Drafting WUBRG: Ikoria, Kaldheim, Cmdr Legends, and MH2

This weekend, I participated in a "Catchup Draft Weekend" where we drafted our way through as many sets that were released during the pandemic as possible.  I thought we would likely get 5 or 6 drafts in, but we were only able to get to 4: Ikoria, Kaldheim, Commander Legends, and then Modern Horizons 2.  We had six people for the first three drafts, then five for the last one.

I can't go into as much detail as normal, but I did take pictures of my pulls and my deck.  (In each of the photos of my pulls, the columns are in order of the drafts from left to right (with the front card as the first card I drafted).  Here's how it went:

Ikoria

Not only did I draft a WUBRG deck, I also drafted Keruga, who I used as my Companion throughout the tournament.  Here was my pool and then my deck:

In my first round, I managed to cast Mythos spells (with the bonus) three times, and ultimatums twice.  The other two rounds didn't go as well, however, so I was 1-2.  This might have been my favorite deck of the whole weekend, though.  It was so much fun to play!

Kaldheim:

I successfully drafted for WUBRG again, and got multiple copies of multiple legends.  (The first pack got a bit out of order, because I forgot to keep it in exact order, so the order in the photo is probably off by a bit.)  Otherwise, here are my picks: 

There was a bit of a giants theme to the deck I built, though I never cast some of them (e.g. Undersea Invader).  Multiple copies of Aegar were great, because that was a bit of a target.  Here's the deck:

I went 2-1, including a crazy win after being down 20-1 against Tristan!

Commander Legends:

It is not possible to draft a WUBRG deck here.  Nevertheless, I stayed "wide" in the first two packs, because I wasn't sure what to play.  When I opened pack 3, it became suddenly clear, and the first pick determined what I would be running.  Here are my picks:

I apparently didn't take a photo of my deck (oops) but it was very cascade-a-rific, with only one spell with mana cost lower-than-3 (Order of Nylea).  From our six-person pod, we played two "rounds" consisting of one three-player game each.  I won the first one, and lost the second.  In the second game, I had crazy amounts of mana, but Sengir, the Dark Baron and Liesa, Shroud of Dusk were too much to overcome.  

Modern Horizons 2:

I drafted for WUBRG again.  Here were my picks (yes, I first-picked a tap-dual):

I put together an affinity/tokens build without any black spells.  Nevertheless, I needed to be able to produce black mana for my two converge spells.  Here is my deck:

(Not pictured: basic land.)  I went 2-2 with this, and had a blast.  This is actually an excellent format for WUBRG drafting because of all the dual artifact lands. 

I had a blast drafting this weekend!

Retiring an EDH deck: Child of Alara

It's time to take Child of Alara apart.  With the rules changes that have been in place for about a year, the deck isn't as fun.  Prior to the change, "dies" triggers wouldn't happen if your general (commander) went back to the command zone instead of the graveyard.  Now, after your general goes to the graveyard, you can then choose to move it into the command zone.  This means that dies triggers resolve, and then you can still put it back in the command zone for easy recasting.

This makes Child of Alara even better!  Now you can nuke the world, and then just recast it from the command zone.  The announcement had such an impact that the price for Child jumped up to over $15.  

A significant portion of my deck was about getting it back from my graveyard.  This was a big part of the deckbuilding challenge: how could I put the right number of cards in to facilitate getting my general back into play after it died?  This challenge also provided a lot of the fun.  The difficulty in playing the deck is often based on picking and choosing when you have enough resources to get it back that it's worth sacrificing it.  Without that challenge, I don't think the deck is worth playing anymore.  (Especially since I don't think it's very fun to play against!)

I did play one final game with it last month, which got streamed and recorded.  (I'll update this with a link if it gets posted to YouTube.)   During that game, I ignored the back-to-command-zone rule.

I've really liked this deck for many years, so I want to just record what is in my current list as I dismantle it.  (This is one of very few EDH decks I've actually taken apart.)

