One Straight-laced Multiplayer Game Still Accentuates the Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

Last week I did a wacky draft with three other people.  We decided we wanted to play a big multiplayer game, but not play Ravnica: Clue.  I lobbied for some alternate formats to promote attacking people, but that got vetoed.  I was still happy to play in a bigger game.  Here's what we opened:

My second and third packs were calls out to the universe, asking for guidance for which Modern deck to run the following weekend.  Let me know if you think you know which cards I was looking for in each pack.

We used the first-pick-take-two rule so we got to make two picks from each pack but only as the first person.  I was very careful not to make sure I wasn't a fraud and had cards in all five colors by pick six.  Here are all the picks I made:

If you need to get an Ultimatum or Mythos from an Ikoria pack, let me open it.  I have some great (bad) luck with that.

I put together a fun deck with that:

A beautiful rainbow of five colors.

We rolled to see who would go first.  The order was:

• P1 was running "Take to the Skies" in Bant.
• I was second up.
• P3 was Temur, "Free Spells into Suicide"
• P4 was another WUBRG deck, "Class is Outside Today".  (At least they mused "I don't know how Kyle always plays five colors," partway through the game.)

In the second round of turns, P3 played Ominous Seas and P4 played Chrome Companion.  Both of those became important throughout the game!

On turn three, P1 played Glider Kids, I played Lumbering Laundry face down.  P3 dropped a Magnifying Glass, and P4 attacked P3 with the dog. 

P1 turned their attention to me on the fourth round of turns.  I did not take it personally and attacked P4.  P3 ramped with Zimone's Experiment and P4 cast Pensive Professor, another value generator described as the Instructor who would be teaching today's class.  

Player 1 played Bristling Boar to start off the fifth round of turns.  I played Deepcavern Imp but didn't attack with it.  P3 cast Rapturous Moment into Elemental Mascot and Spore Crawler.  P4 finished the round with Sanar, Unfinished Genius, one of the students.

In the sixth round of turns, P1 made another move for air superiority by casting Empyrean Eagle and attacked P4, recognizing the value engine that was spinning up.  I played Water Tribe Captain.  P3 hit P4 as well, then played Frilled Sparkshooter.  Player 4 reacted, but to me, taking out my imp with Blooming Blast, then playing Abigale, Poet Laureate (I just noticed the pun, ha!) and Hydro-Channeler.  

P1 cast Angelic Quartermaster to claim the dominion of the skies.  They attacked me, bringing the life totals to P1: 20, Me: 8, P3: 15, P4: 14.  I responded by attacking back for two damage, then cast Nebula Dragon to take out the Quartermaster.  P3 cast Improvisation Capstone and this was the first time I'd ever seen the Paradigm keyword.  (It's like Epic but better.)  With that they dropped Knowledge Seeker and Zaffai and the Tempests.  

Time for those free spells to shine!

P3 then also attacked P1 now that their defenses were down.  P4 out WUBRG'ed me and cast Prismatic Undercurrents for five.  They then played Lluwen, Exchange Student and announced that all three students were prepared for class!  Ha!

On turn 8, P1 passed.  I attacked P3 with the Nebula dragon, they blocked with the Frilled Sparkshooter, I activated the Water Tribe Captain, they cast Aquitect's Defenses on their lizard, and I cast Harsh Annotation on it in response.  I definitely overspent my resources on that battle!  P3 activated the Ominous Seas at the end of my turn.  They cast Tenured Concocter then attacked me with the 8/8, the Knowledge Seeker, and the Elemental Mascot.  I blocked the 8/8 and went to 3 life.  P4 cast prepared spells and re-prepared things and got Spirit Mascot out.  They then played Tester of the Tangential.

Congratulations, P4, on becoming the Archenemy!

At the end of P4's turn, P1 cast Ajani's Response on P3's 8/8 Kraken token.  The life totals were P1: 16, me: 3, P3: 15, P4: 14.  

P1 passed on their ninth turn, keeping all their mana and creatures open.  I finally played the Lifecreed Duo that had been in my hand all game, followed by my Iguana Parrot.  P3 cast Disruptor of Currents, bouncing P4's Pensive Professor.  They swung into P4, which went okay.

There was a lot of text on P4's board.

 

P3 continued by casting Icecave Crasher and Stock Up, but realized their deck was living up to its name: they only had ten cards left in their library.  They replayed the Pensive Professor and put Aetherize into their hand.  (I don't remember how that happened.)  They were also low on cards in their deck.  At this point I realized that everyone was out landing me.  Urf!

P1 passed to open the tenth round of turns.  I attacked P4 with my Iguana Parrot, which happily flew over, then I cast Crovax, Ascendant Hero.  That notably took out P4's Chrome Companion, which had been putting in a lot of work all game.  P3 cast Dreadlight Monstrosity and already had eight counters on Ominous Seas again.  They attacked me and I had to throw my now 1/1 parrot in the way.  P4 cast Fire Nation Warship, then Biblioplex Tomekeeper.  They attacked P3 with their 7/7 Spirit Mascot, but P3 cast Gone on it.  The life totals were now P1: 16, me: 5, P3: 15, and P4: 9.

