Drafting with Richard - M13/M13/M13 #2

Richard Bland

About Richard Bland

Richard is an English pro player. He started playing Magic on a foreign exchange trip to Germany in the dark days of Darksteel, and was running sick homebrew Shared Fate decks at FNM while everyone else was playing affinity mirrors. While he has learned better since then, he still retains a soft spot for combo decks of all hues.

• Platinum Pro Player
• 98 Lifetime Pro Points
• 2nd Worlds 2011
• 2nd GP San Diego 2011
• 3rd GP Barcelona 2011
• 3rd GP Madrid 2010
• 2nd Great Britain Nationals 2010

Drafting with Richard - M13/M13/M13 #2

Hello everyone,

Booster 1 - Magic 2013 Core Set

Pack 1 pick 1:

My Pick: Clone

A few potential playables here. Acidic Slime and Sentinel Spider are roughly similar in terms of playability, though I'd usually want to take the Spider in a vacuum. Turn to Slag is fine, but not a card I'd really enjoy first picking. Clone stands out as the card with the most potential upside, and while Blue's not the strongest color, I think it's enough of an improvement over Sentinel Spider to pick up first.

Pack 1 pick 2:

My Pick: Sleep

A fairly similar pack to the first. Prey Upon is a decent green card, and Sleep, while not insane, is a strong card in an aggressive deck. I go with Sleep to solidify myself into blue and as Prey Upon isn't enough of a strong card to make me take it over the on-color pick.

Pack 1 pick 3:

My Pick: Rancor

Essence Scatter is fine, but Rancor is really good in an aggressive deck. It pains me to pick green after passing good green cards, but that's not enough reason to abandon good picks this early in a draft.

Pack 1 pick 4:

My Pick: Titanic Growth

No blue cards, worrying. Titanic Growth is the better aggro card - Beast Tracker needs more targets to get picked up right now.

Pack 1 pick 5:

My Pick: Centaur Courser

Courser is a great green common and an easy pickup. Visionary works nicely with Rancor but it's still not close. Not much blue again.

Pack 1 pick 6:

My Pick: Trading Post

I don't like Rewind or Plummet a great deal in an aggressive deck, and I'm not that committed to either color right now, so I hedge and pick up the Trading Post, that can be a good defensive card in the right deck.

Pack 1 pick 7:

My Pick: Duty-Bound Dead

Only black and white cards to choose from. Worrying. With Sleep and Rancor I want a low curve so I pick up the Duty-Bound Dead, though Battleflight Eagle is pretty comparable, and I can understand picking it.

Pack 1 pick 8:

My Pick: Duty-Bound Dead

Sure I'll take another.

Pack 1 pick 9:

My Pick: Dark Favor

I'm not a fan of Fungal Sprouting in non-white decks, and Dark Favor is decent with evasive guys.

Pack 1 pick 10:

Guardians of Akrasa Reliquary Tower Island Hydrosurge Erase Fungal Sprouting

My Pick: Fungal Sprouting

Sure.

Pack 1 pick 11:

Silvercoat Lion Bountiful Harvest Forest Fog Courtly Provocateur

My Pick: Courtly Provocateur

Reasonable in UG decks.

Pack 1 pick 12:

Wall of Fire Zombie Goliath Swamp Cleaver Riot

My Pick: Zombie Goliath

Pack 1 pick 13:

Jayemdae Tome Island Walking Corpse

My Pick: Walking Corpse

Pack 1 pick 14:

Forest Downpour

My Pick: Downpour

Pack 1 pick 15:

Serpent's Gift

My Pick: Serpent's Gift

Booster 2 - Magic 2013 Core Set

Pack 2 pick 1:

My Pick: Murder

Wind Drake and Prey Upon are mediocre first picks, while Black appeared to be open with the late Walking Corpse, and Murder is going to be a great card whatever deck I end up in.

Pack 2 pick 2:

My Pick: Chronomaton

Harbor Bandit is nice, but I don't know what colors I'm in and taking a gold card over the very playable Chronomaton is a risk. I hedge and take the strong 1-drop.

