SHM draft UB (3-0)

There seems to be a trend, Mono Red and UB are my two favourite colours. I've done well with UW and GW but I find my decks never quite compare with what i draft in UB or Mono Red.

The Draft.

Yes this deck is strong. No I'm not a lucksack who opened the packs. My first picks from each pack were: Godhead of Awe, Thoughtweft Gambit, Leech Bonded.

I started off in UW, however quickly delved into UB when inkfathom infiltrator was passed (its a fantastic card)

The final pack pays incredible dividends for my cutting off blue. 6th pick Wasp Lancer, 7th pick Ghastlord of Fugue and two helm of ghastlords get passed, but I believe are hated out before they can table.

I like parapet watchers, it gums up the ground versus land creature decks (GW, RG etc) and totally screws with combat maths, not only that but it makes hiding open mana for tricks not seem so obvious, especially if you're keeping your 4 aethertow mana open and he has a 6 power creature out.

Why UB is nice.

I believe it has to do with the strong U creatures and spells combined with the evasion of flying and removal (River's Grasp, Blight, Gloomlance, Biting Tether, Curse of Chains, Turn to Mist, Aethertow, Consign to Dream and if desperate, Sinking Feeling). With these you can almost always table some kind of control back to you. And what fantastic control, you can make them discard, you can tap down their critters, you can timewalk them, remove enchants, save your own creatures, the list goes on!

UW and GW decks are difficult to play past turn 10 as they have very low toughness creatures, and lots of competition, people love playing mono white, blue players steal your picks, and green players steal everything. That said, they also have the two most powerful enchants.

Matches (2-0 2-0 2-1)

Match 1 vs. Lepauli 1733 rated Green White enchant fest.

Game 1:
River's Grasp his turn 5 Ghastbark to see his hand, I'm shocked. Shield of Oversoul, Shield of Oversoul, Armored Ascension. I feel like I've literally dodged a bullet. I make him discard his only relevant creature and bash to the face with Wasp Lancer, Wingrattle Scarecrow and my 3/3 Leech Bonder (who is basically 2 lots of removal due to the number of crazy 1 toughness creatures).

Game 2:
He concedes at 13 life (which starts an interesting trend) with the board showing Wasp Lancer, Leech Bonder and Wingrattle Scarecrow. Once again he can't cast anything as the board is removed by Bonder, and flying is impressive in SHM as it is very rare.

He has Wooded Bastion. Must be nice.

Match 2 vs. Penumbra 1571 rated with Green White enchant fest.

My opponent concedes at 16 life on turn 6, im on 14 life . The board is Kinscaer Harpoonist, Wingrattle Scarecrow and Inkfathom infiltrator. I'm holding Ghastlord of Fugue, Wasp Lancer, Prismwake Merrow and Gravelgill duo.

Another classic 'interaction' was a major misplay by my opponent, which I have done before:

Board is Mistmeadow Skulk and 3 lands. He taps 3 and then slowly untaps. Well it could be a bluff, but more likely it's an enchant. Instead he passes the turn and casts Wildslayer Elves turn after.

I'm holding River's Grasp with the mana to play it, but I wait, attacking with my evasion fliers.

He gets one attack in with his Shield of Oversoul protected Wildslayers before I 2 for 1 him with River's Grasp.

In fact my biggest fear is early aggro before i can get all my 3 drops online. This seems unfounded as by the time I get my guys online, my opponents weenies are generally irrelevant.

Match 3 Finals vs. PlusEV 1747 rated UW with TRICKS

Game 1: Win with overwhelming aggro, Ghastlord just cuts off his defense and River's Grasp and Leech Bonder slowly but surely remove his board.

Game 2: It's a close game, and my Leech Bonder is surprised by a Plumeveil... Which utterly annoys me as all my critters are flying.

I die when he is at 4 life. He has a 6/6 Faerie Swarm and a Cemetery Puca copying my Wasp Lancer.

I made a big misplay here, He attacks with Kinscaer harpoonist and 5/5 Faerie swarm, I'm at 7 life and I've got Wasp Lancer as my only blocker. I choose to block faerie swarm to reduce damage, but I end up dead on the board as he still has his Kinscaer which can stop my blockers and now he has a Wasp too using his Cemetry Puca.

