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Drafting With Olivier - Shards/Shards/Conflux #27

Olivier Ruel

By Olivier Ruel
05/06/2009

About Olivier Ruel: Pro Tour mainstay Olivier Ruel's outstanding career includes five Pro Tour Top 8s, numerous Grand Prix Top 8s (including the recent victory at Grand Prix: Brighton), and induction in the Magic Hall of Fame class of 2008.

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  Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick:

I could pick Naya Charm and go five-color, but the card is not that great in that archetype, which is usually Grixis- or Esper-based.


  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick:

Necrogenesis would push me to go at least four colors, while, with the pick I made, I’m still open on Grixis and Esper. Also, one card for one of these two archetypes should be wheeling from my first pack.


  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick:

In any deck that could use Jund Panorama, Thrinax is just better.


  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick:

I haven’t received much Red yet, so it would be surprising if I could play Deathriders. The Obelisk is just safer.


  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick:

Steelclad was a better pick... I just didn’t pay enough attention, if I'm honest.


  Pack 1 pick 9:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 10:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 11:

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  Pack 1 pick 12:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 13:

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  Pack 1 pick 14:

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  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick:

Grixis Charm or lots of tix? Sorry readers... I would pass any other rare, but this one is worth too much. Also, maybe is it not too late to go Esper, considering the lack of Red cards I’ve received.


  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick:

Let’s try and play that Elspeth!


  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick:

Well, that Filigree Sage pick was actually not that bad.


  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 6:

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  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick:

I won’t splash Silence with no Green mana.


  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 10:

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  Pack 2 pick 11:

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  Pack 2 pick 12:

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  Pack 2 pick 13:

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  Pack 2 pick 14:

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  Pack 2 pick 15:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick:

It’s pretty sad, but I am not playing any of these, so I pick the most annoying card for my deck.


  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick:

One more fixer, and I’ll be able to play Elspeth.


  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick:

I would run Inkwell Leviathan, but Absorb Vis means I can now play Elspeth.


  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick:

Two cards I was not expecting this late. My fixers could be better, but Slavedriver will be one of my deck’s best spells, and I am a little short in playable cards. <.p>
  Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick:

It’s really surprising. Considering I received almost no Esper signals in the first pack, I really wasn’t expecting so many good Esper cards. Apparently, my greedy Elspeth pick saved my draft.


  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 10:

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  Pack 3 pick 11:

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  Pack 3 pick 12:

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  Pack 3 pick 13:

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  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 15:

  My Pick:


This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy.
Visit the draft converter today!

7 Swamp
6 Island
3 Plains
Rupture Spire
2 Tidehollow Strix
Dregscape Zombie
2 Kathari Screecher
Sedraxi Alchemist
Windwright Mage
Viscera Dragger
2 Faerie Mechanist
Filigree Sage
Sanctum Gargoyle
Viscera Dragger
Vectis Agent
Steelclad Serpent
Grixis Slavedriver
Executioner’s Capsule
Wreched Banquet
2 Agony Warp
Obelisk of Esper
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Absorb Vis

ROUND 1: Five-Color Aggro (Limited rating: 1908)

1908, and turn 1 Forest Nacatl... At least, for once, I am not playing against five-color aggro, the worst and most played deck online at the moment. Turn 2 Esper Panorama, turn 3 and 4 Valeron Outlander (glad I counterdrafted one in pick 2) while drawing almost no Blue cards. On turn 7, he has 5 different basic lands. I resist a little, but die.

In game two I draw my three colors this time, and good cards, and I win pretty easily playing Elspeth on the decisive turn.

In game three finally, what had to happen did: he drew almost no lands and died to one of the best draws I could get. Everyone who plays five-color will tell you this kind of game happens once a draft. Everyone who (for some reason) plays five-color aggro probably has that kind of problem at least once a match. I mean, there is a difference between waiting for your mana to play or bomb or a removal spell, and to play (in the best case) Rakeclaw Gargantuan…

ROUND 2: Bant (1730)

Another deck that doesn’t seem to care much about his mana, as he doesn’t seem to have a splash, nor many fixers (one Panorama seen in three games), but at least he seems to have understood what to do when your deck is going to be unstable anyway: great curve and synergy, and then pray for the mana to come off at least two games in the same match. It came in three, and all games ended in a very different way.

In the first, I couldn’t compete with his beatdown having two of my three white cards in hand but no removal. In the second, I was stuck on three lands, then four, and drew and played an Obelisk the turn before my opponent made what he thought was an attack for the win.

I had 4 life, 2 Strix, two mana open (one Agony Warp in the graveyard), while he had a 6/6 Gharial, 4/4 Mycoloth, Steward of Valeron, and Kathari Screeecher he had just unearthed. The team went in, and I cleaned the board with a second Agony Warp (the first had already made a two-for-one). On the next turn, my Obelisk allowed me to play Elspeth, with three guys in hand, and Wretched Banquet on his freshly-cast Ember Weaver.

In the third game, I don’t know exactly how that happened. I drew more lands than him, but he finished the game with Angelic Benediction, Kathari Screecher, one card in hand and 2 life, when I had a Zombie token, Slavedriver in the yard, Sanctum Gargoyle, and Esper Battlemage. Being on one life myself, I couldn’t stop the beating

Until Friday...

Oli


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