G: Jeremy Darling
Pack One
Jeremy opens with a Shatter over Soul Foundry, which is certainly correct. He is then shipped Looming Hoverguard out of Harvey’s busted pack, and it is followed by Pyrite Spellbomb. He gets the Battlegear fourth and finishes out the first round of packs with Goblin Charbelcher, Cathodion, and another Pyrite Spellbomb. No real tough decisions here, and Jeremy definitely made all the right picks.
Pack Two
J is annoyed to see a Troll Ascetic staring back at him in pack two, and I must say that I personally would be very tempted to switch for it. Jeremy keeps his composure though and simply takes Somber Hoverguard. His second pick is a Goblin Replica out of Heiss’s weak booster, and he quickly slams his third pick Megatog. Jeremy’s deck keeps building itself as he picks up a Domineer fourth and a Neurok Spy fifth. The rest of the pack is utter trash save a Krark-Clan Grunt.
Pack Three
Jeremy correctly first picks Electrostatic Bolt over Detonate, and then is the recipient of the Skeleton Shard that Eugene somehow managed to goof-grab. His third pick is an unexciting Cobalt Golem, but it is bolstered by the Shatter he gets fourth and the Hoverguard that Harvey passes in favor of Mask of Memory. The rest of the pack is basically a hate-draft of a Skyhunter Cub and some other White cards along with a third copy of Cobalt Golem.
H: Nate Heiss
Pack One
The Heiss busts a Mask of Memory, which he takes over Tel-Jilad Archers, Neurok Spy, and Terror. His second pick is a Skyhunter Cub over Soul Foundry, which is great with his Mask. Third he grabs a Leonin Skyhunter, and follows it up with Arrest. No real difficult picks here. Fifth he grabs a Thirst for Knowledge out of Brown’s Slogger pack, since Harvey and Darling have taken both the Scimitar and Battlegear respectively. It’s quite clear that Nate has a lock on White at this point, and it holds throughout the draft.
Pack Two
He cracks open the namesake man of any White deck: Skyhunter Patrol in pack two. His next picks consist of Bonesplitter (over Megatog which I don’t really understand, and will elaborate on later), Arrest, Lightning Greaves, Skyhunter Cub, Leonin Den-Guard, and Viridian Longbow respectively, and his deck is looking absolutely insane. He picks up another Den-Guard before all is said and done and thankfully Jeremy Darling picked up the Vulshok Gauntlets late in pack one, or Nate’s deck would be nigh unstoppable.
Pack Three
Here’s where we have an issue. Nate busts open Grab the Reins and Looming Hoverguard. Since he has Thirst for Knowledge he somehow assumes that he’s in Blue, even though he hasn’t seen another good Blue card the entire draft (because Jeremy and Harvey are both already fighting for it in front of him). So for some godforsaken reason, Heiss takes the Looming Hoverguard here when Thirst is his only other Blue card. This makes absolutely no sense to me and I’ll always take Grab here. Heiss picks up a third Arrest, before grabbing Wizard Replica and Roar of the Kha. He picks up another Patrol and a Scimitar, and his deck is in great shape. Had he taken the Grab, I’d say his deck was off the charts.
Draft Two
You should notice immediately that since the packs were moved back three seats for the second draft, Jason is starting with the D set of packs instead of the A set, even though he is still in the first seat.
I’m also going to spend much less time going over the analysis here, and instead focus on what happened differently than the first time. After this I’ll list the exact picks of each player for each draft in a comparison form, along with some final words.
D: Jason Martel
Pack One
Jason makes a few different picks than Brown did in the first set of packs, simply because Jeremy correctly takes the One Dozen Eyes out of his pack instead of letting Jason get it third like Mike Saby did in the first draft, when he took Myr Enforcer over it. He scoops up Shrapnel Blast second, when Nate takes Clockwork Dragon over it. Jason then winds up with the Fangren Hunter from that pack, and his deck is much worse than Brown’s was simply because Jeremy is taking the Green cards whereas Saby was not.
Pack Two
The Dr. apparently disagrees with Brown and goes with the Empyrial Plate over the Icy Manipulator here. While he didn’t end up with any Tel-Jilad guys after the first pack (Brown had three), it’s still somewhat of a questionable pick, but also much more reasonable with his cards instead of Brown’s. Jason takes Forge[/author] Armor”][author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] Armor over Goblin War Wagon for some reason third pick, when he’s very unlikely to play the clunky spell.
Pack Three
The big pick in this pack is Jason taking Fangren Hunter over Detonate and Shatter, when Nate Heiss takes the Mindslaver out of the pack he opened. This seems alright, but also probably wrong, considering Jason’s only removal at that point was Shrapnel Blast and the Bolt that he just first-picked.
