Spiders amidst Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

I got real lucky and drafted with a group of seven earlier this week.  We had a real good group of people and all my games were fun.  With Spider-Man recently released, there was a lot of that in the pool of packs:

This is one of the most eclectic collections of packs I've ever been a part of.  It definitely helped that the player to my left turned the excitement up to eleven with three collectors boosters!

 

I actually passed on a lot of dual lands, which should have hurt me more than it did.  Instead I picked up other sources of mana fixing: three mana dorks, two land cyclers, and two Capenna exile-fixers.  Not to mention Ignis Scientia.  Here are all my picks:

Behold the Sinister Six seems especially good with the land cyclers.

 

I built a deck with a high curve, but I thought I could manage it, especially with three copies of Guy in the Chair.  Here's what I ran:

I even cut the total land count down to 16 this time.

 

I have really come to love seven player drafts.  The odd number of people is an excuse to do single-game (BO1) rounds and I like playing a lot of different people.  Although I enjoy a single best-of-three round better than a single game, I wouldn't be able to get six rounds in for this, and the tradeoff is more than worth it.  

In the first round I was up against a Boros deck named "Iroas, God of Aggro".  They played Resplendent Marshal on turn three, followed by Iroas, and then Weapons Vendor.  That put me at 14.  I drew into Ignis Scientia and felt pretty good.  Then my opponent played Genji Glove.  

That's 14 damage I can't block.

Dead on turn 6.  That player wound up going undefeated and winning the entire draft.  0-1.

In round two I was up against Dimir "Black Cat, Deck Thief".  I got out a Fearless Fledgling on the second turn, but that ate it to Breathe Your Last.  Completed Conjurer took me to eight life, but then I bounced back with a Shattered Seraph and the board started to get real big.  My opponent stole four cards from my library with Black Cat twice using Valgavoth's Faithful.  I played Behold the Sinister Six, but it wasn't enough to win in a single attack.  My graveyard was nearly gone due to some milling and the Black Cat, so I went in with as much as I could.

I got some damage through!

Unfortunately, my opponent got to seven mana and killed me with my own Rhino.  In fact, they used all four of my cards in the process of killing me.  0-2.

I had now had one very quick death and one longer death.  My third game went even longer still.  My opponent was playing Simic Jackal, but they didn't get Jackal until nearly the end of the game.  They had a good early combo with Raving Visionary and Containment Construct.  I didn't have to cycle Timberland Ancient, however, and played it turn six, but it went back with a Gust of Wind.  I instead played Rhino the following turn, but it got killed by other removal.  Doc Ock hit the board and then there was a bit of a standoff between him and the Visionary and my Ignis Scientia as I removed cards from their graveyard to try and keep the eight-armed villain turned off.  I didn't keep up, though, and shifted to disappearing creature bodies in order to keep my life total from dropping too fast.  They played Wingspan Mentor, which I had to finally hit with Rumbling Rockslide (for 11 damage) to prevent their flyers from getting too big.  

They definitely got bigger than pictured here, though.

This time Behold the Sinister Six saved me and I was able to replay some flying blockers.  I blocked the big stuff often enough to stay alive and won by decking my opponent out.  1-2.

In round four I was up against a Selesnya deck packing Cultivator Colossus.  They got stuck on a one-land hand, but then proceeded to flood out.  I had a sketchy initial hand (despite our free mulligan rule for BO1) but got fixed with a Tranquil Landscape on turn 1 to fetch a Plains and then by cycling the Timberland Ancient on turn two.  I played Guy in the Chair turn three, my Cloudbound Moogle on turn four, then got Alrund down and started hitting big.  With a well-timed Blitz Leech, (but mostly thanks to their flooding and also not finding the Colossus) I won.  2-2.

I faced a mean Naya Kraven deck in round five.  My opponent played their Kraven on turn three, but I got out Rip on turn four and put it them to use the very next turn.  I had plenty of land, so that creature advantage got me to Rhino on turn seven and I won.  3-2.

With seven people, there are 21 total matches in order to complete the round robin.  We had finished 20 of those, but my final opponent had had to leave.  Thankfully we agreed to play the next day via SpellTable.  I really love it when everyone gets to play everyone, so I was especially grateful that all the other matches got to happen.  (I usually end up being a bottleneck since I play a bit slow and get distracted doing minor host things.)  

Since everyone else was done, I had the advantage of knowing all the standings.  I had started 0-2, but my three game win streak put me in great position.  Aside from the Iroas player, no one else had won four rounds.  There were two players at 3-3 and my final opponent was at 2-3.  I only needed to defeat them to come in second place in the draft, a huge improvement from starting 0-2.

We sat down online the following night, my deck versus "Rakdos Decree of Justice".  (The white splash was only for Decree of Justice, apparently.)  We both had to mull, myself twice.  My opponent got a turn three Ahriman that I had trouble with.  I got Drannith Magistrate out, then Littjara Kinseekers.  That second one bit it to a Steel Wrecking Ball, then they swung in with Comet Crawler, which ate the ball to get big.  I had some other blockers to kill it, but I went to 12 in that combat.  I decided to lay out Spider Gwen, Free Spirit instead of saving for the Blitz Leech to kill the Ahriman.  I was thinking that I needed to dig for options right away.  Unfortunately, they played Archpriest of Shadows (have I mentioned how much I love wacky drafts?) and backed the Ahirman up to grab the Comet Crawler again.  It was 9 to 25, but I still thought I had a chance.

Then they played Kaldra, Compleat.  I survived only one attack from it and then died the next turn.  3-3.  

