As I start to write this article, Pro Tour: Geneva is approximately 30 hours away. Recently I’ve been drafting a couple of times a day with some other qualified players, mostly Dutchies. To be honest, I didn’t manage much practice back in Portugal. Even if I had, it’s very important to share initial impressions and draft with different players, as each will have specific ideas, strategies, and card evaluations. One of the reasons why I did reasonably well at PT: Kobe was because I drafted with my Portuguese friends at home, then at GP: Athens, then with some of the best European players, and finally at Shuhei Nakamura house with some Japanese and Dutch pros. I think I did close to ten drafts for Kobe, which isn’t many… but they left me well prepared. This time I’ll be doing fewer drafts, as I don’t have enough time to left before the Pro Tour to increase my draft count to ten, but just like before Kobe I’m getting beaten by players who have a better understanding of the format, and hopefully learning something in time for the Big Show.
At the end of 2006, I was invited for two weeks of drafting and skiing before Geneva, with Raphael Levy and the usual crew. Initially I was looking forward to it, but as I looked at the Grand Prix schedule I realized I had lots of travelling to do, so I had to give up on some plans. However, when Frank Karsten sent a roll-call to see who was interested in doing some intensive drafting a couple of days before Geneva, I immediately signed up for it. At this moment there’s a draft going on in the hotel lobby, just a few meters from where I’m sitting:
Frank Karsten
Bram Snepvangers
Roel Hesjwik
Robert van Medvoort
Kamiel Cornelissen
Fried Meulders
Bernardo da Costa Cabral
Oyvind Andersen
Those guys are the current players… and I apologize now for any names I’ve misspelled.
Jan Doise, Rogier Maaten, and I were left out this time, after we randomly determined who was playing. The positive side is that it left me more time to recap and analyze the previous drafts I’ve done so far with these guys.
On Tuesday night, Kamiel and the Belgians hadn’t arrived, so we decided to run a seven-man draft (single elimination) while waiting for the food at a restaurant.
My first pick was a Thelonite Hermit over mediocre cards. My second pick involved a choice between Strangling Soot and Fathom Seer. According to the rarity, the pack was missing an uncommon. I picked the Soot, even though I’m not sure that’s the correct choice. My third pick was Dark Withering, and I picked up a late Crookclaw Transmuter. After pack 1, there’d been no sign of Green cards. I was almost mono-Black, with a Thelonite Hermit and Crookclaw Transmuter, but thankfully I already had a Molten Slagheap for the Red flashback cost of the Soot.
In the second pack I opened a Firemaw Kavu and took it, since I was already settled on splashing Red. During this set of boosters I picked up Orcish Cannonade and Keldon Halberdier, completely leaving Green out of the equation. In Planar Chaos, I saw no good Red, as I later discovered that Robert (to my right) took Firemaw Kavu first pick, in the pack with Strangling Soot and Fathom Seer. I once again picked more Black, and netted a pair of Primal Plasmas and a Dreamscape Artist.
By the way, my first pick in Planar Chaos was Null Profusion, a card I think it’s close to a bomb… but I never had the chance to try it.
Creatures (13)
- 1 Dauthi Slayer
- 1 Slipstream Eel
- 1 Crookclaw Transmuter
- 1 Deathspore Thallid
- 1 Firemaw Kavu
- 1 Mana Skimmer
- 1 Trespasser il-Vec
- 1 Bog Serpent
- 1 Dreamscape Artist
- 2 Primal Plasma
- 1 Roiling Horror
- 1 Spitting Sliver
Lands (17)
Spells (10)
I lost the first round to an aggressive White/Red deck. We split the first two games. I had brought in a Demonic Collusion, since Roiling Horror seems bad against aggro decks, and I had two absolute bombs against Red/White aggro: Firemaw Kavu and Null Profusion. I play the tutor in midgame, with the option to go for the Kavu or the Profusion. His board was a Mogg War Marshal and his goblin token buddy, and my life was still at two digits. I was also holding Tendrils of Corruption and a land, so I thought the Null Profusion would be much better, as I would play it next turn, and then “go off,” playing a land, the Tendrils if needed. I was attacked by the two 1/1’s and my life was still above 10. He played Simian Spirit Guide. At this point, I thought I had the game. I played Null Profusion, still with mana to play the Tendrils thanks to a stocked-up Molten Slagheap. I played a land and drew a card. I played Tendrils and drew cards. I still have no idea how I lost, as I was drawing a lot more cards that my opponent (as you can imagine), but he dealt with my evasive creatures while building forces on the ground. Eventually I was facing death by decking, so I had to stop playing spells.
