Pack 1, Pick 1 - #1

Hi again!

Okay, so it's pack one of the draft and you crack open the following booster. What is the pick?

Let's start by cutting the options down, based on the cards we definitely aren't going to take.

Both of these guys are pretty generic fatties that you'r never really going to be excited to play. The Thresher is an expensive Craw Wurm, with the extra mana of value apparently being that it dies to even more removal than normal. Scrapdiver Serpent is far more resilient, but for this mana cost we really want an evasion ability that is on all the time. Both of these dudes can regularly be found hanging out in the dregs of the pack, so there will almost definitely be another shot at these if we want them (hint: we don't).

Psychic Miasma is an intricate card that is home to many mysteries. For a start, the guy in the picture has a hat on that covers his ears, so we're not sure if it's an elf being mind-probed or a human. The confusion worsens when you notice that where the snaking tendrils cross the figure's body it seems to have turned to stone. Is this some kind of petrification taking place? Seemingly not, because his face appears skeletal underneath them. Odd.

There are some words on the card too, but figuring out who would want this effect is as confusing as the artwork. Avoid.

Island is the strongest land in the block for constructed, but in draft I'll pretty much always pick a Silver Myr over it. Don't fall into the trap and take it here.

Both of these cards are realistic playables, and both surprisingly close in utility. Ferrovore represents a substantial threat in the late game if it can get through unblocked, but can leave you open to massive card disadvantage. The more spellbombs you have the better the deal becomes, especially as the red spellbomb combos with both ends of this card.

Moriok Replica does an even better job, since being an artifact counts for an awful lot in this block. I would be happy to start either of these cards in the right deck, but there are so many better options in the pack that they are put to the side for now.

Now we're down to the serious business of cutting legitimate first-pickable cards; this pack is deep. My first action is to look for cards that perform the same role in a deck, but where one is noticeably worse than the other.

Auriok Edgewright and Glint Hawk both lose out in comparison to Glint Hawk Idol for me. I like Edgewright a lot, so much so that I will pick him over Sunspear Shikari unless I already have a couple of quality pieces of equipment. My view is that it is more likely you can draft a deck that can enable metalcraft than it is to gamble on picking up specific equipment cards (Darksteel Axe and Sylvok Lifestaff are the two I really want on Shikari). Against the Glint Hawk Idol we are measuring up a solid creature that becomes great with metalcraft and a great evasive creature that counts towards metalcraft. Easy choice for me.

Glint Hawk versus Glint Hawk Idol seems like a comparison that should favour the creature being idolised. It seems like whoever made the Idol thought a bit too much of the Glint Hawk, since the Idol is so much better. I love playing them together, but I don't think there is any number of Glint Hawk Idols I can have drafted where I would take a Glint Hawk over one.

The next comparison based cut is the Galvanic Blast. I love the Blast, and will take it over most commons, but Arc Trail is just ridiculous value.

Lumengrid Drake, along with Sky-Eel School and Darkslick Drake, is an odd case in this format. The rate at which you see these cards circling the table is astonishing when you consider they would barely go past third pick in most formats. I wouldn't be surprised if these rose is value as the format evolves, what with this card being a flying Man-o'-War and all. For this pick, though, the Glint Hawk Idol is a 2/2 flyer that can attack two turns earlier and is an artifact, so under-rated or not, we pass on the drake.

Tumble Magnet comes the closest yet to ousting the Idol in a Top Trumps style face-off. My choice comes down to two factors. If we want an artifact to achieve metalcraft, the cheaper Glint Hawk Idol serves us better. If we want a removal spell, both Arc Trail and Spikeshot Elder offer more permanent solutions. Tumble Magnet falls into the gap between these two wishes, fulfilling neither of them completely. It would be a fine choice, but I'd prefer to take one of the more powerful and focused cards.

The next card I discount is Ichor Rats, not because of a direct comparison, but because of what it means for the rest of our draft.

Infect is an odd archetype to draft. The base power level of the mechanic is very high, and if you could get every infect card in the draft you would have the best deck at the table. What really happens, though, is that several people will fight over the deck, with the result that each of their decks will have a power level roughly equal to that base power level divided by the number of drafters. With only two drafters you'll still have one of the best decks, but at three and upwards you start dropping below the strength of the normal metalcraft and good stuff decks.