P1 was sitting pretty and passed again on their eleventh turn.  I cast Tributary Vaulter, hoping I could stay alive.  P3 attacked me with Dreadlight Monstrosity, making it unblockable.  That would have been three damage, but P4 intervened.

Wait, not like that!

P4 really wanted Crovax off the board, and the Auspicious Arrival was enough of a boost to take me out.  On their turn, P4 cast Pinnacle Emissary and attacked P1 with their 4/6 Pensive Professor.  After combat they replayed their Spirit Mascot.  The life totals were: P1: 4, P3: 15, and P4: 9.

On turn 12, P1 cast Finch Formation, but didn't offspring it.  P3 declined to use the Capstone's Paradigm ability this turn, then attacked both opponents.  P1 used their untapped mana to cast Uncharted Voyage on the Dreadlight Monstrosity to stay alive.  Then P3 used Calamitous Tide to get some of P4's students off the board.  P4 cast Sanitation Automaton and attacked P3.  They cast Sanar's spell, Wild Idea, but failed to find a card in their small library.

P1 shocked the table on turn thirteen with Avatar's Wrath!  They kept Bristling Boar, cast Treeguard Duo, and swung into P3.  P3 cast their Dreadlight Monstrosity and P4 cast a Chaos Spewer.  The life totals were: P1: 4, P3: 8, P4: 9.

In the fourteenth round of turns, P1 recast the Finch Formation with the Offspring.  They went to attack, but P3 cast Frostveil Ambush, which P4's Chrome Companion had tucked many turns ago.  P3 attacked with their player-killing Dreadlight Monstrosity to take P1 out.  P4 recast Tester of the Tangential as well as many of their other creatures.

On the fifteenth turn, P3 recast more of their creatures, but P4 had more on the board and attacked.  P3 went to three life.  

On the sixteenth turn, P3 didn't have enough and P4 swung for the win. 

This game was great!  I do really enjoy the social aspect of playing in one large multiplayer game and it was fun to see everyone's decks fire off.  Although we didn't add any wacky formats, we didn't really need them.  We had lots of aggression and interaction and it was exciting to see all the different cards interact with each other across so many different sets.  

Happy Multiplayer Magicking, whether you add rules spices or not!

WUBRG Fraud Exposed! (UBRG Drafting)

This never happens to me.  I... I don't really know what happened, but my fraudulent ways have been exposed.  

That doesn't make sense yet, but it will very shortly.  I got to participate in a bonus chaos draft after the Foundations Draft at Intergalactic Plastic last Friday.  I brought three packs to use just in case it fired and the other five players also brought good stuff to play with.

An excellent smattering of packs for a draft!

I thought I did a pretty good job drafting.  Here were all my picks: 

There's a big problem here!

I am a drafter with a gimmick.  That's what I have going for me.  The gimmick is that I need to play with a five-color deck.  In order to do that, I have to draft cards that either include all colors or make explicit use of each of the colors in some way.  I first stared WUBRG drafting around Shards of Alara, but I've really been dedicated to the bit for the last six or seven years.  A few times I've only had a color represented in a deck by hybrid mana or an important ability on a card.  This time, I got nada.  There're no white spells, no white-mana abilities.  No nothing.

I don't know how I messed up this bad.  

 

I understand if you stop reading from here.  The whole reason you read this dumb blog is probably to enjoy my struggles running five colors in limited all the time.  I have failed you as well as myself.  I won't hold it against you if you eject now.

 

 

 

Okay, you stayed.  There are some real good parts of this deck.  Most notably I got good landcyclers (the two Canyon Crawlers with Bebop) and raise-dead-effects with Vanille, Unbury, and the super lucky last pick of Fight On!  Here's the... uhhh... four color deck I built:

It does look a lot like decks I normally build.  Despite the colors, there is no happy glint in my eye.

As I got up to sit down against my first round match-up, I asked (to no one in particular): "Are we doing single-game rounds or normal matches?"  I didn't get a response from the no one I was addressing, but I didn't wait very long.  "Normal matches, I think." I responded.

All my friends I was engaged in conversation with are just out of frame. 

 

In the first round I was up against an opponent who was running Ink-Treader (WURG).  In the first game, they played Jem Lightfoote and put me in a bad position.  I was able to keep them from drawing a ton of cards with it, but that meant they were instead playing big threats on their turn.  I did not survive those threats.

In the second game, my opponent was stuck on Azorius colors, but I was simultaneously stuck on three lands.  They chugged out of the trap first and started playing efficient threats.  I got Omega late in the game, which might have got me back into competition, but it got Petrified.  0-1.

At this point we found out the other groups were just doing single-game rounds.  Oops!  We didn't finish that much later than the other two groups, but... oops.

In the second round I was up against Bant "Farquaad of Duloc".  They played a turn three Brigid, Clachan's Heart, into a different (Tempest) Hart.  I was on the back foot most of this game, and played Omega on their Swiftwing Assailant as I didn't have any flying blockers.  Late in the game I actually used the cycling ability on Migration Path and flavorfully drew into Migrating Ketradon, which was much-needed support.  In addition to the Omega and Ketradon, I played both Canyon Crawlers and won off of them and their delicious food.  1-1.

