The first time I played a draft, I came in last (or tied with those who came in last). I didn’t like that, but I enjoyed the experience of the draft. I didn’t get any good cards and I definitely get my money’s worth out of the cards!
I jumped online and read several articles on drafting and how to win in Shadowmoor. Some of these suggested going for bombs only while others said I should go with removal. Still others said evasion was best and some said to take your first couple of rare’s and follow their color lead.
I took this advice and did a little of everything! Last night, I came in 2nd place and I got the most money out of my packs! Here is how it happened!
My first pack was INCREDIBLE. I wish I could have just played the entire pack. I drafted Dusk Urchins because of the card advantage that is so important in limited. He is a 4/3 for 3 and states: Whenever Dusk Urchins attacks or blocks, put a -1/-1 counter on it. When Dusk Urchins is put into a graveyard from play, draw a card for each -1/-1 counter on it.
So, I can throw him down on turn 3, attack for 4 & then 4 the next turn & block once then I draw 3 cards when he goes to the grave! Awesome card! So I knew I would be involved with black this game. The next pack I was passed was full of blue/white & green & red. Not much black for me to chose from so I just took some common. Same thing with the third deck, but I hate drafted a fox fire oak because I hate playing against them. About half way through this draft, I started to pick up that not may people were touching blue/black or black. There were always black uncommons left in the draft! I drafted 2 Faerie Macrabes which provided some evasion and a chance to break a cycle or two. Then, in the last 5 cards, there it was… Corrupt! Corrupt takes 6 mana (5 colorless and 1 black) to deal damage equal to the number of swamps you control to target player or creature & I gain that much life! I took it immediately! I knew that this was going to be a good draft. Corrupt is incredible in this format! I couldn’t believe I had it & it was among the last cards. I was playing against some GREAT players so I knew they knew it was a good card & I just figured they weren’t in that color. So, that sent me to mono black in the rest of the draft. I picked up a few Ashenmoor Cohorts which get +1/+1 when I control another black creature making it a 5/4 for 6 (not great, but not bad) & I nabbed 3 Gravelgill Axesharks which have presist (after it dies, it comes back with a -1/-1 counter on it) and are 3/3’s for 5 mana (which is GREAT because of persist!). I only used 2 in the deck, but it made a BIG difference in game play. Other heroes to mention: Blowfly Infestations, Disturbing Plot, Loch Korrigan, Smolder Initiate, Fate Transfer, Sootwalkers, Tyrannize, Spiteflame Witch, Sootstoke Kindler, & Poison the Well.
Here is how I won some games! (Finally!)
Dusk Urchins + Disturbing Plot + Blowfly Infestation + Fate Transfer = FRUSTRATION!!
Ok, turn 3, I play Dusk Urchins, Turn 4, Blowfly & attack with Dusk Urchins. Turn 5, Save Mana & Attack with Dusk Urchins. Their Turn 5, Blocked with Dusk Urchins, but before damage resolves, Fate Transfer Counter onto another (non attacking creature) killing it, sending it to the grave. Blowfly activated & I put a -1/-1 counter on his attacker, knocking him off and dealing no damage to my Dusk Urchin. Since he blocked he also gets a -1/-1. Turn 7, attack with Dusk Urchin, Turn 8, Attack with Dusk Urchin, he goes to the grave, blowfly activates, -1/-1 counter goes onto his 3/2 making it a 2/1. I draw 3 cards (for the 3 -1/-1 counters on DU) I tap mana and use Disturbing Plot to revive Dusk Urchin back into my hand. He attacks for 2, I block with my 1/1, killing his 2/1. Blowfly activates and I place a -1/-1 counter on his other 1/1. My 1/1 dies. The board is cleared! Turn 9, I play the Dusk Urchin. He plays a 1/1 w/haste & attacks. My DU takes a Counter & blocks. Turn 10, I attack with Dusk Urchin & he takes 3. He drops a 3/3 creature. Turn 11, I Fate Transfer from dusk Urchins to his big creature, making it a 1/1 & I attack with DU. He takes the damage. Turn 12, he drops 2 creatures and attacks with his 1/1. & I take the hit. He has two 2/2 creatures out with abilities of somesort. By this point in the game, I’ve played 2 creatures, 2 instants, 1 sorcery & 1 enchantment. I’m holding a crap load of great stuff and just frustrating him with my DU combo! His life total was around 7 or something & I was sitting in the high teens. The next few turns I just played Ashenmoor Cohorts & some smaller creatures. I don’t block any of his attacks which aggravates him, but I’m holding Corrupt & I want to make sure it doesn’t get countered. Then… he taps ALL of his mana and plays 2 more creatures. He thinks we are in a creature race, but I was just waiting to see all of his mana tapped. Next turn, Corrupt. I win!!!!
SWAMPS + CORRUPT & Great Timing = SURPRISE!!! I WIN!
