Store Draft became a Team vs Hordes Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I went to a Secrets of Strixhaven draft last night that didn't fire; we only had three and needed six.  The two other players are common players in this blog, so we discussed what to do.  I was lucky and had brought some extra supplies: Ravnica Clue, three extra packs in case there was a post-draft chaos draft (Ikoria, Foundations, and Strixhaven) and the three Theros Horde decks.  I needed all three of those to do what we did!

We did a team draft against the Horde decks.  We first opened a jumpstart pack each (revealing to each other what the title card was) and then drafted the three packs.  However we made a slight (but important) change to the drafting process: we made two picks instead of one after opening a pack; so only replacing the first pick.  Importantly, we agreed we wouldn't collude after revealing the title cards of the jumpstart packs.  Here's what we opened:

I'm glad I brought those three packs and that I brought my Clue box.  (That has assorted Jumpstart packs in it.)

Here's what it looked like when we revealed the Jumpstart title cards:

Let's go team monkeys!

I have no experiencing drafting in a way that benefits my teammates without colluding... but I made at least one good choice in the beginning.  My friends figured I would be WUBRG drafting, so they were nice about passing mana fixing.  I opened Lutri and passed it, which the Adept player picked up.  I did not know that they had also opened Iroh, Grand Lotus in his first pack, so they were ready to go spellslinger.  I made another good choice and passed them a Tolarian Terror from the second pack.  I saw that Boros cards were getting taken, so I let those go through too.  On the other hand, I saw lots of black cards weren't getting taken, so I took a bunch from that.  I think I would have been much better at this if I had any skill in reading and sending signals in packs.  

Here are all my picks and the spells from the first pack:

I don't think I've ever owned a Kibo before!

Here's the deck I built from those cards:

I am certain I don't receive enough criticism of my deckbuilding.

That is the deck I used against the Minotaurs and Xenagos.  For the Hydra, I had some 3-drop 3/3s (apparently these are "centaurs") instead of some of the anti-artifact apes like Uktabi Orangutan.  I ran Kraul Whipcracker because we looked up and saw that the horde creatures count as tokens, but I can't find where we determined that.  (I'll update here if I find it.)

We played nine games.  We played pretty fast, so I didn't take notes of the different plays during the games, only the results of each.

The three decks are similar in some ways and very different in others.  I won't go into great detail in how each of them works, but I will mention the differences in similar stats (and how we modified them as we played).  I am very interested in how to modify these for various situations and difficulties!

Face the Hydra

This is the horde-precon I am most familiar with, having played against it once many years ago and then multiple times recently.  In this one:

• The players have separate life totals.
• The horde creatures do not actually attack the players.
• The base number of starting creatures is 2.
• The deck plays one card per turn.
• The players go first (but don't draw) and the horde goes directly afterwards. 
• The players attack the creatures instead of the deck directly. 

In game one we played against three heads.  We won handily on turn four.  In game two we started against four heads and won on turn six.  These games were easier than I expected; I thought we would have a harder time.  Since we'd won two, we moved on.

Battle the (Minotaur) Horde

I am second-most familiar with this one having played against it on my own a few times a few days prior.  This plays more like the Zombie Horde deck that presumably inspired all of these "official horde" decks.  Against this deck:

• The players share a life total.
• The horde creatures do attack the players.
• There are no starting creatures.
• The deck starts off playing two cards per turn, but that can increase over the course of the game.
• The players go first (don't draw on the first turn) and then get two additional setup turns before the horde takes their first turn. 
• The players attack the deck directly. 

In game one we played with the horde playing three cards per turn.  We got real lucky with the horde's plays and won on our sixth turn.  In the second game we had the horde start playing right after our first turn and still played three cards per turn.  We won on turn nine.

