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Welcome to another Magic 2013 Draft. This week, I went a little outside of my comfort range for the sake of having some variety. I’ve stated multiple times in my videos that I dislike drafting green in core sets unless I have a bomb. It’s more of a personal preference than anything else, as green definitely has some good cards in the set. But what I typically look for in my creatures are things like evasion and the provision of some sort of card advantage. Cheap, aggressive creatures that are capable of doing a lot of damage early are another example of what I look for. Green tends to be worse than the other colors at these things. As a general rule, I need to see one of the following cards before I’ll commit to the color early:
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Notice a pattern? All of them with the exception of Garruk's Packleader are rare or mythic. Even if I see one of these cards, I’ll still take a comparable card of another color given the option. This means I’ll very rarely draft green. Of course, if I’m seeing Sentinel Spider eighth pick, I’ll move in. I won’t let my preferences override common sense.
The planets aligned, and I have a green deck for you guys this week. It wasn’t the best green deck I’ve ever drafted, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what they look like in this format.
As always, text recap follows the video links.
Draft
Match 1, Game 1
Match 1, Game 2
Match 1, Game 3
Match 2, Game 1
Match 2, Game 2
Match 2, Game 3
Pack 1, Pick 1:
My Pick:
I’m certainly not going to move in on green pack one, pick one on a Sentinel Spider. Attended Knight is a very good man and makes Switcheroo pretty darn good.
Pack 1, Pick 2:
My Pick:
Acidic Slime is pretty good, but I want to leave my options open. Griffin Protector is a solid all-around creature, and it is particularly good with Captain's Call.
Pack 1, Pick 3:
My Pick:
Serra Avatar is playable I suppose, but Divine Verdict is a much better choice.
Pack 1, Pick 4:
My Pick:
Garruk's Packleader is just the best card here. I’m not totally sold on green yet, but I’m at least willing to consider it now.
Pack 1, Pick 5:
My Pick:
I’m still unsure of what I’m second color will be, so I’m just going with the white card. Battleflight Eagle is particularly good in the green deck, so that’s something to keep in mind. Turn to Slag and Faerie Invaders both would have been fine picks as well.
Pack 1, Pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 8:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 10:
My Pick:
Okay, now I actually have to decide. If I had something on the line, I’d go with the Divination, but then I won’t learn anything. For the sake of exploring the format and having a variety of archetypes to demonstrate, I’ll take the green card. Don’t say I never do anything for you guys.
Pack 1, Pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 1:
My Pick:
There are certainly worse cards to open. I would very much like either Elvish Visionary or Centaur Courser to come back, but I’m not holding my breath.
Pack 2, Pick 2:
My Pick:
Seeing an Arctic Aven there is kind of tilting, but whatever. Prey Upon is still good.
Pack 2, Pick 3:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 4:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 5:
My Pick:
Normally, I’d go with Fungal Sprouting, but I have a noticeable lack of creatures that trigger my Garruk's Packleader.
Pack 2, Pick 6:
My Pick:
Show of Valor rarely makes the cut in G/W since you also have access to Titanic Growth. I’m about fifty-fifty on green versus white creatures, so Ring of Thune should be decent.
Pack 2, Pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 8:
My Pick:
Finally, a 2-drop!
Pack 2, Pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 12:
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Pack 2, Pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 1:
My Pick:
I already have some pretty good synergies with this card, so this is a no-brainer.
Pack 3, Pick 2:
My Pick:
I actually desperately need this card since I have so many 4s and 5s. My W/U deck would have been pretty sick; just putting that out there.
Pack 3, Pick 3:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 4:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 8:
My Pick:
I kind of wish I took a creature over the last Prey Upon. Oh well.
Pack 3, Pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 13:
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Pack 3, Pick 14:
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Pack 3, Pick 15:
My Pick:
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Here’s what I submitted:
"G/W M13 Draft"
- Creatures (14)
- 1 Attended Knight
- 1 Aven Squire
- 1 Garruk's Packleader
- 1 Griffin Protector
- 1 Guardians of Akrasa
- 1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
- 1 Roaring Primadox
- 1 Serra Angel
- 1 Silvercoat Lion
- 1 Spiked Baloth
- 1 Yeva's Forcemage
- 2 Battleflight Eagle
- 1 Phyrexian Hulk
- Spells (9)
- 1 Divine Verdict
- 1 Titanic Growth
- 1 Farseek
- 3 Prey Upon
- 1 Angelic Benediction
- 1 Oblivion Ring
- 1 Ring of Thune
I ended up losing in the second round to a top-decked burn spell one game and drawing too many lands another. I thought the deck was fine, but it was missing some key green commons such as Arbor Elf and Centaur Courser. It obviously would have been a lot better had I just committed to green right away, but all things considered, I would have rather been in W/U in this particular Draft.
I hope you guys enjoyed the recap and the videos. I have a $5k coming up this weekend in Toronto, and if you see me there, feel free to say “hi.” I’ll have a tournament report up for that soon, so be sure to check that out.
Happy drafting,
Nassim Ketita
arcticninja on Magic Online
www.youtube.com/nketita
