About Yann Massicard
Yann Massicard
Yann is a Level 6 Magic pro player from France who has a number of high-profile finishes under his belt:
- Winner Grand Prix Seattle 2009
- 51 Lifetime Pro Points
- Level 6 Pro Players Club member
- Top 16 Pro Tour Kyoto 2009
- Top 24 Pro Tour Kuala Lumpur 2008
- Top 16 Grand Prix Strasbourg 2007
Hey everyone,
This week I'm going to show you one of my
Zendikar drafts, which I found interesting and pretty difficult too, so we will
have a lot of things to discuss!
If you missed the last episode of Draft With The Pro you can find it here:
Level 6 Pro Player Yann Massicard takes us through a Zendikar 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online. He shares some comprehensive thoughts about both the picks and the games, and talks us through each step of the way! If you're looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!
Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick: Plated Geopede
I would have liked to draft something slightly
more unusual, but Plated Geopede is just the best card in here, much better
than Kor Aeronaut or Roil Elemental.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick: Grazing Gladehart
There’s almost nothing in this pack. I could
take Electropotence, but I don't really like it, except in few decks like those
with Zektar Shrine Expeditions. As it’s still early in the draft, I prefer to
pick a better card even if it's in a different color than my Plated Geopede. I
don't really like GR, so maybe I won't play one of my 2 first picks. We
will see.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick: Marsh Casualties
3 picks and 3 colors already, I will have to
make some choices, but there's just no way I pass this card.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick: Nissa's Chosen
RB is usually a better color combination, but Nissa's
Chosen is much better than Blood Seeker. This doesn't mean I will play Green
for sure though.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick: Nimana Sell-Sword
In the early stages of a draft I like to pick
some allies, as I can then finish with plenty of them. In this pack Heartstabber Mosquito would be tempting too, but I just prefer the ally, and anyway even if
I don't get many others during the draft, I still prefer the always solid 3/3
for 4.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick: Quest for the Gemblades
Though I love Soul Stair Expedition I'm just
never really impressed by Grim Discovery. Quest for the Gemblades is a card I
don't really like but also don't dislike. At this point I thought I will get a Soul Stair Expedition or Grim Discovery later on, so I picked the green
uncommon, but I think that was a mistake, and Grim Discovery is probably
better.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick: Surrakar Marauder
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick: Oran-Rief Survivalist
No red cards so far, and my GB deck starts to
look interesting. How sad for my Plated Geopede...
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick: Hedron Scrabbler
Pack 1 pick 10:
Spreading Seas Swamp Ondu Cleric Akoum Refuge Piranha Marsh Lethargy Trap My Pick: Akoum Refuge
It could allow me a splash for some removal
spells or maybe some good allies.
Pack 1 pick 11:
Jwar Isle Refuge Tanglesap Goblin Bushwhacker Makindi Shieldmate Island My Pick: Makindi Shieldmate
Pack 1 pick 12:
Quest for the Holy Relic Piranha Marsh Trapmaker's Snare Island My Pick: Piranha Marsh
Pack 1 pick 13:
Forest Trailblazer's Boots Mindless Null My Pick: Mindless Null
Pack 1 pick 14:
Sunspring Expedition Spell Pierce My Pick: Spell Pierce
Pack 1 pick 15:
Island My Pick: Island
Summary Pack 1
So far I haven't seen any red cards and I didn't
pass good stuff in my colors so I should get some nice cards in Green and Black,
hopefully. I keep in mind that I already have a few allies, a good curve and
not many removal spells.
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick: Nimana Sell-Sword
Not the pack I wanted to open. I don't think I want
to splash for Journey to Nowhere, which is the only really good card in here, so I
pick Nimana Sell-Sword, which is always solid at least and could even
become pretty good as I already have 3 good allies now.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick: Vampire Nighthawk
Wee!
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick: Oran-Rief Survivalist
I usually prefer Turntimber Basilisk, depending on my
curve, but Oran-Rief Survivalist would be my 4th ally with many
picks to come, so I think Oran-Rief Survivalist is the better option.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick: Nimana Sell-Sword
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet is tempting but my
deck seems to be a bit too aggressive and cheap for it, while the ally is once
again the kind of card I need.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick: Tuktuk Grunts
That’s a very difficult pick here. I would
probably not consider Tuktuk Grunts if I hadn't picked Akoum Refuge, but here,
with already 5 good allies and no really exciting card in this pack, I will go
with the ally.
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick: Tuktuk Grunts
And number 7.
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick: Gatekeeper of Malakir
This makes me regret my 2 previous picks. Never
mind, I just have to try to make Black my main color.
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick: Hagra Diabolist
The curve gets higher, but it's totally worth
it.
