Haven't done one of these in a while, but I hope it's interesting.

Our draft group played BFZ one last time. I am to the left of Toby Elliot (#gratuitousnamedrop) so I am pretty sure I will not get shipped blue.

My P1P1 offered me the choice of:
Brood Butcher
Brood Monitor
and the best non-green card
Sludge Crawler

I tanked quite a while and ended up taking the Butcher. I figured that if REALLY no one was green I could wheel the Brood Monitor (which is *INSANE* but BFZ is like that). I also thought butcher was good enough that I could go Bx splashing green, and I did pick evolving wilds 4th or something. Finally, I thought BG sac was going to be much better in OOB and I had never drafted it so maybe I should get to know the cards better.

I got some decent black cards P1 but nothing special, ended usually taking the best B or G card in the pack. I had a couple white filler cards. Of course Monitor did NOT wheel, and it turned out there were 2 other green drafters (1 RG and across from me, another! BG drafter). What to say? I probably should have tried to jump out of green; I got passed a P2P3 Planar Outburst and some decent blue P3 but white didn't really appear open.

Toby ended up in UW with a fantastic deck but SPOILER, went 1-2. I didn't play him.
The guy to my left was RB.

The deck in all it's glory:
1 x Sludge Crawler
2 x Culling Drone
1 x Snapping Gnarlid
1 x Void Attendant
1 x Wasteland Strangler
2 x Eyeless Watcher
1 x Smothering Abomination
1 x Brood Butcher
1 x Brood Monitor
1 x Deathless Behemoth
1 x Tajuru Beastmaster
2 x Ruin Processor

1 x Vampiric Rites
1 x Bone Splinters
1 x Swarm Surge
2 x Demon's Grasp
2 x Mire's Malice

1 x Blighted Woodland
1 x Evolving Wilds
1 x Mortuary Mire
7 x Swamp
8 x Forest

//Side
1 x Blisterpod
2 x Giant Mantis
1 x Demon's Grasp
1 x Dutiful Return
1 x Rising Miasma
1 x Reclaiming Vines
1 x Plated Crusher


You can note the lack of premium black cards, but I mean, hey it's a deck.

I usually boarded out the 2nd Mire's Malice. I often waffled between the Crusher and the 2nd Ruin Processor.
I never brought in Rising Miasma, but I think that was a mistake in match 3.

THIS DECK WAS ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE TO PLAY. And it wasn't even bad. It was just so, so, so, grindy.
It was like going to the dentist. I went to time all 3 matches.
I won M1G1 (BG mirror, this was a near guaranteed draw) then went to time, so 1-0
Other BG guy had _2_ Brood Monitors, the catacomb sifter, the 2nd vampiric rites and a couple other goodies. Apparently there were no cutthroats, warcallers, or rot shamblers in the pod.


Match 2 vs Grixis devoid, I lost game 1, won game 2 when I drew something like 8 cards off-of Smoother abomination, and went to time in 3 for a draw, far behind but with a million chumps.

So I am in finals 1-0-1 vs. 2-0. Short story: I lost in 3 to an esper deck that was literally Gideon, Ally of Zendikar+Retreat to Emeria and a bunch of garbage. But I was exhausted by the end of it.

I won game 1, but lost 2 despite my opponent getting stuck on 3-4 mana for forever when Abomination went horribly awry and Gideon kept him in the game, and 3 wasn't that close.

This deck just could not push damage through. Maybe it needed the 2nd Swarm Surge? That did win me 2 games and maybe helped in the third win as well. I did pass over a Silent Skimmer for something pack 3, which would have been a welcome addition.

Also I can confirm that Dutiful Return is never playable. I mean, if you don't play it in this deck, when would you?

In the cold light of the next day I do think *possibly* was not using Vampiric Rites enough. I know that there were times when I left a bunch of scions and 1/1s around with the rites on the field. At the time it seemed bad to sac them; but they kind of have to be worse than a random card. Maybe I was hoping to draw Butcher or Abomination?

For the real grind, Crusher has trample and hexproof. Your deck is probably a Grip away from doing things.

And this is my last one (so far?): UW full-of-rares no-early-drops control.



p1p1 was really hard for me: Emeria Shepherd versus Halimar Tidecaller. These two cards lead to totally different deck philosophies and pick priorities. I almost timed out before taking the Shepherd. And then the big-mana plays just kept coming my way, with no early drops to be seen anywhere. p1p2 was Angel of Renewal, p1p3 Ugin's Insight (which is quite insane), and so my colors were decided. I passed a Stasis Snare for the Planar Outburst p2p1, but got a Snare p2p4 (again, one of the loudest imaginable signals). But I was quite unhappy till I got the two Reproaches and Glider in pack three. Then I started thinking about maybe winning a game or two.

This deck would kill for a Tidecaller. As it was, I played the Reclaimer to try and get some of my great spells back, and shore up defenses against aggro. I boarded it out most games, since my processing was simply not there. Ruin Processor was the card I wanted to use the one exiled card I managed each game on, not the Reclaimer. I did consider Coils or Scour over it, but Scour further distorted my no-acceleration, top-heavy mana curve, and Coils are not a good fit for a deck with what I perceived as a no-flyers deck. After all, I only have three four-power ones, and a Wind Drake.

Round one was the matchup I feared, RG landfall-based aggro. Well, more midrange, but definitely quite fast enough to out-aggro me. Unfortunately for him, he had some lag issues, had to reboot, and lost a lot of time. So after I managed to stabilize and win game two, he timed out.

Round two was GB control. No problem, except that I had to play really fast last game. He had Void Vinnower, which is actually a very good finisher if you can cast it on a stable board. But I had the Cub in play, used it to blow up my Stasis Snare (giving him back a Herald of Kozilek), and then played the Shepherd and a Plains to get rid of the odd one. Which was good enough to win the match with the fliers.

The finals were UR with two Skyspawners, Adverse Conditions, the Tidecaller, some Clutches, and the Thunder. But he wasn't fast, and my deck did what it did best: the card-advantage game. I remember an Outburst with no awaken, when he had the only live land in play, followed by Ondu Rising and Ruin Processor to get my life total back into double digits. And the Angels were just game.

So, with what I feel was a lot of luck, I won the tourney. The most surprising thing about this was that Retreat to Coralheim is actually playable in this kind of deck. I boarded it in (over Reclaimer) in rounds two and three, and it did a lot of work, untapping creatures, scrying for Plains for the Shepherd, and so forth. Definitely not what you want against a fast deck, but if the game goes long, it provides a lot of card advantage.

I enjoy control, and I finally decided that yes, no matter how slow and/or bad it looks, I will play blue. And I hope that the control deck viability trend will continue.

Plated Crusher -- which I used in multiple games was too small to do anything. It just got gang blocked by 6 power (or outclassed by 7/8s, and I have zero instants.

Grip would have been good, Ulamog would have been good. One more sac pay payoff would have been good.