Ravnica Clue + Avatar: TLA Beginner's Box

On a bit of a whim, I picked up an Avatar: TLA Beginner's Box from my FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic.  That's likely a bit unethical of me, since I'm not the intended audience, but I was really excited that it had exactly the right number of Jumpstart decks (not exactly packs) for a five-player game of Ravnica Clue.  

That parenthetical may need a bit of explanation.  The Beginner's Box comes with ten 20-card Jumpstart-style "decks" of 20 cards:

• I don't want to say "packs" because they aren't individually wrapped.  They are all packaged together with divider cards between them.
• There are two for each color.
• All ten are different from the decks that can be found in the Jumpstart boosters for the set!
• Two are designed for a scripted game and are meant to be played one against the other to teach two people how to play the game.  (One is Red (Zuko), one is White (Aang).)
• The remaining eight decks function like individual Jumpstart packs.

I put each of the ten decks in a perfectly-sized paper envelope and kept them with my Ravnica Clue box waiting for the right time. 

This week I got lucky enough to get a group to try it out.  I sat down with three other people to play.  Since there were four of us, not five, we decided to leave the two scripted packs out and used the other eight.  I think it would have been okay for those to be part of it, though.  

We decided to try playing at 20 life.  (A higher number might have been better.)  We rolled to determine who was going first and I was second.  Player 1 (P1) had the Earthbending and Allies decks.  I had Firebending and Attacking.  P3 had Waterbending and Counters.  P4 had Big Creatures and Spells.  For Clue cards, I was dealt the Lead Pipe, the Billiard Room, the Dining Room, and the Secret Passage.  Revealed to everyone were the Hall and the Library.

My opening hand had good land but not enough small creatures to participate in the first few turns.  In the first round the most interesting thing that happened is that P3 dropped a Gilacorn, which they hit me with on the second turn.  They guessed White, Candlestick, and the Ballroom, which I passed to.  

In the third round of turns, P1 hit me with their Kyoshi Warrior Guard (slightly better than Squire).  They guessed better with Mustard, Knife, and Billiard Room.  I showed them the Billiard Room.  With that treasure, I was able to cast Fire Nation Archers on my turn.  That was enough to turn away attackers for a bit.  P3 hit P4 and guessed White, Candlestick, and Ballroom.  P4 showed them a card.

In round four, P1 hit P4, guessing Green, Pipe, and Conservatory.  P4 showed them a card.  P4 later hit P3, guessing Mustard, Pipe, and Conservatory.  P3 had to show them a card.  (At the time I was not sharp enough to notice that this meant P4 probably had Emissary Green.)

In round five, P1 hit P3 and P4.  They guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Dining Room.  P3 immediately showed them a card.  I figured I needed to get in on the attacking so I swung into P1.  I guessed Plum, Wrench, and Kitchen; they showed me the Kitchen.  P3 also hit P1 back and guessed Plum, Candlestick, and Kitchen.  They obviously showed P3 a card.  P4 attacked me with their Turtle-Seals.  I had Roku's Mastery, but only five lands, so I took the damage.  They guessed Mustard, Pipe, and Secret Passage.  I showed them the Secret Passage and gained a treasure token.

At this point, battlefields had started to get pretty wide, but people were mostly attacking with one or two creatures just to make suggestions. 

P1 started the sixth round off by attacking me with their Glider Kids that had a +1/+1 counter.  With the newfound treasure, I was able to kill them with Roku's Mastery, saving myself from having to reveal any new information.  On my turn, I played one of my favorites: Mongoose Lizard.  I took out P1's Haru, Hidden Talent with the ETB.  I didn't attack with the archers just because I was wary of more creatures coming on me.  P3 played Fire Nation Sentinels, but P1 immediately Rocky Rebuked it.  Undeterred, P3 attacked P4, guessing Green, Candlestick, and Ballroom.  P4 showed them a card.  P4 made the big play, however, bouncing my two creatures with Water Whip.  They hit me for six damage and guessed Peacock, Pipe, and Billiard Room.  I showed them the room and put my life counter to nine.

The seventh round started with P1 finishing me off.  Oof!  I revealed my Clue cards to everyone and they seemed pretty confident that the game would end soon.  (This does bring up an important rules question that I'm not sure about.  If a player dies to combat damage, does the person who hit them have to make a suggestion?  The only reason this matters is because it means they couldn't do that and make a Collect-Evidence-6-based suggestion at the end of the turn.)  P1 didn't have enough information to win, however, and passed.  P3 took their turn and refused to attack.  They Collected Evidence 6 to guess Mustard, Knife, and Ballroom.  P4 passed, but P1 showed a card.  P3 then made their accusation: Mustard, Knife, and Study.  It was correct; they won!

 

This game was great!  I did die very suddenly, but that seems to have been a tactical misplay by P4 and P1, as it led to P3's immediate win.  So, there's an open question of whether 20 life was too small.  Here are some arguments for more life:

• It's good when life totals get small right before someone's about to solve the murder, but no one was close to that until my cards got revealed.
• 30 life is the amount for the Ravnica Clue Jumpstart-style packs that come with the set.  These "packs" seem similarly aggressive.  

On the other side, however:

• Killing me did not help either of those players to win.
• Do these packs actually have as much evasion as the Ravnica Clue packs to aid in getting damage through?  Maybe not!

I would love to know what you think?  How much life should we have started with?  More importantly, though, have you played Clue with some other Beginner's Box or Jumpstart packs?  I want to play this format over and over again!  I have already put my other Jumpstart packs together to hopefully use in the future.

No matter how you're playing, Clue or not, Happy Magicking! 

Frepack Draft: Clue and Explorers of Ixalan

I got some people together today for a Ravnica Clue draft using the cards given to me that I've repacked to run free drafts.  Afterwards, we played with the same decks using the Explorers of Ixalan tiles and rules, which turned out to be very fun!  

These packs happen to contain a bunch of Battle for Zendikar cards, which one player capitalized on.  Here were all of my picks:

Two Skyrider Elves?  I knew I liked BFZ!

I forgot just how bad Stratadon is, so I ran it.  My deck was not all that exciting, but I thought it would be able to put up a fight:

Skyrider Elf goes in the 5-mana slot.

We shuffled up, rolled for first (someone won with an 11 on a d20), and sat down to play.  We had decided ahead-of-time to play with 20 life, but I think that was a bit high.  I don't know that anyone was close to dying by the end of the game, especially with these relatively low-power packs.  P1 was running Bant Allies, P2 was playing Izzet Devoid, P3 was me, P4 was playing Sultai, and P5 had built another WUBRG deck!  We sorted out the clue cards and randomly picked one each of the suspects, weapons, and rooms.  For five players, you then remove three rooms so there are fifteen cards left, three to deal to each player.

The revealed rooms with the hidden solution in the sleeve.

I was dealt the Knife, the Rope, and the Library.  I knew a lot about weapons, but nearly nothing about the suspects.

The first few turns were pretty uneventful.  P1 played a 3/4 Tajuru Stalwart on their third turn.  P5 hit P4 later that same turn and guessed Apothecary White with the Candlestick in the Ballroom.  P4 had to pass on that.

On round 4, before P1 could attack, I flashed out Bounding Krasis to tap down the Stalwart.  (It seemed like they were going to attack me!)  On my turn, I attacked P2 with the frog lizard, guessing Peacock, Pipe, and Hall.  They showed me the pipe.

