Well, everyone loves MINOTAURS right?
In my second BNG-THS-THS draft I cracked an extremely pedestrian BNG pack and chose
Ragemonger over
excoriate. Which is a totally wrong pick in a vacuum but my son needed the Ragemonger anyway.
Pack 2 was almost as bad. I took
Gorgon’s Head over
Sphinx’s Disciple, which is hard to defend but I was thinking ahead to giving deathtouch to
Deathbellow RaiderThe rest of the BNG pack went (not in order)
Nyxborn EidolonKragma ButcherFearsome TemperNyxborn Rollicker2
Odunos River TrawlerClaim of ErebosFelhide Brawler (on the wheel!)
And a few other cards I gave a away.
Not *disastrous* but uh, not great either. Signals were (understandably) weak as most people had barely drafted the set (I drafted on release night and 3-0d with RW Heroicor really “Double Ordeal”)
The THS packs were a little funny. I passed 2 Ill-Tempered Cyclops to pick up minotaurs. I passed one Ordeal of Erebos for a Gary - mostly because I (wrongly) suspected that the guy to my right was in Black (I was Rb at this point). I got another Ordeal of E later AND a second Gary. And P3P1 was
Kragma Warcaller. I also drafted a few choice white cards just in case.
This deck started by asking the question:
“How many
Pharika’s Cure is too many?” I picked three and passed at least one, maybe 2.
And ended on the question “Maybe 4
Deathbellow Raiders is too many?”
DECK
15 creatures
Nyxborn RollickerNyxborn EidolonFelhide Brawler4
Deathbellow RaiderRagemongerMinotaur SkullcleaverBlood-Toll HarpyKragma ButcherOdunos River TrawlerKragma Warcaller2
Gray Merchant of Asphodel8 spells
Gorgon’s HeadOrdeal of Erebos3 Pharika’s Cure[/c]
Fearsome TemperRage of PurphorosSip of HemlockSideboard
Portent of Betrayal (this came in permanently after match 1 game 1)
Odunos River Trawleranvilwrought raptorSentry of the UnderworldHopeful EidolonOrdeal of Heliodcards I didn’t play:
Flamespeaker AdeptArena AthleteThis deck had some potential but wasn’t really that great.
Individual performers:
Deathbellow Raider - obviously the backbone of the deck… But although you get out to a nice start, holding mana back to regen can weaken your board (or they die) and having to attack really is a drawback.
Gorgon’s Head - it was alright. I would not 2nd pick it again over any serious card. It allowed me to attack with 2 deathbellows leaving only 3 up to regenerate. Since I basically never blocked (I was on the beatdown in 100% of my games) it probably wasn’t acting to it’s full potential.
Felhide Brawler - I actually had this guy by himself, needing to block once.
Ragemonger - Not enough data. I cast him once as a vanilla 2/3 and once he got
dissolved.
3x Pharika’s Cure. Having ONE was awesome. The other two not so much. Since my guys are hell on 2 toughness dudes anyway. The one hero I needed to cure got too big too fast (although I did pseudo 2 for zero myself to remove counters from a hero with gift of immortality on it).
Little bestow guys were pretty good IF you bestowed them… otherwise meh.
Gary didn’t fit this deck at all but a late drain for 2 won me a race.
Portent of Betrayal is the closest thing this deck has to a finisher (well, warcaller some boards)
Never cashed an ordeal.
Overall I went 2-1 going the full 9 games at 6-3. I was pretty lucky to pull 2-1.
Match 1 I lost the first game to a 2 6/6 voltrons (5 cards)… couldn’t trick the guy into blocking my 2/2 so I could rage against the volition. That’s when I realized how badly I needed some
treachery. This match I think I was lucky to win, but he was running Bant and got mana screwed last 2 games (although not horribly so… stuck on 3 for a while)
Match 2 - guy had
ashiok, nightmare weaver. He got him all three games. I won the first game because literally all he played was Ashiok.
At this point I wondered out loud if Ashiok was worth going over 40 cards for.
Game 2 he got a turn 2 fleshmad steed turn 3 ashiok, turn 4 another blocker and forget about it. I played until I was down to about 9 cards but gave up.
Game 3 I boarded in 3 plains, the white cards, and 2-3 more black cards to go to 50 cards or so, including the raptor. He got up a blocker and and ashiok but I had something of a board, and portent of betrayal, which allowed me to kill Ashiok - but in his one activation he exiled a mountain and BOTH Garys. That could have been the difference, but I eventually lost to Sealock (monstrous). I did get Sentry out but my life total was too low to regenerate it. I suppose it can be argued that 10 extra cards diluted my chance of pulling Sip which is what I really needed.
Match 3 was against a durdly UB which featured many minotaurs bouncing off many
coastline chimeras. I ground him out though, except in game 2 where he dissolved my Ragemonger AND my Gary for 4 within 3 turns. Not expecting that. Game 3 I had:
T2 deathbellow raider
T3 deathbellow raider
T4 deathbellow raider
T5 deathbellow raider
TL;DR Minotaurs may be overrated in draft.