A Draft Walkthrough with Steve Sadin

bdm | 08:10PM on Wed Jan 6 2010

I am not so sure how “cool” this is — as was promised by Matt Wang in a previous post — but I did manage to wrangle Limited Information author and Top8Magician Steve Sadin to do a draft walkthrough with me just before Christmas. Steve and I did a couple of these way back when and they were always fun.  I remember a podcasting session where we forced blue-red Storm in Time Spiral block. Using the fancy-pants technology of RareDraft.com we were able to visually record all the draft picks and you can hear our discussion about the picks in the first installment. We also talk about how the draft played out in the second installment.

I have been drafting a lot of MonoWhite or nearly MonoWhite in triple Zendikar and this draft played out pretty much according to that plan. Here is the draft:

Here is where we discuss the draft in two parts:

Sadin Draft Walkthrough Part 1

Sadin Draft Walkthrough Part 2

Finally, here is the deck that we built:

1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Kor Aeronaut
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Bold Defense
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Steppe Lynx
2 Kor Cartographer
2 Kor Hookmaster
13 Plains
1 Kazandu Blademaster
1 Brave the Elements
1 Stonework Puma
1 Explorer’s Scope
1 Celestial Mantle
1 Devout Lightcaster
1 Kor Outfitter
1 Burst Lightning
4 Mountain
1 Kor Duelist
2 Nimbus Wings

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Crabs for Christmas

bdm | 01:13AM on Wed Dec 30 2009

This is essentially a test post to play around with the Rare Draft player that Daniel Too (of TCGBuddy fame) has been beta testing. This is an 8-4 draft I did on Christmas morning. I ended up with a midnight mass of Hedron Crabs and a couple of — fittingly given the name of the draft player — rares to pull it all together.

If this works I will be able to even more draft recaps without having to send you over to my Google site to see them. (I know it is a little cut off on the right but hopefully that will get worked out down the stretch of “getting out of beta”)

Here is the deck I ended up playing and going 3-0 with. The Archive Trap has become my most drafted rare on MTGO and it won me most of my games following a turn two Crab. I also got to kick Rite of Replication on an Umara Raptor for the win in one game which was … you know… awesome.

    Crabs for Christmas

1 Shepherd of the Lost
1 Pitfall Trap
1 Rite of Replication
2 Umara Raptor
4 Hedron Crab
1 Sky Ruin Drake
1 Archive Trap
2 Makindi Shieldmate
1 Gomazoa
2 Æther Figment
2 Kor Skyfisher
1 Whiplash Trap
1 Living Tsunami
1 Paralyzing Grasp
1 Into the Roil
1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Sejiri Refuge
9 Island
7 Plains

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Drafting with Greedy (That’s me)

bdm | 02:12AM on Wed Dec 23 2009

Thanks to the instructions from Paul Jordan I was able to set up to do some “Drafting with…” entries. I am hosting them on this Google website because…well because. Actually I started doing them mostly for my local draft group and now they are all set up here so I figured I could just link over to them. This was my first attempt. I do not have the decklist but I ended up splashing black off of the Harrows and two refuges for a Mosquito and occasionally sideboarded Soul Stair Expedition. I won this draft and felt sheepish afterwards and attempted to draft a little more seriously in subsequent efforts.

This was a more straightforward draft than my adventures in Crabbing. I took Kor Skyfisher and got paid off for being, I have to assume, the only white drafter. I am not sure how to value Narrow Escape and Arrow Volley Trap at all. I really want the Escape and want nothing to do with the Trap in game one but I did side it in for game three against a red deck in round one.

Of course, I ended up losing in the semifinals to an Arrow Volley Trap from an opponent who also had Kor Hookmaster, Kor Skyfisher, and … oh yeah… Ob Nixilis. Yikes.  In the discussion with my draft group when i first posted this, Ben Farkas felt the draft was solid but that I should have slammed the white cards even harder than I did and got fairly lucky to have several of them table — and pretty unlucky to not see any Adventuring Gear at all.

The other big feedback was the first pick Skyfisher over Rite of Replication. Thoughts?
Took Farkas’ advice on this one and slammed mono-white on pretty much every pick. There were a couple of really tough picks here and I would love to hear what you all would have done in my seat. Again, an 8-4 draft and I am typing this up while waiting on the finals. First round saw me mulligan to five in all three games and then have my opponent grouse me out about how lucky I got. I mean, in three games I started with one more card than most people get to start two games with. I kept mulliganing in round two but Steppe Lynx is a monster and I don’t think I have lost a game where I played one on the first turn even though I was a victim of Marsh Casualties in all three games. Granted, in the third he had to use it as one for one removal against a Steppe Lynx.
I have finished the draft since I started preparing this recap and won in three games against blue-green landfall. The Brave the Elements is insane in this deck — obv — and I was able to wait his green army out for a well placed alpha strike in one game and just wear him down in the third despite Harrowing and Expeditioning with Gladeheart out on turn three.
Picks I was wondering about include taking the Hellkite Charger — never saw play once although would have been awesome in most scenarios — over Burst Lightning and Kor Hookmaster over Adventuring Gear. Again, your thoughts?
Hope you enjoyed my little foray into draftcapping and I will probably be doing them somewhat frequently since it is so easy to do. Feel free to chime in with any criticism, questions, what-have-you. And if you have not already done so go buy Zvi Mowshowitz: My Files Part 1 already. Expect a Zvi-cast early next week in between Xmas and New Year’s.
Happy holiday everyone!
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