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!

Wilds of Eldraine 6 (WUBRG Drafting)

The Final Fantasy product drought continues.  We eagerly await the next printing, though it seems that might arrive after Edge of Eternities is released.  My Friendliest LGS, Intergalactic Plastic, used this as an opportunity to run a Wilds of Eldraine draft this week, which I gladly joined in.  I have a surprisingly good record with Wilds drafts: 12-2-1.

There were twelve players, so we got into two pods of six and got to drafting.  I did not do very good at drafting fixing lands; I got one rare dual, one Crystal Grotto, and one Edgewall Inn.  Thankfully I got enough other fixing to make up for it.  (Thank you, Scarecrow Guide!)  Here are all my picks:

So many rares came around late, like Prismatic Omen!

 

I had a hard time putting this deck together.  I'm still not sure I picked the right cards.  For the final game of the night, I actually subbed out the Hamlet Glutton here for the Horned Loch-Whale.  I don't even know if that was the right change.  Here's my deck before I made that change:

I put so many things in the 2-drop slot just because there was some way to cast (at least a part of) them with two mana.

I sat down in my first match against a new (to me) person who said they had gotten back into magic after a long hiatus due to the Final Fantasy set.  That was pretty cool!  They were there playing, earning points for Chocobo Racing.  Pretty cool!  They had a tricksy Dimir Faeries deck.  I started game one by getting Scarecrow Guide out on turn two.  That opened my hand up to other plays even though I only had a forest and plains out.  Unfortunately, they Ratted it Out, putting me in trouble as I did not draw more lands for a bit.  My opponent was also mana screwed on three swamps for a while.  Thankfully I drew into the Prismatic Omen on turn four and then got into some lands to play Johann on turn eight.  They got a fourth swamp, but it wasn't enough.  So much of my deck is instants, sorceries, and adventures, so Johann valued me into the win.  

In game two, I started stuck on two lands again.  My opponent finally drew into both of their colors and had a turn two Obyra, then a Mocking Sprite the next turn.  I had lots of nothing, so I had to Coop the sprite Up while hoping for a way to remove Obyra.  I got a third land and played Hylda's Crown of Winter, which reminded me just how good Icy Manipulator used to be.  A Stingblade Assassin came down without killing anything and I just continued to hold on.

Tapping the assassin turn after turn.

Finally I drew Edgewall Inn for my fourth land.  I was at just five life and tried to Flick a Coin at the assassin, but they responded with Water Wings.  On my next turn I got a fifth land and played Johann.  (I needed the extra land free to keep tapping an attacker.)  I went to three life against their twenty, but got Prismatic Omen and removal and blocking to stall out their board.  I finally played the Hamlet Glutton, putting me to six, and won off of the extra value provided by Johann.  1-0.

In the second round I was up against a value Sultai mill deck that got extra value off of Bramble Familiar.  It came down but they didn't want to trade with my Scarecrow Guide, so I had some time with good mana fixing.  I had Flick a Coin for their Likeness Looter and Rip the Seams for their Hollow Scavenger and Hylda's Crown showed up again to keep me in the game against their other creatures.  On turn seven I was finally able to get the Threadbind Clique to come back from their adventure.  The Bramble Familiar did it's Fetch Quest trick but didn't get a big critter, so I was able to handle it.  I used Cooped Up on the raccoon and exiled it so it couldn't cause future trouble.  They cast Storm Reading, but didn't get an answer.  I kept the board clear and won with two scarecrows and the clique.  

In game two we seemed to be playing the same game over.  Bramble Familiar, Scarecrow Guide, Likeness Looter, and Flick a Coin all had the same effects.  On their turn four they made a new play by sending Cruel Somnophage on its adventure and summoning it on the same turn.  They used Fetch Quest again, this time having even worse luck with five lands milled!  I got Virtue of Loyalty on the board for the first time and within a few turns my creatures were extremely imposing.  They played Storm Reading again, but it didn't matter and I won again.  2-0.

My third round opponent was playing an Orzhov deck named "Rats that Like to Die".  They had an amazing amount of death triggers.  In the first game I had to play around those rats including Voracious Vermin and Lord Skitter's Butcher.  Thankfully I had Cooped Up and got my favorite crown of ice down, and even played Vantress Visions for the first time to tap two things down in one turn.  That drew a Stroke of Midnight on the crown, sadly, but I was able to get Virtue of Loyalty down and start buffing my crew.  I played Hamlet Glutton, but it got captured by a Werefox Bodyguard. 

