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

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

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

Anyways, here's what we all opened:

Four packs each!  Exciting!

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Fox and the Burned Pie

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

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

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

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

Come on!

I did not survive much longer.  1-1.

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

Seriously?  Anthropede?  What?

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

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

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

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

Neon - Wilds - Duskmourn (WUBRG Drafting)

I got invited to a Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty/Wilds of Eldraine/Duskmourn draft last night.  There was nearly a chance we wouldn't have a prescribed order to open them in, but I was glad we stuck to an order.  I'm not sure why I prefer that over the chaos of whatever-you-want.  

You don't need a photo of this, but you're getting one anyways.

I thought a bunch of people would show up, but there were only four of us.  That's enough to draft, though!  

My strategy was just the basic WUBRG plan, except with Eldraine I used my experience with the many Wilds drafts I've done: adventures are good.  Once I grabbed Up the Beanstalk halfway through, I purposefully went for big spells as well.  I realized late that Rooms deserve more consideration, as they're kind of like adventures in that they can provide a lot of value.  (But, seriously, then I have to do so much reading!)  Here were my picks:

I never found out whether first-picking the Shroudstomper was a good choice.

My land picks turned out very weird, with three Izzet duals!  Nevertheless, I had a lot of good fixing-ramp with the Greater Tanuki and two Moldering Gyms.  That and other ramp was important because I really needed to power out big stuff.  Here's the deck I built:

Potential deck name: "WUBRG to 5-Plus"

We were able to get in the whole round robin.  In the first round I was matched up against an aggressive Esper (mostly Azorius) deck.  In the first game they got Three Blind Mice down on turn three with some other little creatures.  I played both Moldering Gyms, but I was down to 7 very fast.  I played Kotose to keep me in the game, but they bounced her and I was dead.  The second game was similar.  I played another Moldering Gym and used Entry Denied to slow things down, followed by the Beluna's Gatekeeper itself afterwards.  Unfortunately, they had Network Disruptor and swung that turn to put me from 16 to 8.  I played the Tanuki, but they cast Freeze in Place on their turn.

Hooray, I can't block anything!

I went to 1 and died on their seventh turn.  0-1.

In the second round, I was up against "Naya Modified" that was the beginnings of a Kellan EDH deck.  My opponent described casting Birthright Boon as "Kellan goes looking in the wood shed and finds a Chainsaw".  In the first game, he did that on turn 2, followed up on turn three by casting Toadstool Admirer and a Baseball Bat.  I got Troyan on my third turn, which powered out the Tanuki the next.  Unfortunately, my opponent was stuck without red mana.  I played Kotose, and won after Beluna's Gatekeeper came down.  

In game two, my opponent used Blossom Prancer to find Kellan.  This time they had red and used the Birthright Boon to search up the Baseball Bat.  Most Valuable Slayer came down and was real good against me.  I finally flipped to Branch of Boseiju, but it was Cooped Up.  I still had a 5/5 from a Weight Room and five life, so I could survive the next combat.

Oh, maybe not.

The ninjutsu'ed Blade-Blizzard Kitsune dealt me four, then replaying Kumano Faces Kakkazan finished me off.  In game three I got housed again.  I got Up the Beanstalk on turn two, but it didn't pay off enough for me as I just wasn't fast enough.  Even with Boseiju Reaches Skyward, I was too slow.  My last gasp, Beluna's Gatekeeper (again) got hit with Moment of Valor and I lost on turn seven with a hand of seven cards.  0-2.  Not only did I need to make it to five mana, but I needed to do that without being in serious duress.  My second round opponent went on to 3-0 the event to win.

In the third round I was up against a tricky Rakdos deck.  In game one I got stuck on three land without ramp and died.  (I needed to mulligan my second hand.)  For game two, I fared better.  Troyan came out on turn four.  The following turns had: Kotose, Junji, then I gave that double strike the next turn with Twice the Rage and played the Two-Headed Hunter right after to get me there.  

Game three started off much slower as we were both stuck without mana.  Troyan helped, but it still took me a bit to get that fourth land and I was without white mana.  Once I hit that, the next turns were: Beluna's Gatekeeper, Charmed Clothier, and Weight Room, which put the Tanuki in face down.  On my next combat, I swung in and flipped the Tanuki in combat for big damage.  The game wasn't over, though.

Specter of Mortality + Three Bowls of Porridge wiped my board clean.

Thankfully I still had a big hand.  My next turns were Junji, another Charmed Clothier, then Repel the Vile on their Hidetsugu Consumes All.  (I did not want my graveyard exiled!)  On the next two turns I played the other Weight Room and then Junji got there to win it.  1-2.

I may not be good at drafting this trio of sets for the synergies it affords (e.g. sacrificial artifacts and enchantments) but I did really enjoy it and would do it again!  I'm not sure what specifically I could do better next time, though.  

Happy Magicking!

Edge of Eternities 2, Multiplayer (WUBRG Drafting)

On my last free Friday of the summer I trekked up to Krum's World to do one more of their multiplayer drafts!  I didn't see the event listed on Wizards Locator, but it was on their calendar.  I called them and they said they were running both the 1pm and 4pm events, so I showed up.  (I could only stay for the first one.)  I expected another chaos draft, but this time it was all Edge of Eternities. 

