Top 8 Drafting - 2 Scars of Mirrodin PTQs

By Wagz

So, the Scars Sealed PTQ season is over and hasn't it been fun! It seems to be a pretty skill-intensive format, from the looks of the top 8 competitors at the PTQs I went to. My own record was 5-1-1 (lose quarters), 5-2 (lose semis), 0-2, 5-2 (9th) and 4-0-2 (lose semis), which is a success that comes with its own disappointment. Although the information is no longer really relevant to anyone not competing at worlds (hope they're reading this :p), I thought I would compile a small report on two top 8 draft decks. Firstly I have Mick Edwards' draft from the top 8 of Manchester (won by Grant Hislop).

Pack 1:
Pick 1:
Arrest over Razor Hippogriff, Red and White Myr and Glimmerpoint Stag. Obviously a difficult one, with so many good white cards in the pack. The best non-white card was the red Myr, however, so signals be damned - just take the best card.
Pick 2:
Grasp of Darkness over Turn to Slag, Palladium Myr, Stoic Rebuttal and Ichorclaw Myr. The choice is mostly between Grasp and Slag and the cheaper removal is better in draft but I'd rather have a Slag in sealed for silly bombs everyone has.
Pick 3:
Darksteel Axe over Grasp of Darkness and Rusted Relic. I disagree with this one. I know Mick likes aggressive decks and the Axe suits him but after one Grasp I think the second is a massive auto-include, whereas there are decks I don't play Axe in.
Pick 4:
White Myr over Clone Shell, Black Replica and Bladed Pinions. Seems correct, he can splash the Arrest in a mainly Black deck with this pick and it keeps his options open, but the Black Replica seems okay too.
Pick 5:
Ghalma's Warden over Strider Harness and Disperse. The pack is starting to look pretty empty. Mick is a massive fan of the Warden for some reason; I've never seen it have much impact on a game except to help my opponent to not die as quickly.
Pick 6:
Strider Harness over Green Trigon. By now the packs are getting as empty as my knowledge of the names of cards in cycles but this card always has a chance of making some deck. In a non-infect deck the Green Trigon is a really bad version of the Black Trigon.
Pick 7:
Tel-Jillad Fallen over Blue Trigon and Tel-Jilad Defiance. This Fallen is quite late but there hasn't been much of the Infect going before it so it could have just been a strong Infect pack. I like the Trigon more, even if it is just a 24th card a lot of the time.
Pick 8:
Black Replica over Lumengrid Drake and Infiltration Lens. Further cementing his Black but could Blue be open?
Picks 9-14:
Accorder's Shield, Wing Puncture, Abuna Acolyte, Razorfield Thresher, Necrogen Censer, Glimmerpost.

Not looking to be in good shape after pack 1 but apart from the Axe / Grasp pick there really haven't been any opportunities for a great deck.

Pack 2:
Pick 1:
Oxidda Scrapmelter over White Myr and Rust Tick. More bad packs for Mick here. The Scrapmelter is by far the strongest card even if it warrants another colour. The Arrest can always be splashed still as it's the only good white card Mick has so far.
Pick 2:
Rust Tick over Bloodshot Trainee, White Spellbomb and Ghalma's Warden. More keeping the options open, Rust Tick is good in any deck. We need to see a sign for what colours to play soon to make the most of the picks we get going forward.
Pick 3:
Black Myr over Barbed Battlegear, Cystbearer and Riddlesmith. Some good cards for strategies we don't have access to and a Myr for some cards we are playing.
Pick 4:
Tumble Magnet over Memnite, Red Myr and Tel-Jillad Fallen. Mick is Tumble Magnet's biggest fan but I would have taken the Red Myr after the Scrapmelter as it seems far more relevant.
Pick 5:
White Spellbomb over Ghalma's Warden. This card is good but it's a bit of a mediocre deck - need to see some pack 3 power.
Pick 6:
Heavy Arbalest over Saberclaw Golem. This card is quite good and gives him an opportunity for some removal in a mana-heavy draw.
Pick 7:
White Replica over Instill Infection and Blistergrub. I quite like Infection but Mick isn't a fan and he takes the body to make sure he has a curve whatever colours he ends up in.
Pick 8:
Vedalken Certarch over Loxodon Wayfarer, Golem Foundry and Necrogen Censer. Dry pack, the Certarch might warrant a change to Blue?
Picks 9-14:
Wing Puncture, Dross Hopper (over Corrupted Harvester), Bleak Coven Vampires, Blistergrub, Whitesun's Passage and Turn Aside.

Oh dear, we're in bad shape at the moment but he's making sure he has a curve with playable creatures whatever happens. When the packs aren't being kind it is prudent to make sure you end up with maximal playables.

Pack 3:
Pick 1:
Red Trigon over Black Replica, Grafted Exoskeleton, Hand of the Praetors. As mentioned here I like Grafted Exoskeleton and see it as a way of winning in an underpowered deck. I would still have taken the Black Replica over the Red Trigon.
Pick 2:
Golem Artisan over Chrome Steed, Volition Reins and Cerebral Eruption. Finally a pack with some decent cards. I like Artisan best, Reins is way too blue for us and Cerebral Eruption is not a good card, but I mentioned it so I could say this, how self-referential!
Pick 3:
Darkslick Drake over Blue Trigon, Barrage Ogre and Flameborn Hellion. Not sure about this, the Blue seems too late to move into as we already have White and Red removal spells and don't even have a Red Myr so could do with picking one as a secondary colour (probably white). I think the Barrage Ogre is a safer pick myself.
Pick 4:
Necrotic Ooze over Glint Hawk, Sylvok Lifestaff and Barbed Battlegear. Seems correct, Glint Hawk is good but we have a few activated abilities already and a 4/3 for 4 is a good size for limited.
Pick 5:
Darksteel Sentinel over Black Spellbomb and Bleak Coven Vampires. The packs are still a bit empty but this guy is very reliable as an attacker and blocker. Yes he's "bad against Infect" but he's really good against everything else and that's what sideboarding is for.
Pick 6:
Sky-Eel School over White Trigon. With his move to Blue as well this makes sense as it's a very good card and there really is nothing else to play.
Pick 7:
Blue Spellbomb over Neurok Invisimancer and Stoic Rebuttal. I don't like this, if we want to play Blue then Stoic Rebuttal seems better as we want to stop the opponent from casting their cards which are undoubtedly better than ours.
Pick 8:
Razorfield Thresher over Bladed Pinions. Zzzzzz.
Picks 9-14:
Fume Spitter, Fume Spitter, Seize the Initiative, Soul Parry, Vault Skyward, Vault Skyward.