I hate single elimination drafts, and that’s one of the reasons why I don’t play draft side events at Pro Tours and Grand Prix tournaments, even though I have free vouchers sometimes. When I lose, it’s over in single match… but when I lose, I like to play some more games with the deck, against opponents from in the same table, in order to discover what’s wrong. Is my draft simply bad, or was there another factor? How does my deck fare against other decks from the same table? Sometimes a deck seems really weak, but in most of those cases the problem is down to weakened boosters from the table. There were also cards I was eager to reconsider through playing, such as Null Profusion and Roiling Horror. Unfortunately for me, there are more drafts in single elimination structure than any other: yes, the Magic Online drafts…
Conclusion: Even though I only played one round, I got the feeling that Black is a weakened color, and thus underdrafted. There were only two Black mages in the draft, myself with my mostly mono-Black deck and Oyvind with his entirely mono-Black build, but both our decks weren’t very good. No one at the table had a killer forty. This might be a trend in TTP drafts all over the world before Geneva… a maximum oft two or three Black mages per draft.
We managed to get eight players for the second draft in the following day.
My first pick was a Firemaw Kavu, and once again Robert van Medvoort passed me a very interesting pack with Strangling Soot, Draining Whelk, Prodigal Sorcerer and Tromp the Domains (he picked Ephemeron, so don’t expect them to be passed to you at a Pro Tour). I believe Tromp is weakened now that there’s a Fog in Dawn Charm. There were also two good Blue cards, and it could be a sign to pass a booster for a third pick still containing Draining Whelk and Prodigal Sorcerer. Strangling Soot is also a very good card I’m willing to splash for most of the time, and my first pick was also Red which combines with the Soot, so that was my choice. I didn’t get to see any more Black, but Blue was coming, and I switched into it very early, picking a Coral Trickster out of a pack that had nothing else. Then Spiketail Drakeling and Viscerid Deepwalker arrived, followed by a Spiketail Drakeling that tabled. Roel to my left ended up being cut after third-picking Draining Whelk.
In pack 2 I opened Bogardan Hellkite, and took it. As I expected, Blue was not coming from the left, but I took the chance to solidify the Red with Lightning Axe and some other playables. Going into Planar Chaos I was feeling optimistic, as I had two colors full of depth in their commons, and Blue was coming in first pack from the right. It didn’t go very well (to say the least), as the highlights from Planar Chaos included three Primal Plasma and two Veiling Oddity. This was because I made a wrong pick in Time Spiral booster. I picked Stormcloud Djinn, which I thought was good for my U/R deck, but Tolarian Sentinel would’ve been much better. I saw 2 Reality Acids in Planar Chaos that I had no use for.
Creatures (19)
- 1 Slipstream Eel
- 1 Bogardan Hellkite
- 1 Coral Trickster
- 1 Firemaw Kavu
- 1 Goblin Skycutter
- 2 Keldon Halberdier
- 1 Mogg War Marshal
- 2 Spiketail Drakeling
- 1 Stormcloud Djinn
- 1 Viscerid Deepwalker
- 1 Aquamorph Entity
- 1 Gossamer Phantasm
- 3 Primal Plasma
- 2 Veiling Oddity
Lands (17)
Spells (4)
I won my first round against Rogier. The first game was his. He was accelerating with a Prismatic Lens and stocking a storage land, while playing small irrelevant creatures. He then played Evolution Charm for another land, so I assumed something good was coming, and indeed it was Bogardan Hellkite. I had a good draw suspending a Keldon Halberdier on turn 1, and then turns 3 and 4 suspending Veiling Oddity (my draws for those turns). This card is a lot better than it seems – I value cheap suspend cards very highly, like Shade of Trokair, but also combined with high power creatures like Keldon Halberdier and Aquamorph Entity can make for lethal attacks. You just have to think ahead a lot and carefully. I won the second because of his weak draw after a mulligan. I also happened to be on the play, and I had the initiative. I won the third with Bogardan Hellkite to compensate for the first game.
Then I lost against Roel, who had a good controlling U/W deck. Our first game took forever – it would’ve been a 0-0 draw in sanctioned play. I don’t remember all the details, but the board was very confusing (and favoring Roel, who had a huge Shade of Trokair). He was at six life and I had an Aquamorph Entity with Temporal Isolation. My hand had Brute Force. I needed to topdeck Wipe Away or Bogardan Hellkite to win. I realized there were two courses of action: I could attack with Aquamorph Entity, pump it with Brute Force to make an 8/4, and after stacking damage return the entity to my hand, with the Isolation going to the graveyard; or I could attack with the Entity, stack damage, and then play a Hellkite dealing one to the Entity (and killing it) and 4 to Roel. However, it didn’t matter as the Shade eventually out-powered my deck. I quickly lost the second after a close race. This, being single elimination, meant it was over, though I would’ve loved to play a few more to try Veiling Oddity combined with high-power creatures like Keldon Halberdier and Aquamorph Entity.
After a while, a third draft threatened to start. We decided to do a team draft, so that we could play three rounds each. We agreed on drafting normally like a regular eight-man draft, and then establish random teams and play three rounds. The team who scored more wins afterwards would get the pot (of rares).
After first-picking a Spectral Force I ended with a good Blue/Green deck, with many awesome creatures, but I felt I was lacking enough playable cards overall. I had to use the Thallids, a mechanic that I hate to play with.
