M10 Too Black, Too Strong

Howdy, folks! We did another M10 draft last Wednesday night at our weekly meetup, and at the request of some friends, I tried to do a better job of recording my picks and how things went down. I still didn’t record game or match notes, but I think I’ll do okay at remembering. The short of it is that I drafted mono-black, came in second (out of six), and felt like most of my games were blowouts for one side or the other.

Pack 1:

Act of Treason
Doom Blade
Tendrils of Corruption
Warpath Ghoul
Sign in Blood
Wall of Bone
Vampire Aristocrat
Unholy Strength
Demon’s Horn
Enormous Baloth
Entangling Vines
Fog
Relentless Rats
Naturalize
Mountain

I actually passed a pack one, pick one Nightmare because I began with no intentions of going mono-black and didn’t really want to necessarily push myself into that path so early. Of course, I also never considered that an X/X flyer is pretty good by itself in limited. As it was, I picked a solid uncommon that didn’t end up making it into my deck, or even my sideboard considerations really.

Pick two had a bunch of removal like Pacifism, Ice Cage

When the Enormous Baloth came around late, I considered doing a black-green build (hence the Baloth, Vines, Fog, Naturalize package from this pack), but there were plenty of black cards coming later that allowed me to really maximize things like Tendrils of Corruption and Demon’s Horn.

That’s right, Demon’s Horn. Respect the Horn.

Pack 2:

Enormous Baloth
Gravedigger
Assassinate
Vampire Aristocrat
Dread Warlock
Rampant Growth
Emerald Oryx
Nature’s Spiral
Lava Axe
Yawning Fissure
Disentomb
Yawning Fissure
Island

The green theme continued in pack two as I chose a second Enormous Baloth over Jace and Divination but no decent black cards. I passed another Divination when I took Gravedigger and knew that Abe, sitting to my right, would be happy to take the blue cards.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many good black cards beyond the first few I picked up. I mean, Yawning Fissure, really? I have no defense for that pick.

I was happy to pick the Gravedigger, however, as the eventual pair of those I would get kept me in many games, returning each other for extra card advantage.

Pack 3:

Doom Blade
Assassinate
Rise from the Grave
Howling Banshee
Tendrils of Corruption
Child of Night
Duress
Gravedigger
Unholy Strength
Looming Shade
Regenerate
Demon’s Horn
Swamp
Plains

Pack three was obviously huge for me, and was what really allowed me to go mono-black without looking back. Second Doom Blades, Assassinates, and Tendrils of Corruption gave me a six-pack of strong removal spells, and Rise from the Grave gave me something to do with all of those creatures I was killing. Child of Night and the two Unholy Strengths were huge for me, especially alongside the two Demon’s Horns and Tendrils of Corruption. I bought several turns and finished several games above 30 life.

I put together this pile:

2x Doom Blade
2x Assassinate
2x Tendrils of Corruption
2x Unholy Strength
2x Demon’s Horn
1x Rise from the Grave
1x Sign in Blood

2x Gravedigger
2x Vampire Aristocrat
1x Dread Warlock
1x Warpath Ghoul
1x Howling Banshee
1x Child of Night
1x Wall of Bone
1x Relentless Rats
1x Looming Shade

17x Swamp

I probably could have splashed for some big ol’ green fat and an extra removal spell in Entangling Vines, but I decided I’d rather maximize Tendrils of Corruption and eliminate my chances of color screw. I did pick up some Forests, just in case I wanted to make some switches between games, but everything worked out pretty well.

Unfortunately, I’d be hard pressed to give any actual details. One thing about draft decks is that, since I’m less familiar with the cards than those of my favorite format, Vintage, it’s harder for me to recall the sequences of plays.

I will, however, make the attempt—for you.

Round 1 – Josh

Josh played a white, red, and green deck with a fairly solid soldier subtheme, a bunch of green color fixers, and some red removal. His notable cards included Rhox Pikemaster, Veteran Swordsmith, and Blinding Mage.

