Wilds of Eldraine 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

My local store, Intergalactic Plastic, ran a Wilds of Eldraine draft last night.  These "throwback drafts" are both a blessing and a curse for me.  A blessing because I like mixing things up and a curse because I have so far missed all my chances for a Murders of Karlov Manor draft.  I understand the desire, though: most people who are able to draft often are getting burned out of the current set by now.  I won't complain, especially since WOE is really fun and I had a blast last night.

I looked back at my notes from the previous WOE draft I did.  A lot of that was very specific to the way that draft went, though: Hatching Plans is really good with the Bargain mechanic, and it was very unlikely that I'd get to pull two Hatching Plans.  

My first picks from packs 1 and 2 were Azorius mythics: Hylda and Will!  I didn't run either of them, even though I probably had enough support to get Hylda running.  I also was easily swayed by the prettiness of the Enchanted Tales cards to pick many of them.  (A Curiosity from my first pack even wheeled, and that did amazing work for me.)  Also:

• I was smart about prioritizing helpful lands high, but even then I only got 4.  Two Scarecrow Guides helped round out my mana-fixing needs.
• Multi-colored adventures were a great WOE-specific thing to draft.  (I ran 4 of them.)  
• I drafted a ton of red removal, which turned out to be the best part of my deck.

Here's a photo of all of my pulls:

Hylda and Will sat out this time.

I had a hard time making cuts.  I cut Will because I didn't think the ability would be very helpful.  I cut Hylda because I didn't think I had enough tapping support.  I did go down to only one white card: Charmed Clothier, which was excellent.  Here's the deck I ran:

So much "direct damage".  (I won't stop using that term.)

In round 1, I faced an aggressive Boros deck with lots of little creatures and combat tricks.  I got lucky in that my removal paired up well against those little creatures and that they got a bit mana flooded.  In both games I took quite a bit of damage early on, but came back to overwhelm them.  We finished early and were able to get through most of a third game before the round ended.

I faced my fiercest opponent in round 2.  They had a Sultai Food-and-Adventures deck that was very effective.  Our first game lasted so long that the other matches at our table ended before we finished.  To be fair, we had a bit of a rules quandry that took around five minutes to sort out.  I got stuck at 3 or 4 land and was on the back foot for much of the game.  I went down to 2, but crawled back up with the help of some food and, of course, a large helping of red burn.  They got an Icewrought Sentry that threatened to break through my defenses.  I managed to bounce or keep it tapped for a string of turns while I got in for chunks of damage here and there.  Then I finally had enough big beaters on the board to safely swing big two turns in a row.

In the second game of round 2, we were extremely low on time, so we played quickly.  We made good use of the time (my opponent was desperate for a win and I wasn't going to take away the chance by slow playing) and the board was pretty jammed up when time was called.  Here's the state on turn 3 after time: 

On turn 4 of time, I was able to get enough damage in to win the game.

Round 3 was crazy.  My opponent was running a mono-white mix of aggro and control that seemed very strong.  Especially when, in game 1, they played Blind Obedience, followed a few turns later by Dawn of Hope.  

Brutal.

With every spell they cast, they could pay three more to Extort and also draw a card.  Thankfully, Johann showed up in both games and helped me match the value my opponent was getting.  

Thankfully also a combo!

In the first game Johann comboed with Season of Growth.  If I couldn't cast the top spell from my library, I would drop a creature, scry that card away, and then have a second chance of a playable spell up top.  That value helped me win the first game.  In the second game, my opponent got the combo again.  Luckily I found Johann and Curiosity on a flying otter that got in every turn.  With the extra card draw, most turns I got to play a spell off the top. I managed to win on turn 2 after time was called.  

I never expected to go 3-0, but this deck did work really well.  So many of the cards created a ton of value and I only had one game where I was short on my colors.  The red burn is really strong in this set, and although I took a ton, I also passed a lot.  I'm very excited that this came together so well!