Some gift Fume Spitters at the end and the White instants can be good sideboard cards.

Overall we don't end up with a very good deck, but apart from the the highlight discrepancies I don't think that Mick had much control over his fate. I think he ended up playing Black-Blue but sided into Black-White, which is what I would have played. He lost in the quarters to Kenny Hall - another Leeds player; who in turn lost to Martin Sylvester - the other Leeds player in the top 8.

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Secondly I have my deck from the top 8 of Nottingham (won by Stuart Horden). I think my deck was pretty good so I was a bit disappointed to lose out but that's the way it goes. I was one of one-and-a-half Infect drafters at the table and the only guy in black for a few seats to my right so the goodies just kept coming. I beat someone I am afraid I don't remember the name of in the quarters (he was a nice guy but I had good draws) before succumbing to Stuart in the semis with a tight game 1 and big screws game 2.

1 Horizon Spellbomb
3 Blight Mamba
2 Necropede
1 Plague Stinger
1 Livewire Lash
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Cystbearer
3 Moriok Replica
1 Carrion Call
1 Corpse Cur
1 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Skinrender
1 Trigon of Infestation
1 Instill Infection
1 Slice in Twain
1 Contagion Engine
1 Untamed Might
10 Forest
7 Swamp

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With Worlds coming up next week the Standard metagame will get thrown up a little (but it doesn't sound like there's anything surprising, the SSG Open Series is keeping it fresh) but we should expect the Extended meta to be set up for the new year's PTQs. Does anyone have any particular stories they want to share from this round of PTQs? If it's too long for the comments then remember that we're always soliciting guest writers :), hear from you soon.

Guest Article: Remember to have fun, by Mick Edwards

By Mick Edwards

People who know me will know that August was a month in which I took magic very seriously. Not only was Nationals on everyones mind, but i was qualified for Pro Tour Amsterdam. This meant I spent A LOT of time testing what I expected the new extended metagame to be (special thanks to people helping me test such as Rob Catton). In the end I think a slight bad judgement in the meta (I predicted all combo/punishing fire decks) made me play a weak deck and I didnt make day 2, finishing 4-4.

However, one common theme with this event (and all other large event I have been to) was the underlying sense of 'Magic is also really fun, remember?' and by that I mean Cube Drafting! Cube drafting for those that don't know is where a player basically makes their 'own set' using whatever cards they like. The initial Cubes were based around the most powerful cards available, and its quite nice to 'open a pack' to pick from Black Lotus, Sol Ring, Treachery, Recurring Nightmares, etc. However some people make their Cubes a bit different - e.g. Rob Wagner and Seb Parker both have cubes consisting of the most powerful extended (old extended) legal commons and uncommons. The thing about cube is its purpose. When I enter a PTQ I play to win, when I sit down against my opponent I often try to play like a machine designed for winning magic games. When I draft cube I play for fun, when I sit down I have a laugh!

Thinking back, some of the most fun I've had playing magic has been weird formats that are only really played for fun: Reject rare draft, Multiplayer Winston draft, elaborate mental magic pack wars style. So when I though about how I wanted to play more magic for fun purposes it saddened me when I realised that part of what makes these formats so fun is the people involved and I was going back to playing Magic Online. Thats when it hit me! Momir Basic: http://wizards.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wizards.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1067

Momir basic is THE random fun format, but its actually got more skill to it that it seems and the random factors of mana screw/flood are taken away.
I strongly encourage anyone who has a Magic online account to play this format as its pretty crazy. Here are some pro tips I have found:

• Never play an island unless you have an ability that needs it as Benthic Behemoth crops up a fair amount at 8.
• There are some good one drops but your chances of hitting them are low, some good ones I've hit include goblin chirurgeon and dragonmaster outcast.
• In general its proabably best not to make a 1 drop.
• Two drops are better than three drops, this may seem weird but a lot of mana elves/myr are at 2 as well as guildmages!
• Play more mountains I currently run 15 mountains in my Momir deck, when you make dragons you want them to breathe fire.

Finally I want to mention an idea I have had for building a cube of my own, hopefully creating an entirely different cube format. I want people to vote on what they think are the worst cards in each set for inclusion in my 'Worst Cube Ever'. Keep an eye on the Leeds Facebook site for more details, or begin the voting for M11 Cards here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=7402096935&topic=13443

Guest Article: PTQ Win with Next Level Bant, by Mick Edwards

By Mick Edwards

Having missed out on my chance to play Standard at a more competitive level this year (since I was auto-qualified for Nationals), I was quite worried that the format would have changed to 'whoever has the most expensive mythics wins'. Unfortunately I was a little right. Fortunately for me, fellow Team Leeds member (or maybe he's Team York or something) Chris Vincent was unable to attend the PTQ and kindly offered to lend me some of his mythics. Here is the list I decided to play:

4 Celestial Colonnade

5 Forest

2 Island

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Plains

4 Seaside Citadel

1 Stirring Wildwood

3 Sunpetal Grove

3 Birds of Paradise

1 Borderland Ranger

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Sea Gate Oracle

3 Sphinx of Lost Truths

4 Vengevine

4 Wall of Omens

3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Gideon Jura

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Oblivion Ring

3 Path to Exile

Sideboard:
2 Celestial Purge

2 Day of Judgment

2 Meddling Mage

3 Negate

2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

2 Oust

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle


Since the PTQ was at Fanboy 3 in Manchester, as well as begging for cards I was also begging for a lift. Kindly Kenny Hall offered to drive via Leeds to pick me and Fu Sheng-Wong up. In the car Kenny told me that riding in his car would bring luck since the past 3 lifts he had given had been a winner and two finalists - I apologised to him and Fu explaining that I would be the one to continue that streak with a win. Fu joked about not bothering to register in that case.

