Drafting With Olivier – Shards/Conflux/Reborn #28

Pack 1 pick 1:

















My Pick:

I’ve drafted this 15 times and it’s ended up in the sideboard 13 times. But I’m not sure I can decently pass it and pick Magma Spray.

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My Pick:

Capsule and Grixis or Drumhunter and Jund? I close my eyes for one sec and try and see what both decks will look like. If my Jund is not RG based then those two first picks aren’t so good. Even if it is how many 5 power guys will I end up with? 1? 2? Maybe 3 including a pair of landcyclers? I can picture a pretty bad deck from here. If I pick Capsule I can try and have a control deck with removal which will be able to get to three Red mana as the games will be longer. Then of course it usually won’t be huge but I prefer a 4/4 flyer I can cast most games than a possible 10/10 which will stay in my hand all the time.

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My Pick:

Beetle is a good creature to devour with the Dragon and a fine card on its own but Strix is just better.

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My Pick:

Not a single card I want in Grixis while two of my cards would already be good in Esper.

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My Pick:

Filigree Sages would be good with Metallurgeon but I’ll give Predator Dragon one last chance. I don’t really consider picking Salvage Titan as double Black is usually too heavy for an Esper deck and as a Grixis deck should have some artifacts but not enough to make it an option here.

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My Pick:

I think the reason why the Dragon almost always stays in my sideboard is twofold: Red is as in most Limited formats the color with the least playables and it is as in most Limited formats the most popular color. That’s why a triple Red card is usually really hard to play. Red is quite obviously not open here so I’d better switch to Esper while I can.

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Will I play it? Very unlikely. It there anything I would play here or mind facing more? Not really.

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Resounding Wave is too slow in the current format and Bant Battlemage almost useless in Esper. I’ll pick the best card and see what happens; after all I’ve only got one true White card for Esper (assuming Knight of the Skyward Eye isn’t exactly one).

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Pack 2 pick 1:

















My Pick:

At least now things are definitely clear… bye bye Predator Dragon.

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My Pick:

The always tough Outlander/Squire decision. The Aven is better in an aggro deck but I’m not really aggro at the moment so the pro Red seems like a better option.

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My Pick:

Another close call. I love Court Homunculus in a deck full of two-drops but Esper Cormorants can be a turn 3 play with one of the two Sculptors. I take the one mana guy by a bit but both picks are about as good.

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Two more early drops later I make a different decision and go for the flyer as it now fits my curve even better.

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My Pick:

Considering how few cards I have to splash and how low my curve is I’d rather play Cylix instead of an 18th land Swamp.

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My Pick:

Another very tough pick. I can either pick the best common my deck can have or a totally broken card which would be harder to cast but to which I’d instantly die to if I were to face it. I was planning on playing Cylix anyway but I didn’t get Traumatic Visions or Gleam of Resistance in the second pack.

That’s when I remember I randomly picked a Jund Panorama in Shards.

My deck is going to get a little unstable but that card is worth it and I’ve just enough fixers to consider it.

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My Pick:

My deck is almost all two-mana artifacts. I even have two Etherium Sculptors to make the Thresher a three drop. This is probably the first and last time I pick Thresher over a Blade but I’m convinced it’s the right decision.

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Not a card I intend on playing but there’s not much else. Boon will usually reveal a two mana dude while Persecution can be an excellent sideboard card.

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My Pick:

Not an artifact but still pretty good in the deck which lacks some flyers and three mana spells.

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My Pick:

I like this card a lot when I’ve such a small curve.

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7 Plains
6 Island
1 Forest
1 Jund Panorama
1 Swamp
1 Fieldmist Borderpost

1 Court Homunculus
1 Darklit Gargoyle
1 Tidehollow Strix
2 Etherium Sculptor
2 Ethercaste Knight
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Metallurgeon
2 Vedalken Outlander
2 Talon Trooper
1 Arsenal Thresher
1 Faerie Mechanist
1 Esper Cormorants
1 Magister Sphinx

1 Bone Saw
1 Mana Cylix
1 Courier’s Capsule
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Offering to Asha

Sideboard
1 Plains
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Double Negative
1 Putrid Leech
1 Anathemancer
1 Blightning
1 Sunseed Nurturer
1 Infectious Horror
1 Nacatl Savage
1 Protomatter Powder
1 Onyx Goblet
1 Island
1 Breath of Malfegor
1 Cumber Stone
1 Predator Dragon
1 Spell Snip
1 Suicidal Charge

Card Power: 8
I consider Mana Cylix as the 18th land so I don’t consider it weakens the deck globally but Bonesaw does. The card barely made it instead of Spell Snip at it seemed more synergic as my guys are a little too small. It’s also sad the closest thing to a removal spell I have is a pair of counterspells but my excellent early drops Magister Sphinx and obviously Behemoth Sledge make my deck’s global power quite high.

