[Report] TS Draft-1st

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Timespiral draft with 16 people, 5 rounds of swiss, rare and foil redraft in order of placing after swiss, as well as store credit for 1st and 2nd place.

Pack 1 I first picked a Desolation Giant and stuck with white and red for the rest of the draft.  Here's the deck:

Maindeck(45 cards):
White Creatures:
2 Zealot il-Vec
2 Flickering Spirit
1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
1 Castle Raptors
1 Jedit's Dragoons
1 Gustcloack Cavalier
1 Knight of the Holy Numbus
1 Zhalfirin Commander
1 Serra Avenger
1 Chronosavant

Red Creatures:
2 Mogg War Marhsal
2 Blazing Blade Askari
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Desolation Giant

Artifact Creatures:
1 Triskelavus

White Spells:
1 Temporal Isolation
1 Fortify
1 Spirit Loop
1 Evangelize
1 Restore Balance

Red Spells:
1 Ghitu Firebreathing

Lands
2 Urza's Factory
1 Flagstones of Trokair (Foil)
9 Plains
6 Mountain

Sideboard:
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Pentarch Ward
1 Detaiment Spell
2 Plunder
1 Grapeshot
2 Subterranean Shambler
1 Viashino Bladescout
1 Thick-Skinned Goblin
2 Volcanic Awakening
1 Flowstone Channeler
1 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Ground Rift
1 Aspect of Mongoose
1 Ignite Memories

I ran a maideck of 45 cards because I'm a bad player and didn't know what to cut.  I decided to run 18 lands counting the 2 Urza's Factories.  I drafted the foil Flagstones of Trokair as a late pick because I was in white, it looked cool, and the rest of the pack was crap.

So anyways I really had no idea what I was doing going into this draft because I'd only drafted Timespiral once before (I went mono-white and came 2nd) so I just basically took what I thought would be lategame bombs, some efficient/evasive creatures, and that's pretty much it.  I didn't take notes so I apologize in advance for any memory issues (and I remember like no names)

Round 1:
Against a fast black/red aggro deck with lots of removal.

Game 1:
He keeps what he later told me was a 3-land hand and draws nothing but land off his top 10 cards (seriously, it was insane).  He plays out some small dudes and eventually Kaervek but I have Chronosavant and some other creatures and trade some stuff when he swings, then I swing back putting him to 2 and drop Triskelavus which can ping him for the win (yes, I took 7 damage from Kaervek).

Game 2:
He kills me ridiculously quickly.  He drops a bear or 2 and kills 2 of my creatures with a lightning axe+fiery temper (I evangelized his Blazing Blade Askari) and plays a Cyclopean Giant and beats my face in.

Game 3:
This game goes pretty well for me; I win easily, because my opponent (as he told me afterward) kept a hand with 3 mountains and a bunch of red spells, then went on to draw a bunch of black spells and no swamps to cast anything.

Round 2 (1-0):
I play against a black/greek deck with a lot of beefy creatures.

Game 1:
I start off with Knight of the Holy Nimbus, I believe, while he plays a Yavimaya Dryad a takes the land for himself.  I play out some dudes (Zealots il-Vec, I think), as does he, but I am stuck on 4 mana with 5 mana cards in my hand.  I kill his Yavimaya Dryad in combat and he reanimates it with Dread Return giving me a forest and bringing me up to 5 mana, yay!  The key play this game is casting Temporal Isolation on his Durkwood Tracker to nullify its ability.  Then I keep attacking with my Gustcloak Cavalier and tapping his Tracker so he can't block my Zealot i-Vec so I kill his Yavimaya Dryad and Deathspore Thallid this way.  I Evangalize him without buyback and get his Sporesower Thallid, and one turn I had swung in for like 10 off 3 creatures using Fortify putting him at low life before his fatties stalled the board, so I eventually end up alpha stricking him ftw when he is at like 3 (I was beating him down with Zealot).

Game 2:
We have very little time left since first game took like forever, but this game I totally go insane on him.  I suspend Graeater Gargadon on turn 1, and eventually  He has a morphed down Liege of the Pit and a Duskwood Tracker, I have Knight of the Holy Nimbus and a Blazing Blade Askari.  I end up Evangalizing his Duskwood Trapper, and on then I end up saccing my creatures to Gargadon until it has 1 counter, playing a kickered Desolation Giant to nuke the board, and saccing a land for the last counter of Gargadon to swing for 9.  He casts Sudden Death to kill my Giant and plays a creautre to chump the Gargadon.  I play a Serra Avenger so even if he casts another creature I can swing in the air for the win.  He concedes.  This game didn't go to  extra turns like I expected.  I ended up taking like 5-10 minutes.

Round 3 (2-0):
Some Guy with U/W evasion creature deck.

