9/27 SSE Draft #1

This is a 4-3-2-2 SSE Draft

Pack 1 pick 1:







Biting Tether is fantastic and splashable. I like Plumeveil a lot, but Tether is the pick. Nothing else in the pack comes close.

Pack 1 pick 2:







Clearly this pack had a money rare, as Blights are pack-one windmill slams with their tendency to 3:1 an opponent's early curve-out. I want to play the Tethers so my mentality is now BU or BXu.

Pack 1 pick 3:






This was a mistake. I got caught up on "BU" in my head and passed along a fourth-pick Burn Trail for my neighbor. In my in-the-moment thinking I was sending a signal to my neighbor to go red and ship me lots of UB in pack two, but that's not the right play. It's only the third pick, and the Tethers is totally splashable, so take the clear best card in BT and stay flexible about what this deck is for right now.


Pack 1 pick 4:







I went down to the wire on this pick. The Scuttlemutt is a fine, neutral-but-powerful card, but I take the Gouger almost for how sick it will make me to pass it as much as for how it might fit into my deck. Plus I'm mad, now wishing I had taken the BT last pick, so I decide to take it and make my deck heavy-B despite that flying in the face of my second pick.


Pack 1 pick 5:





Scar is the black pick here, and I feel the Flow from P1P1 will table in case I do head hard into U for some reason.

Pack 1 pick 6:






Argh! Another Mutt! I so want it, but here's the thing: Beseech in the deck that's coming together here is like a second chance at pulling Blight, and I have to take that over the Mutt.

Pack 1 pick 7:






What? I can't explain myself very well here, although I do think the Wildslayer Elves are totally underrated. I was basically cutting a card because I didn't see myself running the Pili-Pala or the witch, but either of those would be a better pick, here. And the Blight-proof Morselhoarder would have been a better card to cut anyway.

Pack 1 pick 8:





I thought the Presence of Gond after passing the Pili-Pala was funny. The flask could go with the Flow I expect to see come back.

Pack 1 pick 9:





If I can pick up a second flask along the way, I will play this.

Pack 1 pick 10:






Meh. I would hate playing this slightly less than playing a Scrapbasket.

Pack 1 pick 11:







Pack 1 pick 12:








Pack 1 pick 13:








Pack 1 pick 14:








Pack 1 pick 15:








Pack 2 pick 1:





I almost took the rare for a lack of anything exciting in black, but I still want to play the Tether, so I can play the Curse of Chains too.



Pack 2 pick 2:





More nothing for black. I still don't trust the Lurebound so I pass it, but maybe it's the pick here. Still, Bowfly can be crazy, turning 3:1 Blights into 5:2s.


Pack 2 pick 3:




This is the pick where I realize it has all gone horribly wrong. I'm in monoblack, arguably the worst "mono" color to go, only justified by Blight, and I'm not getting *any* exciting black despite cutting the color pretty hard in pack one. Oh wait, that's because there's hardly any exciting black at common in Shadowmoor. Instead of taking something that might grudgingly make my deck, I cut something I'm afraid of. See a pattern forming?


Pack 2 pick 4:





You know your black deck isn't coming together well when seeing a Sickle Ripper P2P4 gets you excited.

Pack 2 pick 5:





God black is awful in Shadowmoor! I think they deliberately nerfed it because of Incremental Blight.


Pack 2 pick 6:





Wisps may be safer here, but I have Tethers, and thought I might be able to pick up a Hatchling or something in EVE to give it some other jobs. Since it only cost me a Wisp, I took it.


Pack 2 pick 7:




Great. We're really just rolling in playables right now. :(


Pack 2 pick 8:




I don't know. Another bad pick. I just hate the RB duo because it takes casting a black spell just to make it a bear! But, with my lack of bodies, it was time to suck it up and draft the piece of crap, because I have terrible men and no real way to win other than Blighting them so badly that anything will do.



Pack 2 pick 9:




Whatever.


Pack 2 pick 10:






Great. Top-quality removal.


Pack 2 pick 11:





A body! Sweet Jebus be praised!


Pack 2 pick 12:




Good with Bowfly and Blight, happy to take it here.


Pack 2 pick 13:





Please don't tell me I have to play this.

Pack 2 pick 14:







Pack 2 pick 15:








Pack 3 pick 1:

[Ashling, the Extinguisher]


Pick:
[Ashling, the Extinguisher]

I hate passing the Soul Reap, but this is about the best pick I could ask for this side of an on-color demigod. It's a legit bomb that can actually reduce my opponent's life total from 20 to 0.


Pack 3 pick 2:





Seems like a good reason to play the Fate Transfer.


Pack 3 pick 3:





With nothing but a Fang Skulkin here for me, which I think will table, I cut the Bliss. Again, not a bad play in the abstract, but I'm so low on playables that it's bad news for this draft.

Pack 3 pick 4:




Sigh, pass the Bandit to the lucky guy in red and take something I can cast.


Pack 3 pick 5:




A fine pick for me at this point.


Pack 3 pick 6:




I need cards like the Hag in this deck, but I can't pass up the removal.


Pack 3 pick 7:





Love the Trow. The perfect amount of synergistic goodness tacked on to make me happy to play a 2/2 for 3.


Pack 3 pick 8:






Kinda sad.

Pack 3 pick 9:







Pack 3 pick 10:





A playable man, I'll take it.


Pack 3 pick 11:





The Cinder might actually be a bigger threat to messing with my game plan than the Pyromancer...


Pack 3 pick 12:





This deck might make good use of a Grace.

Pack 3 pick 13:








Pack 3 pick 14:









Pack 3 pick 15:








Pack 1 picks:






Pack 2 picks:






Pack 3 picks:





So how about this for a horrendous pile? If only that P1P2 pack had had a crappy rare, the guy would have taken the Blight and I would have found my way into a killer RRu deck. Instead, I had a disaster draft that had little going for it past a Blight, Tethers, Ashling, and a Beeseech to fetch one of thoe cards with.

Here's what I scraped together out of my 45 "cards."

1 Scar
1 Smoldering Butcher
1 Curse of Chains
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Biting Tether
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Ashling, the Extinguisher
1 Ashenmoor Gouger
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Incremental Blight
1 Lockjaw Snapper
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Nightsky Mimic
1 Oona's Grace
1 Rendclaw Trow
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Fate Transfer
1 Aphotic Wisps
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Harvest Gwyllion
1 Cankerous Thirst
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Canker Abomination
13 Swamp
4 Island


Relevant Sideboard
1 Whimwader
1 Nip Gwyllion
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Flow of Ideas
1 Raven's Crime
1 Beckon Apparition
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Advice from the Fae
1 Wilderness Hypnotist
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Torpor Dust

I lost in the first to a weak player with a decent red deck with B and G splashes. Game 1 I kept a two-land on the draw with tons of potential including the Blight, but never saw a foruth land, and I couldn't withstand the red onslaught.

Game two he kept a one-land hand on the draw and conceded with two lands in play on turn 5.

Game three I kept a four-lander that wasn't great, but shoudl be OK as long as his start wasn't absolutely blistering. Unfortunately it was blistering, and although I cleared his board on turn five with Blight, I was down to three life. He eventually snuck a couple points through after dumping his hand, and when I had stabilized the boarrd, he finished me off with the RB witch I decided not to take back in the draft.

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