In round 5, P1 had the biggest board (four creatures wide) and attacked me, P4, and P5.  They guessed Green, Knife, and Library.  I was first in the turn order, so I had to respond first.  I revealed the Library, hoping to keep the weapons hidden.  P2 spent their turn hitting P5, guessing Mustard, Rope, and Conservatory.  P5 passed.  I attacked P4 with my Krasis and guessed Plum, Candlestick, and the Secret Passage.  They showed me the Passage.  They then hit P5 and guessed Scarlett, Wrench, and Lounge.  P5 showed P4 a card and gained a Treasure.

P1 seemed to have an advantage in round 6 with their Makindi Patrol.  Their ally deck was humming right along and they played another one to give their whole team vigilance.  They got in for damage on P2, me, and P5, guessing Peacock, Wrench, and Dining Room.  The three of us passed, however a mistake was made here.  P5 heard "Scarlett" instead of Peacock; they shouldn't have passed!  We didn't realize this until much later.  I can't claim I was paying much better attention, because at this point I realized I was forgetting to update my life total.  (I corrected it.)  You really do get fixated on the Clue aspect of the game and can forget that you can also die via other means!  

Still in the sixth round of turns, P2 hit P5 (who was becoming a bit of a punching bag) and P1, guessing White, Rope, and Conservatory.  They both passed.  I also hit P5 and guessed Scarlett, Candlestick, and Hall.  They passed, but I was able to deduce that they had the Lounge from previously showing a card to someone.  Then I played my Skyrider Elf as a 5/5, the way nature intended.  P4 drew a much-needed swamp and hit P5 and me.  They guessed Plum, Rope, and Ballroom.  P5 passed and I had to show the Rope.  There was a silver lining, however, as I was able to figure out the rest of P5's hand due to the process of elimination.  I marked off that they had Commander Mustard and Emissary Green, as well as the Lounge.  Of course, I was wrong because of the prior mistake... but it would have been really good.  (They actually had Senator Peacock.)  P5 finished out the round by dropping the Bane of Bala Ged, but P2 immediately Dispersed it.  Fearing they were going to lose by their next turn, they made an accusation: Apothecary White, with the Wrench, in the Dining Room.  They checked the envelope and it was incorrect, but everyone seemed pretty confident that we were getting very close.  I still had very little idea about the room.

P1 started the seventh round off by killing my Skyrider Elf with Broken Wings.  Then they swung in on P2, me, and P5.  They guessed Green, Pipe, and Hall.  P2 showed a card, which I figured to be the Hall by process of elimination.  (After the mistake, I don't know that that was true.)  P2 took their turn and hit me and P1, guessing Mustard, Wrench, and Dining Room.  We both passed.  Thinking I had P5's cards figured out, I swung at P4 instead, but they blocked with an Eldrazi token.  I still played my Ruin Processor and processed one of their big creatures to gain the five life.  This turned out to be a mistake because they used that card to Collect Evidence 6 at their end step and make a new guess: Peacock, Wrench, and Conservatory.  P5 showed them a card and this is the point where we realized something had gone wrong.  While we were sorting out the wreckage and figuring out the issue, I asked P4 whether they thought they were going to win that turn.  They gave a fervent "maybe".  We decided to minimally punish the mistake with not getting a treasure token for showing that last card and kept on.  On their turn, P5 played back down the Bane of Bala Ged.  At the end of turn, P1 cycled a Winged Shepherd.  

That cycling wasn't a nothing-burger.  Winged Shepherd was a 6-mana spell that had just gone to the yard.  They used it to make a Collect-Evidence-6-guess: Dining Mustard, Wrench, Dining Room.  P2 passed, I passed, and P4 showed a card.  I thought that was probably Mustard, since I now knew that P5 probably didn't have that, but I found out later that it was actually the Dining Room.  Then they made an accusation: Commander Mustard with the Wrench in the Conservatory.  That was incorrect too!  P2 hit me with their team and guessed White, Knife, and Library.  I showed them the Library.  I made a CE6-guess: White, Candlestick, Dining Room.  This is where P4 showed me the dining room.  But, afraid I wouldn't get another turn, I also took the accusation gambit: White, Candlestick, Ballroom.  That was not what was in the envelope.  Now only P2 and P4 could still make accusations and guesses!  P4 struck down the Bane of Bala Ged with Oblivion Strike, then made a CE6-guess for White, Wrench and the Conservatory.  Everyone passed and they made the same accusation to win!  

This was a great game where things really came together.  It's crazy that FOUR accusations were made!  I've never seen that before!

The drafting and deckbuilding part of that had taken about 90 minutes, and the game itself had taken only another 90, so we decided to give the Explorers of Ixalan variant a try.  (We asked P1, who had brought it, how long it would take.  The instructions said 30+ minutes.  That + is putting in a lot of work.  It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to play, but we had the time.)  This is a free-for-all format except that you can spend mana to explore randomly-chosen tiles put down on a map in this shape:

It looks a lot like Catan, but it's really not Catan.

The rules are like this:

• On your turn, you can pay the mana cost on a tile to take that tile.  You can only do this once per turn, as a sorcery, and only if the tile isn't touching any tiles of a lower cost.  This is called Exploring.
• The tiles are one of three kinds:
• Events: they happen immediately (they do go on the stack) and then are discarded.  Like sorceries. 
• Quests: They have a triggered ability.  When it resolves, you get some kind of bonus and then they are discarded.  These generally promote attacking other players, which is an excellent way to keep a free-for-all game moving.
• Sites: They grant some kind of bonus.  When someone deals combat damage to you, they can take one of your sites.  Kind of like Initiative and Monarch.  
• You have a token that can be placed on a tile.  At the beginning of your turn it returns to your hand.  When you Explore, if a previously-unavailable tile became available, you can put your token on that tile.  While a token is on a tile, it cannot be Explored.

Us using the tokens incorrectly at the beginning of the game, followed by us getting it right later. 

I did not take as good notes because I couldn't keep up with all the tiles that were getting explored.  Nevertheless, it was really fun and here's a synopsis of what happened.  I went first (winning the die roll on a 12) but I'm going to keep the player name( variable)s the same.  I played a tapped dual on my first turn, but everyone else took advantage of the 1-mana tiles.  P4 flipped the tile "Broadside Assault" which dealt two damage to all opponents.  We started at 20, so now four of us were at 18.  P5 got a Site that allowed them to Rummage (discard one to draw one) at the end of every turn.  P1 got an event that gave them a Saproling and they gained two life.  P2 got Cannons to Starboard, a Quest which let them draw a card if they hit their right-side opponent with combat damage.  

I joined in the fun on my second turn, playing an Evolving Wilds and using my first land to get a tile: Cannons to Port.  On their second turn, P2 (who had been given a 1/1 Saproling from a different event) made the smart move of Exploring before combat.  The Quest they flipped over let them look at the top four and choose one to put in their hand in place of their next draw.  They then got to resolve both Quests by attacking P1.  

On the third round, P4 Explored the first 3-mana value tile, which gave them a Site that generated a Treasure at the end of each of their turns.  This one got passed around a lot!  It was immediately stolen by P5, who now had two sites.  (Note that with the rules, you only get to steal one from a player if you hit them for combat damage!)  

