p1p1 - I like starting off with powerful archetype cards. Cube doesn't reward you that much for staying open, especially since jumping ship just isn't hard at all when you see something else flowing. Here, it's between
Mishra's Workshop and nothing else. It's one of the most broken mana producers out there and I love me a good artifact deck.
p1p2 - Hello theme! After taking
Mishra's Workshop, there's little reason not to snap up
Metalworker. I now have two of the three deck artifact oriented rampers; if the artifacts continue to flow, my draft will look incredible.
p1p3 - This pick for me is between
Day of Judgment,
Yawgmoth's Bargain, and
Tangle Wire. Bargain is the most powerful card in the pack, and I advocate taking it here. I chose
Tangle Wire, though, because I like decks that attempt to constrain the enemies resources. Were I drafting again, I'd probably take Bargain.
Weathered Wayfarer is also interesting. I forget that it can fetch ANY land, and that sort of tutoring comes in really handy in a deck that both has special lands and plans on playing fewer than other decks. Note: Most people don't rate
Tangle Wire this highly, and neither do I, but the lure of drafting Stax blinded me. I probably could have easily tabled it.
p1p4 - Pretty much a dud of a pack. Had I taken Bargain, I might have considered
Survival of the Fittest just to keep taking powerful cards and stay open, but I opted here for
Steam Vents. It felt like a free pick and
is often a good color combination for artifact decks.
Masticore might make the final deck, but it'll probably table anyway. I probably should have considered
Rakdos's Return, but wouldn't have taken it anyway.
p1p5 - This pack gave me a rough time. I gave serious consideration to nearly every card in the pack. I didn't think my deck would get enough out of playing
Mutavault, and didn't like the stretch that any of the three planeswalkers asked of me, so I went with
Inquisition of Kozilek since it attacks well the decks I expect to be good against mine. (Should the whole artifact thing pan out.) Black is also under-drafted, so taking black cards means a greater chance of them actually getting played.
p1p6 - This pack had me torn between
Braids, Cabal Minion and
Phyrexian Revoker. Braids fits the Stax idea that I so very much want to draft, but Revoker is a solid catch-all artifact. I wanted to up my artifact numbers, so I took
Phyrexian Revoker. There are a number of artifact decks and it'll be a solid answer in most of them.
p1p7 - I was leaning heavily toward
Mindslaver all clock long, but decided that
Phyrexian Metamorph was simply too versatile to pass on. I could get other heavy-hitters down the road that readily replace
Mindslaver. The clone-for-many-things is a little more difficult to sub for.
p1p8 - None of the spells really call to me.
Diabolic Edict is a nice option to have, but I decided on
Urbog, Tomb of Yawgmoth as a unique fixer that allows
Mishra's Workshop to produce mana for non-artifact spells. To this point, I'm not really leaning toward any color much with my one black spell and half a blue spell.
p1p9 - I could take
Tooth and Nail hoping to pair it well with
Metalworker, but now that I have
Inquisition of Kozilek and
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, taking
Hymn to Tourach just seemed perfect. I've got a few ways to play the attrition game now, so I'm looking to focus on that.
p1p10 - Nothing that I much care for. if the artifacts don't flow in later packs, I might have to ditch that strategy, in which case, going mono-black seems like my destiny.
Geralf's Messenger fits that plan well enough.
p1p11 - For similar reasons, I take
Dreadbore here, though I wanna acknowledge yet again how good
Weathered Wayfinder is in a deck with unique lands.
p1p12 - Hmmm... do I support artifacts or mono-black? Neither card is all that fascinating. I took
Masticore over
Gatekeeper of Malikir since it fits both decks regardless.
p1p13 - I took
Dualcaster Mage (possibly because of
Dreadbore), but I think
Garruk, Apex Predator or
Vengevine are better picks here. If I'm a black deck, both fit better, with Garruk playing the top-end of a control shell and Vengevine fitting into an aggro dredge shell. Alas, I took the worst of the three.
p1p14 -
BRAIDS!!! Funny thing is, I'm more likely to play this in the artifact deck than the mono-black deck.
