Scars of / Mirrodin Besieged Draft Log #1

by Vito Gesualdi

Whenever I do an 8-4 draft and Camtasia (my video recorder) decides to break, I know I have a pretty good chance of aceing the event. More often than not I’ll steamroll through the competition, collect my eight packs, and curse myself for not having video evidence. Luckily I’ve activated the option to record my drafts, and feeding it into this here program it exports as easy HTML so I can rant about my picks and my draft. Let’s see if my luck holds out and the curse of the broken Camtasia actually pays off.

Pack 1 pick 1:

My Pick:

Green Sun’s Zenith doesn’t really excite me in limited. Blightwidow however is just a fantastic card. Even if I don’t end up in Infect, it will block all day long, and has the most potential. There’s a safe pick in the form of Viridian Claw, but I’m willing to try and cut Infect hard from pack one.

Pack 1 pick 2:

My Pick:

This is a good sign. The player to our right took a rare, and with only four infect rares (and one Mythic) we’re pretty sure he isn’t chasing the archetype. Snatching up Wolf seems good, though it’s sad to watch Pierce Strider go, which I think is one of the best beaters in the format.

Pack 1 pick 3:

My Pick:

Well, no infect creatures, though Mortarpod is a great card in any deck, and even better if we do end up in infect after all.

Pack 1 pick 4:

My Pick:

Tough call between Plunder, Servant and Mettle. Foil catches my eye and I go for it. Phyrexian Digester is garbage and should rarely be considered now that things like Oculus and Myr Sire, Blisterstick Shaman and other nonsense are floating around.

Pack 1 pick 5:

My Pick:

Well, I’m getting worried with no infect creatures floating my way. Haven’t tried Lead the Stampede yet but I’m sticking with beaters I love. If anything the Blightwidow will be a great wall to buy us time for this game-ender.

Pack 1 pick 6:

My Pick:

Ok…? A 6th pick Blightwidow puts me firmly in infect.

Pack 1 pick 7:

My Pick:

Darksteel Plate is interesting, but Husk gets the pick since it holds the ground early, and helps push extra damage through. Infect loves getting a power boost.

Pack 1 pick 8:

My Pick:

I don’t know why I took this. Maybe another two will spin and I can splash them?

Pack 1 pick 9:

My Pick:

Red looks pretty open, but we’ll take the pump.

Pack 1 pick 10:

My Pick:

None of these cards excite me. I figure Turn the Tide could be most annoying.

Pack 1 pick 11:

My Pick:

Wait, is blue open?

Pack 1 pick 12:

My Pick:

No… I’ll just play GB infect… right?

Pack 1 pick 13:

My Pick:

Holy moly! That’s a late bit of card draw. I <3 this card and might consider GU infect proliferate depending on how things go.

Pack 1 pick 14:

My Pick:

Whatever.

Pack 1 pick 15:

My Pick:

AWW YEAH

Pack 2 pick 1:

My Pick:

I think about taking Sylvok Replica for awhile, but ultimately decide Falcon Punch is sexier. This pack blows.

Pack 2 pick 2:

My Pick:

Well, this pack will help me test the waters on infect. I expect Stinger to get taken, but hope Mamba spins. Meanwhile I take the best Infect creature in the pack and worry about my curve.

Pack 2 pick 3:

My Pick:

I worry slightly less about my curve.

Pack 2 pick 4:

My Pick:

I again, worry about my curve. Damn infect four drops.

Pack 2 pick 5:

My Pick:

Don’t love this card, but its the only thing here we’d even consider, and again, equipment that boosts power is always a friend of infect.

Pack 2 pick 6:

My Pick:

Just a great piece of ground stall / removal.

Pack 2 pick 7:

My Pick:

Oh thank god, I was wondering if we would ever see a decent infect two-drop.
Pack 2 pick 8:

My Pick:

Kill is good, right? I’m playing black aren’t I? Hell if I’ve seen any other signals.

Pack 2 pick 9:

My Pick:

Rare draft I guess.

Pack 2 pick 10:

My Pick:

More rare draft…

Pack 2 pick 11:

My Pick:

Still don’t know if I’m blue or not, but this guy is a decent wall in the wrong hands.

Pack 2 pick 12:

My Pick:

Am I gonna have to play this garbage?

