boros clamp (cube) (Cube)

a tricky draft. i started with dismember and got passed the clamp, which i took over luminarch aspirant. i think i got fed red pretty decently, but jackson was two seats downstream also in boros, so pack 2 was pretty rough. i didn't end up with all the cheapest cards, but i did have some resilience with outlaws' merriment and smuggler's copter. there were no lands floating around at all for me, and so it felt hard to pivot out of this setup once i was in. but p3 gave me starnheim and rabblemaster and copter, and those are all great, so it seemed fine.

i played schenk on monoG match 1. i won game 1 with the white 3/1s and copter into thundermaw. it was a close game but i kept attacking and put enough pressure on him and kept damage getting through. g2 he played ignoble hierarch and i played mortars on it, then died hard to questing beast, which i could never block or attack around. g3 was tight; rabblemaster and smugglers copter were able to get in some damage, but courser of kruphix and lovestruck beast quickly set up on the ground, and vorinclex into verdurous gearhulk meant he attacked me for 19 damage, forcing a chump from rabbles. i could get him to 2 on the crackback, but i couldn't find the last bit of extra damage, and so i lost the match.

we were a draft of 10 and i got paired up vs peter in round 2 on UW control/planeswalkers. i had a land-light hand g1 but isamaru + adanto vanguard dealt a lot of damage early, and maul of the skyclaves kept the pressure on. he bought time with reflector mage and venser and then a wrath, but my hand was still full of action with just 3 lands in play. i followed up the wrath with rabblemaster and he was out of gas. g2 i put the pressure on quickly again, with smugglers copter doing the thing. lurrus brought back a cratermaker, and skullclamp let copter trade with ojutai and draw me some cards. JTMS got sniped by maul of the skyclaves on lurrus, and the wrath was fine - rabblemaster hit the board with skullclamp in play, and i had cards to spare and all the pressure in the world.

m3 vs barry on UB midrange was a thundermaw battle. g1 had me pressuring with hallowblade and pals, but his fallen shinobi stole my clamp and smuggler's copter. on the key turn he attacked me to 4 with copter, and i declined to flash in avacyn to block; didn't want to give him info. it paid off - he played dragonlord silumgar and stole my seasoned hallowblade. i flashed in avacyn and untapped with thundermaw to tap silumgar and finish the job. g2 was less interesting; i played thundermaw on t5 and he couldn't stop it from punching him to death.

solid 2-1, i think the deck was good. i wish jackson hadn't sniped so many cards i wanted - stoneforge! path! adeline! but still fun.