About the deck:
Some of my many reasons for playing this deck were:
Elspeth + Path <3 (editor: it's true, Mick goes to bed with these and Figure of Destiny)
Lots of card draw means more consistency and combined with BoP/Heirach means less mulligans
Brian Kibler won a GP with a similar list
It has the option to play aggro or control depending on the match up (editor again: Mick only plays aggro)

Changes/Unusual Sideboard options:
I decided the Ranger + Scute Mob was good, but not as good as Sphinx of Lost Truths, therefore I cut the Ranger package to make room for an extra Sphinx. This also allowed me to play an extra BoP as a turn 1 mana guy is the ideal start and accelerating into a turn 3 planeswalker is key to winning alot of match ups.
Mythic seemed like the 'deck to beat' and an argueably stronger choice, and my sideboard reflects this with Ousts, Linvala and Day of Judgement. Meddling Mage can also be good against mythic as they have have little removal so it's often like a much better Thought Hemorrhage.

When we arrived at the event and met up with some other members of Team Leeds I realised I needed a 4th Vengevine. I spoke a bit to Seb Parker who told me he had just been hunting around for Vengevines and struggled to find a few so I decided to buy one and quickly scribbled down a decklist in time for Round One.

Round One: Grixis
I won the dice roll and accelerated into a turn 3 Vengevine to bash for 5 as he did nothing until turn 3 when he made a Nighthawk. I decided not to play a turn 4 planeswalker and opted to O-ring his Nighthawk and continue the beats. On turn 4 he Earthquaked away my team so when I dropped 2 creatures to get back vengevine that was pretty much game.
Side: -4 Wall -1 Sphinx LT +2 Purge +2 Negate +1 Sphinx Jwar Isle (I think)
Game two went a similar way from my side: turn 3 Vengevine but with a turn 4 Jace (using +2 to get to 5). I also managed to turn 2 Purge his turn 3 Specter which was nice. Then on his turns 5 and 6 he cast Blightning twice killing Jace and stripping me of my hand. This confused me a little as I had expected him to board Blightning out, but in this game it was surprisingly effective against me - although it didn't matter as that had given me enough time to get beats in with the Vengevine.

Round 2: Aaron Copping with Grixis
Aaron also came with us in Kenny's car so I knew he was Grixis so I was pretty confident after how round one had gone. These games went quite different to round one but ultimately his deck's spot removal wasn't enough to keep up with the many many threats I made. In game two I think he got stuck a little on awkward mana too.

Round 3: UW Control
I dont really remember this round, only that it gave me great confidence that the Bant deck crushes control decks :D
Side: -4 Wall +3 Negate +1 Sphinx Jwar Isle

Round 4: Ben Scoones with Naya Conscription
I knew Ben was playing some kind of Conscription deck so was a little worried when he won the dice roll. He made turn 2 knight but I had turn 2 O-ring. Then he didnt really do anything while I quickly ended the game. I later found out he had triple Sparkmage in hand and was stuck on red mana.
Side: -4 Wall -1 BoP -1 Ranger -1 Sphinx +2 Oust +2 Linvala +2 Day of Judgement +1 Meddling Mage
Game two I had what I thought was the god draw with turn 3 Linvala and Planeswalkers. However, since he won the dice roll he got to play his turn 3 Linvala first, meaning I was mana screwed and he had the win before I could get an answer to Linvala or a 4th land.
I game 3 I made a misplay (in hindsight) that cost me the round. Although it was game 3 I hadn't seen any red yet (though he might have played a Ravine in game 2) so I assumed he was a more conventially mythic deck but with a splash. So when I made a turn 2 Meddling Mage I named 'Baneslayer Angel', then immediately regretted it. Baneslayer Angel is usually one of the best cards to name against Mythic as it comes down easier than Sovs, but changes the board to make it very dificult to win through giving them the time to get the Sovereigns/win. However, most of the less conventional Mythic decks dont even run Baneslayer. After he played turn 3, 4 Sparkmages and turn 5 Blodbraid into sSarkmage he ripped apart my mana (and Mage) and I quickly realised I had named the wrong card.

3-1

Round 5: Turbofog
This round was quite a slog and one I'd had no practice against with Bant so wasn't sure if it was a good match up or not. Fortunately game one I was able to go ultra aggro with Vengevines, which seemed the best way to win.
Side: -4 Wall -1 Gideon +3 Negate +2 Meddling Mage
Game 2 I was able to get some advantage by discarding double Venegvine in my cleanup, but made yet another Meddling Mage blunder by naming Angelsong. The correct card to name against Turbofog is Time Warp and he proved it by 'going infinite' casting 4 Time Warps (+1 with Twincast) then discarding Emrakul to shuffle them back in. I conceded to get chance to play a third game.
Game 3 I managed to win in the first game of extra time. This time I named the right card with the Mage, he even cast Angelsong in response this time (expecting me to name the Song). I confused everyone a bit by calling for an oracle wording on Angelsong (since my oponent was using foreign cards). I was 99% sure I knew the wording on Angelsong, but knew where was one fog effect that meant you could still attack planeswalkers. Checking these things costs nothing and the judges are there to help (editor: quite right. also, it's Safe Passage).

Round 6: UW control
As with Round 3, this deck crushes control in general. In game two I even played for the long game and managed to keep all three planeswalkers so there was nothing he could do.

Round 7: ID
As I was 5-1 at this point I gladly excepted the ID. My oponent was 5-0-1 so technically could have played to try and knock me out. I was glad of the spare hour to go for a Burger King to celebrate making another top 8 at Fanboy.

Quarterfinals: Some Scottish guy (not Guy) called Andy with UW control
For some reason he thought I was playing red (he said it was the red sleeves). Then I managed to confuse him further with a start that looked like it could have been Naya/Mythic. Eventually I lost game 1 because I played too aggressively, being too careless with my planeswalkers when I probably could have used their card advantage for victory.
Side: -4 Wall +3 Negate +1 Sphinx Jwar Isle
I got a fairly fast win and he 'punted'. This caused him to get really annoyed at himself to the point of slamming the table in anger. The Situation: I had lethal on the board including a manland (I think it was Borderland Ranger + Elspeth). He had 6 lands (1 was Tectonic Edge). He made Gideon and made me attack it, so I O-ringed
Gideon and swung for the win. Aparently he could have played Jace instead and bounced the ranger and blown up my wildwood so I can see why he was annoyed.
He never really gained control in the 3rd game as I just played threat after threat. When he knew was dead he tried to claim I had tapped my mana wrong to make a Gideon I shouldn't have. This annoyed me as I had made special care to show clearly which mana I was using for what as I knew it was a mistake that could easily happen. Fortunately a judge had been watching the whole time (and many other people), but the guy even had the cheek the argue with the judge and claim that the judge hadn't actually seen!