Let this be a lesson to myself that life totals only matter when you're at 0.

Game 3:

12 turns.

He has many tricks, including verbal.

When I cast Leech Bonder he mentions his dismay with how much he hates that card on turn 3.

Leech Bonder gets surprised blocked by Plumeveil again.

From then on I refuse to read any of his text.

Godhead of Awe pops out, but he Consigns it to Dream. I actually never cast it again for the rest of the game, as my critters are stronger than his.

I stabilise at 12 life with two fliers out, and I trap his fliers down with curse of chains and torpor dust.

In the end I River's Grasp his Cemetary Puca and take his second Consign to Dream.

Then I Flow of Ideas for 6 cards.

Lesson learned here: Take your time to consider your options and never listen to an opponent trying to be nice. Flow of ideas is a great card, I'm glad it tabled back to me!

A conspired Aethertow later, and I'm the proud owner of my 4th Reaper King Avatar!

It's been a great release season and I've been humbled and been victorious, I sometimes feel it's a little bit swingy with the enchants, but long term, skill will last out as always!

Cheers

AAZipzop2

SHM draft Mono Red Finals (2-1)

Won within 10 turns in nearly every game it played!

The finals went 2-1

I played GWr ramp deck.

Game 1
He pulls out Ghastbark turn 3 with Shield of Oversoul coming in on turn 4 due to some devoted druid shenanigans.

Game 2
I steam roll in him in the second game with multiple conspired burn trails and continuous spamming of intimidator initiate, which you want 1 or 2 of in any mono red aggro deck.

Even with his turn 2 Safehold Elite, turn 3 Shield of Oversoul.

Game 3
6 land hand
5 land hand
2 land hand with a burntrail in it.

The story ends rather quickly. It happens!

I made one major pick mistake thought, I took a corrupt over another mudbrawler cohort.. Those things are nasty with either intimidator or bloodmark mentor!

Most times i did actually sideboard in swamps and some black cards to deal with enchants or to get extra damage through, specifically Niveous Wisps.

Enemy Colours! Sound the Klaxxon! RW Wins! (saved)

SHM Draft, RW, June 30, 2008, result:  won draft

8 Mountain
1 Power of Fire
1 Barkshell Blessing
1 Burn Trail
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Somnomancer
9 Plains
1 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Pili-Pala
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Windbrisk Raptor
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
2 Watchwing Scarecrow
2 Scuttlemutt
1 Turn to Mist
2 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Last Breath

Sideboard
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Consign to Dream
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Guttural Response
1 Thoughtweft Gambit
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Fate Transfer
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Plains
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Rune-Cervin Rider
2 Torture
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Bloodmark Mentor
1 Torpor Dust
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Safewright Quest
1 Oona's Gatewarden
2 Briarberry Cohort

This was an odd draft.  Knew I was in white, possibly blue...kept options open for red (first pick was redcap, which i thought would be interesting with cards like turn to mist or even barkshell blessing. I got to use the former but not latter).  It's not too flashy, that's for sure.  I was leaning toward WU until 3rd pack, but hedged my bets a bit.  Blue just wasn't coming in impressive amounts.  Still I at least had cohorts hanging out.  Then 3rd pack I managed to snag a power of fire, and decided to take advantage of it, since there are a lot of good targets in the deck available (pila, butcher, skulk, slikbind faerie, puresightmerrow...).  I like the deck, had some neat interactions...snare is just cool with 2 scuttlemutts.  Got me thinking about the possibility of even running high snares with red lace/haste cantrips in opposing colour...But scuttlemutts was a bit classier in that regard...they came in handy all over the place, and allowed for help in powering out the big butted bird...which once sing handedly turned a game around for me against a skilled opponent in the first round...

