I did a free draft last night with some students using repacked packs of cards donated to me. (I'm calling these "Frepack Drafts" from now on.) Some students wanted to do this with the Ravnica Clue set and I really wanted to find out how that works, so I was in. One of the group was a first-time drafter! Exciting! Knowing I wanted to hit players to make guesses, I drafted flyers really highly and got a bunch of Flash-Flyers. Here's everything I pulled:
I built what I think is a pretty solid five-color deck:
We sat down in the play order of: A on a Simic deck, B playing Yore-Tiller deck, myself, and D running Dimir. The cards I was dealt were Mastermind Plum, Emissary Green, the Hall, and the Kitchen. (No weapons!) In the middle were revealed the Ballroom and the Lounge. We marked up our papers, set our life totals to 30, and got to playing. (I'm not going to recreate the sheet stage by stage like last time.)
A got a Fleshburrower out on turn two, B played Forerunner of Slaughter, and I joined in with Courier Hawk; a lot was happening right away!
On the third round of turns, the Fleshburrower attacked me, A guessed Emissary Green, Candlestick, and Dining Room. I revealed Emissary Green to them. Then B hit me with the Forerunner, guessing Apothercary White, Candlestick, and Billiard Room; I had to pass. That was all pretty bad, but I earned a Treasure out of the deal. On my turn I played a land and attacked D with the hawk. I guessed Commander Mustard, Rope, and Hall and they had to pass.
On round four, B attacked A with a Vampire Envoy, who let them through just to get the treasure token! (They were stuck on three lands.) This was a bad strategy, however, because they had to pass to the guess of Emissary Green, the Pipe, and the Study.
On my turn I attacked B, who passed at the guess of Scarlett, Wrench, and Conservatory. D attacked A on their turn, guessing Apothecary White, the Rope, and the Conservatory and forcing another pass.
On round five, A played Academy Wall to try to stop the bleeding. B got damage through on me and A, however. They guessed Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Conservatory. I passed, but A had to reveal a card. I swung in on D and A, naming Senator Peacock, the Knife, and the Conservatory. Both of them passed, which was enough to tell me that the Conservatory was the murder scene! D, stuck on three lands, killed me Courier Hawk on their turn with Moment of Craving.
On round six, B hit me for seven damage, but that's not the whole story! They had a first-strike creature, so they got to make two guesses! This is the first time we've resolved first strike damage in a Ravnica Clue game! They first guessed Emissary Green with the Wrench in the Hall and I revealed Emissary Green. The second guess was for Senator Peacock with the Wrench in the Hall, and I revealed the Hall. Oof!
I got damage in on A and B. I guessed Commander Mustard with the Knife in the Kitchen. A showed me Commander Mustard. That was pretty good, but I didn't get any information from B. I used my treasures and all my land to cast Snowhorn Rider and Recommission on my Courier Hawk. I felt pretty good with my board state at that point. Then D attacked B, who had to pass on Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Conservatory.
On round seven, A attacked B, guessing Senator Peacock with the Wrench in the Hall. B passed, then attacked A back on their turn, guessing Emissary Green, with the Rope, in the Lounge. That was a pass. Now I knew who had committed the murder! B passed their turn, but they later realized they knew the solution and could have won. On my turn I collected evidence six to guess to the whole table that it was Senator Peacock with the Rope in the Conservatory. All three passed. I accused the same thing and won!
Here are some quick notes about how the game went:
- We weren't anywhere near to losing due to life loss. I was at 19 while my opponents had 29, 29, and 22. The game was certainly going to be decided via Clue rules, especially when we got (un)lucky by focusing in on the Conservatory so early. I don't know whether that would happen all that often!
- The evasion matters so much. The question everyone asked each turn was, "What flying blockers do you have?" Courier Hawk was amazing.
- There is a great handicap for WUBRG construction here: the treasures you earn from revealing cards. It speeds other people up and also fixes for me. I need to remember to find excess treasure token cards I have to include them in the set of stuff.
- We were playing with a bunch of cards from Battle for Zendikar, which had the (unofficially named) processing mechanic where you put exiled cards into that players' graveyard. That's really unfortunate with the ability to Collect Evidence 6 to make a guess!
Two of my opponents had some extra time, so we tried playing again with the three of us! We made some changes:
- We started at 20 life instead of 30.
