It’s been a while, but this weekend we can all finally get our forty card fix on. With Grand Prix DC happening a measly four hours from my house, you know I’ll be making the drive down the coast for another shot at a Grand Prix top eight. Add in the fact that I’m only two pro points away from Silver Status and have an open GP slot to work with, and you’ll know why this tournament is extra important for me.

Today I’d like to get one last practice draft in before getting ready to battle for fame and glory in our nation’s capital.

Let’s do this!

Pack 1 pick 1:

Not the most exciting pack to kick off a draft, but there are some winners. The pick here comes down to Magma Spray, Oreskos Swiftclaw, and Eagle of the Watch. Revel of the Fallen God is powerful, but seven mana is a little lofty for most limited decks. I know a lot of people like Font of Fertility, but I’ve found the card to be mostly unplayable. If it’s not in your opening hand, it is just too clunky to do anything relevant. All things considered, I’d rather have the cheap removal spell that kills small creatures than one of the small creatures.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 2:

The two cards that catch my eye in this pack are the blue ones. Skybind is unimpressive in most decks, and Eagle of the Watch just isn’t as good as Cloaked Siren or Sigiled Starfish. Between the two, I’ve got to go with Sigiled Starfish. It is one of the most powerful commons in the set and can be devastating in any game that goes long.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 3:

For the longest time, I didn’t think that much of Rise of Eagles. For the most part, it felt like a 23rd card or something you would only play in a heavy Constellation deck. However, that was before I played against Nathan Holiday in a team draft and he drafted a blue/red masterpiece with a whopping three copies of Rise of Eagles and I watched him summon an avian army round after round. As long as you can make it to six mana, Rise of Eagles serves as a powerful way to grind out your opponent’s last life points. The scry might seem a little tacked on after-the-fact, but it does a great job of digging you towards more expensive spells if you can’t close out the game with the eagles alone. The other thing to note about this pack is we are passing yet another aggressive white creature.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 4:

At this point, it looks like white is open from the right. However, since we’ve already passed so many white cards (and there are very good blue cards in this pack), there’s no reason to try to jump in. That being said, this pick comes down to Cloaked Siren and Dakra Mystic. Although this pick is very close, I’ve got to give it to Cloaked Siren. In a vacuum Dakra Mystic is definitely the more powerful card, but Cloaked Siren works so well with cards like Griptide, Nullify, and Dissolve that it is just too tempting to pass up.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 5:

At first glance, this pick seems like an easy War-Wing Siren. It’s another solid blue card that keeps the draft open and uncommitted. On the other hand, Fleetfeather Cockatrice is a much more powerful card. The green in this pack has been very poor so far, and it seems likely that there won’t be too many green drafters going into packs two and three. Even if there are a couple, they won’t be taking the powerful blue/green multi-colored cards like Kiora’s Follower or Horizon Chimera. Don’t get me wrong, if War-Wing Siren was in a triple-Theros draft, I’d slam it and Heroic/Bestow my way to victory. With Journey and Born in the mix, going for the slower yet more individually powerful card becomes a lot more appealing.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 6:

Not much going on here. It’s either Rise of Eagles or Goldenhide Ox, and Rise has a lot more going on for it. Not only do we get to play it if we don’t end up moving into green, but flying and scrying beats playing a big dumb ox any day of the week.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 7:

Another less than ideal pack with a white weenie creature. If we had a few enchantments in the bag I could see going for Kruphix’s Insight, but as it is we have nothing to get with it. Consign to Dust is at least a powerful card that has the potential to blow out an opponent with an enchantment-heavy deck.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 8:

If I had a ticket for every Stonewise Fortifier I passed… white Grizzly Bears aside, I’m not really a big fan of Countermand. Even with a Cloaked Siren to work with, I’d much rather bank on picking up better counters like Dissolve or Nullify down the line. If the deck ends up moving back towards red, Sigiled Skink will definitely make the cut.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 9:

If the deck ends up being green, having a way to get our beefy ground guys through the Red Zone is a lot more important than having a three-mana Rampant Growth.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 10:

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 11:

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 12:

Don’t believe all the hype. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too.

