Draft of a Gamer: Red/Green skies

I am still enjoying the Dragons of Tarkir draft format, though soon enough Magic: Origins will be upon us to deliver a new set of drafting challenges. This draft report comes from Magic Online, where I joined the Swiss queue, now known as ‘packe per win’.

Pack 1, pick 1: Harbinger of the Hunt

This card has the potential to control the battlefield and generally dominate, so I found this an easy first pick, passing a couple of okay blue and black cards, and not much else. This was followed by a pick 2 Savage Ventmaw and a pick 3 Scion of Ugin. The flying deck was go!

The deck: green/red skies

Sounds like a contradiction in terms, and in any other set it would be, but this… is… TARKIR! I ended the draft with six dragons in my deck, which included reaching into black for Boltwing Marauder. The top end of the deck was a little heavy – okay a LOT heavy. But the theme’s the thing.

The result: 2-1

Match 1 was a fairly swift 0-2 loss. The first game was close, and my opponent swung it thanks to double-striking attackers from Berserkers’ Onslaught. The second game saw me stumble on mana (with 18 lands!) and never catch up. When you are behind and your opponent has even a couple of removal spells, it gets brutal quickly.

Match 2 was a fairly swift 2-0 win to me. My opponent’s green/white deck had some good plays, but it was ground-bound and could not cope with a second dragon. In each game Scion of Ugin got through for the win.

Match 3 was also quite swift. In game 1 I reached 6 mana on time and cast Savage Ventmaw using my one mountain. After attacking in the next turn, I cast Shockmaw Dragon using the free mana from the Ventmaw. Boltwing Marauder followed and that was that.

In the second game my opponent stumbled on mana while I reached five mana on turn 5 and cast Boltwing Marauder, attaching Stormrider Rig to it. The next turn, I cast two cheap creatures and hit for 10, putting my opponent to 8 and leaving me with both Scion of Ugin and Savage Ventmaw in hand. Turn 7 saw me cast Scion of Ugin and swing for the remaining 8 damage.

So I felt kind of vindicated for sticking with me theme. Naturally the Harbinger of the Hunt that started it all was not seen by me in any of the six games!

Best cards: Boltwing Maraduer, Scion of Ugin, Savage Ventmaw.

I have to give it up for these three dragons, which combined to give me my wins. Scion of Ugin was good and came to my hand regularly enough to make a difference. Boltwing Marauder took over every game it appeared in, while Savage Ventmaw allowed me to cast another dragon and leave mana up for a combat trick.

Lessons learned

It’s all about having fun with the game. This was not a Spike’s draft. The deck was okay, but from a competitive point of view it had been twisted to meet a theme that wouldn’t kick in before turn 5. I had even stretched to a third colour to support the theme, and my only fixing was a monument! That didn’t matter to me, I had fun drafting the deck, and the games were all enjoyable. That is what matters.

Deck list (sorted by converted mana cost -CMC- with lands last)

CMC 1: Servant of the Scale

CMC 2: Kolaghan Aspirant, Stormrider Rig, Tread Upon, Whisperer of the Wilds

CMC 3: Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Dragon-Scarred Bear, 2x Frontier Mastodon, Kolaghan Monument, Screamreach Brawler

CMC 4: Aerie Bowmasters, Sabretooth Outrider, Summit Prowler

CMC 5: Boltwing Marauder, Harbinger of the Hunt, Pinion Feast, Reach of Shadows

CMC 6: 2x Savage Ventmaw, Scion of Ugin, Shockmaw Dragon

Lands: 8 Mountain, 7 Forest, 3 Swamp