- Erik Lundblad
So, I was reminded of something at the most recent FNM. You don’t always need to draft well in order to win. I was about as displeased with my drafting as I ever have been, and ended up with my deck already built for me, as I only had 23 playables (+3 sideboard cards) in White and Black (+ a Fireball) and just enough good Blue to make it tempting.
The entire draft, I could not decide between Blue and Black as my secondary color, because I kept getting passed really late picks in one or the other, and it kept changing. One pack there would be no Black, but great Blue, then the next 3 packs would have no Blue but great Black… then it would switch again. I didn’t even settle on my primary color (White) until midway through pack 2, when I picked up my second Armored Ascension. Now, my deck wasn’t quite as bad as my drafting should have made it (mainly due to the 2 Armored Ascension and 2 Tendrils of Corruption), but it would have been a lot better if I had just gone White/Black from the beginning.
There are 2 lessons to take away from this draft. First, eventually you need to decide on/stick to your colors (even if that choice is 5-color). If I had stuck to either Blue or Black, I would have ended up with more playables and would not have ended up having to run some inferior creatures purely because I had no choice (2x Relentless Rats, Warpath Ghoul, Zombie Goliath).
They are all fine creatures in the right decks, and were not bad in mine, but I had taken away my ability to make any choices about my deck.
The second lesson is that any deck has the ability to win, but you need to have confidence. I knew going into the first round that for me to do well, I was going to need to play mistake-free Magic, and use my cards very wisely. I also got lucky in the second round, when my opponent (a very good friend and player) had to mulligan down to 5 on the play twice. If it hadn’t been for that, I most likely would not have gone into the last round at 2-0. In that round, I played against a deck that was very good, except against a black deck (other than the Bog Wraith, which I was able to nullify each time). Always believe in your ability to win every match and never surrender until lethal damage is on the stack… excuse me, assigned.
- Erik Lundblad
Draft pool, in no particular order other than color:
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