Hobbit Prerelease (WUBRG Sealed)

Sadly, I can't title this one WUBRG Wargs!  

I went to a Hobbit prerelease last night at my FLGS Intergalactic Plastic.  Here's what I opened:

Not pictured: the Azog, Moria's Ruin "promo" that I got and forgot about until the end of deckbuilding.

I really struggled with deckbuilding here.  It's harder in sealed than in drafts; the card pool is much larger yet I have less fixing than I generally pull from drafts.  It's harder to get all five colors to work, as you'll see here.  Here's the deck I had at the end of the night, though the original version was much different:

Most importantly, I cut the Crude Bent Blades because the sacrficing seemed really bad with a bunch of Enchanted River's Grasps.

In the first round I was matched up against an opponent at their second prerelease.  Despite their newness, they had a great grasp of how good their cards were.  (I would call their Mardu deck "Seek the Smaug".)  I played Giant's Boulder (which is an absolutely amazing card for everything I'm trying to do) and they played Nori, Teller of Tales on turn two.  I followed that up with Dáin Ironfoot and then they played The Arkenstone's adventure, Seek the Heart, to tutor up Smaug the Magnificent.  I spent turn four playing Ragged Short Spear and Ravening Warg, but they dropped Smaug, hit me, and it was clear I was in trouble.  I attached the spear to the Warg on the next turn and swung in with the Ferocious trigger and double strike on both my creatures.  I followed that up with Goblin Plate Mail, so I wasn't out of it yet.  They played Sting, Bilbo's Sword on their fifth turn to take the tide back, then Fearsome Goblin Pair, which is a great card.  On my sixth turn I attacked with both creatures and probably shouldn't've.  After they hit me again, I drew for my turn and scooped.

In the second game, I played Old Thrush on turn two and got jealous when they played Thror's Map.  I passed and they cast Dain, Lord of the Iron Hills.  Thankfully I had The Chief Warg on the next turn.  They followed that up with Dwarven Shortsword.  I played Azog, Moria's Ruin (who, you'll notice, is not in the final version of the deck) and sacrificed my thrush to get a goblin army and a card.  My opponent played Iron Hills Stalwart.  On turn six, I played Giant's Boulder, Ravening Warg, and Enchanted River's Grasp on the Stalwart.  They dropped Ori, Keeper of Songs and the board was pretty well gummed up at that point.  On their next turn, they Stirred Up Trouble, to kill my Ravening Warg.  On turn eight, I played The Black Arrow and equipped my Chief Warg to attack and get the Ferocious bonus card.  They cast Seek the Heart to go get Smaug, cast him, and attacked.  Thankfully, I had another Enchanted River's Grasp, which I locked Smaug down with next turn.  I also attacked with (my) Dain and played Guardian of the Halls.  My opponent played Bilbo's Deadly Slice to kill (my) Dain on their turn, but on the next turn I was able to cast Thranduil, the Elvenking and keep attacking.  My opponent played the Arkenstone and Sting, but Thranduil was big enough that I won.

For game three, my opponent wanted to be on the draw.  I got the Ragged Short Spear out on turn two.  They played their own Old Thrush.  I played Ravening Warg and they cast The Mountain King's Return, another cool card, and smartly discarded Fearsome Goblin Pair to it.  I played Ravenhill Flock on turn four.  I play Toothy in EDH (the deck is called "Pir and Toothy go to the Library") so I know how good those draw for counters creatures are.  They got their Goblin Pair the next turn and then immediately Stirred Up Trouble, sacrificing it to kill my Ravening Warg.  With three mana left, they--you guessed it---Seeked the Heart to get Smaug.  I played The Chief Warg on my next turn and they played The Arkenstone.  (They were missing a second red source for Smaug!)  I played Thranduil, Sindarin Liege and made a bad attack, losing my Chief Warg.  They couldn't cast Smaug, but they did have Head of the Hunt, which is really good.  Two turns later, at the beginning of turn eight, Turns were called and I cast Stone-Giant of High Pass.  My opponent had never gone to turns before, so I explained it.  On their turn (Turn 1) they played Thror's Map to get a mountain and summon Smaug and attack.  On my next turn (Turn 2) I attacked well and then killed two creatures with the Stone-Giant's ability.  I foolishly didn't take out the Head of the Hunt first and my opponent got two wolf tokens.  My opponent attacked back on Turn 3 but didn't take me out.  With my beefy Ravenhill Flock and the Stone-Giant, I swung in, put them at four, then sacrificed the new wall to hit them for lethal.  1-0.

In round one, my opponent had played Smaug each game.  In round two, I was up against a Golgari "Fierce and Ferocious" deck, piloted by someone who often drafts with me.  I went first, but they played a Nighthowl Pursuer on turn one that would wind up doing me a bunch of damage.  I played Old Thursh on turn two and they played Troop of Ponies, the second 2-drop colorless card that made me jealous.  They sacrificed it to ramp on turn three.  On turn four I drew and played a second Old Thrush, which they outclassed on their turn with Beorn the Fierce.  Thankfully I had an Enchanted River's Grasp for it on turn five.  They spent turn five playing two Crude Bent Blades that killed both of my Thrushes.  

Bye bye, birdies.

On turn six I cast Gandalf, Wandering Wizard and felt pretty good.  That confidence was misplaced because of a Little Bear.  That stupid little bear untapped Beorn, who attacked and with the power of a Reverent Howl slapped me down to 4 life, putting them to 27.  I played The Chief Warg and Ravening Warg the next turn.  They attacked again, putting me to 1 life.  I played Dain, Ironfoot, but on their turn they Stirred Up Trouble to limit by blockers.  I had nothing to do on turn nine and they attacked to kill me, with Smaug, Wicked Wurm in hand.  

In game two, Nighthowl Pursuer hit the board right away again.  Then I played Old Thrush.  They cast Wargling on their second turn, dispelling the deja vu, thankfully.  I had Dain Ironfoot on turn three and Ravenhill Flock on turn four before they flashed in Little Bear.  My opponent didn't give the ravens a chance to flock, though, and Quarreled it on their fourth turn.  After attacking, they were winning 13 to 16.  I played Goblin Plate Mail, and attacked but once again they played Beorn the Fierce.  That triggered all the ferocity and I went to 5 life.  I cast The Chief Warg, but it wasn't enough.  They used Beorn's ability (which we'd missed before) and it was all over.  1-1.