Pack 2 pick 13:

My Pick:

Bleh.

Pack 2 pick 14:

My Pick:

Ugh.

Pack 2 pick 15:

My Pick:

Whoopie!

Pack 3 pick 1:

My Pick:

This pack excites me terribly. We didn’t spin Mamba last pack, meaning it either got hated or more likely, there’s two other infect players at the table. Lucky for us, we get to take this Clasp, letting them fight over Ichorclaw and Plague Stinger, while we wheel a Thrummingbird. Blue is now my color of choice. Clasp is awesome.

Pack 3 pick 2:

My Pick:

Clasp is so awesome I want two. Yeah baby!

Pack 3 pick 3:

My Pick:

We needed this bad. Funny to see Ezuri’s Brigade and realize we could’ve been beating pretty hard with the Elf Lord and all the other beaters we saw, but eh.

Pack 3 pick 4:

My Pick:

YEAH BOY. Again, some great cards in this pack but there ain’t nothin wrong with Cystbearer.

Pack 3 pick 5:

My Pick:

If we go blue, we want bounce.

Pack 3 pick 6:

My Pick:

Here I lose my nerve a little bit, realizing that if another good black infect creature comes to me I’d easily go GB infect instead. I puss out and grab Nim.

Pack 3 pick 7:

My Pick:

Decent guy, and luckily able to avoid a lot of the 1/1 artifact blocker shanigans out there.

Pack 3 pick 8:

My Pick:

Cool trick.

Pack 3 pick 9:

My Pick:

Knew it would happen, and we’re happy to see this guy again. Along with two Contagion Clasps, one point of infect damage is likely all we need to nerf our opponent’s creatures.

Pack 3 pick 10:

My Pick:

I think about a second Progress, but Flight Spellbomb also cantrips and the effect seems a bit more reliable.

Pack 3 pick 11:

My Pick:

Could be having such an elf party right now if I took that Brigade…

Pack 3 pick 12:

My Pick:

Sideboard tech I will never use.

Pack 3 pick 13:

My Pick:

MORE GLIMMERPOSTS. I have a 4x foil playset of this card now. There are very dominant Cloudpost decks in Pauper, so don’t laugh at it too hard.

Pack 3 pick 14:

My Pick:

Garbage.

Pack 3 pick 15:

My Pick:

MOAR MOUNTAIN PLZ

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Thought about main-decking Fangren Marauder for the “Oh snap here comes lifegain” factor, but with two other infect decks at the table it obviously wasn’t worth it. Turn the Tide almost made the main, but we figured it was our weakest trick.

Round 1 vs BROKEAMERICAN305

Game One

I start off with Island, Forest, Flight Spellbomb, Ichorclaw Myr, Copper Myr, Tangle Angler, Untamed Might. Definitely a fine hand, even on the draw. Our opponent is RU, dropping Riddlesmith T2 to which we drop the Ichorclaw Myr. He rushes in with Riddlesmith and starts a full swing race that continues until the rest of the game. The problem is that though we keep drawing playable spells like Mirran Mettle or Perilous Myr, we cant find the 4th mana to put down our big stuff like Tangle Angler, or draw into more with the Vivisection we’re holding. Copper Myr plays the part of our third land, helping us drop a Cystbearer, him flashing Shimmer Myr in at end of turn – then dropping Turn to Slag on the 2/3 in order to beat us down to 12. We top a Rot Wolf and do the same as last turn, putting him to his third poison counter and using the Myr to drop a three-drop infect dude. Here’s where he gets fancy, dropping Hero of Oxid Ridge and after some consideration, fullswinging with Hero, Riddlesmith and Shimmer Myr and against Rot Wolf for 10.

There’s some options here, one is to go to 6 after blocking the Hero and netting a card with Rot Wolf’s ability. Thing is he’s at 3 poison, and we’ve got 3 points more poison swinging back at him with a Mirran Mettle ready to trigger off Ichorclaw, Copper and the T1 Flight Spellbomb.

He’s got blue up, not red (only two mountains), so we aren’t worried about burn for the win. His only out would actually be a Steel Sabotage (or flashing a cheap artifact creature in), and since I’m a moron I don’t even consider this – simply assuming he has no out. I take the ten damage, drop to two, then on my turn go for broke and slam those poison counters on him for the win. Two lands (and a Myr) is all you need with infect baby.

