Final Fantasy Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

My little group decided to do a Final Fantasy draft instead of a Wacky draft last night.  We had six and I did the smallest amount of lobbying for an Emperor Draft, but that did not catch on.  We did decide to play single-game rounds so we could play as many people as possible.

Why only one character on the packs?

 The draft was very interesting.  I didn't do a good enough job of taking lands.  I think at one point I picked some conditional removal over a land and then didn't run it anyways.  Unfortunately there were multiple times where mana fixing was clumped four or five pieces in one pack.  (I should probably start taking pictures of those tough picks.)  I did get lots of land cyclers (only missing Hill Gigas) through, and being in five colors helped me grab some real good cards on late picks.  Here's everything I drafted:

So much combo potential in the first two picks of pack 1.

A lesson I learned from last week's sealed was to keep my mana levels pretty even instead of dumping a ton into one color.  Here's the deck I wound up with:

 

 

The mana curve is admittedly pretty high, but five of those are land cyclers.

For the first time in a long while, we finished all fifteen matches!  In the first round I was matched up against an opponent who often steamrolls me with aggressive white + something decks.  The trend continued as they were on Abzan and I didn't have any plays my first four turns.  My life total dwindled against Black Mage's Rod and Ashe, but I wasn't out.  I got The Regalia and Blitzball Tidus and drew into Ultima.  They transformed Crystal Fragments into Alexander, and combat put me to 4, while they were at 24.  I responded with Ice Flan to tap Alexander down and buy me a turn with enough to block everything else.  I got real lucky then, because they played three non-creature spells on their turn, knocking me to 1 and threatening to win off of Alexander's last chapter.  

Swinging out before dropping the Ultima.

 

I didn't have any choice then.  I cast Ultima and we were both playing off the top.  I cast Omega with one non-basic to double my life total.  I couldn't attack, however, because they had Goobbue Gardener.  We each got more creatures down and I took the chance of attacking whenever I had enough blockers to stay alive, even though they had a card in hand.  Choco helped me draw into more gas.  Although I didn't have any other birds in my deck, Zidane let me steal a bird to get even more and attack with lifelink, putting me at 5.  I won the turn after that with enough creature damage on the board.  1-0.  This was easily one of my biggest comebacks ever!

The second round had me up against an Izzet deck that kept stifling anything I tried to do.  They smartly "bolted the bird" (Suplexed the Torgal) before I could untap with it.  Their Ultros had me saying "Seafood Soup!" as they kept tapping down my stuff.  I got Ignis Scientia down, which didn't net me any new colors.  Even The Regalia couldn't make it to the battlefield.

I was told these cards together are the plot of FF XV.  No theme combo for me.

Without that recurring land searcher, I was in dire straits.  Try as I might, I could not keep up.  I thought I was close to putting stuff together in the end, but I got dinked and dunked until I was dead.  1-1.

The third round was comborific for me.  I was up against a nifty Orzhov deck, but I just got way too lucky.  Turn two I played the Smuggler's Copter, which I don't think I'd really played with before it got banned in standard a few years ago. 

Kaladesh is NINE years old?!?

(Image from Hyperbole and a half.)

On turn three I played Gran Pulse Ochu and swung in with the Copter.  I hit again on turn four, drew into Balthier and Fran, cast them on the next turn to hit for four more that turn, achieving the combo from my first two picks.  They crewed the Copter the next turn, letting me attack twice.  That was enough and they finally took the copter out.  I had been pitching land to the copter and was a bit low on mana, but finally got I got enough and confidently played Balamb T-Rexaur.  I blocked a 1/1 hero with it next turn.

Oops.

There was a bit of stagnation until Zidane showed up and I was able to hilariously steal Kain and attack.  They attacked with Kain (such good flavor!) on their own the next turn to die to the life loss on his ability.  2-1.

Round four was very unusual for me because we were both swinging recklessly each turn, expecting to win the life race.  I got a turn one Ochu and turn two Copter, acting like an aggro deck which faced off against an Izzet deck that played Astrologian's Planisphere on turn two.  This kept going until I had seven life to their four.  The Copter got Suplexed and I got their big token stuck in the Summoner's Sanctum.  They did the same to an Ice Flan I got down.  I got to eight mana with Torgal's help and started swinging in with a more-dangerous Ochu.

Six counters, that's why it got lost in the sanctum.

 

I was able to pull off the win from there, holding Ultima in hand. 3-1

 

Going into my final match was exciting because we had three people at 3-1, all three people were playing, and I was up against one of them.  The other one had beaten me in the second game.  While we were playing ours, that person won again.  If I won, I would claim second place.  If I lost, my opponent would win the event, having beaten the 4-1 player.  

My opponent was playing a self-mill Dimir deck with Emet-Selch, Unsundered in a pseudo-commander role.  After losing the first round, they had won the last three games with one card left in their library.  The self-mill strategy, using multiple copies of Shinra Reinforcements and Resentful Revelation helped to flip Emet into Hades, giving them a ton of graveyard gas to win with. 

 

In our match I was given some time to build up, but I was stuck without blue mana.  I used Zidane's treasure to cast Ignis Scientia and did stick him in The Regalia for a turn, completing the synergy.  Unfortunately, my opponent Stuck The Regalia in the Summoner's Sanctum.  Although they were afraid of Ignis removing things from their yard, this was the correct choice for two reasons.  First, I was stuck without Blue mana for a long time, so I couldn't use his ability anyways.  Second, that shut down The Regalia's crew ability so it couldn't become a Legendary Creature, which mattered because I got Clive's Hideaway down (with Omega insides) and didn't quite get to four legendary creatures.  

They played Emet with 13 cards in their yard, drawing and discarding to hit the magic number.  I failed to draw into an island and they flipped Emet on their next upkeep, attacking me down to 5.  I finally got my island with four cards atop their library and activated Ignis's ability to exile a Hecteyes from their yard and net a food.  A turn-and-a-half later I blocked a Malboro with Ignis and Fang.  I activated Ignis and they killed him instead of the meld-potential.  They played Undercity Dire Rat and passed to me with seven untapped lands, ten life, and two cards on the top of their library.  I drew into one of my two outs.

 

I don't know how to type out the FFVI sound that Ultima makes.  Pretend I typed that.  "Bwoooom", maybe.

 

They had Syncopate in hand.  I had six untapped lands, exactly enough.  If they hadn't cast the Rat I would have died.  If they had chosen to kill Fang, then I would have activated Ignis before the Ultima and the Syncopate could have done it's job.  If I had drawn into Vanille, then they could have Syncopated so I couldn't meld them into Ragnarok.  They grabbed Emet with Fight On! and played Locke Cole, but I stayed alive.  They cast Emet their next turn to die from the draw.  4-1.

 

What an amazing night!  I had so many tight games and my other wins were directly off of the power of Smuggler's Copter hitting the board on turn two.  If there's any lesson I need for future drafts, it's that those land cyclers are real good.  Since they're double-pip cards, you're very likely to cycle them instead of cast them, but they're still great.

 

I look forward to doing as many of these drafts as I can.  This set is wicked fun!  Happy Magicking!