Memorial Day wiped out the usual Monday draft I would do which left me with a hunger for a Shadowmoor draft. This was filled later in the week when some of the local pros around here also had a hunger for Shadowmoor drafting. I met Cheeks, Scheel, and Nick Crumpton for some 2v2 drafting at the local store -- random teams, winner keeps the cards.
For the first draft I was paired with Cheeks with Scheel to my left and Crumpton to my right.
I must admit that my very first pick was incorrect. I took Ashenmoor Liege over Biting Tether. I was thinking the Liege would give me some good options in some red or black deck. It may have worked, but I wasn't quite able to commit to the Red-Black Fists deck. Some of it was me not taking that leap and some was the cards were not available.
I grabbed a second pick Cragginwick Cremator, third pick Wicker Warcrawler, and then saw a fourth pick Spawnwrithe. At that point I thought that meant green would be open since everyone had had a chance at that pack and I could build a nice green/red deck. Turns out that two of the other three drafters had taken green cards out of that pack as well. I'll come back to that thought later, in the meanwhile think a bit over what mono-green cards one would take over Spawnwrithe.
I began noticing that blue-black was open while red and green had completely dried up and I really began kicking myself for passing that Biting Tether. The black at least meant that the Ashenmoor Liege would help out partially. I drifted further and further into Blue-Black and actually reached a point where I was pretty happy with my deck.
I did have one last interesting pick. Pack 3, pick 7 had wheeled a Faerie Swarm and a Flow of Ideas. I had just previously picked up a Painter's Servant in anticipation of the Faerie Swarm making it back plus as a way to power up my Liege. I had also just grabbed an Elsewhere Flask to power up my Corrupt. I decided that I liked the Faerie Swarm more here. I think I may be overrating Faerie Swarm.
Deck
Briarberry Cohort
Sickle Ripper
Painter's Servant
3x Gravelgill Duo
Silkbind Faerie
Wingrattle Scarecrow
Ashenmoor Liege
Faerie Swarm
Wanderbrine Rootcutters
Wicker Warcrawler
2x Gravelgill Axeshark
Cultbrand Cinder
Grief Tyrant
Torture
Cerulean Wisps
Fate Transfer
Elsewhere Flask
Gnarled Effigy
Gloomlance
Corrupt
11 Swamps
6 Islands
SB
Whimwader
Cerulean and Aphotic Wisps
On the whole, a decent, but not amazing deck. That is the nature of drafting in an 4 man environment however. I certainly could have had a better deck if I had more aggressively pounced on blue and hadn't wasted so much time thinking I might be red. It's weird, no one ended up playing red, so I don't know where all the red cards disappeared to.
Match 1: I faced Scheel first. When I faced him he was playing a Blue/green/white deck. Frankly it was something of a mess, and he later rebuilt it by cutting out the green. Game 1 I just played my various fat guys while Scheel tried to win with evasion and tricks. My deck wore his out and then gave me a couple extra creatures. Game 2 Scheel kept a slow hand while I dropped Gravelgill Duos on turns 2 and 3. He stabilized for a bit with a pair of Barrenton Medics, but that only prolonged him from dying, it never actually took control of the game. I eventually punched through those to win the game and match.
Match 2: We switched opponents and I was across from Crumpton. The teams were tied at 1-1 since Crumpton had defeated Cheeks.
Game 1 I assembled the awesome combo of Faerie Swarm and Painter's Servant and swung with the 8/8 flyer. That gave me lethal on table when Crumpton put a Steel of the Godhead on a Kithkin Rabble and gained 6 life. I needed to draw either my Gloomlance to kill the Rabble or a Swamp so I could Corrupt to bring him back into lethal range. I drew something entirely irrelevant and lost.
Game 2 he mulled twice and kept a 1-lander. He never drew another land.
Game 3 I mulled once and then kept a slow hand. I was doing well using a Silkbind Faerie to keep an Armored Ascensioned creature under control until a Seedcradle Witch let him take a huge chunk out of my life anyway. I dealt with the Witch only to see it replaced by a Windbrisk Raptor. Again, I had a 1-outer to Gloomlance, but failed to draw it.
Scheel had rebuilt his deck and defeated Cheeks giving the opposition the 3-1 match record and the win.
The draft hunger had been sated only long enough for actual hunger to seep in. We broke for food and discussed some of the decks and picks. Remember that pack with Spawnwrithe I mentioned earlier? Cheeks had taken a second pick Howl of the Nightpack out of it. He and I had earlier discussed what commons one would take over Spawnwrithe and Howl (and we knew it wasn't a foil because one of those was present) and I guess Silkbind Faerie while Cheeks guess Burn Trail.
We finally got to ask Scheel, he didn't know for certain but thought that it was Devoted Druid. His reasoning was that Devoted Druid into Crabapple Cohort is an amazingly powerful play in a format dominated by Hill Giants. He liked Devoted Druid so much that he said he would take it over basically any green card. Both Scheel and Cheeks agreed that Spawnwrithe was overrated and too hard to connect with. The only times I've seen it in play it has immediately been killed. It's not quite resilient enough to be a bomb, but still something very scary to face.
After that break, and moving to a new place to play due to the weather looking a little scary for playing in a building without a basement, we sat down for a second 2v2 draft and repaired teams. This time I was on Scheel's team with Cheeks to my left and Crumpton to my right.
I started with a Faerie Swarm with the intention of going aggressive blue aggro. I did draft an aggressive blue aggro deck, but it wasn't nearly as streamlined as it needed to be. I ended up with 2 Steel of the Godhead, but only 3 hybrid creatures.
Pack 2, pick 2 I had to choose between a Prison Term and a Silkbind Faerie. I chose the Prison Term believing it to be the overall better card. I now believe the Faerie would have been a better fit for my team, especially after it beat me game 1.