So how does this differ from competing with people over metalcraft, or over the blue control cards? Well, if I start out picking up white metalcraft creatures, but end up short on artifacts to power the deck, I can still put together a decent deck. The parts may not quite be there to make it an efficient machine, but at least all the cards I do have are pulling in the same direction. With an infect strategy you're not going to be so lucky, every non-infect creature you're forced to run directly pulls against your chosen win condition. When you draw a split of creatures which ones do you attack with? What happens when they kill your infect creatures at 7 poison and you draw only non-infect men after?

This isn't to say that I won't draft infect, but I try to avoid forcing it unless there is no other good option. Besides, Ichor Rats is one of the less exciting members of the archetype, usually representing the equivalent of a Shock before trading with a Myr.

Now we're really coming down to it, as any one of the three remaining cards can be argued for effectively. I think that Glint Hawk Idol is the least impressive, purely on the basis that both of the others offer the chance to remove multiple creatures.

Between the two red removal spells I am less sure of the choice. Arc Trail offers an incredible deal for the mana, and kills so many important creatures in this format. Spikeshot Elder is more mana intensive to use, but offers even more potential to control the board and even straight up win games. This early in the draft we are in a position to maximise his potential as much as possible by picking up equipments and valuing cards like Painsmith and Trigon of Rage highly.

Spikeshot Elder is the pick.

Steve

Drafting With Steve - SOM, SOM, SOM #1

I figured I'd start this series off with a Scars of Mirrodin draft from MTGO. This is probably only the 8th time I've drafted the set, so I'm still finding my feet with a lot of the cards. This draft is recorded from the 4-3-2-2 queues, since early on I'm mainly looking to try new archetypes while maximising the chances of chaining a few drafts together.

  Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick:

I deliberated a fair bit over this pick between Razor Hippogriff, Sylvok Lifestaff and Chimeric Mass. I eliminated Lifestaff first; between the two artifacts the Mass seems far more versatile depending on what we end up drafting, although it is a worse choice if we decide to draft infect. I've had a lot of success with infect but I'm not really looking to force it at the moment, and I prefer Chimeric Mass in the abstract.

Razor Hippogriff pretty much puts us into W/x metalcraft, where it is a very good top end for your curve. I've been trying to draft low curve decks when possible with metalcraft, since this both supports the aggro strategy you usually want to employ and gives you a better chance to achieve metalcraft early. I usually only want three or four cards above CMC 4 in these decks, and you can usually fill these slots with your later picks. In this archetype the Chimeric Mass is just going to be better since you can play it at any point on the curve, plus you can also play it for 0 if you have a Glint Hawk.

  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick:

So having made that pick to try and stay open, the second booster is pretty much demanding that we decide on our archetype right now.

All four infect creatures are highly playable, with Plague Stinger being the pick if we decide to go in on it. The rare is missing from the pack, so we can't tell if this is a definite signal that the player to our right is avoiding infect, or if they just took a Putrefax or other bomb. The next thing to consider is that if we take the Plague Stinger the player to our left is still going to receive three very desirable infect creatures. It looks likely that at least two of the four players to our left may go into infect, and I think we're best avoiding fighting with them.

Ignoring the infect cards, I think the pick comes down to Perilous Myr, Lumengrid Drake, Razor Hippogriff and Origin Spellbomb. I like Lumengrid Drake and the tempo it can generate, but it is in a worse colour than Hippogriff. Having already passed a Razor Hippogriff last pack, passing a second one here could be considered a strong signal to go into white. Origin Spellbomb is less of a signal and likely to be passed over in favour of the infect creatures. Perilous Myr is excellent, but my desire to establish myself in white here takes precedence.

  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick:

This pack seems to be supporting the decision to head towards metalcraft. Both Accorder's Shield and Origin Spellbomb are good artifacts to have in that archetype. Between the red cards I think Barrage Ogre is the stronger option, but what we really want are fast creatures at the moment. My pick is Sunspear Shikari here, to further cut white and hope to pick up some cheap equipments later on.

  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick:

Or, on the other hand, immediately. There isn't a great deal for us in this pack. Carapace Forger isn't that exciting even with metalcraft, and I'm not a fan of green outside of infect strategies. The pick here is between the two equipments, and Sylvok Lifestaff is the clear winner for me. Bladed Pinions is probably the better of the two in infect decks, where evasion is more important than pumping your guy and the first strike matters much more. In metalcraft the lower casting cost and power increase Lifestaff provides is the deciding factor.

