Hi everyone!
Having finally managed to track down where my rebuilt computer was storing the draft recorder files, we are back in a limited fashion! Today I have a slightly unusual New Phyrexia draft from the 8-4s to share.
Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick:
Phyrexian Obliterator, Viral Drake and Fallen Ferromancer are the best cards in this pack, with the Drake better than Ferromancer and probably the safest pick overall. I've drafted Obliterator before and ended up in black-green, where I had to leave it in the sideboard. If you get pushed into two colours Obliterator becomse the equivalent of splashing a double colour card, which is not something I would often do. In the interests of science I decide to slam the mythic, try to force as close to mono-black as possible, and know that I've made most of my outlay back already!
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
Caged Sun is tempting; it would make Obliterator easier to support if we have to branch out into other colours. On the other hand it is expensive, and we want to be playing Phyrexian Obliterator on turns four or five, not eight or nine. Despise and Razor Swine are the best cards in the pack, so I stick on colour. Combined with the Ferromancer we passed in pack one the Swine should provide a good signal that red is open. I guess that the player to our left took the Drake we passed them, so if we can hook them up with red-blue the player beyond should go into white or green and hopefully leave our black alone.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
This is a pretty stacked pack, which is good for us as we may be able to get the Mortis Dogs back. Parasitic Implant is an easy pick for us, with the Blighted Agent or Ferromancer likely being taken by the next two players.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
We have an actual choice of black cards here, with Caress of Phyrexia being a pretty strong indicator that black is open to our right. Toxic Nim is a fine finisher against non-infect decks, but it will often come round late. I wouldn't consider it a particularly strong signal to draft black, so I'm far happier to pass it here in the knowledge that Glissa's Scorn, Suture Priest, Vapor Snag and Immolating Souleater should be picked over it at least.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
I think with this pack that we are definitely on the right track. A second Caress means that we have some very good reach even if we only pick up five or six infect creatures. We don't have any yet, but that is fine as packs two and three are usually stuffed with them. If we've cut black as well as I hope, there should be very little competition for picking them up.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
No black to choose from here, but from the packs we have seen I would guess that the other black drafter is quite a way to our right. The only two cards worth considering in this pack are Apostle's Blessing and Chained Throatseeker. Blessing is very difficult to play around, and will usually end up countering a removal spell, acting as removal itself in combat and sometimes even getting a two for one. Chained Throatseeker is a fantastic blocker, would likely be able to attack in our deck and has a good mana cost for us to splash it. Blessing lets us stay mono-black for now though, so it just edges the decision.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Not an exciting pick, but Mycosynth Wellspring keeps us in one colour and supports any necessary splash. It is slightly worrying that there have been no black cards in the last two packs, but we'll know for sure how good our plan looks once we start seeing the early packs return. We're passing a relatively late Remember the Fallen here, but nothing else of real value.
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
It is surprising to see a Blighted Agent this late, blue looks pretty open here but I'm happy to pass it on to our left. Mortis Dogs is a fine card that I'm never unhappy to play. We haven't seen much exciting black for a few packs, but on the other hand the last black card we passed at all was the Toxic Nim in pack 4, so Besieged should be kind to us.
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
I'm pretty surprised that Razor Swine made it back round from the opening pack, especially with Phyrexian Hulk missing! Marrow Shards is the other option, which we might end up playing, but the decision is pretty close. If we do go into a second colour, it is likely to be because we open a Burn the Impure plus blanks in the next booster, in which case the Razor Swine is another strong card we can play. If we stay mono-black then the deck should be good enough to not miss the Marrow Shards at all, so I take the Swine to maximise the potential of the final deck.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
Nothing much here. I really like the Viridian Betrayers, but it looks like we're playing 12 swamps at least so they are out of our range. I'm not a fan of Ruthless Incursion, which seems like it needs an awful lot to go right for it to do anything. Surge Node is unlikely to make the cut, but I guess we could pick up a couple of Trigons or Tumble Magnets to make it possible.
Pack 1 pick 11:
My Pick:
I guess the Trespassing Souleater would make the deck, but so could this sweet Mental Mistep that is worth actual tix too! It's sad that the Mortis Dogs didn't make it back, but I'm still hoping the Nim will table.
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
Yesssss!
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
I actually prefer the Gitaxian Probe here, but this pick is a concession to the fact that we only have three creatures that are definitely making the deck so far.
