Draft Report (CCG) for 28 May 2012

On the morning of 28 May 2012, Jonlim [tarfire1] and Wei Xiang [StubbornOne] got together on CCGdecks.com for a quick 3x Avacyn Restored Draft, and played a Best-of-5 game for practice purposes.

Here are the decklists:

Jonlim [tarfire1] – B/R human/ghoul aggro (undead and the living join forces)


Maindeck:
7 Mountain
10 Swamp
1 Archwing Dragon
1 Bladed Bracers
1 Bone Splinters
1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Butcher Ghoul
1 Demonic Taskmaster
2 Driver of the Dead
4 Hunted Ghoul
1 Kessig Malcontents
3 Riot Ringleader
1 Searchlight Geist
1 Soulcage Fiend
1 Tormentor's Trident
2 Uncanny Speed
1 Undead Executioner


Notable SB cards:
1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
1 Corpse Traders
1 Dangerous Wager
2 Demolish
1 Malicious Intent
1 Mental Agony
1 Infinite Reflection
1 Polluted Dead

Wei Xiang [StubbornOne] – U/R tempo


Maindeck:
10 Island
9 Mountain
2 Amass the Components
1 Angel's Tomb
1 Bladed Bracers
2 Crippling Chill
1 Ghostform
2 Hanweir Lancer
2 Heirs of Stromkirk
2 Mad Prophet
2 Raging Poltergeist
1 Scrapskin Drake
1 Scroll of Avacyn
1 Tandem Lookout
1 Vanguard's Shield
1 Vanishment
1 Wingcrafter


Notable SB cards:
1 Demolish
1 Havengul Skaab

Game 1

Wei Xiang wins the roll and chooses to play first. Both players keep their opening 7.

Turn 1: Wei Xiang leads with “Island, go” while Jonlim knocks down a Swamp along with the first creature of the game, Hunted Ghoul.

Turn 2: Wei Xiang plays a Mountain and passes. Jonlim also plays a Mountain before turning Hunted Ghoul sideways.

Jonlim 20 Wei Xiang 19

Turn 3: Wei Xiang plays a Mountain and summons Angel’s Tomb. Jonlim plays a Swamp, then crashes in with Hunted Ghoul again, before playing a postcombat Soulcage Fiend.

Jonlim 20 Wei Xiang 18

Turn 4: Wei Xiang plays a Mountain and passes without a play. Jonlim was intending to smash in with Soulcage Fiend and Hunted Ghoul. Wei Xiang has a trick and casts Crippling Chill on Soulcage Fiend, tapping it on the declare attackers step and drawing a card. Hunted Ghoul goes in alone. Jonlim follows up with more pressure in the form of Undead Executioner. Now Jonlim has 3 creatures while Wei Xiang has only an Angel’s Tomb.

Jonlim 20 Wei Xiang 17

Turn 5: Wei Xiang plays a Mountain, taps 4 Mountains for Heirs of Stromkirk and activates Angel’s Tomb. Angel’s Tomb attacks Jonlim for 3 damage.

Jonlim 17 Wei Xiang 17

Jonlim untapped and played a Mountain. He then cast and equipped a Tormentor’s Trident onto Hunted Ghoul, making it a 4/2. He attacked with the Hunted Ghoul and Undead Executioner (Soulcage Fiend does not untap this turn). Wei Xiang opted not to block and took 6 damage.

Jonlim 17 Wei Xiang 11

Turn 6: Wei Xiang is now scrambling on defense. He summons a Scrapskin Drake (which unfortunately isn’t a defensive creature in this matchup), but it activates Angel’s tomb. Wei Xiang follows up with a Scroll of Avacyn and cracks it immediately to gain 3 life (note: supposed to be 5 life but Wei Xiang didn’t read properly).

Jonlim 17 Wei Xiang 14

He attacks with Heirs of Stromkirk (which gains +1/+1 counter afterwards) and Angel’s Tomb for 5 damage, knocking  Jonlim to 12.

Jonlim 12 Wei Xiang 14

Jonlim does what any aggro player does. He untaps, draws his cards, and turns everybody sideways. Hunted Ghoul (equipped with the Tormentor’s Trident), Undead Executioner, and Soulcage Fiend bash in unmolested for 9 damage, a big hit! This puts Wei Xiang in a dangerous position. Riot Ringleader joins Jonlim’s team on postcombat.

Jonlim 12 Wei Xiang 5

Turn 7: Wei Xiang plays an Island and casts Wingcrafter (which activates Angel’s Tomb). He pairs the Wingcrafter with Heirs of Stromkirk.

 He thinks hard and attacks with Angel’s Tomb and the flying Heirs of Stromkirk (already with a +1/+1 counter), for a total of 5 damage. He leaves Wingcrafter and Scrapskin Drake on defense. Heirs of Stromkirk has 2 counters on it afterwards..

Jonlim 7 Wei Xiang 5

Jonlim wants to try and win this turn and thinks hard…

He alpha strikes, and Wei Xiang makes his blocks…

Jonlim points out to Wei Xiang that Scrapskin Drake can’t block.

Wei Xiang realizes his error, but it’s too late. Jonlim alpha strikes for just enough damage. Just in case it isn’t enough, Jonlim’s hand has a Bone Splinters which he can use on his own Soulcage Fiend to finish the job too.

Jonlim 7 Wei Xiang 0

Jonlim wins Game 1.

