Rielle Combos Across Sets: WUBRG Drafting

I got in another 4-person chaos draft last night.  Here are the packs we chose:

How much street cred do I lose for opening two of the same pack?

I opened Rielle and then looked for discard effects as well as mana fixing for the rest of the draft.  I got a bunch of discard outlets: Startling Development, Stern Lesson, Big Score, Jaxis, Echo Inspector, and Psychic Pickpocket.  I also had a payoff in Terminal Agony.   

I thought I took a photo of all of my picks, but apparently I did not.  Oops!  (I know I laid them all out in the usual way...  I need to be more careful!) 

Here's the deck I put together:

Only one dual land!!!!!!!

Okay, two things to note about the very poor land draftage:

• I did make up for it with one landcycler in Furnace Host Charger and two similarly-good mana fixing exilers in Masked Bandits and Spara's Adjudicators.  (I'm actually not sure whether the landcyclers are better or worse than the New Capenna exile-fixers.)
• I failed to get land in part because I wasn't the only WUBRG drafter in the group!  (More on that later.)

Since there were four of us, we did single-game rounds again, though I got in a few extra games here and there.  

In the first round I was up against Abzan aggro.  And... I got stomped.  My opponent just had a bunch of efficient creatures that I was not able to keep up with.  I don't have much to say here, except that I saw Jewel Thief hit the board and thought "Why didn't I draft that?" to myself.  It's such a good, efficient creature and it fixes your mana!  0-1

We decided not to match the winners up together (my preference) so in the second round, I faced off against the other WUBRG drafter.  Over the course of the draft, they kept adding colors, which wound up paying off when they opened Kyodai.  I couldn't believe it!  Thankfully, I got Rielle and awesome synergy cards and they fell victim to the Mana Screw.  

Rielle + Psychic Puppeteer + Jaxis + they are missing black = Profit.

They managed to get down The Temporal Anchor right before the end, but I was able to use Jaxis and the Puppeteer to remove it every turn.  I avoided the damage to my WUBRG-drafting reputation and won.  1-1  (They changed the deck to drop white after that game.)

In the third round I was up against a strong Mardu deck with a heavy emphasis in white.  I started with Rielle in hand, but got on the back foot quickly, soaking some damage and neutralizing threats a turn later.  We had a cool sequence of spells where I self-caused a discard to play Terminal Agony for it's madness cost.

Rielle makes it happen.

They spared their Knight-Errant, but I still got to draw my cards and made them spend their combat trick early.  I wasn't feeling good a few turns later, however, when they played a big creature I don't remember and a plotted Stagecoach Security, gave them both haste, and swung.  I elected not to block and went to 2 while they were comfortably at 11.  I lucked out on the next turn and drew Annie Joins Up.  With that, I killed the only blocker, laid down the Furnace Host Charger, then swung for exactly 11 with the other 6 power of creatures I had.  Close! 2-1  

In the other match, had my second-round opponent won, I would have won the draft!  

Lessons: 

• I didn't get enough lands, but I made up for that a bit with the landcyclers and exilers.  
• Rielle is good.
• Wacky drafting is so much fun!
  

A Chaos Draft Awakens the Trolls: WUBRG Drafting

I got to chaos draft last night in a group of 4.  I did not do great, but I think I learned a bit to improve for next time.  I also think I lost one game because of an off-color companion.

This group I've drafted with a bit recently really loves the chaos part of our wacky drafts.  Here are the packs we've chosen:

The only repeated pack is one March of the Machines.

My draft did not go well.  I under prioritized some lands, and then I barely saw any others.  My reputation for taking dual lands precedes me.  I opened an Evolving Wilds in pack 1, but foolishly took Mythos of Brokkos over it.  (I am a sucker for rares!)  In pack 2, I was wise enough to pick Glamorous Outlaw above Endless Detour, which came around two more.  So... I did learn a bit of a lesson there.

