Tournament report

[ig2000]

RMS & I went to FNM last night at Valhalla's gate. It was a Shards of Alara booster draft with about 16 players. We had two draft pods.

My first pick was a creeper (a common) which meant I was in Grixis (blue, black & red) from the start. First pick, second pack got me my first rare, a quietus spike (don't even think I looked at the rest of that pack). This got followed up by the second pick in pack two, a cruel ultimatum! I could not figure out why this kid on my left would pass a cruel ultimatum. When we were done drafting I looked over as he was building, poor kid was in mono red. You can not draft mono colors in Shards. You just don't do it.

The deck I ended up with (never sided any thing):

Removal-

1x Executioner's Capsule
1x Tidehollow Strix
1x Blister Beetle
1x Quietus Spike
1x Resounding Thunder
2x Kederekt Creeper
2x Vectis Silencers
2x Fleshbag Marauder (and the MVP goes to a Zombie!)
2x Vithian Stinger
1x Blood Cultist
1x Fire-Field Ogre
1x Cruel Ultimatum

Chumps-

2x Bloodthorn Taunter
2x Jhessian Lookout
1x Kathari Screecher
1x Grixis Battlemage

Extra mana-

2x off color Obelisk

Land-

1x off color Panorama
2x ON COLOR PANORAMA!!!
4x Swamp
4x Mountain
5x Island

First round:
I get paired against the only guy (not sure of his name, I'm bad about that) I was afraid of. He was in all five colors. I win the roll and go first. We spend a few rounds building and removing stuff. I get the spike down and start halfing his life total with a little chump-guy. He eventually o-rings my spike but it’s too late. I may have unearthed a screecher for the final point. Game two was a little more interesting. Again lots of trading off until mid game. At some point I attack with three dudes. He skeletonized one of them (a creeper, I think) put his token into play and declared it blocking one of the other two. This would have killed my guy. Not so fast I says, before blocks I taped my stinger to do one point to his token knowing full well he had black mana open to regenerate it. He kind of looked at me like I was silly for not seeing that. I then had to remind him that regeneration taps the creature and not only does my guy get thru but he also lives. A few turns later, with my stinger now acting as a icy my dudes get thru for the win. After the game he told me that he thought I was going to be his hardest match. I told him he was the one guy here I was scared to play. We then start talking about stupid plays going on around us and how that one guy could have built a mono red deck, no way it could be good.

Round two, 1-0:
I get paired against mono red guy. I’m thinking wow, he won first round. He won the roll and went first. By third turn he had a Goblin Mountaineer, Bloodthorn Taunter and two goblins from a Dragon Fodder in play. I was trying to get a stinger on line to start taking care of all the one-ones when on the forth turn he drops a Thunder-Thrash Elder sacking all his dudes. Great, now I have a 13/13 to deal with. No problem, I got a random deathtouch guy in hand. I’ll just get him on line instead. On his next turn he drops Lightning Talons on it. So now I have got to deal with a 16/13 with first strike. Deathtouch will not work against a really big first striker. I figure I have three outs in my deck and wonder how long I can chump block. On my next turn I draw a marauder! Some times I can mise with the best of’em. I finish him off shortly there after, I was still at 20. Next game was closer in life totals (he got me down to 9) but I never felt out of control like I did in the first game. I guess a 16/13 first striker will do that to you. I do not remember much about this game but I won. So I have not dropped a single game at this point.

Round three,2-0:
I get paired against a newer player, again I’m not sure of his name. He doesn’t make very many mistakes and he’s a nice enough kid. He was in green, white and blue and was playing the tempo game. He kept sending my stuff back to my hand or my deck or just removing it from the game. This was the only game I cast ultimatum and I had all ready stabilized so it was a win more type of thing. Still it was a good game, he had got me down to twelve. Second game wasn’t so good. He couldn’t find green mana and for the second time that day I end a game at 20 life.

I think this was my first draft with Shards of Alara and I end the turny with a 3-0 recorded not losing a single game. I got six packs for first and was told that wizco had not sent the foily FNM cards or had sent the wrong ones or some thing. But they would be sure and give me one at a later date. We’ll see. RMS took fifth, got one pack and the random foily which may or may not be given to us at a later date. I’m kind of glad I did not have to face him, the one game I saw he had four exalted dudes in play by the third turn and was swinging for five.

