I got some people together today for a Ravnica Clue draft using the cards given to me that I've repacked to run free drafts. Afterwards, we played with the same decks using the Explorers of Ixalan tiles and rules, which turned out to be very fun!
These packs happen to contain a bunch of Battle for Zendikar cards, which one player capitalized on. Here were all of my picks:
I forgot just how bad Stratadon is, so I ran it. My deck was not all that exciting, but I thought it would be able to put up a fight:
We shuffled up, rolled for first (someone won with an 11 on a d20), and sat down to play. We had decided ahead-of-time to play with 20 life, but I think that was a bit high. I don't know that anyone was close to dying by the end of the game, especially with these relatively low-power packs. P1 was running Bant Allies, P2 was playing Izzet Devoid, P3 was me, P4 was playing Sultai, and P5 had built another WUBRG deck! We sorted out the clue cards and randomly picked one each of the suspects, weapons, and rooms. For five players, you then remove three rooms so there are fifteen cards left, three to deal to each player.
I was dealt the Knife, the Rope, and the Library. I knew a lot about weapons, but nearly nothing about the suspects.
The first few turns were pretty uneventful. P1 played a 3/4 Tajuru Stalwart on their third turn. P5 hit P4 later that same turn and guessed Apothecary White with the Candlestick in the Ballroom. P4 had to pass on that.
On round 4, before P1 could attack, I flashed out Bounding Krasis to tap down the Stalwart. (It seemed like they were going to attack me!) On my turn, I attacked P2 with the frog lizard, guessing Peacock, Pipe, and Hall. They showed me the pipe.
In round 5, P1 had the biggest board (four creatures wide) and attacked me, P4, and P5. They guessed Green, Knife, and Library. I was first in the turn order, so I had to respond first. I revealed the Library, hoping to keep the weapons hidden. P2 spent their turn hitting P5, guessing Mustard, Rope, and Conservatory. P5 passed. I attacked P4 with my Krasis and guessed Plum, Candlestick, and the Secret Passage. They showed me the Passage. They then hit P5 and guessed Scarlett, Wrench, and Lounge. P5 showed P4 a card and gained a Treasure.
P1 seemed to have an advantage in round 6 with their Makindi Patrol. Their ally deck was humming right along and they played another one to give their whole team vigilance. They got in for damage on P2, me, and P5, guessing Peacock, Wrench, and Dining Room. The three of us passed, however a mistake was made here. P5 heard "Scarlett" instead of Peacock; they shouldn't have passed! We didn't realize this until much later. I can't claim I was paying much better attention, because at this point I realized I was forgetting to update my life total. (I corrected it.) You really do get fixated on the Clue aspect of the game and can forget that you can also die via other means!
Still in the sixth round of turns, P2 hit P5 (who was becoming a bit of a punching bag) and P1, guessing White, Rope, and Conservatory. They both passed. I also hit P5 and guessed Scarlett, Candlestick, and Hall. They passed, but I was able to deduce that they had the Lounge from previously showing a card to someone. Then I played my Skyrider Elf as a 5/5, the way nature intended. P4 drew a much-needed swamp and hit P5 and me. They guessed Plum, Rope, and Ballroom. P5 passed and I had to show the Rope. There was a silver lining, however, as I was able to figure out the rest of P5's hand due to the process of elimination. I marked off that they had Commander Mustard and Emissary Green, as well as the Lounge. Of course, I was wrong because of the prior mistake... but it would have been really good. (They actually had Senator Peacock.) P5 finished out the round by dropping the Bane of Bala Ged, but P2 immediately Dispersed it. Fearing they were going to lose by their next turn, they made an accusation: Apothecary White, with the Wrench, in the Dining Room. They checked the envelope and it was incorrect, but everyone seemed pretty confident that we were getting very close. I still had very little idea about the room.
P1 started the seventh round off by killing my Skyrider Elf with Broken Wings. Then they swung in on P2, me, and P5. They guessed Green, Pipe, and Hall. P2 showed a card, which I figured to be the Hall by process of elimination. (After the mistake, I don't know that that was true.) P2 took their turn and hit me and P1, guessing Mustard, Wrench, and Dining Room. We both passed. Thinking I had P5's cards figured out, I swung at P4 instead, but they blocked with an Eldrazi token. I still played my Ruin Processor and processed one of their big creatures to gain the five life. This turned out to be a mistake because they used that card to Collect Evidence 6 at their end step and make a new guess: Peacock, Wrench, and Conservatory. P5 showed them a card and this is the point where we realized something had gone wrong. While we were sorting out the wreckage and figuring out the issue, I asked P4 whether they thought they were going to win that turn. They gave a fervent "maybe". We decided to minimally punish the mistake with not getting a treasure token for showing that last card and kept on. On their turn, P5 played back down the Bane of Bala Ged. At the end of turn, P1 cycled a Winged Shepherd.
