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:
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):
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.
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!
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