In the fourth round of turns, P4 flipped over "Unwitting Accomplice", which was essentially Threaten.  They hit me with my own Krasis.

On their fifth turn, P5 got the "Blade and Claw" Quest.  This triggered when they attacked with two creatures, giving them each +2/+2 and... menace or something.  They elected to only attack with one creature for a while to save it.  On their next turn, they played the Bane of Bala Ged, which scared a lot of people.  

Somewhere hereabouts I got attacked for a lot from P2, which I wasn't expecting.  I went to 3, but played a gain land on my next turn to go up to 4.  (My apologies if I'm a turn off here!) 

On the seventh round, P2 made a surprise attack against me.  They cast Act of Treason on P5's Bane of Bala Ged and swung with a bunch.

All coming at me!

I went down to 3.  I pitifully played a gain land on my turn to go up to 4, but I also got a Quest that would copy the next instant I played.  Perfect for Nocturnal Hunger!  On their turn, P4 had built a wide array of creatures, though none too big.  They seemed to be the Archenemy.  They Explored a 3-mana-value tile which gave them a 3/3 Trampling Dinosaur token. 

P4's board state around this time.  T.T. stand for Treasure Token.  There were a lot of those flying around.

P4 then placed their reserving token on the only exposed 6-mana-value tile which they had just opened up.  

Little black reserving-dragon for P4.  These are not the actual tokens that come with the set.

P5 immediately took the Archenemy mantle, though.  They Voltroned up the Bane with an equipment and Squee's Embrace.  I considered using Nocturnal Hunger to kill the Bane of Bala Ged before the aura hit, but I held back and bided my time instead.  This was a crucial choice.  P5 and P4 worked out a non-aggression pact and P5 hit P1 for 14 damage to kill them out of nowhere.  I had managed to get a bunch of smallish creatures back on the board, but I was not a big threat to anyone.  

Game note: when setting up the map, you have to be sure to include the tile Orazca, the Golden City as one of the 6-mana-value tiles.  P1 had told us it's really good. 

On their eighth turn, P4 asked P1, "How good is the city?"

P1: "So good."

P4 Explored the first 6-mana tile and flipped it!  On a 1-in-4 chance, they got Orazca, the Golden City.  It is a Site that lets you draw two cards when you acquire it.  During your upkeep, you also draw two cards and deal three damage to each opponent.  P4 took their two cards and passed the turn.  P5 immediately gave up on the non-aggression pact (thankfully!) and swung in.  P2, acting like a bit of a wild card, cast Invigorated Rampage on the Bane of Bala Ged to give it trample.  They dealt 13 in the attack, conquered Orazca, and decimated P4's board.  P2 used their turn to get more damage in on P4.  They were now down to three.

I started my ninth turn by drawing Meria's Outrider.  I had four basic land types (all but Plains), but it looked like a pretty good win condition for me.  I had the lowest life, though, and could not let P5 start their turn with Orazca.  P4 had nothing to attack with, so I attacked P5 and took the Golden City, saving P4's life.  With my extra cards, I pulled Jaddi's Offshoot, which I gladly played before dropping a Forest.  Five life.  I had the chance to Explore for 3, but I forgot to take it.  I had Ruin Processor and Skyrider Elves, but I didn't want to cast either because I might need to cast the Nocturnal Hunger.  I got lost in thinking about casting stuff from my hand, but I did have an extra three mana that I could have used to get another tile.  Oh well!  P4 took their turn and Explored for 3, which got them an event that swapped control of two creatures.  They traded my Kozilek's Sentinel for P2's Thopter token.  This meant that I had one extra flying blocker!  On their turn, P5 killed P4 and replayed the Bane.  They tapped out to cast something else and ended their turn at seven (I think) life.  

On their ninth turn, P2 Voltroned up one of their own creatures and attacked me.  This was their last chance to prevent me from having the Golden City in my upkeep and it seemed strong as they had four attackers and I had only three blockers.  Thankfully I still had Nocturnal Hunger up my sleeve, which I used to kill the Bane, and killed the biggest attacker with the copy.  P2 ended their turn on eight life.

I untapped, hit for three with the city, and drew into a Plains (one of three cards).  I played it, then cast Meria's Outriders for the win with the trigger!  Woo!

 

This day was right up my alley!  I love adding weird things to Magic and these are both perfect add-ons.  I do think that with these Frepacks, Clue would be better with a starting life of somewhere like 15 to 17.  I do wonder whether that would get people drafting more defensively, though.  Perhaps it would have the wrong effect!

For the Explorers of Ixalan, this was my first time ever playing this and... I have no notes.  It seems to have worked perfectly, especially with drafting these packs.  It's supposed to be for three or four players, but was great with five.  I would definitely do this again!  Thank you to the player that surprised us by bringing it and offering to do it.  They actually hadn't played it before either.

No matter what wacky things you add, Happy Magicking!

Avatar: The Last Airbender Draft, Round 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

My FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, held their first Avatar draft and I got to go!  This is usually the most critical event of a new product cycle for me.  I like drafting significantly more than sealed, and if a set is either not popular or really popular, this may be my only chance to draft it for a long time.  If it's not popular, then people might not show up for the second week (e.g. Aetherdrift).  If it's too popular, they might be sold out by that second week (e.g. Final Fantasy).  So, I was really glad I got to go!

I sat down to draft in a pod of nine people.  This is a real good amount for WUBRG drafting; you usually want to be sitting with more people.  Nine to eleven is real good.  (Once you hit twelve, most places will split it into two pods of six.)  We did something I've never seen before: we put the tables into a T-shape and drafted that way.

The best faceless photo I could get before people sat down.

This worked great!  Three people sat along the top of the T and three each on either side of the stem of the T.  It was a little awkward because the people on the sides of the top of the T would be staring right at someone from the side while they were drafting.  (I was one of those people, though, and I didn't see anything I shouldn't.)  

The nine people were all regulars aside from one visitor in town for a Pickleball tournament!  There was a lot of table talk and the newcomer seemed cool with it.  Sadly, I didn't get to play against them, but I loved that they were spending their downtime checking out the local magic scene!  (I don't usually get to draft while I'm traveling.)  

Here are a bunch of things that happened while drafting:

• I took Elemental Teachings early, thinking "Oh look, color fixing," but didn't run it.  I'm not sure this is any good in draft for WUBRG.  If you're looking for a specific color, you need to have at least three lands with different names that produce that color, otherwise your opponent can force any you need into the bin.  Has anyone had better luck with this?  I would rather have a Cycle of Renewal.  
• I half-heartedly went for Shrines.  I only noticed the four that I picked.  They were pretty good, but not good enough for the mana cost.  Is it likely that you'd see more than four in a draft with nine people?  I don't know.  I did get "lucky" in that I passed on the Southern Air Temple in the last pack and it came all the way back around.  
• I often chose landcyclers over dual lands.  I was really excited when I completed the cycler-cycle midway through pack two.  Somehow I still managed to get a good slate of dual lands anyways.  Maybe this is the right way to treat these kinds of sets!  Unfortunately, I also picked them over removal which I was lacking in my pool in the end.

