Sunmesa Games: Sunday Rise of the Eldrazi Draft.
Format: 2x 10 man Pods
Place: 1st! Boo yea!
Prize: 6 packs of M11, 1 pack of Eldrazi, 1 Vengevine, 1 Gideon
Deck: Mono Black, aka NWA
Decklist:
Swamps x18
Escaped Null x 1
Corpsehatch x 1
Bloodthrone vampire x 1
Virulent Swipe x 1
Ventetta x 1
Induce Despair x 1
Drana, Kalastria Bloodcheif x 1 (oh yea...)
Arrogant Bloodlord x 1
Zulaport Enforcer x 3
Bala Ged Scorpion x 2
Cadaver Imp x 4 (BOO YEA!)
Pawn of Ulamog x 1
Ulamog's Crusher x 2
Dreamstone Hedron x 1
Keening Stone x 1 (best pick ever!)
Went 5-0 in the tourney being hosted, kick some major ass with Cadaver Imp. Crusher's going to the graveyard didn't really phase me too much. Aslo with 4 GREAT removal spells, things went good :D But, card of the DAY: Keening Stone. BEST fking draft card ever. Won me 1/2 my games. Decking never seemed so over powered :D
Match 1 Matchup: Red / Green Ramp
This matchup I actually lost the 1st round. It was really really bad for me, because he put an umbra on his Wildheart Invoker and out of all my removal, the only thing that killed it was Induce Despair, and I didn't draw it, I just got big and slowly beat me down...sad panda.
Game 2. Easily won, I was able to rush my crusher out there and stop the board from getting crazy on his side, with no answer to crusher, I easily won.
Game 3. A Aura Gnarlind hit the board, with was quickly attached with a Boar Umbra making a 7/7 unblockable (or only blockable by crusher) creature, well That was way to fast for me, so i quickly induced it revealing Crusher FTW. With no more threats, I eventually get my crusher out and win the game.
Match 2 Matchup: Mono White:
Game 1. I'm able to curve beautifully into everything and drop Drana on turn 5. He follows up with dropping Linvala shutting up my awesome removal ability :*(. With no way to really deal damage, even though Drana flies, he had set up a Hedron-Field Purists to stop me from really doing anything. So he's free to out aggro me with Linvala, except I chump block with Cadaver Imp. I draw, cast cadaver imp returning the 1 that recently died. After my opponent see's whats going on he quickly remarks "oh great, your going to cadaver cycle ftw, huh?" I chuckle and reply "yes." Only all too soon to draw into my Keening stone and put him on a 4 turn clock. As I "cadaver cycled" and blocked all the inc damage, I continued to keening stone him till dead :D
Game 2. Was even a worst draw for my opponent and I had an established board. I really don't remember too much as to what happened however, Keening stone hit the table on turn 5, ramped from a Pawn Of Ulamog eldrazi and just continued to mill from there on out. Leaving me 2-0.
Match 3 Matchup: Green / Red Ramp agro
First I'd like to say Zack, it was a pleasure meeting you at the tourney. Zack beat my friend Matt the game before so I felt obligated to take vendetta for him. So here's how it went:
Game 1: Can't remember. It was a mix twist of crazy shinanigans that caused me to lose because of some crazy beatdown I was too bewildered to remember, He just won outright.
Game 2: As well A bit hazy but I believe it was a landslide in my favor this time.
Game 3: This was the grudgematch. It was REALLY a good game. I remember the board position VERY well. He had a Pelakka Wurm equipped with a Splinter Twin, and some kind of wall or another irrelevant creature. I had Keening stone working so he was already 2 turns from dying, and a bloodthrone vampire, pawn of ulamg, a cadaver imp, and a Zulaport enforcer, all ready to die for the sake of me leaving 2 turns to finish with keening stone. He made a pelakka wurm token at the end of my turn and swung with everything. I had to do a nifty block with all my guys in order to pump up bloothrone vampire enought to stop the inc damage, (about 30 in all kuz he had might in his hand) but thanks to pawn of ulamog i was able to do so, getting a free eldrazi spawn after killing off your guys only makes bloodthrone vampire that much more OP. In the end I ended up taking the win with keening stone milling the final card out of his deck. GG Zack, well played.
Match 4: Matt Bartmus
Conceded. Matt being a buddy, realizes this is an all or nothing tourney, and because I got pair down, (Zack beat him the round before) Graciously concedes and gives me the win. Great news here because at this stage of the competition, there are only 3 people with 3-0 records, which means going into around 4, even though I got paired down, I'll be playing the 1 guy it'll take to win the whole thing.