Some observations:  There was a lot of interesting play I noticed.  I realized a big mistake I made in blocking in a game I eventually won anyway, but it doesn't make the mistake any less notable.  Opponent attacks with a 6/6 deus and a 4/4 first striker...I have 2 of my watchwings hanging out and the duo available.  I had the barkshell, and was focused on taking out the deus, and I suppose too much on protecting the duo.  I double blocked with the 2/4's and used the barkshell, when I clearly should have triple blocked...I would have inevitably ended up not losing a man with the barkshell after damage was assigned.  There were so many times when scuttlemutt on the board changed the dynamic of the game.  This card is IMPORTANT to any deck.  It just opens so many possibilties in this format if you pay attention.  2 mutts saved my butt quite a bit.  Also, on the power of fire...I found it a lot more effective holding it back and waiting for the proper moment to use it...with all the powerful auras in this set I really think timing is critical...a rushed aura be it aura of fire or steel of the godhead just ends up reminding you why auras are traditionally so bad.  What's cool about this set is, these are powerful, powerful auras and when you play it right they are soooo much better.  I was very guilty of slamming a few down early, but I've been making a point to alter this...and it's really helping.  One game in particular during the first match I remember really working on drawing out my opponents removal before placing the power of fire...and it felt good because it worked, and he had it...and it lead to a game win.  

Match one was a skilled opponent, but I don't remember too much but I believe it was UB with a splash of red for burn and POF. (POF on Merror Grimeblotter is a troubling prospect, one game came to an end that way.) It was close and very enjoyable match, he played quite well and I think I did pretty good myself.

Match two was against a red/green aggro with the deus.  Steel of the godhead and fliers really featured highly in the success.

Match three was against GW and featured a highlight of placing shield of the oversoul ON HIS Oversoul of the dusk.  Mighty, mighty indestructable flying protection from everything man.  Unfortunately for him, i was just out racing him and gaining life.  

Thistledown duo is a really, really good card.  Its up there in my top 5 commons. 

Silkbound Faerie, Power of Fire, Thistledown duo...?

U/W/g

I just drafted this deck and i'm playing it right now. The draft consists of 4 players over 1800 and only 1 person under 1700, i've never seen so many good players in a 4-3-2-2 before. I want to know what you guys think of the build, especially the green splash. I did it to add some aggression, the curve is very low and I wanted some heavy hitters to keep the tempo fast, plus green gives me great artifact/enchant removal and I snagged one destroy target flying critter card for the sb.

I will edit or reply to my own post with a report as to how it performed. Match 1 I owned 1840 blue white deck with multiples of the untap to tap target critter faerie, went 2-0 on him ^_^

0-1 sss Draft

Well, this deck is pretty bad. It was influenced by that article rating power of fire as the top common. I only had one copy and still ran it because of the untap critters I had. Splashed a couple of forests and a couple of islands for witch abilities, which i'm a huge fan of. But the deck was slow and I got mana screwed (not color screwed, but i didn't draw lands) and then horribly flooded game two, plus my opponent was competent and had an impressive build.

I did end up winning the draft immediately following this horrible loss. I had a really powerful build, mostly black with 2 ashenmoor gourgers, 2 of the 2/1 unblockable for 2 u/b mana, and sygg, amongst other powerful cards. i didn't take a printscreen of that one but there wasn't much skill involved in piloting the deck to a win, i just happened to get a twisted amount of bombs.

I'm really enjoying shadowmoor drafts, this is my new favorite set ^_^

SHM draft BW (0-1)

A little weird, but high on powerful bombs in the face of mirroweave, sheperd and corrupt. I wanted to try out enemy colours as I felt the bombs I had could easily support it.

I win the first game easily with all the mana I need to power out my creatures, blight and shepered, I lose the second to colour screw (7 plains, 1 swamp with blight in hand and a draw of a sheperd 1 turn too late), I lose the third to mana screw with only 3 lands out by turn 8.

The mana base could probably be tweaked to help those early stallers get out (2 safeholds and 2 ballynocks are pretty good stallers imo), but I feel the deck was really quite strong and was very dissapointed to lose first round to a deck that I felt was just not that good (he ended 0-2 in the second round)

Cheers,

AAZipzop1

SHM draft UW (3-0)

The only thing I would change would be to take an island out for a plains. Too often I would be sitting on 2 plains and be holding Wilt-leaf Liege.

Spectral procession + Wilt-leaf Liege wins games. Wicker warcrawler is a 6/6 on turn 5, nothing to laugh at in a deck with mostly weenies.

