Opening Sigarda

Drafted again on Tuesday!

I feel like the regular 8-4 draft I did last night was a little more exciting because I got to play against someone I think is really good for the first time... and I beat him! n_n

     Anyway, here goes what happened. I first picked Sigarda and knew my colors right away even though I passed really good black cards like Barter in Blood, Marrow Bats and four Death Winds. Sigarda is such an awesome bomb!!! No black removal can get rid of her and the only thing that really can are two rares: Bonfire of the Damned and Terminus. After passing all of the good black cards to the guy on my left he passed me all of the good white and green cards! It was basically perfect. I had enough playables except once again I had Terrifying Presence. I feel like that card is growing on me, but it really shouldn't!

Here's how my deck turned out:

Creatures (16)                         Spells (6)                          Lands (23)
1 Moorland Inquisitor              2 Joint Assault                   8 Forest
2 Nearheath Pilgrim                1 Terrifying Presence          7 Plains
1 Farbog Explorer                    2 Eaten By Spiders              2 Swamp
1 Gloomwidow                        1 Homicidal Seclusion
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Devout Chaplain                   Artifacts (1)
1 Trusted Forcemage                1 Angel's Tomb
1 Seraph of Dawn
1 Midvast Protector
1 Geist Trappers
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Vorstclaw
1 Archangel


     Yeah, it's kind of funny that I splashed black JUST for Homicidal Seclusion, but really it's one of my all-time favorite Avacyn Restored cards. It's just SO GOOD. +3/+1 and LIFELINK! That means I can hold onto all of my cards and play them one at a time! Ha. I really love Devout Chaplains for things like Triumph of Ferocity, Angelic Armaments and Bladed Bracers. My boyfriend doesn't think she's amazing, but she's SO USEFUL. I also love the mana curve of my deck. 16 out of 23 of my cards could be played with three lands or less. Having a fast deck is so important in the slower format of Avacyn Restored.

     My first round opponent is a fairly good player, but in his mind he can never beat me. I don't think I've lost to him, but still that mindset really gives me an advantage. Always believe in yourself and try your best!!! During our first game he played Latch Seeker on turn three which terrified me because I have no removal for that whatsoever. The only thing I could do was race and boy was it a close race!!! Fortunately I managed to continually throw creatures onto the board and ended up with 2 life left when I won the game because of Joint Assault with my Neatheath Pilgrim and Midvast Protector. If I didn't manage to gain some life from bonding with Nearheath Pilgrim I would have been dead in that first game for sure! He really is an amazing card in draft. In the second game Moorland Inquisitor and Trusted Forcemage attacked for 10 on turn 4 with Joint Assault. It only took a few more turns of non stop attacks to finish him off. The match ended very quickly.

     My second round opponent is the player who I think is really good. He's won several thousand from Magic tournaments and used to fly around to play, so he intimidated me. Game 1 I mulliganed to 6 and kept a one land hand... the land was a swamp. Ha. It was so tempting to keep though!!! I had a Nearheath Pilgrim, Moorland Inquisitor, 2 Devout Chaplains, Eaten By Spiders and a Joint Assault. Turn 1 and 2 I did not draw a land, but instead Sigarda and Terrifying Presence... But on turn 3 I played a Plains and got out the Inquisitor. It was a tough game of survival, but I was really mana screwed. I'd block to gain two life and play a creature to bond with the pilgrim again. If I could have gotten my fifth land to play Sigarda I bet would have won... Don't keep one land hands! Especially the splashed color land. Game two I kept the perfect hand and won quickly. Game three was intense! I must have gained at least 40 life in it, it was pretty ridiculous. At first his aggressive deck of two drops were winning until I played a Farbog Explorer. He had two Tandem Lookouts that were bonded to a Wolfir Avenger and a Wandering Wolf. Also, he had Triumph of Ferocity (which I later exiled with Devout Chaplain!!!) out so he was drawing cards like a mad man! He must have drawn at least 10-15 extra cards that game, not exaggerating. Anyway, I was finally able to stabilize with two Nearheath Pilgrims out on the board and slowly chipped away at his life with Seraph of Dawn. At the end of the game he didn't have any fliers and I was stuck with Terrifying Presence and two Eaten By Spiders in my hand, relieved that I finally won.

     Usually after two rounds in an 8-4 draft players split to each get 6 packs. However, my opponent said that it was one of his rare nights off so he wanted to play and bought me a rootbeer to make up for it. I don't really mind playing it out, but I do love free things. He played a WU lifegain deck that I hear is a really popular good archetype for AVR drafts. Although he did gain a lot of life and stalled the game for a long time, his creatures just weren't as good as mine late game, such as my Archangel and Vorstclaw, which I ended up having both out. He had a few Angels, but they weren't big enough to get through to my life very much and I did use my Eaten By Spiders. It was quite tiring to watch him continuously gaining life... especially with the same Cathedral Sanctifier for 12 life. In the second game he was getting out a lot of Angels and making me scared to attack with Archangel until I found an Eaten By Spiders. When I finally attacked he double-blocked her with Goldnight Redeemer and Voice of the Provinces so I used Eaten By Spiders on Goldnight Redeemer before combat damage. Then he played Into the Void on Vorstclaw and Archangel before attacking me with everything and bringing me down to 8. However, I had a Midvast Protector and Homicidal Seclusion out and attacked for 5 lifelink before playing my Angel and a Nearheath Pilgrim bonded. After I won soon after we shook hands and he said that I deserved to win. :)

Earning My Acidic Slime Promo

Hello. I'm back from visiting Spain and experiencing Pro Tour Barcelona!