At this point the jig was up as the store was closing.  It has been over a week and I have not yet taken apart the deck.  (Mostly because I got to do a bunch of other Magic events and I just kept these cards together.)  If I get in another match, I'll update the post here.  Otherwise, I'll try to add an update when I take the deck apart.  I am kind of hoping for that second one, just so the shame of my failure can end.

Happy Non-Fraudulent Magicking to you! 

Wacky Worlds 2026: A Sealed Journey

Some friends of mine used to run Wacky Worlds, which was an event where they held a bunch of wacky-style magic events.  I never attended one, but I still asked whether now, far in the distant future, I could reuse the name for my own purposes.  I got the green light.

So, here we go!  Wacky Worlds 2026: A Sealed Journey is on!  The basic idea is that players will build a sealed deck and use it in different wacky events, earning points.  The player who earns the most points over the course of the day wins a small prize.

One of the reasons I like to run drafts is because I dislike opening packs without "using" them in some way.  There are some packs that don't really afford opening for drafts (e.g. Collector Boosters) so this is a venue for them to get used.

This post will act as the official Wacky Worlds resource.  I will make updates as necessary.   

 

General Rules:

• Wacky Worlds is taking place on Saturday, June 13.  
  
  
• Players can arrive as early as 10am and cannot start a new game after 8pm.  
  
  
• Players must wait to open their packs at the event.  They are allowed to bring their own packs (as normal) or get them from me (as normal).  
  
  
• I will have land and sleeves available for players to use.
  
  
• There are sevent different event options: Face the Hydra, Battle the Horde, Defeat a God, Ravnica: Clue, Planechase Eternities Map, Kingdom, and Explorers of Ixalan.  These are all described below.  
  
  
• Players must make a good-faith effort to finish every game.  (E.g., players should not concede a game against a horde deck just because they're in a disadvantageous position.)
   
• If a player is eliminated from a game but they still have a teammate in the game, they should not start a new game.  Otherwise, it is okay to join a new game with other players.
  
  
• For their sealed pool, players are allowed to use six packs of booster packs, collector boosters (up to 15 cards), draft boosters, set boosters, Jumpstart boosters, and play boosters.  There are some special cases:  (I expect I'll be adding to this list.)
• Homelands, Fallen Empires, Assassin's Creed Beyond, and March of the Machine: The Aftermath Epilogue and Collector Booster packs each count as a half of a pack. 
• Starter Deck and Tournament Deck packs each count as three packs. 
• Ravnica: Clue (Jumpstart) packs each count as two packs.
• UPDATE (June 5, 2026): Commander booster packs each count as 1.5 packs.  (This includes packs of Commander Legends, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, and Commander Masters.)
  
  
• Players who compete in at least six different event formats earn three bonus points.
  
  
• Players who open six different packs from six different sets earn six bonus points.
  
  
• Players can compete in the same event multiple times, but they can only score points equal to the number of boxes for that event on the score sheet.  If a player participates in an event more than that many times but gets a higher score, they can replace one of their prior scores.

 

Score Sheet.  The image above links to the pdf.

Face the Hydra:  

• This format supports one to four players.  
  
  
• I have one physical set of these cards for players to use.  If a second group wants to play, they can play using this site.  (I have one iPad that a group can use.)  I think the site is pretty correct.  
  
  
• If the players win, they earn points based on the number of players and number of starting Hydra Heads. 

 

Battle the (Minotaur) Horde: 

• This format supports one to four players. 
  
  
• I have one physical set of cards for players to use.  If a second group wants to play, they can do so using this site.  (I still only have one iPad that groups can use.)  I think the site is pretty correct.  
  
  
• If the players win, they earn points based on the number of players and base number of spells the horde casts each turn.   

 

Defeat a God: 

• This format supports one to four players.
  
  
• I have one physical set of cards for players to use.  If a second group wants to play, they can do so using this site.  (Guess how many iPads I have.)  I think this site is pretty correct.
  
  
• If the players win, they earn points based on the number of revelers Xenagos starts with.  
  
  
• This format is considered more difficult than the other two "horde decks" so the point values for winning are higher. 

 

Ravnica: Clue: 

• This format supports three to five players.  
  
  
• I have three sets of clue cards for players to use, or a group can use this site.  I'm confident that this site works fine.
  
  
• Players start with 25 life.
  
  
• We will use the rule that combat-damage-based suggestions are made at the end of the combat phase.  
  
  
• Players get one point for participating.  The winner gets four points instead. 
  
  
• Before any player makes an accusation, they must wait for all other living players to write down one guess for the solution.  Do not look at the envelope until everyone has written down their guess.  If the accusation is correct, then any living players who guessed correctly earn two points instead of one.

 

Planechase Eternities Map: 

• This format supports two to four players.
  
  
• I have one set of planechase cards for a group to use.  I do not have all the Universes Beyond planes, but I have a lot of them!
  
  
• If a player moves to a Phenomenon card, then the card resolves and then the group moves to a new plane, which replaces the Phenomenon on the map.
  
  
• Players get one point for participating.  The winner gets four points instead. 
  