Bye bye, Glutton.

I played the Virtue of Knowledge from its adventure, threatening to gain double life if the Werefox died.  From there it was a slow win, but I pulled it off.  In the second game they got a Tangled Colony on turn two.  I fed that to a Frantic Firebolt before my graveyard got any bigger, but it Returned Triumphantly.  The next turn there were some Protective "Rat" Parents, which I let through shortly thereafter because I didn't want the Tangled Colony to get any bigger.  I thought I had it in the bag when I played Johann and then Virtue of Loyalty, but that actually played into my opponent's hands!  After two turns, the Virtue bit it to a Stroke of Midnight and then Johann died in a Moment of Valor since his power had grown to 4.  They had a mess of 1/1s and I started to stabilize at eight life to their seventeen.  Then they got the card that worked with all those rats: Grave Pact.  Talk about death triggers!  Another moment of valor took down my big vigilant knight, but I sacrificed it to the Grave Pact trigger and lost a Human token when another of their creatures died.  After that I lucked out that those rats couldn't block.  I used Lagoon Breach to get rid of a rat and had enough power of creatures on the board that I won after a few turns.  3-0.

I honestly don't know why Wilds of Eldraine has been so good to me.  I am 15-2-1 overall, which is nuts.  Perhaps five-color-adventures is just a good deck!  I hope you get the chance to try this format out, even two years on.  

Happy Magicking! 

Independence Day Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to host a wacky draft on the 4th of July this year and a bunch of people came!  We had eight total people and very nearly decided to do a Battlebond draft.  In the end, we stayed wacky; our packs were as varied as fireworks.  I picked Ikoria-Dominaria-Murders of Karlov Manor; Red, White, and Blue.  Some others found good patriotismesque sets of their own.  Here's what we all opened:

Mine may be the only Red-White-Blue in that order.

To my right sat a player who often drafts four colors, Witch-Maw in particular.  I knew I was going to have to fight for color fixing.  (I made it clear to them not to go easy on me!)  Another player wound up drafting four colors and I only ran into one opponent who was in less than three colors while playing.  

My first pick was Mythos of Vadrok.  A Jeskai card right off the bat on America's Birthday.  In the end I decided not to run it, which was certainly a mistake.  I felt like I had enough other removal, but I think I should have run it instead.  I paid the price for this symbolic offense, don't worry!  Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, a hilarious thing happened two seats to my left.  

That player started the draft planning to go Jeskai, having picked Tarkir Dragonstorm, Khans of Tarkir, and Ikoria to open.  When they made their first pick, though, they exclaimed that that plan was already out the window.  Just before opening pack three, they mentioned how bad it would be if they opened Winota.  Then they proceeded to do exactly that and had to pivot to a fourth color.  The Jeskai Plan wouldn't give up!  

Here are the rest of my picks:

After picking The Necrobloom, I did shift into a token-creature strategy, which paid off when Baron Bertrem Graywater came around!

I didn't realize it when I picked it, but Illicit Masquerade was one of the best cards for my deck I could have asked for.  In the current world of land cyclers, I need to be on the lookout for more Raise Dead/Resurrection-style effects, which that does excellently.  The good news is that I did a pretty good job of getting my colors.  Here's the deck I put together:

 

I even only ran sixteen lands!

 

Since we had eight, we decided on playing single-game rounds in order to play more people.  Of the 28 possible matches, we got 26 of them in!  Sadly I was one of the people who only got six rounds in.

In my first round I was up against a slick Mardu deck.  They played a Lightning Mauler on turn two and even though it didn't meaningfully soulbound with anyone, it got in enough to hit me for 11, powered sometimes by War Squeak.  The turn after I spent Introduction to Annihilation on it, they played Hoarding Broodlord into Dragon's Rage Channeler.  I took out the channeler before it dealt me any damage, but I had nothing left to deal with the big dragon.  0-1.

In the second round I was up against an Esper deck that just kept on chugging.  They cast Pilgrim of the Ages four times over the course of the game and only stopped because they ran out of Plains to fetch from the deck.  Everytime I had a play, they answered it.  Spring-Loaded Sawblades to kill the Pilgrim the first time?  They had Bladed Battle-Fan.   

Then they got the treasure!