There were four of us now that finished 3-3.  Using head-to-head as the tie-breaker (opponent match and game records don't really matter in a complete round robin) one of the other 3-3s came in second and I came in a three-way tie with the others for third/fourth/fifth.  Oof!  

But this was another super fun wacky draft!  I think the biggest takeaway is that all the additional mana fixing really worked out, even though lands are still the best form of it.  

Happy Magicking!

Ravnica Clue Playthrough

I used my Ravnica Clue box set tonight and it was wicked fun.  Unlike the last time I played with the combined Clue rules, I studied up on how to take notes using the provided sheets.  I made sure to get the three other players prepared too and we sat down to play.  

Right out of the gate, we... did things wrong.  We shuffled the suspects, weapons, and rooms and picked one of each for the Confidential Envelope.  Then we dealt out the rest of the cards until they were gone and started to note what we'd got in our individual sheets.  

Unfortunately we didn't take two room cards out first.  Whoops!  Back to square one.  Sort out the clue cards again, shuffle the three piles, select one of each for the Confidential Envelope, remove two rooms and reveal them to all, then deal out the remaining sixteen cards.

Then we started to fill out our sheets with the cards we'd gotten.

Here's one of the sheets.

I labelled the four columns with our names and added an extra space on the right for the envelope.  I got the suspects Apothecary White and Senator Peacock, the Lead Pipe, and the Hall.  So, I put a circle in my column for those four cards (indicating that I have that card) an X in the other squares in my column (indicating that I don't have those cards) and an X in the other squares in the rows of those four cards, indicating that other people (and the envelope) don't have them.

My sheet after making off the cards I started with.  Looks a lot like a logic puzzle!

The player to my right won the roll to go first.  The packs they (P1) opened were Gruul and Rakdos.  I opened Izzet and Azorius.  The player to my left (P3) got Izzet and Selesnya, and the player across from me (P4) got Simic and Boros.  We sleeved, shuffled, and got down to playing, starting with 30 life each.  

Under the Combination Clue rules, there are two ways to win.  The first is by killing all your opponents via Magic rules.  The second is by solving the murder.  At the end of any of your turns, you may make an Accusation.  You announce your guess at the three cards in the Confidential Envelope.  Then you check the cards in the envelope.  If you guessed right, then you win.  If not, then you cannot make any other Accusations for the rest of the game (or Suggestions) and you can only win by normal magic rules.

In the first turn brought a land each, except that P4 also played a Novice Inspector.  I got an Erratic Visionary, which meant that I could block the inspector.  On their second turn, P4 attacked P1 instead, dealing one important point of damage.

Why is that damage important?  Because if you deal combat damage to one or more players, you get to make a Suggestion.  You "suggest" one each of a suspect, weapon, and room.  Then you go in turn order of the people still alive that were just dealt the damage:

• If that person has one of the three cards, then they secretly show you (who made the suggestion) one of those cards of their choice.  Then they get a treasure token and this process ends.
• Or, if they don't have any of the cards, they pass (they're not allowed to lie) and it moves on to the next person who was damaged.

You keep doing this until either everyone has passed or one person has shown the Suggester a card.  (The reason you only worry about the people still alive is that once you die, you immediately reveal all of your Clue cards.)   

Additionally, if you don't deal any combat damage on a turn, you can make a Suggestion by Collecting Evidence 6 (exiling 6 mana value worth of cards in your graveyard) at the beginning of your end step.  Two points about this:

• This happens before you decide whether to make an accusation, and
• You treat this as though you've dealt everyone combat damage.
  

Finally, this last rule makes it seem like you can only make one Suggestion per turn, but I don't actually see anything about whether or not you can make more if you have first or double-striking creatures or have a way to get extra attack phases.  I don't see any restriction in the rules, so I have to assume you get to do it multiple times.

Back to the game!  P4 dealt P1 one damage with the Novice Inspector, and Suggested that Mastermind Plum killed Guildmage Boddy with the Candlestick in the Conservatory.  P1 had one of those cards and had to show it to P4.  Obviously, P4 got a lot of information here, but myself and P3 got a little as well.  We knew that P1 had one of those three cards.  I noted that by drawing a little number 1 in each of those three boxes.  (If this happened again, I would use a different number.)

Added the three number 1's.

On my third turn I cast Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy, then attacked P3 with my Visionary, dealing 1, and Suggested that Emissary Green murdered Boddy with the Wrench in the Dining Room.  They passed, unable to reveal any cards.  This gives me a lot of information, but unfortunately also gives it to the other two players as well.  

P3 does not have Green, the Wrench, or the Dining Room.

P4 hit P3 on their turn and Suggested Peacock, Lead Pipe, and Library.  P3 had to Pass, which gave me less information than the other players since I held two of those cards.  Drat!

I only got to cross off one box.

On my fourth turn I attacked two different players (thank you, Lavinia, for having Vigilance!) but only got through on P3.  I Suggested Plum with the Rope in the Study and P3 showed me Professor Plum.  Getting secret information is the best case!

P3 has Professor Plum!  Unlike a normal Logic puzzle, you can't go and check off the other boxes in that column because a player can have more than one card of any given type.  You can only cross off those other boxes once you've found all four of the cards they have.

(Note: at this point in the game I messed up my sheet, which I expect is common for Clue-newbies like me.  All the sheets shown here are a reconstruction of what I should have done had I not messed up, so understand that I'm lying to you about what I actually did.)

P4 played Master Biomancer and kept up their aggression on P1, hitting them then Suggesting: Peacock, Rope, and Library.  P1 revealed a card.  I have Peacock in hand, so I drew two 2's:

Now I know P1 has either the Rope or the Library.

