Drafting a Winner

Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel Draft With David Williams

by Jeff Zandi

The qualifier season for Pro Tour San Diego is almost over, and David Williams is on the clock. Virtually every single day, this pro tour veteran punches into a Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel booster draft in order to make his game just a little bit stronger so that he can win the next pro tour qualifier. Dave has been dominating in the sealed deck Swiss rounds this season, but has not been able to close the deal in the top eight booster draft so far. Two weeks ago, Dave lost in the final round of the top eight. Last Saturday, Dave lost to the daughter of an old teammate, sending a girl from Texas to the pro tour for the first time. This week, the Texas Tiger travels to Grand Prix Columbus for one last chance at the format. Why does Williams need so badly to qualify for Pro Tour San Diego? Beyond the obvious desire to pick up at fat check at a domestic booster draft pro tour, Williams’ rating needs just a little boost in order to qualify him for the U.S. Nationals this year as well as the World Championships.

After going undefeated in seven rounds of sealed deck play in Houston, David entered the top eight draft as the first seed and hands-down favorite to win the tournament. The power of the decks that come out of an eight man booster draft depends greatly on the skill of the players involved. The more good players in a draft, the better the decks are that result from the draft. This is true because better players make better use of the information that each pack gives them. Saturday’s top eight draft in Houston featured only a couple of pro tour veterans and several players appearing in their first ever PTQ top eight. The result was a draft that produced only a couple of strong decks.

I talked to David this week about last Saturday’s performance. I also asked him for his views regarding Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel drafting. After reviewing his top eight draft and taking a look at the deck that he constructed from it, Dave shares some of his draft ideas with us.

Dave Williams’ top eight draft deck from last week’s 80 person PTQ in Houston, Texas.

PACK ONE

CARD SELECTED                     CARDS LEFT IN PACK

Consume Spirit                         

Mask of Memory                        2 Myr, 2 artifact land

Leonin Scimitar                          Woebearer, Fangren Hunter

Thoughtcast                              Cobalt Golem

Moriok Scavenger                      Serum Tank

Moriok Scavenger                      Needlebug

Sun Droplet                               Chromatic Sphere, Grand Furnace

Silver Myr

Steel Wall                                 Nim Lasher

Seat of the Synod                      Tooth of Chiss-Goria, Ancient Den

Slagwurm Armor

Regress

Wanderguard Sentry

Dream’s Grip

Dross Prowler

PACK TWO

CARD SELECTED                     CARDS LEFT IN PACK

Barter in Blood                           Myr Enforcer, Irradiate, Chrome Mox

Skeleton Shard                          Arrest, Shatter, Goblin Dirigible

Vedalken Archmage                   Aether Spellbomb

Nim Lasher                                Skyhunter Cub, Isochron Scepter

Alpha Myr                                 Slith Predator

Talisman of Indulgence (RB)        Moriok Scavenger

Ogre Leadfoot                            Skyhunter Patrol

Slith Bloodletter                        

Duskworker                              

Nim Lasher

Neurok Hoversail

Malachite Golem

Lumengrid Warden

Groffskithur

Sphere of Purity

PACK THREE

CARD SELECTED                     CARDS LEFT IN PACK

Spire Golem                              Essence Drain, Grimclaw Bats, Vedalken Engineer

Juggernaut                                Vulshok Morningstar

Essence Drain                           Quicksilver Behemoth

Quicksilver Behemoth                 Arcbound Slith

Dross Golem                             Essence Drain

Drill Skimmer                             Darksteel Citadel

Grimclaw Bats                           Leonin Bola

Essence Drain

Grimclaw Bats                           Scavenging Scarab

Whispersilk Cloak

Genesis Chamber

Metal Fatigue

Magnetic Flux

Burden of Greed

Hunger of the Nim

Here’s the deck David Williams assembled in this top eight draft:

David Williams

Swamp x15

Seat of the Synod

Barter in Blood

Consume Spirit

Moriok Scavenger x2

Nim Lasher x2

Slith Bloodletter

Alpha Myr

Duskworker

Leonin Scimitar

Malachite Golem

Mask of Memory

Silver Myr

Skeleton Shard

Slagwurm Armor

Talisman of Indulgence

Essence Drain

Grimclaw Bats

Drill-Skimmer

Dross Golem

Juggernaut

Whispersilk Cloak

I talked to Dave immediately after this draft. He recognized right away that a player to his left had cut off blue. Indeed, it was the player to his immediate left. Dave also correctly figured out that the player to his immediate right was drafting white. Dave was greatly concerned about the second Mirrodin pack, feeling it was that pack where the draft got away from him. While it may not have been David’s best booster draft by a long shot, it was still possibly the second best deck in the top eight. David Williams remains one of the best drafters on the pro tour, however, and I talked to him a few days later about his views on Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel booster draft. Here is what Mr. Williams had to say.