Initially I was in mostly U with some W, but on opening the Liege in pack 3, I was well placed to aggressively draft some W and WG creatures.

This deck only dropped one game to a Puca's mischief, man i hate that card.

Cheers

AAZipzop2

SHM draft UB (3-0)

This deck won most of it's games and won the draft.

River's Grasp is a complete blowout if you are playing UB. It's basically tempo stopper, removal, thoughtseize and bounce all in one go.

It's 1st pickable material

Cards of note:

Sygg: Either they blow their burn trail on him (in which you just traded a two drop) or from turn 3 or 4 onwards you get to draw 2 cards a turn.

Wingrattle Scarecrow: 2/2 flying persist for 3 colourless, is fantastic, don't let it table, because it won't.

I'm not sure fear is that useful as evasion in this format due to the huge number of artifact creatures and hybrids.

Cheers

AAZipzop1

SHM Sealed end result: 3-2 (9pts)

9 Mountain
1 Mudbrawler Raiders
1 Valleymaker
1 Curse of Chains
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Sootwalkers
1 Scuzzback Marauders
2 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Illuminated Folio
1 Grief Tyrant
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Flame Javelin
1 Somnomancer
1 Knollspine Invocation
1 Scuzzback Scrapper
2 Burn Trail
1 Safehold Duo
1 Oracle of Nectars
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Old Ghastbark
8 Plains

Sideboard

1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Rite of Consumption
1 Drove of Elves
1 Put Away
1 Medicine Runner
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Repel Intruders
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Poison the Well
1 Giantbaiting
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Scrapbasket
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Devoted Druid
1 Lurebound Scarecrow
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Memory Sluice
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Plumeveil
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Æthertow
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Safehold Sentry
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Pili-Pala
1 Raking Canopy
1 Cinderbones
1 Manamorphose
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Mystic Gate
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Barkshell Blessing

Match 1:   During deck construction PGqsilver approaches me about joining the clan, I say sure.  Wouldn't you know it...my first match is him.  He trounces me.  I mean, it was embarassing.  I misplayed...for some reason i sided in mystic gate...even though it was strictly worse than a plains for me...something that became all to apparent the next game.  But it was all good, I was introduced to PGqsilver and his powerhouse of a deck, piloted far better than mine was out of the gates.  Gave me a quick wake up call.  He went on to do very well, but that is another story...(hint, cough, post, cough)

Match 2:  I don't remember.  Isn't that terrible?  Now that I think of it, this was a RB deck with two demigods of revenge.  Yeah, I'm just lucky I didn't see them both in the same game.  I didn't think I'd even bother posting this one as of yet...such was the beatings that PGq dished out.  But the deck was beginning to perform...I didn't feel quite so bad with it.

Match 3:  Back and forth, the 2nd game he gets me down to 1, I stabilize back to 60 and knollspine out with 0 cards left in my deck.  The order of nectars really begins to shine.

Match 4:  I may have gotten match 3 and 4 mixed up.  I don't know.  Did I mention I'm awful tired?

Match 5:  GWr deck.  Beautiful mana base supported by 2 of the fetch elves.  His deck is solid and aggressive.  Features 2 of the seedwitches...all I remember last game was persist elf, killed it.  next turn 2/1, next turn persist elf again, i knollspine in this time.  Next turn i have 4 lands and 3 2 cc spells in hand.  I only really want to pitch 1 but will do 2 if he barkshell blessings...he does, so i pitch a second one in response, whereupon he barshell blessings...again.  Good god man.  Then he lays a seedwitch.  I untap, kill it.  He throws down seedwhich 2...and rolls in.  Man it was good times.  I felt like I was playing against constructed game 2.  I'm so tired that probably didn't even make much sense.  Why do I always do this to myself with sealed?

9 points end result, casual SHM Premier event.

Feel free to comment on my build.  I found it quite difficult.  I'm not sure what I'd do different...I must say that against all odds that little 1/1 in there ended up coming in quite handy a lot of times...I put him in instead of the 2/2 for the additional body to enable burn trails.  The Folio was amazing, and saved my butt several times.

