MTG Conflux Draft Tournament Report: Battlegrace Angel FTW
April 5, 2009 | Posted by Dee
Last Thursday, I played in a Alara/Conflux/Conflux draft at my local comic book shop. We had a great turnout of 15 MTG players. We had two tables – one with seven players and one with eight players. I was on the table with eight players.
We played four rounds of swiss.
Pack one had a pretty easy first pick. The best cards were Naya Charm, Vithian Stinger, and Salvage Titan. I picked Naya Charm.
Next, I had a tough choice between Couriers Capsule, Arcane Sanctum, and Corpse Connoisseur. I picked Couriers Capsule but later regretted it because it didn’t make my decklist. I should’ve taken Arcane Sanctum.
For the rest of the pack, I got some good red (Resounding Thunder, Skeletonize, and Jund Battlemage). However, I wasn’t sure about my second color. I had Akrasan Squire and Cloudheath Drake.
I opened the second booster of Shards of Alara and found a Battlegrace Angel. At this point, I should’ve realized that white needed to be my second color since Battlegrace Angel needs a lot of white mana sources to support it.
I did get good red and white cards for the rest of the pack so I think I drafted the first two pack well. For red cards in the second pack, I picked up a second Skeletonize and 2 Magma Spray. For white cards, I picked up two Guardians of Akrasa and Sighted-Caste Sorcerer.
But in Conflux, I strayed from red and white, which was a mistake since I didn’t have many fixers. For example, I took Traumatic Visions, 2 Fleshformer, and Worldly Counsel but none of those cards made my decklist. Instead of those cards, I should’ve taken the best white or red card or just taken a mana fixer. I almost took an Esper Cormorants over Aven Trailblazer but thankfully I realized I didn’t have many fixers.
Actually, I was going to take fixers in Conflux since I only had an Obelisk of Jund from the first two packs. But I didn’t see any Conflux fixers other than Fiery Fall, Gleam of Resistance, and Mana Cylix. I took Fiery Fall and Gleam of Resistance but I passed Mana Cylix. I think that card is not very good. It doesn’t actually produce mana. Still, I should’ve picked it since it would’ve made my mana base stronger.
Lesson to be learned: you can’t be too picky if you need fixing. Mana Cylix may be card disadvantage but it would have made my decklist better.
When it was all said and done, I had a weird five color aggro decklist. It was all red and white cards except for Naya Charm, Grixis Charm, and 2 Cloudheath Drake. My mana was not too bad, but Mana Cylix would’ve made it much easier to cast Grixis Charm.
| Five Color Exalted Aggro | |||||||||||
Creatures (11) | Spells (12)
Lands (17) Noteable Sideboard Cards (13) |
| |||||||||
One thing I did learn is with Conflux in the mix, you shouldn’t think in terms of shards anymore. All the Conflux mana fixers fix all five colors so you don’t have to be stuck in a shard. For example, my decklist has red/white as its main colors. In triple Shards of Alara draft, my third color would’ve been green since that would make the Naya shard. However, Conflux fixers are not bound by shards.
My two fixers from Conflux, Gleam of Resistance and Fiery Fall, can fetch any basic land. So, green is not my third color. I only have one green card, Naya Charm while I have three blue cards, 2 Cloudheath Drakes and Grixis Charm.
If I was still thinking in terms of shards, I would not have drafted red/white/blue since that is not a shard.
Also, I didn’t think you could go five color aggro but if you’re only splashing 4 cards and you have enough fixers, it works out.
Match 1 vs Red/Black
Game 1
I had an aggressive draw Akrasan Squire and Sighted-Caste Sorcerer. He only drew one creature, Wandering Goblins. I killed it with a red spell.
He had removal for one of my exalted guys, but I played Cloudheath Drake. I swung for 4 in the air until he died.
Game 2
This game played out almost exactly the same as the first game. He did kill Couldheath Drake but he was at 6 life. I topdecked Resounding Thunder and cycled it for the win.
Match Count: 1-0
Game Count: 2-0
Match 2 vs Jund
Game 1
He kept a hand with two Forests as his lands. All his spells in hand required more than just green mana. The next two lands he drew were both Forests.
He had a slow start while I killed him quickly with turn two Sighted-Caste Sorcerer, turn three Guardians of Akrasa, turn four Manaforce Mace, and turn five equip and swing for a lot.
Game 2
He was able to play more spells this game. However, I had removal for all his guys and he got stuck on four mana. I brought down his life total with exalted guys and a flying 3/3. I cycled Resounding Thunder for the finishing blow.
Match Count: 2-0
Game Count: 4-0
Match 3 vs Esper
Game 1
This was a close battle. I got mana flooded pretty bad. At one point, I had drawn only five spells to his nine spells. However, the spells I drew were pretty good especially the fifth one, Battlegrace Angel.
I was close to dying to his Onyx Goblet and Thoughtcutter Agent but I topdecked Battlegrace Angel and came back to win with her lifelink ability.
Game 2
This was a blowout. I had an early Battlegrace Angel and he didn’t have anything to stop it. I won with 30 life.
By the way, my opponent in this match was the player on my left in the draft. He hated Flameblast Dragon from me in the second pack. My decklist could’ve been really good lol.
Match Count: 3-0
Game Count: 6-0
Match 4 vs Naya
Game 1
We both had slow draws. His first play was Algae Gharial while I had Guardians of Akrasa. I was ready to play a turn five Cloudheath Drake but I topdecked Battlegrace Angel.
He couldn’t deal with my 4/4 double exalted flyer and we were off to the second game.
Game 2
This game showed the power of Skeletonize. I had removal for his big ground creatures except one. But I just blocked it with the black skeleton creature token. This blocker gave me time to setup the Manaforce Mace + Cloudheath Drake combo. Soon, I was swinging with a 7/7 flyer with vigilance for the win. Also, he got mana flooded in this game.
I got lucky in this match because he didn’t see any of his two bombs, Caldera Hellion and Martial Coup.
Match Count: 4-0
Game Count: 8-0 FLAWLESS VICTORY!
What I Learned
I didn’t think this decklist was as good as last’s week decklist. However, I did draw well in most of my games while my opponents often had bad draws. And Battlegrace Angel is very powerful.
I wouldn’t make any changes in the decklist. Grixis Charm is a tough splash but it can win games by itself so i was happy to run it. Volcanic Submersion could’ve been Molten Frame but hitting a land or Obelisk against another five color decklist is a strong play. Plus, there are good non-creature artifacts out there like Cumber Stone and Sigil of Distinction.
Actually, Volcanic Submersion should’ve been Mana Cylix if I had been drafting correctly.
I wasn’t sure about Manaforce Mace but that card helped me win two games. I recommend playing it in an aggro decklist that has at least three different basic lands.
2 Responses to “MTG Conflux Draft Tournament Report: Battlegrace Angel FTW”
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Nice post. You write/report very well. Where can I get that neat hover script you use to load card images?
Thanks
Thanks!
The hover script is only for Wordpress powered sites. Here’s the link to the Wordpress script: http://www.backseatsurfer.de/wp-mtg-helper/