It’s a cold morning in Lincoln and the wind chill is certainly not pleasant but we have a warm glow as it’s our fortnightly Magic event and it’s our first draft in town. Things are ready to go after I get a sharp haircut two doors down at Dan the Man’s.
Pack 1, and I take the Stronghold Overseer as I am a sucker for a fattie, especially one with evasion coming out of every orifice. Pick 2 and I take Plague Sliver as it’s a 5/5 for 4 that turns sideways and can also mess with opposing sliver decks if required and then pick three I get a Lightning Axe. Pardon, Lightning Axe and then fourth pick Rift Bolt? WTF?!? Yep, I was being passed red removal and at that point I thought, ‘this could be good!’ as I started to pick up some reasonable creatures and more removal. No-one seems to be drafting white though as some strange cards are coming round but not as strange as the Scion of the Ur Dragon who we all pass on first time round and then my penultimate pick is Scion of the Ur Dragon or foil Screeching Sliver. I shuffle the cards making it appear random but can feel the lure of the foil which I pick. Poor old Chris gets a rare with his 15th pick and despite our well-meaning advice he won’t splash to get it into play.
Now many drafts are held in stony silence and when at a major event this is only right and proper. We on the other hand are in a shop with Yu Gi Oh players around the corner, and so we chat away quite merrily as we come to socialise as well as play Magic. Chris is taking things very seriously though, or maybe he is just a very quiet guy. Actually, Chris has probably one of the driest senses of humour of anyone we know, he works for a major software house and we believe he translates the game text into his native tongue (German). However, if he was to reveal anything about his employers he may have to kill us and at this point we have concerns over which side of the wall he hailed from.
Onto pack 2 and well at least I cant be accused of rare drafting today as even I can’t face what I am looking at and go to the uncommons... oh. And the commons... bigger oh. Okay, Withered Wretch it is then just in case some monkey has Flashback or reanimation. I am sure I shouldn’t be picking sideboard tech first pick but maybe it was just one of those packs. Pick 2 comes my way and I almost fall out of my seat as Sudden Death is looking at me and so are a couple of other quality picks. I look at Chris and he smiles knowingly – what on Earth did he get out of the pack? Well by now someone else is also drafting red but not very heavily as I pick up a Rift Bolt as well.
Final pack is opened and hello Mr. Shivan Meteor, you can never have too much removal and if someone else is in red that isn’t coming back to haunt me. I pick up a Molten Firebird for some flying beats and two Brute Forces to add some tricks to the pool.
And so to deck construction and Chris is off to the spare table to build his deck in private, you know I think he is trying to win and worse still he has his deck sleeved and goldfishing before most of us have cracked open some new sleeves. What do you mean you don’t know the old adage of good luck comes from new sleeves? Mind you, I’m sure I heard this from a player who also had a stand at an event.
My Deck
Mountain - 10
Swamp - 7
Grapeshot
Shivan Meteor
Forysian Totem
Brute Force -2
Orcish Cannonade
Lightning Axe
Rift Bolt
Sudden Death
Firefright Mage
Keldon Halberdier
Flowstone Channeler
Aetherflame Wall -2
Skirk Shaman
Basalt Gargoyle
Bogardan Rager
Molten Firebird
Rathi Trapper
Urborg Syphon-Mage
Blightspeaker
Plague Sliver
Stronghold Overseer
Sideboard
Fury Charm. Pandemonium, Simian Spirit Guide, Bonesplitter Sliver, Two Headed Sliver, Withered Wretch, Mindstab, Haunting Hymn, Mindlash Sliver, Dash Hopes -2, Swamp Mosquito, Sangrophage, Assembly Worker, Auramancer’s Guise, Kavu Predator -2, Screeching Sliver (foil), Opaline Sliver, Gustcloak Cavalier, Children of Korlis and Thrill of the Hunt.
I am happy with the pool and deck, I’ve certainly seen worse.
