Before that draft I received a mail from my boss saying he needed one more draft before going to Brighton. If I’m doing M10 drafts from now on (there’s a poll at the end of the draft that tackles this subject) it means this is my final ACR draft. And for my final draft I want to draft something special. No Esper UW WG… No no I’ll go with something more creative I promise.
Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick:
I know I know I said no Esper. Don’t worry creativity is coming next.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
In any other draft I’d have picked the much safest Dragger but it’s not much fun. Necrogenesis is a stronger and cooler card. I’ll just have to adjust my mana.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
I’m probably drafting some sort of Five-Color Control which means I’ve only two options here: Bant Charm and Kiss of the Amesha. If I want my first pick to be efficient 5CC should have an Esper core which makes the drawer more reliable.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
My first three picks are slow but become very good if the game goes long. I can either pick a card with similar characteristics (Silence) or a stronger card (Blood Cultist) which would jeopardize my mana. I go for the first one which seems more reliable.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
I know what you must think. I announce a funky deck and I pass Spearbreaker Behemoth but I must make my deck good but consistent too. Also Sphinx is better with some artifact guys and that happens to be a good one.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
I’ve enough slow spells not to pick Wave. A fixer will help more in particular if I end up splashing Red cards which is likely to happen.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
A close pick with the Drake. A smart choice could be to take the Drake forget about 5CC and go back to Esper but this is not the plan today!
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
I’m not very aggressive it’s very unlikely I play Sorcerer anyway.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 11:
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Pack 1 pick 12:
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Pack 1 pick 13:
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Pack 1 pick 14:
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Pack 1 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
Three possibilities here: Matca Rioters Fusion Elemental and Esper Cormorants. The first one would be good if my deck was Bant-based but it is not for now. Fusion Elemental is a card I’d be glad to splash if it wheels but I’ve already too many slow/hard-to-cast spells. Esper Cormorants being an artifact to support Sphinx and an easy spell to cast seems a wisest pick.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
If I want to be able to survive until my late cards touch the ground solid early drops are necessary. Vedalken Outlander is one. It is also another artifact for the Sphinx and a card that stops Jund’s (and sometime Naya’s) beatdown on its own.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
With a lower curve I pick Spire but in order to support my expensive spells a card that can get two lands seems just better. I could pick the Wurm but a deck should only have a certain number of cards that can’t be cast in most situations and I’m close to having enough.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
I’ve almost picked Filigree Fracture or Brackwater Elemental over it as it may be too aggro to fit the deck but Aven Squire is so much better than the other two options that I want to give it a chance in case my deck turns more aggressive in the second half of the draft.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Wrong pick here I wanted a removal spell but Fleshformer is quite good in this archetype while Fall won’t be a good landcycler if I play it as a 5th color splash.
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
A fine blocker which is also good with Sharding Sphinx. I’m not playing Explosing Borders with an Esper base and Unsummon is much more efficient when you play aggro.
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Close pick between two cards I’ll probably be willing to use in sideboard against the same archetypes (WG UW). I pretty much end up picking one randomly.
Pack 2 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 13:
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Pack 2 pick 14:
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Pack 2 pick 15:
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Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
Crystallization was wiser? Definitely! Better? Possibly. But this pick is much much cooler!
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
It may not be the fantastic card it is in an aggro deck but it’s still very very good here.
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
A third strong and cool card in a row; I now have about as many Green as Black cards. The deck may be turning to become Bant based.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
I surely am disappointed I must pass Wargate but if I want to have fun I must pick good and easy to cast cards as well.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
Changing the deck from Esper-base to Bant-base also allows me to play Gift of the Gargantuan which is pretty good in the deck. And I don’t even have any combo with Soul Manipulation yet anyway.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick:
I need fixers a little more but I’ve a hole in my three-drop curve I’d like to fill.
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick:
I’m not aggro enough for Ehtercaste Knight to be very good. Also I already have many many two-mana spells and I need to diversify my curve a little to make Nexus better.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick:
Very important to help me gather my precious Bant mana in the early game.
