Chaos hears the Call of the Ring (WUBRG Drafting)

I got real lucky and a little draft that almost failed turned into a draft with seven people!  I'm starting to think that seven is my favorite number.  (I haven't yet been confident enough to suggest two Ravnica Clue games (3 and 4 people) instead of duels, but I'm sure I'll get there.)  That doesn't mean I would be disappointed to have eight or more, but seven is probably the largest where it's possible to get all the single-game matches (21) in on a week night, which is exactly what we did.

And we had a great selection of packs too!

I don't draft black-heavy very often.  Of the five colors, it's the one that I have the fewest cards of, meaning it's likely my least-drafted color.  For this draft, I went heavy into black.  Here were all of my picks:

I have drafted so many Mythoses.  :-\

Here's the deck I put together:

The missing card is Bandit's Talent, which won me some games.  I traded it away before I took the deck photo.

Warning: my notes are a bit spotty here!  It's been over a week since we played! 

 

I was paired up against a Glint-Eye player first (everything but white).  Sinkhole Surveyor really showed up for me here.  I put a bunch of counters on it until I thought it was big enough, then started making tokens.  I played Bandit's Talent and started reusing creatures from my yard.  I got really lucky because I won at 10 and my opponent had Hidetsugu's Second Rite in deck!  1-0

In round two I faced a Jeskai deck packing a devastating Endstone to stay alive late game.  Demon Wall came down for me turn two, which was a great play for me multiple times.  I need to remember how good that is for me in the future!  Spineseeker Centipede helped fix my mana on turn three and then I curved right into Fungal Colossus on turn four.  They got a Rooftop Percher on the next turn, but I still swung in.  They played Omni-Cheese Pizza and swung back, and some instant-speed removal went both ways.

Condemn versus Seized from Slumber.

I pumped my Demon Wall and started to swing in.  My opponent played Hare Apparent and Patched Plaything.  I attacked and played Feed the Cycle to come out on top on the blocks.  We both attacked in the next turn, then my opponent dropped The Endstone, gambling they would be safe going down from 16 to 10 life.  I had already played Debris Field Crusher, which now had two counters on it.  I played Spectral Snatcher, tapped to fully station the Debris Field Crusher, then swung in for exactly ten damage!  2-0.

In round three I was up against a mean Grixis deck.  I had a turn five Wick's Patrol, but it wasn't enough.  My opponent played Dream Harvest and hit well.

The Mythos of Brokkos and Dragon's Prey!

I did not recover.  2-1.

In the fourth round I was up against a tough Bant deck.  They played Lita, Little Orphan on turn two.  I spent a Dragon's Prey on it two turns later.  I got some flying support, but perhaps I should have held on to my removal.

Treetop Snarespinner ruined my game.  All by itself.

I couldn't get around it and it ended up killing me.  2-2.

In the fifth round, I got Bandit's Talent out on turn two against a swift Boros deck.  They played Brightspear Zealot and I responded with Gravestone Strider.  They played Unsettling Twins and I dropped the Demon Wall and Swiftfoot Boots.  Whisperquill Scribe came down and they started swinging in.  I got Morbius down shortly thereafter and the life gain kept me in the game.  My opponent played Unswerving Sloth, which I hit with Feed the Cycle before it could be saddled next turn.  They played Rite of the Dragoncaller.  I saw that with Demon Wall I could attack for the win without casting a spell, so I went for it.  They didn't have a play so I won!  Whew!  If I had cast something, they had Reprieve in hand and could have punished me.  3-2.

Also, I can't remember the last time I drew a hand of seven lands!  Thank you, free mulligan!

In the sixth and final round, I was up against a player running Gruul Lizards.

Nearly Team Lagac!

I got Demon Wall out early and used Call of the Ring over and over.  (I'm not sure I've ever maxed out tempting the ring before!)  Late in the game I played Fungal Colossus for one green.  My opponent played Wheel of Potential for three, but I drew far more cards than them and used that economy to win.  4-2.

Quick notes:

• I did well because I had plenty of fixing, good creatures, and loads of removal.
• When we opened the first pack, one person bought out a pack and opened something else.  I expected it to happen more, but it didn't.  I still like using this rule!  

 

Wacky drafts are still my favorite.  Happy Wacky Magicking!