That cycling wasn't a nothing-burger. Winged Shepherd was a 6-mana spell that had just gone to the yard. They used it to make a Collect-Evidence-6-guess: Dining Mustard, Wrench, Dining Room. P2 passed, I passed, and P4 showed a card. I thought that was probably Mustard, since I now knew that P5 probably didn't have that, but I found out later that it was actually the Dining Room. Then they made an accusation: Commander Mustard with the Wrench in the Conservatory. That was incorrect too! P2 hit me with their team and guessed White, Knife, and Library. I showed them the Library. I made a CE6-guess: White, Candlestick, Dining Room. This is where P4 showed me the dining room. But, afraid I wouldn't get another turn, I also took the accusation gambit: White, Candlestick, Ballroom. That was not what was in the envelope. Now only P2 and P4 could still make accusations and guesses! P4 struck down the Bane of Bala Ged with Oblivion Strike, then made a CE6-guess for White, Wrench and the Conservatory. Everyone passed and they made the same accusation to win!
This was a great game where things really came together. It's crazy that FOUR accusations were made! I've never seen that before!
The drafting and deckbuilding part of that had taken about 90 minutes, and the game itself had taken only another 90, so we decided to give the Explorers of Ixalan variant a try. (We asked P1, who had brought it, how long it would take. The instructions said 30+ minutes. That + is putting in a lot of work. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to play, but we had the time.) This is a free-for-all format except that you can spend mana to explore randomly-chosen tiles put down on a map in this shape:
The rules are like this:
- On your turn, you can pay the mana cost on a tile to take that tile. You can only do this once per turn, as a sorcery, and only if the tile isn't touching any tiles of a lower cost. This is called Exploring.
- The tiles are one of three kinds:
- Events: they happen immediately (they do go on the stack) and then are discarded. Like sorceries.
- Quests: They have a triggered ability. When it resolves, you get some kind of bonus and then they are discarded. These generally promote attacking other players, which is an excellent way to keep a free-for-all game moving.
- Sites: They grant some kind of bonus. When someone deals combat damage to you, they can take one of your sites. Kind of like Initiative and Monarch.
- You have a token that can be placed on a tile. At the beginning of your turn it returns to your hand. When you Explore, if a previously-unavailable tile became available, you can put your token on that tile. While a token is on a tile, it cannot be Explored.
I did not take as good notes because I couldn't keep up with all the tiles that were getting explored. Nevertheless, it was really fun and here's a synopsis of what happened. I went first (winning the die roll on a 12) but I'm going to keep the player name( variable)s the same. I played a tapped dual on my first turn, but everyone else took advantage of the 1-mana tiles. P4 flipped the tile "Broadside Assault" which dealt two damage to all opponents. We started at 20, so now four of us were at 18. P5 got a Site that allowed them to Rummage (discard one to draw one) at the end of every turn. P1 got an event that gave them a Saproling and they gained two life. P2 got Cannons to Starboard, a Quest which let them draw a card if they hit their right-side opponent with combat damage.
I joined in the fun on my second turn, playing an Evolving Wilds and using my first land to get a tile: Cannons to Port. On their second turn, P2 (who had been given a 1/1 Saproling from a different event) made the smart move of Exploring before combat. The Quest they flipped over let them look at the top four and choose one to put in their hand in place of their next draw. They then got to resolve both Quests by attacking P1.
On the third round, P4 Explored the first 3-mana value tile, which gave them a Site that generated a Treasure at the end of each of their turns. This one got passed around a lot! It was immediately stolen by P5, who now had two sites. (Note that with the rules, you only get to steal one from a player if you hit them for combat damage!)
In the fourth round of turns, P4 flipped over "Unwitting Accomplice", which was essentially Threaten. They hit me with my own Krasis.