We had eight people (we waited a bit after 1pm and got more people, which was good) and got to drafting.  I didn't expect to get as good of a pool as I did in my first Edge of Eternities draft, but I got really nervous in pack one when I had a hard time getting lander-generating cards.  In pack two, I made a big drafting error.  I made my first pick (a foil Seedship Agrarian) and put it on top of the first pack passed to me instead of in my pool.  

• I did put my first-pack token on top of my first-pack picks to delineate between the packs.  This makes it easier on me later to take the picture of all of my pics, divided by pack.  When I glanced at that pile with the token, I must have thought it was just one or more tokens, not my cards.
• I don't know why I didn't put my first-pack picks directly in front of me like I normally do.  They were off to my left a little bit, towards the (relative) northwest corner of my space.
• This was entirely my own fault.  In the end there was some redistribution of cards because of some other draft errors (we were not zone drafting).  Someone asked how many cards I had and I said 41.  (This is when I figured out the mistake.)  I explained that it was my own fault!

When I picked up that pack passed to me, I even thought to myself, "Wow, another foil Seedship Agrarian!"  I then picked a different card from that pack (Glacier Godmaw) and kept on drafting, oblivious to my own mistake.  I grabbed another (but not another) Agrarian on the third pick, and I can tell you that it is an amazing card.  I need to be more careful!

• I've got to keep my picks directly in front of me, not off to a side.
• I should consider putting that token at a 90-degree angle or something initially.  

In the third pack I remembered that we weren't playing duels and late-grabbed two Brightspear Zealots.  (Necessary mantra: "Vigilance is great in multiplayer.  Vigilance is great in multiplayer. ...")  Here's everything I drafted that actually made it into my pool:

Space intentionally left blank.

 

My pool was very green-heavy, but I managed a good mana base.  Landers really make it work!  Here's the deck I built:

It was on this day that I discovered that Ghazban Ogre got power crept.

 

After deck building, we randomized two 4-player pods and got into our games with a promo pack as the spoils for each winner.  Here we start with 30 life each, which is quite a lot.  Among a more experienced group, I would recommend 20 life instead, but there were a bunch of new players, so maybe having extra life made the game more meaningful.  I'm not certain!

When we sat down I realized other decks were much bigger than mine.  I checked to make certain it wasn't supposed to be 60 and 40 cards was fine.  I think two players were running over 60 and the third had about 45 cards.

In my group the turn order was player A (also WUBRG, 60-ish cards), player B (Rakdos, 45-ish cards), me, and player D (Grixis, 60-ish cards).  

The game started slow.  On my third turn I played my first of the Brightspear Zealots.  I attacked with it every turn I could safely get in, which may have been a bit more aggressive than people were used to.  

In turn four, A had to temporarily steal B's All-Fates Scroll in order to get access to white mana.  B followed up by playing a Virus Beetle.  I discarded a forest, the last land in my hand.

I hate that Virus Beetle.

Thankfully I drew into my Larval Scoutlander and started ramping.  On my fifth turn, my Seedship Agrarian came down and I tapped it to station the Scoutlander, generating a lander token.  The ramp was going strong and my Agrarian was seen as the biggest baddie on the board, especially after I popped two landers on the next turn and it became a 6/6.  I had was quickly gaining archenemy status.

On D's sixth turn, they cast Cryoshatter on my Agrarian.  That was fine:

• My archenemy status was immediately dispelled, 
• No one wanted to attack into my big creature that I supposedly didn't care about, and
• I was holding on to my Glacier Godmaw.  If I gave everything vigilance and trample, my Agrarian could still be relevant in an attack. 

On my seventh turn, I played my second Zealot.  This helped in my politicking in future turns, as I was able to attack two people with one each, which looked less like I was targeting one player.  I did try to actively try to attack the opponent with the highest life total, but that didn't always work.  Instead the big bad had become A's Gravblade Heavy, which had the bonus to make it a 4/4 Deathtoucher.  This became the center of a tough rules moment when B sacrificed their Thaumaton Torpedo to kill the Gravblade Heavy.  Player A responded by casting Drill Too Deep towards the torpedo.  

This doesn't work and in the end the correct ruling was made.  (If you want to skip past how the discussion went down, jump to "Back to the game!" below.)  There was some back and forth and then the player tried to argue that they would cast Drill Too Deep on the All-Fates Scroll instead.  That also doesn't work.  For thoroughness, let me explain, putting things in the correct sequence of how they happen.

• Player B can either tap things for mana beforehand or first declare they're using the Torpedo's ability.  (When they announce the ability, they also declare the target, the Gravblade Heavy.)  If they declare the ability first, then the next thing for them to do is pay all costs.  
  
• If they tap the Scroll for mana first, since it generates mana, it is a mana ability, which cannot be responded to.  If they do it after, then they're tapping it while paying costs, so it can't be responded to then either.
  
• Sacrificing the Torpedo is part of the cost, not the resolution of the ability.  Before A has the chance to do anything, it's in the graveyard.  
• The ability goes on the stack (targeting the Heavy) and now B can respond.