P1 played a Spawn of Mayhem, the biggest creature so far, and passed the turn.  I Ousted it on my turn, then attacked and hit P1 and P3 with my creatures.  I Suggested Commander Mustard, the Knife, and the Study.  P3 revealed the Knife card to me, so P1 didn't have to say anything.

That's some good info!  Now I know two of the cards in P3's hand.

Following me, P3 had a big turn with the treasure tokens they'd received, casting both Spellgorger Weird and Goblin Wizardry.  P4 cast Parhelion Patrol and continued their assault, hitting P1 and Suggesting: Peacock, Rope, and the Hall.  P1 had to pass.  Since I now knew they didn't have the Rope, there's only one box in their column marked with a 2 so they must have the Library!

 

X out the Rope because they passed.  (No need to X out Hall because I already have that card.)  The only 2 left is the Library, so they must have the Library.  The 2 gets (more or less) covered up by the circle.

 

I Repealed P4's Parhelion Patrol before my sixth turn, then untapped and cast Azorius Arrester so that I could swing in safely on P4 and finally get some information out of them.  I Suggested Green, Rope, and Secret Passage.  They showed me the Secret Passage.  Excellent!  

P3 followed on their turn by hitting P1 and P4, Suggesting: Peacock, Candlestick, and Hall.  P4 passed, but P1 revealed a card to P3. Since I had both Peacock and Hall, I knew that card was Candlestick.  

P1 has the Candlestick.  I erased the other little 1 because now one of the cards from that group had been confirmed.

P4 replayed their Parhelion Patrol, then hit P1 and P3, Suggesting Green, Knife, and Ballroom.  P1 Passed, but P3 revealed a card to P1.  I already knew that P3 had the knife, so the reveal gave me nothing.  The other player's pass did, however.

I still got two X's.

P1 started the seventh round, replaying their Spawn of Mayhem, followed by a Firespout using both green and red mana.  Thankfully I had Rally to Battle and saved my team of three-toughness creatures.  On my turn I made a bad attack and only got through on P3.  I made the Suggestion: Green, Rope, Billiard, and they had to Pass.  I probably should have asked something else, as I already knew they didn't have Emissary Green.  Nevertheless, I got two more Xs.  I played a Thunder Drake and passed the turn.  

Keep gettin' those X's.

P3 played an Ecstatic Electromancer, cast Overcome, then hit me with their Spellgorger Weird for 8 damage.  This was my first damage!  They Suggested: Peacock, Rope, and the Hall.  I decided not to reveal Senator Peacock since many people had been asking about her and showed P3 the Hall.  It now became clear to me how important it was to not get hit so you could keep your own information hidden. 

At the end of that turn, P4 flashed in a Scuttling Sentinel, which was beefed up by the Biomancer, which then got pumped up itself.  Then, on their own turn, they played a Skitter Eel which got three +1/+1 counters automatically.  Suddenly they were gained Archenemy status.  They made a crushing attack on P1, Suggesting Green, the Wrench, and the Billiards Room.  P1 had to Pass.  

Two more X's.

P1 cast Incriminating Impetus on their own Spawn of Mayhem, then hit me for six, putting me to 15.  They Suggested: Peacock, Pipe, and the Hall.  I didn't want to share the same information that I had with P3, so I showed them the Lead Pipe card.  

On my eighth turn, I drew Supreme Verdict.  Awesome!  Then I attacked but only got through on P4.  I realized then that I probably should have used the Collect Evidence version of Suggesting so I could get information from more people instead of just one.  I Suggested Scarlett, Rope, and the Ballroom and they had to Pass.  Crossing the Rope off of P4's options meant that no one had it; it had to be in the Confidential Envelope!  I knew the murder weapon!  This also meant that P4 must have the Wrench.  I cast Trusted Pegasus and passed.  

The weapons are all figured out!

The rest of the group was acting pretty confident right now, though I still felt like the room was unknown.  On their turn, P3 cast Affectionate Indrik, fought and traded with the Scuttling Sentinel, and then attacked me with the Weird for six more damage.  They Suggested: Peacock, the Rope, and the Billiard Room.  I finally had to show someone my Senator Peacock card.

P4 played Sunhome Stalwart and attacked P3 for ten damage, then Suggested Green, the Pipe, and the Ballroom.   P3 showed them a card.  I knew they didn't have Emissary Green, nor the Pipe, so they must have revealed the Ballroom.  

Put it on the sheet!

P4 wasn't done yet, though.  They then spent their Accusation: Green, Pipe, Conservatory.  Whew!  I knew that wasn't right since I had the Pipe card.  They checked the Confidential Envelope, saw they were wrong, and the game continued.  P4 now could not win via Clue, though everyone thought they had the best board state and could win via Magic rules. 

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to put for an Accusation.  If they were bluffing (which might be the right play) and had one of the three cards they said, then they might not have the things they guessed.  If it was a genuine Accusation, which I believed, then that meant I knew exactly what the solution was.  Here I used an A to denote that that was part of an Accusation.

Starting off the ninth round, P1 decided they needed to try to finish the game immediately too.  Their Spawn put them from 11 to 10, so it got a counter as well.  Then they cast a Vindictive Vampire and attacked to put P3 down to two life.  They Suggested: Green, Wrench, Study.  P3 Passed.

Only one new X: P3 doesn't have the Study.

Then P1 used their Accusation: Green, Wrench, Billiard Room.  They checked and were wrong.   

It was time for me to try to win.  Accusations happen at the end of the turn, so I wanted to make sure P4 couldn't win with their massive biomanced-creatures.  I dropped the Supreme Verdict.  P4 did have a Slip out the Back to save their Biomancer, unfortunately.  I hadn't attacked because I wanted to check my solution with everyone first.  So I used the Collect Evidence 6 ability to get a Suggestion: Green, Rope, and the Billiard Room.  Pass, Pass, Pass.  P4 hadn't been lying.

