by Ian Baker

Ian “All Removal, no Creatures” Baker confronts his teasers by testing out a more traditional draft strategy in his first online Scars of Mirrodin draft. Find out if killing everything that hits the table (read: Rend his Skin, Melt his Scrap and Grasp his Darkness) is still a viable strategy or not, whether turning Magic card names into verbs makes sense or not, and whether anyone else finds those phrases oddly sexual.

Hey all!

As promised, this is going to be a SOM limited article. The sealed format is maybe a bit more important for the upcoming PTQs than draft, but both give valuable insight into the format. Now that drafts are up on MTGO, I’ve been grinding a few, and so I decided to post a walkthrough. I was initially doing 8-4’s, but have switched to 4-3-2-2’s until I have a really strong grasp of the format. The quality of play is not much lower, but it is a lot easier to win. Anyways, without further ado, let’s get to drafting:

(To zoom in, click the appropriate card)

Here’s how I built the deck:

I basically just crammed in all my removal and good creatures. This deck has a tremendous amount of removal. I usually like to be either infect or metalcraft in this format, but this is much more of a traditional deck, with solid removal and decent bombs. It will be interesting to see if this deck can hold its own against these strong archetypes. I have a feeling that this deck will be excellent, and that I was perhaps overvaluing metalcraft and infect slightly. It is definitely possible to get a more traditionally good deck.

Anyways, without further ado, let’s get on to the matches:

Match One

Game One

Unfortunately, I’ve been having trouble with MODO eating my replays. That’s just another reason why I want to start doing videos instead, but this game my deck did its thing and ran over my opponent.

1-0

Game Two

I mulligan a hand with only one swamp and keep a hand with two Swamps, a Goblin Gaveleer, Bladed Pinions, Myr Battlesphere, and Flameborn Hellion. The hand is a little top heavy, and really needs a mountain, but my opponent put me on the draw, so that should help. My opponent leads out an island and a Horizon Spellbomb, while I draw a Moriok Replica and play a swamp. Now I just need a somewhat slow start from my opponent, and one more land. My opponent plays a Thrummingbird, even though its proliferate ability did not seem to fit with his deck. I play another Swamp and the Pinions. He uses his Spellbomb to find a plains, and Thrummingbird puts me at 19. Just in time, I draw a swamp to get my Replica out. He bashes me to 18 and plays a Sunspear Shikari.

I draw a Mountain (so lucky!) and play my Gaveleer, equipping pinions to it.He plays a Soliton and passes, and I bash with my Gaveleer. He swings back on his turn with Soliton and Thrummingbird, and I block the soliton with my Moriok Replica and sac it to draw two Grasp of Darkness. On my turn, Gaveleer puts him down to 14, and I play out a Tumble Magnet I just drew, leaving two black mana up for Grasp. I tap the Shikari in his beginning of combat step, and Grasp the soliton after he attacks, falling to 14. I draw a Mountain, and since all his creatures are tapped, I am able to play out Flameborn Hellion and it and the Gaveleer team up to bring him down to 6. He casts a Razor Hippogriff, and returns Soliton to his hand, going back up to 11. He also arrests the Hellion, and takes me down to 11. On my turn, I draw another land, bash him down to 8 with Gaveleer, and play my battlesphere. He concedes.
 

2-0 / 1-0

Match Two

Game One
Once again, game one is missing. Has anyone else been having this missing replay problem? If so, let me know if you know how to fix it. Also, I won this game fairly handily after my opponent had a slow start, which was odd because he is red/white. I think this was the game where I had turn two Painsmiths.

1-0

Game Two

For some reason, my opponent takes the draw, which seems odd considering my deck is probably more aggressive. I do have to mulligan my initial no-land hand, but keep three Swamps, a Mountain, Oxidda Scrapmelter, and Geth, because my opponent had a very slow start last time. We play lands for the first few turns, with my opponent’s first play being a Lifestaff on turn two. I draw a Swamp and an Accorder’s shield, and play the Shield on turn three. My opponent missed a land drop but was still able to forge even more equipment, playing a Barbed Battlegear. I draw a saberclaw golem, and since my opponent still has absolutely no creatures, I decline playing the Scrapmelter and pass the turn. He draws a land but still has no creatures to play, and the first creature to hit the board is my turn five Golem, which he shatters on my end step. He still has no creatures to play, and I just play a Leaden Myr, as I will be able to play Geth next turn if it sticks around. My opponent finally draws a sixth land, immediately playing Hoard-Smelter Dragon.

Since I drew another land anyways, I forgo playing Geth, and use Flesh Allergy to kill the Dragon, sacrificing my Myr. My opponent plays a Sunspear Shikari that he drew, and attaches both of his equipment to it. I kill it with a Skinrender I just drew, gaining him three life. He plays a Kuldotha Forgemaster and throws the lifestaff on it, but I finally play my Scrapmelter to kill it, and Skinrender negates the additional lifegain from the staff. He plays a Myrsmith, and once again equips the lifestaff to it, hoping to stay in the game with his staff. I draw a Bladed Pinions, play it, and equip it to my Skinrender, and attack. I think this is actually a misplay and I should just have played Geth here. On his turn, he plays a Chimeric mass for 7, and makes a Myr token with the smith. I draw a land, nail him with the Skinrender again, and play my Myr Battlesphere, which gets its existence revoked on his turn. He attacks with the Mass and it eats a token.