[redshirt]

Cool report!!!

I guess ive been out of Magic longer than I thought, cuz I had to think about some of the stuff you were talking about! ;D

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

booster draft with about 16 players

Wow! I thought you said nobody ever showed up at Valhalla's for tournaments. Maybe that was just for Type I?

(blue, black & red)

The best colors of any limited format, of course. (And, here comes ig to correct me...)

-decklist-

Great googly moogly! Has a nastier draft deck ever been assembled?! You must have cheated! Seriously, that is a pile of pure distilled evil in Magic card form. Nice work. That Spike is truly awesome, and while I imagine that I would probably have reacted the same way you did upon seeing the Ultimatum (something along the lines of "zomg, yes please!") I'm not sure it really belongs in the deck.

(I had actually begun writing about the ultimatum, arguing about why you prolly shouldn't have played it. But while thinking about it, I decided I was wrong. Nice card, and prolly actually better in limited than constructed.)

The bulk of your deck is removal, and even your "chumps" don't suck. I like that battlemage, especially.

First round:

Skeletonize looks really really cool! And you exploited his skel the way you should have--make it a liability. Cause you know he's gonna keep regenerating it--in fact, he has to, otherwise you start pinging him.

I then had to remind him that regeneration taps the creature

And yet you feared playing this guy? Jesus, I need to start playing again. (No, not really.)

that one guy could have built a mono red deck, no way it could be good

Foreshadowing!

I’m thinking wow, he won first round....So now I have got to deal with a 16/13 with first strike.

And that answers that question.

He was in green, white and blue and was playing the tempo game.

I always tried to stay away from that kind of deck in limited, since it never seemed to do anything but find a way to lose. I've seen that style deck used to good effect (Adam, who was just too goddam good at Magic), but I could never do it. My question is, did the kid actually draft that tempo deck with a plan in mind, or did he just sort of take what he was given? I ask because you say he's inexperienced, but also say that he didn't make too many mistakes.

This was the only game I cast ultimatum and I had all ready stabilized so it was a win more type of thing

Shame on you! You know why you shouldn't have cast Ultimatum at that time, and I know why you did. I would have, too...

But they would be sure and give me [the foily] at a later date.

Yeah, don't hold your breath.

the one game I saw [RMS] had four exalted dudes in play by the third turn and was swinging for five.

I had to read exalted four frickin' times before I figured out how he was swinging for five. I been away too, too long. (I feel your pain, redshirt...)

Awesome report! Thank you for taking the time to write this for us! Also, more importantly, thanks for the links to all the cards, since I had absolutely no idea what any of them did (except for O Ring, but I wasn't sure...).

Reading this almost makes me want to get back into Magic. Almost...

But I wouldn't mind doing a draft just amongst us friends sometime...

[rmsgamer]

I'll attempt to try this report - no promises that mine will be as good as either ixos or ig, but here goes...

I was sitting in the other pod. My first pack that I opened had an Elspeth, Knight-Errant, so that pretty much set the tone for my deck(as far as white being a primary color). I don't think many others at my table were pulling white because it kept getting passed to me. I ended up going with an 'exalted' theme. Mostly white splashed with blue.

Unfortunately, I don't remember much about what my opponents were playing. I don't have much of a photographic memory.

This is what I put in my deck:

1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

5x Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
4x Akrasan Squire
2x Guardians of Akrasa
2x Outrider of Jhess
(that was the exalted part - the rest was support/fluff)

1x Welkin Guide
3x Gustrider Exuberant
2x Deft Duelist
(creatures that could exploit the exalted bonus)

1x Knight of the Skyward Eye
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Excommunicate
1x Soul's Grace

10x Plains
7x Island


First round: This was against the fellow that eventually took 2nd place. He was running in at least 4 colors. The first game I came out strong and started pounding him while he sat and tried to build his mana base until he started puking out fatties. After about the fourth or fifth turn I started to stall out on land. I pulled about 5 in a row. He won that one. Second turn started out the same way but ended with me winning. Third turn...same as the first - several land in a row again. Loss: 1-2.

Disgusted with getting mana flooded in the first round, I swapped out an Island for another creature. I chose Rockcaster Platoon which would also give me a fatty in the late game.

