I’m back, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. Interesting, the best thing since wrestling, investing in your kids ears and nesting. It’s another short column today, what with Friday Night Magic to play (draft this week – YES!) and a good deal of other thumb-twiddling to do. I hope you’re not too disappointed – and never fear…I’ll be back next week with a FNM report and more.
Speaking of draft, bad drafting always makes for good stories. The guys I draft with generally aren’t too terrible, but you all know that sometimes the ol’ brain goes on vacation when you’re busting and passing. Witness the following:
1.”Evil” Matt Fox Sticks To His…Color?
Matt Fox is sometimes a savvy drafter, but during a recent FNM he made one of the worst picks I have ever seen. Having drafted nothing but fourteen green cards and a Patriarch’s Desire in the Odyssey pack, Matt opens a Laquatus’ Champion and has the perfect opportunity to make Black his second color.
Matt takes a Basking Rootwalla over it and ships the Laquatus’ Champion to his neighbor, Jay Vanderwielen. Jay was in Black, which is no surprise – but considering that Matt took probably the only good black card that came to him (the Patriarch’s Desire), there was little chance that the people on his left were in Black. He was going to be set in Torment, probably looking at eight to nine playable Black cards.
Not surprisingly, Matt’s 1/1 pumpable dork doesn’t quite add the same level of power to his deck that a 6/3 life-draining regenerator would have.
2. Mike Clark’s Treacherous Werewolf
Rochester drafting in the hotel room at Canadian Nationals, Level 1 Judge Mike”Jersey” Clark is putting together a B/W/U deck that has already ensured the Blue component because of an early pick Ambassador Laquatus in the Torment pack, plus a few straggler Blue cards here and there.
Mike busts a Judgment pack that contains Wonder, but takes Treacherous Werewolf over it. That sound you hear is the psychic echo of half the table going “What the hell?” and the other half answering “I don’t have a damn clue.”
I chalk it up to fatigue. No, Mike didn’t win that draft.
3. Tanks Alot, Big T
During the same draft, Trent Rogers is playing U/W and takes a Think Tank over Mystic Zealot. Now, Think Tank is a fine card… But you do not pass Mystic Zealot when you are U/W, or even when you have a chance to go U/W with the Zealot as your first white card.
John Labute, on Trent’s left, takes the Zealot, and builds a great white deck.
4. Nick”Grandpappy” Martiniuk Screws Manabase, Self
With two Shower Of Coals, two Firebolts, a Sengir Vampire and two Grotesque Hybrids in his deck going into the third pack, Nick is looking like a strong candidate for the victory, especially since those cards were only the tip of the iceberg in a deck that also features Cabal Torturer and other high-caliber tools.
Nick’s plan for pack three should be to grab any and all Arcane Teachings and early R/B gift uncommon picks (Swelter, Treacherous Vampire) while also nabbing solid dorks like Barbarian Bully.
Nick turns an almost sure draft win into a loss, though, as he opens a pack containing Phantom Centaur, takes it, and then takes Grizzly Fate, then more green cards, and proceeds to build a three color special with no mana fixers. Phantom Centaur, Grizzly Fate?
That’s no splash, that’s a space station.
The funniest part about it was that his switch into green royally screwed the guy drafting to his left. The poor guy, who may or may not have been Jay Vanderwielen, could only watch with horror as Nick proceeded to destroy him in his usual bombastic,”outlawed by the DCI” drafting style. You know the style I’m talking about – you only see it at FNM. Nick is the guy who tells you about his bombs right after he picks them.
“Phantom Centaur, I hear that’s pretty good,”
Anyhow, Nick loses in the second round to…(drum roll)…color screw… Dying with Sengir Vampire and Cabal Torturer in hand with only one source of black mana.
There are more, but those are the four that really stand out in my mind. I’m sure the guys featured here could tell a few stories about me, too – like the time I pumped up my Psychatog for the win in a draft event and proceeded to run it into Trent Roger’s Seton’s Scout. My ego was flying at half-mast for the rest of the night.
Check the watch – I’m leaving early today. There’s FNM is play and a world of Magikal Kard adventures to experience – so I can’t be dilly-dallying around here.
Before I go though, a quick note on the R/G OBC deck I posted yesterday. If it’s going to work, there are some serious hurdles that need to be overcome. First, the mana. There needs to be more red. Violent Eruption is too hard to cast with the current manabase. Second, even with the Reckless Charge and the full compliment of burn, it can’t handle too many Roar tokens. This alone will kill the deck. It’s quite strong against Screech decks and so forth, but the Wurm decks are just a beating.
Give it some thought, and so will I. See you next week – I’m outta here. With the quickness.
Or something.