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!

A Chaotic Non-Cutthroat Star (WUBRG Drafting)

I sat down to draft with four other people last night and casually tossed out the idea of a Star draft.  Two of the players knew how to play Star, so they were in.  The other two good-naturedly joined in and we unexpectedly were doing something extra wacky.  Oddly, I could not convince the group to do cutthroat.  This was the first time I played non-cutthroat Star in a long while.

We opened our first packs, and then one of the players reminded me that we needed to take the picture!  So, here it is; with the first pack each disguised to not look opened. 

Thanks to the pair that brought brownies!  Yum!

In multiplayer formats, my draft priorities shift quite a bit.  Instead of BREAD, I like, um, BVERD: Bombs, Vigilance, Evasion, Removal, and Aggro.  Let me try to defend these:

• B: Bombs aren't the same, because not everything that's a bomb in a duel is still a bomb in multiplayer, but you still want to pick cards that will win you games.
• V: Vigilance is very important because having a blocker up will let you ward off attacks from multiple other players.  You want to get damage in and being able to make that decision without worrying about not having blockers is really great.  Flying vigilant creatures are amazing.
• E: Evasion is still very useful.  The board is going to gum up and you're going to need to get damage in, so you want creatures that can get past defenses.
• R: Removal is much less useful because it only affects one opponent.  Getting other players to spot removal things is better than doing it yourself, so sometimes you'd rather these are in other peoples' hands than your own!
• A: Aggressive creatures can be good for early damage.  This is more useful in Cutthroat rules because getting ahead can keep you ahead.  Still, I think this is less important in multiplayer situations.  I didn't even list Duds because they're kinda close to this.

(You may want to take all of this lightly until you see how I actually fared!)

Here were my picks:

I think I did a really good job with the lands here.

I really was not certain on which cards to put in my deck.  Since there were a lot of Spider-Man cards, I wanted to try a bit of Web-Slinging, so I ran Spider-Man, Web-Slinger and Spider-Girl, Legacy Hero (and should have included Gallant Citizen) over things like Broadside Barrage.  Here was the deck I built:

Three deathtouchers, excellent!

We sat down and the player (opponent) to my right won the roll to go first.  They were playing Orzhov Humans.  To my left (opponent) was a Dimir player who flooded early.  Next was a Golgari teammate with some fast stuff.  Finally, my other teammate was running Grixis.  Note: everyone was running black!

My first two turns were excellent, playing Radioactive Spider followed by Dollmaker's Shop and getting my first Toy token.  My right-hand opponent started to put together a strong board of white weenies and my left-hand opponent played Blood Hustler that lived up to its name and hustled a lot of my blood over the course of the game.   

I couldn't safely attack on turns three, four, or five as I needed to keep my spider back as a rattlesnake blocker.  (Both of my opponents cited the spider as the reason they had to go easy on me early on.)  Thankfully my two teammates played some good creatures, including Swarm (Golgari teammate) and Kaine (Grixis teammate).  

On turn five I played Spider-Girl.  On the sixth I played Night Market for my first blue mana source and started getting in with Spider-Girl, building up Toy tokens.  Unfortunately, due to activations of the Blood Hustler and growing swarm of humans by the Orzhov opponent, I was down to 13.

All this before they played their Lifecraft Engine!

On turn seven I drew into an island.  Spider Girl attacked again and I played my Sabotage Strategist.  I ended the turn at 11 life.  I think it was around this turn that my Orzhov opponent played Alacrian Armory, which was an amazing card, granting their whole team vigilance!

On turn eight I attacked with the Strategist, but my Dimir opponent killed it with Consuming Ashes.  I was often losing two life per turn: one via an attack from a flying 1/2 on my right, and one from activation of the Blood Hustler on my left.  That creature was now 6/6, the biggest thing on the battlefield.

On turn nine I played the Oscorp Research Team, which prevented the growing ground threats from attacking.  With my new draw potential (though I only had six land at this point) both of my opponents were nervous about me drawing a second white source and opening the Porcelain Gallery side of my room.  My Dimir opponent played Rattleback Apothecary on their turn, which worked real well with their ability to commit crimes.  On turn ten I played my seventh land; the Research Team was ready to go.  I attacked and passed, keeping all my mana open.  

Right before my eleventh turn, two things happened.  First, the Orzhov player Trapped my rooms In the Screen.  That was bad, but I still activated the research team, hoping to draw into ways to stay alive.  One of those cards was Hell to Pay, which I used to fry the Rattleback Apothecary.  I didn't generate any treasures because I wanted to save my mana to cast Glimmerburst.  I think this is the point where my Grixis teammate succumbed to the pressure from the Orzhov player.

