At the Kitchen Table

I really enjoy Winston Draft. It’s has a very different feel than a standard booster draft. I like the 1-1 competition. A friend and I did a Winston with some Zendikar boosters. for the first half of the drafting I was thinking of going UW. Then, about half way though, the black cards started showing up, and I started moving into black. The black kept coming off the pile, as did some more juicy blue cards. I ended up strongly in UB … with a surprise (for my friend) mise. Here’s my list:

Basic Land (14) 6 Island 8 Swamp Land (4) 2 Soaring Seacliff 2 Teetering Peaks Creatures (12) 1 AEther Figment 1 Heartstabber Mosquito 1 Hedron Crab 2 Kraken Hatchling 1 Merfolk Wayfinder 1 Mindless Null 1 Reckless Scholar 1 Tempest Owl 1 Umara Raptor 2 Vampire Lacerator Sorceries (1) 1 Grim Discovery Instants (5) 1 Cancel 1 Disfigure 1 Into the Roil 1 Lethargy Trap 1 Mindbreak Trap Enchantments (3) 1 Paralyzing grasp 1 Quest for the Gravelord 1 Soul Stair Expedition Artifacts (1) 1 Explorers Scope

The 2 Teetering Peaks are a total mise, and were responsible for a Kraken Hatchling doing 4 points of early game damage (2nd and 3rd turn on the back of a turn 1 Hatchling). Explorer’s Scope was handy in smoothing out the color mix. In fact, in one game it was my only source of Swamps.

Other good plays included grasping a Timbermaw Larva (with him having 3 forests in play), as well as canceling a Tanglesap to set up a lethal attach next turn.

Josh & I Winston drafted 12 packs of The Dark.

Ya. The Dark. Draft. It was fun.

I started off in Blue, snagging all the pirate ships I could find. I quickly dropped that due to the rich blackness that was available. And so I moved into black & green, ending up with a solid BG deck:

Land (1) Maze of Ith Basic Land (16) 10 Swamp 6 Forest Creatures (10) 3 Bog Rats 2 Land Leeches 3 Murk Dwellers 1 The Fallen 1 Marsh Viper Sorceries (6) 1 Ashes to Ashes 4 Word of Binding 1 Inquisition Instants (1) 1 Marsh Gas Enchantments (5) 2 Gaeas Touch 2 Venom 1 Worms of the Earth Artifacts (1) 1 Wand of Ith

Josh went WU. I believe we played 3 games with me winning all 3 handily. The Fallen is completely NUTS! Get him out fast, make sure he connects then it’s free damage the rest of the game. So are Murk Dwellers … 4 damage if they get through. And Word of Binding makes sure they get through.

This weekend was Grand Prix Oakland. A GP a quick train ride away. So it was an easy choice to drop by for a while on Saturday.

I spent most of my time there today catching up with some old friends and picking up some cards I had been looking for.

I did take the time to get a draft in. My first pack had Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. It seemed good… heavy red is always fun. Splashing black is seldom a bad idea. Well, not too much black goodness was forthcoming but there were some decent blue cards, so i figured red with a blue splash. Pack 2 gave me Hellkite Charger… tasty! With the red I picked from the Zendikar packs, I was solidly in red by the time we got to the pack of Worldwake. The red just kept on coming: 3 Skitter of Lizards, 2 Claws of Valakut, and so on. I ended up with enough good playables (IMO) to build a mono red deck. That played well with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Claws of Valakut, and Spire Barrage. Here’s the list I settled on:

Basic Lands (14) 14 Mountain Lands (2) 1 Smoldering Spires 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle Creatures (11) 2 Goblin Bushwhacker 3 Skitter of Lizards 1 Hellfire Mongrel 1 Molten Ravager 1 Pilgrims Eye 1 Torch Slinger 1 Deathforge Shaman 1 Hellkite Charger Sorceries (4) 1 Demolish 1 Roiling Terrain 2 Spire Barrage Instants (1) 1 Unstable Footing Enchantments (4) 2 Claws of Valakut 1 Goblin War Paint 1 Zektar Shrine Expedition Artifacts (4) 1 Everflowing Chalice 1 Explorers Scope 1 Grappling Hook 1 Kitesail

Round one was a fairly solid win for me against a RB deck. In game one I was down to 2 life before my Hellkite Charger came online and commenced the burnanating. Game 2 saw my life total being chipped away 20-18-17-10, at which point my deck took off and dropped him from 20 to 8 in one turn. My opponent quickly did the math, and.. GG.

Round two was against a U deck: Fire against water. He took the first game, while handily took the second. Game three saw me unable to do much other than get hit by his fliers, until he finally did the leathal damage.

One memorable play was dealing the final point of damage by playing a kicked Deathforge Shaman.

11 Creatures is a bit light, and I could have played a Tuktuk Grunts in place of the Zektar Shrine Expedition, although being the only ally I had it was on the pricy side.

In any event, the draft was fun and I was pleased with how well I did given that it was my first Zendikar block draft and my first time seeing Worldwake cards (I couldn’t make it to the prerelease this time, haven’t gotten product yet, and didn’t even look at the spoilers).

The group I draft with at work got together for our usual Monday night draft this week. Pooling what we had gotten over the weekend we were able to do a Shards of Alara draft. It was interesting.

After a couple of 1-2 matches, I pulled two underperformers and added a couple more lands. My third match also went 1-2, but the losses were a lot closer. I got good hands the last game and the deck performed quite well. Flameblast Dragon was the clincher when I had consistent mana to drop him on the earliest turn possible.

Basic Lands (16) 5 Forest 6 Mountain 5 Swamp Lands (2) 2 Jund Panorama Creatures (13) 2 Blood Cultist 1 Cavern Thoctar 2 Dregscape Zombie 1 Flameblast Dragon 2 Incurable Ogre 2 Mosstodon 1 Scavenger Drake 1 Skeletal Kathari 1 Deathgreeter Artifacts (1) 1 Obelisk of Jund Enchantments (3) 1 Mighty Emergence 2 Where Ancients Tread Sorceries (2) 1 Blightning 1 Bone Splinters Instants (3) 2 Resounding Roar 1 Souls Fire