Defeat a God 

I had never played against this deck before.  It takes interesting parts of the other two, but there are a few areas that aren't 100% clear.  Since the horde creatures attack the players, it seems like the players should share a life total (or use cutthroat blocking rules).  However, there are also spells like Xenagos's Strike that deal damage to each player, which makes it seem like the players should have separate totals like against the Hydra.  In the end, we read an old mtgsalvation thread that convinced us to have a single life total, but damage-each-player spells scaled up in a scary way.  It was real easy for us to die out of nowhere.  Here are the stats for this as we played it:

• The players share a life total.
• The horde creatures do attack the players (though not every turn).
• There are two starting creatures.
• The deck plays two cards per turn. 
• The players go first (don't draw) and then the horde deck goes.
• The players attack the creatures, not the deck.

In the first game we didn't do the multiplayer rules correctly, and we flipped three cards instead of two per turn, losing on turn 4.  (Two of us died the prior turn.)  In game two (sharing a life total) and only flipping two per turn, we won on turn five.  This one showed how crazy things could be as we lost 15 life on Xenagos's first turn.  In game three we also flipped three cards per turn and lost on turn three.  In game four we had the deck ramp up to three cards, so they played one (on turn 1), two (on turn 2), then three every turn thereafter.  They killed us on turn four.  For the fifth game we did the same thing and pulled out a win on turn 6.  Against Xenagos, it seems like the best plan each turn is to attack and kill as many of their creatures as possible, even if you're putting yourself in danger of getting hit back.  With Impulsive Return, if you have multiple players you can just die out of nowhere.

This was incredibly fun!  I would like to figure out "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard" settings for each deck with different numbers of players (assuming sealed decks, not exactly what we did) but I'm not sure where to put that now.  Xenagos might be the most interesting in that you don't need to scale it up for different numbers of players.

If you have experience with these decks, please tell me what you've done, especially if it would make things better!  Happy Horde Magicking! 

Theros: Face the Hydra (WUBRG Sealed)

Since the release of the TMNT Team-Up box set (which I haven't played yet) I've been interested in other co-op formats.  I have the old Theros-block horde decks, and I enjoy playing online via SpellTable, so I decided to try to make web implementations of them, starting with the Theros set's Face the Hydra.  Here's the site I'm working on.  

 It's pretty rudimentary.

 

Two friends helped me playtest it yesterday against Sealed decks.  We got together (so we didn't test the link sharing feature) and played four games to test how hard it is to play against the hydra deck with different numbers of starting heads.

Secrets of Strixhaven just came out, so we opened a bunch of that and old Strixhaven. 

I opened my two GameStop packs and four old Strixhaven packs.

The player who opened six Secrets packs built a Sultai deck, mostly Witherbloom with a splash of blue.  I'll refer to them as Witherbluum.  The player who did three and three got a bunch of great Izzet pieces, so they're Prismari.  I opened the following pool:

I think five dual lands is enough to go WUBRG.

Deckbuilding was a bit tricky.  I spent a lot of time and prioritized 3-power creatures and ditched many combat tricks.  I did not think Flying, Trample, Vigilance, etc, were useful abilities, so I mostly ignored those cards.  Here's what I built:

I miss the learn-boards from OG Strixhaven drafts.

Game 1: In the first game we tried to face down three heads, which is listed as the "Normal" setting.  After playing, I think that meant "Normal" for a single player, not a team.  We were never in any danger of losing this first game.

Since it's a more-than-two-player format, we decided that the first mulligan is free.  All three of us took one in the first game.  The Hydra started with three Hydra Heads in play.  When playing, the players share a turn and go first, but don't get to draw.  We each played a land and then the Hydra deck took its turn.  It cast Noxious Hydra Breath, essentially a whiff as we chose to destroy all the tapped creatures which we didn't have.  Then the hydra dealt us all three damage (one for each of the Hydra Heads) and ended its turn.

On the second turn, Witherbluum played Mindful Biomancer, Prismari played Multiple Choice, and I played Emergent Sequence to get a 2/2 Mountain.  The Hydra flipped Strike the Weak Spot, and we killed one of the heads and gained our two life.  When a Head dies, the Hydra deck flips over the top two cards of its library; any revealed Heads go on to the battlefield.  Thankfully, we didn't get any.  The Hydra dealt us two damage and was done.  