I bash him down to 12 with Skinrender, and finally play Geth. Once again, he activates the mass and I block with a token. I use Geth’s ability to grab his Hoard-Smelter Dragon, and Skinrender takes him to 9. I smelt the mass and attack with Skinrender and the dragon. He plays Dispense Justice and I have to sacrifice both. I grab a Sunspear Shikari with Geth’s ability. He equips both lifestaff and battlegear to a myr token to gain three life twice, and is back up to 15. I get the Dragon again with Geth’s ability, and move the pinions over to Geth for an attack. I grab a Saberclaw Golem from his graveyard and mill him out. I could have attacked him for lethal, but I decide to pass the turn back so he loses when he draws a card.

2-0 / 2-0

Match Three

Game One

At last! A working game one replay! I know from watching replays that my opponent has a pretty good Blue/White Metalcraft deck. He wins the roll and takes the play, and I keep a hand with three Swamps, Leaden Myr, Skinrender, Grasp of Darkness, and Vulshock Replica. He plays an Island and a Vedalken Certarch (a little early for that, imo) and a Glint Hawk Idol on his next turn, while I just play two Swamps. I draw my second Leaden Myr and play one of them. He plays a Myr Galvanizer, and the Idol bashes me to 17. I play Skinrender and rend the skin of his Galvanizer. He plays an Origin Spellbomb and the Idol takes me down to 15. I take him down to 17 with Skinrender, and play out my second Leaden Myr as well as the Vulshock Replica. He plays a Glint Hawk and bounces his Spellbomb, and the Idol gets me again. I just attack with Skinrender and the Replica. He sacs the spellbomb and makes a Myr token, blocking the replica.

Since I want to keep him off Metalcraft for the certarch, I let the replica and token trade, and he is down to 14. I play out a Snapsail Glider and a Strider Harness, and equip the Harness to the Glider to block his fliers. He Fulgently Distracts my blocker, plays another Glint Hawk Idol, and takes me down to 9. I draw a second Grasp of Darkness, and re-equip the harness, after bashing him to 11 with Skinrender. He does not attack into my blocker, and plays a Sky-Eel School that I Grasp on his end step. Skinrender drops him to 8. He plays a Silver Myr, gaining metalcraft, and activates both idols. I grasp one of them, and he taps down my Glider with Certarch in response. He takes me down to 5, but I drop him to 5 as well with Skinrender, and the Oxidda Scrapmelter I drew takes care of his other Idol. He plays another Sky-Eel School, and when I attack with both Skinrender and Scrapmelter next turn, he trades the School, his Hawk, and the Certarch for my two creatures, leaving him with only a Silver Myr, and me with Two Myr and my harness equipped glider. He doesn’t play anything on his turn, and on my next turn I play a Goblin Gaveleer, equip it with the Harness, and the Goblin and Glider deal him lethal damage.

1-0

Game Two

Once again, he puts me on the draw, and I keep a hand with two Swamps, Fume Spitter, Accorder’s Shield, Bladed Pinions, Snapsail Glider, and a Grasp of Darkness. He plays a Plains, while I play a Swamp and both Fume Spitter and the Shield. He plays an Island and a Glint Hawk Idol, while I bash him to 19 with Fume spitter and play my other equipment. He counters with a Gold Myr, activating his Idol, and takes me to 18, and then drops a Glint Hawk, returning the Myr. I bash in with Fume Spitter again and play a Snapsail Glider. He plays an Origin Spellbomb, and attacks with his Idol and Glint Hawk, and I block the artifact with the Glider, and sac the spitter to make it a 1/1, dropping to 16 in the process. He counters with a Glider of his own. I hook the Shield up to the Glider, and get in for two. He taps out to play a Golem Artificer and is unable to attack into my Shielded Glider.

I play a Fume Spitter, and then use Grasp of Darkness on the Artificer before he untaps, swinging again with the Glider. He plays another Origin Spellbomb and is unable to attack once again. I play a Moriok Replica, and he sacs one of his Spellbombs in response, drawing a card in the process. On his turn, he Arrests the Gilder, and the Hawk and Glider swing in, although I sac fume spitter to -1/-1 the Hawk, and go to 13. I move both pinions and the shield on to my replica, and attack him down to 10. He sacs his other Spellbomb at the end of my turn and draws a card, and then plays a Silver Myr, but does not attack into my Replica. I attack, and play a Saberclaw Golem that I just drew. He adds a Grand Artificer to his board, and comments on my lack of Geth, which he hadn’t seen yet, but it is always good practice to watch replays. He still declines to attack, as he needs blockers for my creatures. I play a Skinrender to take care of the artificer, with a Battlesphere and Oxidda Scrapmelter in my hand, and he concedes. Victory!

2-0 / 3-0

As you can see, the traditional plan of just drafting a lot of removal is very effective. Removal is actually at a premium in this set, and it is important to value it. (I actually often get teased because I value removal too much). Cards like Oxidda Scrapmelter, Shatter, and Revoke Existence are also generally as good as they would be in most sets if they destroyed creatures instead of artifacts. Still, both the infect and metalcraft mechanics are tremendously important to the set, and it is important to know how to draft both. Hopefully once I get video capabilities up and running I can do a walkthrough of those two mechanics as well.

Also, as a follow-up on my last article, I have been playing the UB control deck online and it has been performing well against the ramp decks and against other control decks, although it might need some shoring up against aggro. Unfortunately school is pretty busy for me this week (three midterms… ugh) and I will probably not get too much testing in the near future. I’d like to hear about anyone’s experiences with UB decks in general, though.

Until next week,

Ian “The Doctor” Baker

This article is brought to you by the Broken City School of Magic.

Kar Yung Tom

Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.