My Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS), Intergalactic Plastic, has had an excellent pattern of running "old" drafts with boxes they have. Last night, they held a Strixhaven draft! As you might expect, I dropped everything to go!
This is a format I'm actually familiar with! Three years ago, I ventured back to my New Hampshire FLGS, Games Ahoy!, protected by my recent COVID shots and a mask, for my first in-store drafts since early 2020. I was so excited to draft in person again, I went to three June drafts in 2021, where I went 1-2 each time. I went back over my notes in preparation for this draft, and that did help a lot. However, as you'll see, I failed in my basic WUBRG needs.
The drafting was fun. I grabbed a lot of lessons, which paid off. I also kept seeing good Lorehold cards, of which I took three Expels. That card was great for me! I picked a Zimone, a Needlethorn Drake, and a Rootha, because I remembered that those were all great. Here are all my picks:
See the issue? I only got three dual lands. While drafting I passed up a Cultivate and an Archway Commons, which seems like quite a mistake now. (I don't remember what I took over them.) There is a bit of a reason for the lack of lands: to my right was another WUBRG drafter. In fact, it was the same player that drafted WUBRG with me this week! They gobbled up most of the campuses before I could even see them.
On the plus side, I drafted a ton of removal. All three Expels went in. I also followed my recommendations from 2021 and ran 18 lands instead of 17. Here's what I put together:
In the first round I was paired up against a Witherbloom (Golgari) player who had Dina and a bunch of life gain effects. I think I lost the first game and won the second. (I could have that backwards.) In the game I won, I mulliganed once and put Rise of Extus on the bottom. I was in such a drawing/searching frenzy with spells and Quandrix Apprentice that on the turn I won, I completed the cycle and drew the Rise of Extus, without having shuffled. We drew game 3; my opponent later said I had the coolest deck of the night. 0-0-1.
In the second round I was matched up against an aggressive Silverquill (Orzhov) deck with a lot of good small utility creatures. This match went better in many ways. I won game one while controlling the board for a long time, but lost game two pretty quickly. In game three, we had time called on us when my opponent was around 17 life and I was at around 5. Unfortunately, my only creature was Zimone, though she was getting some counters from a Sparring Regimen. On turn 2 of our 5, I got my opponent to 15, had a mess of lands out, and played Onyx. On turn 4, I attacked again to put them to 12, but I could only muster four instants/sorceries (I ran out of mana) so Onyx dropped them to 4. I was so close! 0-0-2. Here was the final state of the game:
In the final round, I was up against a Prismari deck that had a lot of good utility spells. Unfortunately, in both games they got stuck without many creatures. I was able to keep their board mostly clear, even when I got stuck without one of my colors.
I was able to win the first two games. In the second game, Dragonsguard Elite got in for a bunch of damage as it grew. 1-0-2.
This went marginally better than my prior Strixhaven outings! I think I did a good job gobbling up removal as it went around, but I missed a bit on the balance between lessons and lands. I think another 1 or 2 dual lands would have made a big difference, as I was sometimes stuck without the right color. I actually think that 18 lands was the right call! In many games I was wishing I had more land to run out because I often had a lot of spells to cast.
Strixhaven drafts are super fun, though. There are so many different ways to lean, even if you're running all five colors. I remember having a blast pulling off a bunch of Lorehold shenanigans in past drafts. If you get a chance to do one, take it!
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