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
Final pick signal! Or not, but at least the mountain has more chance of making it into the deck...
Pack 1 pick 15:
My Pick:
The first pick gamble looks like it might have paid off. It will quickly become clear as we should get the hook up with the larger infect creatures in Besieged, and set up for a Scars booster where we'll hope to fill out the deck with the two and three drops.
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
Well there's that Burn the Impure I was preparing for, but thankfuly we have some other nice choices to stay on target here. Inkmoth Nexus is obviously fantastic, but I'd rather let it go and take one of the black cards to continue cutting. The last thing we want after a disciplined first booster is to accidentally send someone else into our colour. Septic Rats is a stronger card than Scourge Servant in general, so I'm pretty happy to take it. Let's face it, the Servant is going to wheel from this pack.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
That's a surprising Corrupted Consicience after sending some insane blue to the left throughout the first pack. I don't like passing it, but Phyrexian Rager is a fair consolation prize. Fingers crossed that we get our dues soon though.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
I think a third pick Spread counts. We should get the Caustic Hound on the wheel, as it is generally not very liked. I actually quite like it along with Mortis Dogs and Bleak Coven Vampires in non-infect black, you can get a lot of reach on your late game creatures. White is definitely wide open, which is not too surprising considering how little we saw in the first pack.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
I'm still not excited by a Scourge Servant this early in the pack. The Virulent Wound is a decent removal spell that will go some way to shoring up our sparse early game. Sometimes you can cut a colour as hard as you like, but the good black cards just don't seem to have been opened.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Morbid Plunder is the clear pick here, but I am sad to have to pass a Phyrexian Juggernaut. Myr Sire is also a consideration given our lack of early creatures, but the actual card advantage of Morbid Plunder is too good to pass up. That is also a fantastically late Fangren Marauder for someone.
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
A similar decision here, and the same outcome. Strandwalker would provide some much needed defence against flyers, but we aren't exactly short on fives with at least one Scourge Servant to come.
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
I'm not really sure how this is still in the pack. At this point the lack of creatures is a little concerning, so Blightwidow serves a similar purpose to the Razor Swine pick in pack one and gives us an option to pick up some single mana green creatures.
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
No real choice here, looks like the rest of our pack is filling up on the fives that come back.
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
Well, at least this guy only costs four. At this point it is more important to draft to a curve - we don't have to be all-in on infect (and in fact I am quite happy to draft decks with a mix of both types of creature in this format). It looks like these were some pretty shallow boosters with the exception of the late Blightwidow and Fangren Marauder.
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
I'm not sure how good Mirrorworks actually is, but it seems to have a higher potential power than the remaining cards. I have always been unimpressed with Neurok Commando, and Gore Vassal and Hexplate Golem are pretty standard guys.
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
This was a misclick as I went for the Hound. Annoying.
Pack 2 pick 12:
My Pick:
Looks like the final Scourge Servant was tempting enough to someone else. I probably should have taken Rally the Forces here, but none of these tend to make main decks so I just went for the rare.
Pack 2 pick 13:
My Pick:
I could have had a sweet Horrifying Revelation deck, but having passed three already it is too late to jump in.
Pack 2 pick 14:
My Pick:
Unusual to see Vivisection so late, but this was one of the good packs so it seems fair in this case.
Pack 2 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack two wasn't great, and petered out rapidly. Spread the Sickness and the two Morbid Plunders are the highlights, but we really need to come good in Scars to fill out the deck.
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
Really? No vaguely interesting black cards at all?
Ratchet Bomb is fine, if slow, removal. I'd be happy to pick Trigon of Rage over it, but in this case we have no real early guys to use it with. Dross Ripper is not the kind of card you need to take first pick and should be back around the table shortly.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
Sigh. Fume Spitter is at least an early guy that can deal with quite a few relevant threats. We do need cards like this to let us survive into playing our bigger creatures, I was just hoping we'd be picking them seventh and eighth instead of second.