On turn three, we attacked and killed both heads thanks to Prismari's Bulk Up on my Mountain.  One regrew another Hydra Head, so it wasn't dead.  (If the Hydra has no heads at the end of any turn, the players win.)  I played Deluge Virtuoso and froze that head.  On the Hydra's turn, it flipped a Ravenous Brute Head.  Elite Heads deal two damage each turn, but tapped Heads deal nothing, so we only took two total damage.  

On turn four, we attacked to kill the Ravenous Brute Head; no heads regrew.  Witherbluum cast Lluwen, Exchange Student, and I kept the remaining head tapped down with Procrastinate.  The Hydra cast Disorienting Glower and did nothing else.    

We had enough to kill the last head in combat on turn five, but it regrew.  The Hydra played a second Hydra Head on its turn and dealt us each two damage.

On turn six, Witherbluum cast Blech and Prismari played Elemental Summoning.  We attacked to kill both Hydra Heads, which regrew a Ravenous Brute Head.  The Hydra cast Grown from the Stump and resurrected two Hydra Heads.

We ended the game on turn seven, still all above twenty life.  Prismari cast Zaffai and the Tempests, then Banishing Betrayal on the Ravenous Brute Head (bouncing a head is as good as killing it) but it regrew into a Hydra Head.  We attacked to kill all three heads, and only one regrew into a Ravenous Brute Head.  Witherbluum cast Grapple with Death to kill the last head which did not regrow anything.  Win!

 

Game 2: Since we were never in any real danger, we jumped up to five starting heads for the second game.  Once again, we all cashed in on our free mulligans.

On turn one, the Hydra player cast Disorienting Glower, then hit us for five.  We were down to 15 already.  (From here on I will continue to mention the lowest life total among the three of us.)  

On turn two, we could only play land.  The Hydra cast Grown from the Stump and got a Shrieking Titan Head.  We took seven and had to discard a card to boot, putting us at 8.  

We could finally act on the third turn.  I played Deluge Virtuoso to tap a Hydra Head and Witherbluum cast Procrastinate on the Shrieking Titan Head.  The Hydra cast Hydra's Impenetrable Hide and put us to 4.  

On our fourth turn, Witherbluum did a little bit of lifegain so they would be able to stay alive, but the Hydra cast Unified Lunge and killed us all anyways.  Loss!

Game 3: We took it down a notch and battled four starting heads.  On the first turn, the Hydra flipped over another Hydra Head and put us down to 15.

On turn two, Witherbluum cast Slumbering Trudge and Prismari cast Landscape Painter.  The Hydra cast Hydra's Impenetrable Hide and the heads hit us again.  (We must have tapped down one of the heads because I have us only going down to 11.  Maybe I cast Procrastinate.)

On turn three, I cast Deluge Virtuoso, which Witherbluum said was our MVP.  Prismari cast Seize the Spoils.  The Hydra cast Noxious Hydra Breath, taking out the Slumbering Trudge, then put us to 8.

We started to rebound on turn four.  Prismari cast Colorstorm Stallion, Witherbluum cast Pterafractyl, and I cast Emergent Sequence.  We attacked to kill two heads, putting us to 12 life.  One of the heads regrew into a Ravenous Brute Head.  Unfortunately, the Hydra immediately got two back with Grown from the Stump and we went to 5 life from the six-headed beast.

On turn five Witherbluum killed the Ravenous Brute Head with Grapple with Death.  I cast Cram Session before combat to make my Virtuoso big enough to kill a head again, and we attacked to kill four of the basic heads.  The hydra regrew two Hydra Heads and a Ravenous Brute Head, but at least we gained a bunch of life.  Prismari cast Vibrant Idea off the Landscape Painter and gained a copy of the Colorstorm Stallion.  (We forgot it had haste, otherwise we'd've cast it before combat.)  I cast Stonebound Mentor to end our turn.  The Hydra cast Swallow the Hero Whole, which wasn't that terrible for us.  It gobbled up our Deluge Virtuoso, Pterafractyl, and Landscape Painter.  The heads "attacked" and put us to 10 life.

