Welcome, everyone, to the latest edition of Drafting with Big Nass. I hope everyone’s been enjoying the Avacyn Restored spoilers; I know I have. I haven’t seen enough of the set to make any determination on how the Limited format is going to look, but I’ll have more on that in the coming weeks.

DII isn’t dead yet, and I fully intend to Draft the format whenever I can. I have a pretty spicy brew for you guys this week. As always, text recap follows the video links.

Pack 1, Pick 1:

My Pick:

The whole cycle of Captains is pretty good, with Immerwolf being my favorite. I found it fairly tough to decide between the two in this pack, but given that most of the other good cards in the pack are white or blue, I went with the Stromkirk Captain. I also love B/R in this format, so that clinches it.

Pack 1, Pick 2:

My Pick:

I admit that Death's Caress is a bit of a pet card, but I just want to stay on-color. I definitely think it’s better than Wrack with Madness.

Pack 1, Pick 3:

My Pick:

While I don’t want too many expensive cards, Blood Feud is good enough that I’m willing to take it over worse removal like Wrack with Madness.

Pack 1, Pick 4:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 5:

My Pick:

B/R typically doesn’t have very many Humans, but Skirsdag Flayer is still fine by itself.

Pack 1, Pick 6:

My Pick:

I’m not a huge fan of Chosen of Markov since it’s one of those cards that is great if you draw things in the right order but awful when you don’t. Undying Evil is a nice trick, and it becomes even better when you have creatures with enters-the-battlefield effects (or bombs you want to protect).

Pack 1, Pick 7:

My Pick:

I don’t think I want two Blood Feuds, and I really want to start picking up cheap creatures.

Pack 1, Pick 8:

My Pick:

I kind of wish I took that second Blood Feud now. Oh well. Not a huge deal.

Pack 1, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 10:

My Pick:

That was pretty fortunate. Red seems like it’s quite open.

Pack 1, Pick 11:

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Pack 1, Pick 12:

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Pack 1, Pick 13:

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Pack 1, Pick 14:

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Pack 1, Pick 15:

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Pack 2, Pick 1:

My Pick:

I don’t think it’s worth stretching my mana to play Evil Twin. It’s not that much better than Victim of Night anyway.

Pack 2, Pick 2:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 3:

My Pick:

As much as I want to pick up some Zombies for my Gravecrawler, Rakish Heir has to be the pick here. It’s going to have some crazy synergy with the rest of the deck.

Pack 2, Pick 4:

My Pick:

I normally will take Ashmouth Hound here, but I would like some Zombies.

Pack 2, Pick 5:

My Pick:

I don’t want Zombies so badly that I would pass up a second Vampire Interloper, though.

Pack 2, Pick 6:

My Pick:

I have a big incentive to max out on Vampires, so I’m going with the Markov Patrician, but normally, I’d take the Traitorous Blood.

Pack 2, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Ding! Our Vampire deck is officially live.

Pack 2, Pick 8:

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Pack 2, Pick 9:

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Pack 2, Pick 10:

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Pack 2, Pick 11:

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Pack 2, Pick 12:

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Pack 2, Pick 13:

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Pack 2, Pick 14:

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Pack 2, Pick 15:

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Pack 3, Pick 1:

My Pick:

Opening Geist-Honored Monk really makes me wish I had taken the Drogskol Captain, but I’m going to have to take a Neonate and be happy about it. I have enough expensive removal that I don’t want the Into the Maw of Hell, but I’d obviously be happy to table it.

Pack 3, Pick 2:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 3:

My Pick:

This deck is starting to come together quite nicely.

Pack 3, Pick 4:

My Pick:

Had I taken a Traitorous Blood or two, the pick here would be Skirsdag Cultist and not even be close, but I’m leaning more toward the Heretic's Punishment. While slow, it’s going to be a sweet finisher.

Pack 3, Pick 5:

My Pick:

I kind of wish I took the Cultist—it works very well with Pitchburn Devils—but it’s not like Galvanic Juggernaut is bad.

Pack 3, Pick 6:

My Pick:

This is as close to a miss as I can get. I might as well pick up a sideboard card. Plus, that’s one fewer card that kills my Juggernaut.

Pack 3, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Wow, this pack certainly dried up fast. Good thing I already have enough playables.

Pack 3, Pick 8:

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Pack 3, Pick 9:

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Pack 3, Pick 10:

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Pack 3, Pick 11:

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Pack 3, Pick 12:

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Pack 3, Pick 13:

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Pack 3, Pick 14:

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Pack 3, Pick 15:

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Here’s what I submitted:

"B/R Follow the Captain"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Gravecrawler
• 1 Markov Patrician
• 1 Skirsdag Flayer
• 1 Stromkirk Captain
• 1 Walking Corpse
• 2 Bloodcrazed Neonate
• 2 Crossway Vampire
• 2 Forge Devil
• 2 Rakish Heir
• 2 Vampire Interloper
• 1 Galvanic Juggernaut

• Spells (7)
• 1 Undying Evil
• 1 Victim of Night
• 1 Blood Feud
• 1 Death's Caress
• 1 Wrack with Madness
• 1 Heretic's Punishment
• 1 Cobbled Wings

• Lands (17)
• 8 Swamp
• 9 Mountain

Buy This Deck

It was difficult to make the last couple cuts, but a side effect of that was that I had a lot of relevant sideboard cards. This is exactly the kind of B/R deck I love to draft, and it came together quite well.

I ended up taking down the Draft, defeating former MTGSalvation admin sneakyhomunculus in the process. I lost a game in the finals because I got a little too greedy with Heretic's Punishment, but other than that, most of the games were blowouts. I also made a pretty bad mistake with Undying Evil. It turns out that Undying Evil and Rakish Heir is a nonbo. It ended up not mattering because of how far ahead I was, but that’s not an excuse. I certainly won’t make that mistake again.

Until next time, RTFC.

Nassim Ketita

arcticninja on Magic Online

http://www.youtube.com/nketita