Rise of the Eldrazi

My first draft of RoE did not go that bad. It did in the end because I lost a game because of giving up (not knowing that I would top deck and turn the game over).

At the beginning I ended up taking mana fixation - Ondu Giants, Growth Spasm etc. Later some 'good' cards came in different colors. With good cards I mean the cards that I considered that could be good in the format but I had no idea. This way I picked Wildheart Invoker, Emrakul's Hatcher, Pelakka Wurm, Corpse Hatch, Pawn of Ulamog, Broodwarden - in general I was picking cards that could generate larger number of Eldrazi Pawns and could pump them.

Later to my surprise I was sent Hand of Emrakul so I picked it (twice). The rest of the cards were more or less random - Vent Sentinels, Zof Shades, Virulent Swipe...I got few totem armor enchantments and some disenchants/naturalizes. I took those as I was afraid of my opponents equipments and auras.

In the first round I started the game with some acceleration and creating few spawns at the same time. My opponent played some flyers and I really needed to take them down. My only possibility how to get rid of them was to force my opponent to block and trading leveled up Null Champions with 2/1 flyer seemed fair to me.

My opponent was having Null Champions as well and some other level up creatures. I played Bala Ged Scorpions in my deck though and I have to say that they proved to be good (the opportunity to kill 'merfolk looter' is something really good, drawing a card in this format is way to powerful).

Later the game became a stall. Both of us were playing creatures and we couldn't attack. I was waiting for my Hands of Emrakul but none came. Green invoker came though a turn after my scorpion was domesticated. I played my lovely Invoker and at the end of my next opponents turn I pumped it^_^. I got it back and then I was happily attacking with my creatures.

In the second game it was Broodwarden that killed my opponent along with few Eldrazi Spawns.

In second round I played against Cormack. He played the same colors as I at that moment (black and green) but had more removal than me and was using Umbras. He played the same creature cards though (except the Eldrazi I guess). He simply killed me because of CA as killing his creatures meant killing them twice and he had relevant removal for bigger creatures and I could only kill just the 'meek' ones. I wanted to compensate this somehow. My only possibility was splashing white for life gain, some guard duty and some disenchants. All the games were more or less equal. It was about who first gets Invoker in play.

In the last round I played against Kuba with a UW control. Knights of Cliffhaven were really a problem for me. Flyer with power 2 is already a problem. I had removal that could kill it but my opponent had counterspells. I did not manage any massive attack as I had "infinite" blockers there and creatures that could block anything I had. It all came down to 4 power and higher is the only relevant creature attacking on the ground. Flyers are a treasure. His deck was nice, I would have liked to play it.

In the third game I died to White Invoker, the only card that could kill me in my opponent's deck. It arrived after 'million' cards drawn from the looter.
Anyway I learned that the level up creatures are really good in these games. I had to shift my point of view on those cards.

Even though my standing was bad I enjoyed the draft. It was nice but the format felt just wrong...
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I arrived late for the regular draft and that allowed me to explore something new. We tried Continuous draft (BTW this in bigger number of players ie.6 is good for really exploring the set as you draft a new deck with each opponent).

I ended up with something like this:

4c

1x Kabira Vindicator
1x Wall of Omens
1x Soul's Attendant
1x Knight of Cliffhaven
1x Hand of Emrakul
1x It that betrays
1x Eldrazi Constcription
1x Balefull Omen
1x Nirkana Cutthroat
1x Dread Drone
1x Null Champion
1x Essence Feed
1x Arrogant Bloodlord
1x Guard Gomazoa
1x Brimstone Mage
1x Lavafume Invoker
1x Spawning Breath
1x Deprive
2x Narcolepsy
1x Lay Bare
1x Coralhelm Commander

I had nothing to fix my mana, nor any acceleration but I still went for blue (and all those other colors). All I concentrated on was that 'late game is important - the lands will eventually arrive'. At one point of a game it looked like this =>



It was fun having Deprive, Lay Bare and the Commander and not being able to play these cards. Omen was trying its best though^^. I put the card in a deck as I thought that this could do the last damage needed in a game, but this card was my win condition. At the beginning I thought that Eldrazi spells will have to be my win condition as the rest does not do much, but in the end the Omen wasn't bad^^ even after revealing 5 land cards in row. The deck once again does not seem to be playable...It seems I miss the point of Rise of the Eldrazi.

Tell me does it look like a mess to you as well (the deck I drafted)?