I drafted a rather tasty Bant/Esper deck last night. Here's how I drafted:

  Pack 1 pick 1:



  My Pick:



Ok, first pick O-Ring is never a bad start.

  Pack 1 pick 2:



  My Pick:



Picked mainly because I need a Canonist, and considering the other stuff in the pack thought it worth the loss.

  Pack 1 pick 3:



  My Pick:



I thought about a recent article decrying the Capsule as a bad turn-2 play (an article I can't find at the moment) and immediately regretted the pick. I didn't use it in any of the games.

  Pack 1 pick 4:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 5:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 6:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 7:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 8:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 9:



  My Pick:



A late gift in this pack.

  Pack 1 pick 10:



  My Pick:



In retrospect, the Rip-Clan crasher might of been a better hate-draft, as my deck was pretty slow. Or even the dispeller's capsule.

  Pack 1 pick 11:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 12:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 13:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 14:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 15:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 1:



  My Pick:



I thought about the blightning, then I remembered Olivier Ruel's recent words on avoiding the hate-draft whenever possible. So I took removal. Right choice. Never had a problem getting to 8 mana all night.

  Pack 2 pick 2:



  My Pick:



Yup, right choice.

  Pack 2 pick 3:



  My Pick:



Very tempted to take the infest, but I had too many spells accumulating and needed critters.

  Pack 2 pick 4:



  My Pick:



Ok, anything else was a better pick here. Damn rares. So tempting.

  Pack 2 pick 5:



  My Pick:



I really like the spike, especially as I had a bunch of evasion creatures by then.

  Pack 2 pick 6:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 7:



  My Pick:



Usually I hate waveskinner, but he turned out okay tonight.

  Pack 2 pick 8:



  My Pick:



Um, yeah, don't know what I was thinking there.

  Pack 2 pick 9:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 10:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 11:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 12:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 13:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 14:



  My Pick:



  Pack 2 pick 15:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 1:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 2:



  My Pick:



Oooohhh, yeeaaaah. And second pick!

  Pack 3 pick 3:



  My Pick:



The funny thing about Esperzoa? Didn't attack with it all night. It was a big, fat, blocker for my other evasive creatures.

  Pack 3 pick 4:



  My Pick:



I've played against this card and lost. It just creates such gas it's not funny.

  Pack 3 pick 5:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 6:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 7:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 8:



  My Pick:



A +4/+4 bonus to my evasive creatures and/or lifelinkers is nothing to be sneezed at.

  Pack 3 pick 9:



  My Pick:



Have you ever used this with Esperzoa? It's "Pay 2: Draw a card". Each round.

  Pack 3 pick 10:



  My Pick:



You know what's fun? Shouting out "BOOOONNNNE SAAARRRRWWWW" at the monitor. Try it.
Picked to keep my two Esperzoa in play for free.

  Pack 3 pick 11:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 12:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 13:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 14:



  My Pick:



  Pack 3 pick 15:



  My Pick:



This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy.
Visit the draft converter today!

I played:

2 x Esperzoa
2 x Kathari Screecher
2 x Windwright Mage
2 x Resounding Silence
1 x Waveskimmer Aven
1 x Oblivion Ring
1 x Kiss of the Amesha
1 x Dawnray Archer
1 x Jhessian Infiltrator
1 x Glaze Fiend
1 x Bone Saw (replaced for Manaforce Mace every second game - the only change)
1 x Inkwell Leviathan
1 x Skyward Eye Prophets
1 x Traumatic Visions
1 x Sylvan Bounty
1 x Scattershot Archer
1 x Kaleidestone
1 x Infections Horror
1 x Salvage Slasher
1 x Naya Panarama
6 x Island
3 x Forest
4 x Plains
3 x Swamp

NOTE: I think I may have Rounds 1 & 2 mixed up.

Round 1: A Grixis match. I wrap up Game 1 after what I thought was a misplay at the time, but turned out to be great. I had thought Scattershot Archer only damaged your opponent's creatures. Turns out it kills your own as well. With the board cleared we started again and I took it home.
Game 2: My opponent gets a head start, but I manage to keep up with trades, cycling Resounding Silence twice and casting Kiss of the Amesha. Eventually Leviathan turns up and islandwalks the game home.

Round 2: An Esper mirror. I win Game 1 slowly, grinding out a win as we trade creatures. The grind was due to him playing Cumberstone and my critters quickly becoming smaller. Luckily a Exalted-enhanced Screecher and Windwright Mage keep me going while Skyward Eye Prophets keeps me in gas until Inkwell lands.
Game 2: An interesting moment comes. At one point my opponent has a Master of Etherium, Salvage Slasher and Parasitic Strix in play. I manage Oblivion Ring the Master and use a Esperzoa to block the Slasher, which buys me time to find the Inkwell. I'm at pretty low health at this point and Inkwell only needs to hit him three times for the win, and I have a a Windwright Mage and Sylvan Bounty in hand... which he Blightnings away. I rip another Windwright Mage, slam it down and Inkwell takes it home without fear of losing the race.

Rounds 2: Up against Naya/Jund. Game 1 my opponent mulligans into oblivion.
Game 2: I started with two lands in hand (a Forst and a Plains), the Sylvan Bounty and the Traumatic Visions. On turn 2 he lands a Rip-Clan Crasher. I cycle the Slyvan Bounty to find a Island, then the Visions to find a Swamp, then the Waveskimmer Aven goes down to stop his growing army. Next turn I play a Windwright Mage and a Jhessian Infiltrator. These two alone take the game home.

The land cyclers were awesome and I never had mana problems even with the lack of non-basic lands. O-Ring did as it usually does and Inkwell Leviathan was crazy good. One of the few cards my opponents actually responded to over the chat box.

After years of failing at draft, I have now practiced enough to get my rating back to +1600 on Modo (1602 to be precise). Considering I only learnt how to draft a year or so ago, and that my rating dropped considerably online during the learning process, I'm pretty happy about that tiny, tiny achievement.

Labels: Bant, draft, Esper, magic, SSC