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Drafting With Olivier – M10 #2

Make plans to join us at SCG 5K Dallas!
Monday, August 17th – Hall of Famer Olivier Ruel takes us through an 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online. He shares some comprehensive thoughts about both the picks and the games, and talks us through each step of the way! If you’re looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!

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Pack 1 pick 1:

















My Pick:

1/2/3) Master of the Wild Hunt/Mind Control/Bogardan Hellkite?
The three cards are extremely close. It is essentially a matter of color preferences. Bogardan Hellkite may be very expensive but the format is quite slow and by the time he reaches the board your opponent may have used all of his removal. Even if he still has one spell he may take ten before he is able to play it (Ice Cage Pacifism Assassinate etc.). I pick it as it should be an instant winner but to be honest it may be the third best card in the pack.

Pack 1 pick 2:
















My Pick:

1) Borderland Ranger
2) Bog Wraith
3) Divine Verdict
4) Lighting Elemental
5) Phantom Warrior
The best Red card Lightning Elemental is not good enough to be picked here. Phantom Warrior and Borderland Ranger are not ideal picks considering what has been passed in pack one but the latter is pretty good with Hellkite. Bog Wraith would be pretty good in a RB deck but a Rampant Growth/Ranger engine is pretty good to optimize the Dragon. Divine Verdict is quite good but a white deck’s curve should be pretty low and therefore quite bad with the Dragon.

Pack 1 pick 3:















My Pick:

This card has absolutely no reason to be here considering a common is missing. Except if I’m not the only one who has firstpicked a foil.

Pack 1 pick 4:














My Pick:


1) Dragon Whelp

2) Borderline Ranger

3) Capricious Efreet
Three excellent cards. I have never played the 6/4 but it seems great and I’d love to give it a try. However no matter how good it is Ranger seems a little better in a Fireball/Hellkite deck and Dragon Whelp is even stronger.

Pack 1 pick 5:













My Pick:

Shouldn’t be hard to splash and it is a lot better than Act of Treason which is not good in a non aggro deck in which you’re not playing Vampire Aristocrat or Stone Giant.

Pack 1 pick 6:












My Pick:

Fantastic in a heavy Green deck. Even though I’m mostly Red now it could become one of the deck’s best cards if I were to end up with as many Green cards as Red.

Pack 1 pick 7:











My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 8:










My Pick:

In M10 two-drops are far less important than in ACR and Giant Spider is about 1000 times better than Runeclaw Bear.

Pack 1 pick 9:









My Pick:

1) Terramorphic Expanse
2) Viashino Spearhunter
3) Windstorm
Windstorm is a great sideboard card versus UW decks but it’s a little too limited to pick it over the quite good early block Viashino Spearhunter (which can deal with most of the format’s early drops) and even less over Expanse which makes the deck more stable allows the Pacifism splash and reinforces Howl of the Night Pack.

Pack 1 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 11:







My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 12:






My Pick:

1) Capricious Efreet
2) Sparkmage Apprentice
3) Jackal Familiar
The 6/4 is nearly a first pick it has absolutely no reason to be here. Sparkmage Apprentice would be quite nice in the deck which could have trouble facing early drops. Jackal Familiar is a card I like but it wouldn’t make it to the deck as it’s too controlish.

Pack 1 pick 13:





My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 14:




My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 15:



My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 1:

















My Pick:

1) Dragon Whelp
2) Guardian Seraph
3) Mind Control
I’m pretty sure my mana could allow me Seraph if Dragon Whelp was not in the pack. But as it would jeopardize my mana and as it’s not even much better than the Red guy the pick is quite obvious. Counterdrafting Mind Control would almost be an option here as I’ve now passed two copies of a card I can barely deal with but I should be able to find some answers to it by the end of the draft (Naturalize Solemn Offering).

Pack 2 pick 2:
















My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 3:















My Pick:

1) Elvish Piper
2) Elvish Visionary
3) Nature’s Spiral
Visionary would be pretty good in the deck but the possibility to flash a flyer or a Spider when the opponent doesn’t see it coming is more tempting.

Pack 2 pick 4:














My Pick:

Pretty good sideboard card but maybe the best call was actually to hate draft Mind Rot which I fear very much at the moment as it could catch easily my bombs.

Pack 2 pick 5:













My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 6:












My Pick:

1) Runeclaw Bear
2) Ignite Disorder
3) Cancel
Disorder is a quite good sideboard card but in order to make sure I’ll end up with enough playables I’d rather pick the 2/2. Cancel and the counters in general are pretty good cards to hate draft when you have bombs.