  
• If a player is still alive after the game moves to a sixth plane, then that player earns two points if they don't win instead of one. 

 

Kingdom: 

• This format supports five players at a time.
  
  
• I have one set of cards that a group can use.  Players can also use this site, which is phone-friendly.  (Enough, anyways.)  This site definitely works.   
  
  
• We are not using the original Kingdom cards (King, Knight, 2x Barbarian, Usurper).  This replaces the Usurper with one of four random cards.  All the roles are on the page linked above.
  
  
• Players get one point for playing.  The winner earns four points instead.
  
  
• If a losing player is still alive when the game ends, they earn two points instead of one. 

 

Explorers of Ixalan: 

• This format supports three to five players at a time.
  
  
• I have one set of tiles that a group can use.  There may be someone bringing a second set of tiles.  
  
  
• Players get one point for playing.  The winner earns three points instead.
  
  
• If a player flips over the tile with the Golden City, then they earn an additional point, whether or not they win. 

 

Grand Prize: 

The player that scores the most points wins a Quantum Riddler and a pack of Journey to Nyx.

Part value, part wackiness, and part matching the Theros-theme.

If two players are tied at the end of the day, because they have the same total sum of points, the tiebreaker will be the one with the higher product of their individual scores.  The second round tie breaker is... the player that played in more events.  If they're still tied... um... the winner is whoever played a card with the higher set number.  (I'm trying real hard not to have a deciding game/match in case one player left the premises earlier.)

 

I hope this answers all your questions!  Let me know if there's something else I need to rule on.  Check back here for updates.

Foundations Draft #3 or "Electroduplicate Doesn't Work with That" (WUBRG Drafting)

I made it out to Intergalactic Plastic's draft on Friday night where we drafted Foundations.  In wacky drafts, I'm never disappointed when I open Foundations, so I was excited to get another one in.  There were seven of us in total and the draft went pretty crazy.  A lot of really fun cards came around and I just kept picking them.  I tried a couple of different ideas, but didn't put together a real solid strategy.  Here were all my picks:

Heavy on Red tonight.

I really don't know whether I built well, but here's the deck I put together, "Electroduplicate Doesn't Work with That":

That empty sleeve is the second Electroduplicate, which I had already traded away before I took the picture.  If you want to predict how the rest of this will go, count the creatures that don't work well with Electroduplicate.

 

I realize there was an opportunity for me to use both Hare Apparents with the Electroduplicates, but that didn't come to me at the time.  Is that even good enough?  Maybe not.  The original build I had didn't include both Electrodominances, nor both Shivan Dragons, but this is how it was at the end of the night.  

In the first round I was matched up against "Go Wide Gruul".  I started off the first game with a Fanatical Firebrand and Gleaming Barrier in the first two turns.  My opponent played the first real threat, however, with a Squad Rallier on turn four, followed by a Helpful Hunter.  I cast Kykar, Zephyr Awakener, who doesn't work well with Electroduplicate because it's legendary.  My opponent fished up a Skyknight Squire with the Squad Rallier, and I had to use my Fanatical Firebrand to take it out before it got to be too big of a problem.  They played an Elfsworn Giant, I responded with a Shivan Dragon, but they had Bite Down to take care of that as well as a Banishing Light for Kykar.  We alternated two more creatures each: Angel of Finality from me, a kicked Gnarlid Colony from them, my Spinner of Souls (which Electroduplicate doesn't work well), then their Felidar Savior.  They attacked and I got my Juggernaut in hand from Spinner of Souls and a creature's death.  I played the Juggernaut and Wardens of the Cycle (Electroduplicate doesn't combo with this because the tokens die too late to trigger the Wardens' morbidity) but they got Guarded Heir and then Condemned my Juggernaut on the following turn.  I also cast Tatyova, Benthic Druid (legendary; Electroduplicate doesn't work with it) which they followed up with Cackling Prowler.  I played an Island and drew into Bulk Up.  I had plenty of mana to cast it twice, but they were at 14 and only my Angel of Finality would be able to get in safely.  Instead I cast my Icewind Elemental and drew Ghalta (Electroduplicate doesn't work with it).  With only the Ghalta and Bulk Up in hand, I decided to discard the Bulk Up.  I had enough on the board that I could cast Ghalta for GG.

I think this is the first time I've ever cast a Ghalta for GG.

They played more blockers, but on my next turn I swung in.  They threw a ton at the Ghalta to stay alive, but I still bulked it up and traded with a small army.  

I think these were the best blocks.

I won the following turn with my fliers.

In game two, I got my Gleaming Barrier down on turn two again and my opponent played a Mossborn Hydra immediately.  I played Spinner of Souls, they played Prideful Parent, and then I Imprisioned the Hydra in the Moon.  They played the Guarded Heir and then the Squad Rallier, which I Banished in the Light.  I played my Mild-Mannered Librarian, they played Gnarlid Colony (kicked) and then the next turn their Felidar Savior and the next turn their Sun-Blessed Healer.  They attacked and I was far behind.  I played Ruby (Electroduplicate doesn't work with that), my Shivan Dragon, and Bushwhacked their Felidar Savior all in one turn.  Nevertheless, they attacked and killed me in two more turns.

