#limited magic

The Draft (Each pick in order from top to bottom, then left to right)

Pack one contained the awful for draft rare of Authority of the Consuls. There was a Veteran Motorist in the uncommons and I could debate with myself until I'm blue in the face on which card is more powerful. One is gold however which means the Welding Sparks was the clear choice here. Salivating Gremlins was a sleeper power card in this format. If you could get enough triggers with it then it won games. It would require me to build around it but if I can get in this early and get all the pieces before anyone else I can make it work. Elegant Edgecrafters is one of those pieces. Fabricate two means you either get a big guy who can't be chumped by small stuff, or two artifact ETB triggers (the backbone of the red artifact decks). Ornamental Courage is a combat trick I thought was slightly underrated at the time this format was fresh and my mental image of one mana combat tricks has been skewed by Ixalan. It's still playable but this early in the draft I should have taken a more powerful card. Wild Wanderer is a decent green card as it isn't an awful body and having the fixing helps you splash any off-color bombs you may draw; that is assuming they cost five or more because you don't want to get a land to play a splashed two drop turn five. I'd play one in everything but the most aggressive green decks. Weldfast Monitor followed it up as another brick in the artifact deck I'm building. In this format the one mana for the activation can easily be found in most games and a 3/2 menace for three is a good deal. Attune with Aether really good in any deck that is definitively green. It can take the place of a land when you deckbuild (something I forgot later when putting the deck together). Unlike the Wild Wanderer lets you play pretty much any cards you might have pulled no matter what color they are, not just the expensive ones. Spark of Creativity isn't a good pick here as it's performance is just too inconsistent to be playable. Narnam Cobra on the other hand is a good pick. A 2/1 has the aggressive power of a bear in the early game, and the activated ability means it's a great blocker late in the game. Creeping Mold can be good sideboard in this format that has such powerful artifacts. The rest of the pack I stuck to the green I'm locked into this point which made the decisions no brainers.

Pack two started off with a mythic I can play. I've got two pieces of fixing which makes a splash very doable and the worst case scenario of getting an extra card every turn is still insane and worth the risk of a splash. That doesn't even consider the possibility of casting free spells. Thriving Rhino is staple green energy card. It's ability to be a 3/4 on its first swing makes it hard to block if you get down turn three. If you can get more energy it will get out of hand very rapidly. Furious Reprisal is another card that looks good when you see it, but ultimately underperforms in this format. Two damage just doesn't kill enough creatures to guarantee this card will be worth your mana. Whirler Virtuoso is another creature worth splashing for. In fact even though this card is U/R it really belongs in a green deck because green has the best ability to generate energy. Since I've got half of that deck going right now it makes it a slam pick in this pack. Fairground Trumpeter is a build around that I don't have the support for at this time. When in a deck that can consistently generate counter it's quite good, unfortunately that deck is very hard to put together. Since it's clear now that I'm in a green deck with splashing Servant of the Conduit is a grade A pick. Give me energy for when I need it and gives me the mana I need when I need it. Blossoming Defense if the best combat trick in the format. Not only does it let you win combat but completely blanks removal when you need it. Fireforger Puzzleknot is a mediocre pick. It can be played in a deck that heavily depends on artifact ETB triggers but on it's own it just doesn't stand up. Sky Skiff is a solid vehicle playable in all decks. Flyers are so few and far between in this set that having a two drop that can get through in the air can put you at a significant early game advantage. Kujar Seedsculptor was a very pleasant surprise but this pack has nothing else for me.

Pack three was an on single color planeswalker that's actually playable. I almost forgot what that was like. Scrapheap Scrounger is a great rare as well. Triggers artifact effects but more importantly is just a great value creature as a 3/2 for two. Plus with my splash happy deck I could toss a swamp in for the activation potential even though it's playable without it. The Bug is off color but still playable, I don't recall what else was in the pack but an example of the picks where I overvalued my commitment to artifacts and should have looked for a more aggressive card that work better for an energy deck. Inventors Goggles are great if you have artificers but I'd been forgetting to pay attention to that sub-type. I took it banking that I had picked enough to make it work even though I had not. Reckless Fireweaver is good for the artifact deck so I took it. Armorcraft Judge I knew was near unplayable in my deck as I only have two creatures that generate counters before it comes down. This means I'm more likely to draw zero cards than any other number. That said the pack was not very powerful and it was still the pick. Another Attune means I'm definitely splashing both the black and blue. The rest of the pack was nearly devoid of playables. Sage of Shaila's Claim ended up making the cut because three energy is a lot but unfortunately my deck didn't have enough energy outlets to make this worthwhile.