Pack 2 pick 7:











My Pick:

Maybe Entangling Vines was the right call. Many people have told me the card is much better than it seems but I’m still having a hard time not seeing it as a Green Coma Veil.

Pack 2 pick 8:










My Pick:

Not even a rare-draft; the card has some potential!

Pack 2 pick 9:









My Pick:

1) Flashfreeze
2) Safe Passage
3) Goblin Piker
I’d rather avoid facing Flashfreeze than run Goblin Piker. Same goes with the always annoying Safe Passage which can annihilate Fireball.

Pack 2 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 11:







My Pick:

The server is super lagging this is a random pick and I regret not picking the Naturalize which I’m going to miss.

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:

My deck is very strong but it still feels weird not being Blue after opening three Mind Control.

Pack 3 pick 2:
















My Pick:

One of the most underrated cards in the format thus far. I often receive it late when its destruction effect is actually always relevant. I see Oakenform only as a sideboard card versus RG when I don’t have combos with it and even if I did have combos I’d still pick the Slime which fits my curve and my deck’s theme perfectly.

Pack 3 pick 3:















My Pick:

1) Centaur Courser
2) Wall of Fire
3) Naturalize
4) Windstorm
If I were to pick a sideboard card I’d rather like Naturalize than Windstorm as I’m getting worried I don’t have a single answer to Mind Control yet. However the two early but big creatures are excellent for my deck. As the Courser can attack and is a little easier to cast it’s a level above Wall of Fire.

Pack 3 pick 4:














My Pick:

1) Pyroclasm

2) Deadly Recluse

3) Centaur Courser

4) Seismic Strike

The first pick is quite obvious because it is great against the most annoying decks for me because most of my guys survive it and because I don’t want to pass the format’s best answer to Howl of the Night Pack.

If it wasn’t here I’d have picked the Recluse because my deck is quite controlling and Centaur Courser over Seismic Strike as I’m satisfied with my current amount of removal spells.

Pack 3 pick 5:













My Pick:

1) Wall of Fire
2) Llanowar Elves
3) Giant Growth
In the early draft I would have picked the Elves but now that I’ve advanced a lot and that I have a stable control deck the wall just seems more efficient to stop the opponents’ attacks. Giant Growth is not very interesting when I don’t have that many guys.

Pack 3 pick 6:












My Pick:

1) Borderland Ranger

2) Prodigal Sorcerer
Ranger is much better in the deck as far as synergy is concerned. It fixes the mana makes card advantage and makes my bombs better while Pyromancer is “only” a great card versus UW decks.

Pack 3 pick 7:











My Pick:

Lag is back I obviously wanted to pick Rod of Ruin as I don’t need fixers (Expanse) anymore.

Pack 3 pick 8:










My Pick:

I’ve enough guys and Canyon Minotaur would more likely end up in the sideboard now.

Pack 3 pick 9:









My Pick:

1) Stampeding Rhino
2/3) Seismic Strike/Elvish Visionary
Another random pick by Magic Online but I don’t mind it much as Visionary is pretty nice in my deck. Seismic Strike is about the same level as it should be able to kill most early drops when the Visionary can stop some and more importantly get me closer to my bombs. The trample guy is a little better than the other too though and it should have been my pick.

Pack 3 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 11:







My Pick:

Magic: Online!! Stop random picking and let me pick a Disenchant I’m begging you!!

Pack 3 pick 12:






My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 13:





My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 14:




My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 15:



My Pick:

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8 Mountain
8 Forest
1 Plains
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Runeclaw Bear
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Sparkmage Apprentice
1 Centaur Courser
2 Borderland Ranger
1 Wall of Fire
1 Giant Spider
2 Dragon Whelp
1 Elvish Piper
1 Acidic Slime
1 Capricious Efreet
1 Howl of the Night Pack
1 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Giant Growth
1 Pyroclasm
1 Pacifism
1 Seismic Strike
1 Fireball

I won three times each 2-0 without much difficulty. The deck was so stable that I got very regular draws and every time I’ve faced a bomb (Master of the wild Hunt Garruk Wildspeaker) I had a removal spell to kill it. Just as importantly I didn’t have to face a single Island and therefore I luckily was not threatened by any of the three Control Magics I had passed.

The most interesting play of the draft occurred during the finals when I attacked with Centaur Courser into my opponent’s Gorgon Flailed Back Knight. After he blocked I used Elvish Piper to put Acidic Slime into play and destroy his equipment and therefore his pro white guy as well. Another relevant thing in that draft came from the Efreet who is actually just as good as it seemed and which is probably even better in a R/B deck with regenerators and Vampire Aristocrat to remove the guy you have targeted and trade it with the opponent’s non-land permanent of your choice.

Until Wednesday…

Oli