That means:

• You can't prevent a spell from being cast by disrupting the spell's mana once it's been cast.  (Even way back you couldn't effectively counter a spell with Mana Short or prevent a land from being tapped for mana with Twiddle.  This was part of the difference between Instants and Interrupts before the Sixth Edition rules update.)  
• Costs are paid before the ability is fully on the stack.  The act of paying them itself doesn't go on the stack.
• You can't prevent something from being sacrificed by destroying it once the sacrifice has already happened.  
• You can't counter effects by destroying their source.  Even if sacrificing the Torpedo wasn't part of the cost, the ability is still on the stack and will resolve, killing the Heavy.
  

Technically, Player A couldn't even target the Torpedo because it was off the board before they had a chance to respond.  The correct thing to do was to have them return the spell to their hand, uncast.  The conversation grew heated and I'm not sure I handled it well.  There was no official judge at the event.  A player from the other pod got called over to handle it (which is good) but things still nearly went the wrong way.  

I probably should have kept my mouth shut, but I really didn't want the incorrect ruling to happen here.  When the topic shifted to destroying the Scroll instead of the Torpedo, I mentioned the instant/interrupt thing.  The card/ability type Mana Source got brought up and I said that that hasn't been a type since about Urza's Saga block.  I still feel iffy about the whole thing.  I kept my cool and didn't back down.  There was no moment of "this is the ruling" from the de facto judge but the correct procedure happened as a matter of general agreement.  Nevertheless, I am very concerned about the aftereffects of these kinds of moments.  I'm not just worried about getting the wrong ruling; I've accepted incorrect rulings on many occasions.  I'm worried about negative effects from explaining my understanding of the rules.  I really hope I didn't come across as annoying to the group!

Back to the game!

On the eighth turn I powered up my Scoutlander, which was seen as a big threat because it drew the second Gravkill of the game.  Around this point I was the first to fall under nine.  Soon after, A's Susurian Dirgecraft attacked me and I had to spend my own Gravkill to dispatch it.  I don't draft as much one-time removal in these multiplayer games, so I really wanted to save it longer.  On the ninth turn, however, I played Exalted Sunborn.  I mentioned that I didn't have any token generation, and it went a bit under the radar until I swung with it the next turn and went back to 13 life, at which point my opponents knew it would be trouble.  A spent the next bunch of turns tapping it down with Starport Security.  

At this point, players A and D were both hellbent.  On my next turn I drew Exosuit Savior and cast it, bouncing the afflicted Seedship Agrarian.  The Savior got removed almost immediately, but at least I got the Agrarian back on the board.  

On turn 12, A got a nice combo.  They had generated some Munitions with Weapons Manufacturing since the early game, but didn't have any way to sacrifice them.  

Munitions, meet Selfcraft Mechan

This helped power up the Starport Security as well, and tapping down my Exalted Sunborn got cheaper for them.  I kept attacking in little bits where I could.  Again, the two Zealots were awesome with their vigilance.  On turn 13 I cast Starfield Shepherd and got my Edge Rover.  (I was out of plains.)  Everyone was excited for the rover to die, but I held it as a chump blocker and I think it lasted to the end of the game.  

On their fourteenth turn, player B cast Temporal Intervention on A, who responded with Gravkill (the fourth!) on B's Kav Landseeker.  This was a bigger deal than it seems because that opened B up to attack and if the Temporal Intervention had hit me, I would have had to discard my Glacier Godmaw.  On my turn, I swung at B with the Agrarian and the Starfield Shepherd, the latter of which died immediately to Invasive Maneuvers.  They survived still having the

On my fifteenth turn I decided it was time to finally play the Godmaw.  I got the landfall trigger and swung in.  They went from 15 to 4, but double blocked the Godmaw and killed it.  

That must have knocked me off the archenemy dias, because on their next turn B cast Nebula Dragon and took out A's Insatiable Skittermaw before it could grow.  On my turn I played Pull Through the Weft on my Godmaw and Intrepid Tenderfoot, casting the second of those.  D, who had been at five life for a while and without a board, cast Perigee Beckoner, suddenly one of the biggest creatures.  

On turn 17, the life totals were A: 15, B: 5, Me: 9, and D: 5.  A forced me to discard (I don't recall how) and I had to pitch the Godmaw.  They, however, left my Exalted Sunborn untapped, so I swung it at B to put them to 1, then powered up my Tenderfoot.  D followed that up by attacking B to kill them and playing out Mouth of the Storm.  

On my eighteenth turn, I drew Shattered Wings, and took down the Mouth of the Storm.  This was enough for my oppoonents to scoop.  

What a game!  I was really excited that all four players lasted until the last two turns and that the balance of power went back and forth a bunch.  Of course, it's just a blast in general to draft for multiplayer and this was great.  I'm bummed that this store is so far from me because the games have been great.  If this is the kind of thing you enjoy too, I hope you can make the trip there sometime.

As always, Happy Magicking!

Edge of Eternities (WUBRG Drafting)

I made it to my first Edge of Eternities draft last night!  This was my first time drafting at The Conclave in Lakeland, an interesting store that is only open on Friday and Saturday nights.  We had eleven players and drafted in two pods but played games across the pods.  I was in the six-person pod.

