First ever RTR Draft

Having watched the Pro Tour and a lot of streaming, I knew I liked Green a lot.  Selesnya and Golgari, populate and scavenge, going wide or large, both seemed very appealing to me.  My first few picks were unexciting, so I picked up a pair of Centaur’s Herald’s and a Selesnya charm.  I was seeing some black cards, so I picked them up, but I cut green pretty hard and was rewarded late in pack 2 with a lot of G/W stuff.  I opened a Vraska (and I admit, I was actually tempted by the Call of the Conclave over it.  Glad I didn’t make that mistake!), so I grabbed a Gatecreeper Vine to go with the Golgari Guildgate I already had.  Though I didn’t know it until after my first few matches, my deck turned out insane!

Creatures:

2 Centaur’s Herald

1 Gatecreeper Vine

1 Concordia Pegasus

2 Drudge Beetle

1 Seller of Songbirds

1 Security Blockade

1 Selesnya Sentry

2 Korozda Monitor

1 Eye in the Skies

1 Knightly Valor

1 Coursers’ Accord

1 Slime Molding

1 Risen Sanctuary

Spells:

2 Mana Bloom

2 Druid’s Deliverance

1 Selesnya Charm

1 Common Bond

1 Vraska, the Unseen

7 Plains

9 Forest

1 Golgari Guildgate

Relevant Sideboard:

1 Swift Justice

2 Aerial Predation

1 Gobbling Ooze (vs Stab Wounds)

(The Mana Blooms were Pack 3 something like picks 10 and 11.  While I’d have preferred more Gatecreeper Vines, they provided fine fixing for Vraska, and in one game acted as a fifth land that I desperately needed.  I never did get to accelerate an early 4/5 drop, sadly.)

Round 1 vs Matt G.

Matt was playing a mixture of Selesnya and Azorius.  A lot of decent stuff, all three games were good.  Game 1 I came out swinging curving out with lots of guys and put him on the back foot, and it was enough to take the game.  Game 2 was about the opposite.  I stabilized thanks to Risen Sanctuary, but it was too little too late, and he had a flier. I never dealt him damage and his life total kept climbing thanks to Centaur Healer and a pair of Dramatic Rescue’s. Game 3 was very close, but changed thanks to Aerial Predation, after which I started drawing gas while he drew lands. 

Round 1: Win 2-1

Round 2 vs Dave F.

Dave was very nice, but sadly suffered from some poor luck.  Both games I curved out with Centaur’s Herald into Korozda Monitor, and game 1 he was stuck on two lands.  Game 2 his back-to-back Tenement Crasher’s could have been problematic, but I had Selesnya Charm to seal the deal.

Round 2: Win 2-0

Round 3 vs Sal D.

Sal’s round 2 opponent was raging about him playing turn three Rakdos Keyrune every game, which I dismissed.  Little did I know how problematic it would turn out to be for me!  He was playing a strong midrange Rakdos deck splashing blue, and our games were to the wire every time.

Game 1 he put a Stab Wound on my Korozda Monitor.  I decided to Knightly Valor it, so that I could use it on both offense and defense as a valid threat to kill it faster, but Sal put a second Stab Wound on it!  It turned into a race, trading cards, but I had a board presence and was taking 4 a turn.  It came down to him at 3, me at 6, where any blocker would prove lethal for me, but he didn’t have a way to get two more damage in to kill me. 

Game 2 we exchanged fast and furious blows.  I made a serious misplay, where I excitedly played Vraska, killed his only guy… and he attacked her with his Rakdos Keyrune and Izzet Keyrune.  Oops!  We got each other low, and the board was cluttered, but his guys were much larger and had first strike.  I went into the tank, and formulated a play.  He attacked, and I had no good blocks due to a Rix Maadi Guildmage and plenty of mana, but I had sculpted my hand.  I cast Druid’s Deliverance, which I affectionately refer to as Fog-ulate.  He passed the turn, and I atta-Blustersquall.  F***.  Still, the Populate had been relevant, and I had another creature, which gave me enough power on board to kill him… but he had blockers.  He had enough to kill me, and all blocks were still unfavorable against his unleash guys.  Carnival Hellsteed came down to join the alpha strike, and an onlooker said how funny it would be if I had another fog.  I looked at him and told him to laugh, and cast my SECOND Fog-ulate, winning the game and the match!

Round 3: Win 2-0

It turns out at this store we were playing four rounds, with prizes going to the 4-0 and top 3-1 players from the various pods.  Always happy to play more magic, even more so with a great deck, so on to round 4!

Round 4 vs Marlon T.

This match was a nightmare.  Marlon was that guy.  You know the one.  Cocky, arrogant, and with the skill to back it up.  He’s that guy who makes every play extremely swiftly, and without actually just a sigh and facial tics he makes you nervous whenever you take time to think about a play.  Oh, and he was Azorius.

Game 1 I was getting damage in, despite him bouncing a few of my guys with Dramatic Rescue’s.  However, he landed a Soulsworn Spirit with a Knightly Valor, and I had no way to deal with it.  20, 16, 12, 8, 4… and he had lots of 1/4 , 2/5, and 0/6’s  to stop my army from getting more than 2 or 3 damage in a turn.  I still had some fight in me!  I topdecked Security Blockade and went to 1, and then drew Fog-ulate, but my third draw was merely a forest and I succumbed. 

Game 2 we again traded tempo and damage.  Marlon’s poker face ran me into a Cancel, and I forced myself to play the cards, not the player, and was able to draw out the rest of his bounce and removal without losing TOO much ground.  I was still on the back foot though.  I tried to live the dream with a 6/6 Slime Molding and two Druid’s Deliverance in hand, but he had the bounce spell before I could untap.

The game came down to me was at 4, and he had 5 power of flyers in play.  I sacrificed Vraska, the Unseen for the assassin tokens, passed, and lived the dream making a FOURTH token while stemming the bleeding one more turn.  I was sure I had it, but Inspiration drew him a fourth blocker, and I scooped.

Marlon revealed himself to be a decent guy, as immediately after I scooped he breathed a huge sigh of relief and shook my hand grinning.  We discussed the matchup and plays, agreeing that my line with Vraska made sense, but that it was unclear how the game would have played out had I used her -3 ability instead of always +1’ing her.  He had detained her for one turn, which in hindsight was absolutely key.  His bounce spells giving him tempo versus my token aggression (see what I did there?) put me clearly at a disadvantage, though.

Round 4: Loss 0-2

Three of my opponents had done very well, which put me at third place out of the 30-ish players, earning me some packs!  That, plus Vraska and a lot of great magic, made for a great evening.  Not bad for my first stab at the format! 

I’m still not sure about the Risen Sanctuary over Swift Justice main.  I only drew it in two games – one where the game was over long before turn 7, and the one where it did stabilize the ground, but he had a flyer while I was at 1 life.  In deckbuilding I just debated the two and chose the fatty, believing myself to be a slow, long-game deck with scavenge and populate.  (I told you, it was my FIRST DRAFT in the format!).  While my knowledge of my decks strengths and weaknesses was 100% wrong, in hindsight I think it was correct for the deck.  I never found myself wishing to draw the trick, and I always had a board presence.   What I lacked, besides removal, was reach, and I think the 8/8 gave me a real way to punch through.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  The Druid’s Deliverances were consistently insane every time I played them, which was a surprise, as they were an unhappy 22^nd and 23^rd card during deckbuilding!