GP KL part 4: Drafting Blue

I admit it. I've had a tendency to draft blue in RGD lately which borders on obsession. Last night, I drafted twice, Blue-Black-White, followed by Blue-Black-Red.

My leanings to blue has been due to the Simic Guild which to me is not only powerful, but tends to get underdrafted due to it not being on the so-called RGD drafting path chart. Last Wednesday night helped solidify that opinion when I ended up with THREE Simic RagWurms and TWO Ocular Halos.

So I entered the first draft with Shamsul on my right, and Loco on my left. My plan was to suck the green dry, sending a clear signal to Loco. If green wasn't around, I'd go for blue, leaving my 3rd colour option open. I opened my pack, which was devoid of any true removal, and went for Civic Wayfinder, passing a Drift of Phantasm. Shamsul proceeded to pass me Last Gasp, followed by Disembowel. Unfortunately, my green this turned out to be a mistake, as I did not get any quality green. Yet somehow, I stuck to my guns in Ravnica, taking sub-optimal green cards.

I ripped Guildpact and found a Pillory AND Mortify looking back at me. I figured I could splash the Mortify. Then Loco proceeded to pass me another pillory, and I decided then and there to dump green, effectively going Black-White-Blue. This turned out to be a correct decision, as Shamsul was in heavy green on my right, and ended up passing me Pride of the Clouds, two Azorius Nightwings among others.

Unfortunately, my deck suffered from a shortage of creatures, not to mention flyers, turning my Pride into a mediocre card. I was forced to play.. FOUR Eidolons, 2 White and 2 Blue ones. As a result, I was cornered into situations where I had a couple of magemarks on 1 creature against a horde. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.

I went 1-2, losing to Andy and Zul, and winning against Shamsul. One thing that pleased me about this draft was that all the players were fast, including this new dude from Sweden, Tobias. (Sorry, Mattias I guess we can't call you Swedish now... !) As such, we proceeded to have another draft. Zul, Shamsul and Hafiz departed, and were replaced with Johan, Ida and Zach.

Once again, I had Loco on my left, and this time Ida on my right. My 1st card was Drift of Phantasms, and Ida's first act was to drop me a Disembowel, so once again, it was black blue and I'm off to the races. For some reason, I failed to notice a dream leash passing through, which astounded Loco, as he realised he was getting cut off from other blue cards.

Come Guildpact, Loco starts building a deck for me, passing two Torch Drakes, two Izzet Chronarchs and a Repeal. So 3rd colour is red. This works out really well for me in Dissension, as I draft Wrecking Ball, followed by THREE Demon Jesters, signaling a HellBent strategy. Everything else fell into line...

My first build had two Induce paranoia's, which I soon removed as they were counterproductive to the hellbent path.

My deck somehow managed to work, despite one signet and an almost equal colour distribution. As usual, I was helped by the odd opponent mana/colour screw, always useful! Won against Johan, Raj, and Andy, scoring a Stomping Ground and my fourth Infernal Tutor. It was a late night again, but fortunately it had a happy ending!

Research continues though...