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!