Monday, August 4, 2014

An M15 Draft

A couple weeks ago, I participated in a draft for M15. Out of my first pack came a Soul of Ravnica, which any Soul is powerful in Limited, so I definitely grabbed it. Among the other packs, I picked up three rares, one of which was Hornet's Nest. That was the most powerful card to have in this deck, at least until I could get some of the other heavy hitters onto the field.

Hornet Nest




Blue Cards
Green Cards
White Cards
Aeronaut Tinkerer
Aeronaut Tinkerer
Chasm Skulker
Coral Barrier
Divination
Divination
Encrust
Frost Lynx
Glacial Crasher
Into the Void
Invisibility
Jace's Ingenuity
Jorubai Murk Lurker
Kapsho Kitefins
Mind Sculpt
Mind Sculpt
Negate
Nimbus of the Isles (FOIL)
Paragon of Gathering Mists
Soul of Ravnica
Statute of Denial
Stormtide Leviathan
Turn to Frog
Void Snare
Wall of Frost
Charging Rhino
Charging Rhino
Gather Courage
Hornet Nest
Hunt the Week
Living Totem
Naturalize
Satyr Wayfinder
Undergrowth Scavenger
Vineweft
Vineweft
Divine Favor
Ephemeral Shields
Selfless Cathar
Artifacts
Land
Ornithopter
Staff of the Mind Magus
Tyrant's Machine
Darksteel Citadel (FOIL)
Mountain
Forest

When you grab a couple blue rares, especially something like Soul of Ravnica, and you find a Hornet's Nest, there is nothing left but to go with a Blue/Green control deck with a mix of aggro late game. So check out the deck:

Green/Blue Control/Aggro

3rd Place, Red Battle Games FNM Draft: Danville, VA 25 July 2014

Creatures

x1 Wall of Frost
x1 Chasm Skulker
x1 Coral Barrier
x1 Frost Lynx
x1 Hornet Nest
x1 Living Totem
x1 Paragon of Gathering Mists
x1 Charging Rhino
x1 Nimbus of the Isles
x1 Soul of Ravnica
x1 Stormtide Leviathan

Land

x11 Island
x5 Forest

Artifacts

x1 Tyrant's Machine
x2 Staff of the Mind Magus

Other Spells

x1 Gather Courage
x2 Vineweft
x1 Void Snare
x1 Invisibility
x2 Mind Sculpt
x1 Negate
x1 Turn to Frog
x1 Encrust
x2 Divination
x1 Hunt the Weak
x1 Into the Void
x1 Jace's Ingenuity

So, the main goal is to hold on long enough to get something out. The first possibilities were Wall of Frost, Chasm Skulker, Coral Barrier, Frost Lynx, or Hornet Nest. From there, playing something like Vineweft, Living Totem, or Paragon of Gathering Mists would boost at least one of those. Of course, any boost to Hornet Nest would help.

Chasm Skulker  Coral Barrier  Paragon of Gathering Mists

I never saw Chasm Skulker in any game, but I did frequently see Paragon of Gathering Mists and occasionally saw Coral Barrier. I won 4 of the 6 games I played, and it heavily depended on having Hornet Nest on the field, so that was definitely the key player, but other cards played a big part in the game.

Mind Sculpt  Divination  Jace's Ingenuity

The supporting players either drew cards or milled cards. In the first match, I played against a White/Black lifegain deck, and I was able to fight off some large threats and get a decent amount of insect tokens out of it during the first game and brought in backup with Soul of Ravnica and Stormtide Leviathan. In the second game, I was able to play Hornet Nest when I was at 5 life, and then used both Mind Sculpts which milled out options that could get rid of it, and then used Divination and Jace's Ingenuity until I could find my Stormtide Leviathan. Additionally, Tyran'ts Machine was amazing as I was able to take out a heavy hitter before I could get something on the field to help. I stopped many large strikes.

Soul of Ravnica  Stormtide Leviathan  Tyrant's Machine

The deck worked great and only failed against a Red/Black deck that was much faster. Without Hornet Nest, the game slowed down considerably. Either way, going 2-1 in this draft was pretty awesome. If you notice though, all the important cards for the late game either fly or have Islandwalk. All the tokens have one or the other and the big creatures do as well, and in Limited, the game ends with Stormtide Leviathan because unless you could get some of these cards that provide Islandwalk or you have some sort of flyer, then there isn't much you can do against this deck unless you can play faster and send damage in before I can play my creatures.

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