On the sixth turn, Prismari cast Heated Argument to kill the Ravenous Brute Head, bringing our three swallowed creatures back.  It also doubled the Colorstorm Stallions to four; we had plenty to attack and kill all three remaining heads.  They regrew into one Hydra Head and a Snapping Fang Head.  Witherbluum played Blech and we passed the turn at 18 life.  The Hydra played another Hydra Head and passed.  

On turn seven, we were in full control.  Prismari played Vibrant Idea again and doubled the horses to eight!  We attacked to kill all three Heads.  A Ravenous Brute Head regrew, but I took it out with Closing Statement.  Nothing regrew from that.  Win! 

Game 4: We decided to give five heads another try.  On the first turn the Hydra whiffed with Swallow the Hero Whole, but still attacked to put us to 15.  

On the second turn, Prismari cast Banishing Betrayal on a head, but it regrew.  (At least we gained 2 life to go to 17.)  Witherbluum dropped Bogwater Lumaret, a key combo piece.  The Hydra cast Distract the Hydra and we all just took the three damage.  After that, the Heads put the lowest of us to 9.  

On turn three, Prismari played Frost Trickster, I played Deluge Virtuoso, and Witherbluum played Pest Mascot.  

It got big.

The Hydra grew a Ravenous Brute Head and we went to 4 life.

On our fourth turn, Witherbluum cast Send in the Pest, Prismati cast Elemental Mascot, and I played Emergent Sequence.  We attacked to kill two Hydra Heads and the Ravenous Brute Head and went to 10 life.  A Hydra Head and a Snapping Fang Head regrew.  On it's turn, the Hydra got two more heads from Grown from the Stump and we went to 1 life.

We had a big comeback on turn five.  We attacked to kill three Hydra Heads and the Snapping Fang Head.  It regrew a Savage Vigor Head and a Ravenous Brute Head.  Witherbluum cast Burrog Barrage to kill the Savage Vigor Head and nothing regrew.  I cast another Deluge Virtuoso and ended our turn with 15 life.  The Hydra cast Grown from the Stump and recovered two of its heads.  We took five and went to 10.

On turn six we attacked and killed all the heads and went to 24 life.  Four heads regrew: two Hydra Heads, one Shrieking Titan Head, and one Ravenous Brute Head.  I cast Procrastinate on the Ravenous Brute head, Prismari flashbacked a Faithless Looting, and Witherbluum cast Studious First-Year.  The Hydra cast Distract the Hydra and I we all sacrificed a creature before going to 20.

On the seventh turn, we attacked again and killed all the heads, which regrew into a Hydra Head and a Ravenous Brute Head and went to a comfortable 30 life.  The Hydra cast Torn Between Heads, but it was too little, too late.  On the eighth turn we attacked and killed all the heads.  Nothing regrew.  Win!

 

Here are my takeaways from this day of fun:

• For the three of us, I think five starting Hydra Heads was the most fun.  Perhaps the-number-of-players-plus-two is a good heuristic for the number of starting heads.
• There are a couple critical turns early on that you just need to get past to be on course to win.
• One big creature does not break the game, since Trample doesn't matter and it can only kill one Head per turn.
• Bears are probably better than I expected.  Two power can't kill a Hydra Head alone, but they can work with other creatures to take down the big ones.  I might put more of them in when building.
• Lifegain is pretty strong.  Things that trigger off of lifegain are wicked strong, since you are killing heads often.
• We opened packs, built decks, and played the four games in about 3.5 hours total. 
• Tooting my own horn: playing with the webpage made it easier to remember all the triggers.  
• Thanks to my two friends!  I made a bunch of updates to the site and it's much improved from what it was.   

    

So, now you can Face the Hydra with your friends!  If you use my site, please let me know what you think.  Happy Magicking!

Chaos Clue Draft #2 (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to hold a draft with three other people on Tuesday last week.  I was really hoping I might be able to convince people to do a Clue draft, and then one of the participants suggested it.  

