So I went Simic again today at a Monday Draft and went 0-1 after losing games 1 and 2 to another Simic deck (who, coincidentally, was sitting to my right during drafting).

P1P1 was a Stomping Ground. There was some other good stuff in that pack, but I figured that I'd just pay for the draft right then. As with the last time I drafted, it was clear quickly that blue was wide open with a good amount of green and Simic cards to boot. I picked up two other Gruul cards in case I wanted to splash red, but Ground Assault and Zhur-Taa Swine were the only decent ones so I decided to drop that idea when it came to deck building. P2P2 I passed a Watery Grave in favor of a Crowned Ceratok. It hurt, but I had already picked up a Stomping Ground and it turns out that Ceratok ALMOST won me game 2. I picked up 2 Simic Charms that pack, one of them coming at P2P10 or so, which should not happen, but I wasn't complaining. I was also passed a Fathom Mage. Pack 3 I noticed I was getting cut pretty hard. black all of a sudden was wide open, but I wasn't getting much in the way of green cards, though some decent blue ones were trickling through. I wasn't too worried because I figured I had nearly a decent deck in the first two packs and it didn't really need much more.

Round 1 I faced the guy who was sitting to my right who also drafted Simic, though he said he really jumped on board during the second pack, which explains me getting cut in pack 3. I definitely had the better Simic cards (he played Tower Defense and Bioshift and Hydroform) but it turns out that those "bad" cards won him the game. So learning experience there; try to anticipate cards that I won't normally play. Game 1 I had to mulligan down to 5 and was stuck on islands with a hand full of green for most of the game. By the time I managed to get a decent mana base together, I was behind on the board and it was just a matter of time before he beat me down. Game 2 we both had to mull to 6, but I came out much better. In one of the longest games I've played, we got into a board stall. I had resolved an Urban Evolution which was cool and got 4 cards off of Fathom Mage. I was getting board and somewhat impatient and started playing more aggressively, whittling down both his creatures and mine. He was a 3 life and I was at 8 when I drew a Crowned Ceratok giving my 3 other creatures trample. I thought it was just a matter of time, then because he only had one profitable block and would have to chump away his Elusive Krasis that he couldn't evolve and his Keyrune. So next turn I went all out, cleared his board of all but one large Frilled Oculus (4/6 before pumping). Then he played Hydroform and hit me for 10 on the backswing. I should have anticipated he'd have a trick and left one guy to block, but I was greedy and wanted the game to be over ASAP because it had gone on for about an hour. More learning experience, there.

Disappointing loss, because I still think this is a solid Simic draft deck, it just didn't jive with me today. So it goes.