I Accused the same thing: Emissary Green with the Rope in the Billiard Room.  I checked the Envelope and won!

This was so much fun!  I'm really glad I read up on how to play Clue better because that made that part more meaningful than when I played last time.  Here are some quick thoughts:

• I thought that 30 life would be too much, but it was just right.  The game ended with people getting low (P3 had one life at the end) but with everyone still in.
• I'm not going to save the cards to use again.  I'm a bit conflicted about this, but I didn't do a good job of keeping the different groups separated after we finished.  I'm also a fiend for reasons to open new packs, so...
  
• I want to see what else works with this system.  Is it fun to open non-Clue-Jumpstart packs for this?  I guess the only thing that might make it less fun is if it would be better with a different amount of starting life.  Hopefully I can find other groups to try out different scenarios at 30 life.
• How does this work with more or fewer players?  I suspect that the most important part is having an equal number of clue cards dealt out at the beginning.  After removing three for the envelope, the total is 5 + 4 + 9 = 18.  With four players, you remove two rooms to get to a multiple of four.  With five, you'd want to remove three to reach 15.  With six, you wouldn't want to remove any.  I would definitely be interested in trying those two options out! 
• If I play this again, I'm not going to go as deep with recreating the process as I did here.
  
• Is there a way to mix Magic and the opposite of Clue: Kill Doctor Lucky?

Happy Magicking and I hope you solve the murder!

Spider-Man Prerelease (WUBRG Sealed)

I got to play in a Spider-Man prerelease last night at Intergalactic Plastic.  I hadn't paid close attention to spoiler season, but the Hero and Villain themes looked pretty fun as I was opening packs.  (I should take a photo of all the packs as they came, but I forgot.)  

Someone brought Spider-Man Gogurts, so you get this non-card-pool photo instead.

 

I struggled to figure out what to do until I opened Doc Ock's Tentacles.  I learned to draft during Onslaught Block and especially liked the mana-value-matters Scourge, so I went with that.  In addition to the tentacles, I had Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Angry Rabble, Sun-Spider to fetch the equipment, and five creatures that would arrive with the tentacles.  I also got Tombstone, so I ran a bunch of villains.  Here's my deck at the end:

That Electro's Bolt was sometimes another Stegron or Spider Manifestation.

By chance I sat across from my first opponent, who I know well, while opening and deck building.  They had cards for two awesome decks, each likely better than mine: a web-slinging hero deck and a villains deck.  They pulled out the hero deck first.  We were both stuck on three lands and they didn't get any of their two Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionaries.  Nevertheless, their web-slinging got a bunch of efficient creatures down, especially Spider-Ham and his anthem-effect.  I was down 20 to 5, but with Superior Foes, got my engine going once I hit four land and I won the value race to win.

In game two, my opponent switched to his villains deck.  (Seriously, how fun is that?)  I got a Guy in the Chair, but it got killed right away.  Then he played Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist and the countdown to an eight-card graveyard started.  In the meantime, I got Sun-Spider to search up the Tentacles and got to work.  With the Superior Foes, I generated all kinds of value and won again.  1-0.  Note: Superior Foes was amazing in both games to the point where I misplayed a bunch with the exiled cards and still pulled it off.  We played two bonus games and traded wins there.

In round two I was paired against a speedy Rakdos deck.  I got Sun-Spider to search up the tentacles, but then got stuck on those four land.  Meanwhile, my opponent was hitting with Scarlet Spider, Kaine and other efficient creatures.  I went to six and then three life when I finally caught up and got Spider-Rex down with two other creatures.  Then they cast Alien Symbiosis on their Taxi Driver.  With two three-power menace creatures against my two blockers, I was dead. 

This killed me.

 

In the second game, I had some early plays with a turn two Spider Manifestation and turn three Spider-Woman, who started flying in for damage.  On turn 6, I got out Spider-Rex, but it was killed by Venom's Hunger.  I was stuck without black mana and with four black cards in my hand.  A Scorpion's Sting then finished off Spider-Woman and the board stalled out with me up 15 to 8.  I drew into a Swamp to break the stall and won out.

In game three, my opponent got a turn two Merciless Enforcers, a great little card.  Thankfully, I got early Tentacles and a mana dork to drop Venom, Evil Unleashed on turn four.  An 8/9 deathtoucher is pretty sweet and I won three turns later.  2-0.

In the third round I faced a mostly-black (I think) Dimir deck.  I hadn't seen Merciless Enforcers before the prior game, but then it showed up right away in game 1 here.  My Superior Foes didn't stick on the board as my opponent saw the danger immediately.  I cleaned up the other threats on the board, but the Enforcers got three +1/+1 counters and marched their way to victory.

In game two I thought I was going to hold on a bit better, but those same Enforcers got a +1/+1 counter and took me down to six.  I managed to take it out as well as another Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist.  Unfortunately, this was followed up by three big creatures: Superior Spider-Man, who cloned the Doc Ock; Venom, Evil Unleashed; and finally Spider-Man Noir.  2-1.

Overkill at that point.

This was a fun event, made more fun by the Spider-Man theme and the atmosphere.  Nevertheless, I enjoy drafts more and I'm looking forward to getting in on one of those next week.

Happy Spider-Magicking! 

Some Vanilla in the Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

I got a wacky draft going this week with three friends.  I didn't do well, but I had an absolute blast.  Here's what we all opened:

One of these is not like the others.