Looks like there's a murder to solve!

The other two participants had not played before, so we explained the rules.  (There's a lot to it, but I think I did a good job going through everything.  I tried to reexplain things as they came up during play, in good board-game-hosting fashion.)  We dealt out the Clue cards, picked our packs, and then got down to drafting.  The Hall and Conservatory were the excess revealed cards.

People were really excited about the second Strixhaven prerelease three days later.

There were a lot of reject rares that came around during drafting, and I realized that is one of my big weaknesses.  It's a kind of FOMO, along the lines of, "I may never get to draft this card again".  That's probably true.  Many times I made the wrong choice in the-card-I-want versus the-card-I-should-take.  It's probably clear from the cards I picked:

Another freaking Mythos.

Michelangelo's Technique seems specifically bad in a limited format where hitting with unblocked creatures is core.  Nevertheless, I managed to get enough mana fixing to put a pretty good deck together:

There's a lot of good mana-fixing in there.

We decided to start with 20 life (for time reasons), shuffled up, and sat down to play.  Twenty life isn't super low, and I reminded the group that it's not smart to kill people until you think you can solve the murder, as all their clue cards get revealed.

• Player 1 was running Mono Red.
• Player 2 was on Orzhov.
• I was going third.
• Player 4 had built an Esper deck.  They were the only other person that had played Ravnica Clue before.  

For Clue cards, I held the Rope, the Knife, the Lounge, and the Billiard Room. 

I took careful notes on the Clue-actions again, which turned out to be a really good idea on multiple occasions.  (I highly recommend this at least with first-time players.  Write down what each guess was (do this before anything else, even if you're involved in the guess) and then write down whether the result was a pass or show.)  It's very common for people to ask exactly what was just asked.  

Before anyone took a turn, Player 4 announced Leyline of the Void from their hand.  This was a really big deal because until we could remove it, it shut off the Collect-Evidence-6-based suggestions for three of us.  

In the first round, Player 1 dropped Blisterspit Gremlin and Player 2 cast a Diregraf Ghoul.   

The gremlin hit me at the beginning of the second round.  Player 1 named Headliner Scarlett, the Knife, and Billiard Room.  I showed the Billiard Room and took my treasure token.  Player 1 then played Oreplate Pangolin.  Player 2 followed that up by hitting me with the ghoul.  They named Peacock, Candlestick, and the Ballroom, which I had to pass to.  I used my treasure to play Spineseeker Centipede.  Player 4 played Arrogant Poet.  I love wacky drafts!

In the third round, Player 1 hit Player 2 with the pangolin.  They named Scarlett, Lead Pipe, and Dining Room.  Player 1 showed them a card.  The ghoul served up some retribution and Player 2 guessed Peacock, Candlestick, and Ballroom again.  Player 1 passed.  Player 2 played Venomized Cat, then passed the turn.  I hit P4 with my centipede, then guessed Green, Rope, and Study, which was a miss.  With the tapped creature I was able to web-sling in Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary and search up another land.  All my ramping was coming together!  Player 4 cast Novice Inspector, then hit Player 2 with the Poet (flying).  They guessed Peacock, Pipe, and Dining Room and P2 showed them a card.  

In the fourth turn, Player 1 cast Kavaron Turbodrone.  Player 2 played Web-Shooters, then sicced their cat on Player 4, who took it out with a Desculpting Blast.  I apologetically hit Player 4 with my Spider-Man and guessed Plum, Wrench, and the Lounge.  They had none of them.  I replayed my Centipede for my third land search and to have WUBRG basics on the field.  Player 4 attacked me with another creature they had.  They named Scarlett, Knife, and the Billiard Room.  I showed them the Billiard Room I'd already revealed to Player 1.  