Match 5: Black w/splash of blue and green
My opponent was really good player, solid deck and new how to draft. He'd been going to the event the WHOLE weekend and won the grand prize of a trip to Tennessee to play at the GP there. Solid, so I had to play like I've never played before.
Game 1: Landslide me. I draw INSANE, get everything I need to get him, even though I did get stuck on 3 lands for 2 turns, he did indeed cast a Perish the thought on me as he saw I was struggling with land drops he could pluck my 4 drop out of my hand. WHat he didn't realize is that I was holding back 3 cadaver imps, Crusher, Drana, vendetta, and a couple other totally playable cards. Slow playing that ftw. Anyway he gets me to shuffle drana back into my deck before playing his own the next turn. With my super draw skills I am able to draw into a Induce Despair and erase drana from the table (my only out to her besides virulent swipe as my other 2 removals are non-black creatures). A huge sigh from my opponent as he sits there drawing 1 card a turn (mainly land) with the only creature he has is a Null Champion fully leveled up, and I have "cadaver cycle" on the board WITH a pawn of ulamog, so he eventually just stopped attacking. I got to draw a large amount of spells slowly but surely waiting for that Crusher or keening stone to show up. It was keening stone and My opponent quickly concedes after realizing that he was a on 2 turn clock with all the cards in his graveyard.
Game 2: My opponent ramps like a CHAMP. I get stuck on 3 lands (ON THE DRAW! WT F!) and watch as he turn 5 casts crusher, I look at him with the typical "oh shit look" and figure out a way to deal with it. I cast my cadaver imp, with 3 mana and pass turn. He swings with the monster, and I annihilate 2/3 swamps (i really needed since I have a corpsehatch in my hand...) Oh well I block with cadaver Imp and cast Virulent Swipe, taking the Crusher down with me. I draw LAND! yes. okay cast my bloodthrone vampire for 2, and pass turn. My opponent with like 10 lands, and then equips Eldrazi Constription so his Kozilek's Predator and I'm like...Hmm....so another crusher, I sack my bloothrone vampire in response and let the annihilator take out my two lands before I scoop with NOTHING on the table.
We have a few words before game 3, starting with my opponent saying "jesus man your deck is insane" And I respond, oh yea well hey I heard conscription is pretty good. Especially after you annihilate me with crusher on turn 5. He nods in approval and we cut for game 3.
Game 3: I knew I had the win with the opener I had. It was slow, lots of land drops with SOLID cards. Crusher, Corpsehatch, Dreamstone hedron, keening stone, everything i needed to win. So I play a land and say go. So does my opponent. We do this until turn 5! Where I cast my Zalaport enforcer, and level him quickly to 1. He plays Null Champion and passes. Things just look better. I start attacking with my enforcer seeing if he'll go for a trade, because I was about to drop Dreamstone and crusher the next turn. He doesn't. Takes the damage and then returns fire with his Null champion at level 2. Eventually after a couple turns, we both have our creatures max level and I get him to 6 life, and I stand a 7. I swing with Zalaport AND crusher for lethal, he HAS to block crusher trying to figure out How the heck he's going to survive this with NO black creatures on the table. . So he does, yet before damage resolves, I hit my Zalaport with a virulent swipe getting him to 7 power dropping my opponent down to -1. The math was hard for my opponent because he could have gotten me down to 1, But 1 isn't good enough. With 2 cadaver imps and a keening STILL in my hand killing of a creature I had on the board only meant it would come back a turn later.
Record of the day: 5-0
So boo yea! Mono black just got there. Nothing like a good amount of cadaver imps to brighten your day when your creature die and come back :D. Anyway, I had a great time, made some new trades. Misplayed Only twice, once it cost me the game in game 1. So all in all a REALLY good tourney. Even though i pulled crap "money" rares, Drana and Keening stone were absolutely exceptional in the format. Keening stone especially. There are a LIMITED number of cards in eldrazi that actually deal with that card, gald i picked it up. And if your wondering what my 1st pack picks were:
Pack 1: Corpsehatch (rare - Dormant Gomazoa /cry i know i did)
Pack 2: Drana
Pack 3: Keening stone
I played no other rares and basically hate drafted any other cards i didn't like, after I realized i was going to be playing mono-black.
Anyway thanks to Matt for Driving. And everyone at sunmesa events / Jodie's Group of judges / event managers who put the event together.
-Leo
Drana was actually intended as a mythic but due to the fact that R&D wanted it included the pre-con it was demoted, making it the best first pick rare ever. Also the hive mind train of thought was zenzenwwk black/red all the way, causing many to under value them in the following set. I can't tell you the number of times I to had 3+ cadaver imps passed my way.
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