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Drafting With Olivier – Shards/Conflux/Reborn #24

Draft with Olivier Ruel... at StarCityGames.com!
Wednesday, July 22nd – 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:

Quite a tough choice here between Ultimatum Warp Battlemage and Spray. The latter is the worst while Warp and Battlemage have pretty close power level. However I’m not such a huge fan of the rare anymore as it usually requires about 8 lands and a single archetype which is okay but not my favorite.

I eventually go for the removal when I’m almost going out of time when I actually think both picks are about equal.

Pack 1 pick 2:
















My Pick:

If I’m UW splash Black Sanctum Gargoyle is better. If I’m Grixis Capsule and Cultist are about as good. Only if I am UB is the Capsule the best pick but it is also the card which will fit the most archetypes.

Pack 1 pick 3:















My Pick:

Sigiled Paladin is by far the best card. But picking it right now would already jeopardize my mana. Courier’s Capsule may not be great but my draft’s first two picks are those of a control deck and the more controlling you are the better the draw spell is.

Pack 1 pick 4:














My Pick:

Quite amazing. Not only does that card have absolutely no right being here it also means my questionable picks two and three were now the best I could have taken and my draft should be excellent as I can’t get a clearer signal.

Pack 1 pick 5:













My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 6:












My Pick:

Quite a tough pick again. Dregscape Zombie is okay in UB an archetype which needs two-drops a lot but it’s better if those two-drops are Blue (for Sedraxis Alchemist). Also my first five picks are more those of a control deck than of a tempo deck so I’ve the feeling this won’t be a traditional UB deck anyway.

I’d rather like my non-control picks to be artifacts or removal so I won’t go either for the 2/1 nor for Sedraxis Specter which shines on turn three but much less than a removal otherwise. And right now I don’t really trust my ability to drop it in the first 5 turns regularly.

Pack 1 pick 7:











My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 8:










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Pack 1 pick 9:









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Pack 1 pick 10:








My Pick:

I could splash it after boarding versus a Jund deck to avoid Violent Ultimatum.

Pack 1 pick 11:







My Pick:

It’s an artifact Tezzeret can untap it the Sculptors make it cheaper but it’s still the wrong pick as Spell Snip would have been better.

Pack 1 pick 12:






My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 13:





My Pick:

Pack 1 pick 14:




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Pack 1 pick 15:



My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 1:

















My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 2:
















My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 3:















My Pick:

I like Kathari with Agony Warp and a possible Red splash but I haven’t been practicing with Cumber Stone enough and I’ve already two ways to play it on turn 3 so I’ll give it another try.

Pack 2 pick 4:














My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 5:













My Pick:

Yoke is not very interesting without many removal spells or ways to sacrifice your guys. My initial pack is hitting me right now as only Naya cards seem to be passed to me so I guess I’ll just have to wait for pack 3 for my deck to become good again.

Pack 2 pick 6:












My Pick:

What a delightful surprise a third good card in 6 packs!

Pack 2 pick 7:











My Pick:

Not a rare draft… I just counterdrafted the card I disliked the most. I don’t consider the Outlander a playable when I’ve only one Red card and no fixers.

Pack 2 pick 8:










My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 9:









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Pack 2 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 11:







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Pack 2 pick 12:






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Pack 2 pick 13:





My Pick:

Pack 2 pick 14:




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Pack 2 pick 15:



My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 1:

















My Pick:

I usually pick the Blade here but I must compensate my mediocre pack 2 with very good cards. If I can get some combos Soul Manipulation will be first pick worthy which considering the disaffection Archtitects of Will is suffering in Reborn is quite likely.

Pack 3 pick 2:
















My Pick:

Hulk is a good combo with Manipulation and the Abomination is very likely to be wheeling but the 4/3 will often be a turn 4 play in that deck and it’s good combined with Astrolabe.

Pack 3 pick 3:















My Pick:

I could pick the Architects but if I pass it I’m pretty sure I’ll get it or Jhessian Zombie for pick 11 so I’ll think of my curve and pick the Blade here.

Pack 3 pick 4:














My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 5:













My Pick:

Another good combo with Etherium Abomination.

By the way this is definitely a surprising amount of WG cards I’m receiving considering how few I’ve seen in pack one and how many I passed back in pack two.

Pack 3 pick 6:












My Pick:

The only card I’ve a little chance to play here if I end up short on playables.

