Drafting With Olivier - Zendikar #33
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:
Nissa’s Chosen and are pretty close - the White guy is even a little better - but this pick still is obvious to me. Indeed, I’ve been doing pretty well with Mono Green lately, and , one of the archetype’s MVPs, makes the wheel almost systematically.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
I explained this pick in a recent Reflecting Ruel column. Even though is clearly a better card than , I like playing mono color decks in Zendikar draft, and I’m clearly sending the guy to my left into White.
Pack 1 pick 3:
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My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
I could have had a very strong White deck, but this start is almost perfect.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
There’s nothing I really want to cut here. I could possibly hate draft Outfitter, but I’m pretty happy with my neighbors playing White.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Another annoying pick. Green seemed pretty open from the first four picks, but I’m not getting passed much anymore. I was a bit confused by the emptiness of that pick, and I should probably have picked the unexciting .
Pack 1 pick 8:
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My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Great. The last few packs were probably just a coincidence.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 11:
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My Pick:
could be good with double Nissa’s Chosen. However, I should be able to stop most early guys anyway, and is good combined with three cards in my deck this far(, , ), and there should be many more to come.
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
What the...?
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
I guess I could have managed to slip that Sphinx in the deck, but I’m pretty happy with my second Gladehart.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
My bad pick becomes much better now.
Pack 2 pick 3:
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My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
Just as with the Sphinx pick, splashing wouldn’t be much trouble, but as far as cohesion and synergy are concerned, I like staying mono color.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
I guess I could just pick the Gorger, but there are just so many cards in this pack which could be trouble for me, and anyway, the Wurm probably won’t make the final cut.
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 8:
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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:
This draft is pretty weird. One moment, I’ve the feeling Green is wide open, and the next I’m not being passed anything I would want to use.
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
Maybe this time I went a bit too far, and should have accepted the splash. may be good for the deck, but my number of playables is still not sufficient, and a little support could have been useful.
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
may be a little better than the Trap, but I need cards which will allow me to win, as my two Larva feel a bit lonely at the moment.
Pack 3 pick 4:
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My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
With so many pump spells, I should be able to surprise my opponent and deal him a huge amount of damage in one strike. I just need to get more creatures in order to do so.
Pack 3 pick 6:
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Pack 3 pick 7:
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Pack 3 pick 8:
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Pack 3 pick 9:
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Pack 3 pick 10:
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Pack 3 pick 12:
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Pack 3 pick 15:
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2 Timermaw Larva
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I think my deck is pretty good, but it has two weaknesses. It needs two or three more guys, and it misses just as many good cards to compensate with the filler. However, I’m not so sad about the Puma, as it can block two of the most annoying guys for me: and .
My first opponent is playing Mono Red, and in both games he plays about one creature a turn from turn 2. In the first one, I use my Oran-Rief to make my turn 5 and start to race his small army. On the turn when he can’t chumpblock, I can play , as well as Primal Bellow, and deal him 19. I chose not to, and on the next turn he plays his fifth land and for the win. Unfortunately, this land was a fetchland, and I would have had a chance if I had not attacked. But how was I supposed to know?
The next one is quite similar, except that one of my punches can get through to help me deal 7 damage with , but that will be the only punch he will allow me to land in the whole match. After that, and even though I’ve the pump spell for the win, he just has to chumpblock as, even though his guys are smaller than mine, he does draw twice as many as me.
In the end, I would probably have won one of those two games at least if I had drawn one-third guys, but it does make sense to lose to the deck's biggest weakness, so there’s not much I can say.
Until next time...
Oli
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