Hi all

From time to time in the old forum I would post my draft as I was doing it pointing out some of the key decisions I have made. Obviously being 'real time' I have not idea how the draft will go when I am posting it. I will then post details of my matches as they occur. For anyone reading along you can take a guess after I post my deck as to how you think I will do. My drafts will always be MTGO Swiss.

So here goes

P1p1 - Drown in Sorrow other cards to note Siren of Fang, Bolt, Oathsworn, Startus Walk
P1p2 - Archetype of Finality - weak pack only other notes loyal pegasus and 3/3 white vigalence with 2R pump
P1p3 - Servant of Tymaret - passed divination and lightning wave (pretty sure now I am going mono black control)
P1p4 - Asphyxiate - Kiora's Follower, Excoriate and Thunder Brute in a strong pack
P1p5 - River Trawler - a very late Hunter's Prowess and Excoriate
P1p6 - Fated Return - Shieldmate and
P1p7 - Sanguimancy (nothing of note)
P1p8 - Reap what is sown (WTF)
P1p9 - Ashiok's Adept and lots of green rubbish
P1p10 - Starbreaker
P1p11 - Lightning Volley
P1p12 - Forsaken Drifters
P1p13 - Weight of the Underworld
P1p14 - Forsaken Drifers

So far so good and mono black control

P2p1 - Heliod's Emissary passing returned phalanx, Phyrexia's Cure, Temple of Abandon, Sentry of the Underworld
P2p2 - Hopeful Eidelon over Shipwreck Singer ordeal or Erebos, griptide (wedded to Black white now)
P2p3 - Grey Merchant passing harpy, battlewise hopelite and dragon mantle
P2p4 - Sip of Hemlock (hoping to wheel a scholar). Noting the divine verdict
P2p5 - Hopeful Eidelon over Return to the Underworld and returned cenatur (this may be a mistake as I don't have that much heroic)
P2p6 - Fleshmad steed (first 2 drop). Nothing of note except for red aggro
p2p7 - scholar over godswilling ?????
p2p8 - scourgemark over observant eidelon
p2p9 - sentry of the udnerworld over returned phalanx
p2p10 returned cenatur (shipwreck singer still in the pack!)
p2p11 ray of dissolution
p2p12 scholar wheeled!!!
p2p13 returned cenatur
p2p14 Demolish

So solid white black defensive deck

P3p1 Xenagos ((greedy but best card for me was Erebos' Emissary)
P3p2 - Insaitable Harby over cure and read the bones (need more low drops)
p3p3 - chosen by heliod (only white or black card in the pack)
p3p4 - Grey Merchant
p3p5- sip (again only white or black card) - did I mention the need for low drops???
p3p6 - lash over dauntless onslaught (tough pick as the onslaught was foil but my deck is defensive)
p3p7 - harpy over Sip number 3 and Phraka Mender
P3p8 - Akroan Horse (perfect card for this deck)
P3p9 - Asphodel's Wanderer (over burnished hart for the sb against aggro)
p3p10 - Snarecaster (ditto above)
p3p11 - Phres Band Centaur (all green cards left)
p3p12 - Yoked Ox
p3p13 - Wild celebants
p3p14 - prowled helm

So there you have it. I'll post my deck shortly

It's a tough deck to build for about 3 cards:

Lands (17)
10 x swamps
7 x plains

Creatures (16)
2 x Hopeful Eidelon
Fleshmad Steed (my only 2 drop this is poor)
Servant of Tymaret
Blood-Toll Harpy
2 x Scholar
River Trawler
Ashiok's Adept
Heliod's Emissary
Returned Centaur
Insatiable Harpy
Akoran Horse
2 x Grey Merchant
Sentry of the Underworld

Spells (7)
Chosen by Heliod
Scourgemark
Drown in sorrow
Asphyxiate
Lash of the Whip
2 x Sip of Hemlock

Sideboard
Wanderer
Snarecaster
Archetype of Finality
Returned Cenatur (a second one)
Weight of the Underworld
Fated return
Yoked Ox
2 x Forsaken Drifters
Ray of Dissolution

So here is the deck. I reckon 2-1

R1G1 aggro: Opponent goes turn 1 Akoran Crusader turn 2 sunchaser turn 3 harpy. My first play is turn 3 Servant but a turn 4 heliod emissary stablises the board and a turn 5 harpy of my own followed by a turn 6 grey merchant and hopeful eidelon (unbestowed) gives me a turn 6 win. Not bad for a control deck (although it is more of a midrange deck).

SB - Ox in for lash

R1G2 again my opponent goes sunchaser into harpy. My first turn is again turn 3 but this time it is ashiok's adept and a turn 4 harpy.

