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Drafting With LSV – Shards of Alara #8

Draft with Luis Scott-Vargas every day... At StaCityGames.com!
Wednesday, December 31st – Canadian maestro Rich Hoaen has downed tools for good, as work and real life intrudes apace. As a replacement, we have Luis Scott-Vargas, who shares each pick from a 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 Waveskimmer Aven
2 Courier’s Capsule
1 Necrogenesis
1 Bant Charm
2 Resounding Wave
1 Tidehollow Strix
1 Grixis Battlemage
1 Yoked Plowbeast
1 Puppet Conjurer
1 Steelclad Serpent
1 Scavenger Drake
1 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Skeletal Kathari
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Cloudheath Drake
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Kiss of the Amesha
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Obelisk of Jund
1 Tower Gargoyle
1 Forest
4 Island
5 Swamp
3 Plains
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Arcane Sanctum
2 Bant Panorama

Sideboard
1 Filigree Sages
1 Plains
2 Angelsong
1 Excommunicate
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Shadowfeed
1 Resounding Scream
1 Sunseed Nurturer
1 Dregscape Zombie
1 Cathartic Adept
2 Onyx Goblet
1 Jhessian Lookout
1 Coma Veil
1 Island
1 Goblin Deathraiders
1 Guardians of Akrasa

P1p1 Agony Warp versus Tower Gargoyle is a classic dilemma but I like to take the card that flat out wins games by itself. (Obviously I mean Gargoyle since that’s what I took.)
P1p3 Taking the Drake over Viscera Dragger is somewhat close in Esper since there are fewer ways to abuse the Drake than in Jund or Grixis. Still the cycle of Khabal Ghouls are all such big threats that I took the Drake.
P1p4 Early in the draft I like Corpse Connoisseur but it didn’t end up working out so well this time.
P2p2 Second picking a Skeletal Kathari is such a dagger.

Round 1 versus Esper
G1 He has a fairly defensive Esper deck and plays multiple Etherium Sculptors and Metallurgeons but not until I have him down to 5. His Sharding Sphinx has to play defense against my Skeletal Kathari and Tidehollow Strix and I eventually Resounding Wave for the win.
G2 He never plays a non-Island land and my turn 4 Tower Gargoyle manages to beat his nothing.

Round 2 versus Naya
G1 He plays a Topan Ascetic and two Hissing Iguanars but double Resounding Wave plus my fliers end the game in my favor.
G2 I am consistently one land short this game never getting to enough mana to cast Kiss of the Amesha. My removal (O-Ring Executioner’s Capsule Bant Charm) keeps me alive for a while but ultimately isn’t enough.
G3 Things are looking good as I Tidehollow Sculler his Topan Ascetic and play a Waveskimmer Aven. When I attack my now 3/3 Sculler into his Qasali Ambusher (in play) and he plays a second Ambusher the game gets much closer. Still Skeletal Kathari plus Skimmer plus Cloudheath Drake outrace him with some time to spare.

Round 3 versus Jund
G1 I don’t play a 5th land until way too late so his Viscera Dragger does something like 15 damage to me. By the time I kill it he plays a Vein Drinker and I just lose. I do see that he has Infest and Jund Charm so I take note of that.
G2 My hand is decent this game with Executioner’s Capsule Waveskimmer Aven and Knight of the Skyward Eye plus appropriate mana. I even draw a Kiss so things aren’t looking bad at all. Then he drops Vein Drinker and Broodmate Dragon. Still with Resounding Silence and Kiss I manage to stall for a while plus he has no cards in hand. Of course his back to back Jungle Weavers then a Necrogenesis all in quick succession make any dream of a comeback impossible. I mean I still hadn’t fully dealt with all his bombs so the additional threats made the game not even close to being close.

Until tomorrow…

LSV