  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick:

At this point we can safely say that the players to our right aren't drafting infect, since Plague Stinger should not be going fifth. If we'd jumped into infect with pick 2 we could very well be cleaning up, since we'd get the scraps in the second pack but be in the prime drafting seat for the third. As it is we have a choice to make between moving into blue with Trinket Mage or taking the safer Auriok Replica. I say 'safer' because it not only keeps us based in white, but we also need to make sure our artifact count stays high enough. On the other hand, with both Chimeric Mass and Sylvok Lifestaff already the Trinket Mage will usually have a good target and provide us with +1 artifact anyway.

  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick:

There isn't much I'd take over Glint Hawk Idol, and none of those cards are in this pack. I did note the Sky-Eel School, which seems a good indication of further blue cards being available. Tower of Calamities seems interesting, but there is no way I can justify trying it out at the expense of the Idol.

  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick:

This pack is worrying for me, with nothing really attractive at all in it. The on-colour cards are awful, leaving the pick between Necrogen Censer, Goblin Gaveleer and Fume Spitter. The Spitter is the best card in the pack, but with blue and white cards already I don't want to branch into black too. The most likely black cards that would end up making the deck are Bleak Coven Vampires and Grasp of Darkness, and the BB casting cost would put a lot of pressure on the mana base. I took Goblin Gaveleer on the rationale that I would be likely to end up splashing any Galvanic Blasts I saw anyway, so it might make the cut. In retrospect this was a mistake, and I should have taken Necrogen Censer as an additional artifact that will have far more influence on the game.

  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick:

Not much again. I took Wall of Tanglecord over Screeching Silcaw, but I think again that this might have been wrong. Wall is an artifact, which is a plus, but I'm not going to be able to activate it at the moment. The Silcaw looks terrible, but I'm actually starting to quite like it since flyers are a lot better in this set than usual. The stats are also quite relevant, since there are a lot of 1/1s running around that Silcaw can put off. It also holds equipment well and represents a decent threat.

  Pack 1 pick 9:

  My Pick:

Looks like non-infect green is open. If only non-infect green wasn't terrible. I took the Tel-Jilad Defiance as a hate pick, since I'm expecting it to be a good card against me. I didn't really consider the Kuldotha Rebirth here, which might be wrong.

  Pack 1 pick 10:

  My Pick:

It's pretty interesting that while all four infect creatures from pack 2 were drafted, Ichorclaw Myr made it back round. There was only a Trigon of Infestation in the pack that would play in an infect deck, so it looks like there aren't actually four infect drafters. I did consider the Flameborn Hellion which I have seen used to good effect as a splash card, but ultimately a cheap artifact guy that performs well defensively seems the better option.

  Pack 1 pick 11:

  My Pick:

At this point I definitely don't want another Wall of Tanglecord, so I take the Plated Seastrider. Annoyingly, if I had taken Screeching Silcaw in pick 8 I would have been free to get the artifact here.

  Pack 1 pick 12:

  My Pick:

I consider Mountain to be the only other playable card in this pack.

  Pack 1 pick 13:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick:

After the first pack we have cemented ourselves in white with blue as a likely partner, although red is also an option. We need to keep on the lookout for good cheap artifacts to enable the Glint Hawk Idol and hopefully pick up some more powerful metalcraft cards too.

  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick:

Well, we failed to open a bomb rare, so it looks like we'll have to stick with the plan. I'm not sure how playable Heavy Arbalest is, given the big mana required to take advantage of it. This deck is looking to win before that becomes a possibility. Kemba's Skyguard is an excellent guy, but both Auriok Sunchaser and Auriok Replica have more synergy with our plan. The Replica is probably second best to Origin Spellbomb if we decide to take an artifact, but ultimately the Sunchaser is one of the best metalcraft guys we can get and I go with it.

  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick:

There is a limit to how many non-artifact spells we can support and still reasonably expect to achieve metalcraft. At this point I'm starting to prioritise artifacts higher to make sure I can get enough. Sunpear Shikari is still tempting, but with only one equipment (two if you count the Trinket Mage) I am not that desperate for his services. Golem Artisan is pretty bomby late in the game when you have plenty of mana to activate him and I take it over the expensive removal and off-colour spellbomb.

