Kaladesh Draft Report - SoCal Games and Comics - 10/11/2016

Draft Report for 10/11/2016 2W/1L

On the 11th, last week, I went to a Kaladesh draft at SoCal Games and Comics, my preferred FLGS. They've got great employees and I really love the crowd that hangs there. We started drafting at 7 with 12 people drafting together. I never really got any big-time WOW cards passed to me. It was a little bit underwhelming; I didn't pull anything super stand out either, so I was left drafting value cards. Fortunately, I was getting pretty clear tells from the people around me. Black and White were getting passed over and over so I was pulling black and white over and over. I think I only pulled 3 non B/W cards during the entire draft.

I haven't drafted in quite a while, but draft is by far my favorite format in MTG. The last draft I attend was the pre-release event for Oath of the Gatewatch and I did several Battle for Zendikar before that. During the event I signed up for all six rounds but got blown out in a couple of the evening rounds, so I only ended up playing in 4 of the 6 actual drafts. I got completely burned out by the massive format with all the players and the insane level of play. I think I only won like 8 or 9 games out of the whole thing. It was pretty demoralizing, so it sent me packing not looking to get drafting again. However, during that event I managed to pull some really cool promo cards which, after I sold them, helped me finance my current standard and commander decks.

Black/White Fabricate All-In Smash

The Deck

My Deck: The Stars are highlighted below.

The Highlight Cards

The Restoration Gearsmith was insane value. It repeatedly resurrected the other fabricator minions, keeping me with plenty of servo tokens on the board. The Ovalchase Dragster was perfect for providing the burst damage I needed to all-in my opponent.

The Lost Legacy was very useful in each of my matches in the second and third games. Being able to pull out the problem card in my opponents deck really helped shut them down after rounds one and two. The Fumigate was my come-back card. Letting my opponent load up the board, then blowing the board up allowed me to win several games.

Strategy - General

So, the Black/White archetype seems to be decent enough in Kaladesh; one of the other things about the deck is that it seemed like people weren't pulling many of the cards associated with those colors - at least they weren't near me - the other end might have been. My strategy was to draft as many of the fabricate cards as I could, especially after getting the two Restoration Gearsmith. I didn't get quite as many as I would have liked, but it worked out well enough. The Fumigate, Demonic Tutor were very useful when I needed the board clear to save my ass. Not shown here, because I don't know where it went, is an Inspired Charge. I played one of those in the deck and it was my goal to bust that out, with the hasted Dragster to deal a ton of damage all at once and burst my opponent down when he couldn't block or was all tapped out.

Round 1: U/G Token Production Control  0W-2L

My opponent was running a blue/green control token production deck. He had a very strong late game play with multiple combo cards. I lost hard in game one. In game 2, I attempted an all-in play, but got shut down; he ended me very quickly when I tapped everything to attack, and failed to finish him, leaving him with 1 hp. He admitted that he had several answers to my all-in as well. Too bad so sad. In the end, my opponent ended up coming in first place. His deck was a beast. It makes me feel not as bad when I lose to the guy who takes home the money.

Round 2:  R/W Aggro 2W-1L

I got beaten pretty hard in game one. My opponent had some interesting combo cards which suprised me. Since I hadn't really looked over what cards were in the set, having only glanced at the archetypes before going into the tournament, I wasn't prepared for what he was going to dish out. But, in game 2, I knew what I needed to get rid of, and was able to come back for two wins. This was helped a lot by the fact that he got fairly tight on mana in game 2 and was completely mana flooded in game 3. Not his lucky night.

Round 3:  U/W ??? 2W-1L

My opponent in round 3 was a relatively new player and his deck didn't have an archetype per-se, but was more an mix of good cards in the colors he drafted. Unfortunately, he didn't have many that really stood out. I had easy wins in both games one and three, getting STUPIDLY unlucky with draws in game two, pulling no land for 5 turns after mulliganing down twice. Sitting on so little mana I just couldn't do anything that game. However, the inspired charge won both game 1 and game 3 for me very quickly.

Summary

Considering how unprepared I was when I went into the event, I was proud of pulling a 2-1 record. With a 3 round swiss format, pack per win, this was a pretty damn fine result. I only lost to the guy who came in first place, which feels good. All in all, I really enjoyed the Kaladesh set and the draft as a whole. I'm headed to another event tonight, hoping to take a 3-0. May the odds be forever in my favor.