04.20.08 A Thursday Night Draft

Imagine if you will...

It's Thursday night at around 7:00 PM. You just finished up a hard days work of labs, classes, and tutoring and are just about ready to wind down for the night. But, instead, you are stuck waiting. At the HUB. For an hour. For this...

Now I know that doesn't sound like the best way to spend a night. But sometimes, when you have 7 eager drafters and only 8 remaining draft sets the night before the prerelease, sometimes all you can do is wait for senor Mullens to awaken from his evening siesta.

And wait we did. Finally, after several calls, the Hispanic One arrived, hair disshevelled and "ready" to draft. As I sat down to his right and to the left of Akira, ready to crack packs, I jokingly gave the instruction, "Pass me good stuff, and I'll do the same for you."

And then, good stuff happened.

1st pick 1st pack I happily snapped up the bombilicious Dread over Summon the School. Then Akira shipped me Imperious Perfect, followed by Doran the Siege Tower! If that doesn't ask for you to force 2 colors with a splash, then I don't know what does. I then picked up the solid Ghostly Changeling, and a few random green cards including the oh so important Fertile Ground. When the pack I opened tabled, I gleefully realized that no one had taken any of the 4 other non-Dread black cards and, despite the fact that they were all awful, I took this as a clear signal that black was wide open. I took a Boggart Loggers, and then was rewarded with a 10th pick Peppersmoke. After pack one, I knew my deck was solid, but still needed some help in the form of solid guys to get the job done

Pack 2 opened much less strongly than pack 1. No green or black in sight! As there was nothing worth hating, I had to keep from vomiting as I 1st picked the oh so meh Gilt Leaf Ambush. Things began to look up though, as I picked up a Thorntooth Witch second and an Eyeblight's Ending third. Another Fertile ground came by as well as a 6th or 7th pick Skeletal Changeling, which seemed like it would fit my deck very well. Lignify also got in there as the potential "double removal spell" with Thorntooth Witch. I was happy to pick up a late Bog Strider Ash, and 2 more Boggart Loggers, which I was especially happy to take since they hurt my deck so badly. Last but not least, I managed to snag a 14th pick Gilt Leaf Palace which at this point was assured to make the main deck. Again, at the end of pack 2,I knew my deck would need a few things in pack 3, especially some more removal since a lone Eyeblight's Ending would probably not get the job done.

Pack 3 ended up going beautifully for me. I got to take a first pick *foil* Leaf Crowned Elder, unfortunately passing the insane Taurean Mauler to do so (more on this later). That was followed by a Weed-Pruner Poplar, the potentialy-bonkers-in-Treefolk Orchard Warden, a Pack's Disdain, a Moonglove Changeling, and not 1, not 2, but 3 Bosk Bannerets! With my two Fertile grounds and those guys, I would have no problem at all dropping my expensive treefolk as early as turn 4 or 5. By the end of the draft, I was really happy with the quality of my deck, thinking that I should easily go 2-1, and potentially win it all.

Round 1 I had to face off against future summer roomate Josh Howe. Since he is certainly no slouch when it comes to limited, I never really look forward to facing him. Especially not after we had just finished a run where we met each other in the final round of draft three consecutive times, and especially since he had gotten the better of me 2 out of 3 times. Anyway, he seemed to dislike his deck throughout the 1st two packs, and be generally confused about what Calvin was shipping him. I came in thinking that he would put up a decent fight, but in the end my bomby treefolk would get it done.

It turns out, he didn't just come to fight, he came to win. After looking at an opening hand of Bosk Banneret, Ghostly Changeling, Orchard Warden, Thorntooth Witch and 3 land, I felt nearly unstoppable. I spent turns 2 and three making double Banneret and Ghostly Changeling to his Leaf Gilder and Avian Changeling. When I ripped the land to drop Thorntooth Witch on Turn 4, I was pretty sure it was lights out for Josh. But he wasn't done yet, After getting through in the air with Avian Changeling, he passed the turn, indicating that he probably had a way to save the Avian from any of my treefolk spells. I was dismayed to find that his way of saving the changeling was to Reinforce Hunting triad, turning Avian Changeling into what we would term later as "Changeling Dragon". Still Orchard warden joined the team, and I crashed for 7 with my large treefolk army, still very much in control. Next turn, Josh makes... Boggart Loggers?!? With 3 mana up to blow up a treefolk too! I thought that hating 3 of them would be enough, but apparantly Nyib and Gyik were everywhere tonight. Now things started to look a little worse. Now I was at 9 life and he had essentially two blockers in the loggers, and a 5/5 "Changeling Dragon" to boot. I was staring at Doran and lands in hand, but couldn't seem to rip the white mana to cast him. I simply wheeled with my team except for a Banneret, and was surprised when josh flashed in Offalsnout to take a hit for the team. This left him with Boggart Loggers, Avian Changeling and Leaf Gilder on the board and some really low life total. So one more swing and he was done. However, I would not get that one more swing, as Incremental Growth from Josh Made 12 power in unblockable guys, finishing me off for good.

I turned to my sideboard in shock that I had lost. That was my god draw... how did it lose? I tried to recollect for game 2, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't on tilt at least a little bit. Game 2, it was time for Josh to get HIS god draw on. His sequence of plays was: Turn 2 Bramblewood Paragon, Turn 3 Obsidian Battle Axe, Turn 4 Hunting Triad, Turn 5 Incremental Growth. YIKES! I took some enormous amount of damage the turn he cast growth, and had to horribly trade my Thorntooth Witch for his Bramblewood Paragon to prevent him from tramping over me and my stream of Imperious Perfect tokens for the rest of the game. At 6 life on my turn 6, things were not looking the best. I managed to rip Leaf Crowned Elder who offered to help me get back in the game through card advantage and to help stave the bleeding a little bit, However, he fell the very next turn in order to make a trade I needed in order to survive. One Pack's disdain and a well placed Peppersmoke later, the dust had cleared leaving me with 2 bosk bannerets and an Imperious Perfect to his 2/2 Elf Warrior a Winnower Patrol, both of whom picked up Obsidian Battle Axes in subsequent turns. On my next turns, I made Doran the siege Tower and Orchard Warden to his Walker of the Grove. With his 7/7 monster in the way, I couldn't get in until I had lethal on the board, or else I risked dying immediately. After a few turns of making elves through the Perfect, I had enough to get through for lethal, but decided to hold back one more turn as the Offalsnout I had already seen could have jumped in the way and then killed me on the swingback. One more pass from Josh and one more Elf token from me later, and Josh scooped up his cards, showing me a handful of three land.

Well, that's it for now, I'm tired, will finish this article later if you guys want. Night night for now!