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Drafting With LSV – Shards of Alara #9

Draft with Luis Scott-Vargas every day... At StaCityGames.com!
Thursday, January 1st – 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 Blood Cultist
1 Resounding Wave
1 Minion Reflector
1 Esper Battlemage
2 Tidehollow Strix
1 Puppet Conjurer
1 Viscera Dragger
2 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Agony Warp
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Scourge Devil
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Skeletal Kathari
2 Dregscape Zombie
1 Bone Splinters
1 Obelisk of Esper
1 Call to Heel
1 Kiss of the Amesha
1 Sedris the Traitor King
1 Blister Beetle
2 Grixis Panorama
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Savage Lands
4 Swamp
3 Plains
2 Mountain
4 Island

Sideboard
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Savage Hunger
1 Clarion Ultimatum
1 Goblin Mountaineer
1 Etherium Astrolabe
1 Forest
1 Dreg Reaver
1 Lightning Talons
1 Shadowfeed
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Cathartic Adept
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Vectis Silencers
1 Court Archers
1 Volcanic Submersion

P1p1 Naya Charm is certainly the better card but I have a propensity for the UB Shards. Also Esper Battlemage does put you in less colors.
P2p1 Cedric (I know it’s Sedris but I can only see it as Cedric now) over Thunder. This is close but Cedric is a very powerful card especially in conjunction with…
P2p4 Fleshbag Marauder!

I really liked this deck as it has good fixing good removal and good card advantage. It even has Minion Reflector a card I like way too much (probably). Still how else would I set the (presumed) record for the greatest number of Undead Leotaus attacking in one turn? (Any guesses?)

Round 1 versus Esper
G1 My opponent played a turn 3 Esper Battlemage and turn 4 Angelic Benediction not the most common sight. The Benediction proved to be a bit annoying with the Windwright Mage he played but Fleshbags plus Call to Heel eventually let me trade all my Unearth guys for his threats. Soon after the old workhorse Skeletal Kathari finished the job.
G2 I Blister Beetle his turn 2 Glaze Fiend and the game just goes downhill for him from there. His turn 3 Master of Etherium is met by my Fleshbag and he doesn’t do a whole lot before dying.

Round 2 versus Bant
G1 I keep a two-land hand and have only gotten to 3 lands by turn 9. Luckily Bant with a million exalted ground dudes can’t actually beat past Puppet Conjurer. I eventually draw some lands play some guys and kill him with Tidehollow Strix times two.
G2 This game is much less close but much more fun. After Beetling a Jhessian Lookout and getting a Sighted-Caste Sorcerer with Fleshbag I drop the old Minion Reflector. Corpse Connoisseur goes infinite and I overrun him with multiple Draggers and Dregscapes.

Round 3 versus Naya
This is the same individual who bashed me with Jund in a prior draft (he had Jund Charm Infest Hellkite Sigil in that one) and both of our ratings were almost 1900 so it was quite the battle.
G1 I think I am doing fine when I Beetle then Call to Heel to kill his two Akrasan Squires but he drops a turn 4 Sarkhan Vol. Of course it’s a foil Sarkhan since why not. Anyway I have a really good draw that involves me Fleshbagging his Rakeclaw then sacrificing a Dragger to Bone Splinters his second Rakeclaw. At this point I think I’m good. I have Cedric the Traitor King and a Corpse Connoisseur and he just has a Sarkhan with one counter. As soon as I untap he is very dead to my graveyard. He then goes Welkin Guide haste Resounding Roar to put me at negative 2. Neat.
G2 His draw is pretty nice… turn 1 Nacatl turn 2 Squire plus Nacatl. At this point I am resigned to another loss but Puppet Conjurer does what he does best and actually stems the bleeding enough that Fleshbags slowly take control. Once I start using Cedric to bring back Fleshbags the game is over.
G3 My draw is nothing special but neither is his. On turn 6 he plays a Realm Razer which I am forced to Call to Heel after floating mana since my hand is pretty insane (Kiss Cedric Bone Splinters). The turn after he drops Woolly Thoctar and Nacatl. Nice deck. Still the Razer doesn’t do much since I have a Strix and my good man the Puppet Conjurer. Eventually he trades Razer for a Dragger and unloads his hand. As it turns out my hand is better and I manage to finally win a whole draft.

Until tomorrow…

LSV