I had a Friday free and took advantage with some moderate-distance Magic tourism, driving to Krum's Comics in Winter Garden, FL. Their drafts are unique for being chaos (to some extent) and played in a single multiplayer game with a starting life total of 30. (Multiple people there referred to this as "pod drafting", but I feel like "pod" means other things too.) I am obviously a fan of both of those things and since they run two drafts back to back on Fridays (1pm and 4pm), it's worth it for me to go up every once in a while, especially since the atmosphere is really chill and new-player friendly. I have been twice before. (Travel note: if you do plan to go and are coming from some distance, double-check the drive time during the day as there could be Disney-traffic involved in your trip.) The store has switched over to the pick-two format. I don't believe that actually solves any issues with low-set sizes, but whatever. The drafts cost $25 each, tax included.
We started a bit late to get a full pod of four. Everyone wanted to do straight Avatar packs for the first one, so we did that. I decided a priori to try five-color-allies for the first time, so that drove a lot of my choices. I did, however, remember to prioritize Vigilance, especially with evasion. Here were all my picks:
Unfortunately, I didn't pay enough attention to the cards that I was taking. For some of my cool allies, e.g. Sokka, Bold Boomeranger, I needed to also have a bunch of lessons. After taking that into consideration, my deck came together pretty quickly. Here it is:
We rolled to go first and the player to my right won. They (P1) were a relatively-new player who had built Selesnya Allies. To my left, P3 was an experienced player running Yore-Tiller (all-but-green) Shrines + Appa. Across from me sat P4, playing Yore-Tiller (yes, also) Mais and who I think started playing within the last three months. (No wonder I'd had to fight for some mana fixing!) My opening hand had Hermitic Herbalist and the mana to cast it, so I kept and we were off!
I dropped the Herbalist on my second turn. P4 ended the round by playing Mai, Jaded Edge.
In the third round, I played Zuko, Exiled Prince. These were followed by Iguana Parrot and Earthen Ally on my fourth turn. I didn't get to attack with Zuko all that often, but I did on my fifth turn and I pushed all my mana through Earthen Ally to turn my Rumble Arena into a 5/5 creature.
While I was going off, P1 and P4 had built up respectable boards, but P3 had already played two Crescent Island Temples for four prowess-powered monk tokens. I was not ready for the shenanigans that were to come, but for the moment I was quickly becoming the Archenemy.
My usual philosophy in these multiplayer games is that I should try to keep opponent life-totals relatively even unless one player is an obvious current or future threat. Nevertheless, I painted that target on myself and overextended, using the Firebending mana + Earthen Ally trick on the next two turns as well, painting a big target on myself. The first of those animated a second land while the third buffed my Rumble Arena when it got caught in a bad block.
On my seventh turn I was idiotically holding a big target. That allowed P3 to flash out Appa, Steadfast Guardian and airbend both of his temples. I sensed a bigger threat brewing.
In the eighth round, I attacked with my 10/10 vigilant Rumble Arena (I don't remember who chump blocked or with what) and made another 5/5. More importantly, P4 played their second Mai, this one the Scornful Striker. My deck was heavy on creatures, so I was very happy with this change, especially if it hurt P3 for playing more shrines.
On my ninth turn, I attacked into everyone with some safe creatures. (My Iguana Parrot had been regularly getting in for damage.) P3 played Barrels of Blasting Jelly on their turn, however, and correctly took out my Earthen Ally.
On my tenth turn, I attacked again. P3 cast Lost Days on my Rumble Arena. At that point, my Archenemy horns were quite broken, but no one seemed to notice. P4 cast Razor Rings on my Iguana Parrot, so it's days of easy damage were also over. On their turn, P3 cast Ember Island Production, copying Appa, which airbent both temples (again) and the original Appa. There were going to be a lot of monk tokens!
I was stuck on turn eleven, but P3 wasn't. They replayed the two temples, which also triggered the prowess on the army of monks they already had. After playing an additional Invasion Submersible (another prowess trigger) they attacked me with an army of 4/4 monks. I blocked with a bunch but took mega damage and went to 1 life. My opponents were at 15 (P1), 11 (P3), and 17 (P4).