For game one, he had an abundance of lands, to the point where, even though I had near 20 life, I was worried about a game-ending Fireball wrecking my day. He had held off an early Unholy Strong Child of Night with the Blinding Mage and a later Pacifism, but Dread Warlock was giving him fits, especially since I recurred it a couple of times with Grave Digger. I expended enough removal that we had a bit of a creature stall toward the end, but Howling Banshee dropped to bring death from the skies.

Game two, he got color screwed, not finding a second white source for too long. My three-drop 2/2s were supported by enough removal to get in for the win.

Round 2 – Abe

Abe was the one picking up those great blue cards I was passing. He ended up with a strong blue- and red-based deck with a white splash.

For all three games, I leaned heavily on lifegain from Child of Night, Demon’s Horn, and Tendrils of Corruption to keep me in it.

They were good back-and-forth affairs, and the two games I won relied on me playing a critical Rise from the Grave. First I was able to deal with a pesky Prodigal Pyromancer long enough to bring back one of Abe’s Lightning Elementals for a hasty four to the dome. Another time, one attack away from death, I was able to bring back Howling Banshee to take advantage of my opponent’s low life and win on the spot.

The game I lost was due to my 2/2s not being able to keep up with his big red machine. Inferno Elemental was just too much in too many attacks.

Round 3 – Doug

Doug also played red, white, and green, but played a more tempo-oriented deck with fast white attackers and red removal. He ended up placing first in the draft, and certainly stomped me.

The two games we played were over quickly. In the first, I mulliganed to six with two Swamps in hand but never saw the third one. Since the bulk of my creatures cost three, I was only able to Doom Blade one attacker and cast and block with a Child of Night to stay alive.

Doug was able to swarm me in the second game. Our creatures were similarly sized, but since most of his were two-drops he had three in play to my two on turn three. Soon he had a Serra Angel, and the only answer I had was Assassinate that couldn’t cut the mustard. It was a ridiculous drubbing.

Round 4 – Ryan

Ryan and I played mostly for fun since there were only six players and the results would be determined by the outcome of Doug vs. Abe. Ryan had a terrible draft and knew it: no removal, weak creatures, and no good finisher. He did have some decent card selection in Merfolk Looter and Sage Owl, but in his other games he just wasn’t living long enough to see it pan out.

In game one, I had answers for everything he played and was gaining life continuously from a pair of Demon’s Horns. I could have won with any single creature, but several ended it quickly.

I mulliganed again to start game two, and again got stuck on two lands for a long time. However, since Ryan’s deck was so slow, I was able to draw into lands and start making a slow but steady comeback fueled by the Rise from the Grave getting Gravedigger, getting Gravedigger, getting another creature card advantage engine. It was tenuous and our game finally got called due to time, but I think I could have won it.

The cards that really surprised me all night were the Demon's Horns. This is the second week that I've drafted and played the new "Lucky Charms" in an appropriately mono-colored deck, having used Kraken's Eye in mono-blue a couple of weeks ago. They're surprisingly potent in a format largely defined by smallish creatures and removal.

You buy so many turns, just by doing stuff you'd normally do. "Assassinate your guy, gain a life." "Tendrils your guy for 8, gain 9." "Make a ghoul, gain a life." Etc.

My first opponent, Josh, recognized this right away, saying, "We're in for the long game, huh?" Counting it up last time, Kraken's Eye bought me two full turns against a Cudgel Troll, enough to let me win by decking. So, yes, we're in for the long game.

Obviously this is a small sample size, and going mono-colored isn't always easy, convenient, or the right play, but I might try this again, just to see what happens. I'd be interested in hearing anyone else's results as well.

Anyway, that was pretty much it. I’ve had a good time drafting M10, and have tried several different archetypes, included the vaunted Tome Scour deck. Though I’m not a huge fan of paying for packs (mostly because I have zero use for the cards afterwards), I hope we’ll continue to do this every once in a while.

For my second place finish, I got to take home the Jace Beleren, a Haunting Echoes (to go with another Haunting Echoes and two Traumatize), and some other random okayness.

Hopefully next week, I’ll start getting into some of the Zendikar stuff. Or maybe some Vintage! I’ve been playing a lot of Oath and have played against the Steel City Vault Deck and GWB Beats deck recently, so maybe I’ll put together some discussion.

Until then, I recommend you play whatever format is available. Magic of any kind is fun.