Draft Recap 16.5.20

After a long time without it, my playgroup could finally cube again and I wanted to share the results of the draft, analyzing the decks and seeing why certain decks did good or bad. First of all, here is the current version of my cube. We drafted with four people. I will start with the decks that didn't do great and go to the top finishing with the winning deck. Let's get started:

4th Place: WG Enchantments
Standing: 0-3

One can see from my cube list, that I heavily support enchantments. It seems that Pl (which is shorthand for the player who piloted the respective deck) gathered a lot of really strong payoffs, namely Sigil of the Empty Throne, Argothian Enchantress and Academy Rector. We are looking at a total of 8 enchantments in their deck, which is fine, but could obviously be higher. In my opinion, the problematic thing about this deck is that it does not have a focused gameplan. Cards like Legion's Landing are powerful (and is an enchantments) but do not fit with the strategy to go to the long-game with cards like the two 5 CMC angels and the Sigil. Of course, the flipped version of Legion's Landing is desirable in a more controlling deck, but attacking with three or more creatures usually means that you are already winning in this kind of deck. I looked at Pl's sideboard and saw a few cards that would have been really good in their deck, namely Blessed Alliance and Secure the Wastes, where especially latter goes very well with Glare of Subdual. 

GW Enchantments

There are a lot of interesting aspects and sweet or powerful synergies that are worth pointing out:

1) Glare of Subdual is great. Of course, Opposition is busted. However, it turns out that not being able to tap lands still makes an awesome card because one becomes untouchable via combat damage. Pl had one neat way to abuse this card, namely Awakening Zone. The combination of these two cards really messed with me in one game. However, as I previously mentioned, Secure the Waste would not only have been awesome here with the Glare but also with the Good-Fortune Unicorn.

2) Lyra is great and really good with multiple angels, especially a bunch of angel tokens. I saw another player get beaten to death by an army of flying 5/5 lifelinking angel tokens. Generally, I like Lyra a lot, especially as a basic control finisher and board stabilizer. I come to like incidental life gain and lifelink more and more. I often see myself not contributing to the board in the early game and not having enough life left to play optimally in the late game.

3) Carnage Tyrant is not great when it is not ramped out. Carnage Tyrant is awesome against control every time, that is clear. However, I noticed that is was not particularly great in this deck against Midrange and Aggro decks. When the Tyrant comes out on Turn 4 (or even 3), it is obviously really scary. But when the game goes long, casting a 7/6 is not that great as the battlefield is really stacked and the hexproof is not that relevant. If I were the Pl, I would have just played more early interaction because they already had plenty of 5 CMC finishers that fulfill the same job.

3th Place: UR Planeswalkers
Standing: 1-2

This deck uses planeswalkers to generate card advantage and also included an artifact subtheme that turned out to be pretty strong. I can't really explain what the gameplan of this deck was, especially because the deck included a few very aggresive elements, namely Bomat Courier, Monastery Swiftspear and Embercleave but also very controlling cards, like Torrential Gearhulk an Chandra, Flamecaller. Weirdly, it all worked?! Well, sort of. The deck did win pretty easily against the GW Enchantment deck. One game was won by a Flying Doublestriking 4/4 Teferi Dragon holding Excalibur. That was pretty awesome. Against the other decks, it seemed like the lack of a clear gameplan was holding it down. 

Izzet Planeswalker Party w. Artifacts

Again, a few remarks I want to make:

1) Mox Amber was really good in this deck. The power of it came from a handful of small synergies. The obvious one: it being able to generate mana of all PW's and legendary creatures. In addition, it let Pl play a Turn 1 Emry together with Urza's Bauble. The Emry was not dealt with early which resulted in a huge amount of card advantage which resulted in a clear win. In last resort, it could be sacced to the Goblin Welder and Daretti. 

I always thought that the card would not be playable in cube, but I am glad that there seems to exist at least one deck where it is good in.