p1p15 -
Gore-House Chainwalkerp2p1 - It's the most privileged, whiny thing in the world to say, but I hate opening two pieces of power. Grrr... I take
Sol Ring over
Mox Jet, though I think that might have been incorrect at this point. If I'm the artifact deck, Ring is the better pick, but if I'm mono black, Jet is since so many good black cards require a heavy commitment. Jet is helps the artifact deck more than Ring helps the black deck, so I think the Mox might prove to be the proper hedge. Either is obviously great, though, and I don't chastise myself much for taking the best card in cube.
p2p2 - Here I pretty much windmill slammed
Necropotence. I've got the best fixer for it, my deck is looking quite mono-black, and nothing else in the pack really fits my package. (Though
Shelldock Isle is obviously a consideration due to it's absurd power.) Necro is a great card that only doesn't get drafted due to its being triple black. This pick also makes me cringe about the Mox miss the pack prior. Hindsight, yo.
p2p3 - I considered
Pack Rat,
Damnation, and
Tidehollow Sculler as my likely candidates. I threw out Sculler because it's really just a bad hedge toward artifacts and I already have plenty of hand disruption. I went with
Damnation over the rat because I felt like a much more controlling deck at this point. Had I taken
Vengevine in the last pack, I might have switched those picks.
p2p4 -
Bloodghast[/b] is a card I like, but with every pick I make away from dredge aggro, the less I'm able to pick up further cards for the deck. After that it was really [c]Strip Mine vs.
Polluted Delta. I like me a good fetch, but
Strip Mine is so damn good and fits my attrition theme wonderfully.
p2p5 - Another important decision point. Am I still the artifact deck? I've got 5 artifacts I'd definitely play in that deck with a 6th I would if need be. That still seems like a good chunk to me. Taking artifacts also has the benefit of still being perfectly playable in the mono-black deck. I took
Memory Jar over
Phyrexian Obliterator for these reasons, and because I just like it more.
Mox Diamond was also a consideration and was possibly the correct pick: a quick Necro makes up for a lot of lost card advantage.
p2p6 - I contemplated between
Sword of War and Peace,
Bazaar of Baghdad, and
Nezumi Graverobber for quite some time. At this point, the other colors would have to scream to get my attention. Both fell to the Bloodghast fate: the less I take graveyard cards, the less later ones matter.
Sword of War and Peace got taken because it's an artifact and because the combo with
Necropotence is alluring, though I admit that the business end seems lackluster when you consider it paired with my discard spells.
p2p7 - Well, that's the last straw. I passed on graveyard cards over and over and now I have nothing to lose. All the other cards are either heavily outside my color or unexciting, and
Unburial Rites is quite good in a number of shells.
p2p8 -
Hypnotic Specter is yet another reason to take that Mox over Sol Ring. Having just taken Rites, I grabbed
Marsh Flats here. Hippie is good, but less so when it's your turn 3 play.
p2p9 -
Trinket Mage,
Mental Misstep, or
Zuran Orb? Having Ring already,
Trinket Mage felt like a good hedge, but I wish I would have taken the Orb for experiment's sake.
p2p10 -
Vampire Nighthawk is a fine catch-all sort of creature. Nothing else really fits the deck.
p2p11 -
PACK RAT!!! Okay, I might have a reanimator sub-theme. Either way, Rat is just good on its own, even in this powered cube.
p2p12 -
Nezumi Shortfang wheels. It fits the attrition theme well, so I welcome it.
p2p13 -
Phyrexian Obliterator wheels. It fits the "I'm black" theme well, so I welcome it.
p2p14 - No one likes
Bazaar of Baghdad in this cube. There's a great chance I won't play it either, having only the
Unburial Rites as a good reason, but had I gone down that Vengevine hole, I'd be all over this card.
p2p15 -
Troll Ascetic exists to carry swords, but it's just bad and shouldn't be in the cube at all.
p3p1 -
Sheoldred, Whispering One or
Duplicant? At this point in the draft, I still don't have a ton of creatures I wanna reanimate. Janet Whispers is a cool cat, but I'm still in the mindset of taking big artifacts to support both strategies.