That round was very quick.  Thankfully my opponent was willing to play more.  They beat me in a third game with the deck (Beorn again!) and then borrowed another friend's deck to whip me a fourth time.  After that I made a bunch of changes to my deck to get the version pictured above.  In particular, they told me about the Thrandul, the Elvenking combo with Guardian of the Halls and Woodland Weavemaster, so I added the Weavemaster to the deck.  I had been having trouble figuring out what to keep in for White (my plans with equipment and dwarves hadn't really panned out) but my friend advised that I put An Unexpected Party in, which was a good call: even if I didn't get the second white source, the adventure was worth it.  

In round three, I was up against another skilled opponent that is a regular at Intergalactic Plastic, who was running a strong Mardu deck.  (This round was quite intense and my notes are sparse due to my concentration on the game, sorry!)  I again had Old Thrush on turn two.  The next play was on their turn four with Dwarven Provisioner.  I cast Thranduil, the Elvenking on turn five, but they had a Bilbo's Deadly Slice for it.  I recovered the next turn with Gandalf, Wandering Wizard.  They played Gollum, Silent Slinker and a Ravening Warg.  I played Guardian of the Halls, which they outclassed with Esgaroth Garrison.  The game dragged on, but I got out a second Elvenking and won with it.

In game two, I got hit early.  I went to 1 life against their 18, but I held on.  I got the Elvenking combo with both elves so I could pump it up.  Many times my opponent made a play that seemed like it would spell my demise, but I got around it on my turn.  I must have been at 1 for over five turns before I started to turn the game around and at least ten turns before I won.  (I think I won with the Stone-Giant this time.)  This was pretty criminal.  The probability I was going to win that game was vanishingly small and didn't tip to my side until the very end.  I got very lucky.  2-1.

2-1 is respectable, but that could have easily been 0-3.  I squeaked out round one, got mauled in round two, and then won round three on the smallest of life margins.  I-... oh, it's not time for the post-mortem yet because my friend wants to play a third game with me!

In bonus round four, I was up against the player who had helped me fix my deck up after round two.  They were running Simic, which I assumed meant Elves, but instead it was just lots of card draw.  They won in three games, and had multiple copies of good cards like Old Fat Spider Can't See Me, Bilbo Baggins, Burglar, and Lakeshore Apothecary.  I did not take notes and I'm not even sure how I won a game.  (They frequently read these posts, so maybe they'll chime in in the hard-to-use comments.)

This was officially a 2-1, kinda a 2-2, and something that was very close to a 0-4.  I really don't trust my sealed deckbuilding skills.  I hope I get some good comments about how I should have built my deck differently.  The one thing I realize is that I definitely should have run my Mirkwood Nurturers.  They would have worked great with many of the cards in my deck, including the Old Thrushes and the Ragged Short Spear.  With them it might have even been worthwhile to put the Crude Bent Blades in too!

No matter what, I had a really great time.  Happy Hobbit Magicking to you! 

Finding Thunder and Lightning in Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

Apparently Thor has been a Marvel villain a few times, such as during the Blood and Thunder storyline.  I had Lightning, Thunderbolts, and Villains in last night's draft, so maybe that was me.  I'm already way ahead of myself, though.  I got some people over and we drafted a bunch of fun packs:

Lots of Super Heroes and a mish-mash for everything else.

Here are all my picks:

A bit unfocused, but there's no way to be unhappy with this pile.

After taking The Dawning Archaic second, I pushed towards instants and sorceries spellslinger-style.  I took the Regal Leosaur to have more than just one Mutate creature.  In the second pack, I was thrilled to open Cosmic Cube and then saw Thunderbolts Conspiracy and figured I could work to make that happen.  I got a few more Villains and went deeper into Black in the rest of pack two and then even further in pack three.  Also in pack three, I tried to make Castle Doom work, but I decided in the end it wasn't worth it.  The other Archaic (Rancorous) was an obvious choice.  I took Labratory Maniac because I had a couple big draw spells (Boon of the Wish-Giver and Steal the Show) and if those went off twice with the Dawning Archaic, I might have a second win condition.  (The obvious flaw in that logic is that if the game goes that long, I should be winning anyways.)

Given all of that, here's villanous "Thor" deck that I built:

There are a lot of game winners in here.

That's a bit of a lie.  This isn't what I built right off the bat.  I started the night with Regal Leosaur in instead of the Barbed Bloodletter.  

Nevertheless, this deck seems like a winner.  We had planned to do a round robin, so there would be three rounds.  The curve is pretty low and reaching the late game will be good for me.  Can this deck of bombs go 3-0?  We paired up shuffled.

In the first round, I was up against an Izzet Flyers deck.  My opponent dropped a Goblin Assailant on turn two.  (I miss vanilla creatures.)  I had Lightning, Army of One in my hand, but no red source for a while, so it got in for some damage.   They played Iron Man, Master of Machines on turn four.  I flashed in Thunderbolts Conspiracy, but was still without creatures.  Thankfully, I drew into Firdoch Core and then was able to play Lightning on turn five.  They played Hawkeye's Bow and hit me again with Iron Man, putting me to 11 life.  On turn six, I couldn't safely get in with Lightning.  I had Stolen Stark Tech in my hand, but I elected to cast Rancorous Archaic with full converge instead.  Sadly, that got Temporally Cleansed and they also played Aerial Doombot.  On their attack I killed the Goblin Assailant.  I swung in with Lightning on turn seven, but then they played Goblin Assault Team and came in.  I animated my Core, blocked, and cast Stolen Stark Tech to keep it alive.  I made a big play mistake on the next turn and equipped the Stark Tech to Lightning.  Sadly, Iron Man had the Goblin's +1/+1 counter, so it blocked and safely killed Lightning.  I replayed the Rancorous Archaic, but my opponent had Frozen in Ice the next turn.  I passed on turn eight, but hit the Doombot with Zuko's Exile after they powered it up.  They attacked and I went down to 3 life.  They played First-Time Flyer.  I played Killmonger, Scourge of Wakanda, and took out Iron Man (byebye, Archaic) but they had enough to kill me in the air.  That's okay!  Maybe if I hadn't accidentally sent Lightning to her death, I would have pulled that off.

In game two, they had three good early turns with First-Time Flyer, Seize the Spoils, and Goblin Assault Team on turns two, three, and four, putting me to 14 real fast.  I played Oscorp Research Team, perfect for blocking the Goblins.  They dropped Ran and Shaw and I immediately hit that with Zuko's Exile on turn six.  They played Aang's Journey (that's a lesson) then swung in.  I confidently blocked with the Research Team.