Here's the list:

General: Child of Alara

Sac-Outlets:

• High Market
• Grim Backwoods
• Miren, the Moaning Well  (Sadly, I never acquired a Diamond Valley)
• Costly Plunder
• Momentous Fall
• Vexing Scuttler
• Altar's Reap
• Innocent Blood
• Devour Flesh

Resurrections:

• Moorland Haunt
  
• Beacon of Unrest
• Betrayal of Flesh
• Makeshift Mannequin
• Breaking / Entering
• Connive / Concoct
• Gift of Immortality
• Undying Evil
• Ever After
• Unburial Rites
• Artisan of Kozilek
• Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
• Minion's Return
• Faith's Reward
• Torrent of Souls
• Journey to Eternity

Man-Lands:

• Creeping Tar Pit
• Faerie Conclave
• Blinkmoth Nexus
• Treetop Village
• Stalking Stones
• Dryad Arbor
• Celestial Colonnade
• Lavaclaw Reaches
• Raging Ravine
• Stirring Wildwood
• Coastal Discovery (Yes, I'm counting these)
• Encircling Fissure
• Roil Spout

Land-Tutors:

• Blighted Woodland
• Tolaria West
• Hour of Promise
• Rampant Growth
• Sylvan Scrying
• Farseek
• Tempt with Discovery
• Kodama's Reach
• Shard Convergence
• Harrow
• Life from the Loam
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Mycosynth Wellspring
• Expedition Map
• Explosive Vegetaion
• Crop Rotation
• Cultivate
• Sakura-Tribe Elder
• Search for Tomorrow

Other Lands:

• 7x Plains
• 3x Island
• 7x Swamp
• 3x Mountain
  
• 11x Forest
• Cascading Cataracts
• Hanweir Battlements
• Exotic Orchard
• Command Tower
• Terrain Generator
  

Other Misc:

• Golden Guardian
• Wonder
• Thaumatic Compass
• Darksteel Ingot
• Hatching Plans
• Darksteel Pendant 
  

Drafting WUBRG: Strixhaven (Third Time's a Charm)

Well, not that much of a charm... I went 1-2 again, but I had another great time.  Here's what I drafted.  Packs 1 to 3 left-to-right.  Front-to-back in the pack order.

This time we had 8 people, but my counts turned out pretty much the same as normal:

• 8 non-basic lands, which is fine, except that one of those is Biblioplex, so that didn't help with mana fixing.
• 6 lessons.  That's pretty normal.
  
• Only 4 ways to Learn, however.  That was definitely a missing part of the puzzle.

Somehow I need to pay attention to my counts for all three of these things while drafting.  I don't think I'm allowed to write that down while it's happening, though, and I tend to get distracted pretty easily.

I also passed on a Cultivate I opened, which was a bad idea.  Verdant Mastery was real good, even for the cheaper cost.

Here's what I built:

 

I think the choice of lands was correct.  (Except that I should probably have ditched the Biblioplex.)  I like the spells I chose, though Double Major was probably too much to ask for.

However, I do think I'm too eager to be on the draw.  This is probably a mistake I've been making for a while, since enter-the-battlefield-tapped duals have been common in land slots for a few years.  This means I'm playing with lots of mana fixing so I don't need the extra card as bad, and I need to avoid getting rushed before I can put some big stuff down.

On that same note, I should probably consider going 22-18 (lands to spells) instead of the 23-17 I have been sticking to for years.

Drafting WUBRG: Strixhaven (Round two)

After my second Strixhaven draft, I can definitely say that it is an excellent format for five-color-drafting.  I again pulled off a 5-color deck and was very seldom in trouble color-wise.  I again drafted a ton of great cards.  And I again went 1-2.  I still think this went better and I nearly won both rounds I lost.

This time I kept my pulls in the order that I drafted them so you can see how that went.  Here's my card pool (complete with my 5-color (d)rafting deckbox):

The first pack is the left column, with picks starting in the front.  Some things to point out:

• My first five picks were all rares.  That felt pretty weird.
• I went more heavily into lessons.  They are real good.  I will continue to do this if I get to draft Strixhaven again.  I don't think I needed 3 Environmental Sciences, though.
  
• Learn cards are great.  Pop quiz is an amazing card in draft.  I should take it more highly in the future.
• I still managed to pull off 9 non-basic lands.  I think I should keep track of how many I get next time, as more than 9 would probably be too much.

With the 9 non-basics and 9 lessons, I only had to cut 4 cards to get to 23 spells.  (45 - 18 = 27)  It was still pretty hard.  Here was my deck:

 

Without Quintorius this week, Lorehold Excavation wasn't as amazing.  Later on, I put Fuming Effigy in instead, which I probably should have done throughout.  I will say that double Returned Pastcaller is really amazing.  

Last week my deck was mostly Quandrix, this week it was definitely more of a Prismari-Lorehold mix, and that worked quite well.  Although I missed the presence of a Bookwurm, I would be happy to get a pool similar to this again.  I think I could play it better as well.

Happy Drafting!