Duplicant is a solid removal spell that leaves behind an enormous body, and being able to power it out with the Workshop crew is perfect.
p3p2 -
Mana Crypt is a great card. People fear its death omen, but if your deck is built right, you'll win long before that matters. My deck isn't built right. I don't have a clock. I have a bunch of attrition spells. I have
Necropotence card advantage. The choice for me is between
Batterskull and
Worn Powerstone. I was a little worried at this point that my chances to pick up good artifacts to ramp into was dwindling, so I snapped up
Batterskull instead of improving my ramp. And really, I just don't have all that much to ramp into yet.
p3p3 - I took
Corpse Dance here in some vein hope of a reanimator strategy, but I think that was a mistake. Given that I have Braids, Tanglewire, Strip Mine, some good fast mana, and a Marsh Flats,
Thalia, Guardain of Thraben seems like a better option. I overlooked it because I was so mono-black and not that creature heavy, but I think it actually would have fit the deck perfectly.
p3p4 - I briefly considered making my splash heavier for
Sun Titan, then considered a heavier reanimator theme with
Shallow Grave, but eventually came to my sense and snapped up
Crucible of Worlds. I already have the legendary
Strip Mine combo for it, I have a fetchland to go into value mode, and I have Braids to play the ultimate attrition game. It's really the perfect card for my deck.
p3p5 - That last pack sort of shook me out of the reanimator dream. It's a supplement to the deck, not it's main goal. I just don't have the targets to make it a relevant point of attack. I'm lacking at legitimate removal options at this point, so
Murderous Cut was my pick and I agree with it still.
p3p6 -
Massacre Wurm will be a good card in my deck. It might wheel, though, and taking the
Stoneforege Mystic legitimizes both of my equipment much more than before.
p3p7 - Am I a
Balance deck? Probably not. My most aggressive control cards are discard spells, I don't have nearly enough artifact mana, a few of the key cards I want on the board are creatures, and I just don't know. I think it also does a lot of useful things for the deck and was probably good enough to warrant taking, but decided to support my
Crucible of Worlds by taking
Wasteland, which also just fits my deck overall. In a format where most of the cards are highly playable and you only need half of your non-land picks to make your main deck, taking lands is rarely wrong and offers a ton of value.
p3p8 -
Mishra's Factory has a few benefits I like, but my mana was already getting sketchy taking colorless lands and looking to splash white.
War Priest of Thune is a fine sideboard card.
p3p9 - It must be my birthday!
Sheoldred, get in my deck!
p3p10 -
Skinrender gives me more bodies for Sword and more removal. I can't see how that's bad.
p3p11 - I don't expect to play
Dark Confidant since I have a number of high cost cards in the deck, but I can imagine a world where I sideboard into it.
p3p12 - Sure,
Sidisi, Undead Vizier. I'll take all the black cards.
p3p13 - And
Living Death, too.
p3p14 - Trifecta!
Puppeteer Cliquep3p15 - Last pick
Gaea's Cradle, LMFAO.
Creatures (11)
1 x
Phyrexian Revoker1 x
Nezumi Shortfang1 x
Stoneforge Mystic1 x
Pack Rat1 x
Metalworker1 x
Phyrexian Metamorph1 x
Vampire Nighthawk1 x
Braids, Cabal Minion1 x
Masticore1 x
Duplicant1 x
Sheoldred, Whispering OneOther Spells (12)
1 x
Sol Ring1 x
Inquisition of Kozilek1 x
Hymn to Tourach1 x
Tangle Wire1 x
Crucible of Worlds1 x
Sword of War and Peace1 x
Necropotence1 x
Damnation1 x
Memory Jar1 x
Unburial Rites1 x
Murderous Cut1 x
BatterskullLand (17)
1 x
Strip Mine1 x
Wasteland1 x
Mishra's Workshop1 x
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth1 x
Marsh Flats1 x
Plains11 x
SwampSideboard
1 x
Bazaar of Baghdad1 x
War Priest of Thune1 x
Dark Confidant1 x
Geralf's Messenger1 x
Corpse Dance1 x
Phyrexian Obliterator1 x
Skinrender1 x
Sidisi, Undead Vizier1 x
Living Death1 x
Puppeteer CliqueI went 2-1. The attrition control elements work out well, though I would have liked to have more of them. I lost one match to a game 3 turn 2
Timetwister that mulled me into a landless hand. >.<
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