I was on the draw & my hand had a 1/1 haste, Corrupt, & 5 Swamps! LOL. I knew this was my only Corrupt and I knew that I would have a GREAT chance of drawing more and more creatures every time and I would be able to play mana 5 turns straight. If this was constructed, I’d mulligan. Turn 1, swamp, T2, Swamp, T3, Swamp & my 1/1 Hate. I’m drew 2 more swamp and Ashenmoor Cohort. Interesting… he is loading the board with creatures, elves and such. He hits me for about 4 and I’m down to 16. Turn 5, I draw Faerie Macrabe and play her. Turn 6, Ashenmoor. He stops attacking. Turn 7, Faerie Mac #2 & he plays an enchantment that makes each player draw 2 every turn and that player loses 2 life… Turn 8, Gravelgill Axeshark, Turn 9 (still dropping lands) I play Blowfly & another Ashenmoor. Those guys are 5/4s! I’m down to 10 life. I swing with everything I’ve got. He chump blocks and burns a few of them. When all is said and done, I have Gravelgill & a Faerie & an Ashenmoor left. Half my guys died. He is at 14 life. On his turn, he swings with his remaining guys. I fate transfer a counter and take 4 damage. I’m at 6. I draw 2 & now I’m at 4!!! He was tapped out. I have 12 swamps and I’m holding corrupt. I could take him down to 2 but he hand enough blockers to chump block and attack me. But then I remember his enchantment!! If I could deal 10 damage to him now, he would kill himself when he drew 2 cards!!! This was hysterical to me. I decided to swing away first and he played a few instants, tapped his mana out & killed off most my guys and he says, “That’s game. I’ve won. You can’t do anything and If I attack the next turn I can do enough damage to kill you.” Then I said, “But I haven’t said ‘end of turn’. It is still my turn.” He said, “Well, OK. Enjoy it while it lasts.” I organized the board, my library, my graveyard… then as I was “organizing” my swamps… thinking “hard” about how to get out of this mess… I smirked, tapped 6 of them and tossed corrupt in the middle of the table. You should have seen his face!! It was priceless! The “new guy” beat him! No way! He just kept staring at the card. I said, “Good game” & he said, “But I still have two life left!” Then I took my corrupt and replaced it with his enchantment that he played earlier. “You die at the beginning of your own turn.” This was my best game ever!
2-0
Poison the Well Early = Demoralizing Victory!
Game 1, I’m on the draw. Opponent mulligans to 6. Plays a Mountain. I drew Corrupt again with Poison the Well and a few 2 & 3 drops. I lay a swamp and drop my only 1 drop with haste and I hit for 1. He drops a Mountain and looks frustrated. Turn 2, I lay a 2 drop. Turn 3 he lays a 1 drop. This tells me that he doesn’t have much to play until he gets more mana out there. He has 2 mountains and a forest. The card he played was a green 1 drop with a forest cost to activate a pumping ability. Turn 3 I drop another 2 drop and swing with what I have. He takes the damage. Turn 4, he DROPS NO Land and plays a 1 drop. Turn 4 for me, I Poison his Well! He looked at me and said, “No way!” He starts to removed a tapped Mountian and I said, wait, “Remove the Forest!” With no other land in sight and only green creatures in hand, he scoops!
I lose the next game due to a massive amount of creatures he draws and I get mana starved on turn 4!
Next game is a LONG one. In short, it was a creature battle while I was holding corrupt since the second draw. He kept pinging me down to 12 with that stupid Power of Fire enchantment! Tap to deal 1 damage to player or creature! His creature has a “Pay mana to untap & pump +3/+3″ type of ability so my 2/2’s he is killing with that stupid power of fire! In late game, I have 2 Ashenmoor Cohorts out, 2 Gavelgill Axesharks (one with a persist -1/-1 counter on it), 2 Faerie Macrabes, 1 Sootwalker and a few little guys. He had “Howled” so he has 4, 2/2 wolf tokens in play, Grief Tyrant, the Power of Fire pinger & a few others in play. We are at a stand still. He plays an card allowing him to draw more cards and looks happy, but is tapped out from pinging me and playing the card draw ability. My turn… Tyrannize. Now he has to discard that hand that he was so happy with or take 7 life. He takes the damage! I have him down to 8. I’m at 13, but falling fast to a pinger. I need 1 more swamp to kill him with Corrupt that I’ve been holding onto the entire game! I draw Fate Transfer. I was thinking about FTing off of his Grief Tyrant onto some of the tokens, but I have to move all 4 counters to one guy & that would make his 4/4 GT and 8/8. Then, I saw that he was tapped out! I FT’d a -1/-1 counter onto his 1/1 pinger with the enchantment and pump ability! It dies! Finally! End of Turn. He knows I have Corrupt. He is counting on me making a play mistake. He attacks with Grief Tyrant & another 2/2 artifact, hoping I block, sending them to the grave and then he gets to put -1/-1 tokens on all of my guys! I took the damage! I was down to 7 and he was at 8. The next card I drew… Swamp! I laid the swamp, he sighed, and I played corrupt. Great Game.
4 – 1
In the final, I lost BADLY on turn 5 both games!! The deck was evasion and control. I would play a card, he would enchant or control it, then enchant his creature with Steel of the Godhead making it unblockable and giving his blue/white creature +2/+2 and he would swing for 9. Next turn, he swings for 9 and I conceded. That happened two games in a row and took 20 minutes max!! LOL. He had the perfect answer to my creature heavy, corrupt deck.
So, I went 4 -3 overall in games and was 2 – 1 in the matches placing 2nd in the overall! I got packs for the first time ever!
Draft is a lot more fun when you WIN a few games!
Thanks for reading!