Oof, Super Speed.

 

I wasn't out of it yet, though.  I cast Kang, Temporal Tyrant, who put in work for me all night.  Kang pales in comparison to Prismari, the Inspiration, which my opponent dropped next.  I had 9 life.  My opponent had nine flying power.  I cast Pull from the Grave to last another turn, but they played Vibranium Energy Daggers on their turn.  0-1.

Okay, maybe I lost because of a bad play mistake and because I couldn't deal with multiple dragons.  I'm still had a great deck with all kinds of bombs.  I shuffled up and played against my next opponent, running a Simic Clones, Life, and Counters deck.  They started off with a turn one Adventurous Impulse.  I played Lunatic Pandora on turn two.  (I am very curious about a strategy decision I made over and over: if I have a tap land and two basics in my hand, should I play a tap land on turn one or play the Lunatic Pandora?  I chose to play the land because I didn't feel like thinking about it.)  They followed that up with A.I.M. Synthoids.  I played Firdoch Core on turn three and then they played Hellcat, Undying Vigilante.  (I love the flavor of the name and ability.)  They cast Zimone's Experiment, which is a great card.  I dropped the Cosmic Cube on turn five and went to attack with an animated Firdoch Core on the next turn.  My opponent beat me to the punch, however, by flashing in Tigra and then Band Together to kill my Core before moving to attacks.  

No Cosmic Cube trigger for me!

They played Pterafractyl with five counters and I played Kang on my seventh turn.  I cast Pull from the Grave with no targets just to stay alive.  My opponent cast Omni-Changeling to get their own Kang and put me to 1 life.  I attacked on turn eight and got Killmonger from the Cube.  I was able to take out the Pterafractyl, but needed one more blocker to stay in the game.  That game seemed really close!

In game two, I got Lunatic Pandora out on turn two again.  My opponent played Shopkeeper's Bane, which combos great with their Tigra.  I played Oscorp Research Team on turn four, but they continued to attack in safely for a bit.  They played Zimone's Experiment again and got Flux Channeler and another clone: Spark Double.  I played a powered-up Ninja of the Hand and they played the Channeler.  They dropped a Savage Land Dinosaur (what an amazing card) and I sacrificed the Lunatic Pandora to take it out the next turn.  They played Tigra on their seventh turn, as well as Ant-Man's Army.  I mutated Snapdax onto my Ninja and killed the Shopkeeper.  They Omni-Changeling'ed the Snapdax.  They thankfully couldn't mutate it because the card doesn't have that ability, but they did still get my Snapdax's deathtouch, which was not how I thought mutate worked.  (I am bad with mutate rules.)  Then they used Spark Double to get another non-legendary but still deathtouching Snapdax.  Yikes!  On turn nine, I played Killmonger, sacrificed the Oscorp Research Team, and took out the Spark Double.  Finally, I had the initiative!  I played Cosmic Cube the next turn and attacked, hitting Airbending Lesson from the cube onto the Omni-Changeling.  I attacked again the next turn and got Kang.  I was now in a strong enough position that I was okay with the trade of the two Snapdaxes.  ("Snapdaxen"?)  They played Call Damage Control, but when they couldn't get both creatures back, they scooped.  

On to game thr-... Wait.  My opponent had a flash of insight.  What did I mutate Snapdax onto?  Ninja of the Hand?  That's a human!  You can't mutate onto a human!  (I am really bad with mutate rules.)  I cheated and I cheated bad!  (Not on purpose; I'm just dumb.)  Not only did I cheat, but it was pretty clear I wouldn't have won that game without the mutate trigger.  0-2.  (It was at this point that I went through my deck, counted up all the humans, and then sided out the Regal Leotaur.)

My round two opponent wanted to play a third game against me, since that second one had gone wonky, but the other pair had finished, so we moved on to the next round instead. 

Okay, round three.  My last chance to get a win.  Time to focus.  My opponent had built an aggressive nearly-mono white Boros deck, but maybe I could pull it out.  I played Lunatic Pandora on turn two and they played Feisty Spikeling, then Political Triumph on turn three.  I got Kang out on turn five, but they flashed in Flock Impostor and then played Anti-Venom on their turn.  Turn five!  Thankfully, I had a Zuko's Exile ready for it.  They played Pigment Wrangler on turn six and I played Ninja of the Hand and Domri's Ambush to take out the Wrangler before it could cast Striking Palette.  They flashed in Ambrosia Whiteheart and triggered the Political Triumph.  I had eight life, so I would be able to survive the next attack.  I attacked with Kang to get the trigger and the life, but they cast Spider-Man, to the Rescue to keep me from getting in.  Okay, I was still going to be able to survive the next attack.  I blocked Ambrosia with the Ninja because it could get bigger on future turns.

I chose incorrectly.

Avengers Assemble! took me out. 

Okay, alright, round three, game two.  This was now my last chance for a game win, not to mention trying to win a round.  My deck is so powerful.  This might be my worst match-up, but I do have a chance.  I played the Lunatic Pandora again, but this time on turn one.  My opponent played Political Triumph on turn one.  Then Valiant Rescuer on turn two.  Then Spider-Man, to the Rescue on turn three.  Then Daily Bugle Reporters on turn four.  They played S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier on turn five and I responded to it's entering ability with Zuko's Exile on the Political Triumph to try to stay alive.  

Cue Restoration Magic.

I stayed alive one more turn after that.  0-3.  0-6 in games.

I did squeeze in that bonus game with my round-two opponent and I did win.  They did not go easy on me (though they forgot to unsideboard and didn't have Zimone's Experiment) and even got out a combo with Tigra and Earth Kingdom General.  I stayed in the game with Thunderbolts Conspiracy and a bunch of villans, then I got the Dawning Archaic out and took over the game from there.  That game certainly doesn't officially count, though.

There have got to be some lessons here!  Here's what I'm taking away:

• I still need to read my cards carefully.  I've mentioned this before and somehow I continue to fail at this.  For example, I don't think I fully read Cosmic Cube all night.  Obviously, this also messed me up in the cheat-mutate game.
• I made a lot of other play mistakes.  That doesn't always come out in my recollection of events.  Not only did I make an unsafe attack, I also miscounted potential damage and creatures multiple times.  Someday I'll be a good magic player!
• This deck was hard to play.  There were so many things going on and there were some times where I had to make some risky choices.  (Do I attack while the cube is out and see what I get or do I need to do something else instead?)  
• Sometimes you're going to go 0-3.  It just happens.  It might be luck or bad play or bad deckbuilding or just that everyone built to beat you.  It doesn't matter.
• I had a great time.  Playing Magic is just fun.  Many of my games were really tight and I was hanging on in the margins (or not) for a while.  It's tough to be in that situation, but it's fun to figure out how to stay alive just one more turn.  Not only that, I got to play big splashy cards and even activate Cosmic Cube.  It's also great to watch your friends pull out big moments like winning off of Avengers Assemble that turn.
• It is good and fun to be dragged down to earth amidst your own hubris. 