I started off thinking that Edge of Eternities would be tough for WUBRG drafting, but it very much is not because of the prevalence of landers.  I actually wish I had drafted much differently because I ramped early and often and always had all my colors.  Here's what I drafted:

I did a pretty good job opening packs!

Pack three was a wild ride.  Not only did I open a second Beyond the Quiet, but I was then immediately passed the Singularity Rupture.  I couldn't believe it!  I felt like this draft was mine to win!  Here's the deck I built:

Potential deck name: "Oh, My Landers!"

My notes are a little less thorough this time.  (I think that happens when I'm playing at new places.)

I started off with the first-round bye and got in half of an EDH game with some other patrons.  (I'm sorry we didn't finish during the round!)  In the second round, I was paired up against a fast Rakdos deck.  It became clear to me just how strong the Warp mechanic is, though I hadn't really drafted much of it.  (It plays very similarly to adventures!)  In game one, I kept up with most of their creatures, but then they played Tannuk and I didn't keep up.  

In game two we both got flooded (I was flooded pretty much every game, but that was on purpose with all my landers.)  I played a Fungal Colossus for 2 but the game went long.  At the end I had three cards in my library and knew one of them was a basic land and two were Glacier Godmaws.  I learned to hold lands in my hand so I could give them haste with their landfall trigger, which is what I did, and won with one card left in my library.  

In game three, I was doing pretty well, but my opponent played Mutinous Massacre and stole my Fungal Colossus and swung when I was at four life.  I wasn't completely out of it, though, because I cast Drill Too Deep to bring the charge counters on my Larval Scoutlander to ten and chump block.  I really thought I was going to survive, but they had one more trick.

Pain for all, loss for me.

1-1, including the bye.  That player went on to win the draft.

There was only one other person at the draft that I knew from before, so naturally I was matched up against them and their Dimir control deck.  I want to mention that they are an extremely honorable player who is very interested in minimizing shallow play mistakes on both sides.  They made comments about things I could do and I did my best to do the same.  This was one of the best and weirdest limited matches I've ever had!  Every game came down to tiny libraries.  It might have been in my best interest to pad my deck with a few cards, but I didn't think to do that.

In game one, I played a first Godmaw but didn't have the extra land to give it haste.  This forced them to cast their own Singularity Rupture (what?!) nuking the board and milling me for 11.  I played my second Godmaw the next turn, but again didn't have land.  They managed to remove that as well and I conceded when we both had two cards on our libraries (but it was their turn).  I was going to die to combat damage the next turn, but I had my second Beyond the Quiet in my hand, which I thought they didn't know about.  (They did; they had been paying good attention at the end of my previous match.)  I didn't have a chance to win anyways with the two cards remaining in my library.

In game two, we played another war of attrition.  The amount of removal is so high and the fact that we both had big board wipes meant that we weren't over committing.  They played the first Singularity Rupture, milling me for 11 again.  I followed that up with my own, but then on my turn they still had six cards on their library while I only had five.  Once again I was behind by one!  Thankfully, I was able to win again after drawing my last card with the hastiness of the Godmaw.  They were stuck with multiple creatures in the "Warp Zone" including Quantum Riddler and Codecracker Hound because they just couldn't afford to draw any extra cards.  

In game three we were a bit rushed.  I played both Beyond the Quiets to stay in the game, but they had enough medium-sized creatures and only played one or two at a time.  I lost when they were at seven.  (Cards, not life.  What do you think this is, Magic?)  On my last turn, I surveilled to see the Singularity Rupture I needed on the top of my library.  1-2, including the bye.

I needed that in my hand instead of on top of my library.

Here are some quick lessons, notes to myself for doing this again in the future:

• Even though I didn't win a match against an opponent, the lander strategy seems real good for going WUBRG!
• Ramping works, so it would be okay for me to take more common big things.  I passed up some Pinnacle Kill-Ships that I wish had been in my pool.  
• I need to take both of the above points with a huge grain of salt because I'm not always going to get such a crazy amount of board wipes.   
  

This was so much fun!  I really hope I get to try it out again soon and really push for a bimodal mana curve.  I'm also really excited to Edge of Eternities packs in wacky drafts!  

I hope you have fun drafting this set too.  Happy Magicking! 

Jumpstarting a First Pack in Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

I gathered packs while on a trip and luckily my regular group was okay with trying a Jumpstart-1 Draft-2 event, so we did that last night.

(Feel free to skip to the image of the packs we opened if you don't care to hear the story of the packs I chose.)

I have long hoped to find a stable magic scene "Up North" Michigan.  (For my purposes, Up North means the Northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula.  Maybe that counts as the region from Alpena to Charlevoix?  I'm not really sure on the boundaries.)  I don't get to get up there every year, but it's a common place for me to visit in summers.  