Even if I had grabbed that Evolving Wilds, my draft was not looking good.  Here's what I grabbed overall:

I did try to make something with enchantments after taking the Enchantress's Presence, but I had a lot of cuts to make so I got rid of those cards.  Even after that, I think I made bad cuts.  Here's what I put into the deck.  Please criticize!  Give me advice of what I should have done!

Waking the Trolls is unsleeved because I removed it after the second round for Weary Prisoner.

We decided to run single-game rounds to try and get all three matches in.  This means that we allow a single free mulligan for each player in each round.  I realized that since I had only nabbed two dual lands plus the Glamorous Outlaw (that kind of acts as a third dual land) I needed to choose to be on the draw instead of the play whenever possible.  Sigh.  (I'm very curious what a good heuristic is for this.  I think that if I have five duals or less, I choose to draw, otherwise I can play.  I know it depends on what else is in the deck... but a general guideline would be helpful for me!)

In the first round, I was matched up against Gruul aggro.  It was brutal.  I am quite good at delaying a game, but I lost two games while the other pair was still working on their first.  Paragon of Modernity helped a lot, and actually got my opponent down to 6, but it wasn't enough to keep me alive.  0-1.  (Maybe this was closer than it felt.)

In the second round, I was up against Azorius with lots of delay tactics of their own.  This worked out for me.  I used both Invasion of New Capenna and Invasion of Ravnica as removal, then resolved Waking the Trolls, which put a good clock on my opponent.  When the third part resolved, I had a 3-land advantage, so three 4/4 trolls emerged from under whatever bridges my lands had.  I tried to get Invasion of New Capenna flipped before I attacked with the trolls, but I had to wait a turn.  Because of that, I only got to attack with two pumped up trolls.  That was enough to win that game.  1-1.

This is my only "combo" of the night.  I'll take what I can get!

Nevertheless, I decided that the trolls were too slow and I took it out in favor of the Weary Prisoner, as mentioned above.

When doing a 4-person round robin, I like having the second round not be the two winners matched up.  When that happens, it's possible for the tournament to be decided in that second round.  We didn't do it that way, though, but my last round was against the 2-0 player, so I did have a chance to win the whole thing.  And... I did pretty well!

My third round opponent, playing Abzan, got a lot of early beaters down, and my life dropped a lot until I played down the Weary Prisoner on turn 4.  At this point, they were down to just a few cards in hand, and some well-placed removal got me back in the game, but at a very low life total.  A 1/2 flier put me on a short clock, but I got some good card economy and soon my opponent just had the single flier and was playing off the top.  Day never became night, so the prisoner never flipped.  I got some good cards and started to get control of the board right around when my life slipped to 3.

My opponent then paid 3 to bring Lutri, their companion, into their hand.  (They announced it at the beginning, fear not.)  They couldn't cast it, but they could discard it to their single blood token.  

Evidence: Abzan player with Lutri in their yard.

That was enough as they laid down a menace creature and finished me off shortly afterwards.  I'm not 100% sure that Lutri made the difference, but it was definitely ended things there.  1-2.

All of these games were wicked fun.  I got really close in that last match and I loved the long drawn-out battle in round 2.  Here are some lessons I need to remember going forward:

• Grab the lands!  Ignore the rarity!  (I'm terrible at this.)
• If I don't get enough lands, then I need to pick to be on the draw.  (The line for this is probably around 5 duals.)
• If I'm going to be on the draw, I should probably keep my curve lower.  

We'll see if I can put these into practice next time!

Battle for Baldur's Gate (Wilderness) Draft

My local store, Intergalactic Plastic, held a Battle for Baldur's Gate draft as part of the celebration for D&D's 50th anniversary.  (WPN instructions for the event.)  One highlight of this event is the user of the Baldur's Gate Wilderness dungeon instead of the normal Undercity dungeon.  The other highlight is that drafting started with opening a collector's booster that acted as an initial sealed pool before we drafted the normal three boosters.  (Not to mention the regular rules for commander drafts.)  This was wicked fun!  I'm definitely curious to adapt this kind of format to future events.  (Suggestions are VERY welcome!)