2 play errors cost Wei Xiang in a tight game:
1) Misreading Scroll of Avacyn
2) Misreading of Scrapskin Drake

If he had not made these 2 errors, who knows what might have been?

Game 2

Wei Xiang chooses to play first.

Both players keep their opening 7.

Turn 1: Wei Xiang leads with Island, Wingcrafter. Jonlim answers right back with Swamp, Hunted Ghoul.

Turn 2: Wei Xiang plays a Mountain and passes. Jonlim plays a Swamp and crashes in with Hunted Ghoul for 1 damage.

Jonlim 20 Wei Xiang 19

Turn 3: Wei Xiang drops an Island and retaliates with Wingcrafter for 1 damage to even the life totals…

Jonlim 19 Wei Xiang 19

…but not for long because Jonlim plays a Mountain and swings with Hunted Ghoul again. On postcombat, Riot Ringleader joins the fray.

Jonlim 19 Wei Xiang 18

Turn 4: Wei Xiang plays an Island, summons Mad Prophet and pairs Wingcrafter to it.

He then attacks with Wingcrafter for 1 flying damage.

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 18

Jonlim plays Mountain, then uses Bone Splinters (sacrificing Hunted Ghoul) to take out Mad Prophet, recognizing that it is a big threat.

Wei Xiang taps the Mad Prophet in response to use its ability, discarding another Mad Prophet.

Jonlim follows up that play with Kessig Malcontents, which hits Wei Xiang for 2 to the dome.

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 16

Jonlim then bashes in with Riot Ringleader for 3 damage.

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 13

Turn 5: after an eventful Turn 4, Wei Xiang plays a Mountain and taps out to use Vanishment on Jonlim’s Riot Ringleader to buy him some time.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t get much relief because Jonlim’s hand has a Archwing Dragon, which he duly casts. He attacks with the Archwing Dragon and Kessig Malcontents.

Wingcrafter jumps in front of Kessig Malcontents and trades with it. Archwing Dragon gets a 4 life chunk out of Wei Xiang before going back to Jonlim’s hand.

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 9

Turn 6: With the board empty, Wei Xiang drops Island and casts Amass the Components to dig for answers to the Archwing Dragon sitting in Jonlim’s hand. He passes the turn. Jonlim simply recasts the Archwing Dragon for a further 4 damage. Wei Xiang needs an answer to it, and quickly.

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 5

Turn 7: Unfortunately, Wei Xiang didn’t get anything useful. He concedes the game at 5 life.

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 5 (Wei Xiang concedes the game)

Jonlim wins Game 2.

This game was decided quickly by Archwing Dragon, which really took over the game by himself.

Game 3

Wei Xiang chose to play first

Jonlim had to take a mulligan, and then we were off.

Turn 1: Wei Xiang dropped Island and Bladed Bracers, while Jonlim went Swamp, Hunted Ghoul.

Turn 2: Wei Xiang played a Mountain and passed. Jonlim played a Swamp, made a Tormentor’s Trident, and attacked with Hunted Ghoul for 1.

Jonlim 20 Wei Xiang 19

Turn 3: Wei Xiang dropped Island and tapped out for Hanweir Lancer. Jonlim drew into Bonfire of the Damned but could not use miracle so he put it into his hand. He dropped Mountain, equipped the Hunted Ghoul with Tormentor’s Trident and smashed in for 4 damage.

Jonlim 20 Wei Xiang 15

Turn 4: Wei Xiang played Mountain, dropped a Tandem Lookout and paired it with Hanweir Lancer, before attacking with Hanweir Lancer (and drawing a card off the Tandem Lookout’s pairing ability).

Jonlim 18 Wei Xiang 15

He then cast a postcombat Scroll of Avacyn and passed the turn.

Jonlim played Mountain from his hand. Wary of the 2/1 Tandem Lookout with first strike on blocking duty, he ensured his Hunted Ghoul would not attack blindly into death by casting another Hunted Ghoul and re-equipping the Tormentor’s Trident to Hunted Ghoul No.2. Since it has summoning sickness, no ghouls would be on the casualty list this turn.

Turn 5: Wei Xiang attacked with Hanweir Lancer once more (once again drawing a card) and Jonlim took 2 damage.

Jonlim 16 Wei Xiang 15

On the postcombat, he played a freshly drawn Heirs of Stromkirk.

Jonlim was ready. He tapped out to hardcast Bonfire of the Damned for x=2, killing  Hanweir Lancer, Tandem Lookout, Heirs of Stromkirk, and dealing 2 damage to the dome.

Jonlim 16 Wei Xiang 13

From a vulnerable position, Jonlim was now very comfortable after clearing Wei Xiang’s board. He swung in with 2 Hunted Ghouls (one equipped with the trident) for 5 damage.

Jonlim 16 Wei Xiang 8

Turn 6: Wei Xiang was now in deep trouble. Bonfire of the Damned really changed the game. He played a Mountain and used Amass the Components to look for gas. Jonlim swung with both Hunted Ghouls, then used Uncanny Speed to give a ghoul +3/+0 for exactly 8 points of damage and that was it.

Jonlim 16 Wei Xiang 0

Jonlim wins Game 3.

Jonlim wins match 3-0 (7-0, 18-5 concession, 16-0).

After the match, Wei Xiang revealed that he tried to force red. This was probably due to his success with the U/R tempo deck at the AVR draft at Jonlim’s house on 23^rd May 2012. Jonlim commented that he should keep his options open and not force specific colours next time.