Kool Runnings: DII Draft #1

Posted on February 23, 2012 by ChrisKool

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  5. you passed the zombie lord pick one, then pick the zombie pick 2 then pass the lord pick 3….you then are solidified in green yet pass young wolf for a griptide…

    This draft was one mistake after another. It felt like you had no idea what you were doing, and that you were not thinking your picks through very clearly.

    As of this morning gravecrawler was going for 9 tix and someone passed it to you and took an uncommon.

  6. I usually think people deserve their wins no matter how poor their play.
    you’re making me rethink this.

    really bad drafting throughout, and plenty of misplays, especially round one where you picked all the wrong times to gnaw.
    unbelievable that you first picked a mulch.
    twice.
    and second picked your first gnaw.
    I hope to see infinite more of these, as it’s a kickass format, and I hope you saw and learned from the majority of your misplays.

    *After second thought – this username also changed by admin (see below) – Plejades

  7. After drafting the new set for a solid week, I’m already bored by this block. Triple DKA is one of the most disjointed formats I’ve ever played. White gets so much token generation it’s oppressive, green is strictly boring fatties, black and red have the best removal but almost no good creatures, and blue is almost all flyers and poor reactive spells. White also gets a bear that just hates the hell out of the set in Thraben Heretic.

    As for DKA INN INN, the two sets go together like liverwurst and peanut butter. It feels like they had two sets designed in different eras and fused them together because of tribal themes. INN is super fast with loads of synergies, while DKA is the place that synergy goes to die. DKA has more spiritually in common with The Dark and Homelands than any set in recent memory. I feel like DKA is going to go down as one of the worst sets WOTC has ever developed.

    *Username changed by admin – Plejades

  8. 40 seconds into the draft “I have absolutely no idea what these cards do”. Well thanks for letting me know you’re wasting my time.

  10. Haven’t watched yet, but I have to because your tag line made me lawle….

    I wanna hear the ghost of Darth Vader.

  11. Aww, I mean the name wasn’t really all that good, but at least it was both a play on a Magic card while being a reference to the site and the general attitude of commenters. Weird that the name directly preceding my original comment hasn’t been changed, when it seems much more offensive.

  12. Unfortunately, I mostly have to agree with Black Beauty. Not sure why you got hung up on “mill yourself” with only a ghoul tree as an incentive. Tree is fine on its own without any help, its usually a 5-6 mana 10/10. You missed a really solid GB deck even after some of your odd (but more understandable) picks in DKA.

    All that said, your cobbled together deck had some strengths in being able to attack along multiple lines of victory mill/damage/infi life. I think wotc really screwed what would otherwise be an amazing format by making to much of the mill multidirectional (able to target either yourself or your opponent). The fact that most colors have little to no way to combat a mill strategy, while at the same time being encouraged to mill themselves is ridiculous.

    Would it have been “interesting tension” if NPH and its phyrexian mana had been accompanied by huge amounts of efficient burn? Or course not. Instead the tension there was somewhat balanced by the poison orthogonal victory conditions. This block desperately needs a common watered down Feldon’s cane style effect.

    For now RB players should remember the lessons of this vid and pick up a Gravepurge or two in the bottom of the DKA pack.

  17. This is a testament to the power of Gnaw to the Bone. The draft looked like a train wreck but the victory conditions came through big time. Turns out Spider Spawning can work without the spiders.

  18. The comments all seem to echo what you said in the video. I find that humorous.

    You called your deck a train wreck and you were surprised it won.

    People are now complaining that your deck was a train wreck and that you won.

    All I have to say is, thanks for beings one of the first people to upload the new draft format, regardless of the quality of the draft. I appreciate having this video available to me, even if it’s not 100% top tier pro tech…

  19. I’ll respond to comments in another post. I watched the draft again (without audio), and here are my thoughts:

    Ever since I watched a livestream of a blue-green, self-mill deck annihilate 3 better decks with a bunch of generic, fat guys, Grave Brambles and the self-mill strategy, it is in the back of my mind when I start taking green cards.

