Saturday, September 6, 2025

Repack Draft #(n+10): Sunburst + Converge = Sunverge?

I ran a repack draft last night.  These are packs of cards I've created from cards that have been donated to me.  (Thank you to everyone who donated cards to me for this!)  I mostly use these in free drafts for students.  This year I got a huge donation of cards, many of which were from Battle for Zendikar.  That became pretty relevant.

Last night we had ten players!  I think that many were first time drafters.  A few maybe hadn't played magic before.  A bunch of people only played one round and then bounced.  The drafting part got a big bogged down but on the whole I think people had fun.  (I hope they did!)  Even though we had an even number of players, we decided to play single game rounds (with a free first mulligan) with the goal of getting people matched up against as many different opponents as possible.

At one point in pack two, Zone Drafting wasn't happening and I suddenly learned that there was one zone with a lot of packs (at least four).  They were definitely not getting passed in order.  I intervened and tried to reorder the packs as they were coming around and I managed to reorganize things as they came to me just a few people later, but there should be an asterisk the size of Arkansas as far as drawing any conclusions from this draft.  (The actual lesson is that I should have enforced the randomization of seating.)

I drafted between two of my students who have attended many of these events.  They claimed that they were hate drafting against me, specifically the seasoned player to my right, but I still made it happen.  Here's everything I picked:

 

The number of WUBRG payoffs here is crazy.  Four Sunburst cards (three Infused Arrows and one Opaline Bracers) and three Converge cards (two Skyrider Elves and one Brilliant Spectrum).  I even passed a Suntouched Myr that came around late.  I also had plenty of dual lands.  (I put a non-basic land in each pack as part of my recipe because I have a lot of donated lands.)  Here's the deck I built:

I love me that Boros Battleshaper.


Since many people left after their first game, I was only able to get four games in.  In the first round I was up against a player running a nifty Mardu deck.  There was actually another student who wanted to learn to play, so I let them play the deck while I gave some direction.  We mulliganed twice, then kept a hand that was flooded.  (Out opponent was stuck on Rakdos for most of the game.)  It still led to a turn five full-strength Infused Arrows that kept the board clear.  Our turn seven Boros Battleshaper got nixed by a Daring Demolition, but that meant the turn eight Vengeant Vampire got to stick around.  On turn nine we slapped Vulshok Battlegear onto it and the beatdown began.  It took a long time to deal the final damage, but we pulled it off.  1-0.

In the second round I was matched up against the student who had been sitting to my left in the draft.  They were running a swift Naya deck.  I got stuck on Jeskai lands.  (Apparently there's a downside to running five colors!)  I did get two Infused Arrows and the Opaline Bracers down, but then I got stuck without being able to play any of my green and black creatures while a single Wild Celebrants knocked out my life total in four turns.  1-1.

In my third round I faced off against an aggressive Orzhov deck.  I drew mad gas with a turn four full Inspired Arrows, a turn six Soul of Innistrad, and a turn eight Boros Battleshaper.  It was pretty brutal.  2-1.

In my final round, my opponent was the player who drafted on my right.  They were running a Grixis Eldrazi deck.  (If they're running a ton of huge creatures, does that counts as "control"?)  They actually started their pack-one-pick-one with Shire Scarecrow in an effort to hate draft against me. 

In the game I got an early full Infused Arrows, but they destroyed my only green source with a Violent Impact.  (I'm weak against Land Destruction-type Pokemon.)  I got a full Opaline Bracers and the Vulshok Battlegear down and was punching in with my Wasteland Scorpion and then with a Coalition Honor Guard.  My opponent was stuck on seven land, then got eight and dropped Eldrazi Devastator.  Thankfully it had to block my 9/9 equipped Scorpion in order for them to stay alive.  Soon after they played out a bunch of little Eldrazis.

Can't use that Gravity Negator to give your own stuff flying.  Thanks, Flagbearer!

We continued to play out creatures while I swung with one big beatstick at a time, trying to keep the scales tilted in my favor.  I got a flyer, Shoreline Ranger, and stacked it up with the equipment.  I didn't have to spend a turn fighting through the flying blocker, however, because I drew Boros Battleshaper the next turn and told the Gravity Negator to stand down.  3-1.

I had a great time.  People really hated seeing the Infused Arrows come down, and I don't know that anyone realized I got three of them during the draft.  I hope I can do another of these before too long!  Happy Magicking!

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