Friday Night Magic - Ravnica block draft - September 1, 2006

Before we started drafting I was trying to remember my Ravnica block draft strategy. I usually like to go red if it's open because that sets you up to either go Izzet in Guildpact or to splash black and set up Rakdos in Dissension. I opened Sunforger in the first pack so that reinforced my strategy.

I got passed more Ravnica red so I was feeling pretty good after the first pack, but the Guildpact didn't give me as much good Orzhov as I'd hoped. Dissension didn't seem much better although everyone kept passing me Freewind Equenauts. I know it's a 2/2 for three but it flies, which is even better when carrying a big hammer. I was also getting nervous about my manabase in Guildpact after passing multiple Terrarions but fortunately I got a 15th(!) pick Basilica and a late Orzhov Signet.


So my RW/BWR/BWR strategy worked out this way:

Creatures (15)
--------------
1 Azorius Guildmage
1 Beacon Hawk
1 Blind Hunter
1 Demon's Jester
1 Droning Bureaucrats
4 Freewind Equenaut
1 Order of the Stars
1 Ostiary Thrull
1 Sewerdreg
1 Souls of the Faultless
1 Viashino Fangtail
1 Wojek Embermage (my 2nd or 3rd pick)

Spells (5)
---------
1 Brainspoil
1 Castigate
1 Douse in Gloom
1 Pyromantics
1 Wrecking Ball (a valid Sunforger target, yay!)

Artifacts (2)
------------
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sunforger

Enchantments (2)
-----------------
1 Galvanic Arc
1 Seal of Doom

Land (16)
---------
2 Boros Garrison
4 Mountain
2 Orzhov Basilica
4 Plains
4 Swamp

Sideboard (used)
----------------
1 Absolver Thrull (a relatively cheap 3/1 which I brought in against faster decks)
1 Sadistic Augermage (anti-enchantment)

I joked that my deck didn't have a mana curve so much as a plateau. I have one one drop (and it's a wall that I'll often hold in game one to see what colors they're playing) but I did rework it after my first cut to get more into the two slot. I wish I could have found more Sunforger targets but +4/+0 by itself is good, especially on a flyer. And I had plenty of those.

Round 1 - Cal (unknown last name but big fuzzy pink hat) - RG weenie

Cal was joking through the entire draft that he was ignoring mana fixing and going strictly for grizzly bears. You know, two drops for a converted mana cost of two. Turns out he wasn't joking. He started off with a creature on turn two and started swinging, but then I found my defense. Order of the Stars shut off his red cards (and, I hoped, his removal). Then I started finding flyers. Then the Bureaucrat, which is almost game over for him because most of his deck has the same cmc. Azorius Guildmage sealed the deal.

He was stunned that I was actually playing walls but let me say that Order of the Stars is quite good, especially in a format with so many gold spells and creatures.

Game two was more of the same except I also found Souls of the Faultless. I took damage early and then locked him down and swung over with flyers and pings from the Fangtail.

Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0

Round 2 - Michael House - RGw

Michael and I had a standoff for awhile, playing land-go and then playing similar creatures. Eventually the Guildmage came out and I was able to tap his flyers (or green creatures which blocked flyers) and swing. One fun note: he played a Silhana Starfletcher (the 1/3 guy which produces mana and can block flyers) and named red. I took out the little slip of paper from the first match where I had written "red" (for the Order) and dropped it on the Starfletcher. Michael was quite surprised.

I played a Wojek Embermage relatively early and he had a lot of x/1 creatures which I kept killing. As game one started to turn he shook his head and said, "I haven't played anyone of your...uh, skill in awhile. Certainly no-one of your age." I think he meant experience rather than an old man crack but I still got a chuckle out of it.

Game two he got a slower start, which was very good for me because I was stuck on two land until at least turn six or seven. When I finally found land the flyers and the removal started coming out. I also cast a well-timed Castigate revealing a land, Valor Made Real and Stalking Vengeance. A 5/5 haste which hurts me when creatures die, yikes! He got removed and my flyers and red Timmy's did the rest.

I found out after the match that he was playing 20 land, two signets and two bounce lands. I suggested he go down to 16 land after game one. I guess he won the next round because I know Joel beat him in round 4 in the 2-1 slot.

Matches: 2-0
Games: 4-0

Round 3 - Jesus Molina - BRG

Jesus keeps crushing me in constructed so I wasn't too happy to see him sit down across the table from me, other than the fact that he is a very nice guy. He was 1-0-1 after just drawing with Peter (and knowing that Peter would have beaten him given more time) and wasn't too sure about his deck.

Game one he and I both played land-go, then I found a cheap creature, removal and Sunforger. I also found the Guildmage to tap his remaining creature so the Sunforger'ed dude could get through.

Game two was very back and forth. He got an early creature rush and I was down to 10 before I knew it. Then I started hitting the top of my mana plateau and playing creatures. I found a Equenaut and equipped it and started swinging for 6. He played a Goliath Spider but I unequipped a creature and found Wrecking Ball for the spider. He went from 24 life to zero in, well, four turns. He got me down to four and I was waiting for Cackling Flames or Demonfire but fortunately if he had them, he didn't find them.

Matches: 3-0
Games: 6-0

Round 4 - Ben Watson (aka Mr. Owling Mine) - URB

Ben usually plays some variety of UR in constructed. The last time we played he beat my slow BRW control deck (which is designed around drawing cards) with a UR variant that still plays Sudden Impact.

He thought my tiebreakers were better and wanted to intentionally draw, thus giving me first and him second as we were the only 3-0's. I was getting tired and figured what the heck so I agreed. We still played it out for fun.

Game one I found plenty of removal and Sunforger and hit him pretty quickly. I was starting to regret the whole draw thing.

Game two took awhile and I could tell I was getting tired because I kept making stupid mistakes with bounce land timing. He killed two of my creatures with a replicated Last Gasp (via Izzet Guildmage), which was also dumb because I could have killed the Guildmage earlier with Douse in Gloom. I let it live because I'd never seen it actually be a threat before. Eventually he got three enchantments on his Flaring Flame-Kin and I couldn't kill it.

I couldn't find quite as many creatures as game two but I found good ones, especially against his deck. I had dropped Sunforger on turn three and kept finding flyers and then a Sewerdreg but he managed to kill them before I could swing with the Forger. He ended the game with six but I had zero. So I guess that draw was a good idea after all, although I think I could have won the match with better use of my removal and tighter play.

Matches: 3-0-1
Games: (unofficially) 7-2

I wound up second because every one of my prior opponents lost in the last round, but that was fine with me. I was pretty tired at the end of the night and 3-1 would have dropped me farther down than second.

I'm definitely liking the red in Ravnica strategy. Cal's experience (he finished 2-2) also reinforced my thinking that going with fast, cheap creatures usually doesn't work in draft or limited unless you somehow also get a lot of burn or other removal. You run out of cards too quickly and lose when your opponent starts casting beef.