Tuesday, July 29, 2008

SSS 14 & 15 - Glen Elendraville

I've been kinda burned out lately on making videos, but I did manage to grab a couple so I figured I should share them...

SSS 14 - Draft


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Only the draft for this one. I lost in the second round, but every game was decided by mulls and screw (on both sides) so I didn't bother to process them.

I sold myself too hard on G/W and passed up some great red cards like Jaws of Stone, and Puncture Bolt. I also passed up one Armored Ascension to have another fall in my lap. Its been a while since I did this draft, but looking back on it I should of gone with the red (Witch and Ascension not withstanding).

Not particularly proud of this draft, as I made some major errors, but the deck turned out reasonably well regardless.

SSS 15 - Draft

(Note: I'm still mispronouncing Torpor Dust, just out of habit now. Gravelgill is one that just about everyone screws up too. I bet most people don't even notice the "l" in there.)


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From the looks of things, you might suspect that this table was substandard players, but it was an above average crowd (ratings wise) even for a 8-4. It's not often that you see a 5th pick Prison Term and a tabled Mistmeadow Witch.

I could of made the switch to white to accommodate these cards, but there wasn't too much else flowing and the heavy commitment to U/B hybrids meant that the mana would have to bend quite a bit to make them fit. Conversely if stick with U/B, the mana become practically a non-issue, not to mention that Beseech the Queen gives me twice the access to the Liege. The two Gloomlances helped compensate for the difference. I could of splashed for the Mistmeadow, but I was making some deep cuts already, and didn't see the need to make room for the 2 or so Plains needed to make that worth while.

So on with the games.

I will warn you now... I was literally half asleep when I was playing the games of this draft. I can't say I'm disappointed by the results, but the road to get there was rather embarrassing. Particularly in Round 2 I was fading in and out and made quite a few major tactical and procedural errors. But I've put up every draft I've recorded, so why hide my shame now?

Round 1


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This was a mid 1800 player, so I can only think he was experimenting with this archetype. I can see the logic, but the 1/1 brigade just doesn't have the muscle to pull this off... particularly in G/W.

Round 2


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Yeah, so I started nodding off a bit here...

Game 1 - I like wining the game with a River's Grasp in hand.

Game 2 - Yeah, I messed this one up bad, but without a way to deal with the Windbrisk Raptor, I was a goner anyways.

Game 3 - Really bad play on both of our parts as he either forgets that his Witch untaps his Chained Cohort, or he chooses not to use it pre-combat for fear of losing a 1/1. I just completely forgot until he does it next turn... but its too late to get the job done as his Last Breath on my Liege takes me out of fatal range.

Round 3


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Game 1 - Biting Tethers picks a great time to make its first appearance of the draft as I steal his Liege and knock his men back down to size when he was about to kill me.

Game 2 - He gets a quick start, but reigns it in as our Liege's stare each other down from across the red zone. I pass priority before making the correct blocks on his final turn, but it doesn't matter as he doesn't have a trick and my Witch activates for 27 damage in one glorious alpha strike.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey man, just wanted to drop by to say thanks for posting your drafts like you do, they are very helpful. That being said, I normally find myself agreeing with about 90% of your picks, but one that really bothers me is the axeshark. Why do you value him so highly (relative to other cards in the same power level)? In my experience, and in watching your matches, he just seems to be underperforming. Anyway, keep up the good work!

AverageDrafter said...

In this draft specifically, the Axeshark gives me another U/B hybrid to power up with the Liege. In general I like the persist on an above average frame, although you do have to overpay a bit to get it.

Anonymous said...

Hello averagedrafter, I was checking out some of your LLM drafts and at the end of one you talked about planning a community draft with other people telling you what to pick through text chat. Did you end up doing it? sounds like it'd be interesting to watch.