Happy Magicking, whether you go 0-3 or 3-0!

Khans of Tarkir Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

One of my friends had a Khans of Tarkir box and got myself and ten more people together to do a draft last night.  With the twelve of us we used the entire box!  We split into two pods of six.  Here were all my pulls:

Only one tri-color land!

My three opponents winded up being the person furthest from me while drafting (of course; we were still using the Wizards tournament organizing software), the person drafting to my left (who had the box), and the person to my right.  Importantly, I opened Thousand Winds and didn't take it, thinking I might be able to be a bit aggressive with Monastery Swiftspear instead.  That was a bad choice, as I didn't draft enough spellslinging to make it happen.  Instead I went with playing Clay Spiders, especially after getting Secret Plans as my fourth pick.  Some additional considerations I had while drafting were:

• I had forgotten that Heart-Piercer Bow was in this set and wished I had seen more.  (I won a lot of Core 2020 drafts off the back of that card.)  
• I also really wanted to get some Mystic of the Hidden Ways, which I'd lost a lot to in the past, but I got none.  
• I chose against Efreet Weaponmaster a few times, picking any of the other five-to-flip morphers instead.  I realized after my experiences at Wacky Worlds this year that though it seems like a useful card, it is highly situational.

  Here's what I built with my pool:

I was convinced to kill someone with the Meandering Towershell!

In the first round I was up against an Abzan control deck.  In the first game, I played Heir to the Wilds on the second turn and my opponent answered with Kin-Tree Warden.  I played what might be the best counter to that: Heart-Piercer Bow.  When I attacked, I could target the Warden and my opponent had to tap mana to regenerate it, which would tap it and keep it from blocking.  All that played out that turn and I got in for damage.  I tried that again the next turn, but they cast Kill Shot to take out my Heir.   (I got Kill Shotted a lot last night.)  At least I got to have the bow's damage resolve on the Warden to kill it.  I played my first clay spider (Ponyback Brigade, face down).  On their fifth turn, they played Alabaster Kirin and I played a second Ponyback Brigade face down.  They played their own clay spider and I played my third Ponyback Brigade, still face down.  They cast a very scary Rakshasa Deathdealer and the board was properly gummed up.  The Alabaster Kirin continued to hit me, but I held on.  I drew both my board wipes: Death Frenzy and End Hostilities.  I kept flipping over my brigades, trying to maximize the value of my Death Frenzy, which would kill everything but the Kirin.  I wanted to wait one more turn, but it was one turn too long.  My opponent played one of the two Abzan Ascendancies they drafted and now all their creatures were big enough to survive.  I played End Hostility instead, which, of course, gifted them with five 1/1 spirits.  I had to cast the Death Frenzy the next turn.  My greed had cost me both board wipes instead of one.  However, in the aftermath I played Kheru Lich Lord and my opponent flooded out while I was able to win.

In the second game, my opponent got stuck on only two lands.  I played a turn one Lens of Clarity, which turned out to be really strong all night.  I don't think I've ever played with that card before!  They played the Kin-Tree Warden on their second turn and I played out my Secret Plans, then Heir of the Wilds, and then Seek the Horizon.  My opponent had a Highland Game on turn five, but scooped shortly after I played my Abzan Guide face down.  It's a bummer to win a match in this way.  1-0.

In the second round I was up against the provider of the packs for the draft themself and the person I had passed the most cards to.  They had built a swift Mardu soldiers deck, with many chiefs.  I played Heir of the Wilds on turn two, but they had a Chief of the Scale.  I did not want that to snowball, so I hit it with Suspension Field right away.  Unfortunately, they had Chief of the Edge on the next turn.  I spent my fourth turn playing Seek the Horizon, while they did this:

Oof.

Yeah, that's a Firehoof Cavalry (thankfully not a soldier), a Mardu Hordechief (definitely a soldier) and it's token friend.  The only silver lining is that they didn't play a fifth land for many turns.  I played the Dragon Throne of Tarkir, which turned out to be very helpful.  (I'm still not sure whether I should have been running the second one!  What could I have taken out for it?)  My opponent played Unyielding Krumar and then I cast Monastery Flock face up ready to block it.  My opponent cast a clay spider and on turn seven it was time for a big Death Frenzy.  Nevertheless, my opponent had a Timely Hordemate to get themselves back in the game.  I played a clay spider (Snowhorn Rider) with a very important five land up (WUBRG).  My opponent attacked and I blocked their chief, then flipped the Snowhorn Rider, which ate it.  They played Mardu Skullhunter and the next turn was able to take out my rider with a well-timed Swift Kick.  I got my Lens of Clarity and the game slowed down.  I played Abzan Guide, but it ate an Arrow Storm.  My opponent got the goblins from a Ponyback Brigade and had a big attack with a Trumpet Blast.  I survived, killed enough of them and was able to bounce back.  I played Meandering Towershell and won shortly after with it and the throne.  

In the second game, I had to mulligan twice.  I put up a good fight, but my opponent was able to "Mardu me out" of life.

In the third game, I started off good, but they played Chief of the Scale, then Chief of the Edge on turns two and three again.  I successfully stalled them out and we went to turns.  On turn one of five, I'd lost most of my other blockers, but I had Sorin, Solemn Visitor out and Snowhorn Rider.  I decided attacking was better than blocking, so I gave my creatures lifelink and swung in.

Freaking Kill Shot!

I died to attacks before turns ended.  1-1.

In round three I was up against the drafter to my right.  They were running a Sultai deck chock full of Embodiment of Springs.  They also had lots of Mystic of the Hidden Ways that I had trouble with.  In the first game, they got two Emobidments down in the first few turns, then played a clay spider that turned out to be a Mystic.  They played lands and then more lands and then more lands.  I went down to six life and finally started being able to swing in.  I had to kill them before I took two more hits from the Mystic.  I swung out, put them to 18, but was feeling optimistic.  Then my opponent flipped their clay spider.  Remember that Thousand Winds I hadn't first-picked?  That card had gone all the way around the table to be picked up by my opponent.  They flipped it and sent my tapped-out board to my hand and won shortly after.

