Archive for the ‘Winston’ Category

Sarkhan Leads Creature Heavy 5-Color Cube Draft Deck

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Well, it finally happened. Tavish managed to once again beat me at a Magic: the Gathering cube draft one-on-one match. As they say, “You can’t win them all”. Of course, he didn’t win them all last week either, and in fact took another hardcore beating of which I’d like to relate.

Relying on a barrage of bomb creatures, broken spells, sweet dual lands, and Sarkhan, I ravaged Tavish playing some blue bombs of his own such as Jace Beleren, Time Walk, and Legacys Allure in a deck that also boasted an Akroma, Angel of Wrath. And as always, he just had to draft the Senseis Divining Top, my absolute most hated artifact in the cube, and one of Tavish’s favorites. Fortunately for Tavish, he didn’t get swept, but I did put a good beating on him, in part due to some extremely lucky draws getting perfect land draws to balance the überspells in my deck.

Playing All Five Colors

I still laugh about the fact that I’ve been scoffed at for playing more than three colors. Frankly, it’s my opinion that playing a mono-color deck in a cube draft is more difficult than playing all five colors. The specialty mana cards in the cube, including the many dual lands, moxes, and signets, make playing with more and more colors a real opportunity. Playing a Sol Ring and a Boros Signet also helped me boost my mana to get the bomb creatures out.

Fetch and Dual Lands

I’m a huge fan of dual lands and multi-mana producing artifacts, and drafted a great balance of land that helped me to dominantly play all five colors. Fetch lands are extraordinary combined with other dual lands, and this was the case in this deck. A Verdant Catacombs could essentially provide me with a green, black, or blue since it could fetch either a Watery Grave, and Polluted Delta could provide me with a black, blue, or white since it could fetch a Tundra. I also had a man land, Lavaclaw Reaches, which is always fun to play. I included an Exploration, but was never able to take advantage of it.

Awesome Mana Producer: Lotus Cobra

Lotus Cobra, the truly epic green landfall card, never fails to impress. This card is Über when playing five colors. It is especially harassing when it hits the board early on. During one game I the cobra was good to the very end, when I sacrificed it to Sarkhan the Mad to get a dragon.

The Sarkhanic Transformation

Both Sarkhans? Bad-ass.

Drafting both versions of Sarkhan ensures that your opponent does not fizzle your pumped up Sarkhan Vol ready to unleash dragons by playing Sarkhan the Mad. I observed a game recently where an Ajani Vengeant had seven loyalty counters when his controller’s opponent cast an Ajani Goldmane. I mentioned, after it had been cast, that once that spell had resolved in play, both Ajani’s would go to the graveyard. It’s an awful way to lose your planeswalker.

That being said, what really made me excited was how these planeswalkers would work together in the same cube draft deck. I had hoped to first play Sarkhan Vol, and once his loyalty was six, pop him and put out five dragons. That same turn, I could have cast Sarkhan the Mad and immediately deal 20 damage. Perhaps if some brutal creature came out that I desperately needed to deal with, I could have gained control of it using Sarkhan Vol’s ability, then played Sarkhan the Mad to sacrifice it and gain a dragon. I didn’t get to do all this, but both planeswalkers did come in handy. Sarkhan Vol helped me boost my Cold-Eyed Selkie and other creatures as I brought on a massive onslaught, using my opponent’s creature when I needed to. I used Sarkhan the Mad’s ability to draw cards, and constantly got lands, allowing me to thin my deck out and get more mana, while still being able to use his other abilities later on. Awesome.

Pleasant Surprise: Cold-Eyed Selkie

After drafting, I had a sneaking suspicion that Tavish was playing blue. Lo and behold, he was. Like clockwork, he would play an early game island and I would then respond with the Selkie. I then proceeded to deal a damage to Tavish and draw a card each turn. I used Sarkhan Vol’s ability to pump up this unblockable creature by +1/+1 to draw more cards and deal more damage. This early game nuisance worked out extremely well as a damaging weenie addition to this deck.

The Blue Dragon Spirit: Keiga, the Tide Star

I can’t stress how incredible this dragon spirit is. Since this creature requires only one blue mana, it works great in five color decks or decks splashing blue, and worked great alongside the Control Magic as I sought to steal the creatures Tavish played. As a dragon, it also synergizes well with Sarkhan.

Other Bombs

Last draft we played in, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner was used by Steve to spoil all of Tavish’s plans. I decided to go the same route. How amazing is it to play a Bloodbraid Elf that cascades into Kira?

I had a blast playing Sphinx of Jwar Isle, as it meant I could look at the top card of my library without cheating while busting out another huge flier.

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and Spiritmonger are testaments to the slaughtering power of the black/green unholy alliance. These beasts just dominate.

Dimir Guildmage is so wicked. It’s easy to play since it has casting cost color options, and its versatile abilities are nuts. At one point I used eight mana to force Tavish to discard the two cards in his hand. The guildmage, combined with Nath, helped to ensure that  Nezumi Shortfang would threaten to flip as Tavish’s hand was pulled dry.