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick: Tajuru Archer
An ally which kills fliers. Well, I really need
more allies to consider playing it, but it's still a good sideboard card.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Unstable Footing Mountain Joraga Bard Grim Discovery Mire Blight Sunspring Expedition My Pick: Joraga Bard
I think I should really reconsider Grim Discovery,
I definitely underrated the card during this draft.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Geyser Glider Lethargy Trap Goblin Bushwhacker Island Seascape Aerialist My Pick: Geyser Glider
Pack 2 pick 12:
Plains Sunspring Expedition Tempest Owl Tajuru Archer My Pick: Tajuru Archer
Pack 2 pick 13:
Tempest Owl Landbind Ritual Plains My Pick: Tempest Owl
Pack 2 pick 14:
Demolish Beast Hunt My Pick: Demolish
Pack 2 pick 15:
Plains My Pick: Plains
Summary Pack 2
So far I've got a pretty cool deck with 3
awesome black uncommons and 8 allies. The curve is great, I may need fixers
though and still some removal spells.
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick: Terra Stomper
3 green mana is not what I expected but there's
nothing else anyway and it wins games on its own.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick: Harrow
Day of Judgment is definitely a card I don't
want to face with my ally deck, but Harrow is the card I was praying for. I
will just have to pay attention not to get wrecked by Day of Judgment if I play
against a white deck.
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick: Hideous End
That’s a pretty good pack here. Baloth would be
nice to go with my freshly picked Harrow, but I already have some late drops
and I really need this removal spell. Hopefully the Stonework Puma will come
back.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick: Hagra Crocodile
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick: Surrakar Marauder
We have a tough pick again. I prefer Surrakar Marauder
to Hagra Diabolist. In addition, Hagra Diabolist can wheel if I get lucky while
I won't ever see the Surrakar Marauder again, if I pass it.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick: Territorial Baloth
Expedition Map could be an option here, but I
just wanted a big guy in case I would face some green or red decks and to make
sure I will have enough good playables too. With Harrow and Akoum Refuge, I
should have enough fixers anyway.
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick: Kor Cartographer
I passed Emeria the Sky Ruin so I counterdraft
the Kor Cartographer.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick: Vampire Lacerator
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick: Tanglesap
Combo with Terra Stomper.
Pack 3 pick 10:
Cancel Joraga Bard Mindless Null Sunspring Expedition Plains Noble Vestige My Pick: Cancel
Pack 3 pick 11:
Swamp Pillarfield Ox Turntimber Grove Caravan Hurda Seismic Shudder My Pick: Turntimber Grove
Pack 3 pick 12:
Kor Duelist Scythe Tiger Forest Mire Blight My Pick: Kor Duelist
Pack 3 pick 13:
Spidersilk Net Hagra Diabolist Mountain My Pick: Hagra Diabolist
And it came back!
Pack 3 pick 14:
Quest for the Holy Relic Bold Defense My Pick: Bold Defense
Pack 3 pick 15:
Desecrated Earth My Pick: Desecrated Earth
Deck Construction
I easily came up with 21 cards, I just had to
figure out what the final card would be. Tanglesap could combo with Terra Stomper and it would add a trick to my Portal deck. On the other hand Quest for the Gemblades is a better card, so I finally went with it.
This deck forms part of my feature article:
Level 6 pro player Yann Massicard takes us through a Zendikar 8-4 draft queue on Magic Online. He shares some comprehensive thoughts about both the picks and the games, and talks us through each step of the way! If you're looking to improve your Limited game, this is the article series for you!
| Colors |
|---|
| Black | 13 |
|---|
| Green | 7 |
|---|
| Land | 18 |
|---|
| Red | 2 |
|---|
| Converted Mana Cost |
|---|
| 1 | 1 |
|---|
| 2 | 8 |
|---|
| 3 | 4 |
|---|
| 4 | 4 |
|---|
| 5 | 4 |
|---|
| 6 | 1 |
|---|
| Type |
|---|
| Basic Land | 16 |
|---|
| Creature | 18 |
|---|
| Enchantment | 1 |
|---|
| Instant | 2 |
|---|
| Land | 2 |
|---|
| Sorcery | 1 |
|---|
The deck seems good so let's try it:
Round 1: Blushi - Mono-red
Game 1
My hand is 3 Swamp, Forest, Mountain, Marsh Casualties and Terra Stomper on the draw. I keep, as Marsh Casualties can give me the
time to draw some spells and also wreck his whole board. I find a turn 2 Surrakar Marrauder while he is stuck on 2 lands with a pair of 2/1's. I
eventually wrath his board with Marsh Casualties as I don't want to take too
much damage with my hand full of land. I play Terra Stomper on turn 6
while he has only 4 lands and a Ruinous Minotaur. I decide to pass and not to
attack with Surrakar Marrauder as I would die to Mark of Mutiny. He draws and
concedes. I side out Hagra Crocodile, as he seems to have a very aggressive
deck, and bring in Joraga Bard.
Game 2
I keep on the draw with 3 Forest, 1 Swamp, Vampire Nighthawk, Surrakar Marrauder and Hagra Diabolist. This time he plays double Zektar Shrine Expedition on the first 3 turns
ad then Elemental Appeal. I never draw a Swamp for my Vampire Nighthawk or Hideous End and eventually die to Spire Barrage.