Anyway, today's blog entry is of my draft for FNM yesterday.

     We had a six man pod and I generally do not like this because I feel like there aren't ever enough cards in one. More packs means more options, right? My first pick was Death Wind for three reasons: 1. my rare was awful, 2. my uncommons were awful, and 3. I really like playing black. I just feel that the people at my LGS are good enough to know it's a bad color and will do their best not to draft it which then leaves me with any good uncommons later in the draft. Second pick for me was an Eaten By Spiders because I love this card. I always maindeck any Eaten By Spiders I get because what deck doesn't want flyers in it? Avacyn Restored doesn't really have a RG aggro draft deck and that's the only deck I can think of now that wouldn't have flyers. Also, Angelic Armaments is always a pain in the butt whenever I encounter one that isn't mine. Later in the first pack I found a Barter in Blood so I was definitely going to try my best to stay in black.

           

     One card I feel like I must have in every draft deck with black in it is Homicidal Seclusion. I cannot rave about this card enough! In fact, I would definitely splash for it whenever I can if I'm playing green with Borderland Rangers and or Abundant Growths. Lucky me, about halfway during the third pack I found a Homicidal Seclusion! I thanked that Magic gods and felt like my deck was complete. In the end, this is what my deck consisted of:

Creatures (17)                   Spells (6)                        Lands (17)
1 Blood Artist                   1 Barter In Blood              7 Forest
1 Borderland Ranger          1 Bone Splinters              10 Swamp
2 Butcher Ghoul               1 Death Wind
2 Driver of the Dead         1 Eaten By Spiders
1 Evernight Shade             1 Homicidal Seclusion
1 Geist Trappers               1 Terrifying Presence
1 Howlgeist
1 Maalfeld Twins
1 Marrow Bats
2 Nettle Swine
1 Nightshade Peddler
1 Renegade Demon
1 Searchlight Geist
1 Yew Spirit

     If Homicidal Seclusion wasn't in my deck, I probably wouldn't like my deck at all. It was a very, very slow deck most of the time. I felt like I wouldn't get any creatures out until turn 4 and by then I would have already taken some damage. My hopes were always to have a creature out turn 4 and play Homicidal Seclusion turn 5. Luckily for me, I was able to curve out pretty often in my deck. Also, I really don't like the card Terrifying Presence. I only have it in my deck because I didn't have enough playables. This is because I hate drafted a lot and also didn't get any sideboard cards. Anyway, I feel like Terrifying Presence is a slightly better Fog, but I would try my best to find a better card. I would take an Abundant Growth over Terrifying Presence any day.

     My first round opponent was playing UR humans. In all three of our games he was able to somehow get his one of Wingcrafter in his opening hands. During game 1 he had paired Wingcrafter with Riot Ringleader while I had Eaten By Spiders in my hand. When he attacked with them I killed his Riot Ringleader before blocking Wingcrafter with my Butcher Ghoul. After that I had more creatures than him and won the race. In game 2 he just crushed me and it was beautiful. Turn 1 Wingcrafter, turn 2 Lightning Mauler (no bond), turn 3 Riot Ringleader (bond) and turn 4 Into the Void. During game 3 I crushed him almost as fast with Butcher Ghoul, Searchlight Geist, Nettle Swine and then my Renegade Demon.

     Round 2 was definitely intense for me. During both games I felt so close to winning until my dreams would be  harshly crushed by Spirit Away. During the first game he had multiple creatures out and stole my lone Renegade Demon with Homicidal Seclusion out. Then in game 2 he Spirited Away my precious Howlgeist with Homicidal Seclusion out. It was a sad game as I tried to stay alive with my Terrifying Presence and hoped to top deck my Eaten By Spiders...

    After losing round 2 I felt defeated and knew I would not place first. To make things worse, I just found out that my round 3 opponent was going to be my boyfriend! At least for the three games we played I was able to play casually, comfortably and on auto-pilot. I won game 1 with Howlgeist and Homicidal Seclusion. During game 2 my boyfriend was able to pair Mist Raven with his Deadeye Navigator so I desperately hoped to draw Eaten By Spiders or Death Wind but did not. Game 3 my boyfriend played Deadeye Navigator on turn 6 and the only creature I had to play was Nettle Swine which I sacrificed to kill Deadeye Navigator with my Bone Splinters. It was such a perfect opportunity and I didn't mind losing my 4/3. After that though I accidentally made an awful play with Barter in Blood while I had Evernight Shade, Geist Trappers and an undead Butcher Ghoul out. He was at 6 and I should have kept my creatures to keep attacking him. Luckily I drew into Homicidal Seclusion the next turn to kill him with my shade.

    

     Round 4 I faced WU humans and the first game was a really fast and intense race. My opponent made an awful mistake turn 5 when he Peeled From Reality his Cathedral Sanctifier instead of his Mist Raven. I was down to four life that game! In game 2 he was mana screwed, stuck on three lands, so I completely crushed him. After all of the rounds, I ended up in 4th place and earned my promo Acidic Slime, which is the main reason I play FNM these days. I just want to collect all of the promos! Even though I didn't really like my draft deck in the beginning, all of my wins made it grow on me. Also, Homicidal Seclusion is really, really, really good.