For the first draft of U.S. Nationals 2008, Gerry Thompson sat at the lead of four drafters that included teammates Brandon Scheel, Steve Sadin, and then finished with Matt Hansen (with one person not on their team sitting in between Sadin and Hansen). As the players moved to the drafting room they all sighed knowing there would not be enough red for all of them.
Over the past few weeks of practice drafts in both Iowa and New York City, a very aggressive monored deck has become all the rage. Cards such as Intimidator Initiate and Mudbrawler Cohort have been climbing in value and it is not rare to see those cards get picked very early or even first. As they sat down to draft, I was curious how these teammates would "divide" the colors. With Gerry sitting to the far left of the group he was in the best position to dominate the market on Mountains but he wanted nothing to do with them, staying blue-white for almost the entire draft. Of course it helps if you open Biting Tether.
Both Scheel and Sadin dipped into red early with a couple of Puncture Bolts for Steve and Power of Fire for Brandon. However, Hansen, at the end of the teammate tunnel, had opened Jaws of Stone and was locked into red. Sadin seemed to sense that red was not open and started to pick off the stray white cards—a couple of copies of Last Breath and an Old Ghastbark—that were falling off of Gerry's plate while Brandon was circling around green, red, and black throughout waiting for the third pack to dictate his fate.
With Steve making the move into white some red cards like Mudbrawler Cohort made an unexpectedly long journey into Hansen's pile. Steve was still considering being red until he opened his second pack of Shadowmoor and was greeted by a decision between Boggart Ram-Gang and the game-breaking Oona, Queen of the Fae. He chose the latter and ended up being blue-white with a touch of red. Despite Steve's move into Gerry's colors there seemed to be no drop off in card quality for the Iowa transplant.
By the time he got to the end of Shadowmoor Gerry had three copies of Silkbind Faerie, multiple Briarberry Cohorts, and a pair of the blue-white Duos. In Eventide he added two more tappers and ended up with what looked like a sure 4-0 deck.
Gerry Thompson
Draft 1, 2008 U.S. Nationals
A wave of third pack removal that included two Soul Reap and the blowout inducing Cankerous Thirst kept Brandon in black and in the end he was solidly in all three colors that Gerry had eschewed with Manamorphose and two Graven Cairns to help smooth it all out.
Brandon Scheel
Draft 1, 2008 U.S. Nationals
Steve had opened Hallowed Burial in the last pack and while he did not have the tight little beatdown package that everyone wanted coming into the draft felt that the raw power of his cards was enough to carry him to where he wanted to be going into Day 2.
Steve Sadin
Draft 1, 2008 U.S. Nationals
Matt Hansen ended with monored but his deck clearly suffered from other people cherry picking cards early and his deck had an unsightly bulge around the four slot. It still led the promise of a blazing opening with Mudbrawler Cohort and Heartlash Cinders and a fiery finish with Jaws of Stone.
Matt Hansen
Draft 1, 2008 U.S. Nationals