Loading Ready Fan Draft.

[AdmiralMemo]

Either Rise or Cube.

[Omnicrat]

Can we do a Rise/Cube draft after which ever is the main one like we did with the PoG draft? I won't be off work until about an hour and a half after the fan draft and if we have two like last week I can at least make the late one.

[Wooglie]

I'd be up for either Rise or cube. Done loads of FKK.

[AdmiralMemo]

Made a poll for FanDrafting... FKK is currently winning, though.

[Lord Hosk]

that pool the paradox of free choice.

[Wooglie]

You should do two polls one for the first draft and one for the second.

[AdmiralMemo]

You should do two polls one for the first draft and one for the second.

I wasn't even sure whether we were going to do two, so that's why... Maybe just 3 polls? 1. 1 or 2 drafts? 2. First draft what? 3. Second draft what?

Anyway, it seems like we're going FKK, with a possible ROE afterwards.

[Karnasis]

I went 2-1, allenzo wiped the floor with me, round 2 was a bye, and EA was my third opponent. But gaze into the majesty of the totally for real draft deck that I totally intended to build.

[Omnicrat]

Any plans for a second draft afterward as has happened the past two weeks? I can't make the main but might make the second.

[AdmiralMemo]

Looks like we're heading up to do 2 drafts: Rise followed by Cube. See ya then!

[Under_Score]

My first ever ROE draft, and I went 2-1. Can't complain. Here's my deck as submitted.

http://imgur.com/a/EVx9s

It's a little misleading, since after trying to go U/W level up stuff, I realized after round 1 that White just wasn't doing enough for me. For the 2nd and 3rd round, I sided my white out for red after game 1, discovering how devastating Devastating Summons really is.

Oh, also, triple Domestication.

[Omega Lairon]

So... that went pretty poorly. I'm probably going to refrain from flashback drafts in the future... things get confusing pretty quickly, and stay that way.

Still, at least it was kinda funny.

The cards, yo

Click to Expand

Ultimately, I feel like I was building up towards a top heavy Eldrazi deck, but had no luck actually picking up any to make it worthwhile. The end result you (mostly) see above is the result of a last minute scramble to get any decent last-minute big critters to fill the gap.

Like I said, it went poorly: the old 0-3. *shrug*

Game 1 against opening opponent ZePancakes might have happened at one point... I think I sneezed and missed most of it. About the only part I remember was getting swiftly overrun by Eldrazi and Eldrazi accessories. I did manage to claw one back in response, thanks to the hard work of some low cost weenies running in unopposed thanks to unfortunate mana flooding. Game 3 was kinda fun though - I couldn't really get rolling with the draws, and a nice brutal combo on the opposing battlefield involving a half dozen or so Eldrazi spawn and one of those "every attacker gets +[a big number here]" type spells did me in. Good times

The games against Bitera went similarly well... but not quite as Eldrazi flavoured. In the first, I had a pretty feeble strategy going which banked heavily on one monster doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but a timely Domestication completely derailed the plan. Game 2 was much the same, although I was able to hold out for a while longer thanks to better support and diversification. But the lack of an endgame in my draws proved costly, and I got run down by troops both superior in quantity *and* quality.

The last round against randus2003 had a similar vibe to the first, with the threat of Eldrazi firmly in place. A threat which materialised early in game one, and for which I had no acceptable answer. "Annihilation 3" hurts... I fared a little better in game 2, managing to field a particularly hefty threat of my own, only to have it almost entirely locked down thanks to deathtouch being cast as an answer. Eventually, the Eldrazi made a return appearance and slowly ground my remaining defences into a fine powder.


So yeah... things went about as well as expected. Fortunately, being that DTK will be out by next week, I should feel a little more comfortable playing with cards I'm at least a little familiar with. Looking forward to it.

[whatthebus]

So, I typed up a big long write-up of my draft and games, but it got eaten by website weirdness so I'll sum it up:
Joraga Treespeaker is a house.
Rise is a lot of fun.
Eldrazi Conscription on Pelakka Wurm is a savage beating.

3-0 RG Ramp

[Wooglie]

We doing a pre release fan sealed this Saturday? I might be up for joining in.

[Omnicrat]

We always do prerelease sealed on the weekedn it comes out

[Omega Lairon]

Just got back from the pre-release. S'not exactly a draft, but I figure I'd throw together a post-game report anyways.

