few guys but with little pressure on my part his six-land plus spells draw soon overwhelmed me.

G2 I even manage to cast Violent Ultimatum this game but since he killed my only threat I again give him plenty of time to rebuild while I do nothing. The slow death of mana flood is pretty unpleasant since you lose just as surely as manascrew but it just takes so much longer. Admittedly I didn’t have a huge amount of good threats in my deck so part of it was that.

Until tomorrow…

LSV

[Editor’s Note – Congratulations to LSV for his superb performance at Grand Prix: Los Angeles!]