Earlier in the day, I asked for Tansen’s luck to help me open an Elspeth at tonight’s FNM (Friday Night Magic) draft. It’s the most-important—and most-expensive—card that I’m missing from Shards of Alara. Guess what? The guy across the table opened one and my only match loss was against that guy. In the deciding game, he was able to deal just enough damage to kill me because of Elspeth. =/
Starting with me and going left around the the table, here’s what the nine players in my draft pod drafted: Jund (me), Jund, Naya, Jund, 5-color good stuff, Bant (with Elspeth), Naya, Naya, Naya. Yes, we had six consecutive players fighting over red and green. Halfway through the Shards pack, I realized something was up because I kept seeing so many blue cards left in the packs. But I couldn’t bring myself to not use my first-pick Kresh the Bloodbraided.
Even with all the other Jund/Naya drafters, somehow I ended up with this crazy-powerful and crazy-consistent deck:
Goblin Deathraiders
Grixis Grimblade
Nacatl Outlander
Putrid Leech
Viashino Slaughtermaster
Ember Weaver
Rhox Brute
Blitz Hellion (first-pick from Alara Reborn)
Bloodpyre Elemental
Fusion Elemental (seriously! Check out all my mana-fixing)
Kresh the Bloodbraided (first-pick from Shards of Alara)
Igneous Pouncer
Magma Spray
2 × Wretched Banquet
Dark Temper (first-pick from Conflux)
2 × Fiery Fall (got both in back-to-back picks)
Colossal Might
Naturalize
Deny Reality
Voices from the Void
Mistvein Borderpost
Veinfire Borderpost
Arcane Sanctum
Jund Panorama
5 × Forest
Island
6 × Mountain
Plains
Swamp
Kresh was a huge beating. In one game, I had a Rhox Brute staring down a Wild Leotau. I played Kresh and attacked with my Brute. My opponent decided to trade and suddenly my Kresh was a 12/12. It grew to 27/27 by the time I won that game.
The two Fiery Falls were my MVPs though. In at least half the games I played, my opening hand was Mountain, non-green mana source, Fiery Fall, and red/green spells. With Fiery Fall, I was able to search out a Forest for turn 3 and never miss playing a threat each turn from then on.