SSS 03 - Corrupted Draft

Had some issues for the games for this draft, so you just get to see the draft itself. For the record, I lost in the second round after defeating an amazing W/R deck that featured Jaws, Swan, Knollspine Invocation, and a good gun package with at least one PoF and several quality untappers. Much better than I should hope for with this misdirected pile.

(The Google video is taking a while to process, but here is the download link in the meantime...)


Download this video in all its full screen glory from FileFront!


P1P1 - Blight or Swan? I go with Blight simply because it seems to win out on pure power, but a strong case could be made for the Swans (which somehow table around to my 1st round opponent - unless there was another in the draft). Also Blue and White are far better colors in this format than Black.

P1P2 - A very clear choice, but also one of the main reasons this deck didn't come together. Why? Well I think I try to maximize my first two picks by going mono-black. This works for Jaws of Stone because adding 2-3 more damage to a Jaws can net you 1-2 more removed creatures, whereas a bigger Corrupt only gets you a bit more life unless you aim it at their dome, and even then the extra oomph doesn't give you enough reward for the sacrifice. Also mono-red is a significantly better deck to try to draft than mono-black, as the card quality and synergies are far superior. In the end my picks end up corrupted by attempts to draft a mono-black deck.

P1P3 - A bit of a weak pick, but it doesn't commit me to anything and it helps me cast the two pricey cards I already have in my pile.

P1P4 - Still not sure what to take here. My final pick Kindler is pretty underwhelming, and the Aethertow seems like it would be an OK selection (I'm inexperienced with U/B). I think I should of thought about B/G at this point with the Cohort. I haven't drafted a cross color deck yet, but in hind sight I should have considered going this route here.

P1P6 - I time out here because I know that the Rage Reflection is a potential bomb, but my curve is already so high I do think that I can take an expensive non-creature, non-black spell and I settle for the Duo (the worst of the cycle even) as time runs out.

P1P7 - Arsonist was the pick, but I incorrectly tried to stay mono.

P1P9 - I like the red Intimidator a lot, and if I stayed the course and drafted more red this would of probably been a good pick.

P1P10 - Same as the last pick.

P1P12 - Headache gives me a good sideboard option if I need it.

P1P13 - Cohort all the way.. the Mono-black deck isn't coming together and my best option now is to draft for R/B with a red focus and use the two first picks as late game support. This is just a bad bad pick.

P2P1 - The Duo fits perfectly into the deck I should be trying to draft. I take it because there are few other options, but if I was in the right state of mind I would of snatched it up with no hesitation.

P2P5 - Should of been a tougher call between the Scuzzback and the Faerie, but I think given the last two cards black heavy picks that the Faerie is the correct card.

P2P6 - Given the last few picks were heavy black, the Mentor is a good selection, but I should of given more thought to the Tattgermung Duo as it was probably the better pick.

P2P8 - Cohort with the red cards I've passed up already would of focused my deck considerably. The maniac was a distant second in the correct deck.

P3P1 - Yep, at this point I mono-blacked myself out of a much better card than I was going mono-black for in the first place. I should of taken the Valleymaker as a couple of activations from this guy is all you need to win, and despite my mispicks I still had enough red cards to give him enough Mountains to work with.

P3P3 - Sure wish I had taken some of those nice and cheap red Cohorts...

So.. as bad as I did drafting the deck... I did a much worse job in building it. Unfortunatly I had the card counts to make the black heavy deck happen, but in retrospect I didn't have enough reason to make it happen. I even had the Flask to power out a full strength Corrupt if I needed it.

The Fists, Duos, and Kindler was not what this deck wanted - I brought in the Tattermunge Duo, Arsonists, and Skuzzback in every sideboarded game, and upped the Mountain count.

Long story short - Don't fall in love with a plan when the plan makes no sense and isn't working out.

SSS 02 - A Window of Opportunity

Back in action again after the servers were sick all week. I was kinda surprised to draft queues back up Friday night after all the doom and gloom on the MTGO boards about not being able to locate the problems with the game.

So I check around 9:30 and see them firing... well whats an addict to do. Despite being a bit groggy I forged ahead anyways and drafted.

Lets watch shall we? BTW, I'm using google videos for the stream as the player works a lot better (particularly moving around the stream quickly), and if you want to download the video you still can via Filefront link below each video.