The Final Decklist

Enchantment/Artifacts: 1x Sky Skiff Instant/Sorceries: 2x Ornamental Courage 1x Blossoming Defense 2x Attune with Aether 1x Larger than Life 1x Welding Sparks Planeswalkers: 1x Nissa, Vital Force Creatures: 1x Sage of Shaila's Claim 1x Narnam Cobra 1x Reckless Fireweaver 1x Scrapheap Scrounger 1x Kujar Seedsculptor 1x Servant of the Conduit 1x Whirler Virtuoso 1x Weldfast Monitor 1x Prakhata Pillar-Bug 1x Salivating Gremlins 1x Thriving Rhino 1x Rashmi, Eternities Crafter 1x Wild Wanderer 1x Elegant Edgecrafters Lands: 3x Island 1x Swamp 5x Mountain 8x Forest

Round 1 (0-2) I played against a B/W fabricate deck. Unfortunately there was very little interaction as my opponent played Aerial Responder on turn three both games. Game one they managed to equip it with Torch Gauntlet turn five and I never found my removal. Game two they did the same thing on turn four.

Round 2 (1-2) black vehicles deck. Their deck had another color but I struggle to recall what it was as their black and colorless card were the ones that crushed me. In games one and two they were able to combo Ovalchase Dragster with Rush of Vitality twice to create massive life swings and keep the Dragster around to hit again. Game two I managed to curve out fast enough to even while getting hit with that combo again. Game three was neck and neck. Ultimately I lost by one damage because I missed a trigger on my Reckless Fireweaver.

The Draft (Each pick in order from top to bottom, then left to right)

Pack 1 started off with a difficult decision. Hour of Devastation is a powerful card but the pack also contained Burning-Fist Minotaur. Board wipes like the Hour are great when you are behind, decent when you are at parity, and just dead if you ahead. While on the other hand the Minotaur is not as good when you are behind it’s potential to eat larger things than itself is much more valuable in the other scenarios and can still push you back in the right direction from a bad spot. I actually think the Minotaur would have been a better choice but the Hour is a $5 card I think I might want to play in a deck so in the end I went with that. Sometimes you do what you gotta do. The next few decisions went much easier. Ifnir Deadlands is one of the most powerful uncommons in the set. It does only gets smaller things but it is still removal and you can almost never have too much removal. Plus the fact that it is a land means you don’t have to sacrifice playing another card to get it into your deck; it’s total upside. Under that principle I spent the next few picks grabbing things that kill stuff which quickly settled me into black. I was still unsure about red by the time the green desert came. The pack has a few playable green cards but didn’t have anything worth playing in black or red. I’d seen some decent green go by so I took this on the speculation that the if the green continued to flow I could drop red. It was favorable over the other green cards because it synergized with the Deadlands. The decisions started to get quicker and easier at this point as the pack started to thin of good cards. When the Claim//Fame came around I was feeling pretty good about red/black. I was thin on red but I knew if I was getting cut on red from the right then everyone to my left was even less likely to be in red and I could snap up all the red I needed pack 2. 

Pack 2 I started to get fancy. The pack itself contained a Claim//Fame and the Wretched Camel. I felt it was likely the Claim//Fame would wheel given it made it’s way around in the first pack and took the Camel over the other cards as it was a valid target for Claim. Pick 2 I took the only playable card in red or black and pick 3 I was confronted with the same Camel-Claim conundrum as pack 1. I stuck with my logic and took the Camel again. Then came another tricky decision of choosing between a Lethal Sting and the Torment of Scarabs. I ended up with the Torment because while targeted removal is great I already have some decent pieces of it and the Torment has the potential to kill a bunch of creatures or just win the game. Slammed another Deadlands and tried not the drool in excitement. I was disappointed when the first Claim//Fame didn’t wheel but when the second one did I started to feel like the deck was getting really solid. I thought there was a possibility of splashing Striped Riverwinder so I started favoring the blue deserts for the splash mana that also synergizes with the Deadlands.