NYC Draft: Spiders, Turtles, Turtles

There's an extra sense of excitement when your FLGS runs an "alternative" draft that doesn't follow a normal set of packs.  So I was real excited when, at the last minute, I was able to go to the NYC Draft at Intergalactic Plastic: Spider-Man, TMNT, TMNT.

It is true that there's a lot of spiders and pizza in New York.

We had exactly eight people, so I'm sure they were happy I came as well!  I didn't plan ahead, which is probably good, because then I might have tried to build a Villains theme... which would have been bad because the "bad guys" in TMNT don't have the villains type.  In the end, I did get a bit of a menace theme instead!  Here are all my picks:

I was looking for J. Jonah Jameson for a deck too!

Most importantly, check out all the land cyclers; I got seven in total!  Including two Bebops, two Rocksteadys, and a Bebop & Rocksteady!  Because I got all those land cyclers, I made the dangerous decision to run only 15 lands.  I think that was too much and I should have gone 16 instead, because I did mulligan a lot.  Nevertheless, here's my deck:

Only two cards in the five and six-drop piles don't have landcycling!

In the first round I was up against a very aggressive Rakdos deck.  In the first game, they played Raphael, Tough Turtle on turn two, which wound up being the MVP.  My life total got too low too quickly and I couldn't catch up.  In the second game, I got Bebop & Rocksteady on turn four, but my opponent handled them with The Spot's Portal.  My Ninja Teen came out the next turn, though, and I learned just how amazing that card was, especially with all the land cyclers.  I out-valued my opponent and won.  In game three, I got J. Jonah Jameson out early, then Bebop & Rocksteady.  My opponent was stuck on three lands and couldn't keep up.  1-0.

Before the next round, I got in a bonus game against an Orzhov Ninjas deck a friend was running.  I died to Dark Leo & Shredder.  I put up a fight and kept trying to remove it, but continually failed.   

In the second round, I was up against another Rakdos deck, but this time control-focused.  They played Raphael, Tough Turtle on turn two of the first game, but didn't lay down an absolute barrage of creatures right after, so I got back into the game.  Sadly, South Wind Avatar came down a few turns later, and the combo of creatures hurting me when they came in and left was enough to take me out.  

That card is not from the Avatar: TLA set.  TIL.

In game two, Hobgoblin came down early and got in some big hits, but I was able to deal with it.  Sadly, South Wind Avatar came out again and I lost a lot from it.  I hit it with Retro Mutation late, but my life total was real low.  I finally stabilized at 1 (against my opponent's 24) with the help of Ninja Teen.  At ten lands, I matched my opponent's creatures with my own for many turns and got them under 20 life.  I knew I had limited time, so I needed to keep the pressure on, then use Ninja Teen sneaking to get a creature back in my hand and replay it.  I was keeping enough blockers up to stay alive until my opponent drew Death in the Family and I was toast.  We played a bonus third game and I lost that one too, without facing down the South Wind Avatar.  This loss was not a fluke.  1-1.

In the final round I was up against a removal-filled Abzan deck.  In the first game I got out Bebop & Rocksteady, but they got Grounded for Life.  My opponent, meanwhile, got a Michelangelo, Game Master and a Lurking Lizards out and just kept hitting.  

They got pretty big.

In game two, I got J. Jonah Jameson down on turn three and was ready to go off.  Unfortunately, my opponent Grounded them for Life, then did the same thing to the Putrid Pals I played.  Thankfully I kept drawing into creatures and they drew into lands and more lands.  I was able to win with a flying attack of Sun-Spider with Hard-Won Jitte among others.  In game three, my opponent played Transdimensional Bovine and used that to power out a bunch of good cards.  I played creatures, but they ate it to removal.  (They said they were packing eight removal cards!)  My opponent got six creatures down with the help of Friendly Neighborhood and I could not keep up.  1-2

 

Here are my takeaways:

• Some nights I take better notes than others.  I definitely feel more pressure to keep up the pace of the match at the stores.   
• I got lucky with my game wins.  I think this could've (should've?) gone worse than it did. 
• I'm not sure what to say about massive amount of land cyclers.  I really like them, but perhaps 15 lands is too few and I should have run 16 instead.  When I went with 17, I felt like I was getting flooded all the time.  Maybe 16 is the sweet spot.
• Everything Pizza is amazing.  So many games I got to seven mana and that card made a difference.  Two copies was great.

Not everyone may love the idea of a NYC-themed draft, but this was fun for me because I hadn't done a TMNT draft before.  Happy Magicking to you, whether your next draft takes place in New York or not! 