    The first pick was completely between Strangleroot Geist or Diregraf Captain (Immerwolf is not something I am excited about at all), but I tend to dislike 2-color, non-bomb first picks. Given the green dork and the second pick options, I should’ve gone with the Screeching Skaab and filed it under “maybe self-mill”. (But I took the money because all of this bad drafting takes funding.) The third pick Briarpack Alpha is a great trick and doesn’t put me fighting with the blue-black player downstream (two Diregrafs) by taking the Tragic Slip. Pick 4 Ghoultree is the first of piece to a decent self-mill (grossly large stat monster); beyond it, I don’t even see much in this pack- Evolving Wilds/zombie token maker/a 2/1 for 3… lots of black cards, but pretty underwhelming. I think I should be committed to self-mill at this point, taking the random guys I need and any mill I can get through the pack. Griptide is no Grasp of Phantoms, but it *is* a decent spell to interact with in combat. Young Wolf looks to be fairly low impact a lot of the time (like a lot of one-drops).

    After pack one, my deck is pretty mediocre if I don’t go for self-mill. Knowing that, I vowed to draft important pieces (Mulch, Gnaw to the Bone, Armored Skaab, etc.) when I had a chance.

    Pack 2, pick 4 Travel Preparations over Prey Upon was awful. Pick 5 Orchard Spirit seems like it could’ve been Laboratory Maniac (given that I might have to play a Curse of the Bloody Tome that I saw previous in the pack. The Orchard Spirit does give me a creature and a win-con, though. I think Runic Repetition is only the pick if I know I have a Memorys Journey or Spider Spawning. Pick 6 probably should’ve been One-Eyed Scarecrow over Blazing Torch (with a second Prey Upon already snagged. The Scarecrow plays a great role in self-mill- protecting me from the skies while adding to the body count in the graveyard. This gives me a better chance to race with dumb groundpounders.

    At the end of pack 2, I know that I am going to be in for a tough pack 3. One Mulch, one Curse as only mill. One Ghoultree, one Boneyard Wurm, one Gnaw as only benefit. From the last pack, I really wanted to see 3 “big” self-mill cards, 1-2 smaller ones (like Selfhoff Occultist or a nice Murder of Crows) and 1-2 cards that benefit from the strategy. Since these are mostly premium picks, I would need to open well or hope that they were paired with traditional bombs and removal. It would have been *really* nice to have the Screeching Skaab that I passed in favor of the Gravecrawler going into the third pack; goes to show you that archetypes really hurt when you give up a high-pick for a -good-stuff card or a money card.

    Pack 3 gifted me with a first pick Mulch. I think it is the card that I most needed (it or perhaps a Dream Twist). The second pick was an awkward one- Blasphemous Act can be splashed off Mulches and Evolving Wilds, but Spidery Grasp is a welcomed way to deal with flyers and the Delver of Secrets isn’t bad (if I had a second Prey Upon and am actively looking for more Mulch/Dream Twist/Gnaw to the Bone). I just took the Act so I could do *something* if the deck became a 3c-4c Mulch disaster. Pick 3 Essence of the Wild didn’t get proper love from me. With Gnaws keeping me alive, its power was welcomed; plus, it’s a guy to go to the graveyard! I think Wreath of Geists is pretty poor (as you don’t benefit Delvers/cards that trigger off creatures in the grave), and the Essence can moonlight as one of those synergy cards I mentioned earlier (in hindsight, of course, as I didn’t play it until the last match, last game). unsure if I should’ve taken a Fortress Crab over a second Orchard Spirit pick 5; I think the extra win condition would’ve been better.

    All-in-all, I won’t be this risky again (if I have my bearings). Without a real reason to go self-mill in DKA (probably some nice cards to mill my own deck), the reliance on two ISD to pick up the pieces was stressful and uncertain. But the strategy is very, very unfair, so… the reward can be immense (especially when coupled with a player making good decisions in-game)!

  20. Also, props to MTGO Academy for getting out new content way ahead of the competition. CFB and Draft Magic have yet to even touch Dark Ascension. Way to keep it fresh, guys!

  21. I would like to double down on the props. I’ve been resorting to live streams with no analysis on Justin.tv for my vicarious Magic fix. It’s nice to know that every week I can come to MTGO academy and find new stuff.

  22. Carrotus- you aren’t missing anything. That was a bad decision on my part!

    420gabriel- pick 2 zombie was for its monetary value. I like cards like Griptide; it plays a role and does so *wonderfully*. But yeah, I didn’t stay focused through the draft. Read my previous post for a better version of these packs!