 

Oasis Gardener to craft with the Sawblades?  They used a treasure to entwine Kaya's Guile, killing the Gardener and exiling my graveyard so crafting wasn't an option.  Nevertheless I held on.  Illicit Masquerade turned some of my early land searchers into creatures, like Orchard Strider, who lent me the food for crafting.  I built up a bit of a board.  In the end, they got down Gurmag Swiftwing and I couldn't get a flier to save my life.  0-2.  That player pulled off an undefeated 7-0 to win the draft!

In the third round I faced a slick Golgari deck.  I was feeling pretty good until Ahriman came down and then took out Skoa.  

And Ruthless Predation even kept the flying eye from dying.

I did kill the Ahriman, but was stuck again without a flier.  Then Tizerius Charger came down.  It died and then came back with flying.  And killed me.  0-3.

Round four put me up against someone who often runs me over with some sort of aggressive white deck.  This time they went full patriotic and drafted Jeskai.  If I could only survive the first onslaught, I could pull this off and break my losing streak!

No.

Sorry, I got ahead of myself again.  We started off both stuck without Blue (partly because I Abraded their Jeskai Devotee right after it showed up) which was a bigger impediment for them.  I got The Necrobloom out and that slowed the game down.  I flashed in the Sawblades when blocking to win big in combat.  On turn eight I played the Baron Graywater, ready to combo it with The Necrobloom and pull ahead.  Devastating Mastery put that all to an end.  Then they dropped Furnace Hellkite and Jace, the Perfected Mind.  I started taking a lot of damage in the air.  I drew Throttle, but it wasn't enough to take out the 5/5 flier.  However, it didn't matter because he dropped five counters from Jace to mill me for fifteen, which was exactly the size of my deck.  0-4.

In round five I was up against a really cohesive Bant +1/+1 counters deck, powered by The Earth Crystal.  The crystal came down early and I got real lucky to pull Abrade right away and destroy it.  I would have used it on their 1/3 flier earlier, except that that flier was Stormwild Capridor.  My Bladewheel Chariot got stuck on the wrong side of a combat trick and I decided to Tend the Pests it.  

Gift of the Viper seems real good.

I built a little token army with those five Pests, a 2/2 Rebel from Goldwarden's Helm, two 4/4 Elementals from Elemental Masterpiece, and a 1/1 Hero from Monk's Fist.  I was mana-flooded for a bit, but then mutated Parcelbeast onto the hero so that I could use it's ability right away.  That drew me into Baron Graywater.  I was sad to see him after all those tokens had already come out, but then I drew The Necrobloom and got to see them be combolicious together.  My opponent then got completely mana-flooded while I drew Hill Gigas and Furnace Host Charger on the same turn (thanks Parcelbeast!).  That was enough for me to breakthrough and win.  1-4.

In my last round I was up against the Ink-Treader player who had shifted gears when they opened Winota.  They had a sweet sequence of plays, starting with a turn four Roar of the Endless Song (this was the first card they drafted that pulled them awaky from Jeskai) using a treasure to make it happen so fast.  Turn five Winota hit the board, meaning the 5/5 elephant got to attack and look for a human in the top six cards, finding Case File Auditor.  They were stuck at five land for a while, but that was enough to get their deck rolling.  When the saga's term ended, they cast something to get it back from their graveyard and dropped it again.  

One way to grant those elephants trample and I would have been done for.

Baron Graywater and The Necrobloom helped keep me in the game with Plant and lifelinking Vampire tokens.  I got rid of the Roar of the Endless Song before it could double the creatures' power again with Intro to Annihilation.  I hit seven different-named lands (thanks, Snow-Covered Plains!) and started dropping Zombies instead of Plants.  At this point my opponent was drawing lots of lands, having already pulled the three humans out of their deck with Winota.  Khoa showed up to help take out a blocker and after putting the pressure on, Throttle helped me clear the way for a win.  2-4.

I actually got pretty lucky last night.  My deck was fun, but not terribly strong.  My opponents' decks were quite good; the +1/+1 counter deck had a ton of synergy and Winota + Elephants should have been a death sentence.  The fixing I drafted bailed me out often and my removal kept me in multiple games longer than I should have been.  

But I still had a great time.  My token strategy came together some times and there were good plays on many of my games.  I don't think I made many play mistakes.  It was a great way to celebrate the 4th of July!

Happy Magicking!  And fireworks!