Game 1:
I go first and drop a plains and pas.  He plays a turn 1 Drifter il-Dal and a I respond with Knight of the Holy Nimbus (ya, I drew the guy ALOT).  We trade swings and on my turn I drop a Zealot il-Vec which holds off his Drifter (he doesn't swing so I can't just attack back and kill it with the ability, and I don't swing so can't trade and thus has to keep on paying the upkeep).  Meanwhile my Knight keeps on beating him down, and eventually I also play a Serra Avenger and they go all the way because he has nothing to deal with them (he didn't draw any of his fliers)

Game 2:
He goes first and is slowly beating me down with a Looter il-Kor and Zealot il-Vec, but I get out my bigger better creatures and start smacking him back.  His army can't stand up to mine, and he can't race me, either, so I end up winning when I'm at 9.

Round 4 (3-0):
Guy with insane Sliver deck.

Game 1:
I go first, he mulls to 5.  It's looking pretty good for me but he plays out a Spinneret Sliver, a Sedge Sliver, and a Bonesplitter Sliver.  My guys can't stand up to that, I don't draw my Desolation Giant, and I die.

Game 2:
I go first, he mulls to 6.  He deals with 2 Spinneret Slivers, topdecks his Sedge Sliver, plays out 2 Bonesplitter Slivers and a Vampiric Sliver.  He swings in for a bajillion and I block with my whole team (it was like, Knight, Askari, 2 Goblin Tokens and something else) using Fortify to give everything +2+/0 so he has to use all his black mana to regenerate his Slivers and almost everything I have dies (I'm hoping to topdeck my Desolation Giant for the win).  I don't, and he beats my face in for some obscene amount (his Slivers are like all 8/4 regenerators now) and I lose.

Round 5 (3-1):
Guy with W/G rebels and Slivers.

Game 1:
My creatures are just plain better than his and I swing in with flyers and flankers while he can't make any headway (I Temporal Isolationed his Castle Raptors).  I win this one almost too easily.

Game 2:
He ends up playing a Might Sliver with some other Slivers and beats my face in so I lose.
Game 3:
I don't quite remember how I won this one.  I think I probably just ended up having a better army of flyers once again, but I don't know.

So, I finish 4-1 and my tiebreakers put my in first place over the guy I lost to in round 4 (he was 4-1 also at 2nd since he lost in round 5).  I redraft Ancestral Visions, Bad Moon, Magus of the Jar, and Tormod's Crypt, and I randomly get out of the shit left a Fourtune Theirf, Cocatrice, and foil Spiketail Drakeling.  I trade the Badmoon to a guy to get Reiterate for my Type 4 Stack.  I also got like 25$ CAN in store credit.

Overall impressions of the draft/cards/etc:

The only cards I really sidboarded in were Keldon Halberdier(if they had nothing that pwns 1 toughness dudes and had x/4 or less creatures that this guy could own), Pentarch Ward, and Detainment Spell.  I also sided in Plunder against the Slivers deck because it was 3 colours but I didn't see it, and that guy was so lucky it probably wouldn't have mana screwed him anyways.

Mogg War Marshal is creally good; a lot of times this guy gets you excellent tempo in races by chumping shit with tokens. 

Temporal Isolation is awesome because it's basically a Pacifism with Flash if you don't mind them being able to block Shadow guys, and there isn't really any other good common removal in white (Gaze of Justice is somewhat crappy because of Sorcery Speed mainphase tapping and requiring a heavy white commitment). 

Flyers are strong as usual, but the addition of Shadow adds a new type of evasion element to things. 

The addition of the Timeshifted card can make a huge difference in drafting because now often there may be two bombs in a pack to pick from (I ran into this when I took my Evangelize over some other card that was really good but I forget what it is.  I absolutely AGONIZED over that pack.)

Fortify is really good for alpha striking, trading shit, and damage races.

I only got Urza's Factory online once, I think (and made like 1 token before I won), and I always cast Evangelize without Buyback.  Games never really got to the point where they stalled long enough for me to build up that much mana; usually I had either finished it by then with flyers/zealots, or my opponent's bigger team was stomping over me. 

I only actually cast Desolation Giant that one time... all the other times I wanted it/it would have saved me I never drew it, and often when I did it wasn't even necessary.  Likewise with Greater Gargadon; it was only that one game that I saw him; I would have loved to play him first turn more often.

I cast Triskelavus twice, once when I had pretty much already won, and once when I was screwed and lost the next turn, so basically both times the game was over at that point anyways.

I suspended Restore Balance like once and won before it went off; all of the other times I had it I was never sure whether to use it or not, because I mean who knows what the board is going to look like 6 turns from now, plus the fact that your opponent can plan for it as well as you (so overall I think it's kind of useless).

Ya, and once again, I cast Knight of the Holy Nimbus a ridiculous number of times.  I'm sure that I dropped him turn 2 in like more than half my games.  I have no idea what was up with that.

[UR]

Don't run the Mogg War Marshall unless you are running the Goblin 'theme' (i.e. Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician). He doesn't really do anything and you are unlikely to pay the upkeep for him because there are more relevant creatures that you want to play on turn three in this sort of deck. He's alright, but not when you've got 45 cards in the maindeck...

Restore Balance doesn't really do anything because you can't forsee how the game will progress six turns from now (but we can assume that you will be saccing creatures). But you said that yourself already.

