I’ve hopped into the ARC 4322 draft this time, now that I feel I have a good enough chance of getting through the first round.

  Pack 1 pick 1:



  My Pick:

My personal play style wants to grab the Strix or the Thunder. The Thunder is the easier to cast, so I grab it.



  Pack 1 pick 2:



  My Pick:

In retrospect, the Arcane Sanctum would have been a much better pick. However, I didn’t choose it, I grabbed the Deathraiders.



  Pack 1 pick 3:



  My Pick:

The Dragon Fodder is tempting, but I haven’t really used Minion Reflector before, and if you’ve read Patrick Chapin’s “Next Level Magic”, he advocates taking the rare just to “try it out”. So I do.



  Pack 1 pick 4:



  My Pick:

I thought I might be heading Jund, but it seems Grixis is calling, with the Fatestitcher having a much higher power level than the other cards in the pack.



  Pack 1 pick 5:



  My Pick:

Not a lot here for me, so I grab the flyer.



  Pack 1 pick 6:



  My Pick:

Sixth pack Agony Warp bodes very well for blue/black in the third pack. Glad to be in Grixis now.



  Pack 1 pick 7:



  My Pick:



  Pack 1 pick 8:



  My Pick:

The Screecher is tempting, but I need me some fixing.



  Pack 1 pick 9:



  My Pick:

For the second draft in a row I grab a Covenant of Minds. We’ll see how it goes this time.



  Pack 1 pick 10:



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  Pack 1 pick 11:



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  Pack 1 pick 12:



  My Pick:

Pretty late Screecher, but happily taken as I’m low on dudes.



  Pack 1 pick 13:



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  Pack 1 pick 15:



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  Pack 2 pick 1:



  My Pick:

No bomb, but some interesting options. Sedraxis Alchemist, Zombie Outlander and Hellspark are all interesting. But I think I’ll take the sweeper and see how it goes.



  Pack 2 pick 2:



  My Pick:

Dark Temper is perfect in the deck I’m drafting. But that’s a second Alchemist I’ve let go.



  Pack 2 pick 3:



  My Pick:

The right pick here was probably the Goblin Razerunners, but I went for the second fallout. I’ve never had a two-fallout deck before, and was interested how it would work.



  Pack 2 pick 4:



  My Pick:

Tonight I’m a removal whore.



  Pack 2 pick 5:



  My Pick:

‘Removal’ on a body. Sweet.



  Pack 2 pick 6:



  My Pick:

With the two fallouts I’m running, having creatures that can survive is pretty important, even if they are vanilla.



  Pack 2 pick 7:



  My Pick:

Nothing here excited me.



  Pack 2 pick 8:



  My Pick:

At least one land fetcher – phew!



  Pack 2 pick 9:



  My Pick:

A second Alchemist, cool.



  Pack 2 pick 10:



  My Pick:

A third alchemist, awesome. Now I just need me some blue permanents. Last time I thought I’d get some, none appeared. Hopefully the signals from the first pack hold true and I’ll be passed blue.



  Pack 2 pick 11:



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  Pack 3 pick 1:



  My Pick:

As I said, a whore for removal.



  Pack 3 pick 2:



  My Pick:

Removal on a stick-insect.



  Pack 3 pick 3:



  My Pick:

Flies, sets of the Alchemist, perfect for this deck.



  Pack 3 pick 4:



  My Pick:

The Mistvein Borderpost was probably the correct pick, as it can really boost the Stormblade from the word go, but I was short of bodies at this point so went for the Drake, which is still a good pick.



  Pack 3 pick 5:



  My Pick:

The Lich Lord doesn’t really fit this deck archtype, but what the hell. I do happen to have a hell of a lot of zombies in my deck.



  Pack 3 pick 6:



  My Pick:

Don’t know whether I’ll use him yet or not.



  Pack 3 pick 7:



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  Pack 3 pick 8:



  My Pick:

Eighth pick Stormblade? Sure.