Foundations Draft #2 (WUBRG Drafting)

I missed some chances for TMNT drafts, but I did get in on a Foundations draft at my FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, last night, with seven other people.  I have a little mantra that "I'm never disappointed opening a Foundations pack" so it seemed like it would be fun to do another one.  This followed the pattern.

One of the other drafters successfully interfered with my photo.  Well, now they're stuck in the blog!

In some ways, this Foundations draft reminded me of a Chaos draft.  The set is so big that there are a large variety of cards that come around.  The player to my right did manage to draft five Gnarlid Colonies, for their Big Green deck, though.  And the draft archetypes are pretty consistent.  Maybe I just have the wrong impression.

A lot happened during the draft, though.  I stared off with Elenda, Saint of Dusk, but then passed on a bunch of synergistic stuff and accidentally went pretty blue.  In pack two I got a bunch of great green cards.  Pack three was where things went real wild, though.  I opened Muldrotha, which has done me well in draft before.  Then I got passed two Homunculus Hordes in a row and suddenly I was hoping I had more ways to draw cards.  Thankfully I had already taken a Spectral Sailor and then Tatyova, Benthic Druid came along later in pack three.  Here are all my picks:

I actually got worried that I might not get into all five colors.

Throughout all of this, I very nearly failed to actually get enough five color support.  Although I only grabbed two lands, I got lucky with the Goldvein Pick, Burnished Hart, and Grow from the Ashes.  

I waffled back and forth about whether to run the Homunculuses.  In the end, I really wanted to, so I did.  That was a good choice.  I also didn't start with Slagstorm, but I had it maindecked after the first round.  Here's the deck I was running by the end of the night:  

Beautiful Homunculuses and all.

In the first round I was matched up against a Sultai deck with lots of graveyard-based value.  They started off with an Infestation Sage on the first turn, then a Strix Lookout.  I had drawn Spectral Sailor, so I played that during their turn, then got my Homunculus Horde out two turns later.  They played Dreadwing Scavenger and managed to get lots of value off of it.  With the Sailor out, I drew another card on turn five to go to two Homunculuses.  They saw the danger and used Eaten Alive with their Strix to take out my original (non-token) Homunculus Horde.  I was down in life, but on the next turn I activated the Sailor again to get two tokens again.  My opponent played Lathril, and I cast Run Away Together on the Sailor and the Dreadwing Scavenger in order to try to keep my life total up.  Thankfully I had drawn into Tatyova, so I could play her, play a land, and run my horde up to four.  On the next turn I played another land to get eight and then cast Quilled Greatwurm, one of my best threats.  I swung to bring the life totals close (my eleven to their fourteen) and get some +1/+1 counters.  One of my horde died, but I played another land next turn to get up to fourteen and win.

In game two, my opponent got some real synergy going.  They played Mischievous Mystic on turn two, which sailed right over my Nessian Hornbeetle, and turned their next turn Think Twice into a faerie as well.  I played another groundling, Cephalid Inkmage, but then they played Abyssal Harvester, followed up by a Gutless Plunderer on their fifth turn.  I convinced the Harvester to Run Away Together with my Hornbeetle, then played Tatyova, which my opponent Imprisoned in the Moon.  I Broke the moon's Wings and then played an Evolving Wilds and fetched to draw two cards.  My opponent started the seventh round of turns when time was called with me at twelve life and my opponent at seventeen.  My opponent started to pull neat tricks with the Plunderer's ETB effect and the Abyssal Harvester, but I was able to stay alive for the five turns without even casting the Homunculus that'd been in my hand the whole game.  The game ended with me at four life.  1-0.  

In the second round I was up against an Izzet Terror deck.  In the first game they had a quick Firebrand Archer, then Mocking Sprite, then Goblin Surprise, which they used to pump up the Archer and kill my Gleaming Barrier.  Turn five brought a Heartfire Immolator.  I had sacrificed Burnished Hart so my fifth turn was enough for Muldrotha to show up.  It got Imprisoned in the Moon (seriously?) and that attack put me to two life.  I thought I still had a chance, though, and went down swinging.  Involuntary Employment gave me the Immolator, which I sacrificed to kill the Sprite.  I had Witness Protection and the Nessian Hornbeetle to help me stay alive, but it wasn't quite enough and I died on the next turn.  