We were short of time for the third game, so we played much more quickly and I didn't take great notes.  They got the Sun-Blessed Healer out on turn two and never let up.  We went to time but I died only a few turns in.  0-1.

In round two, I was matched up against "Slow Dimir", which was packed with value.  In the first game, I got Ruby out on turn two and swung in a bunch while they used Pilfers to make me discard first my Gleaming Barrier, then Kykar.  I had black cards in hand, but no swamps.  They played Mischievous Mystic on turn four, but I drew into a swamp on turn five and killed it with Tragic Banshee.  (Without flash, the Banshee doesn't combo with Electroduplicate because you can't use the token dying for the morbid.)  The Banshee did work well with Ruby, who started swinging in for more damage.  My opponent played a Dreadwing Scavenger and later Gutless Plunderer, but I was able to keep the pressure on to win.

In game two, my opponent Pilfered my Spinner of Souls on turn two.  I dropped Fanatical Firebrand and then the Mild-Mannered Librarian.  Starting on their turn five they played Soul-Shackled Zombie, then I played Icewind Elemental, then they cast Billowing Shriekmass, thankfully without threshold.  I Electroduplicated the Icewind Elemental (that does work!), swung in, then played Kellan, Planar Trailblazer (Electroduplicate doesn't work with him.)  My opponent played Fleeting Distraction, then Think Twice to give themselves threshold.  I played Kykar and upgraded Kellan but couldn't safely attack.  My opponent played Abyssal Harvester, which threatened to be a real problem.  I cast Electrodominance on the Icewind Elemental again and had a big attack, holding Bulk Up in my hand.  My opponent Pilfered it, then used the Harvester to bring back the Soul-Shackled Zombie.  Thankfully I had enough air support to fly in for the win.  1-1.

In the third round I was up against Golgari "Sacrificial Elves".  Back in the drafting phase, I took an Elvish Archdruid, which they had really wanted to wheel.  (We played much faster this round, so my notes are not as thorough!)  I started game one off well with Mild-Mannered Librarian into Gleaming Barrier, but my opponent dropped their own Mossborn Hydra on turn four.  I dealt with it, but late and they amassed enough other strength to take me out.

Prior to the round starting, my opponent told me they already knew what they were going to side in and got those cards ready.  They added blue, complete with four islands!  The plan worked and the added value really showed up.

I did not keep up.

1-2.

This was not a great showing for me but I still really like this draft format.  I'm still over 500 in Foundations drafts at 5-4.  Other than that, I'm not sure what other lessons I should take away.  

Nevertheless, I had a great time!  I hope I'll get to draft Foundations again.

Happy Magicking, even if Electroduplicate doesn't work with what you're running!  

The Clues Come Together in the Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

I got a group together for a five-player Clue draft last night.  We decided to play starting at 25 life, though we forgot about that until after the game had started.  I actually think 20 would have been fine.  Here's how it all went down.

We had a real good mix of packs for this Wacky Draft:

We had already divvied out the Clue cards.

With five players you reveal and remove three of the room cards before you deal out the Clue cards to all players.  I was dealt Emissary Green, Mastermind Plum, and the Kitchen.  (I didn't start filling out my sheet yet because I like to put the players in turn order.  I waited and then almost forgot to do it afterwards.)

During drafting I did pay attention to mana fixing, but I also had some other priorities.  I pulled Homunculus Horde in pack two, so I looked for ways to draw extra cards and get that trigger.  I also dipped into some life gain combos after getting Pest Mascot later on in that pack.  I got real lucky with vivid cards, though, including the second-to-last pick of Wildvine Pummeler.  Good mana fixing came around late too, including the Bebop and Entish Restoration.  Here were all my picks:

Sadly I didn't get enough Legends to make the Delighted Halfling a powerhouse.

I made cuts pretty quickly and put this deck together.

I had to run the Ruinous Ultimatum, right?

I rolled to go last.  Against me were:

• P1 playing "American Robots" 
• P2, running "Orzhov Othello"
• P3 on "Azorius Merfolk", and
• P4 with a defensive Jeskai build.

In the first round of turns, P2 cast Dream Beavers to get the only creature on the board.  

In the second round, P1 played Knowledge Seeker, an excellent card for the format.   P2 cast Sanguine Syphoner and then hit P3 with their Beavers.  They guessed Apothecary White, Knife, and Ballroom.  P3 passed.  The case was on!  I ended the round by casting my Delighted Halfling.

On their third turn, P1 played Flaring Cinder, immediately buffing their Knowledge Seeker, which they sent at me.  I didn't want to lose my Halfling yet, so I took the three.  They guessed the same trio: White, Knife, and Ballroom.  I had to pass.  P2 kept up the attack on their turn and hit P4 and me, guessing Green, Candlestick, and Billiard Room.  I gulped, but P4 revealed a card first so Emissary Green was safe in my hand.  P3 cast Farfinder, P4 cast Brazen Scourge (but didn't attack!), and I cast my Homunculus Horde.  