Pack 2 pick 3:

My Pick: Liliana's Shade

All kinds of random guys and Arms Dealer and a Serra Angel. Awkward. White looking tempting in retrospect, but we're past that now. Liliana's Shade is marginally stronger than the other creatures, and with Murder and several cheap black creatures the shade might make a great finisher.

Pack 2 pick 4:

My Pick: Faerie Invaders

Invaders is solid, and Shade is less strong in multiples. Really not seeing much green as suspected, so UB is looking to be the deck.

Pack 2 pick 5:

My Pick: Faerie Invaders

Another Invaders, sure. Instants like counterspells now increase in value with the addition of these.

Pack 2 pick 6:

My Pick: Wind Drake

And now we see a Courser. Wind Drake isn't that much worse and we need to make a decision on color at some points.

Pack 2 pick 7:

My Pick: Crusader of Odric

Empty pack for me, so I hatedraft the most powerful playable.

Pack 2 pick 8:

My Pick: Zombie Goliath

I was seriously tempted to take the Door here, but there's a non-zero chance I'd play the second Goliath, though I'm really hoping to play none of them.

Pack 2 pick 9:

My Pick: Rewind

What is a card that gets better with Faerie Invaders?

Pack 2 pick 10:

Forest Glorious Charge Duress Kraken Hatchling Scroll Thief Watercourser

My Pick: Watercourser

So Blue is open. Should be good with Duty-Bound Dead.

Pack 2 pick 11:

Duress Plains Guardian Lions Courtly Provocateur Vedalken Entrancer

My Pick: Duress

Best of a bad lot.

Pack 2 pick 12:

Plains Touch of the Eternal Craterize Vedalken Entrancer

My Pick: Vedalken Entrancer

Totally knew this would table. Might be sideboardable against a deck full of 3/3's.

Pack 2 pick 13:

Forest Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Index

My Pick: Merfolk of the Pearl Trident

Pack 2 pick 14:

Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Mountain

My Pick: Merfolk of the Pearl Trident

Pack 2 pick 15:

Island

My Pick: Island

Booster 3 - Magic 2013 Core Set

Pack 3 pick 1:

My Pick: Harbor Bandit

Exactly what an aggressive UB deck needs. Nothing else comes close, except Bloodhunter Bat. Tabling that (unlikely) or a Fog Bank or Stormtide Leviathan would be nice.

Pack 3 pick 2:

My Pick: Welkin Tern

Aggro cards for the aggro deck.

Pack 3 pick 3:

My Pick: Welkin Tern

Another good aggro card. All these good white cards are sad to see.

Pack 3 pick 4:

My Pick: Faerie Invaders

Odric? Geez. you don't want too many Duty-Bound Dead in the same deck, and I'd like some power on the board to go with Sleep, so Invaders gets the nod.

Pack 3 pick 5:

My Pick: Sign in Blood

Not much else here. Trading Post into Phyrexian Hulk is unlikely to make the maindeck, and might table.

Pack 3 pick 6:

My Pick: Chronomaton

These keep going late.

Pack 3 pick 7:

My Pick: Encrust

Phantasm is not a playable.

Pack 3 pick 8:

My Pick: Negate

This could well make the maindeck.

Pack 3 pick 9:

My Pick: Archaeomancer

Sadly, so could this.

Pack 3 pick 10:

Rootbound Crag Duress Vastwood Gorger Swamp Mind Sculpt Spiked Baloth

My Pick: Rootbound Crag

Hatedraft? Raredraft? Entwine.

Pack 3 pick 11:

Silvercoat Lion Arbor Elf Mountain Griffin Protector Ranger's Path

My Pick: Griffin Protector

Sickeningly late.

Pack 3 pick 12:

Island Gem of Becoming Battleflight Eagle Serpent's Gift

My Pick: Battleflight Eagle

As is this. The white deck at this table is going to be a monster.

Pack 3 pick 13:

Index Mountain Erase

My Pick: Erase

Pack 3 pick 14:

Swamp Ranger's Path

My Pick: Ranger's Path

Pack 3 pick 15:

Plains

My Pick: Plains

The deck wasn't too difficult to build. The Zombie Goliaths obviously weren't making the cut, and after creatures I was left with Negate, Duress, Trading Post, Archaeomancer and Dark Favor to fill the last few slots. To maximize my Archaeomancer synergy, I put the Negate main (as it's much better to recur than Duress) and Dark Favor, as with Welkin Terns and Harbor Bandits I had some good potential targets.