As the our game in the Quarters took longer than the other three, Amar Dattani (my semis opponent) had seen how the game had ended and told me that I could have as much time as I wanted to relax before we started. This was very nice of him as he had probably been waiting around for some time.

Semis: Amar Dattani with Naya Conscription
The first 2 games were fairly straight forward. He had a great hand game one and flattened me with a giant BoP. Game two I had Linvala to help me out, followed by a Sphinx and a Gideon which I used to make his 2/2 Knights have to attack into my bigger flyers :D
Game 3 was much more close. He made no play until turn 3, and had a similar multiple Sparkmage hand to Ben in round 3. I also had a slow hand, too many tapped lands (and him shooting my mana guy) meant that my first real play was Day of Judgement to get rid of the Sparkmages. He followed up with another Sparkmage (from a Bloodbraid I think) so was quickly able to deal with my Elspeth. A second Day of Judgement from me allowed me to begin to stabalise on 3 life since his Bloodbraids + pings had been adding up. I then drew mostly card draw so gave him a worrying amount of time to topdeck a Sovereigns to finish end the game. I eventually Ousted a Linvala to buy me the time to win. After the game he flipped the top card to reveal Sovereigns so the Oust really made the difference.

Finals: Tom "End Boss" Harle with Next Level Bant
Game one took a long time and Tom made me realise I may have been too hasty to dismiss Ranger of Eos as he used 2 to gain huge army that eventually swarmed round my team which was about half the size. Before the game I had decided not to board in Day of Judgements but based on how game one had ended I quickly changed my mind.
Side: -4 Wall -1 bop -1 Sphinx +2 Oust +2 Linvala +2 Day of Judgement
Game two I won by being able to stick and protect more planeswalkers, I was slightly surprised by Toms sideboard choices though as he had brought in Deprives, Negates and several Jace Beleren. I personally don't like bringing in counterspells in against this matchup as it doesnt suit the way I play the deck and I find the Bant deck has a lot of solid creature based threats that Negate obviously doesn't answer.
Game three I kept something amazing like 3 land, Heirarch, Oust, Jace, Elspeth while Tom was not so lucky. He mulled to 6 before playing turn 1 Scute Mob.
Although I expected the game to end quickly in my favor, since he got stuck on lands. However while I was making planeswalkers he was answering them with Deprives, Negate, O-ring etc. On Turn 8 I cast Day of Judgement + Gideon to put him further behind on mana, Then he finally started drawing lands, but this meant he had stopped drawing his answers so I was able to kick Sphinx of Lost Truth for the win.

Editor: Mick didn't supply an ending so I assume he's very happy to have won the PTQ and wishes all members of Team Leeds, and to a lesser extent the other readers of this blog, luck in their future PTQs to join him in his trip to Amsterdam. Mick's too cool for real endings.

Guest Column: Worlds Day 3 with Mick

By Mick Edwards

Since so much happened at worlds I have decided to only write about the games on day 3 as it was one of the better days for me (and not just because I won more games on day 3).

The previous night I had built a Zoo list using blood moons and molten rain with Mark Glenister. But afterwards a friend of mine on the Norwegian team convinced me I would be playing zoo for the wrong reasons and I should go with the deck I had been testing instead of the one I had just made up. So here is the decklist I played:

4 River of Tears

2 Swamp

1 Island

1 Dark Depths

3 Sunken Ruins

3 Tolaria West

2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2 Watery Grave

2 Underground River

1 Ghost Quarter

4 Chrome Mox

4 Thoughtseize

3 Dark Confidant

1 Vampire Hexmage

1 Time Seive (thanks Rob)

1 Shred Memory

1 Echoing Truth

2 Repeal

3 Engineered Explosives

3 Chalice of the Void

4 Muddle the Mixture

3 Beseech the Queen

4 Thopter Foundry

4 Sword of the Meek

---Side---

3 Damnation

3 Ravenous Trap

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Pithing Needle

2 Threads of Disloyalty

1 Doom Blade

1 Yixlid Jailor

But before the extended started there were 2 rounds of team event. Ironically the 2 teams we played against were the 2 teams I had been testing with at the hotel and so we mostly knew each others decks before hand.

Round 3: Norway

This game resulted in a draw due to the Zoo vs Martyr game going to time. And Fortunately the Norwegian captain had a turn where he played standstill followed immediately by Aether Vial instead of the other way around (he was playing legacy merfolk).

More interestingly the whole round got disrupted by everyone having to fill out forms to join the Italian sports federation in order to get paid for the event.

Round 4: Isreal

I can’t remember any of these games particularly well as I think we all won these pretty fast going 3-0 across the team.

So from the Team rounds Great Britain had gone 3-0-1 which was pretty good to balance out the less than impressive individual records. Onto Extended:

Round 1: Hypergenesis

Game 1:I managed to assemble the combo fairly fast here but the turn after this he cascaded into hypergenesis with enough in hand to win the game.

Game 2: I flukily got both Hexmage and Dark Depths in my opening hand and made a turn 2 20/20 on the play, that was enough to win that game.

Game 3: This game seemed like it was back and forth a lot but really I was never too worried. From early on I had chalice set to 0 but when he eventually destroyed it with krosan grip and combed off I was ready with the Damnation to undo his combo and a tutor to get a second Chalice. He managed to combo off a second time but I had a second Damnation by this time so I was I no hurry to combo off too fast and eventually won with thopters.

1-0

Round 2: WU Thopter Combo

My opponent here was a guy on the Australian Team and I had previously leant him a Chalice of the Void so I figured he was playing some sort of control deck. The ‘mirror’ turned out to be one of the most fun games of magic I’d played in a long time and the 1^st game lasted nearly 50 minutes.