The blister-packed Edge of Eternities pack is something I picked up at GameStop to spend my monthly membership cash.  This might be my favorite part of wacky drafting: using random boosters you collect on your travels that otherwise would just be opened alone.  Of course this means that I just never open draftable boosters without being a part of some magic-playing activity.

Back to the action!  Right before we started, one of the players mentioned that I was going to have a hard time going WUBRG with only four of us.  They weren't wrong, so I drafted mana fixing highly.  This cost me in value in other cards, but it worked out.  One interesting thing we did during the draft was allow one player to "buy out" their pack after they opened four rare/mythics in their pack.  This let them keep those cards and open a new pack for the draft.  I'm not sure exactly what the rules should be for this practice, but I'm very interested in avoiding feel-bad situations based on opening extreme value in packs.  (I first heard of this practice for the Journey to Nyx "God Packs" which contained one of each of the god cards from the block.  Here's a Reddit comment of someone who saw one opened during a draft.  My local store at the time, Game On Cafe, said they would let drafters buy out if they opened one.)

With mana-fixing high in my mind, here's what I picked:

Pack 1, Picks 2-5: all fixing.

There are a few combo pieces going on in here.  Fang-Druid Summoner tutors up Caelorna and Quakestrider Ceratops, while Wispdrinker Vampire triggers on the many little creatures I pulled, as well as the disguised Branch of Vitu-Ghazi.  There's also some clue-synergy with Rope, Magnifying Glass, and Curious Cadaver.  Here's the deck I put together:

This seems like a great deck!

We had decided to play best-of-three rounds and try to finish the round robin.  I got to work against an often-Witch-Maw player who built a great Jeskai Horse ("Jequestrian"?) deck this time.  Before we started slinging spells, I mulliganed three times, getting one land in all four hand attempts.  At this point I was reminded of a story I heard of a player mulliganing to zero in game one.  (I think I read about it in an old magicthegathering.com article, but I couldn't find that.  I did find a mention of it on an old MTG Salvation post.)  I kept the hand of four and got lucky enough to draw lands on turns two and three, keeping me in the game.  My opponent got an early Captain Howler, which I managed to kill in combat.  I made a big strategical error, however, and with Colos Landscraper and Topiary Panther in hand (but no Forests) I cycled the Colos to find a non-Forest basic land, hoping I would draw into some green sources.  I paid for my hubris by drawing multiple green cards in a row and lost the game.  

In the second game, I wised up and kept a five-land hand.  Then I proceeded to draw four lands in a row.  My opponent started up a combo draw engine with Vnwxt and Prince Imrahil. 

Am I too susceptible to getting Max Speed?

I did manage a turn-five Serra Angel, but I had to trade with Shadowfax as I was low on life.  I kept the game going long enough to use the Fang-Druid Summoner to find the Quakestrider Ceratops.  I thought I might be able to pull it off, but my enormous dino died to a Guardian Sunmare with Sure Strike.  0-1.

In round two, I faced "Mysterious Grixis Creatures".  In the first game my opponent was stuck on four land while I got my Topiary Panther out with Rope attached, which got the job done.  In game two, however, my opponent lived up to their name and had three mysterious face-down creatures on the board at once, one with the help of Cryptic Coat.  I got the Summon-the-Ceratops combo again, but it was too late.  

There were too many mysterious Grixians and the local police made us pause our game so they could investigate the situation.  (Actually, the other pair had finished their round and my last opponent had an early morning, so we switched off so my last opponent could get on their way.)  

That final opponent was running "Bad Rakdos" ("Badkos"?  No.)  I got stuck on three land with three 6-mana-value creatures in my hand.  My opponent had Vermin Gorger and was tapping it whenever one of their creatures chump-blocked.  On my last attack, however, they didn't do it and let their blocker die from beatdown.  Why wouldn't they put me from ten to eight?

You guessed it; they untapped and cast Hidetsugu's Second Rite.  I can't remember the last time I lost a limited game to that card!  Is this the first?

In game two, I nearly won via poison.  (I wish I'd had the Urban Daggertooth in my deck!)  Virulent Silencer hit four times, but didn't connect a fifth time.  I got the Ceratops and Serra Angel, but my opponent played their other big bomb: Vein Ripper.  I killed it with the angel equipped with Rope, but that combat completely flipped the life totals and couldn't stay alive.  0-2.

The cops released my round-two enemy and we sat down for our final game.  The boards bogged down early, though the life totals went down as we both had the same ETB damage trigger: me with Warleader's Call and my opponent with Weftstalker Ardent.  In total we had four mysterious creatures on the field at once.  (I had one.)  My Serra Angel died to Blood Curdle.  We were each under five life and I got the Ceratops on the board, followed by Aragorn, Company Leader, but I couldn't stop the flyers.  0-3.  

I know I didn't do well, but this deck was wildly fun to play.  Dropping a 12/8 that I'd tutored up was hilarious.  I love playing with land-cycling creatures.  Even in the face of a winless record, I still enjoy seeing what I can do with the cards I'd drafted, especially after going all five colors.  I'm sure that's not for everyone, but I highly recommend you try it.

No matter how you like to play, Happy Magicking! 

Repack Draft #(n+11): The Middle of a Completed Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to run another free draft on Friday night with cards donated to me.  (I don't get to do this often, so it's fun that there were two in a row!)  This time we had seven, two of which were first-time drafters.  I explained the process a bit more clearly this time and we drafted without issue.  Here's everything I picked:

These are hard to read because I don't understand how angles work.

I didn't pull enough fixing here. Four lands and three mana-fixing spells (Chromatic Sphere, Pitiless Plunderer, and Crossroads Candleguide) didn't really get the job done.  I did draft two big cards with three pips in blue and green, but decided against running them in the end, which I was bummed about.  Here's the deck I put together:

Five-color okay stuff.