In game two, my opponent had Balmor out and two Mocking Sprites on turn four.  I thankfully wiped it all with Slagstorm.  They were stuck on three land for a bit, giving me the chance to get things going.  They wound up starting to play Tolarian Terrors, super cheap with all the spellslinging they'd been doing.  Things were looking pretty dicey when I was at four and they had twenty two life:

My big beaters spent a lot of time moonwalking.

I got real lucky and drew the Broken Wings again.  I ate one of the serpents, and started attacking with my Wildwood Scourge and turned the game around and won.

In game three my opponent played Leyline Axe for free, but got stuck on two then three land.  I'm not an aggressive deck, but I was able to win before they recovered.  2-0.

In round three I was up against Boros Angelic Goblins.  They played a turn one Goblin Bushwhacker and a beefed up Goblin Boarders on turn three.  I managed to keep them down, but then the angels started to come out.  Serra Angel (which I did put in Witness Protection) followed by two Vanguard Seraphim.  I nearly stayed alive, but those two kept flying over my ground blockers.  

They were too good to forget about the Bulk Up in the yard, sadly.  My Inspiring Call did not draw me into any answers in the last minute.

In game two, I got Burnished Hart down early, but they got a Sun-Blessed Healer and then the Goblin Boarders again.  With my extra land, however, I got a Homunculus Horde down with the Spectral Sailor.  In four turns I was up to seven Homunculuses and was starting to get their life total back down to twenty.  (It had gone up to thirty.)  I Involuntarily Employed their Dazzling Angel, their last blocker, and they scooped before I could activate the Sailor and gain seven life.

In game three, I kept a hand with two mountains and Slagstorm, figuring I could let them get ahead and then three- or four-for-one them.  That's not how it happened, though.  They got a Dazzling Angel then just kept drawing land while I built up a squad of attackers.  Things were going great until they played Herald of Eternal Dawn, which they'd sided in against me.  They tried to kill me with an attack and a Bulk Up, but I was able to bounce it with Run Away Together and win before it could stick back on the board.  3-0.

Some thoughts: 

• I really lucked out.  I was down by a game in the last two rounds and pulled out exactly the cards I needed multiple times.  And I only survived the first round because we went to time.  (Normally I'm the one behind when time is called.)  
• This was a much better showing than my previous Foundations draft.  I'm now 4-2 in total.  I guess WUBRG is feasible with only two fixing-lands.
• Triggering Homunculus Horde is really fun.  Any kind of repeatable draw engine will do! 
• I'm surprised I had better luck with the Homunculuses than Muldrotha and the Quilled Greatwurm put together. 

This is a fun format to run five colors in.  Give it a try!  

Happy Magicking! 

Chaos drafts with Ooze (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to hold another wacky draft last night with four other people, the first since the TMNT set released.  I told my group I was going to open a Lorwyn Eclipsed and a TMNT pack, but wasn't certain about the third.  Without a moment of hesitation, one the players said Bloomburrow.  It was so obvious!  The natural middle ground between Lorwyn and radioactive-ooze-infested NYC!

Everything we drafted.  My packs: no ooze, some ooze, lots of ooze, in that order.

I did not do a good job getting multi-colored lands.  I passed on many early on and then they got taken before coming back around.  Oops.  At the beginning of pack 2 I thought about trying to go Enchantress after the Sterling Grove showed up.  I did not see many enchantments after that, sadly, so it didn't wind up running the Grove.  One interesting thing that happened is that one player opened a pack with some money they didn't want to run.  I was very clear in that you are allowed to keep any pack like that and open a new pack.  Here's everything I took:

I also, like, didn't read Terminal Velocity right.  I am bad at reading cards.

Since I had the Terminal Velocity and knew half of what it did, I decided to stack up on big creatures, putting a big tail spike on my mana curve:

Also, I had two cards that triggered with Firesong and Sunspeaker, so I clearly had to run them.

We decided to do duels and I managed to get through three of them before the night ended.  In the first round I was up against a Yore-Tiller colored deck with some sweet cards, including a Ragavan they'd pulled!  (This is where all the dual lands I'd passed went.)  They started the first game off with Candlestick, which turned out to provide great value.  I got Demon Wall out on turn two, but they attacked with Nanoform Sentinel with the Candlestick on turn four and had a trick to it.  I played April O'Neil, Hacktivist, and she got me great value!  They played Fear of Isolation, which I hit with Iroas's Blessing.  They Sternly Dismissed April, but I recast her.  They attacked and killed April with a Poison the Waters post combat after I blocked.  Thankfully I had built up enough of a hand and got Oblivious Bookworm and Captive Weird out, immediately transforming the Weird into Compleated Conjurer, exiling Undercity Dire Rat.  My opponent played Ragavan, but it was a bit late in the game.  I attacked and played the Dire Rat, then had enough mana for Peerless Recycling with Splicer's Skill spliced onto it at the end of their turn.  I played April for the third time and the next turn played Altanak which brought me the win shortly after.

