Draft Report - Nov 20, 2010

This draft was small, just 4 people, so we decided to spice things up a bit and draft 4 boosters each instead of 3. The result were very powerful decks and weird matches that ended all 2-0, except for one. I don't quite get why, but apparently the power gap between them was bigger than normal.

- BR Control (3-0, 6-0)
- WU Aggro-Control (2-1, 4-3)
- WG Midrange (1-2, 3-4)
- UW/UB (0-3, 0-6)


BR Control

7 Swamp
7 Mountain
Strip Mine
City of Brass
Akoum Refuge

Murderous Redcap
Siege-Gang Commander

Everflowing Chalice
Flame Slash
Innocent Blood
Duress
Doom Blade
Chainer's Edict
Hymn to Tourach
Oblivion Stone
Browbeat
Acidic Soil
Arc Lightning
Necromancy
Blightning
Hammer of Bogardan
Pulse of the Forge
Phyrexian Arena
Goblin Charbelcher
Quenchable Fire
Wrecking Ball
Diabolic Tutor
Slice and Dice

My BR Control was the most powerful deck I drafted in a long time. It had only two creatures (probably a record for the lowest in our drafts), rendering the opponents' creature removal nearly useless. It was very controlling, with discard (Blightning, Hymn to Tourach), burn, creature removal and a lone Oblivion Stone. It typically finished the game with two or three hits from Pulse of the Forge, Acidic Soil or Siege-Gang Commander, aided by Goblin Charbelcher and Hammer of Bogardan. Charbelcher, by the way, hit an unfair 10 damage at Kamila with 5 cards and a Mountain, despite being mostly a waste of mana in the other matches.

Discard was so important to avoid game breaking spells that, from all Diabolic Tutors I cast, all but one fetched Hymn to Tourach or Blightning.


WU Aggro-Control

6 Plains
8 Island
Thawing Glaciers
Arcane Sanctum
Coastal Tower

Goldmeadow Harrier
Wall of Glare
Youthful Knight
Kor Skyfisher
Wake Thrasher
Cloud Elemental
Hearthfire Goblin
Emeria Angel
Spitemare
Conundrum Sphinx
Sky Hussar
Ulamog's Crusher

Lightning Greaves
Scythe of the Wretched
Temporal Isolation
Puppet Strings
Grafted Wargear
Complicate
Cage of Hands
Safe Passage
Pulse of the Fields
Absorb
Chastise

This deck wins mainly by deploying efficient fliers as clocks and then controlling the game from then on, being a classical aggro-control. Kor Skyfisher, Emeria Angel, Cloud Elemental and Conundrum Sphinx did well in that clock role, being sturdy and evasive creatures. The control package was small but efficient: Absorb, Compicate, Chastise, Pulse of the Fields, Puppet Strings and Safe Passage. The equipments were key to making every threat relevant too. Lightning Greaves, especially, annoyed the hell of my burn deck.


WG Midrange

9 Forest
7 Plains
Graypelt Refuge
Evolving Wilds
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

Essence Warden
Birds of Paradise
Quirion Elves
River Boa
Ohran Viper
Great Sable Stag
Wickerbough Elder
Loxodon Hierarch
Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile
Indrik Stomphowler
Juniper Order Ranger
Archon of Justice
Vigor
Krosan Tusker
Verdant Force

Contagion Clasp
Vulshok Battlegear
Oblivion Ring
Wing Shards
Serrated Arrows
Explosive Vegetation
Entangling Vines
Saltblast
Overwhelming Stampede
Strength of the Tajuru

This deck features some ramping to accelerate into powerful threats like Vigor and Verdant Force. Despite that, the medium creatures are probably the best part of the deck, from the card advantage machine Ohran Viper to the Naturalize-on-legs, Indrik Stomphowler. It is a good example of a midrange deck, even though it has a slight weakness to fliers - the removal has to be saved for them. Too bad Overwhelming Stampede did not show up, I feel it would have been awesome here.

There's also a counter theme in this list, using Contagion Clasp to boost cards like Juniper Order Ranger, Wickerbough Elder, Serrated Arrows and Vigor. This engine was only relevant in one game, but it helps the long-term effectiveness of the deck.


UW/UB

The deck's owner changed it from a UW flavorful deck to a UB build after two matches, so I think it's pointless to list it here. The deck has a cool infinite turns in Panoptic Mirror + Time Warp, some good control elements (counterspells and creature control), but lacked a main strategy - cards were scattered between aggro and control.


Two-Headed Giant

After all fixtures, we played two-headed giant twice, with 1st and 4th vs 2nd and 3rd. Zaca and I won both games by incremental card advantage, messing with reanimated and copied enemy Indrik Stomphowlers and Archon of Justice, while my deck controlled the opposing hands and threats. Acidic Soil was a huge burn spell, but most of the damage was delivered by simply attacking with medium creatures on a clear battlefield.