Drafting With Olivier – Zendikar #33

Pack 1 pick 1:

















My Pick:

Nissa’s Chosen and Kor Hookmaster are pretty close – the White guy is even a little better – but this pick still is obvious to me. Indeed I’ve been doing pretty well with Mono Green lately and Primal Bellow one of the archetype’s MVPs makes the wheel almost systematically.

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My Pick:

I explained this pick in a recent Reflecting Ruel column. Even though Journey to Nowhere is clearly a better card than Grazing Gladehart I like playing mono color decks in Zendikar draft and I’m clearly sending the guy to my left into White.

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I could have had a very strong White deck but this start is almost perfect.

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My Pick:

There’s nothing I really want to cut here. I could possibly hate draft Outfitter but I’m pretty happy with my neighbors playing White.

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My Pick:

Another annoying pick. Green seemed pretty open from the first four picks but I’m not getting passed much anymore. I was a bit confused by the emptiness of that pick and I should probably have picked the unexciting Hedron Scrabbler.

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Blessing
” “ZEN”);’>


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My Pick:

Great. The last few packs were probably just a coincidence.

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Pack 1 pick 11:







My Pick:

Silhouette could be good with double Nissa’s Chosen. However I should be able to stop most early guys anyway and Frontier Guide is good combined with three cards in my deck this far(Primal Bellow Grazing Gladehart Timbermaw Larva) and there should be many more to come.

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What the…?

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My Pick:

I guess I could have managed to slip that Sphinx in the deck but I’m pretty happy with my second Gladehart.

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My Pick:

My bad Expedition Map pick becomes much better now.

Pack 2 pick 3:

Blessing
” “ZEN”);’>













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My Pick:

Just as with the Sphinx pick splashing Burst Lightning wouldn’t be much trouble but as far as cohesion and synergy are concerned I like staying mono color.

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My Pick:

I guess I could just pick the Gorger but there are just so many cards in this pack which could be trouble for me and anyway the Wurm probably won’t make the final cut.

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My Pick:

This draft is pretty weird. One moment I’ve the feeling Green is wide open and the next I’m not being passed anything I would want to use.
















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My Pick:

Maybe this time I went a bit too far and should have accepted the splash. Harrow may be good for the deck but my number of playables is still not sufficient and a little support could have been useful.

Pack 3 pick 3:















My Pick:

Oran-Rief Recluse may be a little better than the Trap but I need cards which will allow me to win as my two Larva feel a bit lonely at the moment.

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Blessing
” “ZEN”);’>



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My Pick:

With so many pump spells I should be able to surprise my opponent and deal him a huge amount of damage in one strike. I just need to get more creatures in order to do so.

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17 Forest
1 Oran-Rief the Vastwood

3 Nissa’s Chosen
1 Frontier Guide
2 Grazing Gladehart
1 Turntimber Basilisk
1 Stonework Puma
2 Timermaw Larva
1 Mold Shambler
1 Zendikar Farguide
1 Baloth Cage Trap

1 Expedition Map
3 Vines of Vastwood
1 Primal Bellow
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
1 Quest for the Gemblades
1 Harrow

I think my deck is pretty good but it has two weaknesses. It needs two or three more guys and it misses just as many good cards to compensate with the filler. However I’m not so sad about the Puma as it can block two of the most annoying guys for me: Bladetusk Boar and Surrakar Marauder.

My first opponent is playing Mono Red and in both games he plays about one creature a turn from turn 2. In the first one I use my Oran-Rief to make my turn 5 Timbermaw Larva and start to race his small army. On the turn when he can’t chumpblock I can play Vines of Vastwood as well as Primal Bellow and deal him 19. I chose not to and on the next turn he plays his fifth land and Spire Barrage for the win. Unfortunately this land was a fetchland and I would have had a chance if I had not attacked. But how was I supposed to know?

The next one is quite similar except that one of my punches can get through to help me deal 7 damage with Timbermaw Larva but that will be the only punch he will allow me to land in the whole match. After that and even though I’ve the pump spell for the win he just has to chumpblock as even though his guys are smaller than mine he does draw twice as many as me.

In the end I would probably have won one of those two games at least if I had drawn one-third guys but it does make sense to lose to the deck’s biggest weakness so there’s not much I can say.

Until next time…

Oli