Pack 3 started off with a pick that had the potential blue splash in mind. Pick 2 I debated with myself for a very long time between Ahn-Crop Crasher and Bone Picker. I went with the Crasher as it’s ability to stop a blocker can end a game on the spot. The Cartouche is not a creature but it is the best common in Amonkhet so I took it over the black Trial that was in the same pack. I can kill something sometimes and that lifelink is just too good at driving your board position up. Final Reward gets rid of anything and is maybe the second best black common. By this point I was really hurting for creatures and was happy to see a creature that trades up followed by more potential reanimation. Wander in Death was a very good pick at this juncture because it allowed me to squeeze the most value out of the few creatures I did have. I started to realize my curve was dropping and was favored the Painful Lesson because when you are aggressive in limited you are likely empty out your hand and suddenly have nothing to do. The next picks I was in creature heaven taking up powerful low cost creatures and even snagging that Bone Picker I’d lamented passing the first time. This final string of creatures really pulled it together. Once the playable cards in the pool were laid out the deck was mostly built. The only cuts I made were the Scrounger of Souls which seemed to expensive compared to the rest of the deck and Vile Manifestation.  While the Manifestation can get big, it won’t quickly which didn’t exactly jive with what the rest of the deck was trying to do.

Round 1 (2-0) I played against a mono white deck. They started off strong getting in with Dauntless Aven but I got a desert just in time and was able to use the Camel into Lethal Sting into Claim//Fame to put a stop to that and empty his hand. I also had the other Camel and due to the small nature of his creatures they were able to trade and they were quickly out of things do it while I continued to play cards. Game 2 looked really bad for me but managed to get lucky with a timely Hour of Devastation while I had creatures left in hand and my opponent had none.

Round 2 (1-2) was against a 4 color good stuff deck. Game 1 I only had 1 mountain which stifled me the whole game. I was unable to play more than one creature a turn. Keeping the creatures in my hand wouldn’t have been so bad if I had not also been unable to cast my Hour of Devastation. Game 2 was stupid close with more close calls that I can remember. I played Torment of Scarabs a few turns late after I missed a couple of land drops but ultimately it got the job done. The final game deciding play was when from and empty hand I top decked Thorned Molock, cast the Fame my opponent forgot was in my graveyard, forced them to block with their one untapped creature to avoid dying and making their swing back less than lethal. Game 3 I drew 4 mountains and had 6 black spells and Hour of Devastation in hand when I died.

Round 1 (2-0) was against a B/R deck built to be fast that didn’t play very fast in our games. Game 1 I started extremely with an Avenger into Stalwart. I didn’t have powerful plays to follow this up with which I think led them to believe I was an all in aggro deck. They used an Unquenchable Thirst to stop the Avenger and felt they needed to burn away a Deem Worthy to stop the Stalwart’s beat down in combat. This worked out very poorly when I played a Hippo in the second main. They had to a turn off to cycle which allowed me to smash for 5. They played a creature the next turn but an ambuscade made my follow swing exactly lethal. Game two they came out much stronger with a Firebrand Archer and Aerial Guide that starting to crush me. I managed to get in once with an exerted Stalwart but was on my back heel most of the game playing small creatures. I forget what the final board state was but eventually I was able to cast Appeal//Authority with a Tah-Crop Elite on the field and make a massive out of nowhere for exactly lethal damage. I will note that we played two more games for fun not included on the score sheet and they crushed me in both of them, this deck got second and very much deserved it.

Round 2 (2-0) against a B/W aggro deck opened with Exemplar of Strength into Pride Sovereign which got out of hand fairly quickly. They made several crucial mistakes game one that may have turned the game in my favor. One was a simple “I forgot to play it” mistake where they cast Torment of Venom on the Sovereign in my unkeep instead of at the end of my turn (as a note if I had known they just forgot to play it end of turn I would have let them, but I didn’t discover that was their reason for not playing it until after the game). Before that though they swung with Cursed Minotaur while the two 1/1′s from the Sovereign. At a quick glance you may think this was not a mistake, they got to trade two creatures for one but this is not the proper way to analyze it. My 1/1′s were essentially free in comparison to the minotaur. Yes they have a mana cost and tie the Sovereign down for a turn but this doesn’t cost any cards. In games of limited you will almost always have excess mana and rarely have excess cards. Somewhere along the way I fit a Gift of Paradise on one of my lands and dropped the Glyph Keeper which dominated the rest of the game. Game 2 I took a risky hand that had the Glyph Keeper, two lands, the Naga Vitalist and a Oasis Ritualist. They played Frilled Sandwalla turn 1 and starting hitting me fast. On turn three instead of drawing a third land, I drew a Gift of Paradise. Turn 4 I found the land and slammed the Glyph Keeper a turn early. Next turn the Ritualist locked the ground down and the game was soon mine.