Here's everything I picked:

Let's go Earthen Ally!  I feel like there's a hidden meaning if you're a Rainbow-compatible ally. :)

I didn't have the right cards to run my first pick, the Phoenix Fleet Airship.  Looking back, a food/clue-based build would work.  I didn't do that.  Instead, here's the deck I built:

Dear Rival, does this count as five-color-shrines, or just five-color-soup?

This build has only sixteen lands.  I actually started with fifteen, because of the six landcyclers, but I think that sixteen was probably better.  I had four mana-fixing lands, the six landcyclers, the Great Divide Guide, Energybending, and Cycle of Renewal.  Energybending was not great; every time I cast it, I was just cycling it and not using it to mana fix at all.  

I started off matched up against an opponent running "Gruul Grind".  I kept a bad hand, but I drew into fixing that saved me.  On my fifth turn, I played Earthen Ally, but he was hit immediately by Combustion Technique.  I followed that up with Giant Koi, who was facing down Suki, Kyoshi Warrior, a 1/1 ally token, and (I think) two 2/2 earth-bent lands.  They played Foggy Swamp Vinebender and a Secret Tunnel and a few turns later started used it to hit me for nine unblockable damage, putting me to eight.  I had to drop Meteor Sword the next turn as land destruction.  My opponent played Combustion Man the next turn.  They then went all in for a big attack, targeting my big fish with the Combustion Man.  I took the damage and then blocked what I could, soaking only one more in the end to go to 3.  My opponent tapped out to add a counter to their Vinebender.  I had not damaged my opponent at all, but I took a quick look at my board state and counted exactly twenty.  I equipped the Meteor Sword and swung out to win from what seemed like out of nowhere.  

In game two, I got the Great Divide Guide out on the second turn.  On the next turn, my opponent Rockalanched their Secret Tunnel.  I got Fire Lord Zuko out, which they overmatched with Suki.  I played Southern Air Temple, followed by Northern Air Temple on the next turn.  Unfortunately, in between those turns, they Earthbending Lesson-ed their Secret Tunnel, resulting in a 5/5 unblockable creature.  I attacked for eight, but they killed my guide with Earth Rumble and finished me off two turns later.  

The third game got real exciting.  I pulled off a cool first turn with White Lotus Hideout into the Northern Air Temple.  My opponent got the Secret Tunnel out right away again, but then got stuck on two lands until turn five.  I didn't get to take notes that were quite as good this time, as we were moving quite quickly, but we went to time.  On time-turn 1, I cast Spirit Water Revival waterbent (seriously, that card is great with the landcyclers) hoping to draw into things I could play on turn 3 to attack and win with on turn 5.  On time-turn 3, I played Dai Li Agents and War Balloon.  I had built up four counters on my Airbender Ascension, so I got to flicker Dai Li Agents and double the number of man-lands I was in charge of.  On time-turn 5, I attacked to win...

Here's everything, with some free glare!

See that Pillar Launch on the top left?  That kept my opponent from dying to the War Balloon.  It was the one and only card in their hand.  0-0-1.

In the second round, I was up against Rakdos Facestealing.  In the first game my opponent got mana flooded and I thought that could give me the edge.  Instead it meant they played Rough Rhino Cavalry on turn five, then played Koh and stole my Fire Lord Zuko's face.  On their next attack, Zuko-faced Koh provided six red mana while firebending, so they exhausted the cavalry with only firebent mana.  I tried to get in once with Earthen Ally, but they played Fire Nation Attacks and killed it.  

In the second game, they played both Mai and Ty Lee, Artful Acrobat, but I was doing pretty good.  I used Meteor Sword to kill Ty Lee (I think) and get the advantage on the board.  They played Koh the next turn.

Bye bye, Mongoose Lizard.

I dragged the game out a bit by blocking Koh with spirits from Realm of Koh, but it wasn't enough to keep me alive.  0-1-1.

In the third round, I was paired up against "Simic Venerables" with pseudo-commanders Gran-Gran and Uncle Iroh.  In the first game, they played Gran-Gran on turn 1 and I didn't have a blocker (Great Divide Guide) until turn three.  We both built up a huge board but I got behind on land a bit.  That mattered because they played The Legend of Kuruk and flipped it two turns before I could hit it with Meteor Sword.   They got some of the shadowy spirits out and then played Flopsie.  I didn't have any spirits to block with and died.  This game came close to the end as they only had five cards left in their library.

In game two I got three temples out and had Fire Lord Zuko plus Airbender Ascension.  I was going to start attacking in for real damage...

Those monks are looking real good here!

... but then Flopsie came down again and put a damper on that.  Giant Koi swung in unblockably four times to kill me.  0-2-1.

I only won one game all night.  Only three of the games were really competitive.  All of my games were fun, though.  (I hope my round two opponent didn't mind my over-dramatic comments about getting my face stolen.  I think I'm hilarious.)  I think there's a lot of unexplored space for five colors here!  I do think I wouldn't bother taking Energybending next time, though.  

This really damaged my overall Avatar: TLA draft record, which is now 2-3-1.

Happy Magicbending!

Avatar: The Last Airbender Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

It's prerelease weekend, but those events are Friday and Sunday at my Friendly Local Game Store, so I got three friends over for a short-notice Avatar draft on the Saturday between.  I didn't prep by looking at cards ahead of time, but I quickly learned what to look when WUBRG drafting:

• There are landcyclers in each color.   
• There are common duals in each color pair.  There are also some filter lands you should be on the lookout for.
• There are three lessons (two in green) that search up basics.  
• I got Hermitic Herbalist and I'm sure there are other good mana dorks. 

I think there are a few five-color fauxchetypes (faux + archtypes) you can shoot for:

• Shrines.
• Enters-triggers (synergizes with airbending)
• Leaves-triggers (also synergizes with airbending) 

I drafted pretty well, even considering that I got distracted plenty by some fancy-looking cards.  I got Diligent Zookeeper early and kept my eye out for non-humans to grab from time to time.  Here are all of my picks:

Aang!

 

I made a few changes over the course of the games.  Here's the deck I wound up with, though I didn't start with Spirit Water Revival in the first game and I tried to force Suki, Courageous Rescuer when I probably shouldn't have:

We attempted to complete the round robin, but didn't quite make it happen that night.  I started off against a relatively new drafter who was running an aggressive Rakdos deck packed full of removal.  They seemed to be having some trouble getting enough land in a bunch of games.  In our first, they were stuck on two land until turn five.  Nevertheless, they curved into Callous Inspector and Corrupt Court Official.  I fell back a bit until I got Appa, Steadfast Guardian out.  I attacked the next turn and dropped Twin Blades to hit for eight.  My opponent killed Appa the next turn with Barrels of Blasting Jelly.  Shortly after that, however, I drew into Hama, which got me the Barrels, which I used to kill a Rough Rhino Cavalry.  I got Boiling Rock Rioter, which I used to fish Aang, Swift Savior from my graveyard and win.

In the second game, I had to mulligan twice.  Callous Inspector showed up on turn one again, followed by June, Bounty Hunter and then Vindictive Warden.  I thought I was going to catch up when I got down Iguana Parrot followed up by Diligent Zookeeper.  That let me get in once with the 5/5 lizard parrot, but my opponent committed a Heartless Act on it on their next turn.  They got a Rough Rhino down and activated it on the next turn to kill me.  

