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Drafting With Olivier - Shards/Conflux/Reborn #10

Olivier Ruel

By Olivier Ruel
06/19/2009

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:

Pretty close pick, as the Paladin is slightly better but fits fewer archetypes than Thunder. I go for the 2/2, which is better in the archetypes I like the most (basically any white aggro deck).


  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick:

Qasali Ambusher suits the first pick better, but I rather like taking another excellent card. One of them will definitely go to waste, but at least I keep options open, and I’m sure my deck will feature a very good card anyway.


  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick:

A pretty incredible number of possible picks here. Strix if I want to go with Infest, and any of the white cards or Topan Ascetic will do if I want to go white. As one white card is definitely wheeling, I pick the one I’ve the strongest chance to run and wait for the wheel.


  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Having picked Knight of the Skyward eye, there are better chances I'll go WG than WU, which is why I don’t pick Duelist even though I believe the 2/1 is a better card.


  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick:

Even if I’m WG, I’m willing to play aggro so there is not a chance I would play Platoon.


  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 9:

  My Pick:

I am now very likely to be UW, but I am still pretty unlikely to go Esper (no fixers, no artifacts yet), which is why the 2/2s are not real options.


  Pack 1 pick 10:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 11:

  My Pick:

The card I wanted to wheel.


  Pack 1 pick 12:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 13:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick:

UW is a good archetype, but it often lacks removal. Even though I’d love to first pick the Mechanist and probably wheel the Homonculus, I’ll go for the Purge.


  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick:

Scepter of Insight is way too slow for an aggro deck, and it doesn’t fit a two color deck, so it’s hard to say, but the 0/1 is a pretty obvious pick.


  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 6:

  My Pick:

A pretty good tempo spell if my deck can be a little more aggro (Homoculus then Ethercaste Knight and the Blades?) in the second half picks of the draft.


  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick:

It’d be tempting to pick the Alchemist, as it would be just fantastic in the deck, but I don’t have any fixers nor other Black cards that would make me want to risk a splash.


  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick:

Homonculus would be, in theory at least, excellent as far as tempo is concerned, with several 2 drops and double Lapse of Certainty, but I don’t have many artifacts yet. And when there are 5 or 6 artifacts in the deck, I’d rather have a flyer that makes me draw a card 50% of the time than a guy which will usually simply be a 1/1. Also, my 4 and higher curve stands pretty empty at the moment.


  Pack 2 pick 10:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 11:

  My Pick:

Not a card I’m willing to face. It really has gotten a lot better with Conflux.


  Pack 2 pick 12:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 13:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 15:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick:

Artifact, aggro and early drop: a better first pick that it may seem.


  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick:

I don’t have enough artifact guys to consider picking the Shieldmage. I’ll the pick the removal and remember not to attack straight into the 2/2.


  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick:

With now 2.5 removal spells, the deck nearly has everything it needs.


  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Pretty good in aggro decks you want to race.


  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick:

I need good guys a lot more than a dual in my two color deck.


  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick:

Hmm… what’s the best to counterdraft?


  Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 10:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 11:

  My Pick:

Actually a card I’m probably playing. I don’t have enough artifacts to make the Thresher playable.


  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 15:

  My Pick:


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8 Island
8 Plains
2 Ethercaste Knight
1 Sigiled Paladin
1 Deft Duelist
1 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
1 Vedalken Outlander
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Ethersworn Shieldmage
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Talon Trooper
2 Frontline Sage
1 Faerie Mechanist
2 Welkin Guide

1 Celestial Purge
1 Call to Heel
2 Crystallization
2 Lapse of Certainty
2 Offering to Asha

Sideboard
1 Scepter of Insight
1 Captured Sunlight
1 Infest
1 Arsenal Thresher
1 Stormcaller's Boon
1 Unsummon
1 Gather Specimens
1 Scornful Æther-Lich
2 Esper Sojourners
1 Cancel
1 Gleam of Resistance
1 Suicidal Charge
1 Steelclad Serpent
1 Coma Veil
1 Forest
1 Bone Saw
1 Spell Snip
1 Island
1 Infectious Horror
1 Brainbite
1 Plains

ROUND 1: RGWb

In the first game he makes a lot of bad decisions, as he decides to race with Nacatl Savage against Ethercaste Knight, trading blows in my advantage (2 for 3 after I played Frontline Sage, 2 for 3 again, and then 2 for 4). In this condition, the race is already pretty uneven, and it gets impossible for him when I play Offering to Asha on Bloodpyre Elemental.

1-0

In game 2 he keeps seven and opens with Forest and a pair of Swamps. He doesn’t see another land. Also, and despite knowing I’m running a counter, he lets me untap before playing the two removal spels he drawa, which I counter on my turn.

2-0

ROUND 2: Jund

The first game is a close race until he plays Breath of Malfegor when I’m on 5. As I’m holding Lapse of Certainty, I manage to win on the next turn.

1-0

In the second game I’m totally unable to deal with his Leech/Jund Blade/Goblin Outlander start, and in game 3, the same happens again as I find myself unable to draw blockers for Putrid Leech, nor flyers to attack above the 2/2 Pro white guy. I had simply been facing a deck that was able to stop my tempo for two games.

1-2

Until Monday...

Oli


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