I ended up with this fairly aggressive spells deck. The number of two and three drops made it easy to curve out. Two instant/sorceries that have a decent chance of being cast before turn two and 3 other 3 drops was sufficient to get a good balance between the need to curve out and the desire to get the value on the Entity. When push come to shove though it is better to play the Entity without a target on turn three than do nothing and hold onto it trying to get value.

It’s a little light on spells for the spells deck it’s supposed to be big the triple Entity really makes up for this. Violent Impact is normally a card I would avoid playing main board, only bringing it in for problem artifacts. Given that I’m light on spells to trigger the Riddleform and Firebrand Archer I decided it was fine. My thought on this was that using one card to destroy one land is not good enough to play, but if I could potentially use one card to destroy two lands with Bloodwater Entity it would be worthwhile. This gamble paid off as 2 games I was able to cast it multiple times.  One game I lived the dream and cast it 3 times to destroy all 3 of my opponent's lands. They managed to top deck two more but it was too late.

Round One (2-1) was a matchup against a midrange G/W deck. Game one they were on the play. I started with Firebrand Archer into Aerial Guide. On their turn 4 they played Oasis Ritualist. Given that they were in green I opted to hold up Essence Scatter rather than play my Bloodwater Entity which was devastating when they exerted the Ritualist to cast Sifter Wurm. My Entity put the Scatter back on top on my turn and they managed to push out a Rampaging Hippo out before I could draw it again. With 6 power coming in in the air at that point it was too late. I forget what I cast first main to hit a prowess and Archer trigger but it was largely irrelevant. Game two they opened with two Rhonas Stalwart and I didn’t any play until turn 3 when I played an Bloodwater Entity for no value. Game three despite missing white they started out very fast with Frilled Sandwalla into Resilient Khenra into Oketra’s Monument. I managed an early trade for the Khenra and on my turn 4 I use Violent Impact to destroy a forest and they then missed what would have been their fourth land drop things started to turn around. I then used two Bloodwater Entities to put the Impact back and kept destroying their lands as while they continued to not draw any more. After I destroyed the final forest they drew two more, but by that point it was too late.

Round Two (0-2) was the inevitable mirror match. Game 1 their deck simply outplayed mine at every turn. I took a slower hand for my deck and since their deck was build more midrange than mine as things went on it became increasingly worse for me. I was putting out 2/3′s and 2/2′s just after they played Frontline Devastators and Minotaur Sureshots I just had to block because of the potential blowout. I thought I might stabilize when I dropped the Striped Riverwinder but when they followed it up with a Vizier of Many Faces to copy it my fate was sealed. Game 2 I had early plays as their mid range picked up I drew lands and ran out of steam.

Round Three (2-0) I played against a B/W zombies deck that lacked big zombie payoffs. Given the aggressive nature of our decks we were basically racing from the beginning. My early game plays of Blur of Blades game 1 really accelerated me into the lead. While they managed to get in on the ground I just flew over and used Archer triggers to chip away faster. The Aven of Enduring Hope seemed to live up to it’s name as the 3/3 eats all of my flyers. A Bloodwater Entity bringing back back Blur of Blades put an end to that hope. Game 2 we both started out fast. A turn 1 God-Pharaoh's Faithful put my ground state on lockdown. I managed to put them off kilter with a double Violent Impact but they kept drawing more lands and since the deck had a low curve they managed to keep pushing stuff out. They got to 5 and managed save themselves from what I thought was certain death twice; Once with an Aven of Enduring Hope, and another time with a Scrounger of Souls. The game was finally decided by a top deck Aven Reedstalker. They came attempt to come in for lethal damage and it created the extra blocker I needed to not die, as well as the extra attacker I needed for my swing back to be deadly, even with the creature and life gain trigger they followed it up with.