2) Hollow One is good. This card was always cast above rate. On Turn 3 for three Mana due to Merfolk Looter. On Turn 5 for one Mana due to Daretti's discard, which was particularly important as the Hollow One could protect the Daretti for one crucial turn. Daretti brought back Embercleave on the next turn and Hollow One hold the sword (probably with its mouth, as it got no hands) to the victory. It is also nice, that one can cycle Hollow One to bring it back from the graveyard via Goblin Welder and Daretti.

3) Bomat Courier is probably not terrible in non-Aggro decks. Pl could dump their hand pretty quickly onto the battlefield especially with the zero CMC artifacts. In addition, they could discard high CMC cards like Chandra and Gearhulk in earlier turns. In one game, Pl played a Bomat against me on Turn 1 and could swing 3 times and drew 3 cards of it later without discarding any cards. I would have expected it to be really bad in this deck, but it wasn't.

2nd Place: BRg Aristocrats (me)

Standing: 2-1

Here, I can fortunately first talk about the draft itself. When I draft, I sometimes (that is a lie) want to force an archetype to see if it even comes together. My first pack was full of removal and I did not want to first pick something unexciting. Hence, I first picked Curious Obsession because I added a WU tempo archetype and Curious Obsession is meant to be the main payoff of the deck together with Staggering Insight, which I really want to try out. I got a Man'o'war as my second pick. My third pick was a Nimble Obstructionist. I thought that the draft was going fine by now. Then I saw my next pick: Korvold, the Fae-Cursed King. I do not know whether it was wise, but this is one of my favourite cards and also one that I was never able to draft. So, I picked it ditching my first three picks. I picked up great cards that go along Korvold: Goblin Cratermaker, Once upon a Time, Ultimate Price, Captain Lannery Storm and Ravenous Chupacabra together with a few on color lands in the first pack round. 

The second pack came and I opened Obosh, the Prey Piercer. Unfortunately, I already picked up a lot of powerful even CMC cards. I still picked it just to see whether I could make it work and draft around the companion clause. I had prioritized odd CMC cards and got pretty good ones like Yahenni, Grim Initiate, Sticher's Supplier, Fatal Push and Tymaret Calls the Dead.

In the last pack, I got the best card I could have opened: Recurring Nightmare. However, in the next pick, I got a Goblin Bombardement. Here, I had to decide whether I could make Obosh work or not. I already noticed that I did not see a lot of 1 drops tabling (and cards that should table never table for some reason), so I had to decide whether I want it or not. I only had like 14 odd CMC cards so far, so I picked up the Bombardment and gave up on my companion dreams. Hence, I could also play most other even CMC cards from the first pack. In this pack, I got Gonti, Shriekmaw and Retrofitter Foundry. Shriekmaw seems really awesome with Obosh (also with Keruga). At the end, I didn't have enough playables to play Obosh as my companion (yeah Companions are not just free 8th cards). However, I still wanted to test it in the 40. 

BRg Aristocrats

The deck was good, but not really good. I would have loved more 1 drops but it was fine. The deck was able to be aggressive and could grind against value decks if necessary. I only lost against the Winner's deck in three very one-sided games that were mostly decided by one of us being mana screwed. Again, a few aspects I want to share:

1) Captain Lannery Storm is great. The worst case is a 3 Mana 3/2 creature with haste (which gives a Sac trigger for Korvold and Mayhem Devil), which is not great but fine. However, if Lannery is left unchecked for one turn, meaning you have attacked two times, you have two treasures, which is a huge tempo advantage if they are immediately cashed in to play ahead of curve. This is huge because there are not many cards that generate mana whiles simultaneously applying pressure to your opponent. It felt really strong generating mana while bashing in for damage. I really underestimated this card. 

2) Korvold is great. If Korvold is not removed immediately, you win the game. Simple as that. I drew Korvold only two times and both times I won the next turn. The good thing about Korvold is, that one gets immediate value when it enters the battlefield. Together with Goblin Bobardment, Recurring Nightmare and Lannery's Treasure Tokens, Korvold quickly becomes a 10+/10+ Flyer and draws 5+ cards, at which point, one cannot lose anymore. One game, against the GW enchantment deck, I could win the game by bashing in with a 12/12 Korvold while Obosh was out, hitting my opponent down from 23 life to zero in one turn (Pl controlled a 8/8 Lyra, enchanted with All that Glitters, and was foolish enough to attack. Who can blame them?)