In game two, I played Secret Plans on turn two and that proved to be the difference maker.  I played clay spider after clay spider and cracked them open, out valueing my opponent.

In game three, I got lucky early on.  My opponent had a clay spider and a Mystic of the Hidden Way and I cast Death Frenzy out of fear of the Mystic.  The clay spider turned out to be the Thousand Winds!  With two of my opponent's win conditions out of the way, we settled in for a protracted game, though I failed to draw a white source.  Archers' Parapet proved to be quite troublesome.  I had my Hier of the Wilds out as well as a face-down Abzan Guide I couldn't flip over, a Monastery Flock, and the Dragon Throne.  I thought I was going to have a (very slow) edge with my Meandering Towershell.

At least it's not another Kill Shot, I guess.

Time for plan B.  My hand had only Sorin and End Hostilities, both useless without white mana.  I needed to attack with a creature big enough to survive the Smoke Teller.  (Amazingly, my opponent never needed to activate the Smoke Teller and seemed to always know what my creatures actually were.  I don't think I was telegraphing it that badly!)  So, I equipped the Throne to the clay spider and pumped the Heir prior to combat to get the sweet ferocious bonus.  Even more important, however, was the synergy of deathtouch and trample; blocking only soaked one damage.  This was well worth it and I kept the pressure up.  I went to attack again, but my opponent used Icy Blast to keep me at bay for a turn.  They were able to get in for some more damage to keep it close.

What's the most important part of this photo?

That's right, it's the tapped Scoured Barrens!  Even better than trample and deathtouch is trample, deathtouch, and lifelink.  Sorin next turn granted me that and that was enough to pull out the win.  2-1.

This was a really fun draft!  It was great to go back to 2014 and play with these cards again.  All of my matches were really fun.  I'm really glad I got to be a part of this draft!

Happy Magicking, even when it's a trip down Memory Lane! 

Detectives of Ixalan Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

On Thursday night I had three friends over to do a wacky draft.  The group that came was ready to do some multiplayer chaos, so we drafted to play a single game of Ravnica: Clue followed by Explorers of Ixalan.  One player decided they really wanted to open Dragon's Maze.  I was out of loose packs, so it was time to open a box!  (I can't believe I still had a box of this left.)

You get to see the whole box, prior to opening.  Also: 11 different packs in three different drafters!  Pretty great variety!

I fell back into my old rut of Ikoria and LotR, and it's finally been paying off with Triomes!  Here were all my picks:

Lots of fixing; lots of mana cyclers.

I had a hard time making cuts.  I wound up cutting Snare Tactician really close to the end.   I built one deck and used it for both games.  Here's what I ran:

Fractalize goes in the 1-mana column because I figured I would be most likely to cast it with X = 0.

We rolled for turn order:  

• Player 1 was running Jeskai.
• Player 2 was also on WUBRG.
• Player 3 was Glint-Eye (UBRG) but mostly Jeskai.
• I was going last, running WUBRG. 

No wonder some of the mana fixing hadn't come back around! 

We started with the Clue game.  We pulled out a hidden suspect, weapon, and room; removed two rooms and revealed them to everyone (Dining Room and Study); and then dealt four cards to each player.  I got Emissary Green, Mastermind Plum, Senator Peacock, and the Kitchen.  The first turn was all a land each, but I finished up the second round of turns with an Abzan Devotee.  P1 also cast Frontline Rush at the end of my turn.  

On the third turn, P1 attacked P2 and P3.  They guessed Green, Knife, and Kitchen and both players passed.  P1 played Dragonfly Swarm, so I sent my Devotee at P3 and guessed Scarlett, Wrench, and Lounge.  They passed.

P1 kept up the attacks on their fourth turn, hitting P2 and P3 again.  They guessed Plum, Pipe, and Library.  P2 showed them a card and took their Treasure token.  P2 cast Falco Spara, Pactweaver, but P1 hit it with Disdainful Stroke.  P2 would be stuck without creatures for a while.  P3 cast Hakoda, Selfless Commander, which was their first pick of the draft.  His vigilance kept my creatures at bay for a long time.  I played Hawkeye, Master Marksman and hit P1.  I guess Peacock, Rope, and Conservatory.  They showed me the Rope.

On the fifth turn, P1 hit P2 and me.  They guessed Green, Knife, and Kitchen, the same as their first guess.  P2 passed and I showed the Kitchen.  My rationale there was that I should leverage the power I had with half the suspects and keep them hidden, so I revealed the Kitchen and took my treasure.  P1 continued their turn by playing Monastery Messenger and Nivix Cyclops.  P2 decided to clean up the board a bunch and cast Gaze of Granite for 3.  

Oof!

That left only the Messenger and Hakoda alive, but I had the mana to put the Devotee back in my hand.  P3 cast Invasion Reinforcements, then hit P1 with Hakoda, guessing White, Wrench, and Billiard Room.  P1 had to pass.  I cast Glidedive Duo and passed the turn.  

On turn six, P1 cast Nightwhorl Hermit and hit P3 with the Messenger.  They guessed Mustard, Candlestick, and Billiard Room and P3 showed them a card.  P3 cast Riling Dawnbreaker, then hit me and P2.  They guessed Plum, Pipe, and Kitchen.  I showed them the Kitchen too.  On my turn I attacked P1 with the Glidedive Duo.  They blocked with the Messenger and cast A Little Chat, sacrificing the Messenger.  Post combat, I cast Abzan Devotee and Bearer of Memory.  

On turn seven, P1 cast Kirol, History Buff, but P2 had their revenge by countering it with Glorious Gale.  Sadly, they didn't have any creatures to give the ring to.  Unfortunately, P1 now had Threshold, so they hit me with the hermit, asking Green, Knife, and Secret Passage.  I showed them Emissary Green.  P2 cast Bronzebeak Moa, their first creature!  P3 cast Warren Elder and Ascendant Dustspeaker.  They went to combat, killed P1's Threshold by exiling a graveyard card, and hit both me and P1.  They guessed Green, Knife, and Conservatory.  I revealed Green to yet another person.  Everyone was finding out about my hand!  I attacked and hit P1 and P2 and guessed Scarlett, Candlestick, and Hall.  P1 showed me the Hall.  Then I played the only thing keeping me from being afraid of all of P3's fliers, my Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion.  At the end of my turn, the life totals were P1: 6, P2: 12, P3: 12, and me: 10.

