Starting off with an update from my last blog, I have played six M12 drafts: lost two (1-2), won (3-0) two, and did 2-1 in two drafts in that order. My hinderences in most of the games was knowing the power level, how to use planeswalkers to their fullest, and trying to force colors that weren't necessarily open. My wins happen most when I have creatures with flying and removal. I am noticing though, statistics of winning the draft depend on what you pull in your first 2 picks per pack: what your bombs are.
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Moving on to what I really want to talk about is my deck building for Standard (type II). I'm a Johnny, almost an Uber Johnny. You won't know what that means if you haven't read about the Magic R&D player classifications1,2. I will build my own decks using cards and combos that have power but won't always get there. My end goal, though, is being a challenge for players rather than a speed bump. Overall, I like my creative juices flowing rather than winning consistently.
I draft about 2-3 times a week at my local store which is where I pull my inspiration for my decks. In June I won the draft with Maul Splicer and Phyrexian Hulk, so I went online and found Blightsteel Colossus and then saw Shape Anew. At the end of July, I was passed 2 Vengeful Pharaoh, 2 Zombie Infestation, and a Reassembling Skeleton so I built a deck out of that concept. And so far in August, I saw Overrun and Onyx Mage in my draft and had some blood thirst cards. Trample plus death touch was really fun, knowing it only takes 1 damage to kill a creature with 3-6 more going over is priceless. Bloodthirst or the other hand, seems fun with proliferate, but doesn't seem to have a finisher. Either way, it's making my creative juices flow, and would suit my goal of making my opponents think.
Unfortunately, I don't think these deck concepts will come to fruition, because I have little in M11 and Zendicar block and with rotation coming up, I'd be tossing money at subpar decks then have little time to polish before everything changes. I don't have a collection enough to play Extrended, Modern, or Legacy. The cards I would be buying are probably too obscure to trade or sell back, so I am left with a conundrum.
1 www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.a...
2 www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.a...