One player had to leave early and they finished their first match at this same time, so we delayed our third game and I switched off to round two.  This time I was matched up against a Jund deck with lots of earthbending.  In our first game, nothing happened until turn three when I played Long Feng, Grand Secretariat.  My opponent got out The Boulder and used Rocky Rebuke to kill Long Feng.  I got my first Mongoose Lizard out and took out The Boulder, only for my opponent to cast a second one.  My opponent swung out for a big attack, but I flashed Aang out, then untapped, flipped him, and attacked with my team for an unexpected 16 damage. 

In game two, the beginning was tough and I was facing down an Ostrich-Horse, Foggy Swamp Vinebender, and Badgermole after my opponent's fifth turn.  I had to trade a Cat-Owl with the Vinebender and then got Giant Koi down to stay alive.  It died to Allies at Last, but recovered with a Mongoose Lizard on the next turn.  The Boulder landed again, then Bumi with all three lessons.  

It's not looking good for Homestar Runner.

My opponent had the ability to earthbend a Foggy Bottom Swamp, so they did that, then sacrificed it to draw a card, which put it back on their board.  They knew they couldn't delay for too long or I would draw into something great.  They launched an all-out assault, which I survived thanks to two Ally tokens from Suki.  I was able to keep my Mongoose alive and then attack back on the next turn.  I played the Twin Blades and won off the extra pump from Suki.  1-0.

During that game, in the other match my first-round (Rakdos) opponent was having trouble with lands.  We asked how many lands they had, and they realized they had reversed the numbers, running 13 lands and 27 spells instead of 17 and 23.   I matched up with them to finish our round, now in danger from a fully-land-stocked deck.  I got Long Feng out on turn three, and then they got the Vindictive Warden out.  I played Suki on turn four, which looked threatening and got Sold Out.  The Callous Inspector came out late, which I followed with my Ostrich-Horse (with the counter), and they matched with Yuyan Archers.  I played my Zookeeper.  Before it hit the battlefield, they killed the Horse with a Lightning Strike.  Soon after, they traded the Zookeeper with the Warden and a combat trick.  Throughout all this, Long Feng got bigger and I kept getting in until they were down to six.  They left their Inspector untapped to block on the last turn, but I drew Hama and had seven mana, just enough to steal the Lightning Strike from their yard and clear the path for Long Feng.  2-0.  One of the reasons they didn't have enough late game options is that they got mana flooded.  

I didn't get my third round in that night, but I managed to make it happen on SpellTable the next day.  My opponent was playing Azorius Allies with Teo.  They had gone 0-2, but felt that if they could beat me, it would be a successful draft.  I think this person is my current rival!

In game one, I felt like I was doing great with Boiling Rock Rioter, but Teo came down and became a great draw engine.  Then they played Earth Kingdom Jailer, putting my Rioter into prison.  I got Long Feng down, which got targeted with Lost Days, but I responded by using Appa to airbend Long Feng.  I blocked on a big attack and got my Boiling Rock Rioter back, but went to 1 life.  That comboed real well with Appa, who had perished in combat.  I attacked, got Appa back, and also got an Ally token.  I got Aang down and transformed him and looked like I would be able to pull off the win, but I was slightly short on damage to win in one swing.  Unfortunately I didn't have any green mana sources and had Diligent Zookeeper in hand, who would have given me enough for the win.  Instead, my rival played Rowdy Snowballers to open a path to kill me.  

In game two, I got Aang, Cat-Owl, and the Boiling Rock Rioter all out by turn five.  That gave me enough to transform Aang on turn six.  They played Earth Kingdom Jailers on Aang & La and also played a First-Time Flyer.  I got smart with the Rioter and started attacking so I could exile the lessons to keep the Flyer smaller.   I cast Sold Out to kill the Jailers before an Enter the Avatar State could resolve.  With Aang back, I was able to transform him again and win. 

It can be excellent to watch the pieces of someone's deck come together.  (Warning: the rest of this paragraph is me reminiscing 20 years back.)  Many years ago I played a janky green-red standard land destruction deck at Your Move Games in Somerville.  It used Spellweaver Helix for repeatable destruction with Revive and sorceries like Stone Rain and Molten Rain.  I took it to a standard tournament, lost a bunch, and was finally winning a game.  When I had repeatable land destruction that had tied my opponent down, I asked if they wanted to concede.  They said no, they wanted to see my deck do its thing.  So I continued to destroy every land they played the turn after they played it.  They seemed genuinely interested in watching my deck destroy all their land.  

This final game was like that, except I wasn't kind on purpose.  My rivals turns went: Land, Air Nomad Legacy, Glider Kids, a second Air Nomad Legacy, and then Teo.  I think I was dead on turn seven.  2-1.

All in all, this was a great draft!  There are some really strong synergies across colors that you might not expect.  I am looking forward to drafting this set more!

Happy Magicking! 

Clue Magic for 5 with Jumpstart 2022 packs

A few weeks ago I had four friends over to try out the Clue magic format but using (non-Clue) Jumpstart packs.  We each opened two Jumpstart 2022 packs and sat down to play.  I got Merfolk and Fangs decks (and rolled to go first); player two (P2) got Think Again and Holy packs; player three (P3) got Law and Morbid; player four (P4) got Treasure and Rats; and player five (P5) was on Ferocious and Scrying.

We used a slightly different setup to play Clue with five players instead of the normal four.  After randomly choosing the solution cards without showing anyone, we removed three rooms (instead of two) to leave 15 cards.  That's divisible by the five players we had, so we each got exactly three cards.  The rooms we revealed to everyone were Ballroom, Billiard Room, and Study.  I was dealt the Candlestick, Wrench, and Lounge.

The Ravnica Clue packs are designed with lots of evasion, so that format runs with 30 life per player.  In my opinion, you want people to be making accusations when life totals are low.  We played with 25, assuming we wouldn't be able to deal enough damage with these packs for 30.  We weren't even close.  

I started off turn one with Triton Shorestalker, which I expected to be one of my MVPs in this format.  On turn two I attacked P2 and guessed Commander Mustard, Rope, and Conservatory.  They didn't have any of those cards and passed.  They hit me back, guessing Plum, Candlestick, and Dining Room.  I had the Candlestick, so I showed that and got a treasure for my troubles.  P5 also got in on me, guessing Peacock, Wrench, and Secret Passage, which I passed on.  

I attacked P5 back on my turn, guessing Scarlett, Pipe, and Hall, which they passed on.  At this point some of us were asking to be attacked because they wanted treasures!  That was a weird phenomenon that led to P2 attacking P3 on their turn with their Spectral Sailor.  They guessed Peacock, Wrench, and Secret Passage.  P3 showed them a card and took their treasure.  Wild!  

P3 turned around and hit P4 with a Kami of Ancient Law, guessing White, Rope, and Conservatory.  P4 also showed a card and picked up a treasure.  They paid it forward again, hitting P5 with a Burglar Rat and guessing Plum, Rope, and Dining Room.  Then they played Gadrak.  P5 continued the combat, and hit P3 and P4.  They guessed Green, Wrench, and Library and got the maximum amount of information; P3 passed, but P4 showed a card.  

All that was in the first three turns!  Tons of little bits of damage got in, sometimes willingly.  So much Clue-information had been spilled, for such small amounts of blood.  

On my fourth turn I kept the pressure on, getting in on both P2 and P3.  I guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Lounge, and P2 showed me the Headliner Scarlett card.  I then dropped Windrider Patrol to scare off would-be attackers.  