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 13:

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 14:

My pick:

Pack 1 pick 15:

My pick:

Coming out of pack one you can’t hate where this deck is going. We’ve got a workable blue base, a solid flying plan, and some powerful cards like Sigiled Starfish and Dakra Mystic. Moving into pack two the best plan here is going to be prioritizing filling out the deck’s early game and establishing a second color.

Pack 2 pick 1:

Right off the bat we’re met with Bolt of Keranos and Kiora’s Follower, forcing us to make a decision on which color to move in on. At this point we’ve got Magma Spray and Sigiled Skink in red and Fleetfeather Cockatrice in green, so we could easily go either way. Thinking back to the first pack, I strongly feel like green is going to be very open for the rest of the draft. Although Font of Fertility isn’t that great, it tabling signals that the other drafters aren’t that interested in green cards. Add in the fact that Kiora’s Follower is a few notches better than Bolt of Keranos and it’s time to go green!

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 2:

Getting passed Fall of the Hammer right after moving away from red was a bit of a dagger. At the time, I was mentally committed to bailing on red and therefore didn’t take the Fall of the Hammer. Even though if I took it I still ultimately wouldn’t have been red, it was incorrect to let it go at the time. Nullify is decent but it is replaceable, unlike Fall of the Hammer which is incredible. Because there were still no green cards in sight at this point, the risk/reward on taking Fall of the Hammer was definitely high enough to warrant taking it. Unfortunately, my thought process during the draft was to take Nullify over Meletis Astronomer because the deck still didn’t have any enchantments to dig for.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 3:

This pick is a pretty easy Nyxborn Triton. Although drawing extra cards is nice, Bestow is more powerful, versatile, and proactive. Also to note from this pack, the drafter to my left did not move into white either as can be seen by the Hero of Iroas and Archetype of Courage. Whoever did make the plunge is going to have one heck of a deck…

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 4:

Similarly to last pack, the Bestow card beats out the card draw card. Oracle’s Insight is more powerful than Divination, but it also comes at the price of being more risky. Nyxborn Wolf is simple and consistent.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 5:

Flitterstep Eidolon is one of the few Bestow cards I’d actually pass up for Divination here. The bestow cost is just too expensive for what you are getting, and without Hexproof it does a rather poor Invisible Stalker impression. If the deck didn’t already have two six-mana win conditions in the bag, I would have taken Pheres-Band Raiders.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 6:

This pick comes down to Setessan Oathsworn and Hero of Leina Tower. Overall, I’ve found Hero of Leina Tower to be very underwhelming. By the time you have a ton of mana laying around, you usually don’t have too many auras left to put on your one-drop. Setessan Oathsworn is always going to give you two counters for your troubles, no questions asked. The only downside to Setessan Oathsworn is that it is harder on the deck’s manabase. It might seem weird that the common is better than the rare, but sometimes that’s just how it is.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 7:

With Setessan Oathsworn in tow, there’s a lot more value in picking up a cheap cantrip aura. Additionally, it’s best to orient blue/green decks to be as proactive and tempo-oriented as possible, and playing two Divinations doesn’t fit that bill.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 8:

Cantrip auras with Oathsworn, being proactive, we don’t need more six drops. You know the drill.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 9:

If the picks at this point were a little more devoted to green, I’d be all over that Aspect of the Hydra. As is, Mortal’s Resolve is going to be the more reliable trick.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 10:

Now that we’ve got some enchantments and a few good ways to trigger heroic, Meletis Astronomer is a lot more appealing.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 11:

Still don’t want more Divinations, still terrified by all the white cards running around.

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 12:

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 13:

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 14:

My pick:

Pack 2 pick 15:

My pick:

At the end of pack two, things were looking pretty good. Fall of the Hammer aside, there weren’t many red cards to speak of, so moving into green was the correct call. The only big thing I could have done differently was make the move into white early in pack one, but that ship has long sailed now. Moving into the final pack, I was looking to pick up some interaction as well as a Staunch-Heated Warrior or two.

