Drafting with... Shuhei Nakamura + Raul Porojan

At the recent Magic Grand Prix here in London, I had the pleasure and valuable learning experience of a day spent with the coverage team - Tim Willoughby, Rich Hagon, and David Sutcliffe.

Below are two a couple of raw, unedited examples of what I did that day. Both are a "drafting with..." piece, though in quite different styles - the first being all prose, the later is more a pick-by-pick analysis.

I'm hoping at some point in the future I'll be able to point back to this blog and say, "Look how far I've come!" We'll have to see about that, huh?

Drafting with Shuhei Nakamura:

Going into the second draft here on day two of GP London, Japan’s Shuhei Nakamura finds himself at 9-3, meaning he’ll need to win out from here and have good tiebreakers to make the top eight. So a 3-0 deck is required in this draft, but what picks will he make in attempting to achieve this?

His first pick was a certified bomb, as he took Consecrated Sphinx in an otherwise average pack with Rot Wolf, Phyrexian Rager, and Blisterstick Shaman as the only cards of note. Next came a Burn the Impure over a Phyrexian Juggernaut, then a Blisterstick Shaman, resisting the urge to move into infect or white, as he passed a Blightwidow and a Divine Offering. The rest of the first pack had more tools for his U/R deck, in Treasure Mage, Spin Engine, Brass Squire, and Vedalken Infuser, which Shuhei took over the potential Treasure Mage target of Hexplate Golem, plus a pair of hatedrafted Pistus Strike.

The second pack began with some premium removal in Turn to Slag over a Golem Artisan, then a Darksteel Axe over a Skinrender. Red was clearly open from his left, as further removal arrived in Galvanic Blast. The rest of the pack contained more filler for the deck, with an Iron Myr to accelerate into his larger creatures, which now included a Scrapdiver Serpent and Soliton.

The third pack began with another mythic rare for Shuhei, although he’d have to extend into white in order to play his Venser, the Sojourner. More removal came next in Shatter over the early defensive creatures Perilous Myr and Wall of Tanglecord, then a Heavy Arbalest was plucked out over a second Turn to Slag, giving his deck a potentially game-winning combo with the equipment and the earlier Soliton. The picks rounded out with some more creatures in Barrage Ogre and Vulshok Replica, and early drops in a Leaden Myr and a Wall of Tanglecord, finishing off a solid U/R/w draft deck.

Just two questions remained as he sat down to construct his deck – How many Plains would he include for the Venser, and would the resulting deck give him the 3-0 result he needed?

(The answers to these ended up being two, and yes, respectively – although not quite a top eight for Shuhei, who finishedin 11^th)

Drafting with Raul Porojan:

After winning twelve rounds on the trot after his two byes, and a draw taken with Daniel Royde in the final match of the swiss, Raul Porojan topped the standings, undefeated thus far at GP London. Would his streak continue through the single-elimination rounds, or was that last round draw a sign of weakness? His first two draft decks today were stacked with bombs, could he repeat this in the top 8? Here’s a complete rundown of his picks through the draft.

Pack 1:

Morbid Plunder was chosen from a pack full of quality: Blightwidow, Into the Core, Fangren Marauder, and Creeping Corrosion all had to be passed.

Viridian Corrupter was next, passing Rot Wolf and Phyrexian Rager in colour.

Blightwidow started a potential move into poison, but is great in any green deck, while a second Into the Core was passed.

Copper Carapace

Virulent Wound was taken, rather than deviating into white for Gore Vassal

Plaguemaw Beast was chosen over the biggest infect creature of them all, Blightsteel Colossus!

Scourge Servant

Mirran Mettle

Brass Squire, which could cause some headaches with Copper Carapace and any future equipment

Oculus

Pistus Strike

Phyresis

Rally the Forces

Rally the Forces

Pack 2:

Heavy Arbalest was chosen somewhat reluctantly over surefire bomb Koth of the Hammer, and an on-colour Instil Infection was also passed.

Corpse Cur was taken over Untamed Might, and a second Instil Infection.

Acid Web Spider was next, from a pack still full of high picks: Galvanic Blast, Arrest, Glint Hawk, Glint Hawk Idol.

Corpse Cur #2

Trigon of Rage

Fume Spitter

Alpha Tyrannax

Throne of Geth

Blunt the Assault

Blackcleave Cliffs – just in case a splashable red card came up

Withstand Death

Vulshok Heartstoker

Melt Terrain

Semblance Anvil

Pack 3:

Steel Hellkite was taken over infect creatures Contagious Nim and Tel-Jilad Fallen, ensuring Raul’s deck was not without at least one bomb rare.

Ichorclaw Myr was chosen over a seconf Trigon of Rage and another Tel-Jilad Fallen.

Trigon of Corruption

Necrotic Ooze was next, which could potentially copy the abilities of Steel Hellkite, Plaguemaw Beast... or just a Fume Spitter.

Gold Myr

Moriok Reaver over another Trigon of Rage

Cystbearer over a Grafted Exoskeleton, quite late in the pack for this one.

Bladed Pinions

Infiltration Lens – these last two equipments gave the Brass Squire more toys to play with.

Bladed Pinions

Tainted Strike

Melt Terrain

Bonds of Quicksilver

Melt Terrain

This left Raul with a solid G/B deck, though with just seven infect creatures (but plenty of ways to recur them if they died), it would be interesting to see if he would kill his opponents with damage or poison counters in this controlling, attrition-based build. Of note was that he did not choose to play all of his equipment, or the Brass Squire – with relatively few of the usual early infect drops (Blight Mamba, Ichorclaw Myr, Plague Stinger, Cystbearer, Rot Wolf, etc), these would be less effective than in a more aggressive poison deck.