    My horsey friend- what would you have drafted? I don’t think that I did as abysmally as you claim. First pick Mulch was an all-in, but it was right given the all-in. I shouldn’t have won round 1 at all, but I cannot bring myself to see if I could’ve played better and made it possible to win past Olivia. (Just spent about 30 mins looking at the draft pick-by-pick and am exhausted all over again!)

    Robin- thanks for your comment; I hadn’t stepped back to think about it, but I agree with your assessment of the self-mill “incentive”. It’s a shame that there isn’t a way to interact with it beyond “mill you more”.

    Roam-D: I have to admit, I thought Gnaw was a bummer when I first played limited with this set, now I think it is an all-star build around card (better than Splinterfright and maybe Kessig Cagebreakers)!

    Brockcity- After watching the draft vid again (and playing with it), I actually kind of like the deck. Hindsight (and winning, despite circumstances), eh? :)

    Everyone- thanks for the comments, regardless of their level of animosity :P Should you care to watch, the next Limited video I upload won’t feature grandma and scatterbrained Chris.

    Cheers!

  23. I actually liked this video a lot. Your drafting strategy did seem terrible to me while watching the draft itself – but, knowing from the other videos I watch here on MTGO academy that you are a very good player, I figured I might as well look how well the deck performed.

    I was thoroughly impressed, and it seemed to me like you were able to pilot the deck through quite a bunch of varied threats. What this meant for me is that the Academy lived up to it’s title – I learned something entirely new, which made me rethink the way I draft and play. This may sound more dramatic than it actually is, but as far as watching a draft recording can be helpful to me, I think this one was.

    Tipping in my positive views to counterbalance all those other lovely people who posted incredibly offensive comments!

  24. Hey Chris!,

    Nice draft man, i’ve been play drafts for the last week trying to get better with judgment and I can see it seems to stump a lot of us. I played a Dka isd isd last night and its a pretty ugly format (I went GW Human, WW) It didn’t work out to great. I was wondering, you seem to be sorting your cards all sorts of way during the draft and deck building, Is there a certain way I should be sorting them?

    Mike

  25. Thanks for the vid guys. Yes, you went a direction that I would absolutely not have gone. I like the self mill (a little) but it has to come to me so i would never force it. However, I’ve forced the Mill Them strategy several times to good results. I think RG has improved the most of all the archetypes. In 3xInn, it struggled for really solid 2cc drops but with the introduction of DKA, it’s just improved a great deal. That and the pump tricks are really amazing in DKA. So all that said, I like the Immerwolf in pack 1 but it’s likely that the 2/1 Giest is likely “better”. I love Griptide as well and think it’s terribly underrated right now. And one last thing, I was really excited to see that your grandmother was drafting with you…sadly this was just a clever ruse to get me to quickly click on the link! :(

  26. Round 3 Game 2 – When he was at 4 why didn’t you griptide the spirit token and swing in with the Orchard Spirit twice for the win?

  27. Carrotus- Thanks. I learned something, too; it was a good draft! I think I am going to force the self-mill a bit in 8-4s (until it train wrecks). Everyone seems to have forgotten their love for Mulch!

    CoolMike- Since Magic Online allows us to view the cards we’ve drafted, I sort them as I would build a deck as the draft is going on. I’ll hide cards I don’t want to play to get an idea of where my deck has holes (but I like to reveal them to remember all I have). I prefer to sort by mana cost to see any holes in my curve.

    Keeperofthez- I knew he would come in for the kill with his spirit token eventually. I wanted to use my Griptide to seal the deal.

  28. Just leave the drafting to Marshal this was painfull to watch. It made me sad that you won after the bad picks and poor plays.

  29. M3G2 he had feeling of dread in his graveyard, you had memory’s journey in your graveyard, you had 4 attackers, he had 3 potential blockers and he had 1 life. You win right there if you memory’s journey on his feeling of dread.

    He scoops anyway but you had the win on board and didn’t see it.

    Liked the video – was quite educational.

  30. Kudos for putting this free content up so that jackasses can tell you that you are wasting their time with it, not even realizing that they do not have to watch it.