Player 1 started off the fifth round by attacking P2 with their pangolin, but they had a Dire Tactics to fend it off.  Player 1 played a Battle-Scarred Goblin and passed.  Player two dropped a Heraldic Banner (naming Black), then struck back at Player 1 with the Web-Shooting Diregraf Ghoul.  They named Mustard, Knife, and Billiard Room and Player 1 passed.  I hit P1 and P2 with my two creatures and guessed White, Knife, and Kitchen.  P1 showed the Kitchen and then I dropped my Spectral Snatcher.  Player 4 hit Player 1 with the Poet and guessed White, Wrench, and Kitchen.  Player 1 showed a card (Kitchen?) and then Player 4 mutated Cavern Whisperer onto the other creature and we all learned more about how mutate works because the question came up of what would happen if the mutated creature no longer existed.

Player 1 decided to grab the archenemy mantle on turn six and cast Overlord of the Boilerbilges.  They hit me for four, gave it haste with the Turbodrone, then swung in to kill Player 2.  Player 2 revealed their hand of Clue cards: Peacock, Scarlett, Ballroom, and Secret Passage.  They did not make an accusation, however, a very dangerous move!  I took my turn and attacked both of my remaining enemies with my big creatures, but they both chump blocked.  I played my Daemogoth Woe-Eater, then played Wurmwall Sweeper and tapped my Centipede to station the Sweeper half way.  

One big blocker is enough to stay alive.

Player 4 hit my Woe-Eater with Mage Hunters' Onslaught and I was suddenly without any blockers.  They passed the rest of their turn and then Collected Evidence 6 to make a guess: Green, Wrench, Dining Room.  We both passed, but they did not make an accusation; safe to figure Player 4 had one of those three cards themselves.

In the seventh round, Player 1 cast Heated Debate to kill Player 4's Arrogant Poet.  Then they swung out at the two of us, killing me and hitting Player 4 as well.

I revealed my Clue Cards before they made their guess.  I don't know whether that is the right order.

Player 1 guessed Mustard, Candlestick, and Kitchen.  Player 4 showed him a card.  Then Player 1 spent their Accusation: Plum, Pipe, and Dining Room.  They looked at the confidential envelope; they were incorrect!

Player 4 attacked for four and guessed: Green, Wrench, and Library.  Player 1 showed a card.  Then Player 4 accused: Green, Wrench, and Dining Room.  They looked at the envelope.  Incorrect!  

Player 1 revealed that they had Emissary Green.  Player 4 suspected a mistake had been made.  Thankfully I had my notes; so we looked back to see that Player 4's guess on the previous turn had shown a mistake.  Player 1 had passed on a previous guess with Green.  The best solution here was to award the game to Player 4, who would have won otherwise.  

Making these kinds of mistakes is very common!  It's best to go slow when resolving guesses.  I'm not sure we did a good job of that, especially with some new players.  

Even though there was a mistake and even though I got killed, this was really fun!  I'm not sure Player 1 made the most strategic choice by taking people out, but the outcome was still really fun.  I love this format and want to do it more!

Now that it's made a difference in a game, I really want to know which happens first when a player dies in combat.  Does the attacking player make a guess or does the dying player reveal their hand first? 

Happy Murder-Solving Magicking!

Chaos hears the Call of the Ring (WUBRG Drafting)

I got real lucky and a little draft that almost failed turned into a draft with seven people!  I'm starting to think that seven is my favorite number.  (I haven't yet been confident enough to suggest two Ravnica Clue games (3 and 4 people) instead of duels, but I'm sure I'll get there.)  That doesn't mean I would be disappointed to have eight or more, but seven is probably the largest where it's possible to get all the single-game matches (21) in on a week night, which is exactly what we did.

And we had a great selection of packs too!

I don't draft black-heavy very often.  Of the five colors, it's the one that I have the fewest cards of, meaning it's likely my least-drafted color.  For this draft, I went heavy into black.  Here were all of my picks:

I have drafted so many Mythoses.  :-\

Here's the deck I put together:

The missing card is Bandit's Talent, which won me some games.  I traded it away before I took the deck photo.

Warning: my notes are a bit spotty here!  It's been over a week since we played! 