Pack 3 pick 1:

It’s safe to say that this wasn’t really the pack three-pick one I was looking for. Outside of Ordeal of Heliod, there isn’t much going on here for anyone. Aqueous Form is OK, but with only Setessan Oathsworn as a great target for it it’s not really a priority. As average as it may seem, it looks like we’re going for Burnished Hart. With a couple of six drops and a couple of Bestow guys it really isn’t that bad, just not the kind of card first-picks are made of.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 2:

That’s more like it! I came into this pack looking for interactive cards, and Wavecrash Triton is one of the best in the business. With no shortage of ways to trigger Heroic, Wavecrash Triton is a great addition to the deck.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 3:

Remember when I said we’d get passed strong blue/green multicolored cards later in the draft? Here’s looking at you, Prophet of Kruphix! A third-pick on-color bomb rare definitely makes up for a first-pick Burnished Hart.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 4:

Since triple-Theros limited, Voyaging Satyr has been one of the best green cards in the block, and things haven’t gotten all that different. Omenspeaker is a nice two-drop to have around, but it just doesn’t stack up to the mighty ramp Satyr.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 5:

This is a really tough pick between two really great cards. To be completely honest, I can’t really give a great reason to pick either Horizon Chimera or Thassa’s Emissary other than preference. If the deck had another Setessan Oathsworn or Staunch-Hearted Warrior at this point, that would push the pick much firmer towards Thassa’s Emissary, but as is you can’t really go wrong either way.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 6:

What’s better than one Wavecrash Triton? Two Wavecrash Triton, of course! Not only does another three-drop help fill out the decks curve, but it gives more value to our cantrip auras and gives us more ways to interact with our opponent’s side of the board.

Pack 3 pick 7:

A simple enough pick; the green/blue cards have really been flowing this pack.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 8:

Fate Foretold is a nice upgrade to one of our Karametra’s Favors.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 9:

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 10:

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 11:

If we didn’t already have Consign to Dust, I would take Artisan’s Sorrow here no question. As it is, it’s better to pick up another aura for our Heroic creatures.

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 12:

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 13:

My pick:

Pack 3 pick 14:

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Pack 3 pick 15:

My pick:

All things considered, the deck came together quite nicely. Pack three was very good to us, and it’s worth noting that the flow of white cards cooled off considerably. Although it would have been really nice to pick up a Voyage’s End or Griptide, the deck at least has two Wavecrash Tritions to fight against opposing creatures. I would have really liked to have seen a Staunch-Hearted Warrior or two and I don’t think people were taking them from me, but sometimes the commons you need just aren’t there.

For deck construction, there were a couple of tricky decisions. First off, with so many cantrip enchantments and a pair of mana creatures I knew I wanted to play sixteen lands. If the option had been between a mediocre card or a seventeenth land, I would go with the land, but in this case we’ve got more than enough good cards to work with. The other tough decision was what to play for the 23rd-24th card. The options were between Divination, Nullify, Consign to Dust, the second Karametra’s Favor, and Flootide Serpent. In the end I decided to go with Consign to Dust and Floodtide Serpent. Floodtide Serpent is a good body to have around, and it works quite nicely with the cantrip auras and bestow creatures already in the deck. As for Consign, the deck is a little low on interaction and Consign can not only help out on that front, but is the most powerful card in the bunch.

Round One

To start things off, I was met with this opening hand on the draw. Although it doesn’t have green mana, it has a castable two-drop, a Fate Foretold to help draw towards Forests, and few of the deck’s powerful cards. Although I was happy enough to keep this hand, I wasn’t too happy about what happened next:

Looks like I get to throw down against the white deck round one! How lucky!

My opponent had some early aggression in the form of Oreskos Swiftclaw. My first few draws of the game were Forest, Forest, and Setessan Oathsworn, so I didn’t mind trading off my Meletis Astronomer to avoid taking damage. To top things off, I drew a Stratus Walk so I knew I would be able to voltron up the Oathsworn and go to town as long as I didn’t fall to early beats.

From this point, I was able to strive Aerial Formation to further beef up Setessan Oathsworn and tap down my opponent’s Eagle of the Watch, securing the win. Although it felt good to return to the triple-Theros mindset and brain my opponent with a huge monster, I could tell it was going to be a difficult match. As expected, my opponent had picked up a lot of the aggressive white creatures running around and had at least two Bladetusk Boars to boot.