In the second game my opponent had to mill twice.  I played really conservatively and was able to outvalue them.  They got an early Fear of Isolation, but I had Take out the Trash ready for it.  I got out Rocksteady, Crash Courser on turn six, but had to play carefully around their Squirrelanoids.  I played A Mysterious Creature (actually Shady Informant) and used that as the main attacking threat.  After my opponent dealt with that, I played out the Altanak I had in my hand and won again.  1-0.

In my second round, I was up against an Azorius deck that had picked it's colors with a pack-1-pick-1 Dream Trawler.  The game started off slow with me playing Offender At Large face down on turn three, but it got waxed the next turn by Fate of the Sun-Cryst.  They got Cult Healer down and played Staggering Insight on it.  (Thankfully lifelink doesn't stack!)  I tried to Overkill it, but they had Shelter waiting.  That healer later got a Nyxborn Unicorn on it as well.  I double blocked the whole thing with Compleated Conjurer and a face-up Shady Informant, willing to make the trade.  My opponent had other plans (again).

Freaking Surge of Salvation!

This was going to be a 3-for-2 in my favor.  (Cult Healer, Staggering Insight, and the hero token at the cost of my two creatures.)  Instead I got 2-for-1'ed and I had to hit myself with the Shady Informant's death trigger.  It was like having to target your own stuff with Festering Goblin all over again!  I died shortly after that.

In game two they got down Warren Elder and I had a hard time dealing with it.  I got Acolyte of Affliction down and got Firesong and Sunspeaker, and even got to gain five off of Brilliance Unleashed with them.  They played Dream Trawler, however, and won off of that.  1-1.

In round three I was up against an Esper player that had been competing with the Dream Trawler player for cards.  In the first game we traded little threats with removal.  They hit my creatures with Anchovy & Banana Pizza and The game was slow and I got Nobody and Oblivious Bookworm down on turn nine.  They played Altar of the Goyf, but I killed their only creature with Take out the Trash + Splicer's Skill.  I used Terminal Velocity with Altanak because I read the card wrong.  (Read the cards, Kyle!)  I still had enough on the board to win.

In game two I just had nothing and got run over.  The played Hullcarver into Judge Magister Gabranth into Adventurer's Airship into Henchbots.  

Game three was more competitive.  Gabranth came out early again, and they used Run Away Together when I targeted him with Overkill.  I played Threats Around Every Corner, which helped.  I just could not keep up with their fliers.  The Prima Vista hit, then Rook Turret and Hullcarver again.  1-2.

I definitely had some play mistakes in here and I likely could have built a better deck.  Let me know what you would recommend!

This was the kind of draft where I was ready to draft again right away afterwards.  I had so much fun!  Happy Magicking!

Chaos Commander Draft

Commander Draft is an excellent format!  I got lucky enough to be a part of one on Wednesday night with three other players.  We decided to hold a chaos commander draft; every player got to pick packs from any three of the commander draft sets: Commander Legends, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, and Commander Masters.  As of this week, those packs are around $10, $10, and $20 respectively.  So, everyone wound up choosing between the first two.

Pretty Chaotic, actually.

The normal Commander Draft rules include:

• It's a pick-two draft, so you pick two cards each turn while drafting.
• The minimum deck size is 60 (including your commander(s)), not 40.  Unlike EDH, there is no singleton rule.
• The color-identity rule is still in effect, so it is possible to be running a deck without enough spells and upwards of 30 lands.

In addition, we included the following rules:

• We used the Wilderness dungeon instead of the standard Undercity for Battle for Baldur's Gate.
• We started at 30 life instead of 40 for time reasons.
• We used the Commander Masters rule that all zero- and mono-color legendary creatures are assumed to have both "Partner" and "Choose a Background" on them.  We also did this for Neapolitan Commander Draft.  This would not be necessary if the packs were all from Commander Legends or all from CL: Baldur's Gate, but since they were mixed we needed to add this to give more combinations. 