Game 1:

His deck was a slower more control version so although I was able to assemble my combo first, when he assembled his combo he was able to get more land in play to better use it. At one point he even cast gifts ungiven for 4 land when he was at 8 land already! In trying to get an edge I tried various things, from using explosives to blow up both our combos to casting chalice so neither of us could replay the combo should we draw it again (I drew the thopter foundry the next turn, at this point both our academy ruins were in the graveyard).

Eventually the chalice got removed and we both replayed the combo. I then tutored up time sieve and waited until it could not be countered to go infinite to take the game (thanks again Rob).

Game 2:

He assembled his combo very fast, but not before time was called and I used Echoing Truth and Hurkyl’s Recall to survive long enough to force a drawn game but a won round.

2-0

Round 3: UR Control

Game 1: He gets an early blood moon which locks me out of the game.

Game 2: He again gets an early blood moon, but this time it’s too late as I’ve already played my thopter foundry and I combo off through it (he gets me a warning as I accidently try to imprint time sieve on a chrome mox)

Game 3: I keep a hand with an island and a mox and some black spells thinking it will be good as I can play around blood moon. Then he goes turn 1 mox into chalice for 0, then turn 2 blood moon! I eventually draw my swamp to explosives for 3 and kill his blood moon but the next turn he drops a chalice for 2 to stop me from playing my combo (Afterwards I felt stupid for not saving my explosives to kill his chalices but with 2 chalices at 0 and a blood moon in play there is no way for me to actually do that). I go for another win condition: manually removing dark depths counters, and the turn I get a 20/20 he plays Venser for the win.

2-1

Round 4: Hypergenesis

Game 1: I play chalice for 0 and he can’t deal with it so casts nothing all game.

Game 2: He combos off on turn 2... But I’m almost glad as my hand contains foundry, sword and time sieve and enough land (inc. Acad ruins) to go infinite should I draw a land in my next 3 draws. However, he puts 2 Angel of Despair into play so I concede rather than show him my tech.

Game 3: He mulligans and keeps a 1 land hand which kills my chalice for 0 with Ingot Chewer, but I tutor up a second chalice before he finds his second land and I win soon after.

3-1

Round 4: Martyr

I don’t remember much about this round except he was playing a weird martyr build and he won 1 game because he had double castigate to remove my combo. In another game I managed to get my combo just in time as he had exactly lethal plus path and I was able to make 1 thopter... leaving me at 1 life when he cast path. I then untapped and made about 5 thopters and gain 5 life to win a few turns later.

4-1

Round 5: Zoo

Game 1: I have the worst draw in the world against zoo as I draw 3 thoughtseize in a row (one gets imprinted on a mox) and he draws pridemage to play in between my thoughtseizes. Despite this I manage to combo off when he is tapped out to make a few blockers, but he uses punishing fire combo to clear them out of the way so he can swing in for the win.

Game 2: I use chrome mox to make a turn 1 sword of the meek as a decoy as I have hexmage + dark depths in hand. He makes turn 2 kataki and I make a 20/20 the following turn. He plays path from the top of his library (how lucky) and then begins playing meddling mages. After he has played 2 meddling mage both naming thopter foundry I kill them both with engineered explosives... so he sets his next mage to explosives when I academy ruins it to my hand. I have echoing truth ready but not enough mana to cast that + explosives + activate and he wins the next turn as he had been beating in for a long time.

4-2

I felt both games against zoo were very unlucky draws for me and very lucky draws for him (he told me the path was off the top.) I really enjoyed playing the deck and was very glad I didn’t play zoo instead as most of my match-ups would have been a lot tougher for zoo.

Mick

Guest Column: Nationals with Mick #4th

By Mick Edwards

Editors Introduction: Presented here is the first of a two-part article by Mick Edwards on his very successful run at Nats, coming in 4th and getting his place in Worlds - well done Mick!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite two days of solid play testing with Rob and Jim, I was very worried as we left for Nationals on Wednesday as I wasn’t too happy with my deck. I much preferred the ‘Fae splash red’ list that Rob was taking, but had neither the cards nor the experience to play that.

My worries only increased as the bus was delayed, we had to rush to the venue and quickly fill in deck lists. To see my constructed deck list, check out the Wizards website (netdecker - editor). Soon enough I found myself in round one.

Round One – 5 Colour Control

The first game was over very quickly as my deck shifted into aggro mode. On the play I managed to get a turn 3 4/4 Figure of Destiny. So while other spells were drawn, countered and killed, my Figure manage to reduce his life total to 2 before it was dealt with; luckily for me I had the uncounterable 2 damage spell in hand.

Game 2 – After boarding my deck became much more control oriented and I spent the early game protecting planeswalkers rather than attacking. I was able to use Elspeth’s ultimate which was very handy and by the time he started casting Cruel Ultimatum, I had him at a low life total and Call the Skybreaker in my Graveyard. In desperation he tried to Firespout + Fallout my Elemental fliers away, but I reminded him they were indestructible and he scooped.

Round Two – 5 Colour Blood

My second round opponent was running a very interesting 5 colour Bloodbraid list, including both Doran and Reveilark. I ended up on the wrong side of multiple Anathemancers since my deck contains a large amount of non-basic lands. Getting stuck on 3 mana didn’t help, as although I cast 3 Kitchen Finks to help the stall (until I could cast my Hallowed Burial) he swarmed past them making several creatures per turn (Bloodbraid Elf is pretty good!).

Round Three – Turbo Fog

Game 1 – I initially thought my opponent was playing Time Sieve combo, since we had heard the traders had sold a lot of Time Sieve the previous day. When I eventually discovered it was the old Turbo Fog build I realised it made little difference as my game plan against both is to aim plenty of ‘High Boltage’ (Danger! Danger!.. playtest with us next year for more of this - Editor) at them before they draw enough counters/fogs.

Game 2 – By the time I had reduced him to 1 life he had played enough Runed Halos, Pithing Needles and Burrenton Forge Tenders to render my deck pretty harmless. I considered playing it out to see if he ran out of fog effects but noticing only 15 minutes were left in the round decided to move to Game 3 where I would have a better chance.

Between games I sideboarded in two Austere Command that I should have put in for Game 2 – sometimes it’s hard to look at Austere Command and not read ‘Wrath of God for 2 extra mana’.

