by Randy Buehler
Click here to read about the draft between Mike Long and Dave Price. Long wound up with the mana fixers and the aggressive creatures, but Price probably had the higher card quality. Long led with Meteor Storm and Fires of Yavimaya on the first two turns while Price tried to draw blue mana. Long's Acidic Sliver was Assaulted away. but his Vicious Kavu hit Price for 4 three times. By then, Long also had Smoldering Tar in play. Price did draw his blue mana, but he couldn't deal with either the Tar or the Meteor Storm so he just scooped.
Long played Meteor Storm again on turn 2 of game 2. The players just stared at each other for the next few turns while Price tried to build up enough creatures to overwhelm the Storm. Long just stopped playing lands and built up cards in hand. When Price finally tested the waters with the Stalking Assassin that he'd been holding, Long just ignored it and started throwing cards at Price's head, through the Meteor Storm. Price's Samite Archer did buy him one more turn, but Long just activated Meteor Storm 6 times, randomly discarding 12 cards over the course of turns 7 through 13. That was that and Price fell to third place while his arch-nemesis moved up to 3-4.