On turn eight, P1 just Collected Evidence 6 at the end of their turn, guessing Scarlett, Knife, and Billiard Room.  P2 showed them a card.  P2 then cast Claim the Precious to kill the Hermit.  They hit P1 and guessed Peacock, Rope, and Conservatory.  P1 showed them a card.  P3 cast Mind Spiral to tap my Moose-Lion.  Then they cast Honorbound Page and attacked and hit everyone.  

P1 had quite the board going!

They guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Conservatory.  I passed and P1 showed them a card.  I attacked P3, but they blocked.  I resurrected and replayed my Abzan Devotee.  P1 was down to 1 life, P2 had 8, P3 had 11, and I had six left.

On the ninth turn, P1 again just went directly to Collecting Evidence 6 and guessed Scarlett, Knife, and Conservatory.  We all passed, but I was convinced P1 had at least one of those cards.  Unfortunately, they accused the same set of three, checked the envelope, and won.  They said they were pretty confident about Scarlett because there was "lots of action" on her, but got lucky with the other two.  I couldn't believe it!

It was already pretty late, but I guessed that the Explorers of Ixalan game would take about an hour (it took longer) so we laid out the tiles.  We stayed in the same seats, but P3 won the roll to go first.  I don't want to change the names, so the play order for this game was P3, me, P1, and P2.  

P3 started off by taking a tile and getting High & Dry, Pirates' Market, a Site which lets you rummage at the end of your turn.  (When a player deals combat damage to another, the attacker can take one of the defender's sites, if they have any.)  I played a tapped land and didn't get to take a tile on the first turn.  P1 got the tile Cannons to Port, which is a Quest that rewards them a card draw when they damage the opponent to their left (P2).  P2 got Valuable Recon, which gave them a treasure and let them look at any one of the tiles on the board.  They looked at one of the 6-mana tiles and were done.  (This is one of the best parts of Explorers of Ixalan: that the first turn people are still doing a lot.)

On the second turn, P3 flipped Cannons to Starboard, which does the same as Cannons to Port except it's for attacking the player to their right (also P2).  I got Cannons to Port (pointing at P1), and P1 cast the first spell: Rally at the Hornburg.  P2 flipped a tile and got yet another Cannons to Port, pointing to P3.  

P3 started the third round of turns with Potioner's Trove, a mana rock I was not familiar with!  They then flipped a Cannons to Starboard.  I was really lucky not to have any cannons pointed my way yet!  I flipped Secure the High Ground, the first 3-mana tile, which prevented me from being attacked for one turn.  P1 cast Hydro-Channeler and then cast Of One Mind for one mana!  P2 finished the round by casting Hog-Monkey.  

On their fourth turn, P3 cast Kitsune Ace and flipped the 1-mana tile Broadside Assault, which did 2 damage to the rest of us.  I flipped Walls of Adento, which meant that a player had to pay 1 mana to attack me on their turn.  This actually kept me safe for a while!  I then cast Thornvault Forager, which I had just drawn.  P1 cast Moltencore Maestro and P2 dropped Abomination, Terrifying Titan.  At the end of P2's turn, P3 cast Firebending Lesson on the Maestro, but P1 cast Seize Opportunity to exile the two cards, using it's ability to make it big enough to survive.

For the fifth round of turns, P3 cast Ascendant Dustspeaker.  Now everyone had real threats except for me!  I flipped another 3-mana tile, getting Blessing of the Shapers.  This was a quest that gave my next creature to enter three +1/+1 counters.  I changed my plan and cast Vindictive Warden with my remaining mana, who became 5/6.  I was caught up to everyone else!  P1 flipped a 1-mana tile to get Plunder the Plunderers.  This granted them two treasure tokens after the next player dealt them combat damage.  P2 cast Needletooth Pack.  At this point the life totals were all still quite high: P3 and me with 19, P1 with 14, and P2 with 16.

P3 started round six by flipping their first 3-mana tile, a Wavering Allegiances.  This let them exchange control of any two creatures.  They immediately took my Vindictive Warden, giving me the Kitsune Ace.  I continued to flip 3-mana tiles, getting Scrolls of Azcanta.  This made each player draw two cards and each opponent of mine discard two.  With my remaining mana, I cast Tribute to Horobi.  Immediately all of my opponents started colluding on how to kill off their rats before I could get them!  P1 immediately sacrificed one to A Little Chat on their turn, then cast Kirol and flipped a 1-mana tile.  They got From the Mists, which let them put a creature with mana value three or less into play.  They dropped their Finch Formation, gave another creature flying, and attacked.  (I don't remember who.)  P2 cast Root Manipulation and then attacked P1, putting them down to eight life.  P3 and P2 both had 15 life, while still had 19.

On turn seven, P3 cast Hero in Training, then flipped a 3-mana tile: Jade Reflection.  That allowed them to copy their next instant or sorcery spell.  I flipped yet another 3-mana tile and got Unwitting Accomplice, essentially a Threaten.  I took Abomination and attacked P3.  

This was not a great plan.

 

The good news is that I killed the Abomination.  The bad news is that I didn't deal P3 any damage and didn't kill the Warden thanks to the Lightfoot Technique you can see in the corner of the photo.  Importantly, flipping that tile opened up two 6-mana tiles, the first available of the game.  I reserved one for my next turn.  I cast Celeborn the Wise and ended my turn.  P1 had a big turn.  They cast Reptilian Recruiter (I don't remember what they took), cast Frontline Rush, and attacked and killed P3, mostly with their Maestro, who became even bigger after they cast Kindled Fury.  Wow!  P2 cast Hazel Nocturne and Serrated Scorpion.  I had 17 life, P1 had 6, and P2 had 14, but we needed a way to kill P1 off.

On my eighth turn, I flipped the Tribute into Echo of Death's Wail.  I attacked P1, but they blocked well.  P2 and I were discussing what to do and I decided to take a chance and flip the first 6-mana tile.  I got Melee at the Gates, which causes all your opponents to attack with all their creatures and they can't attack you!  I was quite happy; maybe I could hit P1 back with a lot on my next turn.  P1 took their turn and flipped a 6-mana tile and got Might of the Sun Empire.  This got them a 3/3 Dinosaur token with trample and then let them put two +1/+1 counters on each creature they controlled.  They played the Monastery Messenger and then attacked in to P2, who survived with nine life.  P2 cast Claim the Precious on.... my Echo of Death's Wail!  No!  P1 had 4 life, P2 had 9, and P3 had 15.

