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:
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!
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.
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.
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!
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