During sideboarding, I decided not to make any changes. I was close to taking out Consign to Dust because I didn’t see any enchantments game one, but I wanted to have an out to the possibility of my opponent bestowing onto a Bladetusk Boar.

To start game two my opponent had a very aggressive hand of Oreskos Swiftclaw into Kragma Butcher. With my first play being a naked Nyxborn Triton, I was quickly on the back foot. Although I tried to trade creatures as aggressively as possible, I was choked on mana and my opponent had a few cheap combat tricks to punish me. Eventually I found myself passing the turn in this position:

This is the kind of turn everyone knows all too well when it comes to dealing with aggressive decks. The turn where you cross your fingers and hope they don’t have it so you have a chance to stabilize and win the game. The “critical turn,” if you will. As it played out, my opponent wasn’t able to kill me and simply attacked with both their creatures to put me to two life and deployed an Akroan Skyguard before passing the turn. I was able to play Horizon Chimera on my upkeep to gain a life, and followed it up with a Voyaging Satyr. I felt very good about my chances from this point until my opponent drew their card for the turn and added a Bladetusk Boar to the field. That’s when things got really interesting.

For my turn I gained a life with Horizon Chimera (going up to four) and drew Rise of Eagles. Since I knew I couldn’t draw both Wavecrash Triton and a way to target it next turn, my only hope of winning was by getting as aggressive as possible and drawing extremely well. I played Rise of Eagles, scryed a land to the bottom, and went to feed one of my bird tokens to the Floodtide Serpent so I could attack. Imagine my surprise when I was met with this screen.

You’ll notice that Magic Online is asking me to declare my attackers, even though I had already done so. Because of this, the game wouldn’t let me take any other action, but was continuing to take time off of my clock. Nothing I did changed anything- not F6ing, not clicking “OK” 100 times, not even restarting the client. It was at this point that I remembered a post my teammate Steve Mann had made a few days prior:

You gotta love Magic Online!!

With no other possible course of action, I was forced to concede the game. To be fair, there weren’t many cards I could have drawn to keep me alive, but it was possible. I could have drawn Fate Foretold into Karametra’s Favor into Wavecrash Triton to gain enough life with Horizon Chimera to buy an extra turn then drawn a way to trigger Wavecrash Triton and lock down Bladetusk Boar. Like I said, unlikely but possible.

Tilt aside, it was time to sideboard for game three. Even though Floodtide Serpent’s 4/4 body matched up well against my opponent’s deck, I didn’t really want to play a card that said “When this creature attacks, you lose the game” in my deck. I also took out Consign to Dust since my opponent still hadn’t played a single artifact of enchantment for it to kill. I brought in Nullify to help give me game against Bladetusk Boar as well as Mortal’s Resolve to help fight against my opponent’s cheap tricks.

Remember when I said my opponent didn’t have any artifacts or enchantments?

With Consign to Dream sitting in my sideboard and a bunch of lands sitting in my hand, I was met with a tough decision with game three on the line. If my Cloaked Siren had been a creature without flying, I would have thrown Stratus Walk onto that Akroan Skyguard and tried to race. As it were, I felt like putting it on Nyxborn Wolf so I could chump block and draw a card from Fate Foretold gave me the highest chance of getting back into the game. As it turns out, I drew Nyxborn Triton off the aura and I was able to bestow it onto Cloaked Siren to make a 5/5 flier that could block the Skyguard. Unfortunately, this time around my opponent had the trick and was able to punish me thoroughly.

A few land draws later and I had lost the draft. I don’t think the matchup was as bad as it seemed games two and three, it was just unfortunate that I didn’t draw one of my two Wavecrash Tritons to keep my opponent’s creatures under control.

All things considered, I feel pretty good about how this draft went. Although I definitely could have made an early move into white, it’s not like there weren’t blue and green cards for me to draft or I ended up short playables. Blue/green is still a very powerful archetype in JBT draft and it is one I’ll be looking to play this weekend. If you told me I needed to 3-0 my second draft pod to Top Eight Grand Prix DC and I could play this deck, I would take the offer in a heartbeat (although I wouldn’t mind a bounce spell or two!).