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Drafting With Nick – Shards of Alara #22

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Wednesday, November 26th – Nick continues his Drafting With series, bringing us a triple Shards of Alara draft from the 8-4 queue on Magic Online. Along with Rich, he shares his pick process and draft thoughts with each one, and supplies more detailed analysis in the forums.

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P1P4 – This was between Duelist and Reflector (which is hot in UBR obviously). I decided to go with Reflector since it was still very early.

P2P2 – I guess I was in the right colors this time eh?

P2P9 – Close pick. I almost took another Deathraiders but decided to go with the more controlling Creeper.

P3P2- Grixis Charm tables a lot online from what I’ve seen so I decided to gamble. I’m also base BR with the Dragon at this point I think.

1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Blood Cultist
1 Courier’s Capsule
1 Minion Reflector
2 Hissing Iguanar
1 Grixis Charm
2 Fatestitcher
1 Grixis Battlemage
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Fire-Field Ogre
1 Viscera Dragger
1 Skeletonize
1 Kederekt Creeper
1 Vithian Stinger
1 Sedraxis Specter
1 Dregscape Zombie
2 Bone Splinters
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Predator Dragon
1 Blister Beetle
6 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Island
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Esper Panorama

Sideboard
1 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Outrider of Jhess
1 Plains
1 Marble Chalice
1 Mountain
1 Undead Leotau
2 Resounding Scream
1 Call to Heel
1 Shore Snapper
1 Island
1 Dispeller’s Capsule
1 Coma Veil
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Vectis Silencers
1 Incurable Ogre
1 Tortoise Formation
1 Goblin Deathraiders
1 Banewasp Affliction
1 Volcanic Submersion

I cut the Deathraiders since it was the least controlling card and the mana was already pretty rough to begin with. As you can tell I decided to just play straight three colors due to all of the UBR spells I had as well as the Ultimatum.

Round 1 was against Jund. Game 1 was very long and very close. I had Predator Dragon ready to be 6/6 on turn 5 but he Naturalized my Obelisk and then played Executioner’s Capsule stranding the Dragon in my hand. I used Battlemage to loot through a huge land clump and fight his board of Skeletal Kathari and Carrion Thrash. I forced him to sacrifice the Thrash in his Upkeep to regenerate the flier which would totally turn the tide in my favor. Then he played the Vein Drinker he’d ripped for his turn and I had to use Bone Splinters on it instead of the Kathari (keep in mind I was on around 7 life at this point). Long story short I eventually forced him to use his Capsule on Iguanar opening a window for me to win with Dragon on the following turn when I’d be at one life. He also had no cards in hand at this point so I felt the game was locked up pretty well. Unfortunately the top of his deck didn’t agree with my assessment and provided Scourge Devil to deal the final point stealing the game. Game 2 I boarded in Relic of Progenetis and he had a really good start of double Vitian Stinger. I killed one of them with Bone Splinters and he killed a couple of Unearth guys of mine and then played Vein Drinker which was facing off my Fire-Field Ogre. The game progressed to a crazy turn where I unearthed Fire-Field Ogre Sedraxis Specter and Dregscape Zombie and attacked him down to 3 life since he was playing far too aggressively (in my opinion). On his turn he attacked with his 5/5 Vein Drinker and then tapped out for two ground guys giving me the window I needed to finish him with a normal sized Predator Dragon. Game 3 I totally dominated the board the entire time with Double Fatestitcher Fire-Field and Sedraxis Specter. Not only that but Relic was online taking away all of his Unearth options. Eventually I cast Cruel Ultimatum and he scooped.

Round 2 I played against GW Exalted and neither of the games were fair at all. Game 1 I played two pingers and Fatestitcher and killed literally every guy he played. Game 2 was very similar except I also had turn 3 Sedraxis ripping apart his hand and wrecked him mid-combat with Skeletonize.

In the finals my manabase finally got the better of me. Game 1 I had to keep a hand with all Black spells Courier’s Capsule and Island Island Mountain. I never drew Black mana and died pretty quickly. Game 2 I mulled to five and put up a good struggle until my opponent played two Bloodpyre Elementals and then Violent Ultimatum which earned the concession.

Until tomorrow…

Nick