More rape

Char completely pwns. Blightning is brutally painful. Regrowth is pure goodness. Remand single-handedly won a game for me. With so much domination, I never even needed to play a Day of Judgment.

Last thoughts

My only regret about this draft is letting that Maelstorm Angel slip away.

I finally cast the infamous Teneb, the Harvester, but the game was almost put away by then. This is a card that might not fit well into the cube, and which I feel could potentially be replaced by a Doran, the Siege Tower. Now that Teneb has seen some action, I wonder how useful he will be in future drafts. I would not be opposed to retiring him now. The Razormane Masticore also didn’t do me any good.

Overall, this deck just domineered Tavish’s face as I stole his creatures, forced him to discard cards, drew extra cards myself, and came at him with a storm of shrouded creatures. I can’t complain.

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The Throne Reclaimed in an MTG Winston Cube Draft

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

It was a night when underdogs came up short. We had just seen little David get smashed by Goliath as Duke beat Butler in the NCAA Championship, dashing the hopes of the budding underdog. Shortly thereafter, at Tavish’s loft, the clock struck midnight for another Cinderella.

Tied 2-2 in one-on-one Winston draft match-ups, I had lost the previous two matches to Tavish, along with about enough cash for a couple happy meals. Tonight, we decided to up the ante a bit. The loser of the match would be required to write on this blog about how it feels to lose. Therefore, I will now proceed with writing about how it feels to win 3-1, as we all surely eagerly await Tavish’s humble response.

Counter Draft… and Snatch up the Cards!

In my last matchup versus Tavish, I passed on some über-rares. Tonight, I noticed that he was drafting good blue cards again, and so I counter drafted counter and control magic cards such as Mana Leak and Treachery, as well as the way wicked Nemesis of Reason. I recall drafting Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, but for some reason he got lost in the mix, but no bother. I also made sure not to let too many of the larger piles of cards get away, and was successful in drafting more cards overall than Tavish.

The Value of Multiple Colors

Earlier in the day, I had discussed with Kevin some thoughts I had about Winston cube drafting. I recalled when I swept Tavish in a previous match. It was my 5-color deck, “Thawing Colors”, vs. Tavish’s red & black deck aptly named “Mox Betrayal”. I relied heavily on multi-lands and mana producing artifacts. I mentioned to Kevin that I would put a heavy emphasis on drawing these types of cards, and it can be seen that I stuck with my plan as much as I could, drawing four multi-lands as well as a valuable Llanowar Elves. I drew a combination of cards that allowed me to fully play four colors. Due to the mutli-lands I pulled, drawing a Windswept Heath gives me the option of three colors, including red, because the Stomping Ground is a Mountain Forest.

Not only is having a good set of multi-lands important, but having the right combination of casting costs in your spells. Having cards with casting cost options, such as Spitemare and Murderous Redcap, also helps to ensure that you’ll be able to play with a broad range of colors. By pursuing more colors you provide yourself the potential to play advantageous multicolor cards. In this case, for example, I had a Lightning Helix and a Maelstrom Pulse in the same deck.

Now, I won’t say this deck is exactly what I was going for. In fact it surprised me that it worked out like it did. I ended up drafting crazy good black destruction cards right near the end, so just decided to go for all four colors. I also felt like my worthy opponent seemed to doubt the effectiveness of playing multiple colors and had scoffed at this strategy last time (see his last post). Winning in this way did feel great. Looking back at my deck, I still think I could have balanced the land a tad bit more with one less swamp and an extra plains, but everything worked out so nicely, I never had to change it up.

I’ll admit I got a bit lucky in that I got balanced opening draws with plenty of land and my strong creatures. I really think things would have turned out differently if, for example, I hadn’t drawn my Spellbreaker Behemoth and Iwamori of the Open Fist early on most games. Perhaps Tavish also could have used more destruction, but turns out I had counter drafted it nicely. Sometimes you just gotta build the best with what you can get from the Winston draft, and I was fortunate to find a good blend of spells and land to get the job done on this night.

Without further ado, this is the deck I ended up building. I did not sideboard during this match.


I really feel that this deck excelled because I was able to balance the mana, and limited my creatures a bit more to ensure I’d be drawing more useful removal cards and multi-lands. A few key mid-casting cost beasties led my attack.

Favorite Card: Impending Disaster

Impending Disaster is incredibly fun to play. It is one of my favorite game changer cards in the cube. In my opinion, this is one of those cards that you just don’t pass on. It worked great in combo with the beastly green and red creatures in this deck. During one of our games, the Maze of Ith hit the board. Instead of neutralizing my Spellbreaker Behemoth, the Maze ended up going to the graveyard along with the Impending disaster, pumping my Tarmogoyf to a 4/5 and essentially sealing the deal.

Biggest Surprise: Spitemare

The Spitemare came out a lot in this matchup. It was easy to get out, and even though it was only a 3/3, its ability made it a true home-wrecker.

