Chaos with a WUBRG Durkwood Boars (WUBRG Drafting)

Is 12 different sets from four drafters too much chaos?  Definitely not!

I managed another draft of four people, and everyone was very excited about using wacky packs.  I opened Dominaria, Rivals of Ixalan, and Dominaria United, three wedding gift packs.  Here was the group's overall choices:

One of these twelve stands out.

I did not do a great job drafting.  I missed a couple of dual lands and should have first-picked a Traxos.  I did, however, maintain my identity: I saw WUBRG and took it, in the form of Tom Bombadil.  Of course, I didn't see a saga the entire time.  Oh well!  Here were my picks:

Seriously, what was with that first pick?

I did manage to make it out with three mana-fixing lands, a Path to the Festival, and a Blighted Burgeoning.  Nevertheless, when I'm in a group this small, I think I need to be even more aggressive about fixing my mana base.  The Maestros Ascendancy did help me win a game, though...  One thing I did well here was to pick up a bunch of removal.  That certainly made a difference.

My mana base was tough.  Here's the deck I put together:

I am very willing to hear about my bad picks for the deck!  Let me have it!  What shouldn't I have cut?  (Besides Tom Bombadil.  I wasn't getting rid of my hard-to-cast Durkwood Boars.)  

We agreed to play single-game rounds because it was a week night and we somehow got a slow start even after gathering early.  One of the attendees also brought six cards that made for the best way to decide who-goes-first I've ever seen:

Rock Lobster, Paper Tiger, Scissors Lizard FTW

In the first round, I was matched up against an aggressive Izzet deck.  I lost quickly to two attackers: Fanatical Firebrand and Balmor.  After those hit the board, some counterspells and bounce spells kept my board clear and sometimes powered them up.  I died on turn 6 or 7, with an uncastable Tom Bombadil in my hand.  0-1. Since we finished so fast, we played three more (exhibition) games while the other match had their first game.  I did not lose all three of those games!

In round two, I was matched up against an efficient Selesnya deck that also took me to the powerwash.  Guardian of New Benalia and Leonin Vanguard came down and started delivering quick beats and card advantage for my opponent, putting me to 14 on turn 3.  In the Trenches hit the turn after, promising 7 damage-per turn from the Guardian.  I avoided a turn 5 loss by throwing down some chump blockers for a few turns, but I didn't get the colors I needed and lost, again with Tommy B in my hand.  0-2

In the third round, my opponent was running Dimir self-mill.  They had a bunch of graveyard-matters cards combined with ways to get cards into their yard, including Monstrous War-Leech.  This time I put up a drawn-out battle and managed to out-value my opponent.  I cleared a path for my creatures (including Tom Bombadil!) but would likely have won by unintentional decking anyways as my opponent burned through his library.  We were able to get in a second game afterwards, and I finally got value out of Splashy Spellcaster, ending the game with four creatures with Sorcerer's Roles.  1-2

I think that with a bit more mana fixing, I would have been in a much better spot.  It's likely that that would have cost me some of my other good cards, though.  Nonetheless, I had a blast with this deck.  I got to cast Defenestrate for the first time ever, and I felt like Tom Bombadil was my commander with the number of times it showed up in my hand.  If only I had had some sagas to feed him!

I've had some great chaos drafts lately, and this one was as wacky as ever.  I love it!