Interesting moment on turn 4. He attacks with sunchaser, harpy and cerebus. I block cerebus with adept and sunchaser with harpy. He has Titan's strength but plays it on the cerebus. I would have killed the harpy even if it was a 2 for 1. The harpy (enchanted with chosen to keep it out of burn range) goes on to win the game for me with support for Grey Merchant and Sip for a turn 8 win.

1) I don't think Drown in Sorrow is a P1P1, but Siren of Silent Song is close.


Akroan Phalanx is very solid... and finality is a 6 drop that dies to lightning strike. If the pack was stronger, you could expect it to wheel if you were still black.



I windmill slam hunter's prowess here. 5 picks in you don't know your second color and you can splash G.


Oooh that's close.... I guess sentry is likely to wheel.


I think that's correct, same with passing the dauntless. Although they make the inevitable Wx heroic deck better.



I probably take the vigilant ogre over the cantrip here.

For the deck I might just maindeck Wanderer and/or Yoked Ox. River Trawler seems awful with 3 enchantment creatures. I guess he's no worse than alseid. Ashiok's Adept seems out of place in your deck. Looks like you will be fine if you can stabilize by turn 4 or so and draw removal.

I might also play weight of the underworld over scourgemark.

In hindsight it would have been nice to pick up the excoriates but they probably weren't worth speculating on white that early.

R2G1 - a voyaging saytr inspired deck starts with a turn 3 spider which quickly asphyxiates. I'm a bit happier when he plays a turn 5 charging badger (i love badger) but when that gets enchanted with Erebos Emissary things aren't so funny. Still, a Sentry of the Underworld and a Sip eventually win a grindy game.

No SB

R2G2 - he opens with a scorpion but I have drown in sorrow in hand. I don't want to waste it on just the scorpion so play a turn 3 servant instead and again asphyxiate the spider (I also have lash, sip and drown in hand). I again cast hopeful eidelon as a 1/1 rather than enchantment my servant and then give my opponent a horse, which he has to Sip and taking 2 damage and giving me a soldier. Good horse.

At the start of my turn 7 my opponent has 7 land in play a scorpion and a staunch hearted warrior and one card in hand. He is on 12 life. I have 6 land in play a servant a hopeful eidelon and my three cards in hand are drown, sip and grey merchant. I'm at 21 life. I attack with the eidelon (not blocked) and then drown. Opponent draws and scoops.

So, on to the final

Thanks Zen

I didn't take the Phalanx P1p2 as I just took a double black card. As you say, the Archetype is not good but I want to pass a clear signal that I wasn't Boros (I'm expecting at this stage to force mono black or black/blue being the two best control decks).

I didn't take the eidelon as my deck is full of three drops. As I said in another post, this set has a base tougness of 3 so I think 2 power creatures are not great here and I do have a couple of flyers and heroic guys that the scourgemark works well on.

Final you're on the play do you keep

Swamp, Swamp, Drown, Horse, Asphyxiate, Sip and Sentry?

Of course you do

Drew Harpy then swamp

I always like to see people with different takes on the format drafting. p1p1 I would've taken Bolt, followed by the Phalanx. That would led to a totally different draft. That's why I love Limited.

turn 3 courser of Kruphix is good but it gets asphyxiated (I cannot tell you how good this card is).

I suicide my harpy into his 4/4 siren of the fanged coast but he plays a brutal Triton Tactics to 2 for 0 me. His Hunters Prowess for 7 is just game winning even when I lash the Siren next turn. He plays horizon scholar and I sip it and at this stage despite the fact he has drawn 11 more cards than me if I can just keep the flyers out of it horse will hold the ground for me but Nemesis plus time to feed plus Feral invocation is good game.

SB - ray of dissolution and wanderer for centaur and steed

R3G2 again starts with turn 2 voyaging satyr turn 3 courser from him but I hold the ground with wanderer, adept and double scholar. His horizon scholar is lashed but a chimera and vaporkin nullifying my insatiable harpy. His hunters prowess again for 6 is again more or less good game. I do almost stabalise but then an archetype of endurance (a card I think is unplayable) really is good game.

See, you cannot pass Hunter Prowess pack 1. /results based analysis



Can't marry a first pick drown in sorrow. But I agree that if I am going to force BTT I will force black (or 5 color chromanticore).



I ship that instantly. You only have 1 2 drop in your whole deck you can play (I guess you can put an enchantrip on HIS creature)
At least your plains were live...



Luck Sack!

I agree. That was the key take-home point from this draft.

Other points to note:
My lack of 2 drops didn't hurt too much due to the large amount of removal and 3 toughness 3 drops I had but I wouldn't recommend this as a strategy.

Just because you can bestow a guy doesn't mean you should. Twice an unbestowed hopeful eidolon bought me enough time to win.

White/Black cards like sentry and scholar go late so you should keep your options for a second colour as open as possible.