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Drafting With Olivier – Shards/Conflux/Reborn #14

Draft with Olivier Ruel... at StarCityGames.com!
Monday, June 29th – 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!

Pack 1 pick 1:

















My Pick:

The best card in the pack Cerodon is not the easiest to fit in an efficient archetype. The same applies to Coprse Connoisseur and I don’t see myself picking Bloodpyre Elemental over the 5/5 there’s too much of a difference between both cards.

Pack 1 pick 2:
















My Pick:

These two first picks aren’t bad together. Indeed it is not so hard to splash Jund Charm in Naya or Bull Cerodon in Jund. Also I haven’t been drafting 5CC in a while.

Pack 1 pick 3:















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Pack 1 pick 5:













My Pick:

Yes I sometimes pass Akrasan Squire.

Pack 1 pick 6:












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Pack 1 pick 7:











My Pick:

Surprising to see the Knight so far into the pack but the Jund deck is looking good I’ll just stick to it for now.

Pack 1 pick 8:










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Pack 1 pick 9:









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Pack 1 pick 11:







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Pack 1 pick 14:




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Pack 1 pick 15:



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Pack 2 pick 1:

















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Pack 2 pick 3:















My Pick:

In Jund Green is usually the main color. This is the reason why I pick Bounty over Absorb Vis even though I like the Black card a little better.

Pack 2 pick 4:














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Pack 2 pick 6:












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Pack 2 pick 7:











My Pick:

I should have enough playables and if my memory’s correct another Suicidal Charge is wheeling anyway.

Pack 2 pick 8:










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Pack 2 pick 9:









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Pack 2 pick 10:








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Pack 2 pick 11:







My Pick:

O… kay…

Pack 2 pick 12:






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Pack 2 pick 13:





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Pack 2 pick 15:



My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 1:

















My Pick:

I love Rebirth but there are only two uncommons or commons I would pick over it: Bituminous Blast and Bloodbraid Elf.

Pack 3 pick 2:
















My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 3:















My Pick:

Blitz Helion is close but the card almost always wheels.

Pack 3 pick 4:














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Pack 3 pick 8:










My Pick:

I’m not playing Trace in that kind of deck. A fixer shouldn’t require having two of my three colors on turn 2 as it’s not reliable.

Pack 3 pick 9:









My Pick:

Sure! My deck is now officialy broken.

Pack 3 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 11:







My Pick:

Should be pretty good in the deck even though triple Leech should push me to make Red a splash.

Pack 3 pick 12:






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My Pick:

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7 Swamp
7 Forest
3 Mountain
3 Putrid Leech
1 Dregscape Zombie
1 Cylian Elf
1 Sprouting Thrinax
1 Court Archers
1 Shambling Remains
1 Drumhunter
1 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Wild Leotau
1 Naya Sojourners
1 Gorger Wurm
1 Blitz Hellion
1 Mosstodon
1 Igneous Pouncer
2 Valley Rannet
1 Gift of the Gargantuan
1 Jund Charm
1 Dark Temper
1 Breath of Malfegor

Sideboard
1 Nacatl Outlander
1 Plains
1 Bull Cerodon
1 Exploding Borders
1 Viashino Skeleton
2 Mountain
1 Savage Hunger
1 Shard Convergence
1 Marrow Chomper
2 Sylvan Bounty
1 Forest
1 Kederekt Creeper
1 Forest
1 Offering to Asha
1 Grixis Grimblade
1 Faerie Mechanist
1 Jhessian Infiltrator
1 Sedraxis Alchemist
1 Godtoucher
1 Suicidal Charge
1 Bone Saw
1 Plains

Round 1: Naya

I take a mulligan in the first two games while he opens twice with Woolly Thoctar and Rakka Mar. In the first one I have a removal spell and win pretty fast while in game two I can’t deal with the 2/2 but still put him under enough pressure to put him on 4 and find a few turns to topdeck a finisher.
That’s until he untaps and plays Titanic Ulitmatum pushing us to game three.

I take another two mulligans in game three while he opens with Elvish Visionary Akrasan Squire and Rakka Mar I won’t kill. This report could end here but I actually won that game on turn 6 essentially thanks to Bloodbraid Elf which revealed Shambling Remains. Before that I had played Cylian Elf and Court Archers putting him under some pressure before that stupid Cascade. Mosstodon joins the team and I can attack for the win on the following turn. Pheeew…

Round 2: Bant

I take my gamely mulligan but my Leech/Leotau start puts him under some pressure before Jund Charm kills three of his guys and opens for my big guys the path to win game 1.

Another two mulligans to start game 2… it’s getting a little anoying. Still my draw is pretty good and I put him under hard pressure but he manages to kill my more annoying guys with a decisive topdeck of Oblivion Ring on Drumhunter. One turn from the end I play Blitz Hellion and put him down to one while he kills me with exact lethal on next turn.

Game three starts with well a mulligan and he opens with Squire and Outlander while I’ve a pair of Leeches. He Crystalizes one plays Ring on the second. As I’m a little low on life I decide to gamble and play Jund Charm to pump Cylian Elf. Even though he manages to deal with that one as well (Resounding Silence) and even though I have lots of lands I draw a spell once in a while when he does draw only lands which at some point ends up making the difference and making this match my win.

Finals: Grixis

I keep! So in the first game we play a lot of creatures each but his are a little smaller than mine. When I play Jund Charm he dies in two attack phases.

I start with six cards and I concede when stuck on two lands and having played no spell he is able to activate Fatestitcher on my lands.

On game 3 he mulligans I draw much better than him but being on seven life and facing Esper Stormblade and Brackwater Elemental I decide to play Hellion for the win attack with all my team and keep no blockers. With that wonderful play… I can only put him to one and die on next turn when I should have won easily. Yes that play was just stupid.

However I was watching a documentary about the current situation in Iran which was so captivating that I was not paying much attention to that last match. Also I must say it doesn’t feel so bad to lose to a guy called Saucy Pizza. With such a cool name you surely don’t deserve to be beaten anyway I’ll just pay more attention next time to deserve the win.

Until Wednesday…

Oli