I got real lucky and drafted with a group of seven earlier this week. We had a real good group of people and all my games were fun. With Spider-Man recently released, there was a lot of that in the pool of packs:
I actually passed on a lot of dual lands, which should have hurt me more than it did. Instead I picked up other sources of mana fixing: three mana dorks, two land cyclers, and two Capenna exile-fixers. Not to mention Ignis Scientia. Here are all my picks:
I built a deck with a high curve, but I thought I could manage it, especially with three copies of Guy in the Chair. Here's what I ran:
I have really come to love seven player drafts. The odd number of people is an excuse to do single-game (BO1) rounds and I like playing a lot of different people. Although I enjoy a single best-of-three round better than a single game, I wouldn't be able to get six rounds in for this, and the tradeoff is more than worth it.
In the first round I was up against a Boros deck named "Iroas, God of Aggro". They played Resplendent Marshal on turn three, followed by Iroas, and then Weapons Vendor. That put me at 14. I drew into Ignis Scientia and felt pretty good. Then my opponent played Genji Glove.
Dead on turn 6. That player wound up going undefeated and winning the entire draft. 0-1.
In round two I was up against Dimir "Black Cat, Deck Thief". I got out a Fearless Fledgling on the second turn, but that ate it to Breathe Your Last. Completed Conjurer took me to eight life, but then I bounced back with a Shattered Seraph and the board started to get real big. My opponent stole four cards from my library with Black Cat twice using Valgavoth's Faithful. I played Behold the Sinister Six, but it wasn't enough to win in a single attack. My graveyard was nearly gone due to some milling and the Black Cat, so I went in with as much as I could.
Unfortunately, my opponent got to seven mana and killed me with my own Rhino. In fact, they used all four of my cards in the process of killing me. 0-2.
I had now had one very quick death and one longer death. My third game went even longer still. My opponent was playing Simic Jackal, but they didn't get Jackal until nearly the end of the game. They had a good early combo with Raving Visionary and Containment Construct. I didn't have to cycle Timberland Ancient, however, and played it turn six, but it went back with a Gust of Wind. I instead played Rhino the following turn, but it got killed by other removal. Doc Ock hit the board and then there was a bit of a standoff between him and the Visionary and my Ignis Scientia as I removed cards from their graveyard to try and keep the eight-armed villain turned off. I didn't keep up, though, and shifted to disappearing creature bodies in order to keep my life total from dropping too fast. They played Wingspan Mentor, which I had to finally hit with Rumbling Rockslide (for 11 damage) to prevent their flyers from getting too big.
This time Behold the Sinister Six saved me and I was able to replay some flying blockers. I blocked the big stuff often enough to stay alive and won by decking my opponent out. 1-2.
In round four I was up against a Selesnya deck packing Cultivator Colossus. They got stuck on a one-land hand, but then proceeded to flood out. I had a sketchy initial hand (despite our free mulligan rule for BO1) but got fixed with a Tranquil Landscape on turn 1 to fetch a Plains and then by cycling the Timberland Ancient on turn two. I played Guy in the Chair turn three, my Cloudbound Moogle on turn four, then got Alrund down and started hitting big. With a well-timed Blitz Leech, (but mostly thanks to their flooding and also not finding the Colossus) I won. 2-2.
I faced a mean Naya Kraven deck in round five. My opponent played their Kraven on turn three, but I got out Rip on turn four and put it them to use the very next turn. I had plenty of land, so that creature advantage got me to Rhino on turn seven and I won. 3-2.
With seven people, there are 21 total matches in order to complete the round robin. We had finished 20 of those, but my final opponent had had to leave. Thankfully we agreed to play the next day via SpellTable. I really love it when everyone gets to play everyone, so I was especially grateful that all the other matches got to happen. (I usually end up being a bottleneck since I play a bit slow and get distracted doing minor host things.)
Since everyone else was done, I had the advantage of knowing all the standings. I had started 0-2, but my three game win streak put me in great position. Aside from the Iroas player, no one else had won four rounds. There were two players at 3-3 and my final opponent was at 2-3. I only needed to defeat them to come in second place in the draft, a huge improvement from starting 0-2.
We sat down online the following night, my deck versus "Rakdos Decree of Justice". (The white splash was only for Decree of Justice, apparently.) We both had to mull, myself twice. My opponent got a turn three Ahriman that I had trouble with. I got Drannith Magistrate out, then Littjara Kinseekers. That second one bit it to a Steel Wrecking Ball, then they swung in with Comet Crawler, which ate the ball to get big. I had some other blockers to kill it, but I went to 12 in that combat. I decided to lay out Spider Gwen, Free Spirit instead of saving for the Blitz Leech to kill the Ahriman. I was thinking that I needed to dig for options right away. Unfortunately, they played Archpriest of Shadows (have I mentioned how much I love wacky drafts?) and backed the Ahirman up to grab the Comet Crawler again. It was 9 to 25, but I still thought I had a chance.
Then they played Kaldra, Compleat. I survived only one attack from it and then died the next turn. 3-3.
There were four of us now that finished 3-3. Using head-to-head as the tie-breaker (opponent match and game records don't really matter in a complete round robin) one of the other 3-3s came in second and I came in a three-way tie with the others for third/fourth/fifth. Oof!
But this was another super fun wacky draft! I think the biggest takeaway is that all the additional mana fixing really worked out, even though lands are still the best form of it.
Happy Magicking!
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