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!