Constant Annoyance: Iwamori of the Open Fist

This legendary monk was summoned every game, I believe. This buff savior of the forest indeed brought the beat down early and often, but one game he did betray his master. As Iwamori came into play, Tavish took advantage of Iwamori’s mortal weakness that gives your opponent the opportunity to instantly unleash a legend of his own, and dropped down the ominous elf warrior legend Nath of the Gilt-Leaf. Next turn, I was discarding a card at random and Tavish was getting Elvish Warrior tokens. That same turn, Tavish cast a Slaughter Pact on poor Iwamori, leaving me crippled and dying. It was OK though, since I took the honorable way out and cast an Impending Disaster to speed up my own demise. If it was not for this betrayal, it would have been another sweep over Tavish.

Other Beastly Creatures

Drafting living lands, those that turn into creatures, also gave me an edge. Mutavault, Stirring Wildwood, and Raging Ravine are all excellent choices in my book. I had hoped to cast a Damnation with some of these living lands in play.

Knowing I’d be playing blue, I knew the Spellbreaker Behemoth would come in handy, and it certainly did. Murderous Redcap and Tarmogoyf also turned out to be menacers for the pithy Bloodghast that kept popping up out into the battlefield like one of those whack-a-mole games at Dave and Busters.

Unseen Bombs

Sadly, the great dragon Teneb, the Harvester only appeared once in my hand. Of course, Imowari’s betrayal had hit me deep. He brought down upon me the Nath, who then forced me to discard at random. Too bad.

Though I misbalanced my land somewhat only having two plains and the multi-lands, I did not once draw my planeswalker: Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I believe I would’ve played her anyways if I had though, because it seemed like every game I got a land of every color out.

Destruction

With a wide array of colors, I was able to include some strong destruction cards, such as key direct damage cards such as Hammer of Bogardan, which came in handy despite its heavy emphasis on red mana, as well as the ever useful Chainers Edict and Diabolic Edict. And of course, the ever dynamic Maelstrom Pulse always comes in handy. I never even relied on my Damnation.

Auf Wiedersehen!

I think one mistake I made in putting this deck together was deciding to put a Goblin Legionnaire into the deck. If there were a discussion about what cards to replace in our current cube, we’d have to include him and the Mogg Fanatic since they’ve both gotten nerfed. I think we’ve decided to replace them at this point, so by dominating Tavish one last time, I think we can fairly give a proper farewell to the oh so glorious goblin turned crusader.

I commend Tavish on another good match-up. I now lead 3-2 overall. Better luck next time.

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Blue/Green "Artifact Advantage" Wins Winston Draft

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Another rainy weeknight, another Cube showdown with my archnemesis G. Vogenbeck. Though it had been nearly two weeks since our previous matchup, I was still going into this night’s competition with high confidence in my Winston drafting abilities. I knew Garrett wasn’t going to let up on me, considering I had taken a $5 bounty on him in our previous clash, so I mentally prepared for what would undeniably be a matchup of near-epic proportions. Without further ado, here was my decklist:



With Tinker, Thirst for Knowledge, and the Darksteel Colossus picked early, I decided to go for a heavy artifact build.  This was a tough choice for me, as I wasn’t really that confident in the potential artifact synergy, yet my draws in other colors such as Red and Black weren’t too strong.  In the end I chose the Green/Blue build to give me some early game presence with Pouncing Jaguar, Noble Hierarch and Garruk Wildspeaker, which would hopefully hold off any early beatdowns until I could get some bombs on the table.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure how the deck was going to work, but as with every Cube deck, I was looking forward to seeing how it’d play.

Game One of our best-of-five series, I rolled a 2 on the d20 for play/draw.  My pre-roll hexing of Garrett resulted in a CRITICAL MISS roll of 1, so I chose to play first.

What proceeded in our next two games I have little recollection of…other than having TOTALLY beat down my opponent with pure card advantage.  The Recall, Thirst for Knowledge, and Regrowth/Restock really came into handy as I kept my hand at full capacity nearly the entire game.  Since Garrett wasn’t sure how many counters I was playing (only one), this hopefully made him a little nervous when casting his spells.  In the end, I took game one (or was it two?) by Gilded Drakeing his buffed Baneslayer Angel and swinging through for the win.

Garrett did rally in a tight third game, where I failed to Azorius Guildmage his Kor Haven before swinging with my Darksteel Colossus.  He finished me off with a River Boa and some other annoying flying dude who I don’t remember.

But I struck back in Game 4 again with incredible card advantage from Recall, Thirst, and some regrowth action.  An early game Pouncing Jaguar wielding a Sword and Warhammer just proved to be too much for G to handle.

In the end I took the series 3-1, a $1 bounty, and most importantly, just a little bit more of Garrett’s confidence in his drafting ability.  Next time he may think twice about spreading himself too thin over three colors…

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Bitterblossom Pwns in MTG Cube Winston Draft

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

After losing to Garrett in a Winston Draft two series in a row, I finally pulled things together with this mono-black (splash white) compilation.  I had a feeling when my very first card drafted was Maze of Ith, that I may…just may have a chance at reclaiming the title.  Throw in the Library, both Swords, and a handful of other insta-picks…combined with the fact that G’s “4-color cluster” just wasn’t up to snuff…finally put me on the board at 1-2 overall.  Check out the decklist below!

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