P2 was stuck on two land, but they got in on P4 and P5, guessing Plum, Rope, and Conservatory.  They were shown a card, I believe by P4.  P3 got through on me (I think they attacked with two creatures) and guessed White, Knife, and Kitchen, which I passed on.   Then they cast Tragic Slip on Gadrak, which everyone seemed to be afraid of.  P4 attacked anyways, hitting P3 for one damage and guessed Mustard, Pipe, and Hall.  P3 showed him one of those three cards.  P5 then attacked me, P2, and P3, guessing Scarlett, Pipe, and Lounge.  I showed them the Lounge.  

On the fifth round of turns, I attacked P2 and P5, guessing White, Rope, and Kitchen.  Both players passed.  We were getting close to solving the murder, but I didn't get the information I needed and passed the turn.  P2 attacked P4 and guessed Plum, Rope and Kitchen.  P4 showed them one of his card.  P4 cast Chittering Rats on their turn, then eschewed attacking to Collect Evidence 6 instead.  With their guess they said White, Rope, and Hall.  P5 passed, I passed, P2 passed, and then P3 showed them a card.  We were saved!

Then P4 spent their accusation, calling White, Rope, and Secret Passage.  They were correct and won the game!  

The life totals were: 18, 21, 17, 21, and 18.  No one was close to dying.  We should have at least dropped the starting totals to 20 instead of 25, but it could have also been a problem with us inviting attacks by little creatures.  I really hoped that I would be able to get a big advantage by trying to prevent myself from getting hit, but it didn't quite work out.  Even though I didn't invite attackers, I didn't do a good enough job of keeping my shields up.  

Bonus Game: After that game the five of us played again with Pre-constructed commander decks and with 30 life.  I won't relate all the details, but the game lasted until the sixth round of turns.  I had a big enough board that I was threatening to win via combat.  One of the players had just died that turn and the remaining life totals were 6, 7, 14, and 22 (me).  I did not win, however, because one person was able to Collect Evidence 6 on their turn, make an incorrect guess, but then make a correct accusation as a result.  That was a great game and it seemed that 30 life was appropriate for that level of decks.

Happy Magicking and simultaneous murder-solving! 

A Very Chaotic and Cutthroat Star

On Monday I got four friends at a draft and we decided to wacky draft into a game of Cutthroat Star.  We opened a good variety of packs with a bunch of Aetherdrift:

My Final Fantasy pack was from GameStop, so the blister made the picture.

The weather finally just got a bit cold here, so I went for a fall theme.  Bloomburrow because the art depicts a lot of autumn style colors, Final Fantasy because its the end of the warm weather (that's a stretch), and Journey to Nyx because we have journeyed into the dark part of the year.  That one's a bit of a stretch too.

Historical note: with the advent of Play Boosters, draft pack prices are higher.  The days of $3.50 packs may have come to an end, sadly.  The price of a chaos draft with friends is more likely to be $15 instead of $10.  I am bummed about that.  

I opened a Fecund Greenshell in my first pack and decided to draft for a big butt tribe.  I did pretty good with that, actually!  In my second pack, I opened Joshua and Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy.  I drafted Joshua instead of the land because I wanted to have enough actual win conditions, but I don't know whether that was the wrong pick.  Here are all my picks:  

Sadly, I didn't have a good excuse to play the Dictate of Karametra.

 

Oviya, Automech Artisan actually works great here.  Because of the way teams work in Star, all creatures had trample while attacking except for my two opponents.  That was a delightful pull. 

 

I did have plenty of land and built a pretty good deck.  Here's what was in that:

There are lots of big-butt creatures in there.

We kept the seats we drafted in so that we were seated next to our opponents.  My left-hand opponent was on Rakdos, on the other side of them was a Simic teammate.  My other teammate was playing Yore-Tiller (everything but green) and my right-hand opponent was on Witch-Maw (everything but red).

I won the roll and went first, starting off with a Wind-Scarred Crag.  My Rakdos opponent played a Snarling Gorehound, getting the evasive creatures started right off.  

Round two included an Ankle Biter for my Simic teammate and Jeskai Devotee for the Yore-Tiller.  

In the third round of turns, I got Rufus Shinra out.  My Rakdos opponent played Ahriman, but my Simic teammate had the biggest play with Warden of the Grove.  

I got in with Rufus Shinra on my next turn.  The Ahriman turned down the trade and both of my opponents took two damage from the cutthroat rule.  The Rakdos player got down a Boneyard Desecrator, and the Yore-Tiller teammate saw the trouble in Warden of the Grove and sadly shut that down with White Auracite.  My Witch-Maw opponent had built up a bunch of little creatures and swung in with their Dragoon's Wyvern, which I threw my Perimeter Enforcer at for the trade.  

On my fifth turn, I played down Oviya.  The table had a quick discussion of when it worked, and then one of my teammates made the hilarious comment, "Kyle has now incentivized you to kill your teammate."  The bigger play of the round was Sab-Sunen by my Simic teammate.  My other teammate played Lion Heart and took out a Gran Pulse Ochu, but it was still looking dire for them.  Then my Witch-Maw opponent cast Stop Cold on Oviya, nullifying her power.  

Sab-Sunen was not just a powerful value creature, but the pseudo commander of the deck.  On their sixth turn they activated their Peter Parker's Camera, meaning they got to both draw two cards and attack.  

I like taking photos of cameras taking photos.

On my turn I made an attack that was turning out bad, so I used Hide on the Ceiling to bounce most of my board.  This freed Oviya from the cold.  My Simic teammate continued to grow Sab-Sunen and get in for damage with more photography.  Then my Witch-Maw opponent killed Oviya with Plow Through and their Wreck Remover.  

I had played a Skystreak Engineer, so on my eighth turn I swung in with that, hoping to get rid of the annoying Ahriman.  The Rakdos player was hurting for life, so they blocked with it, then I used the Exhaust ability, then they sacrificed it to the Desecrator before damage.  My teammates continued to slug it out.  Sab-Sunen hit for 12 damage, but then an Eagle of the Watch with Lionheart and Roadside Assistance came from the other direction, helping keep my other teammate alive. 

On round nine, I attacked in the air for three with the Engineer, putting my Rakdos opponent down to 3 life.  Sab-Sunen did not attack that turn (I don't remember why), but my Yore-Tiller temmate got down a Wind Crystal.  I thought I was going to win on my next turn, but my Witch-Maw opponent played a Balamb T-Rexaur.  

I swung in on round 10, killing my Rakdos opponent.  Then I dropped my Temur Monument, discarded a land, drew a land, and used that to crack the monument for the elephant token.   My Simic teammate attacked with a plenty-big Sab-Sunen and killed my other teammate.  That meant they won the game in first place and stepped out.  It was down to me and my other opponent.  They immediately dropped Venomsac Lagac and Peter Porker, preventing me from swinging out right away.  

I continued to draw into excellent cards like Venom, Evil Unleashed, however.  My Engineer died to Broken Wings, but I was still able to get enough on the board for a big attack where they had to block everything.

This is very much in my favor.  

I won (in second place) on the next turn.  

This was a really fun game!  There was a lot of interaction and I was quite invested in what was happening across the board. 