I ended up siding out snares in both the matchups I lost in...so there was probably something a little suboptimal about 2 slots being devoted to them maindeck, as good as they were in the other matchups.  I suppose replacing one maindeck with the 2/2 would have improved my overall performance, the early game especially, where I was weak.  This deck needs to survive the early game then take advantage of the late game bombs.  I should have built it with this in mine, rather than just slumping it together without a defined plan.  With that in mind...this build seems a better maindeck choice...but it's a toss up really.  This is usually what I ended up with when I sided the snares out.   I don't know what do you think I should have done maindeck?  As to godhead of awe...I just couldn't justify squeezing it in there with my other late game bombs.  Too much bombastic late game cards...My needs were in the early game...so i left it out.  The plume veil would have been lovely, but I balked at the mana.  Too hard to get early in the game when I needed it.  I may add a picture tomorrow, but like I said...sleep needed...badly.

9 Mountain
1 Mudbrawler Raiders
1 Valleymaker
1 Curse of Chains
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Sootwalkers
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Illuminated Folio
1 Grief Tyrant
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Flame Javelin
1 Somnomancer
1 Knollspine Invocation
1 Scuzzback Scrapper
2 Burn Trail
1 Safehold Duo
1 Oracle of Nectars
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Old Ghastbark
8 Plains

1 Barkshell Blessing

1 Safehold Sentry

Sideboard

1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Rite of Consumption
1 Drove of Elves
1 Put Away
1 Medicine Runner
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Repel Intruders
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Poison the Well
1 Giantbaiting
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Scrapbasket
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Devoted Druid
1 Lurebound Scarecrow
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Memory Sluice
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Plumeveil
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Æthertow
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Pili-Pala
1 Raking Canopy
1 Cinderbones
1 Manamorphose
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Mystic Gate
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Parapet Watchers

2 Inquisitor's Snare

SHM Monoblack, sideways (saved)

SHM Draft, June 23, 2008, Monoblack, saved, result:  win.

This wasn't an easy draft.  I was granted no monoblack bombs from the outset in pack 1, was passed no great joys.  I was having difficulty with my place in the world...

1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Beseech the Queen
2 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Corrupt
17 Swamp
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Cultbrand Cinder
2 Wingrattle Scarecrow
2 Smolder Initiate
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Incremental Blight
1 Scar
2 Aphotic Wisps
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Ashenmoor Gouger
1 Crowd of Cinders

Sideboard
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Slinking Giant
1 Disturbing Plot
1 Plumeveil
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Twilight Shepherd
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Kithkin Shielddare
1 Mine Excavation
2 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Watchwing Scarecrow
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Æthertow
1 Mudbrawler Cohort
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Put Away
1 Spell Syphon
1 Last Breath

...I passed a third turn corrupt...and when i got passed another one and a bit of other black, I began at least toying with the idea of getting into black..figuring if that first one came back around the time was quite ripe for it.  I ended up with a really late crowd of cinders first pack and maybe a faerie macabre...but I was still hedging my bets a bit.  The second corrupt never tabled.  First pick 2nd pack I actually went with the twilight shepherd...thinking, hey...who knows...my black isn't solid by any means yet.  White was not beyond possibility especially if I could back this bomb up with some other good support.  But then the solid black three drops started coming, and I grabbed them and began to commit.  The blight came to me first pick third pack...and it was a good thing too.  As monoblack goes this was not exactly a shiny example of love.  I also managed to get a beseech the queen third pack, which makes that corrupt/blight so much better.  Dig for the corrupt or blight to win.  I won't go too much into the play by play this time, but I will make some comments, as it was an interesting series of games, and the path to victory was often times quite interesting...

2 Aphotic Wisps!  You know, this thing saved my butt in a game winning way several times in the course of the 3 matches.  One was a beautiful kill on a really scary shield of the oversouled creature, one was getting my loch through for a surprise 9 damage kill in a very tight game.  With 2 wisps I was able to just get in there several times when I otherwise wouldn't...and still keep myself drawing cards looking for my kill switches.

I sided out 1 grimeblotter pretty much every game for the gatewarden...just ended up being better in so many ways.  Shoulda maindecked her.

