Another mono white deck

This one took me to round two. I feel it was a very strong deck still but I lost to a fast red green deck with a 6/6 doublestriking trampler on turn five both games :( crazy lol. bounce and kill should be highly drafted in SSS cause any of the hybrid enchantments have potential to mess you up :(

I'm still waiting to see everyone elses Shadowmoor posts =)

Mono white gets me a Reaper Avatar =)

This deck took me all the way. I always ended up siding out the islands because they kept getting in the way of casting oversoul of the dusk - which is one way to win games in a hurry. This deck was very strong, Steel of the Godhead is just broken. Shield of the Oversoul is pretty sick also. Ballynook Cohort is a 3/3 first striker for 3 mana, nothing to sneeze at in this set where pretty much every creature is a 3/3. I ended up siding in Inquisitors snare more often than not, and curse of chains is good too. I'm thinking that white is normally underdrafted right now, probably will change after a few people get crushed by Steel of the godhead. This is from last night at 2 in the morning so I don't have many of the details, sorry. Good luck everyone, i wanna see everybody elses SHM builds, post people ^_^

Very weird deck. Very weird. I started blue with the first pick u/b liege. Then i was swaying blue white, but soooo much green was coming to me from all directions. I started taking green but didn't have enough to just toss the blue aside. Anyways, it managed to beat my 1900 rated first opponent (I'm between matches now)

Stars: Sygg - amazing for two mana

Devoted druid. he let me power out a turn three 5/5 (crabapple cohort) and gave me a turn 5 Grimm Poppet, who is also a star, lemme tell you. So basically, when i got a turn two devoted druid, i won the game. it's a great card.

I'm really not too confident in the deck, but we'll see how the next two round turn out. I still won two packs and a ten dollar land, so I'm happy =)

I love drafting with inflated pricing. This is my 3rd draft and each one I've gotten a ten dollar rare =)

Shadowmoor drafts are up - I've played two of them so far. I was so excited to be playing the new set i forgot pictures >.< ......




this is an edit, i wrote a bunch of crap on here but then it disappeared =\

I'm gonna draft again and get pictures of my picks this time

Last two drafts:
First one, mono green. Lost round one to 1600 player.

Second draft: Mono black. Went all the way to finals and lost to 1884 player playing white blue. Mono black served well because i was allowed to run ashenmoor gouger and the 3/2 flier for 3 mana that's u/b with other cards that work good mono. Not sure if i think it's best, i'll try a dif. strategy next time. GL everyone

This Week in MODO

My God...functionality is almost nil.

I've been in so many crashed events, I'm ashamed that I tried to enter so many.

It's not even Friday yet.

Where's the fast forward button?

:(

B/G Mortivore

NOTE: TO SEE A PICTURE OF THE DECK CLICK THE RED-Xed SCREEN. IT LINKS TO THE PHOTO ON SCREENCAST

(I think this is a bit better than the last photo becuase at least you can see the deck it you deign to click, I'm still working on getting the large size display in the post itself)

2 Rampant Growth
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Gravedigger
1 Tangle Spider
1 Mortivore
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Dusk Imp
1 Mind Rot
1 Cruel Edict
2 Commune with Nature
1 Kavu Climber
1 Chromatic Star
2 Severed Legion
1 Recover
1 Avatar of Might
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Whispersilk Cloak
8 Forest
1 Stampeding Wildebeests
7 Swamp
1 Craw Wurm
1 Terror
1 Giant Spider

This is a typical B/G deck with big creatures and recursion. The mortivore is really the star here. Hatter has posted about its virtues before but let me reiterate how amazing this card is. Frequently a 10/10 or bigger in the late game it is one of the largest creatures in tenth and has regeneration. Not the best card in the set but pretty darn close.

Match 1 ShoopDaWoop (1748): It's a virtual mirror match, B/G versus B/G both aggresive with a bunch of large creatures.

Game one is very close and with the ground locked up it comes down to a race between his knight of dusk and severed legion (he has no other black creatures out so fear is active). Chump blocking from ravenous rats plus a whispersilk cloak on tangle spider let me squeeze in the last few points of damage, I was lucky he never drew removal that game. Also I managed to get the stampeeding wildabeast+kavu climber combo out that game. Its slow but lets me draw twice per turn in the late game so it can be quite useful.