Second round: A newer player from Fulton. He had about a 3-color deck. Each match was fairly quick and this round ended in a 2-1 victory for me. The swap worked, I never got flooded. One of the matches I won with only 4 land. I got Elspeth out twice against this guy and then the word was out.

Third round: Another of the Fulton crew(3 total). Same thing with this guy as with his buddy. This is the one that Chris elaborated on in his thread:
I won the roll/chose to play first.
1. Plains, Squire.
2. Plains, Sorcerer, swing with a Squire for 2.
3. Plains, Sorcerer, Squire, swing with a Squire for 5.
It was pretty much over with then.

If it wasn't for the flooding in the first round I could have had a better standing than 5th. But I sure enjoyed myself anyway.

Looking at my cards again while writing this I discovered the worth of another card that I had overlooked that day. I had 2x Sunseed Nurturer. I didn't realize at the time that the exalted bonus lasts until the end of turn AND it gives a generic mana. Oh, well. Maybe I'll pay a little closer attention the next time.

Sorry I didn't have many details, I hope it wasn't too much of a waste of your time having to sit and read it.

[ig2000]

Thanks guys, I’m not that confident with my writing skills and your response means a lot to me. I’ll try and take notes and write more reports in the future.

Ixos wrote:

stuff about ultimatum...

I had read your post earlier today and I think I pretty much agreed with you. Then tonight when I was getting ready to write this I started thinking about it.... I don't think there is a bad time to cast ultimatum. This thing is pure card advantage, the ten point life swing is just fluff. The only life point that maters is the last one, right? Now how big the card advantage gap is, that maters a lot. Let me know what you were thinking about this.

@rms
Thanks for adding yours. I really think this could help us get better. Ixos always wrote reports in the past but I thought it was just because he liked words and stuff and putting them in order and stuff. I had not planed to do it myself but I can all ready see how it is making me look at the event in a new way. I think this is the first draft deck I have been able to name card for card (well almost, I was laying in bed Friday night and I keep coming up one short, still not sure which one it was.)

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Thanks for the report RMS! Don't worry, it wasn't a waste of time to read!

decklist

Now, I normally don't like white in limited, but damn, that looks pretty strong! While thinking about the exalted strategy, I kept thinking, "well, one regenerating chump pretty much ends the game..." Not so fast, tough guy! There's like 20 critters in that deck! You got that much removal? You got that many blockers? Didn't think so. Swing with a fatty early, and then swing with the weenies late. I agree that you prolly had too much land--well, you obviously had too much since your deck worked better with one less (and a fatty added in--21 critters!). I just wonder if you had any half decent green stuff; a couple of your creatures had green activated abilities, so you might have been better off adding a couple green critters/spells and some forests. Then again, that would probably have diluted the deck away from what you wanted it to do.

I didn't realize at the time that the exalted bonus lasts until the end of turn

Neither did I. I at first thought of exalted as kind of a lame ability, but it keeps looking less and less lame. And you proved that a deck can be drafted to exploit it...

I can't remember how the planeswalker mechanic works, but yeah, Elspeth. Makin weenies, and makin em immortal! Awwww, yeah!

@ig--You shouldn't have cast Ultimatum when you did since you were already winning. You said yourself it was win more. It was your first game against him, so you shouldn't have let him know that you had a bomb in your deck. If you needed it to win, yes, of course, play it. Otherwise, you should keep it secret. Of course, I would have cast it, too, just to cast it. Cause it's big, it's awesome, and I would have wanted to cast it.

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Ixos always wrote reports in the past but I thought it was just because he liked words and stuff and putting them in order and stuff

Well, that too.

[rmsgamer]

Swing with a fatty early, and then swing with the weenies late.

In one match I did just that, now that you mention it. I kept swingin' with the one dude until I had just enough critters to swing with everyone for the kill. His life was low enough and I had that many more coming than he had to stop them.

[ig2000]

@ Ixos,
Thought you might like this fan-alt-art-drain. ;D
This one is by cardkitty, check out more alts here!


Edit-
Just realized this one is on the bay! Two days left, it's at $51.

[redshirt]

Stupid Murlock's

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

BGRRRLGLGLGLGLGL!!