M12 Draft (Swiss), 1/10/2011
Signals were all over the place in this draft, and I ended up with pretty reasonable cards in red, blue, black, and green, but not enough to have a solid secondary colour. I think there’s a case for maindecking the black instead of the green here, and I did side into the black a couple of times. Apart from the Siege Mastodons, I was pretty happy with my white in this deck, but I did not do well in the games. I lost the first two rounds two games to one, and just never drew into my best cards (Lavamancer and the Titan). I won the last round due to my opponent dropping. A pretty disappointing end to M12 drafting, considering how reasonable I thought this deck was.
M12 Draft (8-4), 26/9/2011
Urgh, I screwed this up pretty badly. I took an Incinerate over Pacifism first pick (which I’m not sure is right?), and then picked up some Chandra’s Outrages while passing some really good white cards (Gideon’s Lawkeeper and Assault Griffin), and then ended up going white anyway because nothing else but red seemed to be open. Then I think pack three I passed an Arachnus Spinner in favour of a shock or a Chandra’s Outrage or something. I just wasn’t even thinking about how it could be easily splashed; I was too set on my colours. I desperately needed a game-winner though, and that would have helped a lot. Of course the next pack had an Arachnus Web (along with a Sengir Vampire and a Rune-Scarred Demon, with nothing in my colours). My deck ended up with plenty of removal, just very few guys and no real plan for winning the game. I would have killed for some Blood Ogres or Gorehorn Minotaurs, but I never saw any.
Round one I was paired against the guy I was passing to, who killed me with the Arachnus Spinner in games one and three, which was karma I guess. Ugh this was dumb.
M12 Draft (8-4), 26/9/2011
I was left with two packs after the last draft, so I figured I would buy another one and play an 8-4, where I was very likely to lose, and that would be the end of my draft experience. This was the first time I have played an 8-4. I haven’t played one before due to a combination of just preferring to play as many games as possible (I want to get the most out of my money), and being a little intimidated and assuming I won’t get into the finals, so it seeming like kind of a waste of the packs. This draft started a little poorly. I picked up an early Mind Control and Aether Adept, but there wasn’t a whole lot else coming, and I had to be content with taking a bunch of mediocre black cards. I opened a Serra Angel in pack 2, and figured it was worth taking a chance of abandoning black for. White seemed pretty open in pack two since it was so cut in pack one, so I got a few more reasonable cards. I think I opened the other Mind Control in pack 3? Which definitely helped me out; before that my deck was looking neither powerful nor consistent. I almost splashed black for Gravedigger and Wring Flesh, but at the last moment I decided Greatsword and Cancel are okay enough that I don’t need to strain the mana base. I was a little concerned with the lack of removal, but I like having the Ice Cage and two Mind Controls with Auramancer.
I won the first two matches on the back of Serra Angel and/or both Mind Controls, as expected. It didn’t help that my opponents seemed to be having mana problems in a few of the games. I split with my opponent in the final round as I’d rather have the packs for two drafts guaranteed than two and a bit drafts if I win.
M12 Draft (Swiss), 26/9/2011
I first-picked a Furyborn Hellkite over Incinerate, which can’t be right, but mythic rare! And then second-picked a Vengeful Pharaoh, which isn’t the best combination. Combining those with two Gorehorn Minotaurs and two Drifting Shades made my mana very terrible. I think red/white is probably the colour combination that is hardest on the mana in M12, and this deck is the perfect example of why. Blue ended up being very open in pack two (an Aether Adept wheeled! The two blue cards I have there were picked up p2p9-p2p13 or so), but at that point I had a couple of Gorehorn Minotaurs, and it didn’t really seem worth switching.
I ended up going 2-1, narrowly losing to the guy that eventually won the draft. My mana ended up doing reasonably well, with my only problem being not being able to cast the Hellkite in the one game I drew it because I didn’t have enough mountains in play. I also won two games where I mulled to five in this draft, which were both very satisfying.
I swear I’m not just trying to draft blue/white all the time. In this case I opened Sun Titan in the first pack, and then got passed some pretty late Azure Mages, so I figured blue was open. Given that this deck was attempting to be pretty defensive (what with two Timely Reinforcements and a Titan), I maybe should have swapped out Coral Merfolk for Pride Guardian (which is what I did do in a few of my matches). With the Timely Reinforcements, Skywinder Drakes, and Aven Fleetwing, I would have killed for a Greatsword, but I don’t think I saw one in the draft.
I made several pretty horrendous misplays, but managed to go 3-0 anyway. The Stave Offs ended up being very very good in this deck - countering removal, 2-for-1ing creatures that had auras on them, killing their creatures in combat, and swinging in for the win. I was a little worried that three was too many when I had so few creatures, but it ended up being pretty good, I just played a guy and then protected him as I hit them a bunch of times.
I think I opened an Oblivion Ring in the first pack, and then it was very clear that blue was open. I picked up a bunch of reasonable cards in pack one, and then opened Frost Titan in pack two. At the end of pack two I was only playing white for a handful of cards like Oblivion Ring, Stave Off, and Benalish Veteran, but then I opened Gideon Jura in pack three and picked up some more white cards. The hardest thing about this was the deck building. Because blue was so open, I got a lot of really good cards that seemed like they would be good in my deck. I think there are arguments for adding the Ice Cage, Coral Merfolk, second Frost Breath, or second Cancel, or maybe Rusted Sentinel as an extra blocker while I win with my bombs (Rusted Sentinel being a worse blocker is the reason why I played Amphin Cutthroat over it). I’m not sure having that many five-mana flyers is necessary, but I thought the Chasm Drakes might be helpful for picking Gideon or Frost Titan up and flying over for the win (which did happen in a couple of games).
