Like my last video, this draft walkthrough features the Magic Online 2013 Holiday Cube, which is powered.

Draft

In retrospect, I should have jumped into black in pack 2. While red was certainly open (through seeing solid red and Izzet cards at the end of pack 1), there were good cards in pack 1 for black as well like Mesmeric Fiend and Phyrexian Rager, although I probably wouldn’t have splashed for those. Besides cards like Baleful Strix; Disfigure; Angel of Despair; and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (the senor thing being a reference to the Spanish name for Sorin being called Sorin, Senor de Innistrad), there wasn’t much black in pack 3.

Round 1

In game 1 I decided to play the life-gain angle so that I could get ahead in the life-gain race but didn’t play around Mizzium Mortars since it felt like I needed to gain life, but what I had on board was going to help me gain the upper hand anyway. It seems like a mistake in retrospect.

Round 2

After game 1 I brought in cards like Reveillark and Leonin Relic-Warder since the opponent had a lot of Equipment and I figured that the best game plan would be to use those cards and attrition to get to the later stages of the game. My opponent did get pretty mana screwed in the latter two games, but Leonin Relic-Warder’s ability went the distance.

Round 3

I played out game 1 because I was thinking about the old replay bug on Magic Online where if someone concedes the replay is lost (and as it turns out, it seems like it’s pretty random as far what replays stay and what get lost since I’ve had my fair share of lost games when neither player conceded), which gave my opponent some information on the contents of my hand when Liliana of the Veil made me discard on the last turn. Ah well, lesson learned.

As was discussed in the video, in game 2 playing Gideon Jura was probably questionable considering that I just got Hymned since it felt like a lot of the big things that the opponent was going to do was through noncreature spells. Going for Glen Elendra Archmage with counterspell backup followed by Gideon Jura with counterspell backup seems much better, and I got punished hard for that decision.

I hope that you enjoyed this video walkthrough and the additional commentary in the article.

May all of your opening packs contain Sol Rings!

@UsmanTheRad on Twitter
My blog featuring my Powered and Pauper Cube lists: I’d Rather Be Cubing
Cube podcast that I and Anthony Avitollo co-host: The Third Power