After doing some Clue drafting last night, I made it to a informal chaos draft organized by some friends at my FLGS. I knew it was probably happening, so I brought three packs that I thought would be unique in the group: Ikoria, Journey to Nyx, and Strixhaven. I succeeded and we had a really good mix of packs.
I have a lot to say about how the drafting went this time!
- I have opened a lot of Ikoria-first in drafts. One goal here is to get lucky and pull a Triome, which I know I will run. (I'm opening Ikoria first in case I get a companion and can plan around them.) This time it paid off for what I think is the second time, as I opened a Ketria Triome.
- I got greedy and picked Great Train Heist over Dance of the Tumbleweeds in a pack that had two of the land-searchers. Neither came back. D'oh!
- I should have taken more lands. Three can sometimes get the job done but it wasn't enough here. I had some other mana fixing, but one or two more lands would have really helped.
- I was obviously honor-bound to take Marina Vendrell and run her. I gave an awkward "thanks" to the two people to my left in pack two who passed her. (To be clear: I don't want people to pass me WUBRG stuff because they're being nice! I want to have to fight for it and I appreciate it when people hate draft against me.)
Here are all of my picks:
With those cards I built this deck:
I did decide to run the Revel of the Fallen God at the very end, after I realized it was essentially a win con with Rootha. The seven of us decided to run best-of-one matches since it was pretty late and we wanted to try to play everyone. I managed to get in five of my six possible rounds; it was great that I got to play against so many people!
In the first round I was matched up against Jeskai "Oops, All Counterspells!" I got lucky with a turn three Larval Scoutlander, an amazing mana fixer. I followed that up with a Ticket Booth on turn four and Colossal Dreadmask on turn five. In the meantime, my opponent dropped a Spider-Man 2099 and had started to kick my butt with it. They got rid of my token and kept up the pressure, putting me at seven against their fifteen life. I played Rootha, put the mask on her, and opened up the Tunnel of Hate, swinging in.
Normally this would be where my opponent turns things around, but I actually closed this one out on the next turn! 1-0.
I got immediately into my second round against "Orzhov Lifelink Tribal". They played an Etched Slith, gave it lifelink with Duskfang Mentor, and got in over and over until I drew Deadly Complication and took it out. There was no respite, however, as Squelching Leeches hit the board next. I got real lucky and my opponent held their sixth Swamp in hand; I am also wont to hold a land as the last card in my hand. I got real lucky, though, because that meant it died to the Steel Wrecking Ball I drew. I played Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose which helped me stay alive. Their board kept growing, however, including an Emerge from the Cocoon that brought the Leeches back. The board continued to grow on their side until I was forced to Play a Game.
The Go-Shintai had dragged it out long enough. 1-1.
I got right into round three against "Jeskai Warleader's Call", a very one-sided match. I was stuck on three land, but fought tenaciously and took out Archmage's Newt with Marvin and the Great Train Heist. Unfortunately, my opponent followed up their early gas with jet fuel.
I killed the warped-in Red Tiger Mechan with Marvin and Reroute Systems. It didn't matter, though. They continued to power out threats; Araña was the nail in my coffin. The turn after she came down, I drew my fourth land. Unfortunately, I was at one life. Too little, too late. 1-2.
Halfway through that round, I realized I hadn't done an evening lesson in Duolingo yet, and it was 11:45. (I wanted to do an evening lesson to get a bonus the following morning, my regular routine.) I hoped to have a quick five-minute break between rounds, but that didn't happen and I got right into my fourth match against "Abzan Art School". Their deck was able to make eleven different kinds of tokens, and they'd been sketching on Infinitokens all night! (Our group is great at amazing deck names!)
We started around 11:48. I was dead by 11:55. I apologize for my inadequate notes, as all I have written down is "So fast!". I don't even remember what creatures killed me, just that I got run over. I even had enough time to do my Duolingo lesson. 1-3.
My fifth and final round came against "Enbantments", which made perfect sense when they played Ethereal Armor on Oreskos Swiftclaw. I killed the enchantment with Shattered Wings, but a Due Diligence showed up right after. I removed the threat and started to gain ground again, only for my opponent to play Ao. I only lasted two more turns, as Ao got over my measly groundlings. 1-4.
Maybe this kind of performance should dissuade my draft addiction. Maybe this should be a sign that I need to do ditch the WUBRG plan. I never saw Marina (come on!) and I did have problems fixing my mana. All I can think about, though, is wondering when I'll get to draft again.
I hope you feel the same way! Happy Magicking!
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