Didn't use the helm once.  Just didn't happen.  Was really only in my hand once the entire 3 matches.

Intiates are so good in monoblack.  Getting them out turn 1 is just nasty.  If your opponent is in black, they are even better...Which is good, because it helps make up a bit from the lack of fear factor...

I'm really looking forward to the review game feature being re-instated.  There were a lot of plays that would be interesting to go over.  There were a couple of games that really could have gone either way.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good result from a monoblack deck I just sort of stumbled into without being wacked in the head right away with some crazy black cards.

First Time I got to the Finals in 8-player constructed.

Today is the first day I got to the finals in an 8 player constructed tournament!! ^^

Alas, I didn't win the final game but it was a great experience.

In the final game the deck that I was going against had Kavu Predator, Mogg Fanatic, Tarmogoyf, with a lot of burn spells. I was using a red/black Demigod deck and lost both games by a difference of a single turn.

First match: 2-0

Second match: 2-1

Third match: 0-2

The saddest part for the last match is that there were some problems with the Magic Online server and I couldn't sideboard for the second game (for the final match that is). But being my first time getting to the finals I still felt great! ^^;

Everyone have a great weekend (at least of what's left of it).

Mono Red Aggro SSS Draft (3-0)

Speed Kills. Red Deck Wins (both games in 6 turns!)

4 packs and my shiny new Reaper King avatar would attest to that. So would two finals I lost to mono red aggro. It's been a long week, I lost nearly 50 points to crappy sealed deck opens (I won't whine, but opening 4 out of 5 rares as rare enchantments is not my idea of fun, Greater Auramancy, Runed Halo and Thought Reflection aren't going to win many games.)

I won both my finals games in 6 turns, I lost one to a painter's servant and long game beatdown. I ended up sideboarding into black to get my rite of consumption for anything he prison termed.

Game 2:
Mulligan to 5. Pili-pala, Power of Fire, Runes of the Deus, 2 Mountains.

Turn 2. Pili-pala
Turn 3. Power of fire on Pili-pala
Turn 4. Boggart Ram-gang (which he sticks prison term on.... your mistake is my win?)
Turn 5. drop more land and burn to his face while burning an Augury Adept out of the way.
Turn 6. Power of fire to his face, and Rite of Consumption my Ram-Gang to his face. I win on more than 20 life. Go red go. I'm holding Jaws of Stone as he dies too.

Game 3.

Mulligan to 6. Holding 2 mountains, Sootstoke Kindler, Gouger, Burn Trail and Ram-Gang.

Turn 2. Sootstoke kindler. Bash.
Turn 3. Hasted Ashenmoor Gouger. Bash. His Augury adept draws a swamp, err. great gain your 0 life.
Turn 4. Boggart Ram-Gang. Bash.
Turn 5. Boggart Ram-Gang #2. Bash. He's on 1 health. He has a 7/7 flier out with his painter's servant.
Turn 6. I don't even bash. I just Burn Trail to his face.

CrazyPants.Dek Loses

Every single opponent I faced had fancy pants enchants, fancy pants combos and fancy pants triple colour decks. Sure they beat me in the one game they assembled their crazy fancy pants tricks... In fact here is a list of crazy things that I had to beat:

1. Swans of Bryn Argoll
2. Swans of Brynn Argoll with double Steel of Godhead. 8/6 unblockable double lifelink. 24 life swing per turn.
4. Painter's Servant, Faerie Swarm, Spell Syphon (ever have to pay 4 more mana to cast a spell on turn 3? Or see a 7/7 flying critter on turn 6, in limited?)
5. Leechbonder, Cinderbones, Oona's Gatewarden, Mistmeadow Skulk and Kulrath Knight. None great by themselves, but together they equal = You can't attack. Or block. Who runs a deck wth all 5 of these cards ANYWAY?

Learnings (Nathan was right):

1. Focus on the good cards. I argued with my friend that Steel of Godhead and Shield of the Oversoul are first pickable. I actually got pretty annoyed. I realise I was wrong. I passed a whole bunch of them. I even passed Barkshell Blessings this time. You're right Nathan, I suck.