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
That's more like it. Both Ichor Rats and Plague Stinger are good guys, but I think everyone is up to speed with the pick order for Scars of Mirrodin cards by now. With double black in the cost, we can even hope to get the Rats back eleventh pick.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
We must be getting into some powerful packs now, because Necropede shouldn't normally be going fourth. There are a couple of Nihil Spellbombs going round, so it is likely that one of them will come back at least. They aren't massively exciting, obviously, but we may want a cheap cycling card. With double Morbid Plunder it is also not something I would want to play against.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
We have enough expensive mens to pass on the Vampires, but we probably don't have the luxury of sitting back and fireballing them out with Exsanguinate. Bladed Pinions strikes a balance between enhancing our early defenders and providing a way to break through in the late game.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick:
I am really not sure which five cards could be better than Necropede, but this is a fantastic card to pick up this late.
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick:
Not really that exciting, although it is worth noting that people rarely play around Blackcleave Goblin any more, so it is probably more valuable than it used to be.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick:
A solid guy to fit on our curve. Trades with most other three drops, notably Cystbearer, and with plenty of fours and fives. Reaver also wears Bladed Pinions very well.
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick:
Another random guy, but importantly this was the only other black card in the pack we opened which bodes well for the Ichor Rats we hope to receive.
Pack 3 pick 10:
My Pick:
We're looking a little bit more secure in the early game now, so taking the Spellbomb is less important than making sure a Tel Jilad Fallen isn't prancing past our Necropede based defence.
Pack 3 pick 11:
My Pick:
No Rats: sad face. Nothing that really affects us in this pack. Blunt the Assault could potentially cause the biggest problem from someone's sideboard.
Pack 3 pick 12:
My Pick:
The other Spellbomb didn't return either. Dross Hopper is unlikely to make the main deck, but having the option for a second one after sideboarding is useful, especially with a Corrupted Conscience out there.
Pack 3 pick 13:
My Pick:
At least one card tabled for us. Not sure it makes the deck, but could have a role to play in a control match.
Pack 3 pick 14:
My Pick:
As with Mirrodin Besieged, we get last bite of the properly strong booster at the table. Meh.
Pack 3 pick 15:
My Pick:
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And we're done. The third pack turned out far better than the second and it looks like we just about scraped together enough playables and decent curve to avoid having to splash. But let's make sure we are fairly evaluating the situation; we have a mono-black deck with a massive bomb in Phyrexian Obliterator, some decent removal and the best mana at the table.
In the end we have 29 playables. The core of the creatures by cost:
1CC:
2CC:
3CC:
4CC:
5CC:
6CC:
That's eleven definites, to go with the following eleven spells:
1CC:
2CC:
3CC:
4CC:
5CC:
That leaves the choice for the final card between:
We can either strengthen the creature curve at any point, or play an additional mana source. None of the creatures are outstanding; Dross Ripper is the most powerful, and Dementia Bat offers the most utility. With five cards already that cost five or more mana, I am more inclined to play an additional mana source instead. Caress of Phyrexia can be used to draw out of a mana flood, so just making sure we hit our drops on time to keep pace with our opponent is our main concern.
With no way to take advantage of the secondary ability on Mycosynth Wellspring, it only offers a slight improvement to the quality of our draws at the cost of interrupting how we curve out. On turn two it is fairly low cost except against the most aggressive draws, but on turns three to five it is just worse than having a land. In the later game the cost becomes almost nil again.
Considering that we have double Morbid Plunder and double Caress of Phyrexia to take advantage of the late game, the better choice is to maximise our chance of being even or ahead at that point by playing an eighteenth swamp.
In round one I faced off against a RG dinosaur deck, with a small infect subtheme. My removal spells were able to trade efficiently with his larger creatures, while my own early drops outclassed his. A Caress of Phyrexia sealed the first game, while Phyrexian Obliterator with Bladed Pinions was too much for him to deal with in the second.
The second round was against WB with double Flesh-Eater Imp (I know, right?) An early Despise revealed his game plan, complete with an Arrest that would prove problematic to get around if he landed it on my Obliterator. I sculpted the play to remove both his Imps, using Ratchet Bomb to deal with a Batterskull Germ (!) When my Toxic Nim finally proved too much of a threat the Arrest came down, swiftly followed by Obliterator to shut down the replayed Batterskull. He was at six poison, and when he played the Ichor Rats (that should have been mine!) a Caress finished the job.
Justice was swift in game two, as my superior black cards easily outclassed and out-card advantaged him.
Into the finals, and I scooped to my opponent, who was chasing the MOCS QPs and offered me the packs. A result.
Steve
Going infinite, for small values of infinity.