Drafting WUBRG: Strixhaven (First time)

There has been a gap in my drafting of over 14 months; my last in-person draft was near the end of January, 2020.  COVID-19 prevented me from drafting paper Magic.   Last night I was finally able to safely get back in the store and return to the glory of drafting five colors.  Thankfully, Strixhaven is a good set for this.

Note: there were only six people at the draft.  Not many kids have been fully vaccinated, and many people may not yet feel safe drafting at the store.  Hopefully the numbers return soon.

Most of my magicking in the past year has been playing EDH and Oathbreaker online, most recently using Spelltable.  Even though Strixhaven has been out for a while, I was very unfamiliar with the set.  So, I took a look at the commons and uncommons.  Mostly I realized that the best helping cards were going to be the lands: Archway Commons and the dual scry "campus" land cycle (e.g. Silverquill Campus).  I thought I might also be able to use some Letter of Acceptance and Environmental Sciences, but I didn't see any of those.

I did see a lot of rares and mystical archive cards, though I unfortunately realized I didn't have any good knowledge of the individual card prices.  I also saw two of the rare dual lands, which I certainly snapped up.  I really got distracted by the mystical archive cards... the diversity of cards that are available in packs is crazy, but it's also really cool.  I saw multiple packs that had three rares (a normal rare, a rare lesson, and a rare mystical archive card).  I was even passed a pack like this.  After drafting, here's the card pool I was working with:

 

Here's the deck I put together.  I didn't have much of any time between rounds, so I didn't make any changes the entire night.  (I probably should have!)

I went 1-2. (2-0, 1-2, 0-2)  I definitely think I could have done better.  The last game I mulliganed, then kept a 6-land hand.  I knew this was a mistake, but I did it anyways.  I then went on to draw land the first four turns.

I still had a blast and my deck worked very well many times.  Aside from the lands, cards that did a lot of work:

• Zimone: I got to 8 lands easily with her.  In some games I had to stop drawing to not deck myself.
  
• Bookwurm: For the same reason.  This card can really help you come back from a tough board position.
• Quintorius: Along with other cards that dropped things from my graveyard, Quintorius was great.  I even got to exile Faithless Looting and net a creature.
  
• Removal.  I had lots of it and it was great.  This includes Needleborn Drake.
  
• Anything with Learn.  I had four lessons: Elemental Summoning, 2 Fractal Summoning, and Introduction to Annihilation.  Having cards that also essentially put a creature in my hand are real nice.
  

I also got real lucky with the Cultivate, though I only used it once.

For next time:

• Grab more Learn cards and Lessons, if possible.
• I didn't get any early blockers, which was often a problem.  The three games I won were all on a slow comeback.  That's fine, except when I don't have time for the comeback.

I really hope I'll get to draft again next week!

Bags for EDH Decks

I now have well over 10 EDH decks, so I went looking to find a new solution for storage and transport.  (Even though I've only been carrying them around the house during the pandemic.)

About six years ago I got really excited about using tool boxes.  I got two, one for decks and another for drafting supplies, which stays in my office most of the time.  It works great, but it is a bit heavy.

Time to find a new solution!  Here's what I'm looking for:

• A bag of some sort that will hold 12+ EDH decks (120-card boxes).  The more, the better.
  
• Zipper(s) to close it.
• It can lie down and be opened so that all deck boxes are visible.  (And aren't threatening to fall out.
• Some kind of a handle or strap.  I don't know whether I prefer a backpack or handle or shoulder strap.
• Not crazy expensive.  I especially don't want a big markup because it's marketed for gaming.
  

What I would really like is a shallow 31-style bag, but with a zippered top.  After lots of looking around, that's not really an option, as far as I can tell.  I did look at a lot of bags and some camera bags.  Here's what I did find:

• Gaming Plus Bag from Miniature Market: $40 - Designed for trays of miniatures, but it should hold about 16 decks.
  
• Slim, expandable laptop backpack: $30 - Should hold 16 decks.
• ESDDI Camera Backpack: $55 - Should hold about 15 decks.
• Vanguard 46 Camera Bag: $75 - Should hold 20 decks.
• CADeN Camera Backpack: $40 - Should hold about 15 decks.
• Pirate Lab Large Deck Bag: $75 - Holds 12 decks. 
  

In the end, I decided to try out the CADeN bag.  It had lots of padding and I saw comments about storing magic cards in them.  After trying out a few configurations, I was able to fit 17 EDH decks in, with various kinds and sizes of deck boxes.

 

Here's a video demonstrating the bag with all the decks: 

I can't wait until the pandemic is over so I can take these to go play!