Mana Curve: 7
I’m never missing a turn 2 drop but the curve is a little too low. The 2 Offering to Asha compensate for that a bit but a couple more three-and-higher cost guys wouldn’t hurt.

Synergy: 7
Classic Esper. Artifacts go well together I’m running 19.

Stability: 6
The little weakness of the deck. Having to play Cylix is not great news splashing for Tidehollow Stix is not dreamy either and I’m probably losing a game in this draft because I won’t be able to find my Blue and white mana in the early game.

Round 1: WGRB

I open with a triple mulligan on the play but manage to have a decent four with Plains Island Knight of the Skyward Eye and Courier’s Capsule. As I draw Vedalken Outlander on turn 3 I can intensify the beating. On his turn 3 I’ve good good news his deck is really bad and he probably is too 90% sure. After he played Forest Plains Armillary Sphere in the first two turns he searches for Swamp and Mountain and discards Shambling Remains. Hmm… a four-color Shambling Remains deck…

My next draw is Jund Panorama and I play Courier’s Capsule while he can’t do better than Obelisk of Jund. Cracking my Capsule I see my precious Behemoth Sledge which I will be able to cast on the next turn. My opponent goes for another spectacular play: Obelisk of Jund #2 Cerodon Yearling. Riiiight. I equip Outlander and win two turns later despite Deathbringer as he hasn’t played a single non-Red guy. The turn before he dies he cycles Resounding Roar to kill a blocker of mine and just show me a trick I didn’t know about.

Game 2 is about as interesting. I mulligan open with Court Homunculus on turn 2 and Darklit Gargoyle on turn 3 and then wait for turn 6 to find my Island and cast a third spell but considering his deck and his plays it’s more than enough.

Round 2: Grixis

I play first and keep an Island Swamp Courier’s Capsule hand. After playing and sacrificing it on turn 3 I eventually play a Plains and cast the first spell of the game a 4/4 Arsenal Thresher.
It will deal my opponent 22 damage as the end of the game is as simple as can be. He plays Scavenger Drake I play a guy and attack he plays a removal and attack I play a guy and attack he plays a removal etc.

Until his Drake is 4/4 and decides to block. Fortunately I was holding Ethercaste Knight to make my Thresher a 5/5 and put him down to three. On the following turn he drew and conceded.

My second game starts with a double mulligan but I open a hopeful 5-card hand containing Plains Court Homunculus Vedalken Outlander Metallurgeon and Arsenal Thresher. When I eventually draw my second land on turn 6 it’s already too late.

Another mulligan in the third game and a not very sexy six-card hand (Plains Plains Island Metallurgeon Etherium Sculptor Mana Cylix) but a keep. At least I can cast spells. Also I draw two straight Outlanders. He cycles Monstrous Carabid and plays Soul Manipulation on the second one then on the next turn he plays Sedraxis Alchemist and then cycles during his own turn. Very important: when you have a free information take it. This play would be bad with any other creature but it becomes awful with the Alchemist. What if he draws a Blue early drop from the cycling?

In the meantime I draw a few too many lands and I must pray for my two bombs to show up or my road is going to stop here.

At some point he has eventually dealt with my small guys beating down and he’s eventually taking the advantage. I’ve a Mana Cylix 7 lands and Etherium Sculptor while he has Esper Stormblade and Mind–Singe Ogre. I draw land he draws Grixis Grimblade plays it and attacks (11-8).

ONE TIME DEALER!

I draw Sphinx! Yeeeees!!!! I put him back to ten he attacks with Blade and passes. That’s when I draw: Behemoth Sledge! These two draws must have been my reward for taking 7 mulligans in 5 games.
Two turns later the game is mine and I advance to the finals. I won that game with my bombs with my top decks and with… Mana Cylix! Indeed all my lands in game 3 were Plains and Islands and I wouldn’t have been able to cast my two winning spells without my one-mana artifact.

Round 3: Grixis

Sometimes you feel the wheel is turning inside a tournament. Things can go bad for a while and at some point they start going really well all of a sudden. For me that happened at the very end of my round 2 and kept on in my following match. In the first my draw was close to perfect while he had to discard Nicol Bolas on turn 3. Even though he didn’t miss any more land drop in the game a Time Walk isn’t something you come back from easily. And neither is Behemoth Sledge.

The second one wasn’t much more difficult as my Court Homunculus/Vedalken Outlander start wasn’t going to be stopped by Dreadwing. On turn 3 even though I didn’t have a third land I managed to cast three spells: Etherium Sculptor Borderpost (allowing me to bounce my land for free) and Metallurgeon. On the following turn he played Bone Splinters sacrificing his only guy to kill… Ehtherium Sculptor. Brilliant someone must have drawn his Nicol Bolas a lot in the previous two rounds. Two turns later the game the match and the event were over.

Until Wednesday…

Oli