Star is still one of my favorite formats!  I think Cutthroat wasn't something everyone enjoyed as much as I did.  We had really good comments about it (actually before the game started) and I think I like it so much for two reasons:

• I like the dynamic of not choosing who to attack.  Mostly because that's when your teammates are attacking, you can't try to sway them to attack only one of your opponents (obviously your common opponent).  Instead you have to deal with the reality of both of your teammates losing life along with your opponents in those combats.  If you want both of your opponents to die before your teammates, you have to get on the damage-dealing train too.
• I like boards that stagnate a little until some big dramatic things happen.  That can be pretty fun.  I also like it when evasive creatures are more valuable.  

However you like playing Star, I hope you have some Happy Magicking! 

A Bonus Chaos Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

After doing some Clue drafting last night, I made it to a informal chaos draft organized by some friends at my FLGS.  I knew it was probably happening, so I brought three packs that I thought would be unique in the group: Ikoria, Journey to Nyx, and Strixhaven.  I succeeded and we had a really good mix of packs.

Not the most regular Septagon ever.

I have a lot to say about how the drafting went this time!

• I have opened a lot of Ikoria-first in drafts.  One goal here is to get lucky and pull a Triome, which I know I will run.  (I'm opening Ikoria first in case I get a companion and can plan around them.)  This time it paid off for what I think is the second time, as I opened a Ketria Triome.  
• I got greedy and picked Great Train Heist over Dance of the Tumbleweeds in a pack that had two of the land-searchers.  Neither came back.  D'oh! 
• I should have taken more lands.  Three can sometimes get the job done but it wasn't enough here.  I had some other mana fixing, but one or two more lands would have really helped.  
• I was obviously honor-bound to take Marina Vendrell and run her.  I gave an awkward "thanks" to the two people to my left in pack two who passed her.  (To be clear: I don't want people to pass me WUBRG stuff because they're being nice!  I want to have to fight for it and I appreciate it when people hate draft against me.)    

Here are all of my picks:

I tried to get enchantments after I took Marina, but it didn't really pan out.

With those cards I built this deck:

Rootha, Mercurial Glare Artist.

I did decide to run the Revel of the Fallen God at the very end, after I realized it was essentially a win con with Rootha.  The seven of us decided to run best-of-one matches since it was pretty late and we wanted to try to play everyone.  I managed to get in five of my six possible rounds; it was great that I got to play against so many people!

In the first round I was matched up against Jeskai "Oops, All Counterspells!"  I got lucky with a turn three Larval Scoutlander, an amazing mana fixer.  I followed that up with a Ticket Booth on turn four and Colossal Dreadmask on turn five.  In the meantime, my opponent dropped a Spider-Man 2099 and had started to kick my butt with it.  They got rid of my token and kept up the pressure, putting me at seven against their fifteen life.  I played Rootha, put the mask on her, and opened up the Tunnel of Hate, swinging in.  

Fourteen is one short of fifteen.

Normally this would be where my opponent turns things around, but I actually closed this one out on the next turn!  1-0.

I got immediately into my second round against "Orzhov Lifelink Tribal".  They played an Etched Slith, gave it lifelink with Duskfang Mentor, and got in over and over until I drew Deadly Complication and took it out.  There was no respite, however, as Squelching Leeches hit the board next.  I got real lucky and my opponent held their sixth Swamp in hand; I am also wont to hold a land as the last card in my hand.  I got real lucky, though, because that meant it died to the Steel Wrecking Ball I drew.  I played Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose which helped me stay alive.  Their board kept growing, however, including an Emerge from the Cocoon that brought the Leeches back.  The board continued to grow on their side until I was forced to Play a Game.  

Bye-bye, all my spirits!

The Go-Shintai had dragged it out long enough.  1-1.

I got right into round three against "Jeskai Warleader's Call", a very one-sided match.  I was stuck on three land, but fought tenaciously and took out Archmage's Newt with Marvin and the Great Train Heist.  Unfortunately, my opponent followed up their early gas with jet fuel.

This was their turn five.

I killed the warped-in Red Tiger Mechan with Marvin and Reroute Systems.  It didn't matter, though.  They continued to power out threats; Araña was the nail in my coffin.  The turn after she came down, I drew my fourth land.  Unfortunately, I was at one life.  Too little, too late.  1-2.  

Halfway through that round, I realized I hadn't done an evening lesson in Duolingo yet, and it was 11:45.  (I wanted to do an evening lesson to get a bonus the following morning, my regular routine.)  I hoped to have a quick five-minute break between rounds, but that didn't happen and I got right into my fourth match against "Abzan Art School".  Their deck was able to make eleven different kinds of tokens, and they'd been sketching on Infinitokens all night!  (Our group is great at amazing deck names!)

We started around 11:48.  I was dead by 11:55.  I apologize for my inadequate notes, as all I have written down is "So fast!".  I don't even remember what creatures killed me, just that I got run over.  I even had enough time to do my Duolingo lesson.  1-3.

My fifth and final round came against "Enbantments", which made perfect sense when they played Ethereal Armor on Oreskos Swiftclaw.  I killed the enchantment with Shattered Wings, but a Due Diligence showed up right after.  I removed the threat and started to gain ground again, only for my opponent to play Ao.  I only lasted two more turns, as Ao got over my measly groundlings.  1-4.

Maybe this kind of performance should dissuade my draft addiction.  Maybe this should be a sign that I need to do ditch the WUBRG plan.  I never saw Marina (come on!) and I did have problems fixing my mana.  All I can think about, though, is wondering when I'll get to draft again.  

I hope you feel the same way!  Happy Magicking!

Clue Frepack Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I did a free draft last night with some students using repacked packs of cards donated to me.  (I'm calling these "Frepack Drafts" from now on.)  Some students wanted to do this with the Ravnica Clue set and I really wanted to find out how that works, so I was in.  One of the group was a first-time drafter!  Exciting!  Knowing I wanted to hit players to make guesses, I drafted flyers really highly and got a bunch of Flash-Flyers.  Here's everything I pulled:

Something happened with the last pack.  Either I mis-packed one of them or someone took an extra card.

 

I built what I think is a pretty solid five-color deck:

Five Flash-Flyers seems really good.

We sat down in the play order of: A on a Simic deck, B playing Yore-Tiller deck, myself, and D running Dimir.  The cards I was dealt were Mastermind Plum, Emissary Green, the Hall, and the Kitchen.  (No weapons!)  In the middle were revealed the Ballroom and the Lounge.  We marked up our papers, set our life totals to 30, and got to playing.  (I'm not going to recreate the sheet stage by stage like last time.)

A got a Fleshburrower out on turn two, B played Forerunner of Slaughter, and I joined in with Courier Hawk; a lot was happening right away!  

On the third round of turns, the Fleshburrower attacked me, A guessed Emissary Green, Candlestick, and Dining Room.  I revealed Emissary Green to them.  Then B hit me with the Forerunner, guessing Apothercary White, Candlestick, and Billiard Room; I had to pass.  That was all pretty bad, but I earned a Treasure out of the deal.  On my turn I played a land and attacked D with the hawk.  I guessed Commander Mustard, Rope, and Hall and they had to pass.

On round four, B attacked A with a Vampire Envoy, who let them through just to get the treasure token!  (They were stuck on three lands.)  This was a bad strategy, however, because they had to pass to the guess of Emissary Green, the Pipe, and the Study.  