Game two is rather interesting. He gets mana screwed while I get mana flooded. I hit hard early but llanowar elves helps him produce mana for a couple of cheap blockers. When he's at 8 I run out of gas and he starts dropping lands soit looks like the game will be turned around. However, a top-decked mortivore on my part come unanswer and my 9/9 regenerator quickly bring the game to an end

Match 2 Sunfish (1614): He's sporting an aggresive U/R/g deck featuring hurricane. I fear that I will get swamped with card advantage in the late game so I try to play aggresively

Game one: I get off to a slow start with my first play being a giant spider on turn 4. The ground gets locked up and I start bringing out big beater while he drops flying and other evasion in the form of viashino runner. A surprise guerilla tactics off a ravenous rats hurts me but whispersilk cloak comes through for me. Don't underestimate the cloak, its much better than protective bubble (a virtually unplayable card in llorwyn limited) not only becuase equipment has doesn't open up the kind of 2-for-1 chance and aura does but also because of the slower speed of the format in which unblockability can be a game ender

Game two: I get land screwed but luckily his deck is slow and although I miss two turns of land drops I am able to get back in the game with ravenous rats stoppings his lightning elemental. The game lasts a while and I finally get wildabeast+climber going and then drop the cloak. Faced with 5 evasive damge a turn and a free howling mine it looks like sunfish is out of it. However, a guerilla tactics off my rats for the second game in a row puts me at 2 life, and against a red deck that is an exteremly dangerous place to be. The turn before I can swing for game he draws sift. I wait with baited breath as he draws his three cards. He passes the turn and I breathe a sigh of relief as my clocked wildabeasts end the game

Match 3 Galldrian (1811): Just the rating makes me shudder but I will play my hardest against this W/B deck

Game one: I get off to a slow start once again (that seems to be a recurring theme this draft). However, double rats and mind rot rips apart his hand. I am drop craw wurms and avatar and his loxodon hierarch can only stop the avatar. My fatties bring the game to a quick end

Game 2: He puts unholy strength on a wild griffin and I am reduced to chump blocking with a recurring dusk imp (recover+gravedigger). I hope to outrace him when I drop craw wurm but he responds with mobilization! His powerful flyer quickly ends the game

Game 3: I find out I have no enchantment removal sb so i'm reduced to hoping he doesn't draw mobilization. When he drops mobilizatio turn 3 those hopes are thrown out the window. To make things worse I am stuck at five lands single black with a craw wurm, mortivore and severed legion in hand. Then, to add insult to injury he play skyshround prowler with unholy strenght and follows it with youthful knight+serra's embrace. That ends the game, although I do get to drop avatar for double green the turn before I die, a rare feat, so i'm considering this game a victory for me :P.

In any case I am very happy with how the deck performed. It was solid but it didn't have the synergy or raw power of my last few decks so I was very happy to make it to finals.

As always, I will include a question for thought with my post (well I've only posted twice so you wouldn't know what I always do but I don't like just talking about how a deck did, I like to ask others to analyze what I could have done better).

What do you think of the wildabeast+climber combo? It ties up a lot of land but drawing two card a turn is nothing to sneeze at (obligatory terrible pun: unless you're allergic to card drawing). Was wildabeast worth it in a deck with only 1 green creature under 4cc (the elves)?

Always inquiring,

Squest

B/R Grave Pact

1 Orcish Artillery
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Bogardan Firefiend
1 Assassinate
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Grave Pact
1 Spitting Earth
2 Ravenous Rats
1 Festering Goblin
1 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Essence Drain
1 Shock
1 Viashino Runner
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Recover
2 Looming Shade
2 Gravedigger
1 Earth Elemental
1 Prodigal Pyromancer
1 Terror
1 Incinerate
6 Mountain
9 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Mind Rot
1 Hill Giant
1 Highway Robber
1 Enormous Baloth
1 Contaminated Bond
1 Demolish
1 Rage Weaver
1 Spined Wurm
1 Sudden Impact
1 Rock Badger
1 Vampire Bats
1 Spineless Thug
1 Dusk Imp

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get my pictures any bigger. Fortunately, Hatter has shown me how to upload my text deck (Thank again hatter :D) so you can read that if you can't make out the cards (which is quite likely).

This draft brought up a lot of interesting questions that I will pose for the clan members to weight in on. First off, I included all playable cards (even marginally playable) in my sideboard with the deck. I am not sure if I had the right build so feel free to give me your opinions. (I am particularly unsure of my choice to play bloodrock cyclops over dusk imp).

Next, I was unsure of how much to focus on the grave pact. I put emphasis on including cards like mogg fanatic in the deck to give grave pact more power but was that the best choice? I don't know.