Creatures (16)
- 1 Mystic Snake
- 1 Coral Trickster
- 1 Dream Stalker
- 1 Errant Ephemeron
- 1 Nantuko Shaman
- 1 Savage Thallid
- 1 Spectral Force
- 2 Spiketail Drakeling
- 1 Spinneret Sliver
- 1 Sporesower Thallid
- 1 Thallid Germinator
- 1 Yavimaya Dryad
- 1 Deadwood Treefolk
- 1 Gossamer Phantasm
- 1 Serra Sphinx
Lands (17)
Spells (6)
Sadly I only managed a score of 1-2 with this deck, but fortunately I was able to identify some of the many problems this deck had, which gives credit to my argument of playing three rounds with a draft deck. After the draft I realized I had to play some fillers but there was another serious problem beyond that: the double mana-costs.
Many players, including myself in the not-so-distant past, think that nine of one type of Basic Land and eight of another type of Basic Land is the perfect manabase for a two-color deck with an even split. While this manabase might be correct – and in some cases it’s the only one possible – it doesn’t mean it’s working smoothly. This deck has four cards with double-Green mana in their costs (plus Nantuko Shaman), and five cards with double-Blue. While you might be able to play turn 3 Spiketail Drakeling and turn 4 Sporesower Thallid, there’s a solid chance you’ll have three Forests and one Island while holding cards with double Blue in hand. Or the reverse, naturally.
There’s obviously no other way to build the manabase for this deck other than 9 Forests and 8 Islands / 8 Forests and 9 Islands / 9 Forests and 9 Islands, but none of these is the perfect manabase. There are no optimal manabases for this deck. The solution would be to keep track of how many cards with double casting cost we have while the draft progresses… and then make sure you don’t draft cards with double costs in the other color. Or at least, not cards that you’d want to play in early game like Yavimaya Dryad or Spiketail Drakeling. I think the main reason behind my 1-2 score was the bad manabase, due to my careless when drafting concerning mana costs.
Every time I’m unsure about what card should I pick, when both are at the same power level or equally important for your deck, I follow a very simple rule: I choose the one easier to cast. This means picking the one costing 2W over the 1WW, or picking the costing 3B over the one costing 5B.
In my fourth draft with the Dutchies, on Wednesday night, I was very happy to start with first pick Castle Raptors, second pick Cloudchaser Eagle, and third pick Castle Raptors. I saw the second Raptors as a sign to go White, and I had already tried the other colors in these sessions. The sign was not correct: it was probably an insane pack, as Roel to my right ended drafting G/W splashing Red, while I ran with White/Red splashing for Void.
Creatures (15)
- 2 Cloudchaser Eagle
- 2 Castle Raptors
- 1 Cavalry Master
- 1 Keldon Halberdier
- 1 Subterranean Shambler
- 1 Tectonic Fiend
- 1 Thick-Skinned Goblin
- 1 Venser's Sliver
- 2 Poultice Sliver
- 1 Sinew Sliver
- 2 Stingscourger
Lands (17)
Spells (7)
After the draft, we chose random teams. Sadly, after the dust had cleared, I was once again mired with a 1-2 score. One of my losses was to Rogier’s amazing mono-Black deck, and the other was when I forgot I had Thick Skinned Goblin on the table and paid the echo on one of my creatures, making it impossible to play another on that turn. Simply put, the deck was not very good. Not only it was running many filler cards, but I also realized (or confirmed a theory I’ve had since Time Spiral) that White aggressive decks are just not very good. I don’t like White decks that play Ivory Giants, Fortify, Amrou Seekers, and Cloudchaser Eagles. I love White decks that play Jedit’s Dragoons and D’Avenant Healers.
I woke up early the next day, Thursday 8th – the day before the Pro Tour started – and they were already eight players drafting in the hotel lobby. While I waited for them to finish, I joined Frank and Roel for some food while discussing some draft strategies and pick orders. I’d watched Frank draft in one of the eight-mans I’d randomly missed, and he drafts U/W with a very unique strategy developed by both Frank and Roel. They value cards like Jedit’s Dragoons and D’Avenant Healers very highly. Even though I believe that Frank might be a little too extreme when forcing the archetype, I find it a very solid strategy. It’s possible to force it even if you’re sat close to other White decks, since you’re aiming for different cards. With that in mind, and since my score of draft matches with the Dutchies was 3-6, I decided to give it a try in the next draft.
It came as no surprise that we had twelve for the next draft, and (of course) after a random draw I’m once again left out (three times out of seven). Frank and Roel were also out, so there was no one in who I’d particularly wanted to watch drafting. It was time for me to leave. I went to check in at the Wizards hotel, and then left for the site to meet the Portuguese. I took part in two drafts with them, forcing the U/W control plan in both for a combined score of 5-4. The numbers were unimpressive, but I was more than sold. I was going to force U/W control at the Pro Tour the following day.
I’ll give you a more detailed explanation of the plan, and you’ll see how it went after I forced U/W in the first two drafts, in next week’s article – my report from PT: Geneva.
Thank you for reading,
Tiago