I did leave my Cat-Owl alive. In the twelfth round, I (foolishly) attacked P4 with it. P3 recast the original Appa and put the temples back in play.
With their new monk army, P3 swung out and killed P4. Without my Cat-Owl attack, the attack wouldn't have been enough. Oops!
P1 started the thirteenth round by swinging out on me. I lost most of my creatures (bye Cat-Owl!) but didn't take any damage. I cast Sokka, Tenacious Tactician, but it wasn't enough. P3 attacked us with over twenty creatures and won the game.
We ended almost exactly at 4pm. P1 had to leave, but another person showed up right in time and took their spot. They also seemed to be a relatively new player and this was their first draft. (That person wound up winning the roll to go first and no one switched seats, so I won't bother to rename people.) We assured the new P1 that this was a chill group and format, so they could certainly ask us questions at any point.
This time we agreed to do a chaos draft, but everyone chose three Avatar packs.
I ditched the ally plan and drafted for fun instead. My opening pack had two rares and a mythic. When Zuko, Conflicted tabled back to me, I figured that as well as Iroh, Tea Master meant I was in for some donating shenanigans. Here were all my picks:
This deck was more difficult to cut for. I only went down to 24 with 16 lands since I had the two land cyclers. Risky, but I went with it. Here was my deck:
My opponents this time were P1 on WUBRG, P3 on Witch-Maw (all but Red) Tokens, and P4 on Ink-Treader (all but Black) Metalbending. I think this is the most number of opposing colors I've ever had to compete with in a four-person draft! I can't believe I nabbed so much mana-fixing!
My opening hand had Iroh, so I went with that and gifted my food token to P3 on my third turn in exchange for a 2/2 ally. I kept it up on my fourth and fifth turns, donating that and then a 3/3 ally. On my sixth turn, I played Canyon Crawler and donated the food token to get another ally. At some point in this mess I got Jem lightfoote out, my vigilant flier of choice for this game. Throughout this, P1 was stuck on three lands, though they had four colors. So, they were usually the target of my donations.
On my seventh turn, I gifted a 3/3 ally and attacked with the Crawler and Jem. P3 followed that up by getting to a third copy of Joo Dee. At this point they had Tolls of War out so they had an Ally token to sacrifice every turn.
In the eighth round I swung with Jem again and she got killed to Osseous Exhale. P4 was good at killing my vigilant fliers!
Unlike the first game, I lost track of the turn numbers. Things stalled out. I had to stop donating my creatures (until I later popped my Mardu Monument for three more donateable warriors) and P3 kept building up an army of Joo Dees. P4 had played Toph, the first Metalbender and built their own land-creature force.
Finally, P1 broke the stalemate by casting Suki, Kyoshi Warrior. When it swung on the next two turns, it came crashing in as a 10/4. This caused P3 and P4 to start swinging back. I did not like this because I needed to convince the table that P3 with their Joo Dee army was the main danger. That failed, though, as P1 swung out again at P4. (I don't remember how Suki died, but I think it only got the two attacks in.) I had Destined Confrontation and Ozai in my hand, so I was waiting for the right time to nuke the board. I got Iguana Parrot out for the second game, and started swinging away.
Then P3 used Shifting Grift to steal Toph, which fractured their alliance. This was in preparation for their main move, though. I played Combustion Man, thinking I was going to get ahead, but P3 surprised us on their turn with Foggy Swamp Visions. They paid 10 and took advantage of our deep graveyards.
P3 launched an attack on P1, smaller than I expected, but it was reasonable. It was also enough that P4 was able to finish off P1 on their turn.
I untapped. I wasn't sure I could win, but I went for it anyways. I swung out with enough to kill off P3, then dropped the Destined Confrontation. My Pirate Peddlers was very happy to gain 10 +1/+1 counters. Without enough to get through on me, P4 had to pass their turn. I cast Ozai the next turn, floated the two extra mana to give it flying, and attacked for the win.
I really enjoy these chill drafts and playing the big multiplayer games.
Happy Holidays and Happy Magicking!
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