I also have several card in this deck whose rating I am unsure of. How highly do you guys pick

Mogg Fanatic

Rock Badger (No matter how many times I draft 10th I still have trouble pinning down exactly how good landwalk is)

Grave Pact (Requires heavy black commitment and works slowly but has the potential for massive card advantage)

Demolish (as well as creeping mold, stone rain and other land destruction spells and smash, shatterstorm and other artifact destruction spells. These are two categories of spells I never know how to rate and putting both on one card confuses me even more. In general I am curious about how highly people use different sideboard stragtegies e.g. artifact removal, enchantment removal, landwalk, land destruction etc.)

Ghitu Encampment (and the other manlands, how highly do you guys pick them)

Anyway, how did the deck actually do?

Match 1: I was matched against a relitively inexperienced play with a B/G deck that focused on life gain and big creatures. Unfortunately for me, while the life gain wasn't really dangerous to me (wurm's tooth is not exactly what I would call a bomb) the fatty part was since it ran both nightmare and verderant force.

Game 1: I get an aggresive opening and prevent him from sticking a creature on the board with multiple removal spells, an easy victory

Game 2: I get a pretty slow hand and am unable to kill him before he gets verderant force out. I don't draw a response in time and he takes the game

Game 3: I am forced to double mulligan on the play. However, the game seems in reach when he turns out to be land flooded and I get out pyromancer and artillery. He essense drain my artillary but I drop rats and firefiend and build up a defense. The game is at a standoff for a few turns but then he drop a 5/5 nightmare. I draw a third swamp and drop gravepact but I am a turn too slow to force the nightmare's sacrifice.

A disappointing ended to a deck that I consider quite good but you can't win 'em all. In retrospect I wonder if I should have sideborded for more speed an evasion in games 2 and 3, perhaps dusk imp. Tell me what you think, come on, inquiring mind want to know.

Black/Red with Cone of Flame and Mortivore

I originally started with red and blue, then I snagged a mortivore and had a revcover from pack one so....i went with red black. I like this deck a lot - Two hate weavers were late picks and they are amazing, especially with the 2/3 red first strikers and viashino runner. Mortivore won me one game as a 14/14 regenerating killer of one creature per turn. Threaten is a good finisher also. I played against three players who were all decent (1650-1750 ratings), won the first two matches but the last was ridiculous. Opponent was back red and had every bomb card imaginable, including loxodon warhammer, which he got out both games and proceeded to beat my face. =(

Well, I'm always happy with winning three packs =)

B/R Discard takes me to finals

Well, this isn't a very good deck....Head Games is a lot of fun though, it won me a couple games. round one I played someone with a decent rating. He had lots of counterspells and sunken hope with a lot of cards with come into play abilities. It was a decent deck, but with ravenous rats coming back to my hand every turn he couldn't do much to stop his hand from falling apart.

Match two was against a 1750 player with black white. He had a LOT of recursion cards - gravediggers and recovers and such. So I barely won game one, sided out all of the discard and put in fat green creatures and won game two - he got mana screwed......

Match three -1720- was also running black red, only he had much better cards - he easily won the first two games. Lots of burn, lots of efficient critters, terrors and whatnot, very solid deck. Pretty happy with the draft overall, three packs and a pain land is enough for me ^_^

MMM UB Rogues (classical)

2 Dewdrop Spy
1 Thieves' Fortune
9 Island
2 Mothdust Changeling
2 Warren Weirding
1 Nevermaker
2 Moonglove Changeling
2 Stinkdrinker Bandit
1 Disperse
2 Morsel Theft
3 Latchkey Faerie
1 Oona's Blackguard
8 Swamp
1 Prickly Boggart
1 Noggin Whack
2 Frogtosser Banneret

MMM Draft, UB rogues, June 2, 2008, result: eliminated round 2.

Match 1: runnerjack 1555. Playing monowhite kithkins. The rogues did their work. Their beautiful, beautiful work. He had a double mulligan game 2 though. He also got a mutavault, so I can't feel very sorry for ole runnerjack. He'll probably net more tickets than I will. I took 2 mana burn second game for being dumb with a banneret out. I need to start clicking on the card and then the mana. I also need to read my cards. Didn't matter this time, but the next time it might.

Match 2: Bereavement 1670, I get a mull game 1, and it doesn't go well, and his aggressive red/green warrior deck is not helping things. Game 2 is a better hand, i have the goods, but his goods are better. Came down to a final attack backed up by 2 bolts to the dome, and I'm a turn too late. He tells me later he had 4 bolts...nice.

I think this deck was better than my last one, but in the end, that's not always what counts. GG Bereavement, you had me dead to rights.