Click here to download SSS_02_-_Draft.avi

P1P1 - This is on the weak side for sure. I think all of the possible picks are close to the same level of power, but Aethertide wins out since it has a slight edge power wise, and doesn't commit me heavily to a particular strategy like Rabble, Lancer, or Cohort does. The Oracle was very tempting, as being able to convert spare mana into life every turn does seem to be pretty damn good in a long game situation.

P1P4 - I think I should of taken puncture bolt, and W/R makes for a good gun combo (provided you see more untappers than I did). The Sentry is a nice creature, but had I picked up on red early I would of made a better, more focused deck.

P2P1 - I think I was overvaluing Sigg quite a bit, particularly with how my deck had been shaping up at that point. He was all right during my games, but never the blowout card I wanted it to be or thought it was. The Cohort is probably the right pick here, or the Redcap had I decided to go with red.

P2P2 - The pumpable flier fell off my radar for some reason. Not spectacular but solid as I was heavy white no matter what. Definitely better than the useless Pili-Pala I panic picked as time ran out.

P2P3 - I like the mutt, but the red removal splash (or as a replacement for blue) would of made my deck very nice.

P2P4 - See above. There is also a case to be made for the Spinners, but I like the Rabble even though I wasn't that heavy into white yet.

P2P5 - Still not sure which is the correct pick. If you hit the colors Snare is better, if you don't then its Consign. Well some of the times. If there is a lot of creature on creature action then Snare is still really good, so I think the Snare is the pick.

P2P7 - Effigy is a pretty good card once it gets going, but getting there is tough in some games.

The rest of the draft went according to plan I think.



Click here to download SSS_02_-_Round_1.avi

Game 1 - I commited the same error that plagues me throughout this draft - not getting my Effigy down and active as early as possible. With the Effigy down I can control the board and play me creatures at my leisure, particularly if my opponent is vulnerable to its effects as this one was. Lucky for me I won this game because my opponent chose to block with the Witch when a counter attack would of been lethal. He might have suspected a trick, but he needed to go for it regardless.

Game 2 - I kept an iffy hand as it didn't really have much action in it, and consign is a card I should of sided out against U/B. I should of used the Snare as straight damage prevention on the Warcrawler with a lethal block the first time it successfully attacked. All his other creatures were in check with a combination of -1/-1 counters and the Scarecrows, and I should of held of on my aggression so I could use the Effigy to tear down his offensive capability.

Game 3 - Was all about the one hit with Steel of the Godhead. 10 point life swings will tend to win you games, even if it costs you a 2 for 1. I corrected my mistake from the game before and used the Snare to kill his Warcrawler, and the Tether cleared the way for me to finish him off with a comfortable margin.

Moving on...



Click here to download SSS_02_-_Round_2.avi

Game 1 - Godhead and Duo... too awesome to contain.

Game 2 - I again delayed the Effigy when it would dominate my opponent. Wanting to get the Sigg drawing cards was a major error in my strategy in all my games where he was a potential factor. In the future if I have him I'll think of him as a nice defender early that has some drawing power in the mid to late game.

A nice quick one, which is good because...



Click here to download SSS_02_-_Round_3_Part_1.avi

Game 1 - Eek, he bent me over with the Puncture Bolt and he reamed me with the Liege.

Game 2 - Prison Term is awesome. Effigy is too. Snares and Tether... who needs creatures?



Click here to download SSS_02_-_Round_3_Part_2.avi

Game 3 - Effigy is awesome... when you play it. Again and again I waited too long to play out the Effigy and it cost me dearly. The longer I waited the more I had to delay getting it out as I back pedaled to get creatures out to protect me and it destroyed me this game. Again I was too aggressive for the game I wanted to play, particularly when I attacked with the Sentry that caused him to burn out the Mutt to get attackers through. Had I not, he might not of burned out the Mutt (to punch damage through) and I might of made the correct play of Effigy/Wisps the next turn.

I should have this question tattooed on my forehead. With the Effigy so disruptive to his plans, I needed to preserve my life total and keep him from attacking long enough to make it work for me. Again I screw up when I play the Cragtreads (in hopes of drawing with Sigg) instead of laying the Effigy. I allow him to blow me out with Liege/Scar on his turn, and the game is more or less over as I try to recover. Even then I delay playing Effigy AGAIN as I try to run out more dudes for defense, when Effigy/Wisps is the clear favorite play here as it does the same thing as Duo/Wisps but gives me a fighting chance to kill his Liege next turn and play a 1/3. Bah I was terrible here.

