With only nine posts from our major writers (aka the paid ones) here on tcgplayer in the last eleven days there has been plenty of time to focus on us bloggers. In this tight knit community we bounce around decks, opinions and draft results, and even good tips for stew. Around here, one person can peel the carrots while another one cuts them up, and yet another person prepares the meat- and that's just offline. Once you edit- I mean spice up your stew, it may be ready for everyone to gobble up and give criticism.

Well today there are two chefs in the kitchen- Captaineddie and SpiffyKyote. Yes, two writers in one blog given one subject and two completely different outcomes. Both of these writers participated this week in FNM and will be writing back and forth about their experiences and perceptions on this week's draft and will hopefully be able to give accurate insight about how to make a good stew- I mean deck.

Without further ado, the first to the chopping block is Captaineddie.

Captain Eddie: FNM time! Woot!

I live in a town where there is no regular FNM, so I usually get FNM action in my hometown, which I did that day. I sat down on my table, my friend who drove me here on my left (name is John), and a guy named Chuck on my right, both are very smart Magic players, and talented as well.

I opened my pack, and see nothing there sadly, Enchanted Evening and Illuminated Folio, but I decided to pick a merrow wavebreaker, hoping to get through my favorite archetype, Mono Blue Flyers, and toss away an Aethertow to John, hoping it'll go a bit farther after reading that same day on the draft picks results page here on tcgplayer.com, that Aethertow was an 8 or 9th pick.

I pick another creature in my second pack, Glamer spiners, fitting my mono blue flyers archetype, note that there was another Aethertow in the pack, and I ship it along thinking that Blue/White is open. Then it stopped, like my oven just got turned off, my stew stopped cooking for a minute as I ran out of ingredients to throw in. Picks 3-8 were nowhere near my colours that I was getting from the gentleman on my right, while he was keeping on windmilling cards down on the table.

I managed to grab some cards like hungry spriggans, but it took a long time to consider as I was stiff to stick to my archetype, hoping to get a good record with it. Picks that I was trying to make my glamer spinner playable were favoured towards white at this point, like safehold duo. It was pick 6-7 that I got a seedcradle witch, and it made me think and change, I took it, thinking that it was time to start over and to play this archetype, G/W beats, that was unfamiliar territory to me.

Two picks later I got another witch, cementing me and telling me that G/W was open, I take it, and started grabbing stuff like safehold elite at the end- and this is where I knew I made the right choice.

I open a wilt leaf liege, and I chuckle to myself and pass the rest of the pack on to Chuck, containing good U/W stuff for him or the person next to him. For the next 5 picks, stuff like shield of the oversoul and Raven's Run Dragoon came over, and I rode this momentum all the way to the end, and the deck is what I got.


2 Hungry Spriggan
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Medicine Runner
1 Safehold Elite
2 Seedcradle Witch
2 Rune-Cervin Rider
1 Old Ghastbark
2 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Elvish Hexhunter
2 Safehold Duo
1 Raven's Run Dragoon

2 Shield of the Oversoul
2  Manamorphose

12 Forest
5 Plains

Significant Sideboard includes-
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Turn to Mist

SpiffyKyote: Wow, that looks a lot like my sealed deck.
Captain Eddie: That's the archetype. =P
SpiffyKyote: Jeez, I even got the Wilt-Leaf just like you. I am honestly jealous that you pulled it off in draft! My only problem is all your weenies. Where's the punch?
Captain Eddie: Don't worry about it- there is no punch.G/W is an aggro deck, there is no big "finisher" to the deck. In an ideal world, a thoughtweft gambit or two will finish things off. Back on Friday, there was nothing there, so I just relied on getting as much damage through in the earliest turns, race the opponent, and force them to leave a guy back to block every time they attack. You'd be surprised at how efficient a wilt leaf liege and a mistmeadow skulk is at getting through damage.
SpiffyKyote: Alright that makes sense. Carryon.

Captain Eddie: As you can tell this desert pie turned out wonderfully after it started as a stew, don't be afraid to switch colours in the middle of a draft, it can/will benefit you if you read the signals right. This deck could've turned out a lot worse, as you can see, there is nothing in terms of removal. I just bash face and hope that their creatures are smaller then my creatures.