E: Mike Sabatini
Pack One
Saby obviously takes the Hammer first, but then strays from Turian’s path by taking Tel-Jilad Exile where Turian had taken Slith Bloodletter. As I said earlier, I’d still probably pick the Vulshok Battlegear, but who knows. Sabs follows this up with an Archer and Vulshok Berserker and grabs another Exile before it’s all said and done.
Pack Two
Since Mike had picked up a late Gold Myr and Blinding Beam, he takes the Leonin Abunas first, over the Tel-Jilad Archers that Turian had selected in the first draft. His next few picks are the same and he somehow mises a late Deconstruct along with a Predator’s Strike and the same third-pick Troll Ascetic that Turian had enjoyed the first time around.
Pack Three
Mike strays here by taking Shatter and Detonate and finally Skyhunter Cub, showing G/R/w. Turian had taken the Promise of Power, since he was firmly entrenched in G/B at this point, but I think most of the differences are due to color preference, which Turian showed strongly by second picking a Slith Bloodletter in the first pack.
F: Dane Thomas
Pack One
Dane grabbed the same Oblivion Stone and then Pentavus that our former National Champion picked up in the first draft. Dane then strayed from Eugene by taking the Battlegear over Myr Enforcer, and somehow receiving an extremely late Electrostatic Bolt out of the Clockwork Dragon pack. Dane stays mainly Red for the first set of packs, but also delves into Black slightly, whereas Harvey had gone completely in.
Pack Two
Dane’s picks differ here when he presumably hates a third-pick Trolls of Tel-Jilad, and then is fortunate enough to see Bonesplitter fourth when Harvey had originally only seen Neurok Spy. Dane also takes Pewter Golem, where Harvey took Nim Shrieker and I can’t see it making a huge difference in either case.
Pack Three
Thankfully, Dane does not select Leaden Myr for his first-pick. He correctly picks the Skeleton Shard, unlike Eugene Harvey, who clearly needs some glasses in this case. Dane grabs the Promise of Power, since Saby isn’t in Black, and then follows it up with Shatter and Consume Spirit, where Harvey had Mask of Memory and Myr Retriever. The Retriever is certainly significant in this case as it’s one of the best cards you can have when you’ve got the O Stone in your deck and I’d definitely take it over Consume here.
G: Andrew Brown
Pack One
Wow. Jeremy and Brown drafted this set of packs almost exactly the same. The only time Brown took a different card was when the card that Jeremy had originally picked was already gone from the pack! Maybe this set of packs was just very clean cut in terms of decision making, or that they share the same drafting style. I’m more inclined to believe that the picks were pretty easy, since I know both of these guys very well and their styles clash at times.
Pack Two
Brown isn’t granted the third-pick Megatog that Jeremy was, but he does grab a Neurok Spy instead, ending up with two Spys for this pack. Everything else is almost exactly the same too.
Pack Three
Brown gets another Spy third, when the Shatter that Jeremy took in the first draft was missing from the pack. Brown also takes Blinding Beam over Cobalt Golem, which I can’t really understand considering he was solid U/R. Brown grabs a Somber Hoverguard late that Jeremy didn’t have, and brings his count to three Spies and three Hoverguards. Ridiculous.
H: Mike Turian
Pack One
Here we have another scenario where the picks were apparently very obvious. Turian and Heiss differed very little on their picks, and there’s really nothing to mention since the first seven or so cards are identical on their lists.
Pack Two
Something weird happens here as Nate didn’t take the second-pick Megatog, while Turian is very happy to pick it up. The deck at this point for each of the players is almost near mono-White, and I see no reason why Heiss would take Bonesplitter over the Tog, when he has plenty of time to get Artifacts to fuel it. Mike doesn’t get the Greaves late, but he does pick up an Altar’s Light that Nate didn’t have. He also grabs a very late Blinding Beam.
Pack Three
Turian correctly takes the Grab the Reins and then somehow takes Banshee’s Blade over Arrest. What!? My only guess is that he was really desperate for Equipment, but Arrest isn’t really a card I want to be passing in that spot. Turian’s Patrol gets cut later in the draft, but he does get a Mask of Memory that Heiss didn’t have.
A: Eugene Harvey
Pack One
Somehow Harvey makes the same bad pick that Dr. Martell did, and takes the Solar Tide over Crystal Shard. He then correctly takes Terror over Neurok Spy, though, unlike the good doctor. Harvey takes Pewter Golem where Martell took Soul Foundry and then picks up the Bloodletter late, since it wasn’t snapped up second-pick by Turian this time around. Harvey’s deck is looking mono-Black by the end of the first pack while Jason’s was a much more mediocre Green/x concoction.
Pack Two
Harvey obviously takes the Grab, followed by Bolt and Lightning Greaves. The picks differ here simply because the two decks have gone different color paths, and Harvey picks up a Terror and a bunch of mediocre stuff.