Game 3 – Similar to Game 2, only this time I drew more creatures rather than burn spells, and he was at a higher life total by the time he had ‘protection from target deck’. Luckily I managed to get him to tap out leaving me free to blow up about 4 Runed Halos, 2 Pithing Needle and 3 Borderposts. With Ajani Vengeant on 7 counters I was also able to blow up all his lands, leaving a Burrenton Forge-Tender staring down my hordes of Figures and Finks (the Forge-Tender did not win this battle).

---Draft Time---

I was fairly pleased with 2 wins out of 3 in the standard portion and eager to open some amazing bomb in Shards-Conflux-Reborn Draft.

Turns out I didn’t get a bomb in Shards but picked the solid removal spell ‘Agony Warp’ and after second pick Blood Cultist, third pick Fire-Fiend Ogre I found myself solidly in Grixis, a shard I usually prefer to avoid.

With the Conflux booster I opened Goblin Razerunners, a card I get passed very often but consider to be one of the best bombs in the format. A second pick Rupture Spire, third pick Armillary Sphere over removal sorted out my mana a little. Things really got interesting when eighth pick I received Esper Cormorants! Unless I am very much mistaken, the 3/3 flier is one of the best commons in Conflux, so imagine my surprise when I was also able to pick one ninth pick as well! Clearly no-one at the table was drafting Esper.

In Alara Reborn I opened Behemoth Sledge. I made the decision that since I already had mana fixing (and double Cormorants) I would attempt to splash the green-white bomb in my blue-black-red deck.

Also in the pack I managed to get a fourth or fifth pick Terminate, double blue-black Borderpost and triple Sewn-Eye Drake.

Round 4 – Naya

This guy had a lot of very powerful bombs that demanded good answers:

He played Ajani Vengeant and Helixed one of my creatures – I responded with Sewn-Eye Drake!

He killed my team with Martial Coup and made 9 Soliders – I responded with Sewn-Eye Drake (equipped with silly hammer)!

He tried to win – I responded with Sewn-Eye Drake!

Round 5 – Grixis

My Behemoth Sledge got stuck in my hand every game, but my very solid Grixis deck won anyway!

Afterwards my opponent was quick to point out how much of a fool I was for ruining my mana base and running ‘bad’ cards like Obelisk of Jund to fit in the Sledge (I've splashed 3 colours for Finest Hour before, it's worth it - Editor).

Round 6

I felt a bit dirty after this round as in both games I landed an early Behemoth Sledge and both games became very unwinnable for my opponent very quickly. Still, I felt it justified my gamble to play the sledge.

--- Draft 2---

A lot of this draft is mentioned in the official coverage, especially the bit where I opened the Battlegrace Angel! Here are a few other interesting bits:

· I got passed a second pick Feral Hydra.

· I picked Couriers Capsule and

Rhox War Monk intending to go Bant.

· I could have picked 4 Aven Squire, but

chose a Ember Weaver over one of them.

· I got a 13^th pick Filigree Fracture in a

pack of ‘land, Fillagree Fracture, Sludge Strider’.

· I decided Twinclaws was a better

pick for my deck than Knight of New Alara.

· I picked Glory of Warfare over Intimidation Bolt.

· I tabled a Stun Sniper!

I left the draft table with a huge grin on my face as I was very pleased with my second draft deck and was certain it would go 3-0.

I was almost proved wrong very soon though:

Round 7 – Bant

My opponent had managed to get third and fourth pick Knight of New Alara! With no removal to speak of, when he put both of them ‘onto the battlefield’ things started to look grim. He also had double Lorescale Coatl in play which were approximately 20/20 each! Waveskimmer Aven particularly gained benefit from the Knights becoming an 8/10 flying exalted creature!

Luckily in the other two games I was aggressive enough with my very efficient two-drops and bombs to be able to leave day on a 5-1 record, leaving me fifth in the standings at that point. To celebrate we went to an Italian Restaurant and got rained on a lot.

---Day Two Coming Soon---

Mick

It was a good Day One (and was very very rainy when we left). Could Mick improve on fifth? Wait for the Day Two report to find out :D

Guest Column: Drafting with Mick #2

By Mick Edwards

After spending a week of winning shadowmoor nix-tix draft it was back to silly formats this where I was certain to draft all my shadowmoor winnings away. I started with the incredably silly format of OLS making a random goblin/beast mish-mash that got beat by a very good soldier deck (turns out Rock Jockey is not an amazing morph beater but a bad hill giant with a drawback).

I then decided to try an equally silly format - ACR draft

Pack 1 pick 1:

Jungle Shrine

Over Viscera Dragger, Druid of the Anima, Knight of the Skyward Eye

I like the Knight alot and took some time over this decision but solid mana fixing is never a bad start to a draft.

Pack 1 pick 2:

Bull Cerodon

Over Rockslide Elemental, Rip-Clan Crasher, Bloodpyre Elemental

There was a common missing as the rare was lich's mirror, I can only imagine a foil was taken

The only common I can think of is oblivion ring and I dont think it was that print run.

Pack 1 pick 3:

Topan Ascetic

Over Ridge Rannet, Courier's Capsule, Akrasan Squire, Bone Splinters, Qasali Ambusher, Naya Panorama

Very Solid creature,

Pack 1 pick 4:

Naya Panorama

Over Tidehollow Sculler, Dawnray Archer

Maybe this is a signal that esper is open, but taking mana fixing is also ok I think.

Pack 1 pick 5:

Scourge Devil

Windwright Mage, Esper Charm, Esper Panorama

Definately a sign that esper is open, but I think my bomb (bull cerodon) is strong enough for me to stay naya

Pack 1 pick 6:

Dragon Fodder

Over Rip-Clan Crasher, Metallurgeon, Corpse Connoisseur, Cavern Thoctar

Posibly the wrong call but Dragon fodder is a niche card in what it does and i might be able to pick up some good devour creatures/dragons

Pack 1 pick 7:

Drumhunter

Over Carrion Thrash, Jungle Weaver

Jungle Weaver is good but drumhunter is key to this archtype.

Pack 1 pick 8:

Soul's Fire

Over Resounding Roar, Resounding Silence,Kederekt Creeper

Wow, strong pack!

Late Picks: Rip-clan crasher!

