Saturday, May 24, 2014

5/23/14 Always a bridesmaid, never a bride (Theros Block Draft) 2-0-1

This was the first time I had gone to Gamescape since the mana-screw incident back on 4/11/14.

There were a total of 35 people.  I ended up in the draft pod with 10 people.

P1P1:   Rare was Deicide.  I took Banishing Light.

I took a Felhide Petrifier over Nightmarish End, and a War-Wing Siren over Feast of Dreams.   I ended up mostly white in this pack.

I got a sixth pick Reprisal.  Most colors seemed super cut for some reason, so I didn't know what second color to go into, though if I could pick black I would for sure, since I had Underworld Coinsmith, Pharika;s Chosen, and Felhide Petrifier.

P2P1:    Rare was Fated Infatuation and foil Rare Felhide Spiritbinder.  I wasn't really locked into a second color yet, so I took the Felhide Spiritbinder over an Oreskos Sun-Guide.

Had to pass a Hunter's Prowess and two Akroan Conscriptors.  The pain.

P3P1:   Rare was Arbor Colossus, which I ended up taking over Wavecrash Triton/Traveling Philosopher.  If I was passing Hopeful Eidolon or Thassa's Emissary I would not have done that.

I got passed a Bident of Thassa, which won me three games with it.

Guy on my right was black/red, and guy on my left was black/white.   Apparently only three people were in green.

The guy on my right-right was white/blue, which explains the low number of blue cards in pack 1, and the low number of white cards in my pack 3.

DECK:

WHITE:  14
1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Loyal Pegasus
1 Leonin Snarecaster
1 Traveling Philosopher
1 Stonewise Fortifier
2 Oreskos Swiftclaw
1 Observant Alseid
1 Akroan Phalanx
1 Skyspear Cavalry
1 Ajani's Presence
1 Reprisal
1 Banishing Light
1 Excoriate

BLUE:   9
1 War-Wing Siren
1 Nyxborn Triton
1 Coastline Chimera
1 Chorus of the Tides
1 Siren of the Fanged Coast
1 Horizon Scholar
1 Retraction Helix
1 Divination
1 Bident of Thassa

LANDS:  17
9 Plains
8 Island

I put in 8 Islands because I had a bunch of double blue mana costs in my deck.

SIDEBOARD:

BLACK:
1 Pharika's Chosen
1 Felhide Petrifier
1 Forsaken Drifters
1 Dreadbringer Lampads

BLUE:
1 Crackling Triton
2 Nullify

GREEN:
1 Agent of Horizons
1 Arbor Colossus

RED:
1 Felhide Spiritbinder
1 Wild Celebrants

WHITE:
1 Ephara's Warden
1 Mortal Obstinacy
1 Oppressive Rays
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Last Breath

MULTICOLOR:
1 Underworld Coinsmith
1 Siren of the Silent Song

ARTIFACT:
1 Traveler's Amulet

Match 1:  UR (2-1)

Game 1:

I had counted out my plains and islands before the draft, and shuffled my deck.  Apparently I somehow forgot to put my islands in my deck.  That was a quick loss.

Game 2:

This is sort of a grindy match, but I end up winning.

Game 3:

Apparently my opponent got screwed on blue mana, so this was a quick win for me.

Match 2:   Mono-green (w/b splash)

Game 1:

I kept a 2 lander on the play, and had to discard Horizon Scholar.  I lost to Strength of the Fallen into double Nyxborn Wolf into Centaur Battlemaster.  Geez.

Game 2:

This game was very close, but I managed to win (barely) because of Bident of Thassa forcing her team to attack.

Game 3:

Opponent played a Bassara Tower Archer (5/2) bestowed with Nyxborn Wolf, and a Graverobber Spider with a +1/+1 counter from Satyr Grovedancer.  That basically shut down my team.   She also had Golden Hind, Nyxborn Wolf (unbestowed), and a Satyr Wayfinder.

I didn't attack in, fearing a trick, and not able to get through 3/5 flyer anyways.

I had:
Loyal Pegasus (2/1)
Skyspear Cavalry (4/5) bestow with Nyxborn Triton and Mortal Obstinacy
Horizon Scholar (4/4)
War-Wing Siren (1/3)
Chorus of the Tides (3/2)

On turn 1 of time, I topdeck a Ajani's Presence but don't feel like attacking, even though I have 9 mana to make three of my guys indestructable.

On turn 5 of time, I topdeck a Banishing Light but it's too late now to swing in and do enough damage to win.

I think I drew this game due to being too cautious, honestly.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have sided out Retraction Helix in that game.   That might have given me an opening to attack through the Graverobber Spider.

Match 3:  WB (2-0)

Game 1:

I get out a turn 1 Loyal Pegasus into turn 2 Leonin Snarecaster.  My opponent plays turn 1 Oppressive Rays on my Loyal Pegasus and a turn 2 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer and turn 3 Eagle of the Watch.  Geez.  Fortunately, I get a turn 4 Bident of Thassa.   He has Viper's Kiss for my Coastline Chimera, and enchants his Trailblazer with his Hopeful Eidolon, making a 2/6 lifelink.   He also plays a Setessan Battle-Priest into Ephara's Radiance.  Of course, I have him on a clock with my Loyal Pegasus and 5/5 Chorus of the Tides (bestowed with Nyxborn Triton).   Bident of Thassa ends up drawing me a bunch of cards, too.

Game 2:

In comes the Mortal Obstinacy and the Glare of Heresy.

My opponent stacks up Nyx Infusion and Chosen by Heliod on a Hopeful Eidolon, making a 3/5 lifelinker.  I use my Banishing Light on it.  Of course, my opponent has Dictate of Erebos in hand.

I cast my Bident of Thassa again, but my opponent has Pyxis of Pandemonium to punish me, threatening to cause me to mill out.

I attack with my Swiftclaw into his 1/1 Asphodel Wanderer while he's tapped out, since he didn't cast Dictate of Erebos yet.    Then next turn he casts Dictate of Erebos.  That's ok, I have no plans to interact with his creatures at all.   He exiles his Asphodel Wanderer with Ritual of the Returned, making a vanilla 1/1.

I manage to make a 6/7 Skyspear Cavalry with Vigilance, attack with a 3/1 Swiftclaw and a 1/3 War-Wing Siren while he's at 16 life.  Before blocks, I cast Retraction Helix on my Skyspear Cavalry, and bounce his token out of the way.  That's GAAAME.

Result:  2-0-1.  4th place out of all the drafters.  In fact, I think I was top in my draft pod of 10 people, but since I didn't go 3-0 I didn't get the promo card (which I don't want anyways).

Two drafts in a row, 2-0-1, unable to make it a 3-0, but it was ok.

No comments:

Post a Comment