On my turn I attacked B, who passed at the guess of Scarlett, Wrench, and Conservatory.  D attacked A on their turn, guessing Apothecary White, the Rope, and the Conservatory and forcing another pass.

On round five, A played Academy Wall to try to stop the bleeding.  B got damage through on me and A, however.  They guessed Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Conservatory.  I passed, but A had to reveal a card.  I swung in on D and A, naming Senator Peacock, the Knife, and the Conservatory.  Both of them passed, which was enough to tell me that the Conservatory was the murder scene!  D, stuck on three lands, killed me Courier Hawk on their turn with Moment of Craving.  

On round six, B hit me for seven damage, but that's not the whole story!  They had a first-strike creature, so they got to make two guesses!  This is the first time we've resolved first strike damage in a Ravnica Clue game!  They first guessed Emissary Green with the Wrench in the Hall and I revealed Emissary Green.  The second guess was for Senator Peacock with the Wrench in the Hall, and I revealed the Hall.  Oof!  

I got damage in on A and B.  I guessed Commander Mustard with the Knife in the Kitchen.  A showed me Commander Mustard.  That was pretty good, but I didn't get any information from B.  I used my treasures and all my land to cast Snowhorn Rider and Recommission on my Courier Hawk.  I felt pretty good with my board state at that point.  Then D attacked B, who had to pass on Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Conservatory.

On round seven, A attacked B, guessing Senator Peacock with the Wrench in the Hall.  B passed, then attacked A back on their turn, guessing Emissary Green, with the Rope, in the Lounge.  That was a pass.  Now I knew who had committed the murder!  B passed their turn, but they later realized they knew the solution and could have won.  On my turn I collected evidence six to guess to the whole table that it was Senator Peacock with the Rope in the Conservatory.  All three passed.  I accused the same thing and won!

Here are some quick notes about how the game went:

• We weren't anywhere near to losing due to life loss.  I was at 19 while my opponents had 29, 29, and 22.  The game was certainly going to be decided via Clue rules, especially when we got (un)lucky by focusing in on the Conservatory so early.  I don't know whether that would happen all that often!
• The evasion matters so much.  The question everyone asked each turn was, "What flying blockers do you have?"  Courier Hawk was amazing.
• There is a great handicap for WUBRG construction here: the treasures you earn from revealing cards.  It speeds other people up and also fixes for me.  I need to remember to find excess treasure token cards I have to include them in the set of stuff.
• We were playing with a bunch of cards from Battle for Zendikar, which had the (unofficially named) processing mechanic where you put exiled cards into that players' graveyard.  That's really unfortunate with the ability to Collect Evidence 6 to make a guess!   

 

Two of my opponents had some extra time, so we tried playing again with the three of us!  We made some changes:

• We started at 20 life instead of 30.
• We didn't remove the two rooms before playing.  This meant there were six cards for each of us and no all-known cards.  I had Mastermind Plum, the Candlestick, the Knife, the Library, the Ballroom, and the Hall.
• The Dimir player (D) added green to become Sultai.

I lost the turn roll, but I'll keep the player pseudonyms from before.  It was D, A, and myself in turn order.  

I got my Courier Hawk again on turn two.   

On their turn three, D hit me for two damage, guessing Commander Mustard, the Candlestick, and the Kitchen.  I had to reveal the Candlestick to them.  I hit A, who passed on my guess of Headliner Scarlett, the Wrench, and the Secret Passage.  

In round four, D hit A, guessing Commander Mustard, the Knife, and the Study.  A showed them a card.  At the end of A's turn I spent my treasure to play a Ulamog's Nullifier.  Then I played a second Nullifier on my turn.  (I couldn't flash it in because my fourth land drop was Crumbling Vestige.)  I also hit A, guessing Peacock, Pipe, and Lounge.  They showed me the Lead Pipe.

D started round five off by attacking A.  They guessed Green, the Rope, and the Dining Room.  A showed them a card.  A played a Territorial Baloth on their turn.  I played Armasaur Guide, then attacked with my three flyers, giving the Armasaur the +1/+1 counter.  I hit both opponents and guessed Apothecary White, the Rope, and the Billiard Room.  D revealed Apothecary White to me.  

In round six, D attacked us both.  I successfully blocked, but they had a Touch of Moonglove to kill my blocking Armasaur.  Yuck!  They guessed Mastermind Plum, the Knife, and the Ballroom.  A passed, which didn't help me at all.  Then they cast two Containment Membranes on my tapped nullfiers.  A played a Giant Mantis, then pumped their Baloth and attacked with a non-trampling 9/9.  I let my Courier Hawk bite it, going from a strong board to a nearly empty one.  On my turn I could only play a Helpful Hunter, draw the land from it, then pass.

In round seven, D removed my little cat, then both players hit me for four damage.  I had to reveal Mastermind Plum to both of them and went to 8 life.  I played the Sphinx of Uthuun I drew.  

I chose the pile with Baloth Null.

With the excess cards in my graveyard, I was able to Collect Evidence 6 and guess Headliner Scarlett, the Rope, and the Lounge.  D showed me the Lounge.

In round eight, D made a deal with A that they wouldn't attack if they could remove my Sphinx.  That was bad for me, because A then Swept it Away and hit me for nine, killing me.  My opponents were still at 18 (D) and 11 (A) life.  Upon my death, I revealed my six cards to the table.

In the ninth round, D collected evidence of six to ask Emissary Green, the Knife, and the Secret Passage, to which A had to show a card.  (Note: both knew the Knife was revealed from my hand, but was a purposeful whiff on the weapon.)  A did the same thing on their turn, guessing Apothecary White, the Wrench, and the Dining Room.  D revealed a card to them.

A had less information than D, who was pretty certain they could solve the murder.  A calculated that they had a one-in-four chance of getting an Accusation right, but it was their best chance to win via Clue.  They accused Senator Peacock of killing Guildmage Boddy with the Wrench in the Secret Passage.

It was incorrect.  A could no longer win by solving the murder.

To start off round 10, D played an Eldrazi Devastator.  They now had the strongest board, but didn't attack with their creatures because they knew A was going to start attacking to try and win.  A threw their haymaker the next turn, swinging out, but mostly going ineffective.

On round 11, D attacked for the win.  This was an exciting end to a game, with one players going for the murder-solving win and actually having an okay chance to make it happen.  Great finish!

Here are some thoughts about the life totals:

• 30 was probably too much life for the Frepack draft with four people and sixteen hidden cards.  (12 unknown cards per player.)
• 20 was either too low or just right for the same thing but with three people and eighteen hidden cards.  (12 unknown cards per player.)
• Personal preference: it's better to overestimate the amount of life because I'd rather the game ends by solving the murder with lots of life than ending by killing opponents with damage and not being close to solving the murder. 
• If I was doing the same thing, I would try something like 25 life with four to see how that goes. 
• Alternatively, we could add two more rooms to the mix, not remove any rooms, and deal out five to each player.  That means there would be a total of twenty hidden cards, 15 per player.  Presumably that would increase the time to solve the murder.
• It could just also be that we solved the murder so easily in the first game because we happened to zero in on the Conservatory before we actually should have.

I'm curious to hear what you think.  If we added two rooms, what would they be?  Urza's Hot Tub room?  If you try something else, let me know!  Happy Magicking!