------ CON ------

Pack 2 pick 1:

Path to Exile (FOIL)

Over Aven Trailblazer, Brackwater Elemental, Exploding Borders, Filigree Fracture, Spore Burst, Esperzoa, Blood Tyrant,Fiery Fall, Pestilent Kathari, Valeron Outlander, Armillary Sphere

I thought about splashing for the bomb blood tyrant but decided foil path was good enough

Pack 2 pick 2:

Aerie Mystics

Over Kranioceros, Darklit Gargoyle, Faerie Mechanist, Rhox Bodyguard, Scattershot Archer

A much less impressive pack for my deck.

Pack 2 pick 3:

Gleam of Resistance

Over Goblin Outlander, Might of Alara, Ignite Disorder, Sludge Strider

Gleam is both fixing and a combat trick, I rate it very highly.

Pack 2 pick 4:

Aven Trailblazer

Over Filigree Fracture, Rupture Spire

Maybe the wrong choice as rupture spire is one of the best manafixers in the set, but i needed answers to fliers.

Pack 2 pick 5:

Knotvine Mystic

Over Skyward Eye Prophets, Kederekt Parasite, Esper Cormorants, Unsummon, Absorb Vis, Brackwater Elemental

Pack 2 pick 6:

Viashino Slaughtermaster

Over Esper Cormorants, Unsummon, Absorb Vis, Brackwater Elemental

Same print run, feels like I should have gone esper for these late comorants

Pack 2 pick 7:

Vagrant Plowbeasts

Over Grixis Slavedriver,Unsummon, Absorb Vis, Brackwater Elemental

same print run again

Pack 2 pick 8:

Exploding Borders

Over Cumber Stone, Knotvine Mystic, Pestilent Kathari,Wretched Banquet (FOIL), Brackwater Elemental

Late picks: Toxic Iguanar

------ ARB ------

Pack 3 pick 1:

Enlisted Wurm

Over Crystallization, Karrthus Tyrant of Jund, Terminate, Grixis Grimblade, Ethersworn Shieldmage, Wildfield Borderpost

I went for the very strong cascade card overthe removal or the crazy bomb, I probably could have splashed for the 7/7 but Enlisted wurm is a great fit for this deck.

Pack 3 pick 2:

Behemoth Sledge

Over Naya Hushblade, Rhox Brute

Perfect!

Pack 3 pick 3:

Crystallization

Over Sigiled Behemoth, Violent Outburst

Much Needed Removal

Pack 3 pick 4:

Bant Sureblade

Over Pale Recluse, Valley Rannet, Naya Sojourners, Gorger Wurm, Sigiled Behemoth, Messenger Falcons

This may have been the wrong pick but my deck was lacking early drops and bant sureblade is a very good early drop.

Pack 3 pick 5:

Wildfield Borderpost

Over Cerodon Yearling, Lorescale Coatl, Ethersworn Shieldmage

Pack 3 pick 6:

Stun Sniper

Over Mayael's Aria, Sigiled Behemoth, Violent Outburst, Fieldmist Borderpost

Pack 3 pick 7:

Sigiled Behemoth

Pack 3 pick 8:

Leonin Armorguard

Over Thopter Foundry! wow thats late!

Pack 3 pick 9:

Wildfield Borderpost

Pack 3 pick 10:

Sigil of the Nayan Gods

Over Wildfield Borderpost, Firewild Borderpost

Late picks: 2 Sigiled Behemoth!!!

GAMES:

Round 1: after making my deck I lose my internet connection and frantically run around trying to get back online. I manage to reconnect seconds before I get kicked for inactivity and 3 minutes later I have won the round. Game one I go: t1 borderpost, t2 land cycle, t3 knotvine mystic, t4 Bull Cerodon, t5 Vagrant PLowbeast, t6 Sigiled Behemoth

Round 2: I got mana screwed twice while he made t2 pro-red dude, t3 pro red dude, t4 punish ignorance my 1st play in one game and a turn 4 esperzoa (after more pro-red guys of course) in the other game that kept bouncing his borderpost while I kept replayinga Stun Sniper that he kept unsummoning.

EXTRA:

For people wondering how my game against marco in the ptq quarter finals went, I made a mistake which cost me the game, it went something like this:

I made figure and made it 4/4 while he made bitterrblossom then i made ramgang and he tried to agony warp to -3/-0 the ramgang and -0/-3 to kill the figure (with his faerie token) but i have gutteral response next turn he tries the same trick, only this time I have 4 mana up, I gutteral response his agony warp again but he has spell stutter for the gutteral response I forget that I can just make my figure a 4/4 again after the agony warp and it dies

I then realise but think it doesnt matter as I can force through enough damage with ramgang + ghitu encampment to put him in lethal banefire range (I have banefire in my hand) so i put him to 6 (and he has bitter blossom) he then topdecks mistbind clique tapping me out before I can play banefire and then topdecks loxodon warhammer to gain himself 7 life

Guest Article: How to open ridiculous amounts of over-powerful bomb rares in a draft and beat people with them

By Mick Edwards

Today's guest article is from Pro Mick :D

It's no secret that the power level of many of the cards in Shards Block is pretty high and it's hard to get a draft where there aren't high powered bombs being passed around. The trick is to grab them all, run a janky mana-base and hope everything falls into place.

As Mtgo v3 has a draft recorder, and since jim has been making this stuff look easy, I decided to join an 8-4 draft and attempt to write about it.

Pack 1 pick 1:

Feral Hydra

Over Kederekt Creeper, Savage Hunger, Ridge Rannet, Courier's Capsule, Akrasan Squire,Bone Splinters, Steward of Valeron, Mosstodon, Goblin Mountaineer, Sanctum Gargoyle, Crumbling Necropolis,Drumhunter, Thoughtcutter Agent

Whenever I open my 1st pack I always try to pick out the best 8 cards so I can see what I expect to table, I was clearly taking the bomb Feral Hydra, but there are a lot of other strong cards in the pack. The weakest 6 cards that I expected to table were Kederekt Creeper, Savage Hunger, Ridge Rannet, Goblin Mountaineer, Thoughtcutter Agent and what I think is the 9th best card here - Steward of Valeron. Turns out I was very wrong as you will find out below.

Pack 1 pick 2:

Mosstodon

Over Angelic Benediction, Steward of Valeron, Sighted-Caste Sorcerer, Naya Panorama, Blister Beetle

Big fat creature that fits my 1st pick fine out of an otherwise pretty weak second pack.