We had 12 players, so we drafted in two pods of 6 and then played in one of three groups of 4 players.

I have to admit that I had the opportunity to be awesome in perhaps the best way possible for this event and I failed.  Not in any of the obvious ways, though.

• I didn't run a WUBRG deck because the most you can have is a commander with a three-color color identity.
• I didn't fail to draft a 3-color legend.  I actually drafted three different ones, all in pack 2.
• I didn't fail to prep for multiple colors.  I got a bunch of gates.

... but I didn't get enough gates: only 7 that I could use with Nine-Fingers Keene, who I was definitely running as soon as I picked it.  Here are my picks (as well as the contents of the initial collector's booster pack.  

Collector's booster on the left, then drafted cards from packs 1, 2, and 3.

I need to spend more time talking about how the drafting portion went.  After opening the collector's booster, I felt really good about going Izzet with Neera as my general.  Nevertheless, I kept my options open for future colors by taking good cards and some color fixing as well as cards that would go well with Neera.  Unfortunately, I definitely passed up some gates in exchange for good cards in that first pack.  

In the second pack, I continued the trend with the first two packs, then saw Keene in the third (note: when commander drafting, you make two picks at a time, because the packs have 20 cards each) and immediately switched my plans to try and hit 9 gates.  Sadly, I only made it to 9.  I did grab some other 3-color legends (and one other Keene) but I stuck with Keene in the end. 

Although Keene took me out of red, I got to use a bunch of other cards I'd opened and taken, including the Morphic Pool I took at the beginning of pack 2.  Here's the deck I built:

I went with 25 lands, but I think I should have gone for 24.

I don't know whether it was a good idea to include the other copy of Keene.  I never drew it, but it would have been useful as I once had to pay 10 when I cast general Keene for the fourth time.

My game pod opponents included Gluntch, Erenis (with a black background spell that never was cast), and Myrkul.  The first thing to understand about this game is that the mana was bonkers.  I got Jaheira out on turn 3, and Gluntch gave me 2 treasure tokens right away; I also got some gates off of Keene's combat damage.  The Erenis player tutored for lands with Explore the Underdark and two Druid of the Emerald Grove.  The Myrkul player also did some land searching, and as soon as it was clear that I could reuse my treasures, I never got more from Gluntch.  So everyone ramped up very quickly.

I got Keene in on the attack multiple times.  Unfortunately, I whiffed on gates twice, even though I still had 4 or 5 in the deck!  Keene was also great for getting the Initiative.  I have to say: using the huge event dungeon was really fun!  We all got to use it.  Here's where we were partway through the game:  (I wish I'd brought a figure to represent me.)

I was the purple d4.  I did make it one step further, to the Grymforge.

The Initiative did a good job of keeping the game going.  Many times it was handed over after every turn.  Life totals dropped and unfortunately mine dropped faster than others.  I held a bunch of strong cards in my hand, hoping to stay alive and play them when it became a duel.  I shouldn't have waited, though.  As soon as the Myrkul player went below 20, they popped off: they dropped a bunch of ETB-effect creatures and used Sivriss to get more value by sacrificing them and getting their effect again when they returned to the battlefield as an enchantment.  

I cast Call to the Void, but it was too late.  Here's what we all picked:

Me: my 2/2 knight token and Safana (Myrkul); Gluntch-player: 1/1 soldier token and my Keene; Erenis-player: their Marut and Sivriss (Myrkul); Myrkul-player: Myrkul and Gluntch.

That... did not work out well for me.  Although we hit 8 different targets, all of the Myrkul players' targets came back as enchantments.  We were never able to get rid of enchantment-Sivriss, so the value from that just kept on going.  I hoped to drop some of my  My life went to single-digits, then the Myrkul player laid down an Agent of the Iron Throne.  They had enough sacrifice effects (treasures and creatures to sac) that they could kill me at instant speed.  Oof.  

My only hope was for some political maneuvering, or getting Pack Weapon down and equipped without noticing the implication.  It was especially disheartening because I drew Eldritch Pact and on the next turn they went to a 14-card library with more than 14 cards in the graveyard. 