At the top of turn nine, there were no exposed 6-mana or 3-mana tiles.  I flipped a 1-mana tile, getting Plunder the Plunderers.  I cast Hawkeye, but P2 cast Glorious Gale.  P1 started their turn and cast Monastery Messenger.

 

This was the board I was up against.  Yup.

 

They swung into me and I put up an honorable fight, but lost my board.  P2 got another turn and flipped a 3-mana tile, Can't Take it With You.  This was a quest that gave them two cards and four treasure tokens the next time a player died.  It was too late; P3 was already out of the game.  

I didn't have any strong plays.  On P1's tenth turn, they swung in and killed us both.  

P1 won both of the games that night!  Wild!

The only real takeaway I have for my future is that drafting, Ravnica Clue, and Explorers of Ixalan took us just under four hours. 

I hope you get to experience as much wacky magic as we did!  Happy Magicking!

Marvel Super Heroes Draft # 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to my second Marvel Super Heroes draft at my FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, last night.  We had a group of exactly eight and got right to it.  Right off the bat, the player sitting to my right opened The Mind Stone, passing me Thanos, the Mad Titan.  

If you are a new reader, you might think that this would dictate a new draft strategy for me and that I was lucky that I got that for my second pick.  I always go WUBRG (as most of you know) so I was already on that track.  Here are all the picks I made: 

Oops!  The card behind Serpent Specialist is a Hell's Kitchen.

There are a lot of things going well in that draft pool:

• Lots of fixing-lands.  Eight! 
• Two basic land cyclers: A.I.M. Scientists and Kree Sentinel.  
• Many creatures that could win the game.  (Power-up abilities are really good for me.)

Here's the deck I built:

I did not do any sideboarding; this is the deck I started and finished with.

The games were pretty intense, so my notes are more sparse than usual.  My apologies!  Another fun part of this draft is that I got to use a new life counter, a d30 that I got at Genie Hobbies in Gaylord, MI a few weeks ago. 

That store is right across from the Claude Shannon park, which is pretty neat!

 

I started the first round against a really strong player running an Orzhov Esper Weenie deck, chock full of lots of efficient creatures such as Agent Phil Coulson and Hero in Training, complemented by an arsenal of removal spells.  On turn three, I played Thanos.  My opponent played Ronin, Shadow Stalker, which they equipped with S.H.I.E.L.D. Spy Kit.  I should have read Ronin more carefully, because they used the ability to kill Thanos on the next turn.  Oops!  I played a Ninja of the Hand on turn four and on turn five Hulk, Gamma Goliath, who met with a Web Up.  On turn six, I played Call Damage Control to get Thanos back and cast him.  I didn't get to power him up that game, but my opponent got mana flooded and I won.

In the second game, I got Thanos out on turn four, but he again met with removal.  I went down to 2 life before I was able to get him back into play and stabilize.  I won at 9 life.  We had extra time so we played a bonus third game where I was able to play Thanos and snap his fingers.  1-0.

My second round was against another player running an Orzhov deck that turned out to actually be Esper.  In the first game I got Kang, Temporal Tyrant, on turn four, then Thanos on turn six.  Thanos got immediately exiled by Cloak and Dagger, Entwined.  I went down to 4 life, but played Doctor Doom, planning to use Kang's attack trigger to keep me alive.  

A pretty dangerous plan!

A few turns later, my opponent played Unliving Legionnaire, threatening to take me out with it as the only flier.  I drew Photon Blast Barrage and made a costly bet to try and kill the Legionnaire and get Thanos back.

One original and many copies and-... oh, Take up the Shield.

 

The Legionnaire killed me the following turn.

In the second game, my opponent started off with two mulligans, but the first was not just any mulligan!

I have seen very few "All-Land Mulligans".  I think this is the second ever.

Down two cards, they recovered quickly with Captain America, Living Legend, on turn three, but I played Thanos on turn four, followed by Black Widow, Double Agent.  My opponent got me to discard my hand with HYDRA Infiltration, and then killed Thanos with Murdock's Crusade.  I got an Aerial Doombot down, however, and was able to win with that.  

In the third game, my opponent flooded out and I was able to win with Human Torch, Johnny Storm.  2-0.

In the third round, I was up against a mono-green deck.  In the first game they had a quick start with Ava Ayala and Hulkling, Burgeoning Bruiser on turns two and three.  I caught back up and managed to get everything off of the board.  Then they dropped Squirrel Girl.  Thankfully that turn I had exactly the mana to play Thanos and snap his fingers.  They played Titania, Rugged Rumbler, and Go Nuts! to kill Thanos and keep the game going.  I cast Doctor Doom, but they got two Wakandan Royal Guard, followed by Pet Avengers to put me on the back foot.  I got one of my deathtouchers out as well as other potential blockers, then played Human Torch to win another game.

In the second game, my opponent had two early Guerrilla Gorillas, then H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit.  I played Storm, Windrider, on turn four, both acting as a big blocker and shutting down H.E.R.B.I.E.  The game went back and forth; Wakandan Royal Guard was again acting really strong.  My opponent took out Storm, but then I drew the card that had won me game after game all night: Thanos, the Mad Titan.  I played him without snapping that turn, then drew into snap mana the next and wiped the board.  Thanos's lifelinking was enough to get me to victory.  3-0.

After the tournament I played against one of my friends who really wanted another match and won both games, though they had to mulligan down to four in the second game.  

Here are some afterthoughts: 

• I'm now 5-1 across two Marvel Super Heroes drafts. 
• I think this set is just really strong for WUBRG drafting.  Somehow I expect that has just gone under the radar.  The lands, basic landcyclers, and other assorted fixing is amazing.
• I like Power-up cards!  It really clicked with me this second time.  
• I got really lucky to get Thanos, and even luckier to draw him in so many games.  I also got lucky to have three colorless-generating lands.

I really want to do more of these; I hope I get more chances!  H p y M g c i g!

Marvel Super Heroes Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to a Marvel Super Heroes draft last night at my FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic.  I knew very little about this set going in.  Nothing except that it's a huge set, there are some kind of common dual lands, and there are creatures like Super Skrull that benefit from WUBRG.  I was very excited to find out that there were also lots of cards with Basic Landcycling.  

There were only six of us at the draft, which I was surprised about.  It's summer, however, so people are doing lots of traveling.

It turned out that six was fine.  I was able to pick up lots of mana fixing!  Here are all my picks:

Five fixing picks in a row in pack one!