The drafting part of this is really fun.  After the first pack I was really afraid that I would be stuck in two colors.  The reason for this is that there are very few legendary creatures in two colors printed in these sets that either have Partner or Choose a Background.  If you want more colors, you are usually hoping for a three (or more) color legend to snap up.  Very thankfully, one appeared after a few passes in the second pack: Bane.  After that I went hard into Esper, figuring I could maybe equip my creatures a bit to get good value off of Bane's second ability.  Here's everything I drafted.

The Oceanus Dragon and Dream Fracture were the last two cards passed to me.  I just didn't realize they were coming my way until after I'd taken the photo and started deckbuilding.

I (admittedly hastily) built the following deck from those cards, but I was really happy to have a bit of a sacrifice theme.  I wasn't too worried about mana fixing with all that triple of Duodrones.  

I should have been afraid of the drones for a different reason, though...

We sat down to play and rolled to see who was going first.  The player to my right won, so the order was:

• P1: Ganax, Astral Agent of the Iron Throne. 
• Me: Bane, Lord of Darkness.
• P3: Rebbec, Architect of Bahamut.
• P4: Dynaheir, Invoker Adept.  

In the second round of turns, some people got some ramp going and I helped the whole table by playing a Marching Duodrone.  You might see the problem already.  

P1 opened up the third round by playing Shiny Impetus on my Duodrone.  I attacked one of the other players, then played Bane with the treasure.  I was feeling pretty good!  P3 did a bit of ramping then P4 played Roving Harper and drew their card.  

The problem started in the fourth round.  P1 played their background: Agent of the Iron Throne.  Now when they sacrificed any of their two treasures, we would all lose life.  Yikes!  I played my second Duodrone as well as one of my Guildsworn Prowlers and swung in for some damage and more treasures for everyone.  P3 played both Rebbec and the Acolyte of Bahamut background.  P4 got a nice combo going with Flaming Fist Officer and Alora, Merry Thief.  They attacked with their unblockable Harper thanks to Alora, bounced it, and pumped up the Officer.  

Nifty!

 

P1 took their fifth turn and demonstrated just how much trouble we were all in.  They played Ganax, then sacrificed treasures to get the Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind.  We each lost life to the Agent of the Iron Throne triggers.  It was clear to me who the Archenemy was.  I played Horn of Valhalla (without the adventure first, unfortunately), equipped it to the second Duodrone, and swung in with my team.  I attacked P1 with everything except the goaded Duodrone, who I attacked P3 with.  We all got our treasures (two for everyone except P1 who got three) and then P3 hit the goaded Duodrone with Guiding Bolt.  P1 also responded with a Murder on Bane.  Yuck!  P3 dropped an Emerald Dragon and cast Raise the Alarm on their turn.  P4 ended the round by playing Feywild Caretaker.  The Initiative was now in play!  

In the sixth round of turns, P1 dropped Falthis and Nemesis Phoenix, then swung at P4 with Ganax to take the initiative.  We continued to hemorrhage life as they kept using treasures!  I swung out at P1 and took the initiative for myself then played Bane.  P3 played Trailblazer's Torch, put it on their Emerald Dragon, then attacked.  They hit P1 with a bunch but also hit me for three with Rebbec.  I happily went exactly down to 15, perfect for Bane.  P4 played Abdel Adrian to combo even more and exiled their two non-Flaming Fist Officer creatures, making it even bigger.

We had now all crash landed in the Wilderness Dungeon!

It wasn't enough, though.  P1 started round seven and played Fang Dragon with their orb, giving it haste.  They had exactly fourteen damage worth of flying power on the board and put me at one with a treasure sitting open.  I was now naught but their pawn.  I played Grafted Wargear and tried to draw into an answer with Bane's ability.  I did not succeed.  P3 played Stingerfling Spider to kill Ganax and P1 used a treasure to kill me in response.  P3 did not attack and passed the turn to P4, who played Pegasus Guardian.  

In the eighth round, P1 attacked P4.  The life totals were now 13 (P1), 5 (P3), and 6 (P4).  Then they played Dragon Noble, gifting them two more treasures!  P3 did not attack on their turn, but P4 did swing in to P1.  Unfortunately the Archenemy blocked well and only took three damage and lost two of their creatures, causing more life loss.  (One of those creatures was Dragon Noble, which gave them a third treasure token.)  P4 then cast two spells that gave them the initiative, using it three times in one turn!

