A Time Spiral Draft!

Last night I had the opportunity to do TWO TSP drafts. The first went OK, with me opening a Magus of the Scroll first pick (hooray money rares) and building a solid GR deck, but losing to Errant Ephemeron in the second round along with a lot of bounce spells (snapbacks and temporal eddy's) on my echo and suspend guys.

The second draft is the notable one. It ended up as a 3v3 Team draft featuring some of the best players in my area, including a former OH state champ. Sadly, he was on the other team.

Anyway, I start off by opening a back and seeing Thelonite Druid (the deranged hermit guy), and it looks pretty good until I look behind it and see SACRED MESA. Hmm, infinite pegasus tokens seems strong. I start into white and pick up various other solid guys (Icatian Cryer, D'evant Healer, etc.) and am leaning towards blue after pack 1 since I have a Looter Il-Kor and a Snapback. However, the best card in my second pack is an Assassinate, so I take it and keep my options open. It turned out to be a good pick, as I got 2 Phyrexian Totem's 3rd and 4th which definitely made me want to play black. Second was a Griffin Guide (which is insane, by the way) and the rest of the pack was more random guys. Pack 3 was nothing notable, altho I picked up a Celestial Crusader, a Thunder Totem, and a Merike Ri Berit who made the cut as the hardest to cast Control Magic ever. The deck was as follows:

WHITE
Sacred Mesa
Griffin Guide
Momentary Blink
Gaze of Justice

Errant Doomsayers
D'Avenant Healer
2 Zealot il-Vec
Cloudchaser Kestrel
Icatian Crier
Flickering Spirit
Celestial Crusader
Outrider en-Kor

BLACK
Assassinate

Pit Keeper
Mana Skimmer
Viscid Lemures

BLUE
Snapback

Looter il-Kor

GOLD, ARTIFACTS, AND LAND
Merike Ri Berit

Chromatic Star
Thunder Totem
2 Phyrexian Totem (1 FOIL)

Terramorphic Expanse
10 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Island

Edit: Oncolor Sideboard: 2 Plated Pegasus, 2 Pentarch Ward, Feebleness, Strangling Soot, Basal Sliver, Skittering Monstrosity, Haunting Hymn, Clockspinning, Bewilder

I played my friend Dave first round. He was with GW, with a ton of little guys and Criers and a Pendlehaven Elder (which was really annoying). Eventually I stabilize against his little dudes and Gaze of Justice (with flashback on my Looter), and get Sacred Mesa going, and its only a matter of time. Game two his start is a little slower, but he manages to make some tokens and flash out Celestial Crusaders on consecutive turns to deal some good damage to me. However, Pegasus Tokens are also white, and I get mesa online and trade with all of his actual cards, and make more flying horses and smash him.

Round two is against Justin. Justin, by his own admission, was the least experienced player at the table and was in for a tough night. He was UB with a few little shadow evasion guys and some random other average creatures, and a STRONGHOLD OVERSEER. That guy is pretty good against 2/2's and Pegasus'. Game 1 involves me using tricks and better guys like my Healer to kill his board and leave myself with 3-4 2/2's. I get in a swing, and then he plays the Overseer. I knock him low (like 8-10), but he just swings back for 5 and then gives all my guys -2/-0 on his turn and I am in trouble. HE swings again and puts me to 7 with 6 swamps and overseer out. I have 2 outs in my deck (Gaze and Assassinate), and like a lucksac, I rip Assassinate, windmill it on the table, and proceed to destroy him next turn. Game two is not very close, he misses a land drop early and I have Mana Skimmer and my Healer so he can't trade his Skimmer for mine, and I kill him before he gets a chance to untap with Overseer in play.

Round 3 I play Adam, who I have never actually faced before. He has GU with a lot of huge guys and a Squall Line (which he used to draw 2 games against my teammate and win a third). Game 1 is very close, and we are in a tight race, but I have Crier making chumps and a pair of flyers dealing him damage. With me at 6 and him on 5, he attacks me with 2 morphs, a 5/5, and a 3/3 flyer, into my board of an untapped 1/1, Crier, and a tapped Flickering Spirit. I flicker my guy, make 2 tokens, and chump everything (since I have negator Totem and various other guys tapped). He didn't realize Spirit came back right away, so after combat he floats UU, flips his Gush Guy morph, replays an island, and Squalls for 6 to draw the game. Game 2, I am too fast for him and he can't catch up before my evasion critters finish him off. Game 3, my draw is OK but I don't draw any creatures and am forced to play a really early Mesa. I can't make enough tokens to keep it active and block all his guys, and as I still haven't drawn any creatures, I can't let it go either, so I die to a ton of 5/5's and 4/4's. However, I get to play first for game 4, and keep a 2lander that is close to unbeatable if i draw the third land (against him): turn 2 Pit Keeper into turn 3 Griffin Guide with a bounce spell in hand. I rip Terramorphic expanse turn 2 (to go with my Plains and Swamp I've played), and then a plains turn 3 so I suit up my guy and get in there for 4. Next turn I play a Negator totem and fetch an island. He plays out a Penumbra Spider to go with his 2/2 Thallid for 3, and on my turn, I play land, Snapback your spider, activate totem and in for 9. He is forced to chump negator, and I sac 2 lands, leaving the board as his 4 land against my 3 land, totem, and keeper with Griffin Guide. He is also down to a mere 5 life at this point. He draws his card, thinks for about 3 minutes, and has to scoop em up.

My team won, so we raredrafted and so on and so forth. A good time was had by all. So far, I am catching on with this set a lot quicker than with Coldsnap (where I still can't tell my good decks from the bad ones usually). TSP is pretty awesome, and I look forward to the coming months!