Hatter

Bring on the Beef

This is my first time posting on this site so lets hope it works. (O ignore the last blank post it was an accident sry).
Anyway this was a red/green deck that took me to the finals. Very strong creatures including all stars avatar of might and enormous balothX2
Originally I thought about going mono green with this deck but it wasn't making quite enough playable and I picked up a few good red cards in packs 2 and 3.
Giant growth is obviously great in a deck like this since gang blocking is not unommon with creatures of this size.
However, despite solid creatures and great removal and combat tricks I think the V.I.P. award goes to hurricane. Many people underrate that card IMO. I is not only a great defense again flyers (1-sided WoG FTW!) but it can also be used to force a draw you are losing but both players are low on life. Finally it can be used to burn out your opponent if you have more life than them. With the power level of flyers in 10th (especially the red dragons which are bombtastic) hurricane is a card I would not only be happy maindecking but a certifiable bomb, a great 1st pick IMO.
As far as the actual games I ran over a weak player in round 1 with spined into craw wurm plus lots of removal and accelation (rampant growth + mountain fetching+ spitting earth x3=solid removal and efficent acceleration). Round two my opponent was strong but couldn't deal with the size of my creatures. My favorite play was dropping an avatar of might after he blazed my enormous baloth :). I lost in a close match in finals to a U/B deck packing tons of removal and card advantage. Even so it was close and this deck is a testament to the power of a solid curve ending in a bunch of fatties.

MMM RU Burnin' Rogues

RU Rogues? June 2, 2008 Result: Draft won.

8 Mountain
9 Island
1 Inspired Sprite
1 Notorious Throng
1 Nevermaker
1 Boldwyr Heavyweights
1 Lightning Crafter
3 Fire Juggler
2 Mothdust Changeling
3 Shard Volley
1 Latchkey Faerie
2 Latchkey Faerie
2 Dewdrop Spy
1 Thieves' Fortune
3 Sage's Dousing
1 Countryside Crusher

I know rogues is UB...yayaya...and I started that way. But I wasn't really getting much in the way of black 1st pack, i managed a bit of removal, and like 1 creature, but nothing too lovely, and people were passing some nice red 1st pack, although i ignored it. 2nd pack I was passed lightning crafter and spite bellows in the same pack and decided that guy at least wasn't in red and maybe it was time for a change. I was rewarded with enough removal to make the difference... (third pack brought more red) and I was anxious to try out the crusher. The heavyweights are a bit odd, and I figured I'd at least use them and report on their effectiveness. 3 lightning bolts and one guy that taps for lightning bolts. Sometimes you just gotta go with da burn and bump.

1st match: Noxemount 1619 playing mono white
First game went really, really well. I had threats and removed his. Second game, I was in trouble deep, he had a good early lead on me and reduced me to 3 before I could stabilize. I began amassing a flying army, and won the game with full style points ala a prowled notorious throng...such a tasty way to win. Thieves fortune helped a lot 2nd game getting me what i needed when i needed it. Heavyweights never entered the picture except once as one of the cards i didn't pick in a Thieves' Fortune and once as something I discarded to the inspired sprite.

2nd match: Demonic Attorney, 1552 playing UG
First game was tough, mulled twice into an unpretty hand and scooped after my opponent laid a nice curve out while i searched for a third land. Second game, deck obeyed me and played as it should, ended with a prowled notorious throng, again. Third game was a nice close game.

3rd Match: Captain America, 1739 playing GR
First game, I was terrified to cast it but I won it on the back of the heavyweights. He threw down beaters, I needed time, so I cast the heavyweights and he fetched a spite bellows. I was able to amass a standing army and airforce, and eventually prowl the notorious throng for the win, his land army stalled in the midst of my mighty 8/8. 2nd game, he threw down an early winnower patrol, put a counter on it, then smelled my dousing from the other side of the table and waited the extra turn to cast he paragon he revealed with it the clever bastard. I burned the patrol, cast a juggler then followed it up with the crafter. I guess he didn't have any removal, because he scooped right there.

So, heavy weights I'm still of mixed feelings about. I was terrified much of the time to cast them, but sometimes a big ole body is what you need, and they have to pull something mighty crazy, or you have to be in a position where you're low on life and the wrong kind of evasion could be svg. They really did save my butt that first game in the finals though. I would have loved a bit of bounce in the deck to make it a little less scary, but I didn't have any. By the way love the crusher especially with 3 shard volleys! Svg man. He never got real big for me, but was an efficient body that ensured my draws were nice a few times.

Hatter