Given my ignorance, I went ahead with the following draft found here: https://sites.google.com/site/dvdlimiteddrafts/m12-limited/aug-4-2011-draft-1
I think I ended up with a pretty decent B/W Weenie deck. Lots of synergies and removals between the cards. True enough, I went 3-0 with this one! in the swiss I played.
The final deck:
BW Weenie M12Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Creatures 1 Serra Angel 1 Peregrine Griffin 2 Griffin Riders 2 Griffin Sentinel 2 Elite Vanguard 1 Gravedigger 1 Auramancer 1 Gideon's Lawkeeper 1 Assault Griffin 1 Benalish Veteran 1 Stormfront Pegasus 14 CREATURES | Noncreature Spells 1 Oblivion Ring 1 Doom Blade 1 Pacifism 1 Sorin's Thirst 1 Wring Flesh 1 Dark Favor 1 Honor of the Pure 1 Guardian's Pledge 1 Mind Rot 1 Timely Reinforcements 10 Spells | Lands 11 Plains 5 Swamp |
I was able to record the results by jotting down the key plays of the games this was drafted in (mostly for the benefit of my teammates studying M12 for Nationals during the following weekend). Alas, if only there were some way to record the games a la zizibaloob.com...
In any case, here were the results:
3-0 in matches, 6-0 in games
How the matches played out:
Round 1. 2-0 vs. Black-Green Bloodthirst
Game 1
He's mana screwed at 3 lands. He manages to kill my first 2 crits, a Lawkeeper and a Stormfront Pegasus -- but I have an Assault Griffin and a Serra Angel for which he has no answers.
Game 2:
I have a turn 1 Vanguard, turn 2 Griffin Rider, turn 3 Griffin Sentinel, turn 4 Honor of the Pure + Lawkeeper. His first creature comes out on turn 4, a Lurking Crocodile, then he Doom Blades my Rider. The next 2 turns, I play Honor of the Pure and Gravedigger to recur the Rider and basically overrun him.
Round 2: 2-0 Vs. Blue-Red Flyers
Game 1
His line of play: Ponder, into Merfolk Looter, into Divination, into Phantasmal Dragon.
My line of play: Elite Vanguard, into Griffin Rider, into Elite Vanguard+Honor of the Pure, into Wring Flesh his Dragon. Turn 5 I have the Peregrine Griffin. I attack, and he Outrages the Griffin and blocks 1 Vanguard. Next turn I have a Griffin Sentinel, which pumps up the Riders and kills him.
Game 2
Again he plays Ponder first turn. Into Mesmerist, into Divination, into a 3/1 Drake. The Drake can't block my Benalish Veteran, which is chipping away at his life. Then he puts down a bonebreaker (the 4/4) which stops my Veteran. I play an Elite Vanguard and a Rider. He attacks with his bonebreaker then unsummons my Vanguard When I try to double block with the Veteran (dies). He brings me down to 12 with the Giant before I summon Timely Reinforcements, putting me back up to 18 and giving me 3 1/1s. I chump with 1, and he plays a Chasm Drake.
Good thing I have Oblivion Ring for the Drake, and draw a Guardian's Pledge. I attack with 2 1/1s + the Rider and he chooses not to block. I cast Pledge, and suddenly, he's down to 7. Next turn he decides to play defense and doesn't attack. Instead he plays an Aven Fleetwing. I play Honor of the Pure and play Pacifism
on the Giant, then Attack. He chooses to block with his Fleetwing, killing my Vanguard then goes down to 3.
Next turn he plays land and I draw Griffin Sentinel, which allows my Rider to fly over his non-flying crits.
Round 3: 2-0 Vs. Black-Red Bloodthirst
Game 1
This was a difficult game. I don't remember all the details, but he did have a turn 2 Blood Seeker into the Bloodthirst Ogre into the Bloodthirst 4/2 Vampire. I had a turn 1 Lawkeeper and only a turn 2 Stormfront Pegasus, but a hand that had Oblivion Ring, Pacifism, Sorin's Thirst and Wring Flesh. I Thirst the Vampire, Pacifism the Ogre and Tap the Bloodseeker. At some point I cast Timely Reinforcements, then Honor of the Pure and he's forced to chump with his Bloodseeker. He eventually has a 5/5 Minotaur, but I just chump with 2/2 tokens while attacking through the air with Assault Griffin and Griffin Sentinel. He outrages my Assault Griffin, but dies when he can't block everything else and I cast Pledge, making all of my crits monsters.
Game 2
Very close game because of that Bloodseeker. Again he plays Blood Seeker turn 2. I play Timely Reinforcements turn 3 and go to 22 life. He plays the 2/2 Bloodthirst Ogre which I pacifism. I notice he doesn't have a red source at this point and did not play a land, so I cast my Lawkeeper and my first Rider (I had 2 in hand). He plays a 4/2 Vampire and finally plays a mountain. Next few turns I'm tapping the 4/2 Vamp and attacking into his Bloodseeker, hoping he'll block. At some point he kills my Lawkeeper, I kill his 4/2 Vamp. He plays a Drifting Bat (the pumpable one), and a Cemetary Reaper. I have Oblivion Ring for the Reaper. He attacks with his Bat twice eventually and pumps it, bringing me to 8 life, then plays a Gorehorn Minotaur (5/5). I draw Sorin's thirst, which kills the Bat and buys me a little bit more time. If I remember correctly, he makes a mistake I think and attacks with his Blood Seeker, which I happily block with 1 token.
Now both are gone I play another Rider, but have no Griffin in hand, only Guardian's Pledge. I'm chumpblocking his Minotaur with tokens while I have 2 idle Riders on the board. One turn after I chump with my last token, I draw Griffin Sentinel!
I play the Griffin Sentinel, then attack with 2 4/4 Riders. He's at 12, has nothing so I Guardian's Pledge for the win.
In HINDSIGHT:
I think this was a lucky draft, considering that I made a lot of mistakes (i.e. Griffin Rider top pick in 2nd pack and 2nd pick in 1st pack, etc...). Heck, I didn't even play the Stave Off, which I know now to be very, very good.
Also, I realize that White isn't all that powerful compared to BR, BG, UB and UG in M12. There are very few removals, and the flyers -- while good -- are not great. Still, this was an enjoyable one given the opportunity to play weenie in limited
Next up: My BG draft which took place not long after this one...