 

We had decided on single-game rounds to try and get all the matches in, which we succeeded with!  It was really great to see everyone excited to get all the games in.

In the first round I was up against one of those first-timers and the Orzhov deck they'd put together.  We both mulled twice, but I got stuck on two land.  My opponent played two Drana's Emissary and just kept attacking.  I was dead on turn six.  0-1.

In the second round, against an Izzet deck, I got Arabella on turn two and got up early.  I realized that I didn't have a ton of power-two-or-less-creatures in my deck, but it was enough that I went up early.  I continued to attack while my opponent flooded out.  1-1.

In round three I was up against a Gruul deck with some big Eldrazi in it.  I agained mulled twice, but then I got to play Ravenous Rats and follow it's death up with Surgical Suite to force a second discard.  That card was Bane of Bala Ged, which they had searched up with Fierce Empath.  Unfortunately, I was stuck on three land and they played a Grove Rumbler that I just couldn't deal with.  1-2.

In the fourth round I was up against one of the two Selesnya players.  I played Permeating Mass early, which kept their attackers at bay.  On turn 5 I played one of my Garrison Sergeants and I did have a gate to pump it up.  My opponent trapped it in a Deserter's Quarters after a few turns, but I had a wide board and got to keep swinging in.  I transformed Pyretic Prankster into Glistening Goremonger and forced them to sacrifice the Quarters when it died in combat.  The Sergeant led me to victory.  2-2.

In round five I was up against the other Selesnya deck, also played by a first-time drafter.  They got good stuff and I failed to draw any red sources while my hand kept filling up with red cards.  Even with all my colors I often fold to a bunch of efficient creatures.  2-3.

In the final round I was up against a player who was giving five-colors a try.  I got the Ravenous Rats out on turn two and my favorite Garrison Sergeant showed up on turn five.  That stayed on the board kept the pressure on until I won.  3-3.

We finished all 21 possible matches, and everyone seemed committed to staying to get all the games in.  There were only three records: 5-1 (two people), 3-3 (three people), and 1-5 (two people) which is a bit surprising.  

I'm not sure what I personally learned from this draft, except that I wish I had taken more lands.  I can't remember exactly what I took lands over, though.  Mostly I'm glad everyone had fun!  Happy Magicking!

Repack Draft #(n+10): Sunburst + Converge = Sunverge?

I ran a repack draft last night.  These are packs of cards I've created from cards that have been donated to me.  (Thank you to everyone who donated cards to me for this!)  I mostly use these in free drafts for students.  This year I got a huge donation of cards, many of which were from Battle for Zendikar.  That became pretty relevant.

Last night we had ten players!  I think that many were first time drafters.  A few maybe hadn't played magic before.  A bunch of people only played one round and then bounced.  The drafting part got a big bogged down but on the whole I think people had fun.  (I hope they did!)  Even though we had an even number of players, we decided to play single game rounds (with a free first mulligan) with the goal of getting people matched up against as many different opponents as possible.

At one point in pack two, Zone Drafting wasn't happening and I suddenly learned that there was one zone with a lot of packs (at least four).  They were definitely not getting passed in order.  I intervened and tried to reorder the packs as they were coming around and I managed to reorganize things as they came to me just a few people later, but there should be an asterisk the size of Arkansas as far as drawing any conclusions from this draft.  (The actual lesson is that I should have enforced the randomization of seating.)

I drafted between two of my students who have attended many of these events.  They claimed that they were hate drafting against me, specifically the seasoned player to my right, but I still made it happen.  Here's everything I picked:

Behind Soul of Innistrad is a Path to the World Tree.

 

The number of WUBRG payoffs here is crazy.  Four Sunburst cards (three Infused Arrows and one Opaline Bracers) and three Converge cards (two Skyrider Elves and one Brilliant Spectrum).  I even passed a Suntouched Myr that came around late.  I also had plenty of dual lands.  (I put a non-basic land in each pack as part of my recipe because I have a lot of donated lands.)  Here's the deck I built:

I love me that Boros Battleshaper.

Since many people left after their first game, I was only able to get four games in.  In the first round I was up against a player running a nifty Mardu deck.  There was actually another student who wanted to learn to play, so I let them play the deck while I gave some direction.  We mulliganed twice, then kept a hand that was flooded.  (Out opponent was stuck on Rakdos for most of the game.)  It still led to a turn five full-strength Infused Arrows that kept the board clear.  Our turn seven Boros Battleshaper got nixed by a Daring Demolition, but that meant the turn eight Vengeant Vampire got to stick around.  On turn nine we slapped Vulshok Battlegear onto it and the beatdown began.  It took a long time to deal the final damage, but we pulled it off.  1-0.

In the second round I was matched up against the student who had been sitting to my left in the draft.  They were running a swift Naya deck.  I got stuck on Jeskai lands.  (Apparently there's a downside to running five colors!)  I did get two Infused Arrows and the Opaline Bracers down, but then I got stuck without being able to play any of my green and black creatures while a single Wild Celebrants knocked out my life total in four turns.  1-1.

In my third round I faced off against an aggressive Orzhov deck.  I drew mad gas with a turn four full Inspired Arrows, a turn six Soul of Innistrad, and a turn eight Boros Battleshaper.  It was pretty brutal.  2-1.

In my final round, my opponent was the player who drafted on my right.  They were running a Grixis Eldrazi deck.  (If they're running a ton of huge creatures, does that counts as "control"?)  They actually started their pack-one-pick-one with Shire Scarecrow in an effort to hate draft against me. 