  Pack 3 pick 9:



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  Pack 3 pick 11:



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My Deck ends up looking like this:

1 Agony Warp
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Kathari Screecher
2 Architects of Will
1 Giant Ambush Beetle
1 Terminate
1 Fiery Fall
1 Covenant of Minds
1 Fatestitcher
1 Lich Lord of Unx
1 Dark Temper
1 Resounding Thunder
1 Minion Reflector
3 Sedraxis Alchemist
1 Sewn-Eye Drake
2 Canyon Minotaur
2 Esper Stormblade

1 Grixis Panorama
6 Swamp
5 Island
5 Mountain

Match 1, Game 1: I have an good hand of an Esper Stormblade, a Sewn-Eye Drake, an Agony Warp and all the colours of mana. But my opponent plays a Scattershot Archer, which really slows down my hand of 1-toughness flyers. Luckily, I find the Lich Lord and start getting my slow-game on. Eventually I find my way to an Ambush Beetle, and between that and an Agony Warp start clearing the way. I get to play a Covenant of Minds and get given five cards, and at that point it’s all over. Between ongoing removal and a growing army of Zombies, and his own mana screw, my opponent can’t keep up and soon dies.

Match 1, Game 2: I start on a rough hand of a bunch of land, an Agony Warp and a Volcanic Fallout, thinking that if he gets his quick dudes into play I’ll wipe the board and start setting down my own guys. After some basic lands he Bloodbraid Elf’s into Nulltread Gargantuan on an empty board, which bounces it right back to the top of his library. I Dark Temper it – though I really should of Agony Warped it, as the Dark Temper is the only solution I have to the Nulltread Gargantuan. He lays down a Mage Slayer and I get down my Lich Lord. He then plays a Scattershot Archer, quickly followed by the Nulltread. Having equipped the Nulltread it rolls in. I send a Zombie token into block, but still take 5 from the Mage Slayer. I’m going to be dead soon if I don’t find an answer.
I have an Agony Warp and a Volcanic Fallout in hand, and enough mana to use them both. My plan is to use the Agony Warp and Volcanic Fallout and block with the Lich Lord. A terrible 3-for-1 trade, but at least it will keep me alive. He send in the Nulltread, I Agony Warp it – and he Resounding Waves the Nulltread to his hand. Oh crap. Then he plays the Scattershot Archers.
At this point I figure he probably needs the Archers around in order to play the Nulltread, so I clear the board with the Fallout and start again.
My mana is overflowing, so I get down a Kathari Screecher and an Esper Stormblade. My opponent, on five mana, plays a surprise Cliffrunner Behemoth that has haste due to the Mage Slayer. Luckily he doesn’t have enough mana to equip it, so I let it through.
I draw a Terminate, play the Minion Reflector, and wait to see what he does. He goes to equip and I kill the Cliffrunner.
Next I draw a very, very handy Sedraxis Alchemist. I plop it down and pay the Reflector cost, bouncing both the Mage Slayer and his only source of red mana in a Wildfire Borderpost back to his hand, then get in for a stack of damage. His only play next turn is a Sacellum Archers with a single green mana open. I send in a duplicated Giant Ambush Beetle, with only a single “must block” trigger on the stack and do the final damage needed to finish him off.

At this point I’m pretty sure maindecking two Volcanic Fallout was a terrible mistake, but I guess we’ll see in the next match.

The next guy took the full hour to complete his first game, so I’m unsure how this next match is going to go.

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Match 2, Games 1 & 2: He’s playing Exalted.dec. You know what that deck can’t beat? A Lich Lord of Unx. That puppy sat and produced endless tokens while my Esper Stormblades swung in from the air. I reserved removal for the Aven Waveskimmers he was dropping, and just used the endless streams of 1/1s to stop his army

However, whenever I would get close to the magical 3 life burn range, he’d drop a Bodyguard, or Captured Sunlight, or Knight Captain of Eos. No wonder his last match had taken almost an hour! I was almost out of time myself, but in both games he ran out of outs. And in both games I ended up using the Lich Lord’s second ability – remember, he actually has one – to do a final 3 damage and take out the match.

And so on to the last round.

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Match 3, Game 1: Bant and Naya really seems to kick my ass. He drops the Goblin Razerunners I passed and eats my brain in very, very short order. I will certainly change the way I view that card in Limited from now on.

Match 3, Game 2: Again an opening Qasali Pridemage, this time backed by a Rhox Brute. This is followed up sequentially by two Nacatl Hunt-Prides. I stay alive through assiduous use of my Lich Lord, but eventually he is O-Ringed and my opponent drops a Scepter of Dominance. I then proceed to rip a Dark Temper, Terminate and Agony Warp to survive a couple more rounds and wear my opponent down to 1 life, but he finally drops enough big critters to get through me. All I needed was a single Alchemist or the Resounding Thunder and I would of got there. Alas, it was not to be.