Round 1 Vs. obv. (Mono-red)

I keep a 5-lander on the draw with Sign in Blood and Dark Favor, which might have been a little loose, but I figured a turn 2 Sign in Blood would draw me into some action. What it drew me into was more land, and I got ran over by a very fast Mono-red start, with Flunkies and Dragon Hatchlings.

0-1

I boarded out Dark Favor and Archaeomancer for Trading Post and Duress.

In the second I keep a 2 Swamp hand with Murder and Duty-Bound Dead, and draw the second and an Island in the next few turns to curve out well against his Torch Fiend into Arms Dealer, which I quickly Murder and follow with Wind Drake and Harbor Bandit. He lays out a pile of creatures including double Dragon Hatchling and Goblin Battle Jester. I get him low with the evasive guys and have enough (chump) blockers with a Cloned Harbor Bandit to adequately stay alive on the swing back.

1-1

Game three I Start with Chronomaton and Duty-Bound Dead, but he has the Torch Fiend to stop it once it gets to 3/3, but takes a fair bit of damage in the meantime as he's loathe to sac the fiend to keep his Mogg Flunkies active. I get more damage in with Walking Corpse and land a Wind Drake then Clone it while he finds Arms Dealer and starts throwing Goblins at my air force. the board state simplified I drop down a second Faerie Invaders at end of turn when he taps low for Battle Jester, and a Sleep off the top ensures he can't chump to stay alive while digging for more goblins to throw.

2-1

Round 2 Vs. Canali Pierre (W/G, WU/g)

Game 1 I get a start of Duty-Bound Dead into Watercourser, while he drops Arbor Elf, Silvercoat Lion and Prized Elephant. I'm getting through damage in the air though, and Watercourser gets in for 4-5 a turn while I drop a Faerie Invaders to ambush the Silvercoat Lion, but he has Divine Verdict. On his next alpha attack I Murder the Elephant and Negate the Pacifism on my Watercourser and bash for the final few points.

1-0

In the second he surprises me by playing out Islands and Plains, and morphs into a control deck with Vedalken Entrancer, Encrust, multiple Pacifisms, Oblivion Ring and Divination backed by Attended Knight, Leonin Sunstriker and more. I draw into more land than I would like and can't keep a threat on the board, while he starts running his Sunstriker into my Duty-Bound Dead. I get to 12 cards in my library and I'm at 10 to his 20 and facing down 3 guys to my Skeleton and pile of pacified guys and scoop it up before he can see too many of my instants/sorceries.

1-1

I board in Duress for Dark Favor. I start Duty-Bound Dead into Welkin Tern, which gets Pacified, then Chronomaton, which gets Pacified, then another Tern, which gets hit by Divine Verdict. He drops down Archaeomancer for Verdict and Jayemdae Tome, which I am forced to Encrust as I don't have enough pressure to race it. He Oblivion Rings my Encrust, and I'm forced to drop a pair of Faerie Invaders at end of turn and run them into Divine Verdict rather than wait for Duress, Negate or Rewind. He finds Ajani Sunstriker and puts Tricks of the Trade on it. I have the Murder in response, but he has Rewind to not only undo my 2-for-1 and game-ending play, but give him enough mana to use his Tome at end of turn. I draw Sleep and get him to 1 life while dealing 4 a turn to keep pace with his 4 from the Leonin, and desperately look for Archaeomancer, Sign in Blood, the second Duty-Bound Dead or Clone off the top to get that 1 extra damage through, but I don't find it in two draw steps, and he has Sleep of his own to lethal me.

1-2

As expected, the white deck was a monster. I think I might have done better had I taken Battlefield Eagle over Duty-Bound Dead in pack one. The Dead really isn't that good with Sleep, and W/G likes Eagle as much as Rancor likes Duty-Bound Dead. This could be a bit colored by hindsight though. (That Odric!)

Thanks for reading,

Richard