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.