My FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, held their first Avatar draft and I got to go! This is usually the most critical event of a new product cycle for me. I like drafting significantly more than sealed, and if a set is either not popular or really popular, this may be my only chance to draft it for a long time. If it's not popular, then people might not show up for the second week (e.g. Aetherdrift). If it's too popular, they might be sold out by that second week (e.g. Final Fantasy). So, I was really glad I got to go!
I sat down to draft in a pod of nine people. This is a real good amount for WUBRG drafting; you usually want to be sitting with more people. Nine to eleven is real good. (Once you hit twelve, most places will split it into two pods of six.) We did something I've never seen before: we put the tables into a T-shape and drafted that way.
This worked great! Three people sat along the top of the T and three each on either side of the stem of the T. It was a little awkward because the people on the sides of the top of the T would be staring right at someone from the side while they were drafting. (I was one of those people, though, and I didn't see anything I shouldn't.)
The nine people were all regulars aside from one visitor in town for a Pickleball tournament! There was a lot of table talk and the newcomer seemed cool with it. Sadly, I didn't get to play against them, but I loved that they were spending their downtime checking out the local magic scene! (I don't usually get to draft while I'm traveling.)
Here are a bunch of things that happened while drafting:
- I took Elemental Teachings early, thinking "Oh look, color fixing," but didn't run it. I'm not sure this is any good in draft for WUBRG. If you're looking for a specific color, you need to have at least three lands with different names that produce that color, otherwise your opponent can force any you need into the bin. Has anyone had better luck with this? I would rather have a Cycle of Renewal.
- I half-heartedly went for Shrines. I only noticed the four that I picked. They were pretty good, but not good enough for the mana cost. Is it likely that you'd see more than four in a draft with nine people? I don't know. I did get "lucky" in that I passed on the Southern Air Temple in the last pack and it came all the way back around.
- I often chose landcyclers over dual lands. I was really excited when I completed the cycler-cycle midway through pack two. Somehow I still managed to get a good slate of dual lands anyways. Maybe this is the right way to treat these kinds of sets! Unfortunately, I also picked them over removal which I was lacking in my pool in the end.
Here's everything I picked:
I didn't have the right cards to run my first pick, the Phoenix Fleet Airship. Looking back, a food/clue-based build would work. I didn't do that. Instead, here's the deck I built:
This build has only sixteen lands. I actually started with fifteen, because of the six landcyclers, but I think that sixteen was probably better. I had four mana-fixing lands, the six landcyclers, the Great Divide Guide, Energybending, and Cycle of Renewal. Energybending was not great; every time I cast it, I was just cycling it and not using it to mana fix at all.
I started off matched up against an opponent running "Gruul Grind". I kept a bad hand, but I drew into fixing that saved me. On my fifth turn, I played Earthen Ally, but he was hit immediately by Combustion Technique. I followed that up with Giant Koi, who was facing down Suki, Kyoshi Warrior, a 1/1 ally token, and (I think) two 2/2 earth-bent lands. They played Foggy Swamp Vinebender and a Secret Tunnel and a few turns later started used it to hit me for nine unblockable damage, putting me to eight. I had to drop Meteor Sword the next turn as land destruction. My opponent played Combustion Man the next turn. They then went all in for a big attack, targeting my big fish with the Combustion Man. I took the damage and then blocked what I could, soaking only one more in the end to go to 3. My opponent tapped out to add a counter to their Vinebender. I had not damaged my opponent at all, but I took a quick look at my board state and counted exactly twenty. I equipped the Meteor Sword and swung out to win from what seemed like out of nowhere.
In game two, I got the Great Divide Guide out on the second turn. On the next turn, my opponent Rockalanched their Secret Tunnel. I got Fire Lord Zuko out, which they overmatched with Suki. I played Southern Air Temple, followed by Northern Air Temple on the next turn. Unfortunately, in between those turns, they Earthbending Lesson-ed their Secret Tunnel, resulting in a 5/5 unblockable creature. I attacked for eight, but they killed my guide with Earth Rumble and finished me off two turns later.
The third game got real exciting. I pulled off a cool first turn with White Lotus Hideout into the Northern Air Temple. My opponent got the Secret Tunnel out right away again, but then got stuck on two lands until turn five. I didn't get to take notes that were quite as good this time, as we were moving quite quickly, but we went to time. On time-turn 1, I cast Spirit Water Revival waterbent (seriously, that card is great with the landcyclers) hoping to draw into things I could play on turn 3 to attack and win with on turn 5. On time-turn 3, I played Dai Li Agents and War Balloon. I had built up four counters on my Airbender Ascension, so I got to flicker Dai Li Agents and double the number of man-lands I was in charge of. On time-turn 5, I attacked to win...
See that Pillar Launch on the top left? That kept my opponent from dying to the War Balloon. It was the one and only card in their hand. 0-0-1.
In the second round, I was up against Rakdos Facestealing. In the first game my opponent got mana flooded and I thought that could give me the edge. Instead it meant they played Rough Rhino Cavalry on turn five, then played Koh and stole my Fire Lord Zuko's face. On their next attack, Zuko-faced Koh provided six red mana while firebending, so they exhausted the cavalry with only firebent mana. I tried to get in once with Earthen Ally, but they played Fire Nation Attacks and killed it.
In the second game, they played both Mai and Ty Lee, Artful Acrobat, but I was doing pretty good. I used Meteor Sword to kill Ty Lee (I think) and get the advantage on the board. They played Koh the next turn.
I dragged the game out a bit by blocking Koh with spirits from Realm of Koh, but it wasn't enough to keep me alive. 0-1-1.
In the third round, I was paired up against "Simic Venerables" with pseudo-commanders Gran-Gran and Uncle Iroh. In the first game, they played Gran-Gran on turn 1 and I didn't have a blocker (Great Divide Guide) until turn three. We both built up a huge board but I got behind on land a bit. That mattered because they played The Legend of Kuruk and flipped it two turns before I could hit it with Meteor Sword. They got some of the shadowy spirits out and then played Flopsie. I didn't have any spirits to block with and died. This game came close to the end as they only had five cards left in their library.
In game two I got three temples out and had Fire Lord Zuko plus Airbender Ascension. I was going to start attacking in for real damage...
... but then Flopsie came down again and put a damper on that. Giant Koi swung in unblockably four times to kill me. 0-2-1.
I only won one game all night. Only three of the games were really competitive. All of my games were fun, though. (I hope my round two opponent didn't mind my over-dramatic comments about getting my face stolen. I think I'm hilarious.) I think there's a lot of unexplored space for five colors here! I do think I wouldn't bother taking Energybending next time, though.
This really damaged my overall Avatar: TLA draft record, which is now 2-3-1.
Happy Magicbending!
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