In 1994, I opened a Revised starter deck at a long-gone store in downtown Petoskey.  This was shortly after I started playing and my pack contained the first Gaea's Liege and Millstone I had ever seen.  I bought an Unlimited Serra Angel at a paintball store in Cheboygan in the late 1990s.  I participated in a M13 (I think) prerelease at a store that I believe was called Battlegrounds near where Mim's currently is on the east outskirts of Petoskey.  Another store showed up in downtown Petoskey, though I didn't buy anything there and I don't remember the name.  (I think it was near the intersection of E. Mitchell St. and Waukazoo.)  That one seemed really promising, but it either moved or was replaced by a store outside of downtown but conveniently near Plath's butcher on Mitchell and S. Division.  I found them in 2020 during the pandemic.  I wasn't willing to play in store then, but I bought a box of Ikoria boosters.  I really looked forward to returning there to play someday.  Unfortunately, they did not make it. 

I returned this year after many years away.  Nevertheless, I found some new Magic vendors.  I figured I wouldn't get to play, but I did buy a pack from each of them to use when I returned home:

• I bought a March of the Machines Jumpstart pack from Enchanted Knights in Cheboygan.  I was really excited to find this because they run weekly events and have an active discord.  Enchanted Knights also has a location in Mackinaw City that I've been to many times since the Mackinaw Crossing shopping area took over (in the late nineties, I think).  That is a store that specializes in medieval weapons and clothing and got D&D stuff in more recent years, but I don't think I ever saw any Magic cards there.
• I bought an Innistrad Remastered pack from Nerd Ferguson's in Mackinaw City, which I had been to before.  I don't remember whether they had Magic before, but they did now.  I did learn that they are owned by the same people as Enchanted Knights.  Interestingly, I don't think they run events at this location.
• Petoskey is back on the map!  Though not downtown, the Fortress of Fandom is east of Bay View in the same plaza as D&W Fresh Market.  They had a bunch of normal packs, but then also a Fate Reforged among them, which I figured would be most wacky.  This store has a ton of space and it looked like they had big boxes of cards.  Hopefully in the future I can return and spend a while going through them with my want list.

I bought the first of those, the March of the Machines Jumpstart pack, on a bit of a whim.  It wasn't until later that I hoped I could get three packs to draft with.  We went to Mackinac Island this year, and I am pretty confident that there's no place to buy Magic cards there.  Luckily, my group agreed to try out the Jumpstart-1 Draft-2 format that I'd done before at Krum's, so I got to use all three.

To continue with the Michigan theme, I offered each of my players a can of Vernors, the oldest soda in the country.  I found out there are three flavors this summer and I was ready with all of them: Original, Black Cherry (limited time), and Boston Cooler (limited time).

No one chose the original.

 

You've heard about my packs; here's what everyone opened:

Will Jumpstart 1, Draft 2 become a thing?

One interesting aspect of this is that you don't have any information about what everyone else is doing after pack one.  (I mean, I don't anyways, but other people seem to be able to glean information.)  My Jumpstart was the Overachiever 2 pack and I got very lucky with a Faerie Mastermind for my random card.  

(Why are older Wizards.com pages so broken?  Looking at the March of the Machines Jumpstart possible pack lists page, each pack has multiple "Creatures" sections, non-creatures are included in the second Creatures part, that second non-creatures part is re-included in an "Other" section, many of the hoverover cards are wrong, and the overall card count is listed as "20/0".  I've seen other old pages similarly troubled.)  

Unfortunately, March of the Machines Jumpstart doesn't have dual lands like the thriving lands found in many other Jumpstarts.  It does have landcyclers instead, so I did get a Tidal Terror.  Drafting the remaining two packs was very interesting.  Although I didn't know it until afterwards, the other Jumpstart pack colors were Green, Green, and Blue!  Of the four of us, two colors were in very high demand.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to go WUBRG, but then dual lands kept coming around.  I took the Unseal the Necropolis because that kind of things works well with landcyclers.  Here were all of my picks:

 

As the group yesterday told me, I'm "honor bound" to do things like first-pick rare duals at this point.

 

Here's the deck I built from that:

Another very low mana curve!

I didn't realize at the time, but I was running Team Surveillance with Fear of Surveillance, Namazu Trader, Ephara's Dispersal, and near-surveil-effects like Soulcipher Board, Djinni Windseer (scry), and Oracle of Tragedy (looting).  All of this could work well with Unseal the Necropolis, though I didn't really get that synergy throughout the night.      

We played a best-of-three round robin.  In the first round I was up against the player who got an insect pack from Jumpstart 2022 and built a Selesnya deck.  I got Namazu Trader down on turn 5 and Fear of Surveillance followed.  I cast Unseal the Necropolis, only for my opponent to mill a Deadbridge Goliath.  That pumped a Sylvan Shepherd up to 7/8, followed by a Purple Worm next turn.  I got Ride the Shoopuf on the board, but didn't get a second green source in time and died.  In game two, he got a nasty three-card combo going:

A cycle of pain for me.

If there's a big enough creature, Nessian Hornbeetle places a counter each turn.  When that counter gets placed, Iridescent Hornbeetle makes a creature.  When more creatures exist, Snow Villers gets bigger.  Rinse and repeat.  I held out for a while, but eventually got overrun. 0-1.

