Drafting with Big Nass, RGD #4

Posted on September 17, 2012

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Drafting with Big Nass. I have another retro Ravnica block Draft coming your way. I’m showcasing yet another archetype this week, and I get to play with some nice rares to boot. As always, text recap follows the video links. Here we go!

Draft

Match 1, Game 1

Match 1, Game 2

Match 1, Game 3

Match 2, Game 1

Match 2, Game 2

Match 3, Game 1

Match 3, Game 2

Match 3, Game 3

Pack 1, Pick 1:

My Pick:

Szzzzzzzzzzzzzzadek! One of my favorite Draft decks of all time was one from triple-Ravnica in which I had Szadek, Lord of Secrets and splashed for Glare of Subdual. The Vampire lord does cost 7 mana, but he wins the game by himself. He is a big color commitment, so if blue and/or black cards don’t come, we’ll have to abandon, but I’m going to try pretty hard to make this work.

Pack 1, Pick 2:

My Pick:

What the heck do you take over Bottled Cloister? I honestly can’t think of a single card I would take over it. It’s a colorless Phyrexian Arena that doesn’t cost life. Yes, there is a risk you lose your hand, but it’s well worth it. In any case, I’m quite happy to slam it down. It sucks that I’m passing some good blue and black cards, but that can’t be helped.

Pack 1, Pick 3:

My Pick:

Gross. This pack is pretty awful. The best cards happen to be green, and unfortunately, B/U/G is terrible due to not having a guild in pack two. I’m not willing to abandon Big Z just yet.

Pack 1, Pick 4:

My Pick:

If this were triple-Ravnica, I’d slam Vedalken Entrancer, but dedicated mill decks are a rarity in RGD. Peel from Reality is just a much better card, and it combos quite well with cards such as Steamcore Weird and Izzet Chronarch from pack two.

Pack 1, Pick 5:

My Pick:

Woebringer Demon is powerful, but it sucks in a deck like this that has few creatures. He’s only really good in B/G/W decks that have ways of generating a lot of tokens. Mausoleum Turnkey is okay but unreliable. I’m just taking the Golgari Rotwurm here as a hedge.

Pack 1, Pick 6:

My Pick:

Drift of Phantasms is pretty good, too, but I’m less excited about it when I don’t have anything good to tutor with it yet.

Pack 1, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 8:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Pack 1, Pick 10:

My Pick:

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:

I think it’s more likely that red will be open than white. Also, I’m more excited about the prospect of drafting Izzet than Orzhov this pack. There isn’t a huge difference between Pyromatics and Ostiary Thrull in terms of power level, so I’m not giving up much.

Pack 2, Pick 2:

My Pick:

Izzet Chronarch is awesome, but I don’t think I can afford to pass a Douse in Gloom.

Pack 2, Pick 3:

My Pick:

And now we’re committed. Steamcore Weird is the exact card I want for this deck. Well, okay, Electrolyze would be better, but let’s not be too greedy.

Pack 2, Pick 4:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 5:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 6:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 8:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 10:

My Pick:

I really didn’t expect to table this, but hey, I’ll take it.

Pack 2, Pick 11:

My Pick:

Pack 2, Pick 12:

My Pick:

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 don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but bounce lands are insane.

Pack 3, Pick 2:

My Pick:

All the Guildmages are good, but Rakdos Guildmage is among the better ones. Turning your excess lands into Disfigures is awesome, and even in a control deck, making temporary tokens isn’t irrelevant.

Pack 3, Pick 3:

My Pick:

You can’t go wrong with pingers. Had I gone with white as a third color, Windreaver would have been a nice one.

Pack 3, Pick 4:

My Pick:

Not particularly exciting, but sometimes, you need bears to keep you alive.

Pack 3, Pick 5:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 6:

My Pick:

It’s nowhere near as good as Guardian of the Guildpact, but he still hits reasonably hard.

Pack 3, Pick 7:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 8:

My Pick:

Normally, Slaughterhouse Bouncer sucks in this sort of deck, but he becomes amazing with Bottled Cloister.

Pack 3, Pick 9:

My Pick:

Despite what I said above, I don’t want to be mono-5-drop. Looking back, though, I think this pick was wrong.

Pack 3, Pick 10:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 11:

My Pick:

I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be seeing a Windreaver this late. It’s not really worth splashing unfortunately.

Pack 3, Pick 12:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 13:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 14:

My Pick:

Pack 3, Pick 15:

My Pick:

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Here’s where we ended up:

"U/B/R Big Z Draft"

Some of my creatures are kind of lame, but overall, I was happy with the deck. It can deal with small creatures very effectively, but large, green men may pose a problem. As it turned out, I did lose to a green deck in the finals, but it wasn’t a large monster that did me in. It was Pollenbright Wings, and I quickly succumbed to a growing army of Saprolings.

And so ends this run of retro Drafts. Hope you guys enjoyed the Blast from the Past, and I’ll see you again next week. Until then, take care.

Nassim Ketita

arcticninja on Magic Online

www.youtube.com/nketita

TAGS articles, draft, video, limited, drafting, dissension, guildpact, nassim ketita, recap, ravnica city of guilds