Possibly the less said about the draft the better. We had nine players and unfortunately I had the bye in the first round (so I went and got some dinner for myself and Shane). The second round I was paired against Julian, where he demonstrated to me the most terrifying opening in draft Magic.

 

Turn 1: Forest, Elf

Turn 2: Island, 5/6 Monster.

Turn 3: Elf

 

It there was one thing my deck was notable for, it was how slow it was at getting out creatures. The first time Julian did this (in the first game), I was lucky enough to have a Crystalize in hand and so could negate the monster before it took me down. The second game, I was in trouble with my mana and all my spells were too expensive. The third game, Julian didn’t draw the combo in his opening hand and I was able to take the victory.

 

What was the Monster? It was a little creature called the Nulltread Gargantuan. Here’s the card:

 

To make things worse, the Elf wasn’t actually an elf… it was a 1/1 exalted 1-cost rare. The Noble Hierarch. A very nice card indeed:

 

So, on turn three, it rentered play and I was facing a 6/7 attacking creature.

 

Still, I survived through the second match and then had to face Jesse in the final round. The first game was long… really long. Long enough so that I was really wondering where a couple of my great cards were (never saw them in the match, alas). Where Jesse had an advantage was in a little common 2/2. This one:

I had a lot of green in my deck, and I just couldn’t attack past it. Meanwhile, Jesse was getting even scarier creatures out that all my creature kill and shutdown had to deal with rather than the Zombie.

 

Eventually, he killed my Stun Sniper and that was it.

 

In the second game, Jesse played the Zombie Outlander, followed it with an enchantment that gave it +3/+0 and First Strike, and that was it. I still came second in the tournament, but I can say that the deck I drafted wasn’t good at all; definitely too slow compared to some of the other decks around – I consider myself very lucky to have defeated Julian in my first match – and with a horrible colour balance.

 

Here’s the construction of the deck as I recall:

 

LANDS: 6 Forests, 5 Plains, 4 Mountains, 1 Savage Temple

GREEN: Algae Ghariel, Beacon Behomoth, Court Archers, Gift of the Gargantuan, Sacellum Archers, 2x Wild Leotau

RED: 2x Bloodpyre Elemental, Toxic Iguana

WHITE: Akrasan Squire, Aven Squire, 

GOLD: 2x Bant Sureblade, 2x Behomoth Sledges, Crystalize, Deadshot Minotaur, Enlisted Wurm, Firewild Borderpost, Naya Charm, Pale Recluse, Rhox Bodyguard, Stun Sniper