fbpx

Drafting With LSV – Shards of Alara #23

Draft with Luis Scott-Vargas every day... At StarCityGames.com!
Wednesday, January 21st – 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?

  Pack 1 pick 1:

















  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 2:
















  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 3:















  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 4:














  My Pick:

  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:







  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 12:






  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 13:





  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 14:




  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 1:

















  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 2:
















  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 3:















  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 4:














  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 5:













  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 6:












  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 7:











  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 8:










  My Pick:

  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:

  Pack 3 pick 2:
















  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 3:















  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 4:














  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 5:













  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 6:












  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 7:











  My Pick:

  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:

This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy.
Visit the draft converter today!

1 Spell Snip
3 Agony Warp
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
3 Tidehollow Strix
1 Filigree Sages
1 Call to Heel
1 Cancel
1 Scavenger Drake
1 Esper Battlemage
2 Courier’s Capsule
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
2 Cloudheath Drake
1 Resounding Wave
1 Esper Charm
1 Steelclad Serpent
1 Etherium Sculptor
2 Arcane Sanctum
1 Esper Panorama
1 Seaside Citadel
6 Island
5 Swamp
2 Plains

Sideboard
1 Resounding Scream
1 Bone Splinters
1 Cathartic Adept
1 Tortoise Formation
1 Dispeller’s Capsule
1 Deft Duelist
1 Obelisk of Naya
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Welkin Guide
1 Glaze Fiend
1 Forest
1 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Marble Chalice
1 Brilliant Ultimatum
1 Shore Snapper
1 Etherium Astrolabe
1 Swamp
1 Plains

P1p1 This is a really deep pack and in polling people afterwards I didn’t really get a consensus. I think the pick can be narrowed down to Vithian Stinger Oblivion Ring or Sharuum as the top three and I took Sharuum in order to stay out of Jund/Naya. The pack is full of cards for those decks which should put the next four people into those two Shards.
P3p1 The deck wasn’t shaping up to be able to support Bone Splinters and I don’t like Deft Duelist much in Esper because I usually end up UBw. Scavenger Drake looked pretty good with all the Tidehollow Strixes and Agony Warps since it should grow pretty quickly.

This draft went insanely well and I think this has to be one of the best Esper decks (or decks in general) that I have drafted in this format.

Round 1 versus Naya
G1 I curve out quite well with turn 2 Tidehollow Strix turn 5 Esper Battlemage and turn 4 Filigree Sages. I even have the Esper Charm to kill the Oblivion Ring he plays on my Battlemage and the game ends shortly thereafter.

G2 Amazingly he mulls to 3! He still put puts up a pretty good fight with turn 2 Elvish Visionary turn 3 Obelisk of Naya turn 4 Knight of the Skyward Eye. I Agony Warp the Knight and play Scavenger Drake which gets big when his Nacatl trades with my Filigree Sages. I then draw Sharuum and that ends the game.

Round 2 versus Naya
G1 He has turn 1 Akrasan Squire plus turn 3 hardcast Qasali Ambusher on the play. I Agony Warp the Ambusher then play Esper Battlemage and pick off the Squire before the Battlemage gets Volcanic Submersioned. I manage to string together Courier’s Capsules and a Sanctum Gargoyle and eventually overwhelm him with an army of Tidehollow Strixes.

G2 His curve isn’t bad with turn 2 Steward of Valeron turn 3 Qasali Ambusher turn 4 Feral Hydra for three. I have the turn 2 Strix to trade with the Steward and another Strix to trade with the Hydra. Courier’s Capsule into Sanctum Gargoyle again proves excellent and I start pulling ahead after I assemble the machine gun combo of Esper Battlemage and Filigree Sages. The game ends up being close after he plays a few large beasts (Cavern Thoctar and Rockcaster Platoon) but the Sages/Battlemage combo is tough to beat due to my 10 or so lands.

Round 3 versus RB
G1 His first couple of turns are spent cycling two Viscera Draggers and then unearthing them while I play Kathari Screecher and Esper Battlemage. Oddly enough he Resounding Thundered the Filigree Sages I played on turn 4 instead of killing my Battlemage but I guess I’ll take it. After I Agony Warp his Skeletal Kathari the Battlemage cleans up some Dragon Fodder tokens and my own Kathari takes it home.

G2 My mana this game was really awkward as I was on two Swamps and an Arcane Sanctum until about turn 7. Luckily he was busy with his usual Viscera Dragger shenanigans and his first real threat was a 5/5 Skullmulcher on turn 7. He used Jund Charm to kill my first Strix but Gargoyle got it back and I was able to trade the Strix with the Skullmulcher. Once that died the coast was mostly clear for my fliers to finish him off. I did have to chump an increasingly large Algae Gharial but he ran out of life before I ran out of creatures thanks to all my card draw.

Until tomorrow…

LSV