Sunday was draft night on MtGO. It really brought home to me that it doesn't really matter what you open; it's much more important not to quarrel over colors with your neighbours.
Pack one was pretty disappointing, giving me a
Bolt of Keranos. Pick two was much better, an
Akroan Conscriptor. I tried for white, but it didn't come, so I picked up a few blue cards to complement the red. Pack two started well, with a
Purphoros's Emissary and
Nimbus Naiad. Pick three presented the choice between
Dragon Mantle and
Voyage's End. I took the End, and was rewarded by a pick four
Sea God's Revenge and pick 6
Vaporkin. Pick 8 was
Flamespeaker Adept, pick 10 a
Horizon Scholar, and the Mantle wheeled. Pack three started with
Triton Tactics and
Fanatic of Mogis. Then came the choice between
Lightning Strike and
Labyrinth Champion; not really hard, I was just sad to see the Champion get away. But the red kept flowing, and even the Champion wheeled. And five minutes later, I was trying to decide what to cut from the deck. Here is what I built, together with the hard cuts:
1 x
Arena Athlete1 x
Deepwater Hypnotist1 x
Vaporkin1 x
Crackling Triton2 x
Flamespeaker Adept1 x
Minotaur Skullcleaver1 x
Nimbus Naiad1 x
Spearpoint Oread1 x
Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass1 x
Fanatic of Mogis1 x
Labyrinth Champion1 x
Purphoros's Emissary1 x
Akroan Conscriptor1 x
Dragon Mantle1 x
Spark Jolt1 x
Triton Tactics1 x
Lightning Strike1 x
Stratus Walk1 x
Voyage's End1 x
Fearsome Temper1 x
Bolt of Keranos1 x
Rage of Purphoros10 x
Mountain7 x
IslandPlayable Sideboard
1 x
Retraction Helix1 x
Portent of Betrayal1 x
Sea God's Revenge1 x
Horizon Scholar1 x
Destructive RevelryThere is something unsettling about seeing
Sea God's Revenge in the sideboard; even
Portent of Betrayal looks like an auto-include in a deck with two
Flamespeaker Adepts. But I needed some triggers for my heroes, and the bounce/removal, and there simply wasn't place in the deck.
Round one was against GW. We each lost a game to the shuffler; I boarded
Retraction Helix over
Bolt of Keranos, since his creatures were mostly too big for the Bolt. In game three, I got down an early
Vaporkin, and
Fearsome Temper allowed it to go all the way, past a
Nessian Asp.
Round two against UWG. The only thing I really remember is him casting a turn two
Nullify in a three-color deck. A few tricky combat steps involving the Adept and Voyage's End gave me the two-for-ones needed to win the match.
Round three against another GW deck. In game one, he played a turn-one
Favored Hoplite. On turn seven, I was at 8, he was at 22, with a 4/5 tapped Hoplite and a
Lagonna-band Elder on board; I had a
Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass, a
Deepwater Hypnotist, and the
Arena Athlete, with Mantle in hand. I drew the Tactics, and decided to go for it. Put the Mantle on the Atlete, swung with everything past the suddenly blocking-impaired Elder, and dropped him to 10. When he counterattacked next turn, I untapped the Cyclops and the Hypnotist to kill his team. He had the tricks to keep them alive, but they remained frozen for long enough for my Athlete to steal the win. Game two was simpler, with my removal killing his heroes, leaving him with an empty board and not enough time to recover - I had both Adepts on the board.
I never played the Conscriptor or the Emissary; the Champion and Athlete were very good. Crackling Triton was a disappointment (you can probably tell this was my first UR deck); and so was the Bolt of Keranos. Sorcery-speed and three mana really hurt it. I ended up boarding Retraction Helix over it a lot.
So, would you play the Revenge? The Portent? The Helix?
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So obvious. Sometimes I just get stuck in a rut.