The cards:

Click to Expand

It may not be readily obvious, but I apparently opened an Atarka seeded pack. Putting in white for extra support was tempting, but black was pretty decent too... and I have always wanted to "Jun'd [someone] out!", so I ran with it

Final results of 2-2... which probably could have been a bit better, but I'll live with that.

The day got off to a very sour note - the first game against drigien wasn't too bad - I managed to get Surrak and Boltwing Marauder to combo for some really nice high end damage. But that was about all I could manage for the rest of the round... games 2 and 3 saw a total of maybe 2 or 3 lands draws between them... and this was after mulling to 5 and 4 cards, respectively. I believe my notes for these matches sum it up best "*violent stabbing motions*". I knew my deck was better that it performed, but I never got a chance to find out. Still, all credit to my opponent, it wasn't their fault and they battled quite well regardless.

Moving on to slightly less unpleasant ventures was my next round against adi_pie. Game 1 was going badly for me, since at some point down the line, the "stop" on my Main phase 2 decided to disappear, costing me a few good plays and adding to the already lingering tilt from round one. Fortunately, I was able to bring out the big guns again and secure the win. Game 2 was a complete disaster... A terrible mana draw (AGAIN!), and one extremely poor misplay on my part was enough for me to decide that it wasn't worth continuing with. Luckily, I finally caught a break in the 3rd, with an extremely removal-resistant Hardened Berserker doing a good deal of heavy lifting. Eventually, I traded him out for bigger and more chitinous things, which finished the job.

Next up was MrMobius, sporting a particularly aggressive dashers deck. I was able to stabilize towards the end of game one, and had victory all but within my grasp until a particularly inopportune Kolaghan's Command utterly perforated my defence, leaving a large enough hole for some dashers to sneak in. Game 2 went better - with my bigger, beefier critters holding back the smaller but more numerous horde. Eventually though, vengeance was extracted in game 3, with the smaller, faster creatures all but locking down the board for the entire game.

To cap things off, I faced off with Falconknight06. As if making up for previous horrible luck, the game decided to cut me some seriously huge breaks, and I was able to hold out a few smaller creatures for most of game 1 to put the necessary damage in. Continuing my incredibly lucky streak, I held a somewhat sketchy 7 card hand for game 2, but managed to draw perfectly into Surrak and both of my Sabretooth Outriders combining nicely for some overwhelming Formidable action.

So all things considered, the day probably could have gone a bit more smoothly... but alls well that ends well. I generally enjoyed the proceedings more often than not, and really, terrible draws are just part of the game.

See ya next week... probably.

[MrMobius]

As with Omega above, pre-release not really a draft, but who cares? No full image of the pool, but here's the deck:

http://imgur.com/UwGWg7d

The other colours in the pool weren't super strong, with I think one good off-colour rare I wasn't playing. I actually started some on-colour removal in the board because my creature count worried me.

Round 1 I played the mirror, and got ultimately just squeezed out by the enchantment that pings when creatures ETB. I don't remember round 2 at all. Round 3 versus Omega Lairon, details can be seen above. I actually punted super hard, and forgot to cast a dragon fodder to make my kolaghan forerunners big enough for lethat, and had to top deck a reckless imp for the win. Round 4, can't remember what opponent was on, but I flooded on removal and land, and drew I think 3 creatures across the 2 games.
Still, 2-2 lots of fun.

Bonus fan draft immediately after was also sweet, here's the deck:

http://imgur.com/hWjER2H

The draft here was really weird. The myth realised I opened pushed me to wanna play white, and it was super open in pack one, but I had like 2 green and 2 blue playables by the start of pack 3, so I had no idea on my second colour. Turns out Dromoka will make the decision for you.

Round one versus Omnicrat won with tempo plays, myth realised being stupid and dromoka also being silly strong. Round 2 was against a rando, playing a deck with absurdly powerful cards (like mastery of the unseen) alongside stone unplayables (like renowned weaponsmith). 8/8 myth realised beats mastery of the unseen apparently, and I'm 2-0. Finals against LeeBenningfield with a really really sick R/G deck. Unfortunately he drew pretty poorly, but even with Yasova stealing my Lightformed manifest for a couple turns, I win 2-0 in pretty short order. If LeeBenningfield posts his deck, you'll see how good his deck is, and I had no business beating him.
First draft in the format, 3-0. Better lucky than good I guess

[AdmiralMemo]

I don't even know anymore... Tonight, I was repeatedly told that I had the "better deck"... But I still went 2-2 in the Sealed and 1-2 in the Draft. What does "better deck" even mean if it's not a deck that's better at winning? I was even told my deck was "nuts."