It didn't matter, though.  On turn nine, P1 untapped with the life totals at 10 (P1), 3 (P3), and 4 (P4).  They attacked P3 who was at three life with two fliers.  P3 could block them both, but they had to kill one of the attackers, causing another loss of life.  That was enough for P1 to sac their remaining three treasures win by the triggers of their background!

What a great game!  I think we needed to move against P1 with a little more focus in order to defeat them.  I certainly didn't help with my repeated Duodrone attacks!  

I also think that the granting of partner and choose a background to mono-colored legends is the correct rule to use.  

If you've never had a chance to Commander Draft, I hope you get one soon!  Happy Limited Commander Magicking! 

Chaos needs to read the whole card (WUBRG Drafting)

I hosted a little chaos draft last week with four other people.  We decided to run best-of-one rounds and use the Andrew McLaughlin rule: you can replace your third turn draw with adding a basic land from outside the game to your hand.  The hype for Lorwyn Eclipsed is still going strong, so there was a lot of that opened.  I picked a Foundations pack and my last two packs grabbed from GameStop.  Here's what everyone chose:

I've never been disappointed by a Foundations pack.

I definitely got greedy while drafting.  At one point I picked a pretty Plains way too early.  I also picked the Survey Mechan without reading to the end of the ability.  Notably, I didn't read the cost reduction part.  I'm lucky I got it!  (I should have taken it over Broodguard Elite.)  Here are all my picks:

I did not have a coherent draft strategy.  Had I read my cards better, I might have.

I was the last one to get their deck figured out.  That was true even though someone else was drafting for the first time.  Yikes.  I definitely made some bad choices (e.g. Jeong Jeong over Sizzling Changeling) but I didn't take the time to change my deck up between rounds.  Here's the deck I ran for the whole night:

I also think Mm'memon, the Right Hand might not have been a good choice.

We completed the Round Robin so I got to play all four opponents.  I was matched first against the new drafter, running "Mild Discomfort from Above", an Esper deck with lots of fliers.  In the past few years I have a terrible record against first-time drafters.  Even with the Andrew McLoughlin rule, I still had to mull my first two hands.  (Thankfully the first mull is free in Bo1.)  I got Cori-Steel Cutter and Ba Sing Se down but they started dropping their fliers.  I played a turn five Wildvine Pummeler, but they Rallied the Monastery it.  I tried to catch back up but without any way to deal with the flying assault, mild discomfort turned into perishing.  0-1.

In the next round I was up again Ink-Treader "Kithkin Alliance", powered by (guess what) Kithkin and Allies.  I got the Steel Cutter out on turn two and played Dragonbroods' Relic the following turn.  They Liminally Held the cutter before I could get the trigger, but I followed that up with Survey Mechan.  They had a great turn five with Professional Wrestler and Thoughtweft Lieutenant, but I warped in Broodguard Elite and put the four +1/+1 counters on my Mechan at the end of turn.  I played the Broodguard for good the next turn and started swinging with the five-power hexproof Mechan.  They followed that up with Iroh, Grand Lotus and swung in with the Wrestler.  I blocked with the Broodguard for the trade and threw these counters on my Mechan as well.  (This led to the political-future-ending statement by my opponent: "You're over there with a flying 9/11.")  I swung in for big flying damage.  They used Iroh to recast Tend the Sprigs to get a reaching blocker and dropped Omni Changeling.  Then they swung for 13 damage.  I might've been in trouble, except that I had Trystan's Command to pave the path to victory.  1-1.

I faced "Counterspell!Counterspell!Counterspell!" in the third round, a Dimir control deck.  I had an aggro-style start with Spider Manifestation, Jeong Jeong, and Mechan Shieldmate on turns two, three, and four, respectively.  They played a Selfcraft Mechan, but I had a Spiral Into Solitude for it and put them down to seven life on my fifth turn.  They played Sandskitter Outrider with the token to slow me down.  I played Electroduplicate on my Shieldmate to keep the pressure on and attacked one more time.  They blocked well but went down to one life while I was at 21.  They used Dragon's Prey to kill Jeong Jeong and I was down to only the Spider Manifestation.  I got the Dragonbroods' Relic and would win off of the activation, but I needed another creature to have enough mana.  I played Doc Ock, but it got Wildly Unraveled.  Then my opponent Temporally Cleansed the Spider Manifestation, which I dropped to the bottom.  I drew into Trystan's Command and grabbed both Doc Ock and the Spiral Into Solitude while I took out the Outrider.  They Unburied it, then cast Strategic Betrayal to exile my yard, though a turn late.  I played Doc Ock and then untapped with enough on turn ten to get the Reliquary Dragon out of the Relic and win.  2-1.

