Scars Block Booster Draft

So myself and Mr Chris went to our first ever booster draft the other day.  This was the first time I’d played in an environment other than the kitchen table with mates.  I was a bit apprehensive at first but they were a great bunch of people, really friendly and forthcoming with advice.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and learnt a lot about mtg etiquette. 

The draft itself was scars block.  New Phyrexia – Mirrodin Besieged – Scars of Mirrodin.  I’ve an okay knowledge of New Phyrexia (it was the first release after I started playing magic) but the other two were fairly unknown to me.  So I spent the two days leading up to it reading up on booster draft hints for noobs and practicing on here.  Some things I picked up on were to prioritise removal, evasive creatures and bombs.  Think about what colour the players to either side of you are playing, you want to be playing a different colour.  At the event, the organiser gave me this advice: “Take the rare and play around it”.

On to the draft!  Now I can’t remember many other cards other than the one’s I took.  I also can’t remember which order I took the cards in – but I can remember a few key decisions I made starting with the first pick.

The Draft

New Phyrexia

The rare in my first booster was a Chancellor Of The Annex which I took.  I figured I’d want to play a fast deck since this card would give me some early advantage if in my opening hand (and provide an evasive finisher late game).  My next pick was a Porcelain Legionnaire.  I had wanted to avoid artifact creatures (given all the artifact hate in the block) but I took the legionnaire because his phyrexian mana ties in with the early advantage theme.  My next pick was another Porcelain Legionnaire which cemented my approach.

At some point I grabbed a Master Splicer feeling a 4/4 and 1/1 for 4 mana is a solid deal.  Also adding to the speed theme I grabbed a Slash Panther.  I got a Blinding Souleater to keep the momentum going if I got ahead of my opponent.  I managed to get a Gremlin Mine, Whipflare and 2 Victorious Destructions for removal.  Looking at my picks so far I have quite a few artifact creatures, so I grab Scrapyard Salvo and War Report.  The other picks were off colour.

Mirrodin Besieged

I can’t remember what the rare was, but I know that I passed it up for Burn the Impure, figuring that some removal that doesn’t mind burning non-artifact creatures would come in handy.  I wanted some low-costing creatures to keep the speed theme and found a couple of Ardent Recruits.  I have a fair amount of artifacts so should be able to get metalcraft going too.  Off of this I picked 2 each Spiraling Duelists and Spin Engines and Some cheap artifact hate in the form of a Crush.  I love combat tricks so took 2 Rally the Forces.  Keeping in colour I picked an Ogre Resister, Gore Vassal and Koth’s Courier.  One of my last picks was a Shriekhorn which was unlikely to make it in to the deck as all it would effectively do is add to my metalcraft count.

Scars of Mirrodin

I passed up Kemba Kha Regent here since I had yet to pick any equipment to take advantage of his ability.  Instead I think I took a Tumble Magnet.  A fair few of my creatures are 3/1 so Tumble Magnet would provide a nice way of tapping down 1/1 potential blockers.  The other key picks from this round were a Glint Hawk Idol – providing an evasive attacker and three more removal spells – Rust Tick, Shatter and Revoke Existence.  I took a Ghalma’s Warden as it’s a pretty darn good deal if Metalcraft is active and  Loxodon Wayfarer.  I grabbed a Liquimetal Coating because I have so much Artifact hate it would be nice to spread the love to Non-Artifact Creatures.

The rest of my picks were Flameborn Viron, Golem Foundry, Culling Dais, Panic Spellbomb, Flight Spellbomb and a Trigon of Thought.

The deck

Creatures

2 Ardent Recruit

2 Porcelain Legionnaire

1 Blinding Souleater

1 Rust Tick

Master Splicer

2 Spiralling Duellist

Ghalma’s Warden

Slash Panther

Chancellor of the Annex

Other

Crush

Gremlin Mine

Glint Hawk Idol

Liquimetal Coating

Burn the Impure

Whipflare

Revoke Existence

Shatter

Tumble Magnet

Rally the Forces

Scrapyard Salvo

War Report

Land

9 Mountains

7 Plains

The Games

Opponent One

I won this round 2 – 1.  My opponent was playing Red/Black with Geth, Lord of the Vault who made an appearance in the second game.  My opponent made a bit of a misplay with Geth – I was keeping Geth tapped down with the Tumble Magnet and my opponent didn’t realise that he could still activate Geth’s ability.  I kept Geth at bay long enough to Whipflare and Burn the Impure him away.

Opponent Two

I got thrashed 2-0 here.  This guy had done a brilliant job of drafting and had a deck so full of synergy.  Artifacts jumping from the battlefield to his hand, his graveyard all the while activating numerous abilities multiple times.  He went on to win the draft in the end.

Opponent Three

This was my favourite match-up as the games were so close.  My deck played its best in the first game.  Turn 1 – Ardent Recruit, Turn 2 – Porcelain Legionnaire, Turn 3 – Blinding Souleater, Turn 4 Slash – Panther.  All the while my opponent had only managed to assemble equipment.  He managed to stabilise at 7 life and get a couple of bigger creatures (one was a big artifact creature golem) in the way to stall the game.  I soon drew a Revoke Existence which allowed me to attack for lethal.  The other two games were hard fought, I managed to get him to 1 life in the third before he stabilised and eventually won and he won 2 -1.

After this match we had some time to kill whilst other matches finished.  Opponent 3 and 2 took a look through my deck and suggested that I take out the Scrapyard Salvo and Spiralling Duellists in favour of the Ogre Resistor and 2 Spin Engines.  They had a good point so I obliged.

Opponent Four

I managed to win 2-0 against my fourth opponent who was wielding a UW deck.  A whipflare allowed me to win the second game (taking out his two Suture Priest who were keeping his life up).  I could have kept my Master Splicer alive if I had of remembered to activate Liquimetal Coating.

Fedger’s (briefest of) Thoughts

Star Card: Glint Hawk Idol.  I drew it in most games and more often than not he was the only one able to continuously hack away at my opponent’s life.

I really enjoyed my first taste of this format and will definitely be heading to the next one.  I’m more fluent with Innistrad and Dark Ascension so hopefully next time we’ll be drafting from that block.

Next time on Fedger’s Furnace: I’ll be play testing & reporting on Lather the Townsfolk.

See you then!