I first asked him what color or colors he likes to draft right now. Dave said that he has been drafting a lot of blue/black lately. He likes this combination because it can take advantage of the best blue cards even without dedicating the entire deck to artifact Affinity. Dave feels that black has been a bit of an underdrafted color that is remarkably strong and deep in the Darksteel pack. In the recent past, drafts using only Mirrodin typically produced only one or possibly two decks including black cards. Both blue and black are reasonably deep in all three packs in the draft.

While green/white has become a perfectly playable color combination in Mirrodin draft, Dave says he dislikes it because of the relatively small number of good green commons in Darksteel as well as the high popularity of white among drafters.

Dave’s top five non-rares that he hopes to see in his first pack includes, in no particular order, Crystal Shard, Grab the Reins, Mask of Memory, Skeleton Shard and Betrayal of Flesh. Dave didn’t forget Loxodon Warhammer, but says the popular equipment has dropped a lot in value to him. He rated it very close to or possibly better than the Skeleton Shard, but no better than any of the other four cards he mentioned.

A card combination that Dave would rather NOT see in his first pack is Myr Enforcer and Somber Hoverguard. Even though these two quality commons are not the same color, the combination of the two in the opening pack makes it difficult, in Dave’s opinion, to draft correctly. David says the correct pick should be Myr Enforcer, but leaving Somber Hoverguard in the pack greatly influences the player to the left to take the Hoverguard and move strongly into an Affinity strategy, which can cut off the cards in the second pack that are particularly good with the Enforcer.

It is considered good advice to take artifacts early in Mirrodin drafts, attempting to stay away from dedicating yourself to a color or colors for as long as possible. David disagrees somewhat. He says that he has no problem selecting two powerful cards in different colors with his first two picks. While not locking into colors early may give you flexibility later, David says that the other players around you ARE locking into colors, and they may start cutting those colors from him if he is afraid to draft colored cards early.

On the matter of cutting colors off, David feels it is important to do this early in the draft in any color that you draft. The goal is to make sure, to the extent possible, that the player to your left will not draft the same color or colors that you are drafting. According to Dave, once you make a strong decision about a color, you need to take every playable card in that color in the early part of the draft. The key here is to take PLAYABLE cards. Even when he is attempting to cut of blue cards, for example, Dave will not grab a Regress, even if it’s the only blue card in the pack. Dave says Regress is only marginally playable, and its appearance in a pack to the player to his left should not signal him that more good blue cards are coming.

Beginning even before Pro Tour Amsterdam, there has been a strong movement in Mirrodin draft to play as few lands as possible. The first accepted strategy for doing this was to play a large number of mana producing Myr and Talisman cards. A more risky/interesting strategy emerged that included playing an ever-shrinking number of lands in your draft deck but including a greater number of Spellbombs. Williams says he will play as few as fifteen land if he has a combination of four or five Myr/Talisman (or Vedalken Engineer from Darksteel, in blue decks only of course). David is not a fan of adding random Spellbombs in order to play fifteen or fewer lands. He believes that the overall card quality of a draft deck suffers with the Spellbomb strategy. A new question that has arisen with Darksteel is whether or not the Darksteel Ingot, with its three casting cost, can be included in the mix with the Myrs and Talisman cards from Mirrodin. David says the Darksteel Ingot is completely playable, falling just below the quality of a Talisman card (particularly one in the color or colors you are playing).

On the subject of equipment, Dave has a clear opinion. He avoids them. Outside of a small number of very powerful equipment, most of which are uncommons, David doesn’t draft or play much equipment these days. Among the commons, Bonesplitter has become a lower pick for him, while Viridian Longbow’s stock has gone up a good deal. In general, David usually chooses not to have a deck filled with equipment, preferring the direct threat of a creature card.

David feels that artifact removal remains very important in booster draft. Creature removal cards and artifact removal cards remain very high picks for David Williams.

When I asked David what the biggest mistake that he feels players make in booster draft today, he did not hesitate to say that too many players fail to pay attention to the signals sent to them by the player to their right. Dave feels that players routinely fail to see when a color has “dried up”, locking themselves into a bad deck in order to stick with the strategy of their first few picks.

As always, I’d love to hear what YOU think!

Jeff Zandi

Texas Guildmages

Level II DCI Judge

jeffzandi@thoughtcastle.com

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