My final round opponent was running "Mono G with White", a Selesnya counters deck.  If I could pull off the win, then my 3-1 record would win on tie breakers from my second round opponent.  They started off with Lys Alana Informant and dropped Goldvein Pick and hit with it the next turn.  I got Jeong Jeong out, but they attacked and tricked with Biosynthic Burst, so I didn't get the trade.  I played Survey Mechan and had Ba Sing Se, but they dropped two more creatures: Earth Village Ruffians and Rebellious Captives on turn five.  They had a big attack before I could catch up, playing Mechan Shieldmate, Bender's Waterskin, and Glacial Dragonhunt all on one turn.  Unfortunately they took out the Mechan Shieldmate with a Make Your Move, then played Sage of the Fang.  I took my turn and played Shimmerwilds Growth, which let me play Wildvine Pummeler for cheap, but they Bit it Down.  Attacking on their turn put me to 1.  (They were still at 20.)  Dear reader, I have had some great comebacks, and I planned another one here.  I cast Mm'menon and was ready to put it together, but they Flashed in Thompson, tapped my flyer down, attacked and won.  2-2.

In the whole night, I don't think a single person used the Andrew McLaughlin rule.  

These drafts are so much fun.  I love all the crazy card interactions.  Happy Magicking, no matter how you do it!

*Update: Fixed the spelling for Andrew McLaughlin and an important note: my final round opponent did take an advantage of the rule in a prior round and took a land! 

Frepack Draft #(n+12) (WUBRG Drafting)

I ran an impromptu free draft last week with repacked cards for some students.  It initially looked like there were going to be three of us, but then the number jumped up to six!  Four of the six of us were relatively new drafters with one here for their first draft ever.  

During drafting, there were some comments about how a lot of my packs have a lot of eldrazi in them.  That's not on purpose; I've been sorting through a bunch of donated cards from Battle for Zendikar, so that's just how the cookie crumbles right now.  

Also, the person sitting to my left told everyone they were going five colors, so I had to put in some extra work getting the lands I wanted.  After the first pack I thought I was in trouble, as they'd be passing to me.  However, I got four lands in a row early in pack two, so I felt pretty good midway through the whole thing.  Here's everything I drafted:

Garrison Sergeant is one of my favorites.

From these cards, I built this deck:

I know Ghostly Sentinel is undervalued at five mana, but I've won too many limited games with it.

 

We decided to play best-of-one rounds in order to get as many matches in as possible.  (Note: this doesn't work as well with an even number of people.)  I was matched up first against an Izzet Eldrazi build.  Thankfully I drew well and got Tunnel of Hate online on turn six, with the manifested 2/2, Oran-Rief Invoker, Ulamog's Nullifier, and a Ghostly Sentinel on the board.  I won two turns later.  1-0.

In round two I was up against a Rakdos deck.  I dealt with their scary Valakut Predator with a turn four Torch the Witness.  In the next three turns I played 4W-cost fliers back to back: Ghostly Sentinel, Charmed Clothier, and Ghostly Sentinel.  I won the turn afterwards.  2-0.

In round three I was facing down a Dimir enchantments deck.  I was stuck on five mana for a while while they played a good defense with Grim Guardian (triggering off things like Necrogen Communion) and Pharika's Chosen.  I got Kozilek's Channeler down which got me unstuck.  Soon I had Eldrazi Devastator out and my Oran-Rief Invoker was looking a lot more imposing.  I lost both the Pharika's Chosen, which came back due to shenanigans, but not after dealing enough excessive damage in subsequent attacks for me to win.  3-0.

Round four was set to be exciting.  One person had already left without playing me, so this was to be my final round.  My opponent, running Mardu Life Drain with a bunch of effects like Drana's Emissary, had just come back big to win their fourth straight.  Only one of us would remain undefeated.  And, unfortunately, they got mana flooded.  They played their own Grim Guardian, but thankfully never the Emissary.  Kozilek's Channeler hit the board for me and nearly got there on its own.  4-0.

These little drafts are great!  I love getting together with students to reuse these cards that might otherwise be discarded!

Wrap up your own packs and Happy Magicking!