Draft 036 6-3

1st picked Hunter’s Harpoon over Stormcrasher. 2nd picked Slimespitter Slug. 3rd picked Hunter’s Harpoon. 4th picked Towering Stranger. Shadow wasn’t open. Fire wasn’t either. I was confused so I just rare drafted. Got a really late Archive Curator. More Time flowed in the second pack so I went Elysian with a Fire splash.

Not bad for a rare draft. The deck has a terrible early game units because I couldn’t figure out what factions were open. But the end game is decent. Will have to play defensively again. I anticipate 2-3 wins.

G1: Awkward opener: stranger, Xenan Initiation, Hunter’s Harpoon, and Teleport. When I declined to block his stranger, he Torched mine. Neither of us had anything going for many turns. When he played Granite Acolyte to buff the lone stranger, I used Teleport. I used Dispel on an Audacious Bandit to cycle cards. He played Snapping Brushstalker. I played Dune Phantom and Xenan Initiation to kill the acolyte and bounce the brushstalker. He hit me with the bandit and replayed the brushstalker. I played Hunter’s Harpoon on the phantom and attacked to draw a card. When he attacked, I used Lightning Strike on his bandit bouncing the brushstalker again. I warped in Awakened Sentinel. He played a 5/2. I drew more power. When he attacked, I used Refresh on his next attack to eat his 5/2. I played another Hunter’s Harpoon on the Dune Phantom and warped in another Awakened Sentinel. At that point, I had 11 power to his 6. I kept playing 2 big cards per turn while he added smaller ground units. He finally found Purify for my Dune Phantom. I played Sapphire Dragon. He played Pouncing Drake, but declined to block since I was at 5 life. I played Hunting Pteriax when he attacked and traded. I should have chump blocked with Archive Curator and swung back for lethal. But I elected for the most conservative play since I could kill him with an all out attack next turn regardless. Seemed like a frustrating game for my opponent.
G2: I started with Snowcrust Yeti. My opponent started with Minotaur Grunt and a stranger. I tried to use Xenan Initiation to kill the grunt, but he had Finest Hour. I took a lot of damage from that massive tempo hit. He played a 4/4 for which I used Polymorph. My Hunting Pteriax ate a stranger. I warped in an Awakened Sentinel to further defend my precarious life total before deploying Pteriax Hatchlings. He found a 5/5 Soaring stranger but elected not to trade it with my Hunting Pteriax because he gave a 3/5 flying next turn instead. I attacked with all the fliers and used Static Bolt to finish off his Soaring Stranger. I played Sapphire Dragon for which he had Channel the Tempest. He had Roosting Owl for follow up. I knew I had limited time before his card advantage overwhelmed me so I began attacking with everything. His Roosting Owl ate a hatchling, but my Awakened Sentinels ate several of his ground units. My Towering Stranger enabled lethal next turn.
G3: We traded strangers. He played Eye of Winter. Fortunately, I had 2 Awakened Sentinels. He seemed stuck on power whereas I kept adding fliers. Between the Awakened Sentinel, Avirax Familiar, Hunting Pteriax, and hatchings, he died quickly.
G4: Awkward opener: 3 Time sigils and no early units. I used Dispel on a stranger just to dig deeper in the deck. My Archive Curator neutered his Sand Viper. He played Thunderhoof Warrior. I played Awakened Sentinel. He played Ornate Katana on the 3/3 and swung. I took the 1st hit. I used Refresh to eat the warrior the next time. He played Reliquary Raider. I played Xenan Initiation to kill it. I began attacking with the 4/10 Awakened Sentinel and Archive Curators. He began chump blocking. When I played Hunter’s Harpoon on an Archive Curator, he conceded.
G5: My opponent started with Tinker Overseer. When I tried to Lightning Strike, he had Victor’s Cry. That sucked a lot. I played Hunter’s Harpoon on my stranger to draw more of my deck, which paid off as I found my 5th power for Hunting Pteriax. I took 4 more damage, but ate the Tinker Overseer on the next swing. I warped in an Awakened Sentinel afterwards. His Victor’s Cry returned for which I gladly sacrificed the Awakened Sentinel. I was at 6 life. He had 3 units. I followed up with only a 4/4 Forsworn Stranger. He took the bait and attacked me with two 2/2 and a 3/3 into my 5/3 and 4/4. I profitably blocked two and used Refresh to survive. He was down to a stranger. I played an Awakened Sentinel and Pteriax Hatchling and began hitting him for 5 in the air. He conceded after I played Towering Stranger next turn.
G6: I drew really well this game. And my opponent played cards that my hand perfectly countered. I had Lightning Strike for his Auric Bully, Archive Curator for his Direwood Beastcaller, and Xenan Initiation for his Valkyrie Denouncer. My Hunter’s Harpoon and Towering Stranger just added insult to injury.
G7: I used Static Bolt against his District Infantry. My Dune Phantom stalled him. His Dune Phantom then stalled me. I had more fliers but no quick solution to his 2/8 Dune Phantom. We stared at each other for 30+ turns adding units. Our boards quickly filled. My deck was smaller so I had to make a move with Towering Stranger and Hunter’s Harpoon. I didn’t realize Decay was a fast spell. I used my Teleport and Refresh to keep him alive but still didn’t have any profitable attacks. At that point, I was struggling to remember my decklist so I didn’t know what outs I had left. I just started attacking with the four 3/5s I had and managed to clear up both boards decently. I finally found an Archive Curator for his Dune Phantom and had a glimmer of hope that Sapphire Dragon could get there, but then he played Roosting Owl and Marisen, the Eldest clogging the skies again. I decked out. In retrospect, I should have waited until I had 2 cards left to attack and play all my tricks instead of doing partial attacks and letting him triple block. But then again, I wasn’t expecting Marisen, the Eldest.
G8: We were both stuck on power. His Time Weaver knocked out my Towering Stranger. The ground stalled. I had burned Refresh to keep Avirax Familiar alive against Violent Gust because of the power shortage and had been pecking for 1 damage each turn. Eventually he found multiple Direwood Prowlers and Xenan Initiations to kill all my important units. His Hatecleaver began eating through my small units. I had waited until his Blistering Wasp attacked so that I could ambush in Hunting Pteriax and attack with 2 units to clear the weapon. But I played too quickly and forgot to use Hunter’s Harpoon on my Dune Phantom to make a second attacker. His Hatecleaver ate my Hunting Pteriax next turn instead. I died soon after.
G9 = He took one of my Awakened Sentinels with Vara’s Choice. He played a Xenan Guardian, which was bait for the Archive Curator he knew I had. His Bloodcall Invoker then went nuts with Extract, Spirit Drain, and Xenan Destroyer. I used Hunter’s Harpoon on the Archive Curator to desperately dig for an answer but found nothing.

A frustrating end. So close to going 7-0. But this deck went further than it should have considering its horrible early game.

Gold Paid = 320
Shiftstones Gained = 2876 (dust)
Base = 0.340 shiftstones/gold
Shiftstones Profit = 2768
Pack Profit = 8.14