I thought that making cuts would take me a long time, but I actually finished quite quickly.  Here's the deck I built: 

This is a surprisingly reasonable mana curve!

In my first round, I was up against a player with an Izzet deck.   They started off the first game with an Aerial Doombot on the first turn.  I didn't have a play until turn four, so I was on the back foot until I got to play Abomination, Terrifying Titan... and I stayed on the back foot because they kept it off the board with We Say Thee Nay!  On their following turn they played Ultron, Artificial Malevolence with Super Intelligence on it.  On my fifth turn, I played Grim Reaper, which was one of the powerhouses of my deck.  They played Shuri, Wakandan Inventor on their turn.  I smelled danger and didn't tap to activate the Grim Reaper's ability on the attack.  My opponent blocked with Ultron and used HULK SMASH!, but I turned the tables with Stolen Stark Tech.  They didn't give up and locked the Reaper out with Spider Woman, Secret Agent on their next turn.  Then we both played 4/4 fliers, first me with Captain Mar-Vell and Wiccan, Rising Magician for them.  I passed my next turn, intending to use Mar-Vell's power.  They played Hydraulic Helper and I droped both Captain America, Living Legend, and a Bold Biochemist.  With Mar-Vell's flashing ability, the game sped up and I just kept playing beats to win, even after my opponent powered up their Aerial Doombot.

In the second game, my opponent again started on turn one with an Aerial Doombot, but they missed their turn two land drop.  (Thankfully they hit on turns three, four, and five.)  I flashed in Tigra after their turn three and then played Bullseye, hoping to take the Doombot out before it got big.  Unfortunately, they had We Say Thee Nay again, keeping it off the field.  They played Hawkeye, Master Marksman.  I attacked into him with Tigra, thinking it was safe.

It was not safe.

However, I played the Grim Reaper on my next turn, and there wasn't any answer for that.  I won within a few more turns.  1-0.

In the second round I was up against a Rakdos "Removal Tribal" (actually Villains) deck.  In the first game, my opponent had to keep using removal to trade a creature with one of mine.  First two Widow's Bites on my She-Hulk, Jade Defender and Abomination, Terrifying Titan, then a Lightning Strike on my third threatening creature.  (I don't remember which it was.)  Despite losing my good creatures, that efficiency put me in a solid place to win by just keeping up the beats.

In game two I was keeping up pretty well early game.  My opponent played Madame Hydra on turn four, then Madame Masque turn five.  Each conniving Villain brought along two more Villain token friends.

Like this Red Room Recruit.

I kept up.  Then they played Super Skrull.  I might have been able to play around it, but then they played Baron Helmut Zemo.  I scooped with more than 20 life.     

In game three, they were fast out of the gate with Project Deathlok Soldier, Red Room Recruit, and Volcanic Villain in the first three turns.   I played She-Hulk, Jade Defender again, and on their fourth turn they attacked for another removal-to-trade situation.  Then I played Captain Mar-Vell on turn five.  They played Klaw and saw that I had Stolen Stark Tech, but picked something else for me to discard.  With Captain Mar-Vell out, I got to play reactively, and my opponent was even more hesitant because I was likely to win any removal-to-trade with the Stolen Tech.  I kept the advantage up and won.  2-0.

In the third round, I was up against a strong Abzan deck.  They had a quick start, with Reptil and Serpent Specialist in the first two turns.  I had Claim the Kingdom on my third turn.  We alternated Gammas: them with Hulkling, Burgeoning Bruiser and me with She-Hulk, Jade Defender.  Unfortunately, she got hit with Go Nuts using the Serpent Specialist.  I played Political Triumph on turn five but nothing else useful before I died on their seventh turn.  

The second game had a slower start.  I played Captain America, Living Legend on my third turn.  My opponent played Mole Man, but I killed it right away with Wolverine, Fierce Fighter's ETB effect.  They played Reptil, I played Roxxon Brutes, they played Hero in Training, and I played Bold Biochemist.  On their sixth turn, they played White Widow, Free Agent and then Go Nuts to try to even things up, but I had Stolen Stark Tech.  My opponent scooped soon after.

The third game had an amazing mirror-like sequence.  My opponent basic landcycled for a plains, then with their three mana, cast Restorative Technique.  At the end of their turn, I basic landcycled for a plains and then also cast Restorative Technique on my turn.  They passed, then I cast Captain Mar-Vell.  When I passed, they flashed something in.

Captain Marvel?  You've got to be kidding me.  (Mar-Vell is upside down because my opponent was reading it.)

They played Mole Man, a land, Reptil, and then Go Nuts to take Mar-Vell off the board, sadly.  I played Wolverine, Fierce Fighter to kill Reptil before they got a sixth land and could start beating with it.  They played The Thing, Ben Grimm, which outclassed the Unliving Legionnaire that I cast.  They played Abomination, Terrifying Titan and powered it up, but I had Stolen Stark Tech to keep my Legionnaire alive.  They hadn't used their mana to make Captain Marvel indestructible, so I played my own Abomination, Terrifying Titan, also powered up, to kill her.  Unfortunately, they played Hulkling, Burgeoning Bruiser and had the Go Nuts to kill my Legionnaire before I could activate it's power up next turn.  They killed me while at 52 life.  2-1.

Bonus round!  One of the remaining two people in the pod I hadn't played (I know them well) asked if I wanted to duel, which I obviously did.  (I came to play Magic!)  We played quite speedy.  I curved out sweet in the first game and won.  In game two, they got Machinesmith Automaton on turn three and got artifact after artifact with it, often treasures or equipment.  I could not keep up.  The third game was really tight, but I edged out a win with another strong showing similar to the first game.  

This obviously went really well!  Here are my takeaways:

• The set is a great WUBRG set without having an explicit WUBRG theme or payoff.  Hopefully this can stay under the radar and not be another Ravnica Allegiance situation.
• The gain lands are great.
• The basic landcycling is great.
• I probably should have run The Thing, Ben Grimm, because I was hitting with heroes a lot.  I'm not certain.
• I don't know whether I should actually have been running my two plan cards.  Were they actually good enough?
• I didn't pick much removal.  In many games I was fast enough that it didn't matter, but it also wasn't there at my disposal when I needed it.
• There are a lot of cards, so read things carefully so you know how things actually work.  I expect this will be a problem for me in future Marvel Super Heroes drafts if I can get to them.

I really hope I get to go to more of these drafts!  This was so much fun!  Happy Marvel Magicking!