In the game I got an early full Infused Arrows, but they destroyed my only green source with a Violent Impact.  (I'm weak against Land Destruction-type Pokemon.)  I got a full Opaline Bracers and the Vulshok Battlegear down and was punching in with my Wasteland Scorpion and then with a Coalition Honor Guard.  My opponent was stuck on seven land, then got eight and dropped Eldrazi Devastator.  Thankfully it had to block my 9/9 equipped Scorpion in order for them to stay alive.  Soon after they played out a bunch of little Eldrazis.

Can't use that Gravity Negator to give your own stuff flying.  Thanks, Flagbearer!

We continued to play out creatures while I swung with one big beatstick at a time, trying to keep the scales tilted in my favor.  I got a flyer, Shoreline Ranger, and stacked it up with the equipment.  I didn't have to spend a turn fighting through the flying blocker, however, because I drew Boros Battleshaper the next turn and told the Gravity Negator to stand down.  3-1.

I had a great time.  People really hated seeing the Infused Arrows come down, and I don't know that anyone realized I got three of them during the draft.  I hope I can do another of these before too long!  Happy Magicking!

Outlaws of Thunder Junction 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

My Friendly Local Game Store, Intergalactic Plastic, ran an Outlaws of Thunder Junction draft last night.  There is a big convention going on nearby this weekend, but we still managed to get six total people.  I don't have much experience with this format, but I knew that the multi-colored deserts would do me well.  I got real lucky and opened some bombs.

Here's what I drafted:

That's a pretty good way to open a third pack.

I didn't get any Spinewoods Armadillos, but my pool had five big green beatsticks nonetheless: three Cactarantulas, a Colossal Rattlewurm, and a superhero Vaultborn Tyrant.  I hoped to get more lands, but the five fixers I got were good enough.  The pain-deserts commit crimes, so I included the Nimble Brigands to get their Ophidian on.  Here was my deck:

I thought I would run into color fixing problems, but it wasn't really an issue.

 

One interesting thing that happened throughout the games is that instead of opening with a desert from my hand, I would often save it until after a Nimble Brigand came down so I could get a free swing in.  

In my first round I was paired up against an opponent playing synergistic Jund who often beats me at these.  Unfortunately they had to mulligan twice in game one.  I started the game with the Nimble Brigand on turn three, which got hit with Terminal Agony.  Thankfully I had a second one the next turn.  They played a Cactusfolk Sureshot on their turn.  That should have been more scary, but I played a Cactarantula right after and used a Decisive Denial to eat the Cactusfolk.  My opponent used Back for More to kill the damaged Cactarantula, but on the target I drew into another one which I used to win.

My opponent had to mull again in game two (only once).  This time my Hardbristle Bandit showed off its prowess.  Playing a desert meant I still got another tap for mana.  On turn three I played a Nimble Brigand again.  On turn four, I Buried their Rictus Robber in the Garden.  That was a crime, so I had enough mana to also cast Vadmir.  I kept up the pressure on turn five and played Kraum with a Trash the Town on Vadmir to refill my hand with three fresh cards.  The Vaultborn Tyrant came out next turn, followed by Map the Frontier and a Cactarantula.  My opponent scooped with me at 27 life.  1-0.

In the second round I was up against someone I'd never played before, who was running a fast Gruul deck.  They opened game one with a Reckless Lackey followed by a Deadeye Duelist.  I played a turn three Nimble Brigand which wound up getting in many times.  My opponent got stuck on four land, however, and my turn seven Cactarantula was enough to win.  

In game two, I had to mulligan to four.  I was able to claw back into the game with the help of the surveil off of a second-turn Arid Archway.  My opponent played a Discerning Peddler and put Demonic Ruckus on it on turn three.  That wound up hitting me for 19 damage over the course of the game.  I only stayed alive with the help of Rooftop Assassin.  I did manage to get some blockers, but I just didn't often have two at the same time.  Thanks to the Assassin I was able to stay alive and slowly win.  2-0.

In round three I faced off against another player I meet at the table a lot, this time piloting an Azorius lockdown deck.  In the first game I had to mulligan twice, but got right back into the game with a turn two Hardbristle Bandit, turn three Rooftop Assassin, and turn four Trash the Town to draw two and gain four life in the air.  Unfortunately, my opponent bounced it.  Their Daring Thunder Thief and Stagecoach Security were too big for me to handle and I lost.

In the second game, I got the Hardbristle Bandit on turn two again.  This powered out a Map the Frontier on turn three, which got me a desert, which let me attack with the Bandit.  That backfired, though, because it got hit with Steer Clear.  I got out a Rooftop Assassin, then the big beaters started to drop... and immediately get imprisoned.  

Prison effects were the name of this game.

I was winning the game with two Rooftop Assassins swinging in for more than I was losing each turn, but then they played a Shepherd of the Clouds.  Suddenly they had a big board.  My 20-to-4 lead dwindled quickly after some big combats.  I managed to bury the Shepherd in the garden, but they had enough big things to attack with that I was in trouble.  I had many chances to put it away, including when I was winning 11-1, but I just couldn't put it away.  2-1.  I felt like I was close in both of those games.  (Perhaps I should have buried the prison holding my Tyrant in the garden that second game instead of the Shepherd.  I don't know!)

This was a great showing for my deck.  I think heavy-green is the way to go for WUBRG in this set, and the Nimble Brigands are really good.  And, of course, get those deserts.  

Happy Magicking!

Wacky with a Bonus for 45,000 Cards (WUBRG Drafting)

I recently reached 45,000 total cards entered into my database of Magic cards via my bot (currently in Discord form).  To celebrate this milestone, I told my group I would supply everyone with an extra pack, specifically a March of the Machines Aftermath Epilogue booster.  (I had bought a box a month earlier with this plan in place.)  I was hopeful that would draw a bit of a crowd, but we still had four and four is the magic number!  Even better, one of those people was the first (and so far only) person to complete a trade with my bot!  