I draw ‘Bingo’ Winters, poor old Bingo is a new player to Magic and learning the hard way. Bingo hasn’t drafted before and you can tell as I feel like I am doing a Dr Chunk – “What on earth is that doing in your deck ?” I hear myself thinking. Plague Slivers do turn sideways and when you have plenty of removal to get rid of chump blockers they beat down an opponent really quickly but work even better when a Basalt Gargoyle gives them some air support.
Game 2 and, well, Bingo surprises everyone, including myself when he takes the second game as his evasive little creatures batter me. The Aetherflame Wall is of no use this time against Amrou Seekers in for two.
Game 3 and it is a tense match as I am sat behind an Aetherflame Wall waiting for black mana. Then the Swamp comes and out comes the Syphon-Mage, some early beats are reversed and the Basalt Gargoyle again proves to be a decisive game winner.
Rochelle and Kate head off shopping, let’s just say neither had really done drafting before and the lure of shopping was greater. The boys are left to play and worry about what they will put on the credit card but least we get their cards when we get home J
I am facing Nick Phillips and we always seem to be drawn together at some part of the day. Nick has a rather impressive collection of blue cards including a playset of Snapbacks and some impressive green monsters. I am impressed at how well the Aetherflame Walls are doing at holding back my opponent and my Skirk Shaman is nibbling away at Nick’s life, and then the Basalt Gargoyle joins the fun. It is actually a long game as my creatures keep bouncing back to my hand but the balance is turned when my Gargoyle is Cancelled, which allows me to push through lethal with the Urborg Syphon-Mage.
The second game sees Nick suspend a Giant Dustwasp early on and I have a Skirk Shaman and Flowstone Channeler out. The Giant Dustwasp comes into play and strikes for three. My turn and I attack with both my guys that are allowed to – Brute Force and that’s ten to the head. Nick is reeling from the shock of 10 points of damage when I Grapeshot his dust wasp for three courtesy of the Brute Force. The match has gone from close to heavily in my favour in one turn. With Nick on six life he takes another four before I drop the Syphon-Mage again. Nick scoops next turn, unable to deal with my threats.
And so to the third and final round – it sounds like a bout from the Contender. I have 6 points but Chris and Paddy both have 4 after drawing last round. This means everything is to play for for three players but only I have my destiny in my own hands, or at least my own cards.
Paddy has drafted a three colour white green red deck going for the strongest cards he could see whereas I have gone for a more consistent colour base rather than splashing, though with black having become more of a secondary colour than when I started out drafting.
Game 1 and Paddy starts really well, swarming creatures though my defences: 16, 14, 12, 10 and 7 life, and then out comes Mr. Plague Sliver on my side. Plague Sliver swings and I throw a Brute Force as he attacks unblocked, I am hit again for 3 and down to 3 but I believe I dropped a Bogardan Rager to save the game. My turn and I drop to two from the Sliver. However, I am able to swing for an alpha strike of 12 damage, pulling that one out of the fire.
Chris has put Sonny to the sword and is awaiting our result. Chris had picked the Conspiracy I had passed which had helped him win plenty of games when his creatures became Slivers too.
Game 2 becomes a tense affair as I don’t see black mana and have to sit behind Aetherflame Walls again until things stabilise. Two Knights of the Holy Nimbus on the other side have my ground assault pretty much locked down and Paddy is certainly making a game of it. Things are quite tense but eventually I am able to play my Basalt Gargoyle. Disaster for Paddy as he misreads Magus of the Arena, a bit like many of us have done, hoping to kill off the Gargoyle when I’m tapped out until he’s informed that I choose my creature. Then I manage to drop an Urborg Syphon-Mage, controlling the match for the win. And yes, Paddy is still tapping to the left !
1.. Mark Pinder 9
2.. Chris Bengner 7
3.. Paddy O Reilly 4
4.. Nick Phillips 3
5.. Sonny Jensen 3
6.. Kate O reilly 1
7.. Rochelle Wadner 1
8.. Bingo Winters 0
I was pleased with my day and happy that my deck did as well as it did and it seems I am improving a little at drafting which had until the turn of the year pretty much been play round one and look for another draft.
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