Game Two

On the draw again. Decent hand here of Forest, Forest, Perilous Myr, Oculus, Steady Progress, Blightwidow, Blightwidow. Basically, it looks like we’ll get where we’re going if we find an Island – with Perilous Myr buying us time for Blightwidow team to come down.

We rip the Island for Oculus, though aren’t willing to block his Myr Sire with it just yet, assuming we can prevent some decent damage with Dr. Chump down the line. T3 from us sees Strider Harness while T4 from him is a very intimidating Ogre Resister. We drop Blightwidow, while chumping with Oculus when the 4/3 comes in. He drops a Vulshok Replica, letting us beat against Myr Sire with our first Blightwidow. He chooses not to block, putting him as 2 poison, while we equipping our new Blightwidow with Strider Harness so it can effectively block the Ogre.

Here comes the first two for one in the form of Turn to Slag, devestating our Widow and Harness while he beats me down to 10. We topdeck Rot Wolf, and decide to go in with Blightwidow – putting him to 4 poison counters and letting us tap out for the Wolf and Perilous Myr as an effective blocking team.

Here comes the second two for one (kind of), as he now drops Kuldotha Flamefiend. Perilous Myr is our saving grace, as he sacs Vulshok knowing we’d knock it out anyhow, though he still gets in with Resister, putting us to five. Current boards are–

Myr Token, Ogre Resister, Kuldotha Flamefiend vs.
Blightwidow

Us at five life, him at four poison.

Eep! Time for tricks I guess. We’re holding Tel-Jilad Fallen, Steady Progress and Untamed Might, thankfully ripping the 6th land off the top of our deck. We put Tel-Jilad down, and when he alphas like a good boy we put the 3/1 infect in front of Flamefiend, and make our Widow a very sexy 3/5 with the Might, effectively blocking the Ogre (why he left the Myr Sire token back, I dunno). After he puts Iron Myr down we take our turn, ripping Cystbearer. For giggles we dig with Steady Progress, then come in with Widow to put him to 7 poison, then drop Cystbearer. Things are looking up.

Then, Spine of Ish Shah, which he uses to take out Cystbearer. I would’ve opted for the Widow, but he apparently wants to get me to four after swinging with the single Myr. Thankfully I draw Mortarpod, but instead of blowing out his only blocker and putting him to 9 poison, then equipping pod to the Widow to do the last point – I somehow forget that the pod can be re-equipped, and just happily slam into his Myr Token. He comes back with another stupid Mana Myr – more chumpy action, then Steel Sabotage snatching back the spine followed by Sky Eel School. After he’s forced to block Widow with the Eel he comes in with the now 1/1 flyer. We could pop the Pod’d Widow to prevent the damage, but we take the one and force him to  drops Spine again. Only then do we pop our Mortar’d Widow to finish the flyer off.

Topdeck war!

• I draw land.
• He drops Trigon of Corruption.
• I draw land.
• He does nothing.
• I draw Contagion Clasp!
• He drops Culling Dias, I proliferate like a champ at EOT putting him to 8 Poison
• I draw land.
• He draws and conceeds, then tells me Hero of Oxid Ridge was on top.

Sorry bro. He said he was a fan of the site though so props. Sorry I couldn’t get you in a video, but hopefully me beating you up in text feels just as bad.

Round 1 vs. ifarnung

Game One

I keep a not too exciting hand featuring Forest, Forest, Island, Island, Disperse, Steady Progress, Vivisection. I figure worst case scenario I can bounce a threat and cantrip with Progress, though again, worst case scenario. T2 Oculus makes us feel a lot better.

Game starts off very slow, him beating in with Sylvok Replica only for me to start getting my infect counters in with some Carrion Call tokens. I live the dream by saccing Oculus to Vivisection, but the dream sucks since we only draw three Islands and a Contagion Clasp. I start playing a bit too loose, assuming that by taking out Sylvok Replica not only will my tokens be getting in, but my Contagion Clasp will spell inevitability. We’re so committed to this idea we bounce his lone Pierce Strider just to put him to 6 counters. His Acid Web Spider then presents an interesting challenge. We could attack with both Insects into it to put him to 7 damage, or use the Clasp in hand to start nerfing it down to 0 power and then go for broke.