On my twelfth turn I played my first swamp and played Peter Parker and Venomized Cat.  That cat put my Spinewoods Armadillow in my graveyard and I had Back for More in hand!  I ended the turn at 6 life.  In the ensuing round I blocked with my Radioactive Spider to kill a biggish Orzhov creature.

On turn thirteen I tried to cast the Back for More.  (I didn't realize it was an Instant, derp!)  Unfortunately, the Dimir opponent cast School Daze to counter it.  Oof.  I remained at six life, but my remaining teammate died that round to the Blood Hustler finally attacking in.  On my fourtheenth turn I just did not have enough gas in my hand.  The Dimir player finished me off with a big Morlun.

8 > 6

 

The two remaining players ended the game tied for first place.  

This was wicked fun!  There were two powerhouses (my opponents) that continued through most of the game, but it wasn't like it was decided out of the gate.  There was some good back and forth and maybe I would have done better if I'd've had some removal to handle the Blood Hustler.  

On thing I realized today (the day after the event) is that the lack of the Cutthroat rule had an unexpected change.  I thought that it would make the game take longer (that's debateable) but I didn't realize that it made me less interested in what my teammates were doing.

In Cutthroat, your opponents have to be more careful about attacking because each attacking creature can be blocked by both you and one of your teammates.  Because of that, in some ways you care more about what is on your teammates' boards.  You want them to have good blockers and you are more invested in what they choose to attack with. 

I'm sure I was doing this wrong anyways, but I was a bit less invested in my teammates' battlefields.  I didn't always pay good attention to what they had out and I think that made the game a bit less interactive.  I think that next time I would lobby even harder for including the Cutthroat rule.

I'm curious what you think!  Mostly I just hope you get a chance to do a star draft!

Happy Magicking! 

Modern Horizons 3 Draft, Round 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

My FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, has a great habit of running drafts of past sets.  This weekend it happened again; they arranged a Modern Horizons 3 draft for last night.  At the current moment in Magic: TG history, however, these look-back-drafts are very common.  I want to include a brief note to set the stage for future historians of the arcane.  

Spider-Man is the current standard set.  It was released three weeks ago.  The set has faced some negative feelings from players.  Drafts are either not firing or are underwhelming.  Here's what I understand are the problems, independent of the quality of the actual cards in the set:

• The set is smaller than most recent standard-released sets.  (Compare 193 draft cards in Spider-Man as opposed to 286 in Duskmourn.)  
• Product fatigue is setting in to the die-hard magic players.  More and more sets are being released each year.
• Simultaneously, there have been supply issues especially since Final Fantasy.  I often feel like I want more chances with some sets that have come and gone, but I think my sentiment is now more widespread for sets from this year.  Players may be more interested in drafting Tarkir: Dragonstorm than a new set.  
• The official draft format for the set is Pick-Two in pods of four people.  I don't understand the point of the four-person pods.  I don't think the math behind any rationales I've heard of would actually make for a more fun experience with two pods of four rather than one pod of eight.  (This is my personal take.)

With all that in mind, many game stores have been handling the backlash by running non-Spider-Man drafts ever since the set's release.  You may have the opportunity in your local area to get in on a look-back-draft too!  

I did not do well in my first MH3 draft last year, so I was looking to improve my record.  This is the kind of set where WUBRG drafting should prosper!

• There is a common ten-card cycle of three-color fixing lands.  
• There's a bunch of green mana fixing.
• There are MDFC lands in one and two colors.
• The Onslaught fetch lands were reprinted.

If hubris provides you with elevated schadenfreude, this post is for you.  I was set up to do well.  I had reviewed my notes from last time and have drafted a ton in the past year.  I was ready to prove my prowess.  We had twelve people total so we got in to two pods of six and opened the first pack.

I got nervous early on in the drafting, as I didn't get any of the Landscapes in the first pack.  I shouldn't have worried, however, as they showed up later.  I tried hard to pull more removal than I did last year, but that only went okay.  I'm not sure what was worse, though, that I had few win conditions or few mid-range creatures.

What is the bigger hole here?

Cuts were easy because I took so many lands.  I have a picture of what my final deck looked like, but my deck for the first round had one more landscape and one fewer of the basics in this photo.

Which basic was swapped out for the extra Perilous Landscape initially?  Answer coming in the first round description.  Hint: I'm an idiot.