  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick:

I think I like Etched Champion more than most people. It is pretty easy to activate the protection, and then just bashes away against most decks. The next best card (or the best if you disagree with the Champion) is Glint Hawk Idol, and I'd be pretty happy if I'd picked that too.

  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick:

I think Bonds of Quicksilver is the clear pick here, especially since I'm lacking removal thus far. In this case I decided to pick Myr Reservoir (with a view to trying to acquire some Perilous Myrs and Darksteel Myrs to combo with it) since I've not had the opportunity to try this card out yet.

  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick:

I think this pick was probably just wrong, as Bonds of Quicksilver is just a better option for the deck. Kemba's Skyguard is never going to be bad, but the deck would far prefer a removal spell in the few non-artifact slots.

  Pack 2 pick 6:

  My Pick:

Nothing exciting here, the choice is between Memnite or Vedalken Certarch. I decided that the Certarch was the more likely to see play. Memnite is great for getting busted metalcraft starts, but really drops off in impact after turn 1. On the other hand the Certarch has a constant game changing effect at any point.

  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick:

Not much to discuss here with Neurok Replica ticks all the boxes.

  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick:

I've heard some good things about Golden Urn, but I'm pretty sure Soliton is always going to be better for me. Twisted Image doesn't affect most of the creatures you'll see, so most of the time it's worse than having a spellbomb. I'd consider running Venser's Journal if it actually did anything.

  Pack 2 pick 10:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 11:

  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:

Wow, that pack just didn't deliver at all. I don't think I missed any obvious signals, there just wasn't much opened. On the plus side, if this is the case we're all in the same boat. If not we'll need to get very lucky in pack three.

  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick:

Go luck! This is a pretty deep pack for us, so I'm hoping to get at least another Skyguard or the Drake back.

  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick:

Darksteel Axe is one of the best uncommons in the set, so it must have been a pretty good rare in this pack to take over it. The next closest card is Glint Hawk, but with Trinket Mage the Axe just gains so much value for us that there really isn't a question about picking it.

  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick:

Finally, here is one of those Galvanic Blasts I mentioned! It's a shame we're passing a second Glint Hawk for it, but we have no removal so far and can't really ask for a much better chance at it. With two double blue cards in the pack I'm hoping we might get to wheel one of them, too.

  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick:

Revoke Existence is the clear pick here. A second Golem Artisan would really clump up the curve, and Dispense Justice is just worse removal in most situations.

  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Woohoo! We now have a fairly respectable removal package after the last three picks.

  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick:

This is a bit of a gift this late in the draft, it looks like we were definitely right to be on blue. I'm not a massive fan of the blue Trigon, which tends to be a bit too slow outside of control matchups. At this point I realise that we haven't picked up any Spellbombs and the mana myr have been nowhere in sight this draft!

Seriously, I just checked back and there were literally only a couple of Leaden Myr that I took the Axe and Blast over. Seems. Bad.

  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick:

We're suffering from EPS (empty pack syndrome) again. With only Chimeric Mass concerned with counters the Steady Progress will do nothing, leaving us with a Memnite as the only card that might make the deck.

  Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick:

This is a little more like it. Riddlesmith does ride the line between digging you to the cards you need to see, and reducing the artifact count in the deck making himself and your other metalcraft cards worse. Flight Spellbomb may have been the correct choice here though, our artifact count is a little low.

  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick:

It seems it was the Drake that made it back to us out of all the good stuff.

  Pack 3 pick 10:

  My Pick:

I take Darksteel Myr as the only vaguely playable card, but I've pretty much given up on the Reservoir making the deck at this point.

  Pack 3 pick 11:

  My Pick:

The Neurok Invisimancer got snapped up, but Sky-Eel School made it back round. It looks like we should have a strong squad of flyers in the deck. The major concern is a shortage of playable artifacts.

  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick:

Echo Circlet is not a solution to a shortage of artifacts.

  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick:

I'm pretty happy with a late Saberclaw Golem, and with the splash for double Glavanic Blast we may even be able to activate the ability!