2. The first pack doesn't matter. I was in Red. and White. Yeh... Enemy Colours suck. But I had quality picks. I think playability over colour is important.

3. Pick for your sideboard. For me, I really high picked Gloomwidow's feast and Gleeful sabotage as I was light on removal and enchantment destruction is just necessary. I also picked up a rite of consumption and a spiteflame witch as ways of ending stalemates, as aggro decks can really suffer once you get into these situations.

I actually lost a number of first games, but instead of moaning, I would splash black or green. Green if they were flier, enchant heavy (i.e. vs. double lifelink swans) or black if they were stalled or had wither based decks.

4. Don't table power of fire. Thanks guys. Also, you never let someone 4th pick Jaws of Stone, not unless your first 3 cards were Foil Reflecting Pool, Reflecting Pool, Firespout. That I can understand, maybe.

5. Power of fire goes on anything, either you beat him to the face for 1, or beat his toughness 1 creatures to death, or he blows his removal on it. Double bonus points if you get it on your Pili-Pala.

6. Kill Leechbonder on sight.

Tough Picks.

Okay. I want to go through some of my really tough picks. I've bolded what I took.

1. Pack 1 Pick 7. Last Breath vs. Bloodmark Mentor vs. Gloom Widow's Feast. I take the Bloodmark, as its a definite in for any red deck, the others may table.

2. Pack 2 Pick 1. Witherscale Wurm vs. Kitchen Finks. I take the finks, GG is not something I'm willing to deal with at this stage. Not sure if this was a mistake. I figure finks is useable if I go white splashing red, or I go RG but in no way am I even remotely in mono green.

3. Pack 2 Pick 6. Wicker Warcrawler vs. Cultbrand Cinder. I take the cinder here because of it's removal capability and it turns on my two Tattermunge Duos... but Wicker Warcrawler is surely a scary turn 5 card. Mistake? Possibly, I also realise I will probably have lots of artifact destruction in RG and can deal with it (which turns out to be true).

4. Pack 3 Pick 1. Sunken Ruins vs. Ashenmoor Gouger. At this stage I only had 1 Gouger and Ram-Gang. So it would have made a lot of sense in mono red to take the gouger. but look I'm not arguing with 6 tix okay?

5. Pack 3 Pick 2. Silkbind Faeries vs. Murderous Redcap. Just kidding.

6. Pack 3 pick 3. Runes of Deus vs. Gnarled Effigy vs. Farhaven Elf. The elf helps me fix colour, helps me ramp. The Gnarled Effigy slowly but surely gets me out of stalemates (and has killed me before). Runes of Deus I can throw on just about anything in my deck. I haven't seen one passed yet, so assume someone else is hating or taking them. I take the Runes and start thinking about going mono red.

7. Pack 3 Pick 4. I'm pretty much mono red splashing for black or green for removal (which I'm low on). Deep Slumber Titan (I have two power of fires) vs. Crabapple Cohort vs. Torture. I like torture, its slow, but effective, and its a 3 mana way of getting rid of witches. I go for the fatty.

8. Pack 3 Pick 6. Illuminated Folio vs. Mudbrawler Cohort vs. Farhaven Elf vs. Shield of Oversoul. Mudbrawler bashes for 2 from turn 3. Farhaven is just sick. I take the folio, the reason being that in a stalled situation I can start drawing into answers. its 5 to cast, but only 1 to activate.

Out of all the colours, red is the colour where you probably don't mind showing your hand to the opponent... it's not exactly a subtle colour. Also with speed based aggro, you run out of cards in your hand really quickly.

9. Pack 3. Pick 9. Boggart Arsonists vs. Flourishing Defenses vs. Gloomwidow's Feast. Gloomwidow's feast is just sick. Pretty much every flier you throw this at will give you a 1/2 reaching spider. I already had one, and wanted to be mono red. So many scarecrows, so little time. Arsonist kills a warcrawler along the way.

By drafting what my neighbours weren't and reading the right signals, picking quality over weird combo bombs, I finally won my first SHM draft after a week of being smashed.

Just in case you were wondering:

Round 1. vs. UW
Round 2. vs. UWb
round 3. vs. UBw

Hrmm.