I faced off against a cool Orzhov deck, "Enchanted by Unicorns".  It lived up to its name in both games, getting Nyxborn Unicorn on two creatures.  Later in the game we had five bestowed enchantments between the two of us.  I got some little creatures, Sarpadian Simulacrum and Retrofitted Transmogrant, but it wasn't enough to keep up.  My opponent was at 49 when I lost.  

In the second game I got Eladamri Korvecdal out for the first time.  And... that was about it.  I had a Copycrook in hand, but could never seem to get that second blue mana source.  (Go look at the image above to see why.)  I drew Angel of the Ruins and sacrificed one of my landscapes to go get a second plains.  

There are two plains in the image above.  I added the second after this game.  I had to grab yet another Forest instead.  I am an idiot.  Yes, there were other ways for me to generate white mana, but nothing I could search for.  In the meantime, my opponent got a Guide of Souls down as part of their wide field.

Eladamri alone can't hold that line.

Shortly thereafter, with a forest atop my library, I plainscycled the angel just to get a shuffle.  That wasn't enough to save me, but this time my opponent won at a paltry 30 life.  0-1.

In the second round I was pitted against Temur Eldrazi.  I got my Volatile Stormdrake down on turn two, but it got slapped with Utter Insignificance, a cool removal piece.  My opponent played Writhing Chrysalis on turn four.  I nearly played Null Elemental Blast, but remembered about Devoid.  They followed that up with a Kappa Cannoneer on turn 5 and Wumpus Aberration on turn 7.  Sadly none of those were targets for the Null Elemental Blast and I could not keep up.

In the second game I had a slow go and got out my Obstinate Gargoyle on turn 5.  My opponent followed that on the next three turns with the Cannoneer, Wumpus, and Chrysalis in that order.  I Dog Umbra'ed the Wumpus and bestowed my Gargoyle with my Nyxborn Hydra.  My opponent didn't let off the gas, though.

Hello, Warped Tusker.

I was dead again, this time before I could even get a hold of any red mana.  0-2.

For the third round, both pods had a drop, so the people that would have had byes got matched up together in cross-pod combat.  That was me representing my pod and a Jeskai Energy deck from the other.

I played a turn three Obstinate Gargoyle.  My opponent Copycrooked it.  They followed that up with a Satya, Aetherflux Genius, attacking for 8.  I killed it with Breathe Your Last on my next turn, but the damage was done.  A Voltstorm Angel came down.  I Trickster's Elked it and slowed things down.  I risked a Wheel of Potential for 5 cards, but it didn't pan out.  Once my Gargoyle was dead, my opponent played their own Volatile Stormdrake.  I did get Eladamri down, but then my own drake was a bust because I couldn't trade it for a flying blocker when I needed it to stay alive.

In game two, my opponent got an early Conduit Goblin out, but was stuck on three lands.  They put my Eladamri in a Static Prison.  I killed the goblin but they had a second one.  My life total got perilously low, but I drew into my Wight of the Reliquary on turn seven.  I went for the dumb value play by bestowing it with my Hydra for a turn eight 8/8.  It was finally time to start swinging in.

Nope.

I only got to attack once before they played the drake.  We had to call a judge to correctly rule that the Wight had summoning sickness, but it didn't matter because the Conduit Goblin was sitting with plenty of energy.  Haste from the goblin, Vigilance from itself, Trample and +4/+4 from the Hydra.  0-3.

0-3 without a single game win.  Oof.  Five colors doesn't always work out, but this was especially bad.  I was low on bombs.  Low on removal.  (Again!)  Low on efficient creatures.  

I think I need to blame myself more than the set.  WUBRG has got to be feasible here, and I know I made a lot of mistakes.

• I got too greedy on lands at the end of pack three.  I thought I was really lucky to see so many, but I should have been trying to fill other gaps.
• I drafted some cards I wanted more than cards I should have been taking a few times.
• I didn't build my mana base carefully enough.  I probably should have counted some of the MDFC lands as lands and run one or two more spells.  
• Null Elemental Blast was a dud.  
• More stuff like the Retrofitted Transmogrant and adept creatures would have been good.  

In total I have a 1-5 record in MH3 drafts.  I don't know when I'll get a chance again, but when I do, I'll be ready!

I still had a lot of fun.  It was fun to hold out as long as I could in all those impossible situations.  It was fun to plainscycle that angel and not even search, but just see if my opponent could figure out what grand mistake I'd made.  Drafting is always so fun.  

I wish Happy Magicking for you too, win or lose! 

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!