Does all this mean that I'm playing it wrong, and if so, how? I am completely confused by this point. If I can't win even with "nuts" decks, then maybe I'm some sort of retard. I'm wondering if I should even be playing Magic at all.

Sealed PreRelease


DDF Swiss


Three things I do know from tonight:

1. Mana screw sucks.
2. Mana flood sucks.
3. Blue counterspells suck.

I was feeling good about my decks... Then not so good, then better, then bad, then meh.

[Duckay]

Well, the first thing I notice is that your sealed pool looks a little wonky as far as your mana goes. Maybe you would have been better off sticking to 2 colours, or only a small splash, because with no dual lands in DTK, 3 colour is going to present a lot more mana troubles. It looks fine as far as power level goes, but I can easily imagine you stumbling and getting run over by a more consistent deck.

I can't speak to the draft deck so much. It seems pretty good, but for that one I'd need to know what you were up against and how the games went. Aggro can be more difficult to play than people give it credit for.

[MowDownJoe]

For the sealed pool, I think your issue was trying to go a solid 3 colors without any fixing. Splashing black for the Necromaster and the Reach is fine, but that Zephyr Scribe in the board sticks out like a sore thumb. So, yeah. Out goes Hand, Coat, Glee, and Awakening. In goes Scribe, Sidisi's Faithful, Sight Beyond Sight, and... Temporal Trespass? I don't know what that last card should be, but I don't want the curve to be too top-heavy. Maybe just land #18 to help facilitate the splash.

[AdmiralMemo]

that Zephyr Scribe in the board sticks out like a sore thumb.

I don't see why Zephyr Scribe is good. It's a 2/1 for THREE. Yeah, it chumps well, since it has some sort of pseudo-vigilance. Also, it loots, I guess? I've never been a fan of looting, to be honest.

[Duckay]

Looting is an excellent mechanic, so I can fairly confidently say that you're underrating that card. It gives you the ability to dig deeper in your deck and find cards that are more relevant to the boardstate. Also the untap ability means that later in the game you can get a lot of velocity, getting more relevant cards than your opponent. It helps smooth out mana screw / mana flood because you have more choices about what cards you want. Sight Beyond Sight is also a good card, and if you're going that little bit heavier on noncreature spells, I think Skywise Teachings also has value.

[korvys]

Looting is very good, if it fits your game plan. Slowing things down while you wait for a dragon? Turn all those early, now useless creatures, and excess land into new cards. And at 1 mana, it's cheap, too. You can play it on 3, loot and play a morph on 4.

[AdmiralMemo]

Sight Beyond Sight is also a good card, and if you're going that little bit heavier on noncreature spells, I think Skywise Teachings also has value.

I realized these two were good, and they were the last 2 cards I cut, when I was down to about 40 seconds left before submission. I only had 9 non-creature spells for Skywise Teachings. I would typically only actually be getting value off of it from the 1-drops and 2-drops, since I can only reliably count on 4 mana ever, so that drops it down to 3 non-creature spells to work with. I thought I could be doing better things with my mana than getting a bear with my cheap combat tricks.

Looting is very good, if it fits your game plan. Slowing things down while you wait for a dragon? Turn all those early, now useless creatures, and excess land into new cards. And at 1 mana, it's cheap, too. You can play it on 3, loot and play a morph on 4.

Yeah, but you're throwing cards away when you do that... Cards that you could actually play...

Maybe it's just my mindset of never liking to throw anything away, in any context... I'm a bit of a hoarder, though nowhere near as bad as the ones on TV.

[Duckay]

Why could you only reliably count on 4 mana ever? That confuses me. Also the 2/2 that you get from Skywise Teachings is a little better than a bear, as it also has flying. (Before you ask, yes, the flying is relevant because they can block creatures that perhaps you otherwise couldn't, and can attack into a board that sometimes you otherwise can't.)

As for looting meaning you're throwing things away... Would you rather throw away a land when you have too many, or a spell you can't cast, or just not draw a relevant spell that could win the game for you? Thinking of looting that way might reframe it for you.

Look, Memo, I understand the inclination to defend the choices you made. However, I have to ask. When you posted the pools and asked what you were doing wrong, did you want us to give advice, or did you just want us to pat you on the back? Because we can offer advice but that doesn't mean anything unless you're willing to listen and take it on board.