I’m a good Magic player. I’ve had around a 58% win rate over the last four weeks, and over 64% win rate (13 trophies in 34 events) over the last two weeks in Streets of New Capenna (SNC) Premier Drafts. And I made top 150 Mythic last season. *Pats self on back*.
The thing is: I don’t review my drafts nearly often enough. One reason my win rate has improved is due to more experience with the format. I could have gotten that quicker, though, by studying my previous drafts. But here we are.
The Draft
Here is the link to the draft on 17Lands.
After receiving a 13th pick Syndicate Infiltrator, I really anticipated moving firmly into Blue/Black, and perhaps splashing the 1st pick Halo Fountain. Backup Agent was the only other white card I had, and I had not seen much good White coming to me.
And perhaps that should have still been the plan, but I opened Sanctuary Warden in Pack 2. And if there is a card to motivate you to go in a specific direction, it’s that one. I ultimately stuck with the white plan, but Pack 2 really didn’t have anything for me. In hindsight, perhaps I should taken that as a sign to stick to my original Pack 1 plan. Or…..I could have taken more Hold for Ransom, knowing I was aiming for a long game to allow for Halo Fountain and Security Warden to take over.
Pack 3 saved me in many ways. Committed to the UW plan, I was rewarded (though I am not sure if it was through proper cutting…I mean I know it wasn’t) with quality blue and enough blue/white (Celestial Regulator and Metropolis Angel) to make it work.
The Deck
The Sideboard
If you didn’t watch the draft, then you can see here that pack 1 I was very much leaning towards a Blue/Black configuration.
My Thoughts While Building Deck
- I want to have enough creatures with counters in order to make Celestial Regulator and Metropolis Angel function well.
- Race decks through the air.
- Use mythic rares to close games
- Ballroom Brawlers will help me stabilize if needed
- Three Faerie Vandal makes the second Make Disappear playable.
Expanding on some of the above…
There are enough creatures that can generate counters. In particular this deck wants to make Faerie Vandal pop off as many times as possible. Hence a reason to include Security Bypass
The only way this deck is racing other decks is if Faerie Vandal pops off uncontrollably. Instead, this deck might have been better off built around inevitability (growing Faerie Vandals, Sanctuary Warden/Halo Fountain, card drawing via Metropolis Angel). Talk more about this below.
Ballroom Brawlers are my favorite card that somehow seem to underperform for me. But, here in this deck, they make a lot of sense.
Mistakes I Think I Made
- Deck size / Land count: The deck has 41 cards. I do this sometimes, and not sure if it is ever correct to do so. However, it’s my way of waffling between 16 and 17 lands. The thing is: this could easily just be a straight up 16-land deck. Only three cards above four mana. And only three cards at 4 mana. This deck wants 16 lands, especially with the hand smoothing effect on Magic Arena.
- Land Ratios: I’ll admit it’s not easy to mess up on something related to lands twice in one deck building exercise, but pretty sure I did it here. If I am going with 17 lands, then almost positive the deck should have had one more Plains and one less Island. Outside of wanting to cast multiple blue spells in a turn (which is possible), the deck only needs one blue mana to function. However, it absolutely wants to hit two white mana. Ballroom Brawlers on turn 5, Sanctuary Warden on turn 6. And even to be able to activate the second mode on Halo Fountain.
- Change the one- and two-drops:This deck has quite the air fleet, and then backed up by big-boned Ballroom Brawlers. The focus of the early drops should be to provide a way to transition to the end-game. That does not mean pulling Faerie Vandal from the deck, but it does mean that those two Brokers Veteran might should have had some consideration. I could see changing out the Expendable Lackey for one. Or perhaps the second Make Disappear, which I often find the second counterspell to be quite debatable. Either way, I think getting at least one more 2-power creature in the deck could have helped, and not to mention that it provides one more way to get a counter to enable Celestial Regulator or Metropolis Angel.