On their fifth turn, P5 got the "Blade and Claw" Quest. This triggered when they attacked with two creatures, giving them each +2/+2 and... menace or something. They elected to only attack with one creature for a while to save it. On their next turn, they played the Bane of Bala Ged, which scared a lot of people.
Somewhere hereabouts I got attacked for a lot from P2, which I wasn't expecting. I went to 3, but played a gain land on my next turn to go up to 4. (My apologies if I'm a turn off here!)
On the seventh round, P2 made a surprise attack against me. They cast Act of Treason on P5's Bane of Bala Ged and swung with a bunch.
I went down to 3. I pitifully played a gain land on my turn to go up to 4, but I also got a Quest that would copy the next instant I played. Perfect for Nocturnal Hunger! On their turn, P4 had built a wide array of creatures, though none too big. They seemed to be the Archenemy. They Explored a 3-mana-value tile which gave them a 3/3 Trampling Dinosaur token.
P4 then placed their reserving token on the only exposed 6-mana-value tile which they had just opened up.
P5 immediately took the Archenemy mantle, though. They Voltroned up the Bane with an equipment and Squee's Embrace. I considered using Nocturnal Hunger to kill the Bane of Bala Ged before the aura hit, but I held back and bided my time instead. This was a crucial choice. P5 and P4 worked out a non-aggression pact and P5 hit P1 for 14 damage to kill them out of nowhere. I had managed to get a bunch of smallish creatures back on the board, but I was not a big threat to anyone.
Game note: when setting up the map, you have to be sure to include the tile Orazca, the Golden City as one of the 6-mana-value tiles. P1 had told us it's really good.
On their eighth turn, P4 asked P1, "How good is the city?"
P1: "So good."
P4 Explored the first 6-mana tile and flipped it! On a 1-in-4 chance, they got Orazca, the Golden City. It is a Site that lets you draw two cards when you acquire it. During your upkeep, you also draw two cards and deal three damage to each opponent. P4 took their two cards and passed the turn. P5 immediately gave up on the non-aggression pact (thankfully!) and swung in. P2, acting like a bit of a wild card, cast Invigorated Rampage on the Bane of Bala Ged to give it trample. They dealt 13 in the attack, conquered Orazca, and decimated P4's board. P2 used their turn to get more damage in on P4. They were now down to three.
I started my ninth turn by drawing Meria's Outrider. I had four basic land types (all but Plains), but it looked like a pretty good win condition for me. I had the lowest life, though, and could not let P5 start their turn with Orazca. P4 had nothing to attack with, so I attacked P5 and took the Golden City, saving P4's life. With my extra cards, I pulled Jaddi's Offshoot, which I gladly played before dropping a Forest. Five life. I had the chance to Explore for 3, but I forgot to take it. I had Ruin Processor and Skyrider Elves, but I didn't want to cast either because I might need to cast the Nocturnal Hunger. I got lost in thinking about casting stuff from my hand, but I did have an extra three mana that I could have used to get another tile. Oh well! P4 took their turn and Explored for 3, which got them an event that swapped control of two creatures. They traded my Kozilek's Sentinel for P2's Thopter token. This meant that I had one extra flying blocker! On their turn, P5 killed P4 and replayed the Bane. They tapped out to cast something else and ended their turn at seven (I think) life.
On their ninth turn, P2 Voltroned up one of their own creatures and attacked me. This was their last chance to prevent me from having the Golden City in my upkeep and it seemed strong as they had four attackers and I had only three blockers. Thankfully I still had Nocturnal Hunger up my sleeve, which I used to kill the Bane, and killed the biggest attacker with the copy. P2 ended their turn on eight life.
I untapped, hit for three with the city, and drew into a Plains (one of three cards). I played it, then cast Meria's Outriders for the win with the trigger! Woo!
This day was right up my alley! I love adding weird things to Magic and these are both perfect add-ons. I do think that with these Frepacks, Clue would be better with a starting life of somewhere like 15 to 17. I do wonder whether that would get people drafting more defensively, though. Perhaps it would have the wrong effect!
For the Explorers of Ixalan, this was my first time ever playing this and... I have no notes. It seems to have worked perfectly, especially with drafting these packs. It's supposed to be for three or four players, but was great with five. I would definitely do this again! Thank you to the player that surprised us by bringing it and offering to do it. They actually hadn't played it before either.
No matter what wacky things you add, Happy Magicking!
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