Draft of a Gamer: drifting back to Sultai

Friday night is draft night again! There was the minor issue of a cyclone sending large amounts of rain my way, but luckily nature has respect for the draft. The rain slacked down when it was time for to drive both to and from the draft. Thanks, nature!

Pack 1, Pick 1: Silumgar, the Drifting Death

I chose this legendary dragon over a foil Kolaghan and began looking out for Sultai cards. I was disappointed in having many packs with multiple quality picks.

What threw me was opening Duneblast in Pack 3. I mean, I had to take it; splashing white for Duneblast seemed like a good plan. I was passed two common duals providing white plus one of my colours; I took them gladly.

The deck: Sultai splashing white

Duneblast ended up being my only white card. I went with three white mana sources, reasoning that I would not need one before turn seven. Two duals and an Abzan Banner, the first banner I have played.

The rest of the deck was a nice Sultai blend, with early Typhoid Rats and Sutlai Emissary to hold the ground. I’d been passed Rattleclaw Mystic, a card which either ate removal or sped me along, either was fine. I had a couple of other flyers to go along with Silumgar, no other dragons though.

Regardless I was happy enough with my mix of creatures and spells, and felt confident enough that I had a deck capable of winning.

The result: 2-1 and third place

My confidence was removed in the first match, which I lost 2-0 to a nice Canadian called Joe. My early drops turned into chump blockers which died, but the time it took me to stabilise was never enough to build back from. After match 1, I removed a Rakshasa’s Secret from the deck and added a 17th land. Hey, sometimes 16 is enough. Not this time, though.

Match 2 went better for me, my opponent had some good cards, but ultimately was trying to play with two-thirds of a Temur deck. The only time I was staring defeat I cast Dead Drop to remove his two creatures before winning with my flyers. Turns out, Swarm of Bloodflies is great when you are killing things.

The third match was make or break in my eyes. Would it be 1-2 or 2-1 for the evening? My opponent had what turned out to be an awesome manifest deck. I gained a new level of respect for Mastery of the Unseen. After losing game 1 to an army of manfests I dug deep and pulled out the second game thanks to a top decked Dead Drop.

Game three went all my way as my early creatures got to attack, Jeskai Elder filtered the good stuff into my hand, and Silumgar came down, received a counter from Map the Wastes, and proceeded to take the game. Success, but I felt I could have done better.

Best cards: Silumgar, the Drifting Death and Dead Drop

No two cards had more effect on my games than these two. Dead Drop saved me in two of my games. The top deck in my third match saved the draft for me. Swarm of Bloodflies gets there through synergy; my two best cards kill, and the swarm just gets bigger.

Fun fact: that Duneblast I spread my mana base for did not come into my hand in any of the seven games I played. So it goes.

Lessons learned: Where to start? Some cards are better than I give them credit for. I don’t need to give up, and Delve is still awesome. Actually I think my main lesson tonight is that I am a better drafter than I am a player. I need to improve the quality of my play to do my decks justice. Easier said than done.