Pack Three
Harvey’s third pack is rather depressing, as he first-picks Terror, and is then forced to take Frogmite second. He gets Detonate third, though, and his Red splash looks just fine.
B: Jeremy Darling
Pack One
Jeremy shows Saby a few things, by correctly taking One Dozen Eyes in the spot where Mike had taken Myr Enforcer. He then grabs the Crystal Shard that Harvey passed on, and heads right into U/G with a Spy, Exile, and Chosen.
Pack Two
With pack two comes a slam of Broodstar, and it is followed by Looming Hoverguard and Trolls of Tel-Jilad. Jeremy takes Aether Spellbomb in the position where Saby took Silver Myr, and I think I have to side with Jeremy on this one. Nothing much exciting happens, and the picks only differ in situations of color differences which is fine.
Pack Three
The huge difference here is that when Jeremy opens the Slug, he’s already in Green and immediately ditches the Broodstar plan for it. He gets shipped Solemn Simulacrum which is nuts with his Crystal Shard, and then a second copy of Looming Hoverguard. His deck is the absolute nuts and it becomes even more so when his next three picks are Predator’s Strike, Deconstruct, and Fangren Hunter. This is certainly the best deck at the table in the second run of the draft by quite a bit.
C: Nate Heiss
Pack One
Nate makes the wrong pick right off the bat here, taking Clockwork Dragon over Shrapnel Blast. I simply can’t agree with this. Nate then grabs Myr Enforcer, where Dane took Vulshok Berserker, which is definitely a fine pick. Nate moves into Green for an Archer, but stays mainly Red with Hematite Golem and others. He also picks up the Soul Foundry.
Pack Two
Nate takes Betrayal, obviously, and then gets Icy second and Archers third, where Dane had grabbed Abunas. Nate moves into R/G/b Affinity at this point.
Pack Three
Nate takes the Mindslaver over the cards already mentioned, where Dane had selected Shatter. I like the Slaver in this spot. The rest of the booster is mostly the same, except for times when Nate takes a Green card and Dane takes a Black one. Mere color differences or absence of a card from a pack.
Heads Up Comparison
Now I’ll list the exact picks made by the players, and have them set up in table form so you can see exactly where the paths strayed in the different drafts and I’ll make a few more comments along the way.
For space reasons, I’m leaving off the last few picks of each pack since they are all unplayables anyway.
A
Jason Martel | Eugene Harvey |
Pack One | Pack One |
Tel-Jilad Archer | |
Pack Two | Pack Two |
Pack Three | Pack Three |
(HOW LUCKY) | |
Here I think the big swings were as such. In pack one, Harvey’s deck was clearly the better of the two, as he got tons of late Black playables. Doctor Martel made up for it though by blowing out pack three and getting the absolute nuts. It’s hard to deny a deck with double Grab the Reins, double Detonate, and many more hits. In the end, Martel’s deck is better, even if only because he got shipped a lot more in the third pack.
B
Mike Sabatini | Jeremy Darling |
Pack One | Pack One |
Pack Two | Pack Two |
Pack Three | Pack Three |
The huge standout difference in this case is that Jeremy is able to play the Slug, while Saby is forced to hate-draft it. This all stems from mispicking in the first pack, by taking Myr Enforcer over One Dozen Eyes. Jeremy also makes some nice hate-drafts by taking Relic Bane late, and his deck absolutely explodes during pack three.
C
Dane Thomas | |
Pack One | Pack One |
Pack Two | Pack Two |
Pack Three | Pack Three |
This one is pretty much a toss-up, with a slight favorite going to Heiss’s deck, even though I still cringe at the Clockwork Dragon pick. Heiss’s deck is more fluid though and has lots of Frogmites and Enforcers, which combine well with the rest of his cards.
D
Jason Martel | |
Pack One | Pack One |
Arc Slogger | Arc Slogger |
Pack Two | Pack Two |
Forge[/author] Armor”][author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] Armor | |
Forge[/author] Armor”][author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] Armor | |
Leonin Blade-Trap | Leonin Blade-Trap |
Pack Three | Pack Three |
I have to give quite a bit of an advantage here to Brown’s deck. In most cases, it was just that the better cards got to him later, such as all of the late Green in pack one, but he also made a few more clutch picks than Jason in this seat.
E
Mike Sabatini | |
Pack One | Pack One |
Tel-Jilad Archer | |
Pack Two | Pack Two |
Pack Three | Pack Three |
Both of these decks are really too close to call in terms of which ended up better, and although Saby made a weird pick, taking the Exile second over Battlegear and Bloodletter, it ended up working out, as the Green flowed and his deck is rock solid.
[This article is continued yet again in Part 3.]