3) Retrofitter Foundry is really great. It is just a great way to always spend all your mana and it does not take a long time to create 4/4 golems. The card only costs 1 mana, which is mind blowing to me. It grants sacrifice triggers for Korvold, gives Tokens for Recuring Nightmare and is amazing with Goblin Bombardment and I will prioritize it the next draft very highly.

4) Obosh was fine. It was not busted or anything, but it was definitely not bad. It was often awkward to have even CMC creatures or tokens together with Obosh and a 6/5 creature by itself is not great. However, when Obosh was great it was amazing. For example hitting with a Yahenni that hits twice as hard and is indestructible on demand. Carrion Feeder is also very scary together with Obosh. I do not like, that your creatures often just get chump blocked and sometimes even die without dealing anymore damage. Cards with trample seem insane with Obosh. However, Obosh made Korvold unstoppable and Obosh also worked really nice with Gurmag Angler (it is about the small synergies).

5) Once upon a time is busted. Just want to remind people that this card is absurd. It just makes me so happy having this in my opening hand. I kept tracked and I lost no game with OuaT in my opening hand (three games in total against each opponent). Coincidence? Maybe?! (Probably yes.)

...and here we are to select the winner...

1st Place: Tasigur's Sultai Stuff
Standing: 3-0

Often times, I do not understand why decks are great. Often, when I am drafting, I am thinking that my deck will be unbeatable just to be crushed. Other times, my draft goes fine and I end up destroying everyone. Is it luck and accident? Or am I unable to evaluate decks only by the decklist? Probably a mixture of those two. Anyway, here is an example of a deck that played out really great and I would not have thought so. The main goal of the deck is to create value by all means. Pl has great finishers in the form of The Eldest Reborn, Hogaak and Thassa bests the Seagod. Also, a lot of Graveyard filling abilities with Fauna Shaman, Satry Wayfinder and Life from the Loam together with graveyard payoffs like Exhume, Animate Dead and Hogaak. 

Sultai Value Town

Again, a few remarks which will also explain the deck:

1) Tasigur is great. The name of the deck suggests that Tasigur has the main role here. It was just absurd how many games were won by this guy. If the game went long, this deck could not lose anymore. One game against the WG enchantment deck, Pl brought back the Eldest Reborn twice! Thassa bests the Seagod was also brought back from the graveyard and that card just wins the game everytime. Hogaak was also surprisingly good a a big dumb idiot that could be cast very frequently and could filter your graveyard for Tasigur activations. When Tasigur died, it was just brought back from the graveyard via Animate Dead, Exhume or by The Eldest Reborn. Tasigur was the MVP of the whole draft.

2) Wilderness Reclamation is great. This comes hand in hand with 1): Tasigur's ability goes insanely well with it. So do all the counter spells. Again, there are little synergies such a Gilded Goose which was a lifegain engine, virtually for free. Cycling is also very good with Wilderness Reclamation going through your deck but also enabling dredge from Life from the Loam multiple times in one turn cycle.

3) It is worth to splash colors to be able to activate Golos. Pl did not have the best fixing ever, but it was fine. He had Fabled Passage and Ash Barrens to fetch up the necessary missing lands and they both could be brought back with Life from the Loam. Pl played a Mountain and a Plains just to be able to activate Golos. The great thing is that Golos often fetches the last color by itself and one Golos activation is often enough to bury your opponent in card advantage. Absurd things can also happen, like activating Golos in response to a spell (because you have enough mana available because of Wilderness Reclamation) to flip a Supreme Will. Just brutal.

Cards of the Day (not necessarily the most powerful, rather memorable cards that did unexpectedly good)

3rd: Mox Amber
2nd: Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
1st: Tasigur, the Golden Fang 

This is the complete write-up. I will probably do this more frequently now, because I like writing stuff down and I wanted some way to store cube decks and note some of their pros and cons. I am glad if you enjoyed the write-up and would gladly talk with you about the decks or cards or cube in general.

See you.