- We didn't remove the two rooms before playing. This meant there were six cards for each of us and no all-known cards. I had Mastermind Plum, the Candlestick, the Knife, the Library, the Ballroom, and the Hall.
- The Dimir player (D) added green to become Sultai.
I lost the turn roll, but I'll keep the player pseudonyms from before. It was D, A, and myself in turn order.
I got my Courier Hawk again on turn two.
On their turn three, D hit me for two damage, guessing Commander Mustard, the Candlestick, and the Kitchen. I had to reveal the Candlestick to them. I hit A, who passed on my guess of Headliner Scarlett, the Wrench, and the Secret Passage.
In round four, D hit A, guessing Commander Mustard, the Knife, and the Study. A showed them a card. At the end of A's turn I spent my treasure to play a Ulamog's Nullifier. Then I played a second Nullifier on my turn. (I couldn't flash it in because my fourth land drop was Crumbling Vestige.) I also hit A, guessing Peacock, Pipe, and Lounge. They showed me the Lead Pipe.
D started round five off by attacking A. They guessed Green, the Rope, and the Dining Room. A showed them a card. A played a Territorial Baloth on their turn. I played Armasaur Guide, then attacked with my three flyers, giving the Armasaur the +1/+1 counter. I hit both opponents and guessed Apothecary White, the Rope, and the Billiard Room. D revealed Apothecary White to me.
In round six, D attacked us both. I successfully blocked, but they had a Touch of Moonglove to kill my blocking Armasaur. Yuck! They guessed Mastermind Plum, the Knife, and the Ballroom. A passed, which didn't help me at all. Then they cast two Containment Membranes on my tapped nullfiers. A played a Giant Mantis, then pumped their Baloth and attacked with a non-trampling 9/9. I let my Courier Hawk bite it, going from a strong board to a nearly empty one. On my turn I could only play a Helpful Hunter, draw the land from it, then pass.
In round seven, D removed my little cat, then both players hit me for four damage. I had to reveal Mastermind Plum to both of them and went to 8 life. I played the Sphinx of Uthuun I drew.
With the excess cards in my graveyard, I was able to Collect Evidence 6 and guess Headliner Scarlett, the Rope, and the Lounge. D showed me the Lounge.
In round eight, D made a deal with A that they wouldn't attack if they could remove my Sphinx. That was bad for me, because A then Swept it Away and hit me for nine, killing me. My opponents were still at 18 (D) and 11 (A) life. Upon my death, I revealed my six cards to the table.
In the ninth round, D collected evidence of six to ask Emissary Green, the Knife, and the Secret Passage, to which A had to show a card. (Note: both knew the Knife was revealed from my hand, but was a purposeful whiff on the weapon.) A did the same thing on their turn, guessing Apothecary White, the Wrench, and the Dining Room. D revealed a card to them.
A had less information than D, who was pretty certain they could solve the murder. A calculated that they had a one-in-four chance of getting an Accusation right, but it was their best chance to win via Clue. They accused Senator Peacock of killing Guildmage Boddy with the Wrench in the Secret Passage.
It was incorrect. A could no longer win by solving the murder.
To start off round 10, D played an Eldrazi Devastator. They now had the strongest board, but didn't attack with their creatures because they knew A was going to start attacking to try and win. A threw their haymaker the next turn, swinging out, but mostly going ineffective.
On round 11, D attacked for the win. This was an exciting end to a game, with one players going for the murder-solving win and actually having an okay chance to make it happen. Great finish!
Here are some thoughts about the life totals:
- 30 was probably too much life for the Frepack draft with four people and sixteen hidden cards. (12 unknown cards per player.)
- 20 was either too low or just right for the same thing but with three people and eighteen hidden cards. (12 unknown cards per player.)
- Personal preference: it's better to overestimate the amount of life because I'd rather the game ends by solving the murder with lots of life than ending by killing opponents with damage and not being close to solving the murder.
- If I was doing the same thing, I would try something like 25 life with four to see how that goes.
- Alternatively, we could add two more rooms to the mix, not remove any rooms, and deal out five to each player. That means there would be a total of twenty hidden cards, 15 per player. Presumably that would increase the time to solve the murder.
- It could just also be that we solved the murder so easily in the first game because we happened to zero in on the Conservatory before we actually should have.
I'm curious to hear what you think. If we added two rooms, what would they be? Urza's Hot Tub room? If you try something else, let me know! Happy Magicking!
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