We decided to open the Epilogue packs at the end and on it's own.  I expected that we would open them and add them to one of the other packs, but I'm glad I was dissuaded from that, because it worked out well on its own.

Anyways, here's what we all opened:

Four packs each!  Exciting!

The drafting part was tough.  I got a lot of great threats but I didn't have good focus.  I had some attempts to combo around counters, legends, and enchantments; in the end I had to choose between them.  My mana fixing was a bit shoddy as well, though it turned out okay.  Here's everything I picked:

"One of these is not like the others..."

 

The only card I really kept from the enchantments theme payoff was the Fear of Infinity.  Recently I haven't had many hard cuts to make, but this time I started with well over 30 playable cards.  Partly because of the extra cards, for sure, but I also just felt like I got a great pool.  Here is the deck I built.  I figured I had enough fixing to run only sixteen lands.  Please tell me which changes you would have made!  (There is one exception card that I was honor-bound to run.)

That exception is the Leyline of Mutation.  I already know I should have run the other Sigarda instead of it.

We decided to do a full best-of-three format round robin.  That was probably a bad idea because I am a slow player and we got a late start, but it was well worth it for me.  I shuffled up against my first opponent, running Mardu lifegain, and got a hand with the leyline but not enough lands.  I mulliganed and got the leyline again.  (I promise I was adequately shuffling and we were cutting... I wasn't cheating!)  I got Invigorating Hot Spring down on turn three with all five colors available to me.  I followed that up the next three turns with creatures that all got hit with removal.  Unwilling Vessel met a Makeshift Binding, the Weight Room (turn five, thanks leyline!) token was Easy Prey, and my Spara's Adjudicators Claimed the Precious.  Fortunately, I had given each of those a nice +1/+1 token, so they got to swing in once each.  I followed those three up with Vadrok, who became a 4/4 with the last hot spring token.  I had a tough choice to make later on with my Drag to the Roots: the Makeshift Binding, a Returned Pastcaller, and a Tunnel of Hate.  I chose the Returned Pastcaller which turned out to be the correct choice.  Vadrok was enough to win me that game, though I won at only three life.

In the second game, I started with an all Simic hand, including the lands.  Nevertheless, I thought I had some good gas with Goldberry and Ent-Draught Basin, which came down on turns two and three.  They kept swinging in with efficient creatures and got me to twelve, then six.  I had to block (I never did anything comborific with those two cards) and let my board die.  On my sixth turn I played the Generous Ent.  Now I had a blocker and a food!

Fox and the Burned Pie

On the next turn, they Abraded my food and attacked me down to two.  That Markov Baron was their Ringbearer, so it skulked right past my Ent.  I lost while they were at 28.  Yikes.

In game three they started off by trading Lotho for my House Cartographer when I swung.  I got Altanak down, but that was met with Makeshift Binding.  I pulled off a great two-for-one when I Dragged to the Roots that Binding when attacked, then ate a big creature with the suddenly-appeared Altanak.  A few turns later it was over.  1-0.

In the second round I was up against the player who has actually used my bot, running another Mardu deck, this time supported by a bunch of removal.  They got a Possessed Goat down and got Sticky Fingers on it.  I did not catch up and lost the first game.  In the second game they started with a Rohirrim Lancer that wound up dealing me around 15 damage.  (It did become the ringbearer and got a +1/+1 counter, which helped.)  I got Sigarda down early, but it stepped into a Quicksand Whirlpool.  I was stuck without blue mana and got my Generous Ent down on turn 6 which stopped the bleeding a bit.  I finally drew Spara's Adjudicators to provide blue mana and played Gold-Forged Thopteryx followed by Vadrok the next turn.  I held Fear of Infinity, but I kept having to delay casting it because I needed a new blocker each turn.  I came out good on a big combat, though I was down 3 against 21 and still facing down the Lancer, Eagles of the North, Coppercoat Vanguard, Savior of the Small, and Seven-Tail Mentor.  I drew an island and cast Tolarian Contempt right before I would have otherwise died.  I survived another big attack but again came out ahead on the board and went to one life.  From there I played the Fear of Infinity and managed to win, ending the game with ten life.  

In the third game that Goat came out to bleat and beat.  I did get Vadrok out, but it stepped into some sketchy looking sand.

Come on!

I did not survive much longer.  1-1.

In the third round I was up against a Golgari deck.  (Yeah, we were all playing black, why not?)  In game one I didn't get to go to the Weight Room because it is a room.

Seriously?  Anthropede?  What?

Sigarda died to Blot Out.  (At least that makes more sense than quicksand.)  I went down to five, but then I played Altanak who got powered up by the Invigorating Hot Spring and won in two turns.  

I mulled twice in the next game and started to die, but Slimy Aquarium created a manifested creature that just happened to be Altanak looking down.  I was down to five, so I couldn't just swing out.  Instead I flipped Altanak when a Bashful Beastie came through the red zone, eating it.  Sadly Altanak died to Blot Out two turns later.  Gold-Forged Thopteryx saved Saruman the White by doubling up the ward 2.  I got the Adjudicators and was able to win from there.  2-1.

Tie-breakers came down to game records and I lost 5-3 vs 5-2 to my first opponent.  It's excellent for things to come that close!

This was a great event.  I think the MotM Aftermath packs were a great choice for the bonus and everyone seemed excited to be a part of it, despite the silly reason to celebrate.  It contributed to a bit of Happy Magicking!