In the second round, I was up against another Selesnya deck, this time from the Brothers' War opener.  They played Iron-Craw Crusher early as a prototype and survived a complicated combat with Gaea's Gift.  I got the Namazu Trader down as well as Tidal Terror.  Then they played Aettir and Priwen.  Yikes!  Before they could equip with it, I double-blocked the Crusher with the Trader and Terror.  They didn't draw another creature, so I won.  

In the second game, I got Faerie Mastermind down.  They played Ingenious Smith, finding the Iron-Craw Crusher again, but had a hard time getting their fourth land.  I held out by nuking the board with Fire Magic, then later got Referee Squad to slow down the Crusher for a while.  They played Aettir and Priwen and didn't hesitate to equip it to the Crusher.  I lost chump blocker after chump blocker as they hit in with a 24/12 every turn.  I played Lightfoot Rogue to try and get one more turn, but they played Spare Dagger and killed it before I could block, killing me.  

Which is more impressive, the dagger or the fact that another player had a Prototype token ready to go?

In the third game, my opponent kept a one-land hand.  I got stuck on two land, so they had time to catch up.  Thankfully, Fire Magic rescued me again and I took out four of their creatures with just the one-mana one-damage version.  From there I had a clear path to victory.  1-1.

In the final round I was up against "Dimir Ice", based on a blue Investigate pack from Jumpstart 2022.  In game one, got Faerie Mastermind down on turn two again.  They played Stitched Mangler and Vampire Spawn and I suddenly needed things that could win combat against 2/3s.  They kept stunning my potential blockers and I took four damage over and over.  Thankfully I got Djinni Windseer to stand up and stabilized at four life then win with that and other fliers.

In game two they got Vedalken Engineer out and then Enduring Tenacity.  I knew how combolicious that was so I dropped it with Minimus Containment.  Unfortunately, that was the wrong target.  

Yeah, see that equipment there.  That turned out to be worse.

I did my best to stop Vorpal Sword from going off, but they got the mana for it.  I kept killing their creatures, but then they played Oneirophage and I didn't have a flier.  (They also played Teferi's Puzzle Box, which just wrecks with the Oneirophage.)  

In the third game, they kept a very risky hand: one island, but with a Delver.  It did not ever flip, but they almost made it happen with a second land on turn four into the Vedalken Engineer, who powered out a Magnifying Glass the next turn.  I got my Tidal Terror out and put Astral Wingspan on it to win the game.  2-1.

Three of the four of us went 2-1.  We all played each other, so opponents' records are not a good tiebreaker.  On the first tiebreaker (game record) I fell out, having been 4-4 instead of 5-3.  The other two tied on that, so the winner of their match won that way.  

I am not sure how I feel about Jumpstart-1 Draft-2.  It was maybe not as fun as when I played in the multiplayer games a month ago.  Next time I would start with a pack that has a Thriving land at least.  Let me know what you think if you try it.

Happy Magicking!   

Three-Team Chaos Emperor Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

Today I got to do something I'm fairly confident I've never done before: I Emperor Drafted for a three-team (nine-player) game of Emperor magic!  Wooo!

I love drafting and I have a history of getting into Emperor drafts.  But, I haven't Emperor Drafted in at least six years!  I managed to trick convince eight other people to give it a go and we figured out how to do an Emperor Draft for three teams.  

Using Battlebond/Conspiracy/Conspiracy 2 packs is a great way to do Emperor, but we skipped all that and just wacky drafted it.  Here's a quick rundown of what we decided to do:

• We would play a single Emperor game with three teams in a circle.  Each Lieutenant would start adjacent to an enemy lieutenant.  
• We set the target range to two players for everyone.  (I like this range best.)  This means each player can pick targets up to two players away.  
• We decided not to use "Deploying" which is apparently a real rule now.  (We played with it called "Marching" in the 90s.  It's better formalized now.)
• We had each team take their turn simultaneously, a la Two-Headed Giant.
  
• We figured out a symmetric pack-passing/seating scheme with two main benefits:
• Players could sit with their team to collude about their picks.
• Packs should always pass from one teammate to an opponent, never from one teammate directly to another.  
• It's not trivial how to make this happen!  I made a diagram!

 

Simple!

• Basically each player is just passing a pack by skipping three people with each pass if you remained seated in the positions for playing.  Unfortunately, four can be a real stretch to pass across big tables.
• Instead, you can get some complicated, but at least closer, passing if you swap the lieutenant seats and then use the pattern in the right-hand part of the diagram above.   
• To facilitate this (and enforce Zone Drafting) I made some arrow diagrams with spaces for packs.  

Here's a shot of the arrows during the draft.  For the second pack, we reversed them.

As usual, I got a bit ahead of myself.  Here's what we opened:

 

I didn't actually follow the order I put them in here.  I opened Battlebond first.

I have rationale for choosing these packs that I want to highlight:

• The Battlebond pack was a Wedding Gift that I've been holding on to for a year.  I have been looking forward to an acceptable event to open it.  This was it, no doubt!
• I won the Foundations pack in a draft last night.
• We had been talking about how good the Black Wizard tokens from Final Fantasy would be in this, so I thought that would be a good call.

I was the left-lieutenant for my team.  I really tried not to draft five colors.  Really.  But then the fixing kept coming around and before I knew I was WUBRG again.  Here's what I drafted:

I really wanted to get to nine mana.  No reason.