I never got a chance to recover.  I died first as they continued to sacrifice permanents for value.  They proceeded to win soon thereafter.

This was a really fun draft.  It was exciting to have the pre-draft sealed pool, and the event dungeon.  I would have liked to play more games, but the single game lasted nearly two hours.  I hope we get more events like this in the future!

Outlaws of Thunder Junction (WUBRG Drafting)

I finally got to a Thunder Junction draft!  I played at my local store, Intergalactic Plastic.  I kept hearing that it would be good, and, yes, it certainly is.  5-color deserts is really fun to play.  

There were six of us in the pod, but dual deserts kept coming around.  I picked up four of those, a Conduit Pylons and a Mirage Mesa.  I wasn't looking as carefully for some other mana fixing cards, but I did get an Outcaster Greenblade and a Spinewoods Armadillo.  I would definitely prioritize those higher next time around.

Here's what I drafted overall:

Sorry for the glare!

As you can see, I got a lot of fun cards.  I would call this a Legendary 5-color deserts deck with some ETB synergy.  Here's the deck I put together from this:

I really need to stop running these flat mana curves.

My big hope was that I would be able to cast a big Villainous Wealth (X=4 or more). That seemed like a pretty good achievement to shoot for.  What wound up happening is far more entertaining.

In the first round, I faced off against an aggressive Boros deck.  I got absolutely trampled.  In both games I missed one or two land drops and just couldn't keep up with the onslaught of creatures.  I lost both games.  0-1

In the second round, I was up against Azorius Draw-Go.  It acted a bit like an EDH deck, with Jem Lightfoote as the general.  In game 1, I had 8 lands and Villainous Wealth in hand, but I felt like countermagic was ready to go against me.  I cast Spinewoods Armadillo first instead, and it got through.  Then, I cast Slick Sequence, which drew out the counterspell.  (I don't remember which one.)  On the next turn, I cast Villainous Wealth for 5 and it resolved.

Boom! Achievement unlocked!

I cast all four spells and won a few turns later off of that value.  I lost game two to the value of Wrangler of the Damned, but won a fast game 3 with a quick barrage of legendary creatures and Vraska Joins Up.  1-1

Round 3 was not so kind.  I just had no idea what I was in store for.  My opponent was playing Mardu Rakdos.  That's not a typo.  They were playing Mardu, with Rakdos, the Muscle in the deck.  That card is an absolute nightmare to play around.  In game 1, my opponent got Rakdos out.  Thankfully my Outcaster Greenblade was big enough to trade with it in combat, and I had an extra piece of removal in hand.  So I swung in, drew the block, they activated the ability by sacrificing another creature, and then I responded with the Void Rend.  Thankfully, I killed Rakdos.  Unfortunately, the ability still resolved and my opponent got to play Villainous Wealth on their next turn.  For 5.  (You've got to be kidding me!)  I got super lucky, though, because they flipped over five lands from the top of my deck.

Cards in exile from Rakdos on top, Villainous Wealth cast below that, my five exiled lands on the bottom.  Boom!  Anti-achievement unlocked!  (The Recycle art playmat has the correct expression.)

This was the second time Rakdos' ability had triggered, so my library was already looking pretty slim.  On my turn, I played out a bunch of creatures and got ready to race with six cards still on top.  On my opponent's turn, they played Rakdos.  A second Rakdos, the Muscle.  I could not believe it.  They milled me out in the next two turns. 

Here are the 21 cards they milled out of my library in game 1.  21.  In Mardu. In a draft.

In game 2, they got a Rakdos out on turn 6 and I just could not keep up.  Then they got Vraska Joins Up from it, giving it deathtouch.  Deathtouch + trample = dead Kyle.  1-2.

What a great draft!  I can't believe I lost like that.  I got the Villainous Wealth achievement and had it cast just as big back at me.  All of my games were really fun, even the three where I got steamrolled.  I hope I will get to more Thunder Junction drafts!