m10 draft, duel decks

Yesterday I found out that the release of m10 on Friday so it might be possible that some drafts would be held at some game stores that day. Later I found out that m10 draft is planned for Friday afternoon. I decided to go for it.

It seems that m10 is a fast set so I wanted to see how people would draft it and what would come out of it. I wished to draft something like black discard or blue control but I ended up drafting RG. I got Lightning bolt and Great Sable Stag so I had to go for these colors (at least that's what I thought would end up good for me^^). I got Stone Giant so I thought that Lightning Elementals would be sweet with this card. Fiery Hellhounds were capable of annoying my opponents quite a lot, Goblin Artillery was there to save the day and Rod of Ruin and Pyromancer showed that they can ruin the game as well. I also picked Howl of the Night Pack just because I wanted to play this card (after all two or three wolves could come handy and they did). In the mean time I was picking cards I did not want to see being played against me.

In round one, my opponent seemed to persuade all my lands to hide from me. I started with 5 cards not believing that I could do something to win the game. My opponent was playing B/W deck with quite a lot of soldiers (getting +1/0, or 0/+1 or the captain bringing 3 soldiers with him). He got 5 duresses, megrim, drudge skeletons that wanted to annoy me for some time. I decided to play all the cards before he would play mind shatter, mind rot or duress (or whatever he could have) which proved to be a good idea. After about 30 minutes I managed to get rid of all the soldiers, killed finally the skeletons with goblin artillery and waited for some creatures so I could trample through. I managed that. Second game was hopefully much faster even though it was not that fast as it could have been.

In the second match I played against R/G deck. He got the new Elf lord, birds of paradise, llanovars, overrun (for his 1 and 2 drops - few "grizzly" bears^_~, elven visionary). I got either rod of ruin or pyromancer in the game and managed to kill most creatures with it (with the help of my creatures). Goblin Artillery helped me against Trumpet Blast (otherwise it would be quite painful...I think 3 dmg instead of 11 was good, don't you think^^). Hopefully I did not see any other surprises that could turn the game.

Third game was against a blue/green control but my opponent was even less lucky than me with his opening hand. Sometimes in Magic the cards just won't come...

With 3:0 I won the draft (I got Twincast, Dragonskull Summit and Great Stable Stag)

Today I also got the chance to see the other Duel Decks. Goblins seemed to be quite fine even though they still lacked some kind of logic. Same would count for the elves. My opening hands were pitiful and when I searched for some elf with Harbinger I couldn't find any logic or sense to the cards in the deck either. I wished for some elves I could play that would support each other but they just did not manage to come in the correct order. Jace vs Chandra seemed to lack the same logic. First draw seemed like I would play an elemental deck. I got four flamekin guys that managed to do NOTHING and I got mana screwed as well. In the second game I drew flametongue kavu, 5 mountains and one flamekin. I put that in play and managed to kill my opponent with it quite soon. In the third game I managed to get the same flamekin elementals along with some other creatures. This time I got enough burn to get through opponents creatures (Fireball, Incinerate, Flame Javelin and!!! => 2x Fireblast, 1x Cone of Fire^_^).

Another surprise of the day was Martin who showed up collecting money for a cooling van for Cerny Rytir. He was asking people if they would donate few crowns for the cause. I decided to donate because I remember playing tournaments at Cerny Rytir and sweating badly (because of hight temperature and high humidity) and not being able to breathe much (because of the same reasons). Anyway I hope the people at Cerny Rytir will appreciate the fan.

And now it's time to build something for T2. Hm...Goblins, R/B Discard or B control?