I've organized my first draft with this cube, yaaaay!
A lot of new faces, as Daan, Richard, Flip, and Pascal are all first timers, and none of us have ever drafted this cube in real life (though some had looked at the list I put up on CubeCobra, and Siebe drafted the heck out of it online). Here's the results,
as blogged on CubeCobra.
Final standings
1. Martijn (Seat 1, WWW - BWr Control)
2. Danny (Seat 8, WWL - Ninjas Tempo)
3. Siebe (Seat 7, WLW - UG Ramp Control)
4. Daan (Seat 3, LWW - 5-Color Artifacts)
5. Richard (Seat 6, WLL - Grumgully Gruul)
6. Flip (Seat 2, LWL - Token Boros)
7. Pascal (Seat 4, LLW - GU)
8. Wim (Seat 5, LLL - Esper Artifacts)
We had a nice spread of archetypes and colors, which was really nice to see. I even managed to snag some screenshots, so I could share some decklists with all of you from an actual draft! Sweetest play of the day, for me, was when I was up against Siebe in my second match. Both of the first games were superb slugfests, with me winning the first by decking Siebe, and Siebe winning the second because he had boarded in
Midnight Clock and I couldn't find my single removal "spell" for it. In the third game, being on the play, Siebe had shown no sweepers so far, and he would have certainly sided them out after seeing recursive threats like
Firemane Angel and
Eternal Dragon on my side. So I decided to go as aggressive as possible and sided in a whopping 11 cards, turning my curve super low. I drew a perfect opener with
Figure of Destiny,
Seeker of the Way,
Yahenni, Undying Partisan, and the mana to pay for all (and upgrade Figure to a 4/4). Turns out, Siebe had been sideboarding into a slower strategy to gain an ever greater edge in the control on control mirror, and I completely overwhelmed him with my super aggressive start. I've never had a transformative sideboard work quite
that well! (Sorry Siebe
)
Decklists
1. Martijn (Seat 1, WWW - BWr Control)
The two customs are:
P1P1
Crux of Fate / P1P15
Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
P2P1
Firefield Borderpost / P2P15
Rimrock Knight
P3P1
Sacred Foundry / P3P15
Yahenni, Undying Partisan
MVC(s):
Seeker of the Way,
Edifice of Authority,
Trading Post
The
Deal Broker traded a
Ripjaw Raptor for a
Seeker of the Way (which turned out to be a very good deal). After the trade I took the longest to build my deck, out of all the players, because I had so many directions to go! Thanks to the transformative sideboard plan in my second match, a whopping 12 cards in my sideboard saw play during the tournament. The most important ones, however, where
Angel of Despair (my only noncreature removal) and
Metalwork Colossus (for the sheer beef and even more recursion).
All of my matches were interesting, only in my first game against Wim did I experience mana troubles (I never drew a third land after mulliganing). Again against Wim, I was lucky to dodge his most powerful cards, it's always nice when your opponent's deck cooperates. The matches against Siebe and Danny were extremely tight, and they played out completely different. Danny put a lot more pressure on the table, with a bunch of one drops into ninjutsu into a flood of small critters and disruption (both discard and counterspells). Thankfully I nicely stepped around most traps, and was able to get some good Wraths in. After a nailbiting third game in the finals, where I held back a bunch of big flyers for multiple turns while at a precarious life total in order to stabilize again, I finally was able to go on the offensive with a Metalwork Colossus that just turned into the deadliest
The Abyss. Great games, and really happy I was able to win it! (Especially with a Mardu control deck!)
2. Danny (Seat 8, WWL - Ninjas Tempo)
Didn't get all of the lands on the deck pic, he might have had an additional
Polluted Delta I think. But yeah, Danny played 16 lands and had an incredibly sleek deck list.
The custom is:
P1P1
Throat Slitter / P1P15
Bonds of Faith
P2P1
Connive // Concoct / P2P15
Omnath, Locus of Rage
P3P1
Dreadmalkin / P3P15 Cogwork Doppelganger
MVC(s):
Hypnotic Siren,
Spectral Sailor,
Yuriko, Ninja of the Deep Hours,
Fatal Push.
Danny is a regular in my cube drafts (in fact he's the one who introduced me to cube!), and according to him this might very well be the very best deck he's ever drafted in any of my cubes. It certainly performed very well, and the two games in his 2-1 loss against me in the final were in fact the only two he dropped in three rounds. I was lucky my deck was pretty stacked against him with three wrath effects and a bunch of incidental life gain, because his deck ran very smooth indeed, combining aggressive drops from turn 1 with a steady flow of cards. I think I mentioned the nailbiting third game in the finals
3. Siebe (Seat 7, WLW - UG Ramp Control)
The two customs are:
P1P1
The Great Henge / P1P15
Mistvein Borderpost
P2P1
Leafkin Druid / P2P15
Cartel Aristocrat
P3P1
Beast Within / P3P15
Maelstrom Wanderer
MVC(s):
Apex Altisaur,
Tatyova, Benthic Druid,
The Great Henge
Siebe had a super interesting UG control list, capable of splashing red for
Maelstrom Wanderer and/or
Sarkhan Unbroken from the board. As mentioned, he had a
Midnight Clock in the board as well for the control mirror. Siebe played some very tight Magic during the day, and had I not been able to take on the role of aggressor in that third game, he might have very well ran away with the win.
Siebe's first match against Daan's 5-color artifacts was already pretty epic, and his match against yours truly didn't last any shorter. Siebe's deck was geared towards the late game pretty heavily, with lots of card advantage, some counterspells, but also (quite importantly) a bunch of incidental life gain. Well drafted and well piloted, great job on the third place!