Well, I'm going to try to make another video this weekend... enjoy the drafts while they are up and we will see you next time!

SS 01 Recap and Reaction

Yes Yes... its Double Strike on the Runes. Aside from being "boring" the other side effect of trying to talk and draft at the same time is that your mouth doesn't cooperate with what your brain is thinking.

So, from the comments on this draft I learned a lot, and I thank everyone for responding (even you MattTheGreat you tactless bastard). Here is what I picked up in general...

1) I should just draft Gloomwidow as if it said "Cannot Block" since most of the time (particularly in the early game when you need it most) this is true. Still a good card, but I was overvaluing.

2) Runes of the Deus is not the sleeper I thought it was. If I want one I have to pick it up early.

3) Have a back up plan if I'm trying to go with the gun. AKA draft Wither. And three PoF is too many unless you have some of the other components already.

4) Gleeful Sabotage is a Sorcery.

I played hookey from work today, so I might have another draft or two up for you this weekend. Thanks again for all the responses!

SSS 01 - Welcome Back AverageDrafters!

Well I went through a rough patch of moving and being with out internet or cable for TWO WHOLE WEEKS (I know... what a nightmare), but we are back in action in a big way for 3x Shadowmoor drafts.

Yes we are still using Filefront for our provider, and its more out of necessity than preference. I'm still looking for a video server that can give me the hi-res streaming outputs that we need to show off card texts reasonably well but can give us a bit more consistency than we got with gamerstube. So for now we are stuck with providing a terrible looking streaming video for the ones who just want the quick and dirty, and a direct download of the avi file for those who need their fullscreen action. Either start the video or click the link depending on your preference. Its not perfect, but it will do for now.

The major change is that I'm moving to a blog format rather than the old link to a video page method. With all the moving around it will be nice to have one place to come too to check for new videos. I'm also going to try to keep comments and responses in the blog so there isn't a lot of repeating between the several boards I'm posting on to get viewers. I'll still respond to those boards, but I think I'm going to try to get them a little centralized from here on out.

So without further ado - lets go to the first draft... its a doozy.


Click Here to Download Full Screen Video

So as you can see - well its not like it took a lot of skill to figure out what colors I needed to be in. I feel I made a lot of picks that could of gone different ways, but in the end when you have 2 Firespout, and Knollspine Invocation it will cover up a lot of less than optimal draft picks.

I'm interested in what picks were out of place, and how you would of built the final deck. As I'm starting to feel out the format I'm dying to know where my decision making could be improved. By the way, I put Hexhunter in place of the Gleeful Sabotage after I stopped the video.

Anyway - moving on to Round 1...

err... my opponent doesn't show. So - Moving on to Round 2...


Click Here to Download Full Screen Video

Pretty much a blowout. Knollspine in game 1, back to back Firespouts in game 2 followed up by a Howl of the Night Pack for 6. Game one I think I should of led out with the Duo (for defensive purposes) and then immediately followed up with the Invocation instead of trying to get two Gloomwidows on the board. The biggest threat from his deck was knocking the Invocation out of my hand, but once it was on the board it should be game over.

On to the finals...


Click Here to Download Full Screen Video

OOF! Mull to 5 and I still almost walk away with it. Again, so questionable plays here (as always), but I think I'm pretty good with how I played these games given the circumstances. Delaying of shooting down the spirit tokens was bad as it allowed him to get his liege out. I feel ok about delaying the Firespout by a turn since his agression was low, but it only yielded me an Initiate that I had in check anyway.

Game 2 I misplay a lot with Invocation (ie not taking out the Scarecrow (discarding Power of Fire) on the Firespout turn. And then trying to get to much value out of the conspire on Sabotage (and not even doing that right!).

Game 3 Another mull to 5, and another good fight that slips out of my grasp with a topdeck Shield of the Oversoul (and yes I called this card like 10 different things in the video - including "Godhead of Awe"). I think I played pretty well here considering the circumstances.

Well thanks again for watching and we will be seeing you again real soon with more SSS action.