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 10:
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Pack 3 pick 11:
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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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4 Plains
4 Island
4 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Naya Panorama
1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Wildfield Borderpost
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Bant Sureblade
1 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Vedalken Outlander
1 Lorescale Coatl
1 Esper Cormorants
1 Architects of Will
1 Aerie Mystics
1 Enlisted Wurm
1 Sharding Sphinx
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Kaleidostone
1 Necrogenesis
1 Gift of the Gargantuan
1 Obelisk of Bant
1 Wargate
1 Captured Sunlight
1 Etherwrought Page
1 Resounding Silence
1 Maelstrom Nexus
1 Finest Hour
1 Fiery Fall
1 Kiss of the Amesha
Sideboard
1 Filigree Sages
1 Plains
1 Gustrider Exuberant
2 Swamp
1 Aven Squire
1 Bone Saw
1 Puppet Conjurer
1 Lapse of Certainty
1 Hindering Light
1 Swerve
1 Forest
1 Flurry of Wings
1 Island
1 Scornful Aether-Lich
1 Island
1 Might of Alara
2 Suicidal Charge
Card Power: 8
Enlisted Wurm Sharding Sphinx Finest Hour… I’ve three cards from the top level. The rest is not very spectacular but it is solid and meant to help save time before drawing the stronger cards. With double Suicidal Charge Hindering Light Swerve and Flurry of Wings I also end up with a pretty good sideboard.
Mana Curve: 8
Many two-mana guys then fewer three-mana guys but fixers followed by a few solid four-drops and eventually the top cards in the deck which are also the cards using the splashes.
Synergy: 6
Of course many of these cards are not meant to be in the same deck but they should still be working out together.
Stability: 6
I’ve enough fixers to assume I’ll have the 5 colors and the expensive drops and I also have many early drops to wait for decisive cards. However 5CC is 5CC and if I ever draw badly I’ll just lose and it should happen in one or two games out of three rounds.
Round 1: Jund
In the first game I play one spell a turn from turn 2 until turn 5 when I can choose between Enlisted Wurm Shardning Sphinx and fetching with Naya Panorama so I can play Nexus on the following turn. I play the Wurm cascade into Sculler remove the pump spell from his hand and while the 5/5 controls the board I play my other rares (Nexus first – I enjoy drawing all my good cards – then Sphinx) which win the game.
He wins the second game casting Vein Drinker with which I absolutely can’t deal.
The third game is very similar to the first as I have Enlisted Wurm and Sharding Sphinx. However I can’t cast the flyer as I suspect he has Vein Drinker in hand. Indeed he stopped on five lands and I’m pretty sure he has three spells in hand from turn 6 to 8 so I’d rather keep my Sphinx in hand and wait for him to draw his sixth land. Then if he doesn’t play his vampire I cast my own 4/4 flyer and if he does I just remove it with the Resounding Silence he hasn’t seen yet. On turn 11 I have 11 lands on the board and 1 in hand while he’s still stuck on 5 lands and keeps on playing one spell a turn. As I’ve played Kiss and Wurm I am able to compensate with this card advantage but now I’m starting to be in trouble so I decide to cast my Sphinx. He draws his sixth land but he doesn’t have his Vampire and I end up winning in 4 turns.
Round 2: Esper
I concede game 1 on turn 7 just before I must discard. In game 2 though I win on turn 6 as my guy guy Finest Hour start is not something he can deal with. When the third game starts we still have more than 26 minutes each left in the round.
In the third game he takes the pace of the game and puts me down to six. When I play Strix I think I have the match. When he attacks with Zombie Outlander (pumped by Ethercaste Knight) I decide to go down to three as he must have Gleam of Resistance and Blister Beetle. Down to 3 life I now have the control but when he plays Esper Cormorants two turns later I decide not to swing anymore with my 4/4 in case he has Gleam. It takes me some patience and another 7 turns to take the game but I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do as I’ve Silence in hand and will be able to remove his attackers whenever he makes a move. When I eventually decide to swing for the win he plays Gleam during my attack but I still have exact lethal damage.
Final: Grixis
Quite a fast final. I have one bad draw in the first game and just don’t play in the second game but to make it clear it probably wouldn’t have made a difference as his deck seemed much better than mine anyway.
Now I’ve a question to ask you.
Feel free to discuss this on the forums and the column will evolve in reaction to the results.
Until next week…
Oli