Pack 1 pick 3

Topan Ascetic

Over Jhessian Infiltrator, Blood Cultist, Rip-Clan Crasher, Cavern Thoctar, Blister Beetle

Although I believe the Cultist and maybe the infiltrator are stronger, Topan Ascetic is very good too and goes better with my previous two picks as I'm not commited to a shard yet.

Pack 1 pick 4:

Jungle Shrine

Over Steward of Valeron, Kathari Screecher, Esper Panorama, Grixis Panorama, Bant Battlemage

Jungle shrine is one of the best mana fixers around and the pack was pretty weak which helped me make what I think is the right pick here.

Pack 1 pick 5:

Resounding Silence

Over Bant Panorama, Obelisk of Esper, Jhessian Infiltrator, Quietus Spike

Too boring, too awkward to cast and too slow are my thoughts on the other cards I was happy to take some removal that fit with my Naya plan.

Pack 1 pick 6:

Jund Charm

Over Scavenger Drake, Resounding Silence, Court Archers, Deft Duelist

6th pick board sweepers are pretty great, I can only assume this was a very strong pack with no-one wanting to commit to Jund this early, but im happy to take this even if I have to splash for it or it doesn't make my deck. The effect it has in a deck is too good to pass at this point.

Pack 1 pick 7:

Bant Panorama

Over Volcanic Submersion, Call to Heel, Cylian Elf

Volcanic Submersion is a solid card that is never bad and is amazing vs Esper but I was still leaving my options open so took the mana fixer.

Pack 1 pick 8:

Grixis Panorama

Over Carrion Thrash, Dregscape Zombie, Call to Heel, Cylian Elf, Esper Charm

A good sign that Esper is probably open, but taking a mana fixer when you are unsure what to do is often a good safe option this early in the draft.

Pack 1 pick 9:

Sanctum Gargoyle

Over Courier's Capsule, Kederekt Creeper

A clear sign that Esper is wide open. I was very surprsed to see the capsule and the gargoyle still in the pack instead of the steward and the Ridge Rannet

late picks included a Jund Obelisk which I could use to splash the Jund Charm maybe.

------ ALA ------

Pack 2 pick 1:

Kresh the Bloodbraided

Over Jungle Shrine, Rockslide Elemental, Blightning, Ridge Rannet, Druid of the Anima, Sigil Blessing

A Very nice Bomb rare to go with my Jund charm, I thought about maybe going Jund splash white but eventually gave up on the whole Esper idea.

Pack 2 pick 2:

Vein Drinker

Over Necrogenesis, Cavern Thoctar, Blister Beetle, Druid of the Anima, Viscera Dragger

I often 1st/2nd pick Necrogenesis, but Vein Drinker is the better bomb here in my opinion

Pack 2 pick 3:

Branching Bolt

Over Corpse Connoisseur, Scavenger Drake, Cloudheath Drake, Carrion Thrash, Dragon Fodder

Sanctum Gargoyle, Rip-Clan Crasher, Mosstodon

With the amount of good flyers added by Conflux this card is even more insane, almost always a 2 for 1 often cancelling out their last two turns of board development.

Pack 2 pick 4:

Resounding Roar

Over Grixis Charm, Grixis Battlemage, Viscera Dragger, Akrasan Squire, Rockcaster Platoon

Probably a very debateable pick as this pack was very strong, I value pump spells very highly and stick by this being the right pick here.

Pack 2 pick 5:

Naya Panorama

Pack 2 pick 6:

Carrion Thrash

Over Gift of the Gargantuan

Im not a huge fan of the Gift as I hate having to stick removal spells on the bottom of my library.

Pack 2 pick 7:

Jungle Weaver

Pack 2 pick 8:

Bloodpyre Elemental

Over Carrion Thrash, Esper Charm, Wild Nacatl, Rip-Clan Crasher

The Wild Nacatl was the most tempting here but in the end I went for the pseudo-removal spell I think this might have been a mistake, but still a good pick. Its amazing how strong some Shards packs are to have 5 strong cards left by the 8th pick!

I also got a 9th pick Ridge Rannet (he's good I tell you!) and an 11th pick rip-clan crasher - perfect I thought as I was lacking in early drops at this point.

------ CON ------

Pack 3 pick 1:

Banefire

Pretty much the best card I could have hoped for here!

Pack 3 pick 2:

Paleoloth

Over Scarland Thrinax, Wild Leotau, Ignite Disorder,

I figured the Paleolth was the better fatty, I cant abuse the thrinax much and I have plenty of removal.

Pack 3 pick 3:

Volcanic Fallout

I was very surprised to see this as i'd figured my neighbour was in red as I saw little pack 1.

Pack 3 pick 4:

Ember Weaver

Sooo good!

Pack 3 pick 5:

Viashino Slaughtermaster

Over Sylvan Bounty

The slaughtmaster is one of my fav. cards in this set. That might be because I rate pump spells highly and swinging in for 14 with a double-pumped slaughtmaster can finish things very fast.

Pack 3 pick 6:

Toxic Iguanar

Another one of my fav. cards from conflux its a one drop, it kills stuff, no-one ever wants to block it even if i dont have a green creature they wold rather play it safe in case I flash in an ooze or something.

Pack 3 pick 7,8,9:

Nacatl Savage

Exploding Borders

Yoke of the Damned

a 2 drop, fixing/burn and removal all late, all of these made my deck and are fairly underated I guess.

late picks included double faerie mechanist (told ya esper was open!) and another toxic ignuanar, I really love the iguanar and in one game it held off a rhox war monk while my feral hydra beat in, that said I probably wouldn't run 2.

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GAMES:

Rounds 1 and 2 were pretty much a walkover and in the final my oponent was running cards like gustrider exuberant to go with his multiple kraniocerious. I finished the final game with a 29/29 kresh. One interesting game in round 2 I was holding volcanic fallout and not playing waiting for him to play a second creature so I could get a 2 for 1 killing his aven squire... but he didnt play another spell until turn 6 so the squire got in for 6 while I waited doing nothing! I wondered if he sensed the sweeper or if he was just colour screwed. Oh well, thats my attempt at a limited article, cya Thursday!

Mick