Drafting With Olivier – Shards/Conflux/Reborn #29

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Mwahahahahaha!! Long time no see! Agony Warp is good but this is a whole level above.

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Okay this pick was too greedy. I wanted my deck to look super cool but if I don’t get a pair of Borderposts in pack 3 Sighted-caste Sorcerer is just better.

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I want to be UW based and I’ve Sanctum Gargoyle for the combo so I don’t really consider Tar Fiend an option here.

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I would have picked Welkin Guide if I didn’t have the Master but what I am trying to build now is a deck in which Arsenal Thresher will be a terror for my opponents.

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I used to play Steelclad Serpent a lot in AAA and ACR but it’s just too slow now. Esper’s curve has gotten a lot cheaper and the format has gotten much faster.

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The Mage is tempting but I’ll resist greed this time and pick the card which is less good but which makes my deck better.

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At first when I opened Master of Etherium I thought of a very aggro build. Now that I’ve two Capsules Sanctum Gargoyle and the Wall I may move to something more controlling.

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If I hadn’t firstpicked the Wall here I’d probably have gone for the Homunculus then for the Squire but I’m now tempted to take the best card for long games. Also Esper and UW rarely miss two-drops anyway.

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I’m not playing anything here anyway.

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The Paragon will never make the cut in my deck while Visions could help me splash in the last pack.

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Well I guess I’m glad I didn’t take it 8 picks ago.

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So so so what do I do here? If I pick Meddling Mage it’s okay in my deck (double Unsummon) but I don’t want to rare draft and Arsenal Thresher would be better in my deck. The thing is that if I were to pick Pikula Thresher would have good chance to wheel. And what if the best choice was just to counterdraft that stupid Bituminous Blast? Tick tock tick tock tick tock… whatever I pick the Thresher. In my deck it should be big enough to resist the Blast anyway.

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I love Filigree Angel. I think the card is very underrated and my deck should be able to reach eight mana but still Shiedmage is Shieldmage.

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Wall of Denial would be good in the deck too but it’s not an artifact!

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Where do you think you’re going?

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That’s one option I didn’t consider I must admit!

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8 Island
8 Plains

2 Court Homunculus
2 Ethercaste Knight
1 Meddling Mage
1 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Master of Etherium
2 Ethersworn Shieldmage
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Arsenal Thresher
1 Faerie Mechanist
1 Filigree Sages
1 Esper Cormorants
1 Wall of Reverence
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Sanctum Plowbeast
1 Unsummon
2 Courier’s Capsule
2 Cancel
1 Traumatic Visions

Sideboard
1 View from Above
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Shield of the Righteous
1 Tortoise Formation
1 Onyx Goblet
1 Unsummon
1 Reborn Hope
1 Time Sieve
1 Lapse of Certainty
1 Absorb Vis
1 Skyclaw Thrash
1 Forest
1 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Forest
1 Spell Snip
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Darklit Gargoyle
2 Brainbite

Card Power: 8
Double Shieldmage Sanctum Gargoyle my two first-picked rares I couldn’t ask for much more. Even the lack of removals is compensated by my two Cancels my two Shieldmages and the fact that anyway my guys should be bigger for a cheaper frice.

Synergy: 8
16 artifacts plus Master of Etherium plus double Shieldmage plus Arsenal Thresher equals good synergy.

Mana Curve: 7
It’s so low that it looks more like a Constructed curve than a Limited one allowing me to run only 16 lands. But maybe is it a little too low.

Stability: 9
The mana is stable and the deck while very aggressive in the early game (2 Court Homunculus plus 5 two-drops) turns naturally in a control deck (Gargoyle Wall of Reverence Mechanist 2 Capsule) when the game gets longer. It also has with my two Shieldmages a pair of cards that are not only excellent with an aggro start but also in a control game.

Round 1: Genki Taru Naya

Genki is an unsung Japanese player but I’ve played against him many times and I know he is very good. He must have something like two Pro Tour Top 16s and a three Grand Prix Top 8s; not the classic rsum of a player you face in the first round of an 8-4 draft.

He plays Naya which is usually good news but it’s not exactly great when your opponent casts Enlisted Wurm and you’re not drawing well. From the turn in which I play Wall of Reverence the game is suddenly stalled like a good old basic set when both players have an intimidating enough board to force the opponent to hold back. Until at some point he draws Behemoth Sledge. It takes him some time from here but his win is almost unavoidable.

Game 2 is quite similar as I have Master of Etherium Wall of Reverence and lots of guys but can’t really attack into his Thornling. When he eventually draws Sledge I have Cancel and after quite a while when we both have around 10 cards in our libraries I eventually draw Sanctum Gargoyle bring back another flyer and swing until he’s dead.

At this point we don’t have much time left. Still and for the third time we reach the point when we’re immobilized. He has bigger guys than mine and Behemoth Sledge but I’ve Master of Etherium and lots of artifact guys including Esper Cormorants. While my flyer starts dealing him damage I draw Meddling Mage. So what do I name? Thornling or Enlisted Wurm? Both of them are too big for me at the moment so I name the one that can bring the other one even if I ban it. Wrong call. What I didn’t think off at that moment was that the game would probably last for at least another 5 turns. In the meantime with two Capsules and two Shieldmages left in the deck I had pretty good chance to draw one of the latter before he would actually find his Wurm. As a result two turns later he drew Thornling and equipped. Luckily I drew Unsummon on the next turn and bounced his guys after he used all his abilities before damage went on the stack [hehehe! – Craig]. I don’t like M10 rules much but they won me that game and that match even though I had made a misplay.

Round 2: Jund

Not much to talk about in this match. I took two mulligans and played one spell in the first game while game 2 was only one mulligan and no more than three spells. The best card he played was Matca Rioters but my clock still said 25:48 when I lost.

Until Friday…

Oli