Sunday, November 14, 2010

Scars of Mirrodin Draft 2

There was an online PTQ today which ended up crashing. I wish I wasn't surprised that Wizards still hasn't figured out how to run big tournaments online without crashing. They decided to hand out a lot of free packs to people and hope they wouldn't complain too much, so I went 6-3 and got 9 packs for my efforts. I was unsatisfied and wanted to play more Magic, so I hopped into an 8-4 draft that went a little worse than yesterday's draft...



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Deck
1 Palladium Myr
2 Neurok Invisimancer
2 Sky-Eel School
1 Disperse
1 Darkslick Drake
5 Mountain
1 Lux Cannon
1 Scrapdiver Serpent
1 Embersmith
12 Island
1 Tumble Magnet
2 Lumengrid Drake
1 Trinket Mage
1 Razorfield Thresher
2 Infiltration Lens
1 Grand Architect
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Rusted Relic
1 Argentum Armor
1 Island
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter

Sideboard
1 Viridian Revel
1 Vault Skyward
1 Venser's Journal
1 Wing Puncture
1 Myr Galvanizer
1 Plains
2 Molder Beast
1 Oxidda Daredevil
1 Mountain
1 Plated Seastrider
1 Fulgent Distraction
2 Glimmerpost
2 Corpse Cur
1 Forest
2 Vulshok Heartstoker
1 Scoria Elemental
1 Twisted Image
1 Echo Circlet
1 Alpha Tyrranax



This deck is a complete disaster. I needed to actually pick some mana myr at some point, red got completely and utterly cut off and I stubbornly stuck to it, and I took a couple cards to see how they worked. Lux Cannon in particular I'd never even seen before. I debated on the land mix and even started at a 12-6 split but eventually decided to go 13-5 since I have so many double blue spells.

Round 1 - Game 1

Keep a hand with 1 island and 2 mountains. Concede with 1 island and 4 mountains in play as my opponent comes out with a stupidly fast WG metalcraft start.

Round 2 - Game 2

Keep a hand with 1 island and 1 mountain because it has a lot of stuff to do to trade with what I expect to be early metalcraft stuff again. Concede with 1 island and 3 mountains in play against a similarly fast start.

6 comments:

Sky said...

I have huge troubles with these drafts. I can kind of see the cards but I have to squint brutally and stuff my face practically on the screen to make them out. Actually looking at a whole draft isn't feasible at all. Any ideas on how to make it more readable?

Ziggyny said...

I'm pretty sure I can resize all the cards which will make the cards themselves easier to read but will make the post as a whole become even more unwieldy. I'll definitely try to do another one with bigger pictures to see if it works better.

Sthenno said...

Pick 3 - I'd take Riddlesmith here. Riddlesmith is very powerful and much faster than the flier. Part of this is just how other people draft this set. Other people take cards like Riddlesmith over cards like Sky Eel School, so you have to as well, or you'll end up without anything small. It seems like blue fliers are never the hard thing to pick up.

Pick 4 - I think Argentum Armor is really wrong here. You've already got three powerful cards that can control and win games but you've got nothing so far to protect you long enough to help those cards win games. I'd take Wall of Tanglecord.

Pick 6 - I don't see the point of the lens. You've got an eel school and an invisimancer, as well as a lux cannon. Your goal, it seems, it just to stay alive until you win the game with hard to block creatures. It makes the lens really weak. I'd take the Saberclaw Golem.

Pick 7 - Again, I'd take Wall of Tanglecord.

Pick 16 - Architect seems pretty powerful, but I think Scrapmelter is a better card

Pick 21 - Vulshok Replica costs 1 less than Corpse Cur and defends you from mostly the same things, I'd take the Replica.

Pick 23 - Again, I think the Lens isn't doing anything for you. Not that anything else will - but I'd take Scudder and end up not playing it.

Pick 24 - Again, looking to live through the early game means having low drops. I can't see how the biggie fits into the game plan, so I take Daredevil here, though obviously you are hoping to play neither.

Pick 32 - Toughest pick of the draft. I would have probably picked the same as you, but given the deck up to that point, maybe copper myr is better? I'm really not sure.

Deck Building - I would have cut the lenses for Plated Seastrider and Oxidda Daredevil to try to stay alive in the early game. I probably also would have cut Razorfield Thresher for Myr Galvanizer just because I think a grey ogre is better than a 7 cost Craw Wurm.

I think if you just make those few picks differently than your deck ends up looking a lot better. Your list would be:

1 Palladium Myr
2 Neurok Invisimancer
1 Sky-Eel School
1 Riddlesmith
1 Disperse
1 Darkslick Drake
5 Mountain
1 Lux Cannon
1 Scrapdiver Serpent
1 Embersmith
13 Island
1 Tumble Magnet
2 Lumengrid Drake
1 Trinket Mage
2 Wall of Tanglecord
1 Plated Seastrider
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Rusted Relic
1 Oxidda Daredevil
2 Oxidda Scrapmelter

Daredevil is pretty weak there, but you would have 6 two drops instead of 1, which would make the chances of getting goldfished a lot lower.

Ziggyny said...

Yeah, this deck definitely went off the rails. I agree that I should have taken Riddlesmith and remember even thinking I should at the time. I really dislike Wall of Tanglecord, especially if I'm playing blue and not green since I can get the 1/4 for UU instead and think it's a lot better.

Lens was because it's a cheap artifact and I like to keep my metalcraft options open. Saberclaw Golem may have been right, but it's adding more expensive stuff to the deck and in this case not a very good expensive card.

Molder Beast was just a keeping my options open kind of thing which was probably wrong.

Grand Architect is insane. I wouldn't switch into blue for him at this point but I definitely think he's better than Scrapmelter when I already have a bunch of blue creatures. (Especially if I had Riddlesmith!)

I was actually spite drafting the corpse curs and wasn't taking them to play. I think they're the key to the poison deck. (You need the cheaper stuff like Plague Spitter and Cystbearer to have a chance at winning, but Corpse Cur gives you a way to overcome attrition.)

I did almost spite draft the Scudder too, and definitely should have in retrospect.

Do you mean Silver Myr for pick 32? I should have taken it for sure.

I also should have played the 1/4 for UU. It was my last cut and was a bad one, but I felt I needed all my artifacts to power up my metalcraft. That's why the Thresher and Liquidmetal Coating were in there too. All for that one stupid Rustic Relic that should have been a silver myr.

I actually played and powered up the Relic both games thanks to also drawing stupid Liquidmetal Coating and a stupid Lens. It got killed both times and then my worthless artifacts laughed as I died. 8P

2/1s actually wouldn't have kept me alive much though, since I was getting hit with 4/4s and flyers. Could have chumped I guess!

Sthenno said...

I stand by Wall of Tanglecord. It's blocks metalcrafted Auriok Edgewrights and Ghalma's Wardens as well as stopping myr with equipment and blocking a Cystbearer 3 times. Plus, you ended up playing 2 infiltration lens just to power metalcraft. I think the wall has a lot more utility than the lens (in this deck, anyway).

I don't think Corpse Cur is actually that important to strong Infect decks. Infect decks seem to win by being explosive, and might get the last few points out of a Tangle Angler alpha strike or a Throne of Geth, rather that planning for an end game recycling guys. They are good, sure, but I don't think hating them is necessary, and I think you really should have been playing the Vulshok Replica.

Mark Cook said...

I can't comment too much on strategy; I'm just happy poison's back.