Another week another JBT draft... another UG deck. This time I actually did OK, 2-1 for 3rd place, losing to the best player/draft winning (sitting to my right in RG).

I P1P1 Hall of Triumph out of an empty pack (maybe there was a Hubris or a Skink or something). 1 P1P2 Golden Hind (Guy to my right took a hydra!). I didn't get much green besides some Leucocroctas... and there was some OK red, but nothing exciting.

P2P2 I was passed Courser of Kruphix so anything thoughts of jumping into red were dashed. There were probably 3 other green drafters so I didn't get much, but I had ALOT of blue bounce.
2 x Deepwater Hypnotist
1 x Vaporkin
1 x Bronze Sable
1 x Golden Hind
1 x Noble Quarry
1 x Courser of Kruphix
2 x Ravenous Leucrocota
1 x Breaking Hippocamp
1 x Cloaked Siren
1 x Sphinx’s Disciple
1 x Nessian Demolok
1 x Vulpine Golaith

2 x Retraction Helix
1 x Mortals’ Resolve
1 x Pin to the Earth
1 x Voyage’s End
1 x Hubris
1 x Griptide
1 x Hall of Triumph

//Sideboard
1 x Thassa’s Ire
1 x Setassan Starbreaker
1 x Artisan’s Sorrow
1 x Shredding Winds
1 x Stratus Walk


I was pretty worried about this deck, it was so think in the creature department. Still it actually had great spells and a good sideboard.
I definitely made use of the entire board (except starbreaker) - using Artisan's Sorrow to take out Nyx Weaver, Thassa's Ire against big monsters and Shredding Winds against flyers.

I won the first match easily against BG -- I just bounced all his guys and killed him with pikers. He had a Nighthowler and Nemesis of Mortals but lucky me he never got them. Match 2 I lost vs the draft winner. He just had more and better green dudes plus real removal. I did take game 2 easy and game 3 was stuck on 2 mana for a while.

Match 3 was one of my better matches. I was playing a RW deck piloted by a pretty good player -- at least way more experienced than me. I got beaten game 1 by loyal pegasus and an unenhanced skyguard - even after he mulled to 5 he curved out and I never drew a flier. Game 2 I don't really remember beyond using the Breaching Hippocamp/Retraction Helix for a double bounce to get ahead and beat him down.
Game 3 was all Courser of Kruphix. I drew it turn 2, played on 3, and it literally gained me 9 life and effectively drew me 6 cards. Not to mention holding off 3/3s for days. At one point I was down 18-4 before I got my fliers online. I also got 2 cards and 2 bounces off of retraction helix/hippocamp/Disciple (really 1 card and -2 damage since I could have beaten down for 2 instead of the 2nd bounce).

This was an extremely tense game because even when I had stabilized the board I was down to 5-6 life against Red. He also had a Akroan Mastiff which was wreaking havoc with my helix, but eventually he tapped down vaporkin on my turn and I got through.
It was an especially weird game because he saw all my draws for at least 10 turns.

What I learned: If you have a couple good creatures, then what the UG deck needs is a critical mass of bounce. Also retraction helix is very annoying to play, and it's very easy to forget about a guy you have pinned to the earth.

Also, Noble Quarry was never a factor which surprised me. I only seem to have it in hand when I was way behind on board, so I just sat on it.