Chaos for Store Championships: WUBRG drafting

My usual Magic haunt wasn't running a draft last night, but another nearby store, Intergalactic Plastic, was running a Chaos Draft, so I went there instead.  I had been to the store before and picked up some cards, but I had never played there.  The draft was for their store championships; the person running it told me they like to hold chaos drafts for championship events.  

I thought there were lots of people there, but it turns out most of them were playing EDH and weren't there for the draft, which I think had ten people.  Most, if not all, of my match opponents were commander players first and foremost. 

In this chaos draft, everyone was given the same three packs, Brothers' War, March of the Machines, and LotR Tales of Middle Earth, to be opened in that order.  (Perhaps I don't have to abandon the term "Wacky Draft", and can keep using that to mean three packs from any sets, chosen by each player.)  I love drafting all three of these packs, so I was excited.

I definitely undervalued some of the mana fixing and didn't get a second look at many of the land cyclers that I probably should have taken.  I didn't see many dual lands; I think I only saw one that I didn't take.  On the other hand, I saw a lot of big bomby creatures, so I took them.  Here were my picks:

Picks, by pack, left-to-right and front-to-back

I got some really big cards late, including the Goreclaw and the Argivian Avenger.  Even the Blanchwood Prowler, a last pick, turned out to be very helpful.  

Lately I've been running 16 lands with lots of color-fixing, but since I didn't get much fixing, I ran 17 lands instead, hoping I could go slow and play the game out until I could drop my big creatures.  I didn't wind up running Su-Chi Cave Guard, and I'm not sure whether that was a mistake on my part.  In the end, I was surprisingly low on blue spells this time around.  Here was my deck at the end (I don't think I made any changes during the tournament):

I should have taken the picture from further overhead.  Oops!

In the first round I was matched up against someone I'd played half an EDH game with directly before the draft.  He had put together an aggressive Boros deck.  I relied heavily on my removal to keep myself in the game until I could get my big threats out.  In game one, we were both very mana flooded.  I played Etali late and was able to transform it the following turn for the win.  In game two, Goreclaw helped me power out some early beats and I won again.  

I had a great chat with my first-round opponent while we waited for the second round to start.  It was at this point that I found out we were in a single-elimination tournament!  That's not my favorite, since I'm often on the losing end in the first two rounds and I really like playing. 

In the second round, I matched up with someone who had an absolutely amazing playmat.

Seriously, this is super sweet.

They were running a Rakdos deck and had gotten a bye in the first round so they hadn't played with it yet.  In the first game, they ran out two Mordor Trebuchets on turns 3 and 4.  I have used those to great effect in drafts, so I knew how powerful they were.  Thankfully, I was able to kill their other orcs and I only got hit a few times by flying goblin-boulders.  I managed to get enough big dudes to break the stalemate and win.  They made a bunch of changes to their deck for game 2 and it made a big difference, but I was able to win again.

In the third and final round, I was matched up again against Rakdos!  So much red!  In the first game we were both mana screwed for many turns, but I escaped it faster and won.  In the second game, I didn't get my colors until very late.  I thought I would be able to turn the tide as I drew into my lands, but a couple of unexpected blasts to my head ended it before I could start to play bombs.  In game 3, my opponent was mana screwed again for a few turns, and it gave me enough time to get my big beaters out.  Gandalf the White was a great turn 5 play that let me flash out a bunch of my other six drops.  I had lost a lot of life to efficient little creatures, so I had to be more aggressive than normal, but I was able to clinch the win.

One change I made this time around that I believe made a difference was to choose to draw instead of play.  I did this because I didn't have good fixing and needed to rely on my removal and deathtouch creatures to keep me in the game until I could play bigger things.  Many years ago I used to choose to draw, but most of the past two or three years I've mostly been choosing to play.  

I was really excited to win the tournament!  The prize was a Saruman of Many Colors, which seemed very appropriate! :)  Nevertheless, I felt very awkward having never played there before.  I hope I get to come back and do more drafts! 

Local Chaos Draft (WUBRG drafting)

I ran a chaos draft at the end of this weekend!  (This means I managed to trick three other people into chaos drafting with me.)  Here are the packs we opened:

I keep opening Ikoria hoping for some tri-land goodness.

These were pretty good packs for going five colors.  One of the players was advocating for New Capenna, and that sounded just fine to me!  Here's what I managed to pull:

From left to right, packs 1 to 3.  Pick 1 in front, pick 15 in the back.

I unintentionally drafted a very strong combo in the first two picks of pack 3: Mount Doom and The Mightstone and Weakstone.  

 

After drafting, I noticed what a great combo this was and started praying to Karona that I could pull it off.  Here is my deck:

 

Will 6 non-basics be enough?

 

Aside from the color fixing land, I had:

• A bunch of removal, including Torch Breath, which was a card I didn't know existed.
• Some treasure synergy, with Bootlegger's Stash (which I never saw), Big Score, and Jetmir's Fixer.  
• Some army cards (Grishnakh, Dunland Crebain, and Warbeast of Gorgoroth) to work with Mauhur.  
• And a bit of a deathtouch theme with a Nazgul, a Midnight Assassin, and a Riveteers Initiate. 
  

In round 1, I got matched up against a Gruul deck with a pretty good mana curve.  I managed to get enough removal to squeak out the first game, but we didn't finish the second before time was called.  We ended the five turns without a winner.

 

In round 2, I was up against a Bant deck with lots of mana fixing.  I pushed through a victory in game 1, and then game 2 went to time with a battlefield full of creatures.  In one of the first extra turns, I cast The Mightstone and Weakstone with Mount Doom on the board.  I was ready to clear out the board and swing in for the win.  However, on my opponent's turn, they tapped down my bigger blocker and swung in for the win.

 

In round 3, I matched up against an Esper deck with a lot of good value cards.  I was winning the first game and tapped my attackers out to put my opponent at 1, while I was safely at 13.  Then they played both Shriekdiver and Flowering of the White Tree, just enough to hit me for exactsies.  In game 2, I was on the back foot.  My opponent had gotten an extreme amount of value out of Cirith Ungol Patrol, using it to profit off of the times I had to use my removal on other creatures.  (I never quite had enough to kill the patrol outright.)  Although I had had the upper-hand early on, my opponent was clawing back into the game with all the extra life and card draw.  Then I drew The Mightstone and Weakstone while Mount Doom was on the board.  I activated Mount Doom the following turn and cleared all but my best two creatures, winning the game shortly thereafter.  Yes!  

 

While not quite a WUBRG-based accomplishment, Mount Doom + The Might- and Weakstones seems like a pretty good combo achievement to get in draft.  Also, 1-0-2 is pretty good for me.  

 

Let's hope I get to hold another of these drafts soon!