Pack 3 pick 1 I had to choose between Godhead of Awe and Biting Tether. I chose the Godhead and I believe that was the correct pick. The Godhead really does qualify as a bomb, unlike the RB Liege. It just hurt having to pass that Biting Tether though.
Deck 2
Briarberry Cohort
Somnomancer
Gravelgill Duo
Prismwake Merrow
Cemetary Puca
2x Parapet Watchers
Wingrattle Scarecrow
Faerie Swarm
Barrenton Cragtreads
Kinscaer Harpoonist
Runed-Cervin Rider
Watchwing Scarecrow
Godhead of Awe
Pale Wayfarer
Cerulean Wisps
Turn to Mist
Prison Term
Mercy Killing
Consign to Dreams
2x Steel of the Godhead
Repel Intruders
10 Islands
7 Plains
SB
Wasp Lancer
Gravelgill Axeshark
Advice from the Fae
Put Away
Whimwader
I felt really good throughout the draft until I sat down to build the deck and saw the terrible curve and utter lack of UW creatures. My heart sank in my stomach looking over it. It's something I've noticed happening in a few other drafts -- getting the god enchantment but insufficient targets for it. I would have loved to have that Silkbind Faerie as even just one more good target.
Even though this is a primarily blue deck, there are far more double white cards than double blue cards, which shifted the land base to the closer split. I considered going monoblue, but was just so unimpressed by the remaining blue cards versus the cards I'd have to remove.
Match 1: I played Crumpus first. I thought I was doing pretty well with a Harpoonist and Godhead plus the Steel, but Silkbind Faerie plus Presence of Gond utterly annihilated me. The game went many turns, but most of it was extremely boring while Nick built up his elf tokens. Game 2 I kept a 2-land hand because I had three 3-drops plus a 4-drop. I missed lands on turns 3 and 5 and was just too far behind by the time my little guys came on line.
Scheel lost to Cheeks putting us in a 0-2 hole, meaning Scheel and I would both need to win our matches to remain in contention for this pool
Match 2: Against Cheeks. On the play, Cheeks had to triple mulligan game 1. One would think this would be an easy victory, but my deck decided to land flood me. I had Cheeks on a clock from a Parapet Watchers, what a might clock. He missed 3 out of his first 5 land drops. Not proud of this victory, but it was something we needed.
Game 2 I had one of my hybrids, the Barrenton Cragtreads plus 2x Steel of the Godhead, but I knew that Cheeks had 2x Consign to Dreams plus Biting Tether somewhere in his deck and I wanted to draw some of those out before running out one of the Steels. I held out as long as I could and got him to use his Biting Tether on my Watchwing Scarecrow which also tapped him out. We were in a race and I decided it was time to go for one of the Steels. That bought me breathing room, especially once I used Turn to Mist on the scarecrow. Sure enough there was a Consign to Dreams next turn on my Cragtreads. Cheeks thought he was in a good position with a Whimwader, but playing the second Steel of the Godhead sealed the victory.
Meanwhile on the other table, Scheel and Crumpton had gone to game 3. Scheel had a large pool of playables and had two options with his deck, a hyper aggressive deck including 2x Tattermunge Maniac or a slower controllish deck with 3x Cultbrand Cinder. Scheel switched over to the more controllish deck for game 3. I don't recall Scheel's method of victory in game 3, but he pulled it off and the teams had to pick their champions for the decisive match 5.
At first both teams tried whispering back and forth, before we all ultimately realized that none of us were being quiet enough. The other team retired to another room to discuss, but from those whispers I had the feeling that Crumpton would be their champion. Scheel and I discussed which of us had better match ups and I did want to avenge my loss to Crumpton, thinking I had better ways of dealing with his auras and never real happy with Scheel's deck. The aggression would require a hope and a prayer to finish off opponents. However I felt that Scheel with his deck was at least as good as me with mine against Crumpton, after all Scheel did beat Crumpton once already, so it was going to be a coin flip. So we rolled and Scheel was our champion.
While Scheel and Crumpton were playing for all the cards, Cheeks and I played one more game just for fun. I got stomped and that hammered home just how mopey my deck was. After we played the one, we decided that watching the other match would be more interesting.
Scheel won the first one quickly and they had gone on to game 2 when we tuned in. Crumpton had done some speculative sideboarding with Cheeks' advisement hoping to counter some of Scheel's stronger plays. He had brought in Raking Canopy to deal with Scheel's Demigod of Revenge and Flourishing Defenses to deal with Scheel's wither guys.
Crumpton complained about both after both were in play, saying they did nothing. Turns out that Scheel actually did have the Demigod in hand and hit his fifth mana right after the Raking Canopy came down. It worked, but I'm pretty sure that is one where it worked despite it being the wrong move. The Flourishing Defenses were a bit better. Scheel had a Corrosive Mentor which make most of the black creatures into absolutely terrible creatures with the Flourishing Defenses in play. That one might actually have been acceptable, especially if Crumpton could have managed to draw more creatures so he could have been swinging. That is ultimately what gave the win to Scheel, he drew far more creatures than Crumpton did. Victory us.
I got a Fulminator Mage, Demigod of Revenge, Dusk Urchins, and others out of the deal while Scheel took home the Sunken Ruins, foil Godhead of Awe, Grim Poppet, and others.
Not my best night of drafting, but I did go 2-2 on the whole against some very good players. On one I managed to read the signals, albeit belatedly, whereas the other I attempted to force and that didn't work so well. Both losses were pretty much to GW, that is an archtype I need to pay closer attention to in the future. I especially liked listening to the discussion about Devoted Druid being a top pick common.
See you Friday,
Zachary
Tags: Magic Shadowmoor Draft
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Magic: the Gathering