Anyhow, we decide to hold off and try to win with Clasp, but it doesn’t matter since Viridian Corrupter comes down and basically dicks us. With Clasp gone our Insect tokens are quickly outclassed by huge dudes, and though Perilous Myr helps hold the ground a Serum Raker slowly murders us. We’ve still got defense waiting in the two Blightwidows, and if we rip Flight Spellbomb it’ll get our Untamed Might through. Sadly, these things don’t happen.

Game Two

We take the play, keeping a great hand of Forest, Island, Island, Perilous Myr, Mortarpod, Blightwidow and Tangle Angler. Basically any hand with a two drop, three land and Blightwidow is my favorite hand in the world, and that’s what we have. We know he has artifact removal up the Yin-Yang, so we feed Mortarpod to Revoke Existence and hope he doesn’t draw more for when we drop the Contagion Clasp we’re now holding.

His deck is slow as dirt, putting Lumengrid Drake down against our Blightwidow. Then responding to our Tangle Angler with a Liquimetal Coating. We have six mana now, letting us kill the Drake with Clasp and put him to 6 poison counters. We have Untamed Might in hand but don’t need it, Tangle Angler keeping his Pierce Strider and Sky-Eel School at bay while Blightwidow goes the distance.

Game Three

After a long pause he mulligans to 5, which is a good sign for us. We keep Forest, Forest, Mirran Mettle, Contagion Clasp, Cystbearer (just read this now and realize I only listed five cards… I know I kept seven…). Cystbearer comes down, and we think about clasping his Gold Myr next turn to shut out some of his mana production, though the Tel-Jilad Fallen we rip off the top seems much sexier.

Here things get very interesting, as he taps out with the Myr to put down Viridian Emissary and a very scary Vedalken Anatomist. Our hand is stocked up on tricks: Mettle, Clasp, Turn the Tide, Disperse, with our Tel-Jelad Fallen and Cystbearer facing down his two guys.

Took me a long time to make up my mind here, but the general line of thought was that Disperse needed to be kept up so it could bounce any true problems. I clasped Emissary away giving him all the mana he would want in the world, and swung full. If he blocked Tel Jilad with Anatomist (best case scenario) I had Turn the Tide ready to go. Since he didn’t block, I used Mettle to put him to 9 counters, and left the two mana up for Disperse.

It was the right call, as he had the Revoke ready for Clasp, which I thought he might. I quickly bounced it back to hand. Now even if I didn’t draw the 6th land, we replay the Clasp killing his Myr, and he has to have Anatomist block Cystbearer, tapping to killing Tel-Jilad, and leaving me with Clasp, Cystbearer on the table facing down his now empty board.

We draw the 6th land, play and activate Clasp, win target game.

Round Three vs. ??? (The “good” infect deck at the table)

Stupid MTGO didn’t save these games but I’ll sum em’ up easy for ya.

Game One

Complete Mortarpod Domination. Basically if anything has one toughness (Plague Stinger, Ichor Rats) we murder it. If anything has two toughness… well, I didn’t see anything like that really, not anything I cared about. We keep a Germ Token on the table all day with Mortarpod and Flayer Husk equipped and ready to snipe, and he eventually has no way through it. Our infect creatures keep meeting with removal, mostly from the Skinrender he replays after a Morbid Plunder. But even despite this our Contagion Clasp just shrugs and keeps wracking up counters, while we ignore the Skinrender beats and eventually draw a second clasp and kill the thing again. He drops Stinger, seems surprised when we don’t snipe it with the germ, then conceeds when we pop the Flight Spellbomb and go to block with our Flayer Husk’d Germ Token.

Game Two

We just can’t draw enough gas. We have some great tricks, having sided in Turn the Tides and doing some other shenanigans, but we keep drawing land instead of Blightwidows, while he keeps refilling off Corpse Cur and Morbid Plunder. Unable to deal with

Game Three

We just come in too fast for him, as he misses and two or three drops while we curve out Cystbearer into Blightwidow, eventually finding Tangle Angler and Rot Wolf to join the party. He puts up a good defense with Meliera’s Keepers, but Tangle Angler lets me force the alpha swing, and he conceeds in a hurry.

Eight packs, plus Memoricide and that dumb elf lord (and foil Morbid Plunder!). A decent haul for our troubles. We happily take it.