Pack 3 pick 7:











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Pack 3 pick 8:










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Pack 3 pick 9:









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Pack 3 pick 10:








My Pick:

Pack 3 pick 11:







My Pick:

This pick makes my Soul Manipulations much better.

Pack 3 pick 12:






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Pack 3 pick 13:





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Pack 3 pick 14:




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Pack 3 pick 15:



My Pick:

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8 Island
7 Swamp
2 Mountain

1 Grixis Grimblade
1 Zombie Outlander
2 Etherium Sculptor
2 Pestilent Kathari
1 Parasitic Strix
2 Architects of Will
1 Faerie Mechanist
1 Etherium Abomination

1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Courier’s Capsule
1 Yoke of the Damned
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Agony Warp
1 Etherium Astrolabe
2 Soul Manipulation
1 Grixis Charm
1 Cumber Stone
1 Brainbite
1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Sideboard
1 Brainbite
1 Double Negative
1 Kathari Bomber
1 Cylian Sunsinger
1 Deathgreeter
1 Mountain
1 Onyx Goblet
1 Grixis Illusionist
1 Wildfield Borderpost
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Breath of Malfegor
1 Scarland Thrinax
1 Skyward Eye Prophets
1 Valeron Outlander
1 Forest
1 Forest
1 Hindering Light
1 Island
1 Island
1 Blightning
1 Shambling Remains
1 Plains

Card Power: 6
A bomb many good cards but too much filler for the pool to be really good. My pack one was fantastic pack two was just awful and pack three was not much better.

Mana Curve: 8
It’s well balanced and I should be able to be tapped out from turns 2 to 4 each game.

Synergy: 7
A lot of combos a great synergy with Tezzeret. My non artifact guys even though they’re mostly fillers (2x Kathari Brainbite) and even though they lower the global quality of the deck don’t hurt the synergy much.

Stability: 4
The mana is okay but would have been better if I had been passed fixers but I didn’t seen any in the draft if we ignore the early Absorb Vis and Jhessian Zombie. But this is not the problem of the deck which definitely lacks consistency. I can draw Sculptors without artifacts Charm without Mountain too many fillers at once Brainbite when I can’t afford to cast it and more annoyingly not enough guys. There are a lot of options that could make my draws worse which is why even though my deck is quite reasonable it is not one I trust excessively.

Round 1: Jund

In the first game I open with quite a good hand to stop an average Jund start as I’ve turn 2 Zombie Outlander turn 3 Sculptor and Courier’s Capsule and turn 4 cycler and Soul Manipulation in hand. When he plays Bloodbraid Elf I think it’s time for me to counter but he reveals Feral Hydra. Two turns later after he has sacrificed a Panorama he plays Violent Outburst and reveals… the Hydra again! It surely is unlucky but I’m not sure I’d play a card that doesn’t do much besides Cascading and that probably has 13% to 20% chance to fail.

Most of my spells are two-for-ones while he is more into zero-for-ones or one-for-ones despite cascade so game 1 ends up being an easy win.

He opens game 2 with a pair of Nacatl Outlanders and then we both establish solid boards. However my deck is extremely vulnerable to that card and it will take me a pair of topdecks to get rid of them. The first one occurs when I’m on 4 life and I draw Tezzeret. The planeswalker searches for Executioner’s Capsule and I’m glad to see he attacks me again as this way I will be able to search for Foundry. No need actually as I draw it but I can still search for Parasitic Strix and start racing with his 2/2. I start provoking violent fights and an Agony Warp I was holding for a while ends up cleaning the board except that my guys turned into 1/1 flyers and that the 5 life I gained ensured I’d win the race with his so annoying 2/2 despite it putting me back down to three life.

Round 2: Esper

I won game 1 after much topdecking despite a turn 2 Stormblade turn 3 Sureblade turn 4 Drag Down turn 5 Ring turn 6 Esper Charm/Grixis Blade turn 7 Battlegrace Angel start but miracles don’t come up twice. In games two and three I put up two pretty good fights but it’s kind of difficult to win a game in which your opponent casts Battlegrace Angel Extractor Demon and Sphinx of the Steel Wind when you can’t catch one with either Brainbite or Soul Manipulation in three games. I put him down to 2 minutes at the clock and I fear that was the best I could do.

I felt globally happy about my deck which I probably underrated a little on the first hand. Its synergy should probably have been an 8 and Tezzeret should win games by itself so the card power could be a 7 as well. It could definitely have gone 2/1 in a three-round pod.

Until Friday…

Oli