Tales of Outrage

Tales of Outrage:

P1 Seraph of the Swords into P2 Outrage sets the direction of the draft though P5 I grabbed Grotto over Canyon Minotaur and Griffin Sentinel as I wasn’t seeing any W. Seraph is one of the few splashable cards in M14.

RW is supposed to be slivers – I don’t know if it has any other archetypes. Possibly something with weenies and Fortify? I did get a Molten Birth and Hive Stirrings. But the RW slivers are all mediocre so I ended up with just 5 + Stirrings and Construct stayed in the board. Note that Striking Sliver is the most powerful one.

(As an aside, one of my opponents had two Bonescythe Slivers, which perhaps explain this turn of events)

I was tempted by Angelic Accord but resisted…and then saw two Congregate and two Elixir. Which, to be fair, still doesn’t make for a very good deck. Accord feels like Curses did in Avacyn – a trap that I always want to build, but never will.

I take Pacifism over Haunted Plate Mail. Not entirely sure about that. I also took Shock over Charging Griffin twice. I’m not a fan of the Griffin.

And…here’s the exciting part…FOUR Chandra’s Outrage! Also 2 Pacifism, 2 Shock, Banisher Priest and Pitchburn Devils. Only 12 creatures, and most of them are pretty mediocre. The plan is to wipe out all their creatures and swarm, or wipe out their key creatures and win with Seraph. Milling may be required and I have a Millstone in the sideboard.

I’m sure there are other builds. Some interesting nuance – I’ve got Chanter over Paladin because I need something that can deal 4 damage. And I have Show of Valor over Thunder Strike (which I really wanted to play) because I assumed I would need R open more frequently than W in case I needed to Shock or Outrage in the same turn.

Highlights:

1) R1G1 my GR opponent has Haunted Plate Mail, Fireshrieker AND Accorder’s Shield. He does not realize that Plate Mail can attack on its own (or that Pacified Ooze can gain him life), but it doesn’t matter as I can’t kill every creature he has forever.

2) R1G2 I have both Smelts and Shock in hand, waiting for targets…and he plays Demolish on my only Mountain! As I have no artifacts in my deck, this was certainly a surprise.

Luckily, next draw was a Mountain, but for a few seconds I was panicked!

3) R1G2 and G3 – I picked Indestructibility higher than I should because I wanted to try it out. GR is the perfect match-up for it, especially with all that equipment. My two Smelts also come in.

Unfortunately, I never draw the aura. Fortunately, I frequently drew my Smelts.

He was new – he had 49 seconds left and he was bounce attacking for no reason. He also attacked with double-strike 3/3 into Seraph.

4) R2 is BW with lots of enchantments. Pacifism does the heavy lifting, but so do his marginal attacks into my 3/5 guys. He also uses Liturgy early in G2 on a sliver instead of waiting for Seraph.

5) I was worried about mana sinks. Chanter is an amazing mana sink – a bit too good at it. Raider was excellent – I kept drawing it when I had 6 land in play and 2 in hand as Mind Rot defence. It feels weird to only need 6 mana ever!

6) R3 is UB but I don’t see any B in G1. I get great draws with random dude and lots of removal backing it up.

7) Molten Birth record: 1-4.

3-0.

In my last 8 drafts:

3-0 x3
2-1 x4
1-2 x1

18-6 75% win percentage up from 15-9 (62.5%) in the previous 8. Perhaps it’s time to move up from Swiss?

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Tales of 5-Colour Green That Wasn’t:

P1P1 Ratchet Bomb over Doom Blade. That’s probably not the right pick, but I’ve wanted to play with Bomb a bit more and I’m not a fan of splashing in M14 if B gets cut off.

P2 Baloth over Deathgaze Cockatrice and Fireshrieker followed by Enlarge over Mark of the Vampire and Child of Night suggests that both B and G are open, but I stick with G for P1 picking up a late Haven and Ingot.

The problem with having access to all 5 colours is that most of the good cards can’t be splashed. I don’t remember a set that had so few splashable good cards. I grab a Pacifism and some sideboard options, but I pass a Banisher Priest.

I foolishly grab Ajani’s Chosen in P3 over Giant Growth and a 2nd Howl, followed by Serra, but when I went to build I realized I just didn’t have enough cards.

(As an aside, I find it a bit frustrating that there are all these cards that benefit from enchantments, but not enough enchantments to make them worth it. It’s like they’re all intended for the “enchantment matters” set coming out in two months…)

I end up playing Gw with Pacifism and Serra off of 5 Plains, which is awful. Of course, the only colour trouble I had was finding GG on T2 for Tusker. I got lucky.

I tried Haven + Ingot +…Accursed Spirit? Frost Breath? It was a mess.

Highlights:

1) R1 we both stall on 2 lands, but he discards and never gets his second colour. Then he stalls on 2 lands in G2 as well. Not a fun match for him.

2) R2G1 I mulligan to a 4-land hand and draw 5 lands and Baloth. I have 13 lands on T14. What’s weird is that I might have been able to win if I’d played more aggressively as he had a very slow start. Normally it’s better to stall the board in hopes of drawing your spells, but instead he drew his Shadowborn Demon and sac’d Elemental tokens that should have been chump blocking my Baloth.

3) R2G2 goes to me because he draws too much land, R2G3 I play Pacifism on his Blur Sliver to avoid discard and early beatings, and I regret it much later when Shadowborn Demon arrives.

4) R3G1 I choose not to trade Hunt + Serra for 5/5 Nightmare assuming he won’t have a 6th Swamp on T8 so I have a turn to play Groundshaker Sliver.

He plays a Swamp. The 2-1 for one not in my favour hurts.

5) I boldly play Enlarge on my Giant Spider to kill his Elvish Mystic. He taps it for mana in response. I have now learned that Mystic cannot be killed by Enlarge.

6) It’s an epic battle with giant guys showing up on both sides. Sengir, Reaver, Nightmare and Abomination for him, Baloth, Serra, Behemoth, Groundshaker for me.

Finally, the dream draw – Howl of the Night Pack with 7 Forests!

7) Next game he plays the Recluse that kept trading with my better guys due to Corpse Hauler. I attack Tusker into it, he gets it back with Hauler…and I Bramblecrush his only Forest!

He never draws another one as I quickly lay down Baloth, Serra and Behemoth.

2-1.