Opponent #1: Blue Black evasion, -1/-1 counters

My first opponent looked pretty keen, I managed to slap a shield on a duo at the end but he bashed my face clean. The second game was a bit better, as I raced him down to zero, he was always on his back foot as a turn one seedcradle witch provided enough firepower to get through twenty points of damage.
I hit my curve, witch Elite Shield Raven run's dragoon, he had a really hard time keeping up with my fliers, and in the end a mistmeadow skulk and a shielded Elite got through for the win.

Opponent #2 R/G Ramp

When your opponent plays wort the raidmother, be prepared for some shenanigains.
It was the end of the of the 2nd game, I had a shielded Liege, 6/6 flier, He attacks all in with a Scuzzback Maurader and a Wort the raidmother, leaving the token behind. Me, not thinking, blocks the maurader wanting to take as little damage as possible, he throws up a jaws of stone, conspiring off a new Marader that just came back thanks to lovely persist and the token. And burns my face for the win. Oh yah, the first game I lost to an ember gale.

Opponent # 3 G/W Aggro

It was a mirror match, and the lesson of the day here is, whoever plays first, wins. And it so happens I won the dice roll.

Opponent #4 U/R goodstuff

There wasn't much to say for any of these games, if i wrote down my plays like SpiffyKyote, this would've been much more interesting.

SpiffyKyote: It's ok, you'll do it next time. ;)

Captain Eddie: All three games I play a shield on someone, sadly on the second game he scar-ed my medicine runner after mulling down to five. I ended up losing that one to a swarm.

RECAP:

After all said and done, I came in second place, finishing after opponent #3 (who won all four games) out of 14 people.


Spiffykyote: Hello all. Let me start off by saying that my draft did not go nearly as well as Eddie's here. I got fourth of ten due to a few complications and so I am just going to go with it. My section is more about  some good combos that came out Friday and what to do in a sticky situation. You know, the kind where you were are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

My Rock was a guy named Benny who quite often places first or second. Mr. Hard Place (haha i know, total innuendo) was the guy who gets first or second when Benny does not, and his name is Alex. In this week's FNM I was situated right inbetween them. Yeah, literally between a Rock and a Hard Place. So my not unimpressive track record (numerous second places and a few more thirds) was set to unfavorable odds this week.

So when it came to drafting packs, pack one and three were coming from Hard Place (hereafter referred to HP) and pack two was coming from Rock. Later what I found out was that Rock was drafting r/g and HP drafted r/b. This would have left me with w/u, however, little did I know that the players that were reach 2 from me were both doing those colors. No matter what way you look at it I was screwed.

My advantage came in this small group of drafters actually being a friendly group of people. Most of us were talking while we were passing cards, although of course not mentioning what we had in our hands, save for one n00b. What really helped me here was the fact that first pack, I knew what colors I was drafting. I chose r/g because my first rare was crap so I selected a tower above. Now the advantage of everyone talking was that they were all joking around and laughing about the fact that they were all hate drafting. During the first pack, everyone else was hate drafting so I was able to get a lot of good things first pack.

Second and third packs I was not getting so much of what I wanted except for opening the Mossbridge Troll and then the Fire-Lit Thicket. In the end, I wound up with the following decklist, with two Raking Canopies for sideboarding.

2 devoted druid
2 morselhoarder
2 roughshod mentor
2 hungry spriggan
2 blistering dieflyn
1 farhaven elf
1 tattermunge maniac
1 mossbridge troll
1 wildslayer elves
1 scuzzback marauders