If you do this, know that the drafting part takes a long time.  For us it lasted two hours.  Of the nine, I was the only one who had done an Emperor draft before, and even then I think I was one of the slowest people.  It is faster to do this where you can't collaborate with your team while drafting, but this is so much more fun!  It's great to have your team come together and have good ideas about what to pick.  

Deckbuilding went much faster, probably around a half hour or so.  Here's the deck I built:

Seems like a good mix of value and removal.  Let's go!

We sat down to play.  My Emperor was running Naya and our other (Right) Lieutenant was on Witch-Maw.  I was up against a Gruul Lieutenant.  That player had beaten me recently in another draft, so I was ready for a tough battle.  We rolled for turns and the team to our right went first.

The first two turns went pretty normal, but our Emperor got stuck on only two lands for a bit.  Right before their third turn, the Emperor to our right Burst Lightning something on the other team, then Hero's Downfalled one of our right-Lieutenant's blockers.  Their two Lieutenants swung in and the game was on.  They also played Queen Brahne.  I got the Wild-Field Scarecrow down on turn three, ready to fix my mana.  My direct opponent played Stickytongue Sentinel, nothing terrifying!  On their turn, the Emperor to our right ramped for two (I think with Reach the Horizon) and one of their Lieutenants cast Boltwave, which was so good in this!

We took our turn and I left my mana up to sac the Scarecrow after blocking.  Unfortunately, my opponent cast Etali's Favor on her frog, which also found Treefolk Umbra.  The 3/3 was now a 6 (essentially)/6 trampler.  Chump blocking did no good, so I just took 6, putting me at 10.  Oof!  On the other side, Rakdos, the Muscle came down against my teammate and we were suddenly in a really bad place.  

I sacrificed my scarecrow before our turn and had WUBRG ready to go.  I drew into Cooped Up and stopped the Voltron Frog in its tracks.  I threw down my own frog: Poison Dart Frog, ready to win the amphibian war.  Sadly, I did not have two open mana, because their team played White Auracite to remove the Cooped Up.  My opponent added Trollhide and hit me for 8.

Voltron Frog, right before it put me to 2 life.

On our turn 6, I played Ice Flan to freeze the frog.  I just needed to hold out until I could get some life back.  Sadly, that wasn't going to be an option.  The Emperor to our left cast Intimidation Campaign, then their far Lieutenant attacked with Sanguine Syphoner.  I was out first, dead on turn six!

That's not actually a bad way to die, though.  Fast games are good games.  I didn't realize just how short the rest of it would be, though!

On their seventh turn, the Emperor to our right cast Lasting Fayth with nine lands.  Their Lieutenant facing us had built up a bunch of wizard tokens from Queen Brahne.  On the far side of the board, their other Lieutenant took our their direct opponent.  They were looking like the team to beat for sure. 

We swung out for as much as we could on our turn, but we couldn't kill either of our direct opponents.  The Lieutenant I had been facing cast Price of Loyalty to steal our Emperor's only would-be blocker and hit for 12.  Our life totals were 0 (me), 5 (Emperor), and 4 (Right Lieutenant).  Then the team to our right took their team.  That player then cast Red Mage's Rapier with four Wizard tokens.  That killed our other Lieutenant and put our Emperor at 1.  Then they cast Airship Crash off of Rakdos, killing our Emperor and the opponent I'd been facing with another bash of wizard triggers.  We were officially out.

Now it was three versus one.  But their turn wasn't done and they attacked the remaining Emperor for 20, using Outmaneuver to get around any potential blocking.  

Wow, what a fast game!  Time wise, it only took an hour, compared to the two hours of drafting.  With 45 minutes to set up, 30 minutes to build decks, and another 15 miscellaneous minutes, it took about four and a half hours total, start to finish.  

And this continues to be one of my favorite formats!  I would love to do this again.  I do think I'm a bit better at being an Emperor, but that means I need to get more Lieutenant practice.  

The Wizard Tokens are so good.  I think Final Fantasy is the secret tech to this format.  I do feel pretty good about that because our group talked about it beforehand!  I highly recommend trying it out in a Wacky Emperor Draft.

I hope you get a chance to Emperor Draft too.  Happy Magicking!

Ravnica Clue Cube Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I did my first cube draft in a long time last night.  This was the first time I've done a Clube (Clue Cube) draft, though!

Some explanation may be necessary.  Last year Wizards released Ravnica: Clue Edition when Murders at Karlov Manor came out.  (There's some info at the bottom of this dying page.)  Recently, one of my friends created a really cool Cube with twelve packs of sixteen cards each to draft to use with this, instead of the jumpstart-style packs that come along with it.  Last night I got a chance to give it a try!  Here's a quick primer on the rules:

• All players play a multi-player game of magic, starting at 30 live.  The Clube is designed for four players, which I think is how the normal game works.
• You can still win via normal magic rules.
• There are all the suspects, weapons, and rooms of Clue, but there's no board that people walk around on.  One suspect, one weapon, and one room is randomly picked without anyone seeing and put aside as the solution to the murder.
• Two of the remaining rooms are dealt to the middle for everyone to see. 
• The remaining sixteen cards are shuffled and dealt to everyone for only that player to see.  Players can use the process of elimination to determine which three cards remain as the elements of the murder.
• At the end of their turn, and only once per game, a player can make an Accusation.  They pick one each of the suspects, weapons, and rooms.  Then they secretly look at the solution.  If they're right, then the win the game (the Clue way).  If they're wrong, they can no longer win the game via Clue rules and must win via normal Magic winning conditions.
• Whenever a player deals combat damage to an opponent for the first time in the game, the player makes a Suggestion: they pick a suspect, a weapon, and a room.  For the opponents that were dealt damage, in turn order: 
• If they have one of the cards listed, they must reveal that card to only the person who made the suggestion.  If they have multiple of the cards, they only reveal one.  At that point, the suggestion process ends completely and the opponent who revealed gets a free Treasure token.  
• If they don't have one of the cards listed, then they just pass and it moves to the next player who took combat damage.  
• If none of the players who took combat damage have anything to reveal, then... nothing happens.
• I am not (yet) good at Clue (I usually play Kill Doctor Lucky instead) but during this process everyone is writing things down on the handy sheet everyone gets.  I'm not sure what I was supposed to be writing, but I took notes that were not consistent throughout the process.
• Only one Suggestion can be made in a turn.  However, you can Suggest and then later Accuse.
• If you don't deal combat damage to any players on your turn, then you can Collect Evidence 6 at the end of your turn in order to make a Suggestion.  Again, you can't do this if you already got one from combat damage. 
• When a player dies via Magic rules, then they reveal all their hidden cards to the group.

I was told there were eleven draft archtypes in the packs (one for each guild and one five-color one).  I opened a pack with lots of gates and got right to work doing the thing everyone knew I was going to be doing.  (No Maze's End in the Clube.)  Here were my picks:

Gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, gate, goblin, goblin!

Drafting 13 non-basic lands normally makes choosing cuts pretty easy, but I had to cut a lot of stuff that seemed good.  Here's what I built:

You don't know the power of the Gate-Side!

The public rooms revealed were the Kitchen and Billiard Room.  My secret hand had Commander Mustard, Emissary Green, the Lead Pipe, and the Dining Room.  I'm sorry, but I didn't record everyone's suggestions.  I should have so you could solve the murder yourself before the end of this rundown!  

The game started off real good for me.  I got gates down in my first three turns, then played Gatebreaker Ram.  On turn four I hit the player across from me with the 6/6 Ram and suggested: Mastermind Plum, Lead Pipe, and Conservatory.  (I think it's good strategy to suggest some things you have to throw people off.)  They swung back on their turn and I revealed Commander Mustard.  On turn five I swung again with my vigilant, trample, growing Ram and Malcator's Watcher.  I Suggested Headliner Scarlett, the Wrench, and Dining Room.  Nothing was revealed to me that time.  

On turn 6, with a new Thunderclap Wyvern out, I had enough creatures to attack everyone.  I dealt combat damage to all and suggested Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Secret Passage.  (I don't remember what I was told after all of these, sorry!  I guess me saying this is a bit useless.)  

On turn 7, I was at the most life and kept up the pressure, especially after getting the underrated Glaive of the Guildpact on one of my fliers.  

Sitting pretty, Magic-wise.

I suggested Emissary Green, the Knife, and the Study.  On their turn, the person across from me suggested Headliner Scarlett, the Lead Pipe, and the Ballroom.  Something about the way they asked convinced me that the Ballroom was where the murder took place, and I zeroed in on that.  Then the player to my right (running Golgari Food) swung a bunch of big stuff at me.  The reason wasn't to kill me, but to kill the player to my left, the Cube creator, who was undefeated at this so far.  They had a large 10/9 Rapacious Guest they needed me to kill with my big vigilant blockers.  That would have killed one of them, though, so I responded by killing it with Beast Within instead.  The attacker used the trigger to take the player to my left out.  The undefeated streak was over.  At that point they revealed their cards:

On my eighth turn I attacked both remaining players, bringing them to single digit life.  I suggested Apothecary White, the Knife, and the Ballroom, but Apothecary White got revealed to me.  Then I dropped Archway Angel to go up to 24.  If I couldn't win via Clue, I was going to win via Magic!  Still, I could make my Accusation and win right then, so I did: Mastermind Plum, the Knife, and the Ballroom.  I checked out the hidden solution cards.

Nope.  It was not the Ballroom at all.  Mastermind Plum did it with the Wrench in the Hall.

My opponent to my right attacked us both and killed the other player, who revealed their hand: Apothecary White, the Rope, the Library, and the Secret Passage.  The attacker suggested Mastermind Plum, the Wrench, and the Dining Room.  I had to reveal the Dining Room.  Then they accused: Mastermind Plum, the Wrench, and the Hall.  Game over!  My life advantage (17 to 3) did me nothing.  I probably should have tried to swing out for the win the turn before.

This was wicked fun!  I need to learn to play Clue, though, so I can logic out all the mess of everyone asking things during the game!  I was way off.

The cube linked above is great!  I hope you get a chance to try this out.  Happy Sleuthing and Magicking!