He has a very good deck but I have the
kind of cards these decks don't like to face. I side out my 2 red creatures for Territorial Baloth and Desecrated Earth and change the lands too. About Desecrated Earth: Land destruction and disruption in the same card is pretty cool against
mono-red decks which often need many lands but also play cards like Ruinous Minotaur or Magma Rift. It should also be fine as he has a Spire Barrage and
those decks want to play a land on every turn, which means he won't keep lands
in hand but rather cards like Spire Barrage, and I will be happy if I can
remove it from his hand.
Game 3
I mulligan to 6 and keep 2 Forest, Swamp, Nissa's
Chosen, Nimana Sell-Sword and Desecrated Earth. I first draw lands while
Nissa's Chosen stops his guy, but I can't attack before turn 4 as I don't want
to take damage. On turn 5 I have no other play than Desecrated Earth so I play
it ,though I would have liked to wait a bit longer, but it could screw him. He
discards Torch Slinger which is awesome for my turn 6 Grazing Gladehart.
Unfortunately, those 4 cards are the only active cards I will draw in this game
and he kills me with Bladetusk Boar and Spire Barrage.
All in all, a pretty disappointing match. I won
game 1 thanks to his mana troubles, then he won because I couldn't play Vampire Nighthawk in game 2 and finally I mulliganed and played only 4 cards in game
3... I mean that's Magic, it happens a lot, but it's just too bad, as although
he had a pretty good deck, he just couldn't do anything about a turn 3 Vampire Nighthawk
or even an early Grazing Gladehart plus some pressure.
Anyway, this has been a tough draft with many
complicated choices, overall I'm still pretty happy with my decisions. As I said, Grim Discovery is the one card I regret not picking. Sometimes there are cards you
just don't like because of some obscure reason. Let's keep in mind that you have
to reconsider and reevaluate them.
Thanks for reading,
Yann
Deck Analysis
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I think it's cool you guys write draft articles without necessarily having good results to show for it. As a wise man once said, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted", and that applies here too - I learn much more from wrongly evaluated cards and miss-plays than from watching a deck with triple Hideous End yield 8 packs of virtual goodness.
I agree wih Alash. But the 3 good blue card in first pack have decided the colors to draft. The first and third pack are full of good blue card. I think mono blue was possible if you should have first pick Roil elemental.
I don't think I'd ever first pick Roil Elemental, unless there was absolutely nothing else in there. As an opening gambit you want to commit yourself as little as possible - which is also why Trusty Machete is considered one of the absolute strongest first picks. Once you have had a chance to read the signals you have a better idea which colors to be in, and only then do you really want to commit deeply. Hideous End, Day of Judgment and Vampire Nighthawk are so strong their double symbols don't matter, but I'd make the same case for Conqueror's Pledge.
If by pack two you're running around singing "I'm BLUE, da-be-dee, da-be-daa" then obviously that's a different matter. But personally I have yet to see a blue mono-colored deck that performed well.
On a sidenote, I just learned that the guy who beat Yann is a good friend of mine. I suspect I will get my ears full of all his boasting when we meet for drafting this Saturday...
Whoops. Forgot to login.
I think adding third colour to your deck was a mistake: you already have Stomper and Gatekeeper that demand three coloured mana for themselves + Chosen, Nighthawk and Casualties, and your red doesn't give you any splashing removal.
im having some issues writing a comment so forgive me if im spamming!
Thanks for the match Yann
We'll have a rematch sometime ;)
Blushi
I think that taking two tuktuk grunts was not good at this moment and play red in this pack, I would rather take kalitas bloodchief of ghet over first and Heartstabber Mosquito over second even this cards are expensive and do not try to play first picked plated geopede for every cost. Going to blue would not be better in my opinion.
Great article. I wish more draft articles went pick by pick. This is one of the best Limited articles I've read. It really gives you a look into the format.
@ Blushi: Sure, that's cool you're there! Did you win the draft btw?
You can also post your draft list here if you remember it and talk a bit about our game from your point of view, but if you don't have time for that no worries.
@ Neverdied: I took Sell-Sword over Kalitas, well, both picks are about the same lvl, I already had this choice both in Tampa and Rome and I took the mythic twice. Well in Tampa it was maybe the good choice but probably not in Rome. I mean if your deck tend to be quite aggressive then Kalitas is too often off tempo, and anyway if you already have quite a big crew of allies then Sell-Sword is probably the pick. About Tuktuk, as I said, it's a tough call, but I think it was pretty good here as I had Akoum Refuge and many allies. Mosquito was another 4 drop which I already had a lot, and it would had been the worst of them. Finally when I already took one, I had to take the 2nd over Grim Discovery. The fact I'm playing green also pushed me a bit in this direction as I can get more fixers like Harrow, or even a GR refuge...
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