  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 15:

  My Pick:


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Okay. We kind of limped over the line with this draft, and look to be a few playables short of the ideal situation. The core of the deck is as follows:

• 1 Auriok Sunchaser
• 1 Sunspear Shikari
• 1 Razor Hippogriff
• 1 Revoke Existence
• 1 Trinket Mage
• 1 Lumengrid Drake
• 1 Darkslick Drake
• 1 Sky-Eel School
• 2 Galvanic Blast
• 1 Chimeric Mass
• 1 Neurok Replica
• 1 Ichorclaw Myr
• 1 Etched Champion
• 1 Golem Artisan
• 1 Saberclaw Golem
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Glint Hawk Idol
• 1 Darksteel Axe
• 1 Sylvok Lifestaff

That's 20 cards, and with no mana myr I want to play at least 17 lands. So we need to find another 3 cards for the deck from the following:

• 1 Kemba's Skyguard
• 1 Vedalken Certarch
• 1 Riddlesmith
• 2 Screeching Silcaw
• 1 Memnite
• 1 Wall of Tanglecord
• 1 Darksteel Myr
• 1 Soliton
• 1 Trigon of Mending

We already have four cards that cost 5, so Soliton is out of contention straight away.

With only 10 artifacts in the deck so far I'd like to up that number if possible. Wall of Tanglecord does too little to affect the game state, especially when we don't have the option to give it reach. Darksteel Myr also has 0 power, but can at least attack with equipment. However, infect makes indestructability much weaker in this format, so Memnite seems a better choice for that plan. The Trigon is useless against decks looking to win through poison, and merely underwhelming in other games, but on the other hand it does serve the purpose of being an artifact that is unlikely to draw removal.

In terms of the non-artifact options, the Certarch seems a bit too fragile when it's not guaranteed to be active. Kemba's Skyguard is solid, but the awkward mana cost and the fact that it doesn't play well with our artifacts count against it. Riddlesmith seems the most useful at finding our removal or Mountains to play it, as well as potentially setting up the Razor Hippogriff with a good target.

In the end I decide to go with Memnite, Trigon of Mending and Riddlesmith, adding 6 Plains, 8 Island and 3 Mountains to support the 2 Galvanic Blast.

A Note on Replays

If you have MTGO you should be able to watch replays of these games. All you need to do is edit the [username].mygames file that can be found in the MTGO folder (it should be something like C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Wizards of the Coast\Magic Online\3.0\). Open the file in a text editor and copy in the line of the game you want to watch, it should appear in your list of games when you log in.

I've included the code for each of the available codes below in square brackets. Simply copy the text (not including the brackets) and put it on a new line in the mygames file.

Round 1 - Royvikoren (B/G Infect)

Game 1 - ?

Annoyingly, the replay for game 1 is lost. I can't remember too much about it except that he had a weird mix of infect and non-infect, which seemed like a good thing for me as he split his attacks between the two strategies. In this case, instead of poison meaning my life total is effectively halved, it is almost like I get to start on 30 life! I managed to stabilise whilst on 7 poison counters and about 9 life when he dropped Geth, Lord of the Vault and threatened to run away with the game. I was able to attack in such a way that it made sense for him to block my Memnite, then post combat drop a Mountain and Galvanic Blast Geth away. I could then gradually push through damage with a Glint Hawk Idol holding a Sylvok Lifestaff.

Game 2 - [97828504#40901478#11/4/2010#21:50:02#dsomsomsom#Mezzobendigoth#Royvikoren (W)]

Game 2 started with a mulligan as I tossed back the following:

With the Blast in hand it is effectively a mulligan to 6 as it is, and I have no pressure. Revoke Existence is not that exciting against his deck either.

My six cards are:

Much better, with a decent curve and only really wanting to hit one of the seven remaining Islands to be great. He leads with a Plague Stinger and Blight Mamba, while my Trinket Mage holds off the Mamba the Stinger gets in for 3 hits. I fail to draw an Island, but a Mountain enables Lumengrid Drake, bouncing the Plague Stinger. We continue building up creatures, with him having Trigon of Infestation and then Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. He finds all infect creatures this time, and when he has an overlap he attacks and uses Untamed Might on the unblocked creature for the win.

Game 3 - [97830480#40901478#11/4/2010#22:04:04#dsomsomsom#Mezzobendigoth (W)#Royvikoren]

I choose to play first in the decider, since he is just trying to race me. My seven cards are:

Not really that tempting, although I guess drawing Mountain, Plains turns this into a God Hand. Meh, I mull into:

This is a lot more like it, although I can't seem to escape the Galvanic Blasts. I suppose there are worse problems to have.