3 crimson wisps
2 tower aboves
1 shield of the oversoul
1 runes of deus

7 forests
8 mountains
1 fire-lit thicket

Captain Eddie: This seems like a good winning deck, The only things I gotta pick on it's the three crimson wisp and 2 blistering dieflyn. The Wisps are good in a deck like these, but I don't know if I'd put in three, two seems to be the max and one it's what I usually go with, I also worry about the blistering dieflyn.
SpiffyKyote: I like 'em- it's one drop card draw in all colors with (usually) good side effects. In draft a well played wisp can help you win the game. But what's wrong with the Dief?
Captain Eddie: They are a 4 mana investment in the beginning, and at the end, they suck up more mana then you can let go.  The point with playing the dieflyn and any other pump creature in this format is that when you drop it down, don't block or do anything with it. Leave it alone for the time being, worry about increasing your board advantage by dropping down bigger creatures (which you definitely have).
SpiffyKyote: Yeah that is exactly what I did. Used it and exploited it as much as I could, but only when I had a good set up otherwise so I wouldn't leave myself open. I find it's best to exploid Dief as much as you can tho, especially when they don't have any fliers.
Captain Eddie: Other then that, the two tower aboves are awesome-
SpiffyKyote: Thank you.
Captain Eddie: I like your creatures to others ratio (15:7, perfect). Colours seem balanced, and your curve lots rather late, but thats alright considering your archetype and the two devoted druid.
SpiffyKyote: Anything else?
Captain Eddie:  Nope, I'm good.

First match, game one was against the n00b. He was one of the w/u folks and first game he was mana screwed, so I took the first win with playing both Tower Aboves and just generally smashing face.
    Game two we both did well in terms of mana but he was afraid of loosing his creatures and so he was not blocking a lot of my attacks. My Scuzzback Marauder repeatedly attacked him and so he finally played Sinking Feeling on the thing. At this point he was at three life and I was at 14. Fortunately, the great thing about Sinking Feeling is that it makes your opponent completely forget about your creature. The card however still allows you to pay one to untap your creature and so that is exactly what I did once the time was right and I had to block. Next turn I attacked with Blistering Dieflyn and swept the match.
    In the end I game him the advice to use his sideboard and actually block every now and again.

Second match, game one was against HP. R/g met R/g in a not so epic dual to the death. He chose r/g because earlier when he was hate drafting he managed to get two Boggart Ram Gangs. In this first game he pulled one of them out and stomped me.
    Game two we were matching blow for blow with pretty much the same decks and at the very end he Flame Javelined, however conceded due to confusing player errors where the end game either meant I was at one life and I win or negative two life he wins. I was figuring out what to block when he assumed I wasn't blocking and revealed his Javelin too early, allowing me to accurately block and then swing all next turn. Lesson here- make sure all blockers are declared for sure. My advice is to ask them "Is that your final answer?" with a bit of an eyebrow raise to ease the tension.
    Game three he Ram Ganged turn three. I conceded.

Third match, game one was against a guy I call Stalin, because almost every match he plays winds up getting time called on him because he is a notorious Staller. In this game we were both mana flooded but I eventually managed to play Blistering Dieflyn and then equip Runes of Deus to it. Next turn I used all my forests to play Morselhoarder and then used morselhoarders counters on Dief's ability and four mountains to make it a 8/2 flying doublestriker. First game was mine.
    Game two I eventually had Wildslayer Elves and Mossbridge Troll out but he won due to Aethertowing them both to the top of my library. This same game he also managed to whip out the Order of Whiteclay and Presence of Gond combo where you make an elf baby and then bring back a creature from your graveyard with cmc three or less for two white and one of anything. I was pretty swarmed.
    Game three was epic because true to his name, Stalin was the reason for time to be called on this one. The last few turns I had a few big creatures out including Mossbridge Troll and Roughshod Mentor. He had two Old Ghastbarks. The game ended in a draw because on the final turn I could only bring him to five life while I was at sixteen. Had I one more mana or just one more turn I could have played a Scuzzback Marauder and tapped that for Mossbridge's ability and then swung with Mossbridge and the Mentor for the win. Shame shame....

And so after all that HP got first, Rock got second, and I got fourth. What a herrowing night! It only makes me look forward to next week.

Captain Eddie: The lesson of the day here is, don't always try to stick to your colours, when someone passes you a card you think it's worth trying outside of your colours, try it! Maybe it'll reward you in the end. Never be afraid to jump ship to try to build a new one.
SpiffyKyote: Seconded.

......

So now what?
Captain Eddie: I dunno. That was pretty fun. Wanna do it again?
SpiffyKyote: Hellz yeah. What about what we talked about earlier?
Captain Eddie: Sure. Wanna do the honors?
SpiffyKyote: No no no you do it. Make it official sounding.
Captain Eddie: Okay, what about this- For our next article, we will visit the main archetypes around this set, and what decks you are most likely to see in a draft. Take heed next time when we also reveal what cards are great signals to steer toward a certain color!

Tags: Draft FNM Shadowmoor

Related to: Magic: the Gathering

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