Also, Altisaur is a beast when it hits play! I've seen it wreck multiple board states as I was seated next to him. I'm pretty sure it felt like a great ramp reward for Siebe during the whole draft, it's not a coincidence he mentioned it first in his list of most valuable cards.
4. Daan (Seat 3, LWW - 5-Color Artifacts)
The custom is a BW nonbasic (
Concealed Courtyard with basic land types)
P1P1
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim / P1P15
Shardless Agent
P2P1
Seal of Doom / P2P15
Pianna, Nomad Captain
P3P1
Sarkhan Unbroken* / P3P15
Creeping Trailblazer
MVC(s):
Steel Overseer,
Bow of Nylea
Notable sideboard cards:
Pacification Array,
Voyager Staff,
Bygone Bishop,
Zacama, Primal Calamity,
Blessed Alliance.
Daan joked he lost the first game (against Siebe) so he could rack up two easy wins in the losers bracket, but his deck was no joke at all! Daan picked his lands very high, and it shows in the perfect mana base. Combined with the swath of colorless creatures, this deck should hardly ever run into mana problems. One swap I would have personally made was Bloodbraid Elf for that P1P15 Shardless Agent. Steel Overseer is your best card, so having higher chances to hit it is excellent, and it's an artifact creature to boot! Anyway, some disciplined drafting turned the only 5-color deck at the table into one of the most dangerous as well. Great work!
*I'm pretty sure that P3P1 Sarkhan was filled out wrong, since I faced Sarkhan when playing Siebe, and there's only one in the cube. Maybe he meant to write down Sorin?
5. Richard (Seat 6, WLL - Grumgully Gruul)
The two customs are:
P1P1
Seasoned Pyromancer / P1P15 Hatching Hellkite
P2P1
Grove Rumbler / P2P15
Ajani's Presence
P3P1
Rift Bolt / P3P15
Monastery Swiftspear
MVC(s):
Grumgully, the Generous
Richard is a Commander afficionado, and I this was actually his first draft ever. His land to spells ratio is a bit off, but his curve is really low, so I don't know how much that hurt him. He probably should have cut the two artifacts for a 16th land and another aggressive drop, like that P3P15 Monastery Swiftspear, and that P1P1 Seasoned Pyromancer should also probably have made the deck with both Hatching Hellkite and Grumgully able to take advantage of the three bodies it makes. All in all though, this is a pretty sweet aggressive Gruul list, and he did have to face both Danny's and Siebe's decks. Not a bad first showing at all!
Incidentally, I'm very happy he named Grumgully as his MVC. I love the card, and it's great to see it actually performed for him, as I've been seeing mixed signals on the internet on this goblin's viability
6. Flip (Seat 2, LWL - Token Boros)
The customs are two custom RW lands and the following two:
P1P1
Ravos, Soultender / P1P15
Guided Passage
P2P1
The Eldest Reborn / P2P15 Deck of Many Things
P3P1 Sun Gem / P3P15
Hordeling Outburst
MVC(s):
Pyrohemia, Summon // War
Flip is a buddy of Danny, but they usually play board games with a small group of friends. In fact, Danny didn't even know Flip played Magic until recently, but I'm glad he found out, because Flip was able to fill in a relatively last minute free slot after another player had to bow out. His mana base could be a bit better for a three color deck, and the Wildfire looks a bit out of place in this aggro deck, but he definitely made Daan fight for the points in the third match, where
Bow of Nylea sadly (for Flip, at least) put one of Daan's creatures out of Wildfire range.
Incidentally, I'm super happy that Summon // War made it to Flip's MVC list. It's the last custom I added to my cube before this draft, and I really liked the design after testing. Always nice to see that translate to the real world.
7. Pascal (Seat 4, LLW - GU)
Pascal had to leave after the draft portion, after a house sighting was advanced to an earlier time slot. He also left earlier, after Wim conceded the third match, and I sadly wasn't able to snap a pic of his deck. I do have his picks though.
P1P1
Snapcaster Mage / P1P15
Frilled Deathspitter
P2P1
Prophet of Kruphix / P2P15
Skyknight Vanguard
P3P1 Call of the Earth (a
Call of the Herd that makes elemental tokens) / P3P15
Cryptbreaker
8. Wim (Seat 5, LLL - Esper Artifacts)
The custom card is:
P1P1
Tezzeret the Schemer / P1P15
Mizzium Tank
P2P1
Warkite Marauder / P2P15
Honored Crop-Captain
P3P1
Creeping Tar Pit / P3P15
Frontier Bivouac
MVC(s): -
Notable sideboard cards: Savvy Trader,
Toolcraft Exemplar,
Warkite Marauder,
Bone Dragon,
Marionette Master,
Kederekt Leviathan.
Wim is a regular, notorious for drafting fun decks, and then not drawing his main pieces all night long. He drew the perfect storm of cards exactly once, and promptly won the game against Daan, but it's striking how often his brews fail to cough up key cards. Well, that's the downside of Magic for ya. Wim resigned to his fate, admitting he's a bit rusty as a player as well, but I do hope he has better luck next time! Besides, being rusty didn't prevent him from winning a four man Dominaria silent auction last year after one of my cube drafts, so who knows, his luck might just return next time around!
I'ld like to use my closing words to thank everyone for joining this cube draft. I had tremendous fun,. Easy, admittedly, when you're winning
The other players also seemed to enjoy themselves though, and they're more than welcome to return for the next draft, which hopefully doesn't take as long to organize now that I've got a functioning cube again!