P1 started the fourth round by playing Gathering Stone, naming Warrior, and immediately getting a card off of it.  (I don't remember what it was.)  Then they hit me with the Knowledge Seeker again, guessing Mustard, Pipe, and the Library.  I passed again, but I had already leaked a ton of information.  P2 attacked and snuck in Oroku Saki to hit P3 and P1.  They guessed Scarlett, Wrench, and Secret Passage.  P3 showed a card.  P3 hit P2 back and guessed everyone's favorite: White, Knife, and Ballroom.  P2 passed.  P3 then dropped a Chitinous Graspling.  P4 also hit P2 and guessed Green, Pipe, and Billiard Room.  P2 passed again.  Then they dropped Tanufel Rimespeaker.  The tide had turned away from me, but I played Dreadwing Scavenger and my Homunculus got a copy, expecting I might get a target from that.  P2 still had lots of life and I could get through on them, so I joined in on the dog pile.  I guessed Peacock, Rope, and Kitchen; P2 passed.  

Somewhere in turn four.

P1 played Oreplate Pangolin on their fifth turn.  P2 cast Leering Onlooker and then hit P3 and P1 again.  They guessed Mustard, Rope, and Kitchen, and P3 showed a card.  P3 played Mondo Gecko but couldn't swing in safely.  P4 cast Kavaron Skywarden and also held off.  (We knew nothing about their hand yet!)  I attacked with my bird, which doubled my Homunculuses to 4.  I hit P1 and guessed Plum, Wrench, and Study.  He showed me the Wrench.  I played Larval Scoutlander and tapped three of my Homunculuses and the Halfling to immediately fully station it.  Although I had picked up the Archenemy mantle, P4 was still way ahead on relative Clue-knowledge.

On the sixth turn, P1 played Hovel Hurler and Burdened Stoneback.  They attacked but didn't get through.  The Gathering Stone had been packing their graveyard, however, so they were able to Collect Evidence 6 and made a guess on everyone: Scarlett, Candlestick, and Conservatory.  P2 passed, but P3 revealed a card.  P2 cast Bile-Vial Boggart and Dream Seizer, then hit P1.   They guessed Peacock, Wrench, and Study.  P1 showed a card (maybe the Wrench?)  P4 cast Tablet of Discovery and continued to hold back.  I realized I couldn't just keep doubling my Homunculuses or everyone would start swinging in to me.  I attacked, but sent some of my horde to their death so that I was attacking everyone.  They still doubled at the beginning of combat.  Out of all the attacks, I only hit P1.  I guessed White, Pipe, and Kitchen.  P1 passed.  I cast Squawkroaster and Foraging Wickermaw and ended the turn with six Homunculuses.  I also had lands to generate two white, one red, and one black (among other colors).  There's no reason that's important.

At this point people were talking about being close to solving the murder.  I did not feel that way.  I don't know if that's because I was too busy taking notes and not analyzing the situation, but there was still a lot of empty space on my sheet.  I had deduced very little.

The seventh round of turns started and P1 dropped Sourbread Auntie and then Collected Evidence 6 again and guessed White, Pipe, and Library.  P2 immediately showed them a card.  P2 continued the gravy train and also Collected Evidence 6 to guess Plum, Pipe, and Lounge.  P3 and P4 passed so I had to show Mastermind Plum to P2.  I took my treasure token.  P3 played Honorbound Page then hit P2 and guessed Mustard, Wrench, and Secret Passage.  P2 showed a card.  P4 played Stone of Erech, really good at slowing down players using their graveyards to make guesses.  They cast Temporal Cleansing on my bird, ending my combo with the Homunculus Horde (I put it second from the top) and finally Collected Evidence 6 themselves to guess White, Knife, and Kitchen.  I showed them the Kitchen and took another treasure token.  White, White, Red, Black, Foraging Wickermaw for another Red and then my two treasures: I cast the Ruinous Ultimatum that had been in my hand all game.  P4 immediately used the Stone of Erech against me, dumping my graveyard.  With a clean board, I hit everyone with creatures.  I guessed White, Rope, and Secret Passage.  P1 passed and P2 showed me the Secret Passage.  I ended my turn, but everyone was still at above ten life.  I didn't want to kill anyone because I figured I would lose the Clue battle.

The unexpected downside of that play was that everyone now had a full graveyard.  To start off the eighth round, P1 Collected Evidence 6 for Mustard, Candlestick, and Lounge.  P2 showed a card right off the bat.  P2 killed my Scoutlander and then Collected Evidence 6 for Green, Wrench, and Study.  P3 passed but P4 showed a card, saving me from having to reveal Emissary Green.  P3 also Collected Evidence 6, guessing White, Candlestick, and Study.  P4 showed another card.  P4 cast Kinbinding and also Collected Evidence 6 for White, Pipe, and Ballroom.  Pass, pass, pass... pass.  Thankfully there was a bluff in there.  They spent their accusation and guessed White, Pipe, and Billiard Room.  The checked the envelope... incorrect!  I took my turn and played the Dreadwing Scavenger again to put my Homunculus count to 12.  I was pretty confident about Apothecary White and the Pipe, but I didn't know between the Ballroom, Lounge, and Study.  (I should have been able to rule out the Ballroom, but I didn't realize that yet.)  I didn't think many people knew that I held Mastermind Plum, so I hit everyone with creatures to guess Plum, Pipe, and Lounge.  (I didn't have a weapon to cover up that guess.)  All four of my opponents passed!  It was the Lounge.  I accused White, Pipe, Lounge, and was correct.  I won!