The games were all closer than I was expecting them to be, given how good my deck seemed to be. In match one my opponent almost got me, as I stumbled a little and he had starts involving that golem that likes auras together with things like Spirit Mantle. Luckily I was able to draw either Stave Off or Oblivion Ring, and other than a Serra Angel, he didn’t seem to have a lot of top end or disruption, so eventually the quality of my cards took over. In match two I made a huge punt involving forgetting that his Onyx Mage was in play while attacking with my Frost Titan, so tapping down a dude that had attacked me rather than a blocker, which let him deathtouch my Titan. I can’t remember if I lost that game, but I ended up winning the match anyway, luckily. Match three was also pretty close. My opponent had a pretty aggressive red/black deck with guys like Sengir Vampire, Vampire Outcasts, two Gorehorn Minotaurs and a Grave Titan. Every game he managed to cast a timely Mind Rot, which didn’t get my bombs, but usually got the land or the middling dudes, slowing me down from playing them. We had a very close game one, where he got me down to two life while I was hitting him with some flyers, and I ended up trading with all of his dudes with a couple of guys left that would be lethal the next turn, but he ripped Chandra’s Outrage to do the last damage to me. In game two and three he again got me down reasonably far, but I eventually got Gideon and/or Frost Titan out, and he wasn’t able to answer them. He bitched a reasonable amount about how lucky I was for opening a bunch of mythics and an Oblivion Ring, but I feel like the power of his deck wasn’t that far off mine. That’s the internet, I guess.
Anyway I am winding down drafting M12 in preparation for Innistrad, but I got another three packs so I guess I have to do another one at some stage. I’ve got a copy of almost the entire set; just missing some cards like Sorin and Jace, as well as Primeval Titan. I’m so unlucky
M12 Draft (Swiss), 23/9/2011
Oh not much, just splashing for Overrun and Garruk in my almost mono-white deck, what’s up with you
I opened Garruk in the second pack but then I got passed some decent white cards, and I was in two minds whether I should play the Garruk or gun for mono-white and just have the Garruk in my sideboard for value. Then I opened Overrun in my last pack, and took it (over Oblivion Ring if I remember correctly), which I think was probably a little too greedy. I think I just wanted an excuse to play green, and with two powerful green spells I gotta play it right?
The games went pretty much as you would expect; in the games where I drew Garruk and the lands to play him I tended to win, and in the games I didn’t I tended to lose. I went 1-2 in both of my first two matches, and in each one I was top-decking for about five turns in the last game trying to draw an Overrun or a Garruk. I felt a little bad not getting there, but my mana ran better than I should have expected it, plus I guess I used up all my luck opening the planeswalker right? Anyway the last match went well at least, so I picked up one pack and can sell the Garruk to recoup much of the rest of my loss.
M12 Draft (4-3-2-2), 18/9/2011
This time I decided to just go for one colour and not bother splashing. Not sure if it worked out better or not. Five Fiery Hellhounds and three Blood Ogres seems pretty good to me, but I ended up not drawing them all that much, and just having a bunch of Goblin Pikers every game.
Match one I won against a dude playing two Harbor Serpents. They didn’t especially worry me since I just used Goblin Tunnelers to get around them and killed him before he got five islands. Match two was against a red/green durdle deck with an Overrun (which I died to game one) and that 6/6 bloodthirst flier (which I died to game three). All three games my opening hand was one land so I had to mulligan, and I flooded pretty hard in two of the games. Ugh but at least I got two packs out of it.
btw I never drew the Inferno Titan because life sucks
M12 Draft (4-3-2-2), 18/9/2011
Black seemed to be fairly open, so after getting a first pick Archon of Justice I just kept taking it. I’m not sure if it’s worth playing the white cards here; I maybe should have just tried to pick up a few more playables so I could play all swamps. In the games I had I didn’t have many mana problems, though, so maybe it’s not a big deal. Anyway I lost in the first round against some shitty deck because life sucks.
M12 Draft (Swiss), 18/9/2011
This is probably the most controlling deck I have drafted in M12. I think it seems reasonable, but given the Day of Judgment I would rather have a few less creatures and a few more things to do on early turns, like Pacifisms or Ice Cages. A big flyer wouldn’t go astray either. Black was a little open during the draft, but given I had a Day of Judgment I didn’t want to jump ship, so it was a little awkward.
Match one I beat another controlling blue/white deck that was trying to mill me out. The games went very long but weren’t all that close. Match two I lost to a pretty aggressive red/white deck. I got a three or a four for one in both games with Day of Judgment, but he also had a bunch of big dudes that I couldn’t really get past, so he eventually killed me in both games. Match three I beat a black/white deck with Sun Titan, Call to the Grave, and a bunch of zombies. Luckily he seemed not to have a whole lot of removal, so I was able to kill him with a flyer or two.
