Scars of Mirrodin Draft Results & Standings Update

A total of 14 players played in our first Scars of Mirrodin draft, which was a pretty solid turnout considering that many people couldn't come because of the LAN Party or going home for Fall Break weekend. After what is becoming the new Limited norm - 4 rounds of Swiss - we had our first repeat winner of the semester:

10/9/10 Top Finishers: Scars of Mirrodin Draft #1

1. 3-0-1 UB Midrange by Skye Kutner

2. 3-1 GB Infect by Dan Hooghkirk

3. 3-1 Mono-Red Equipment by Haren Lalchand

4. 2-1-1 Ug Control by Greg Lovell

This format proved to make some interesting battles, as it seemed like in every round half of the matches were over in 15 minutes and the rest of the matches went to time. This created for an abnormally large number of draws and created a situation where over most of the field still had a chance of placing all the way to the end.

After pulling out a narrow win over my Jund-color mass removal deck (featuring Carnifex Demon and Contagion Engine!) with Thrummingbird shenanigans in game 3, Skye faced off against league points leader Michael Smith, whose red/white deck had defeated Haren's ridiculous 5 Goblin Gaveleers to be the only two players at 2-0 (due to the slew of draws and players who were paired down losing matches). Skye proceeded to defeat Michael 2-0 and then intentionally draw with Greg into first place (also securing Greg 4th).

Other impressive finishes were secured by RangerDan, who ran the table after a first round loss to Skye to finish 3-1 and take 2nd (and had a great day with pulls, as he netted both Koth of the Hammer and Skithiryx, the Hard-to-Spell Dragon for his collection). Haren also finished 3-1 to take 3rd place by defeating me in a match where he won game 1 with one creature, I won game 2 with one creaturue, and then game 3 saw me mulligan to five, stabilize at 3 life, set up a potential win, and then scoop to a Hoard-Smelter Dragon. What can I say - sometimes you win, and sometimes they have Hoard-Smelter Dragon.

Skye gave me his 41-card decklist for everyone to take a look at. Note the synergy between Thrummingbird and several of the artifacts and the three Trinket Mage targets, including the ridiculously broken Infiltration Lens:

Creatures (15)

1x Vedalken Certarch

1x Thrummingbird

1x Screeching Silclaw

1x Leaden Myr

2x Trinket Mage

1x Snapsail Glider

1x Palladium Myr

1x Etched Champion

1x Lumengrid Drake

1x Darkslick Drake

1x Skinrender

1x Sky-Eel School

1x Bleak Coven Vampires

1x Scrapdiver Serpent

Other Spells (9)

2x Sylvok Lifestaff

1x Infiltration Lens

1x Grasp of Darkness

1x Trigon of Rage

2x Tumble Magnet

1x Mimic Vat

1x Instill Infection

Lands (17)

10x Swamp

6x Island

1x Darkslick Shores

Thanks Skye for the decklist. The points leaders didn't seem to like the progress the field made last weekend, but with a lot of players in double digits and 5 events still remaining before the top 8 is finalized, there is still plenty of time for people to make a move. Here is the latest tally:

1. 32 - Michael Smith (9)

2. 28 - Skye Kutner (7)

3. 25 - Emile Paul (9)

4. 24 - Haren Lalchand (9)

5. 23 - John Kreinbring (10)

6. 22 - Joe Hammond (7)

7. 21 - Bryant Benson (8)

8. 21 - Hunter Garrett (6)

9. 20 - Dan Hooghkirk (5)

10. 16 - Scott Record (4)

11. 14 - Michelle Karl (6)

12. 14 - Helen Croce (3)

13. 13 - Brent Kollinger (6)

14. 12 - Nick Catalfano (5)

15. 11 - Liz DiGangi (6)

16. 11 - Alycia Johnson (4)

17. 9 - Kevin Crowley (4)

18. 9 - Jordan Arnold (1)

18. 9 - Tyler DeForge (1)

20. 8 - Stephen Kwok Choon (7)

21. 8 - Ben Monge (4)

22. 7 - Greg Lovell (3)

23. 6 - Glen Parker (5)

24. 6 - Will Sturges (3)

25. 5 - Matt Wills (4)

26. 5 - Andrew Capik (3)

27. 5 - Mike Mooty (2)

28. 4 - Michael Carney (3)

28. 4 - Ethan Pepmiller (3)

30. 3 - Kareem Elashmawy (3)

30. 3 - Krystal Lutz (3)

30. 3 - Nikita Nikolayev (3)

33. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

33. 2 - David Chesnutt (2)

33. 2 - Jennifer Mori (2)

33. 2 - Steven Nelson (2)

33. 2 - Noah Senzel (2)

39. 2 - John Chandler (1)

39. 2 - Anna Hallihan (1)

39. 2 - Kevin Hoover (1)

39. 2 - Aaron Macy (1)

43. 1 - Michael Cambata (1)

43. 1 - Thomas Fitch

43. 1 - Dan Hoekstra (1)

43. 1 - Brian Lam (1)

43. 1 - Dane Newton (1)

43. 1 - Mike Sedivy (1)

43. 1 - Hannah Sharp (1)

43. 1 - Trish Vincent (1)

If you missed this draft, don't worry, because there's another one scheduled for a week from Saturday (Oct. 23). But don't miss the Legacy event this Saturday, which will only cost 5 dollars (instead of the usual 6 for constructed) to enter and shouldn't cost you anything to build your deck, since you can proxy anything you need. I am also working with the FITSSFF Relay for Life coordinators to plan a fundraising event called Planeswalkers Against Cancer for Halloween weekend. More details about all of these upcoming events, including the best way to make proxies and how the Relay event will work, will be posted later in the week (probably sometime Thursday, since I have no classes this Thursday).

Also, with PalaDan playing in his first event of the semester, we've now had 50 different people play in at least one event this semester! That's pretty exciting and shows what a great job we've all done in making the events fun for new players and helping our community grow. Keep up the great work and enjoy the rest of your long weekend!

- Dom