I know I got lucky in this game.  I got the Scavenger with the Horde at just the right time so I could start doubling them.  If I hadn't had all those Homunculuses, I couldn't have been attacking to make two wide guesses at the end.  I also got super lucky with the two treasures right in time to cast the Ultimatum.  Finally, I got lucky that things lined up so I could solve the murder right at the end.  

It sounded like if I hadn't won, it would have been won by any of the next three players.  Whew!

Here are my takeaways:

• I think 20 life is probably best with five players.  No one was in any danger of losing to life loss, which might have been different if we'd all had 20 instead of 25.  I still like 25 for four players and I'm not sure for three players.
• We didn't make any mistakes this time!  The last two clue drafts had had a mistake on each of them, which changed who won.  I'm not sure what we did that prevented an issue this time.  I said at the beginning that I wanted to be very deliberate with resolving guesses, but I'm not sure I actually did anything to slow us down and be more careful.
• On that note, it was really helpful that I was taking notes about each guess.  Many times people asked me what had just been asked.   
• This is my favorite format and I don't know why.  I like big multiplayer games, but why this Clue thing specifically?  I'm not even particularly good at the Clue part!  I think it's because the game doesn't go too long and anyone can pull out a win in the end.  It also does work really well with chaos drafting.

Happy Magicking and Murder-solving! 

Two-Player Sealed vs Minotaur Horde and Xenagos Revel (WUBRG Sealed)

A friend and I got together on Tuesday afternoon to try our hand against two Theros-block horde decks and test out my web implementations of them.  (I did find some errors I haven't fixed yet, so I won't link to those quite yet.) 

We decided to open more recent packs, so we each cracked three packs of Murders at Karlov Manor and Outlaws of Thunder Junction.  Here's what I opened:

I shouldn't have left the lands in front.  I don't know why I did that.

I built this deck from those cards.  I kept the curve really low because my experience is that you either lost in the first few turns or survive long enough to mount a comeback.  Let me know what I could have done better!

There was enough fixing that I was okay, even with only three multi-lands.

We played five games.  I didn't take many notes about what was going on during those games, mostly because unlike normal games of magic, I didn't really have any "down time" where I wasn't actively talking with my teammate.

We played two games against the Battle the (Minotaur) Horde deck.   In the first game, we let the Horde deck play three cards per turn instead of the normal two.  (The instructions say to modify the number of free turns the players get to adjust the difficulty, but I wanted to tinker with this instead.)  We were able to win easily on turn 9 or 10.  In the second game, we bumped that up to four and still won around turn 8, again without problem.  Maybe the right thing to do is to change the number of turns the players get.  

At this point, we switched to the Xenagos deck.  I had just played against the physical cards on Friday, and immediately the rules we had come up with came into question, namely:

• Players share a 20-point life total, and
• If a creature is blocked by one player, it is blocked for all players.

The reason we came to the shared life total is due to this old MTGSalvation thread that seems to be the best thing to a ruling I found online.  It describes a situation where the player team has two players and is dealt eight damage by Xenagos's Strike instead of just 4.  

This format is extremely hard.  I had been trying on my own the day before and couldn't beat the deck even when it started with only one reveler on the board.  On Friday we had some really good decks, but we were only able to beat it in twice in five tries.  The good news is that the games can go really quickly when you're losing.  

For the two of us on this day, we first tried against two revelers.  We lost on turn two.  We tried again with only one reveler and died on turn five.  Oof.  We had no real chance in either of those games.

We modified the rules to give ourselves a fighting chance:

• We had separate life totals, but
• We still said that when a creature was blocked it damaged none of the players.  Unblocked creatures hit all players, just like in Cutthroat blocking.  

We started with just one reveler on the board with Xenagos.  This time we managed to survive through the most dangerous turns and then stabilize our life total.  We won around our turn ten, but it was still tough.

I'm really torn about how I want to play against this deck.

• On the one hand, sharing a life total seems to be the way it's meant to play, as the MTGSalvation thread quotes from the old Daily MTG article.  Unfortunately, it just does not scale.  If there are four players, Xenagos can easily kill the table on the first turn.  And even at one player, the format is extremely difficult.  
• On the other hand, with separate life totals and cutthroat blocking, we won, but the game did turn into a bit of a slog.  

I'm going to have to test more.  I wonder whether there's another (smaller) change that can make the multiplayer game work better.

However you decide to fight Xenagos, Happy Magicking!

Store Draft became a Team vs Hordes Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I went to a Secrets of Strixhaven draft last night that didn't fire; we only had three and needed six.  The two other players are common players in this blog, so we discussed what to do.  I was lucky and had brought some extra supplies: Ravnica Clue, three extra packs in case there was a post-draft chaos draft (Ikoria, Foundations, and Strixhaven) and the three Theros Horde decks.  I needed all three of those to do what we did!