Githu Firebreathing can also be cut imo. Being an aura that doesn't return to your hand if the creature dies makes it pretty terrible. It is also very heavy red while this is only your splash color.

Flowstone Channeler is in your board while I certainly consider this a maindeck card. It deals with pesky shadow guys and makes combat much more difficult for the opponent.

Without seeing your picks, I can't really disagree with any of the other cards in your deck. You've got some nice cheap guys and some late-game bombs and the decks looks really strong to me.

[kirdape3]

I think the 5 cuts are pretty obvious.

2 Flickering Spirit
1 Gustcloak Cavalier
2 Mogg War Marshal
1 Spirit Loop
1 Ghitu Firebreathing
1 Urza's Factory (did you activate this even once?  Didn't really think so.)
1 Restore Balance (good luck living the dream of Gargadon/Balance)

In:

1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Thick-Skinned Goblin (2/1 for R1 with protection: Red?  Yeah.)
1 Flowstone Channeler
1 Grapeshot

That should have configured your deck a little better for what you faced.  Basically, you won because your opponents were either manascrewed or idiots (nice land 5 you got off that Dryad), not because you really had that awesome of a deck.

[UR]

I don't agree with cutting two Flickering Spirits. Evasion is king in this set because most guys just walk around and this guy can even save itself on occasion.

[kirdape3]

It's just too little.  4 mana 2/2 flier with an ability you'll only rarely use is just not good enough when you have higher powered options.

[Implacable]

Hmm, upon reflection, I agree with kirdape.  The only four-mana guy with evasion I've really liked so far is Crookclaw; everything else is just plain inefficient.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Ghitu firebreathing was indeed trash.  At the time I picked it I wasn't as heavily in white as I ended up being at the end of the draft, and I really should have cut it. 

The spirit loop was also frequently boarded out, although the plan was for it to be put on evasive creautures to help me win races.

I don't think grapeshot would have been all that great because early game you are playing out all of your cheap cards and then generally late game playing bigger things.  It's pretty contitional and I don't think I would see it storming for more than 2 very frequently.

Cutting Urza's Factory would have been the right call also, as well as the Restore Balance, since they were both pretty much useless.

I don't know if the Channeler is as good as you think.  Their x/1s can be taken care of by Zealots and other than that I just see it tapping+discarding pumping a 2/2 to trade with a 3/3, when I could have just double blocked the the 2 2/2s anyways.  I don't think it's that relevent when I'm attacking, either, because of the evasion in this deck you can almost certainly win if you stall them long enough to get the job done.

Thick-Skinned Goblin is probably better than I gave it credit for.  The Halberdier is good but only against certain deck IMO (although I did board it in alot so maybe I should have had it maindeck and boarded it out against decks hostile to X/1s.

Gustcloak Calvalier was amazing, though.  Taps when attacks, if they block to kill him you just untap+remove from combat, and if they don't they take 2 damage.  The fact that he has flanking as well makes him even better.  This guy is as annoying as hell for your opponent.  (although I admit 5 mana is a bit expensive)

I also don't think you guys realize how good the War Marshal is.  Most of the time you chump with him and it's basically 1R: get 3 1/1 red Goblin Tokens.  That's good.  If they don't attack then you either pay the echo and hope to trade him later or you get 2 1/1s for 1R (which is not bad).  Them not attacking is also good for this deck.

Also, the Flickering Spirit is really good.  Although I did only use the flicker ability a couple of times, 4 for a 2/2 flyer is not bad when I'm paying 3 for 1/1 shadow guys.  A 2 power evasive creature adds a lot to your clock, and lategame his ability to attack, flicker, block, or stack damage, flicker, and live, shouldn't be unerestimated.

Oh and the Dragoons I found were just too expensive in a deck that already has a lot of high casting cost creatures.  Most of the time by the time I could cast it I just wanted to play something else instead.  The should have just reprinted Radient's Dragoons instead; that card is so much better, and their's already echo in the set.

So, in hindsight I probably would have cut the 2 Factories, Firebreathing, Spirit Loop, Restore Balance, 1 War Marshal, 1 Jedit's Dragoons, added 1 Plains and the Thick-Skinned Goblin and Keldon Halberdier.  Making the deck 41 cards (since I like the extra "1/2 land" 17 land in a 41 card deck gives; I think it would fit the curve pretty well)

That should have configured your deck a little better for what you faced.  Basically, you won because your opponents were either manascrewed or idiots (nice land 5 you got off that Dryad), not because you really had that awesome of a deck.

Oh, I pretty much agree with you.  The deck was ok but not really that great.  I wouldn't necessarily say that my opponent's were always either mana screwed or idiots (that seems a bit of an exaggeration; I see the first match and the 5th land thing later on as extreme examples or outliers rather than good examples of how the draft went overall), although as always luck and play skill are indeed both determining factors.  Some of the games were very close, although I find that that is not necessarily the norm in draft.  Often you'll get mana screwed first game, your opponent will get screwed the next, and then it all comes down to game 3(and of course if you get screwed in 2 out of three games there's not much you can do).  I feel happy if I can get 1 good game per match, generally, although I'll reiterate that this is just my general impression of things.