He has double Vector Asp start, while my Shikari and Trinket Mage (fetching Darksteel Axe) look far more threatening. I make a 4/2 first striker and smash through his forces, while the Mage trades with his Contagious Nim. He follows up with a Tel-Jilad Fallen, but I draw Mimic Vat and suddenly he can't attack me for fear of activating the Vat.

He draws an Arc Trail to deal with the Shikari and attacks, I trade a Golem Artisan for his Vector Asp equipped with Grafted Exoskeleton, but decline to imprint it over the Shikari as I have Hippogriff in hand. The Hippogriff then trades with the second Asp, finding its way into the Mimic Vat and basically securing the game as he can no longer attack into me. I start making tokens in his End Step so I can attack him and double Galvanic Blast puts me through to round 2.

Round 2 - TH3ON3SONGOKU (G/R Infect)

Game 1 - [97832664#40904193#11/4/2010#22:17:00#dsomsomsom#TH3ON3SONGOKU#Mezzobendigoth (W)]

As we were the last match to complete I was straight into round 2 without having a chance to watch my opponent's last round. I'm still struggling with the interface, so couldn't see how to view the previous round's matches. Personally I don't think it's a great feature to be able to do this, since it's not like you can look through your opponent's deck in real life. It's also pretty annoying when you have to wait for 5 minutes at the start of the round because your opponent is watching back your previous games. Anyway, I lost the roll again and pondered these as my seven cards on the draw:

This is pretty slow, but against an unknown deck I think it's keepable. Revoke Existence answers most of the insane threats in the format, and the Drake is an excellent blocker until I can draw more action. Obviously I draw three straight lands while he's accelerating out infect creatures, with Cystbearer one of the few commons that the Drake can't block. I'm quickly at 5 poison counters, while he for some reason plays a Necrogen Censer which just does nothing if he's trying to poison me.

Despite my Drake getting blasted, I manage to stabilise with Saberclaw Golem, complete with Mountain. Neurok Replica bounces the Cystbearer before I bash in with Golem, and the Hippogriff makes an appearance to bring back the Replica. His response is to play Asceticism, while I bash him to 9. Tel-Jilad Fallen threatens to shut down my ground offensive, but the Hippogriff is free to attack in. He doesn't find a way to deal with it, and a Galvanic Blast on his end step prompts the concession.

Game 2 - [97834262#40904193#11/4/2010#22:39:52#dsomsomsom#TH3ON3SONGOKU (W)#Mezzobendigoth]

I'm on the draw again with the following hand:

It's not the most explosive hand, but pretty much anything we draw is going to turn it on so I'm happy to go with it here. As if to prove the point, a Plains off the top allows me lead out with the Sunchaser to his Lifesmith. I debate trading when he attacks, but decide against it since he'd shown me all poison last game. This turns out to be a mistake, as he gains a fair bit of life off it while sitting behind a Tangle Angler and holding down my Etched Champion with a Rust Tick. We play out a stall until he is able to alpha strike while luring all my creatures with his Angler.

Game 3 - ?

This game is also missing, although I know I curved out with Axe, Auriok Sunchaser, then turn 3 Glint Hawk Idol and Chimeric Mass to enable metalcraft. I was able to quickly beat him down with my flyers, despite Lifesmith showing up to buy him an extra turn, and Galvanic Blast to the face ended the round once again.

Round 3 - ? (W/U Control)

Game 1 - ?

This game is also missing. I kept a solid hand and opened with some early attackers while he developed mana, then used Arrest and Bonds of Quicksilver to stabilise. It looked like my Mimic Vat would be able to regain momentum until he stole it with Volition Reins. He had a Neurok Replica to imprint on it, locking me out of creatures but failing to provide a quick clock. I was down to 9 life while searching for the Revoke Existence when I was forced to concede due to offline concerns.

I'm pretty sure his deck would have had the upper hand in this match up, in the replays I watched I saw several other removal spells including a Sunblast Angel. I think 2-1 was a decent result with this deck, especially with the two wins coming against the poison decks. As I guessed early on, the number of poison players in the draft looked to have weakened their decks overall.

See you next time.

Steve