We did a team draft against the Horde decks.  We first opened a jumpstart pack each (revealing to each other what the title card was) and then drafted the three packs.  However we made a slight (but important) change to the drafting process: we made two picks instead of one after opening a pack; so only replacing the first pick.  Importantly, we agreed we wouldn't collude after revealing the title cards of the jumpstart packs.  Here's what we opened:

I'm glad I brought those three packs and that I brought my Clue box.  (That has assorted Jumpstart packs in it.)

Here's what it looked like when we revealed the Jumpstart title cards:

Let's go team monkeys!

I have no experiencing drafting in a way that benefits my teammates without colluding... but I made at least one good choice in the beginning.  My friends figured I would be WUBRG drafting, so they were nice about passing mana fixing.  I opened Lutri and passed it, which the Adept player picked up.  I did not know that they had also opened Iroh, Grand Lotus in his first pack, so they were ready to go spellslinger.  I made another good choice and passed them a Tolarian Terror from the second pack.  I saw that Boros cards were getting taken, so I let those go through too.  On the other hand, I saw lots of black cards weren't getting taken, so I took a bunch from that.  I think I would have been much better at this if I had any skill in reading and sending signals in packs.  

Here are all my picks and the spells from the first pack:

I don't think I've ever owned a Kibo before!

Here's the deck I built from those cards:

I am certain I don't receive enough criticism of my deckbuilding.

That is the deck I used against the Minotaurs and Xenagos.  For the Hydra, I had some 3-drop 3/3s (apparently these are "centaurs") instead of some of the anti-artifact apes like Uktabi Orangutan.  I ran Kraul Whipcracker because we looked up and saw that the horde creatures count as tokens, but I can't find where we determined that.  (I'll update here if I find it.)

We played nine games.  We played pretty fast, so I didn't take notes of the different plays during the games, only the results of each.

The three decks are similar in some ways and very different in others.  I won't go into great detail in how each of them works, but I will mention the differences in similar stats (and how we modified them as we played).  I am very interested in how to modify these for various situations and difficulties!

Face the Hydra

This is the horde-precon I am most familiar with, having played against it once many years ago and then multiple times recently.  In this one:

• The players have separate life totals.
• The horde creatures do not actually attack the players.
• The base number of starting creatures is 2.
• The deck plays one card per turn.
• The players go first (but don't draw) and the horde goes directly afterwards. 
• The players attack the creatures instead of the deck directly. 

In game one we played against three heads.  We won handily on turn four.  In game two we started against four heads and won on turn six.  These games were easier than I expected; I thought we would have a harder time.  Since we'd won two, we moved on.

Battle the (Minotaur) Horde

I am second-most familiar with this one having played against it on my own a few times a few days prior.  This plays more like the Zombie Horde deck that presumably inspired all of these "official horde" decks.  Against this deck:

• The players share a life total.
• The horde creatures do attack the players.
• There are no starting creatures.
• The deck starts off playing two cards per turn, but that can increase over the course of the game.
• The players go first (don't draw on the first turn) and then get two additional setup turns before the horde takes their first turn. 
• The players attack the deck directly. 

In game one we played with the horde playing three cards per turn.  We got real lucky with the horde's plays and won on our sixth turn.  In the second game we had the horde start playing right after our first turn and still played three cards per turn.  We won on turn nine.

Defeat a God 

I had never played against this deck before.  It takes interesting parts of the other two, but there are a few areas that aren't 100% clear.  Since the horde creatures attack the players, it seems like the players should share a life total (or use cutthroat blocking rules).  However, there are also spells like Xenagos's Strike that deal damage to each player, which makes it seem like the players should have separate totals like against the Hydra.  In the end, we read an old mtgsalvation thread that convinced us to have a single life total, but damage-each-player spells scaled up in a scary way.  It was real easy for us to die out of nowhere.  Here are the stats for this as we played it:

• The players share a life total.
• The horde creatures do attack the players (though not every turn).
• There are two starting creatures.
• The deck plays two cards per turn. 
• The players go first (don't draw) and then the horde deck goes.
• The players attack the creatures, not the deck.

In the first game we didn't do the multiplayer rules correctly, and we flipped three cards instead of two per turn, losing on turn 4.  (Two of us died the prior turn.)  In game two (sharing a life total) and only flipping two per turn, we won on turn five.  This one showed how crazy things could be as we lost 15 life on Xenagos's first turn.  In game three we also flipped three cards per turn and lost on turn three.  In game four we had the deck ramp up to three cards, so they played one (on turn 1), two (on turn 2), then three every turn thereafter.  They killed us on turn four.  For the fifth game we did the same thing and pulled out a win on turn 6.  Against Xenagos, it seems like the best plan each turn is to attack and kill as many of their creatures as possible, even if you're putting yourself in danger of getting hit back.  With Impulsive Return, if you have multiple players you can just die out of nowhere.

This was incredibly fun!  I would like to figure out "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard" settings for each deck with different numbers of players (assuming sealed decks, not exactly what we did) but I'm not sure where to put that now.  Xenagos might be the most interesting in that you don't need to scale it up for different numbers of players.

If you have experience with these decks, please tell me what you've done, especially if it would make things better!  Happy Horde Magicking!