 

I was paired up against a Glint-Eye player first (everything but white).  Sinkhole Surveyor really showed up for me here.  I put a bunch of counters on it until I thought it was big enough, then started making tokens.  I played Bandit's Talent and started reusing creatures from my yard.  I got really lucky because I won at 10 and my opponent had Hidetsugu's Second Rite in deck!  1-0

In round two I faced a Jeskai deck packing a devastating Endstone to stay alive late game.  Demon Wall came down for me turn two, which was a great play for me multiple times.  I need to remember how good that is for me in the future!  Spineseeker Centipede helped fix my mana on turn three and then I curved right into Fungal Colossus on turn four.  They got a Rooftop Percher on the next turn, but I still swung in.  They played Omni-Cheese Pizza and swung back, and some instant-speed removal went both ways.

Condemn versus Seized from Slumber.

I pumped my Demon Wall and started to swing in.  My opponent played Hare Apparent and Patched Plaything.  I attacked and played Feed the Cycle to come out on top on the blocks.  We both attacked in the next turn, then my opponent dropped The Endstone, gambling they would be safe going down from 16 to 10 life.  I had already played Debris Field Crusher, which now had two counters on it.  I played Spectral Snatcher, tapped to fully station the Debris Field Crusher, then swung in for exactly ten damage!  2-0.

In round three I was up against a mean Grixis deck.  I had a turn five Wick's Patrol, but it wasn't enough.  My opponent played Dream Harvest and hit well.

The Mythos of Brokkos and Dragon's Prey!

I did not recover.  2-1.

In the fourth round I was up against a tough Bant deck.  They played Lita, Little Orphan on turn two.  I spent a Dragon's Prey on it two turns later.  I got some flying support, but perhaps I should have held on to my removal.

Treetop Snarespinner ruined my game.  All by itself.

I couldn't get around it and it ended up killing me.  2-2.

In the fifth round, I got Bandit's Talent out on turn two against a swift Boros deck.  They played Brightspear Zealot and I responded with Gravestone Strider.  They played Unsettling Twins and I dropped the Demon Wall and Swiftfoot Boots.  Whisperquill Scribe came down and they started swinging in.  I got Morbius down shortly thereafter and the life gain kept me in the game.  My opponent played Unswerving Sloth, which I hit with Feed the Cycle before it could be saddled next turn.  They played Rite of the Dragoncaller.  I saw that with Demon Wall I could attack for the win without casting a spell, so I went for it.  They didn't have a play so I won!  Whew!  If I had cast something, they had Reprieve in hand and could have punished me.  3-2.

Also, I can't remember the last time I drew a hand of seven lands!  Thank you, free mulligan!

In the sixth and final round, I was up against a player running Gruul Lizards.

Nearly Team Lagac!

I got Demon Wall out early and used Call of the Ring over and over.  (I'm not sure I've ever maxed out tempting the ring before!)  Late in the game I played Fungal Colossus for one green.  My opponent played Wheel of Potential for three, but I drew far more cards than them and used that economy to win.  4-2.

Quick notes:

• I did well because I had plenty of fixing, good creatures, and loads of removal.
• When we opened the first pack, one person bought out a pack and opened something else.  I expected it to happen more, but it didn't.  I still like using this rule!  

 

Wacky drafts are still my favorite.  Happy Wacky Magicking!

NYC Draft: Spiders, Turtles, Turtles

There's an extra sense of excitement when your FLGS runs an "alternative" draft that doesn't follow a normal set of packs.  So I was real excited when, at the last minute, I was able to go to the NYC Draft at Intergalactic Plastic: Spider-Man, TMNT, TMNT.

It is true that there's a lot of spiders and pizza in New York.

We had exactly eight people, so I'm sure they were happy I came as well!  I didn't plan ahead, which is probably good, because then I might have tried to build a Villains theme... which would have been bad because the "bad guys" in TMNT don't have the villains type.  In the end, I did get a bit of a menace theme instead!  Here are all my picks:

I was looking for J. Jonah Jameson for a deck too!

Most importantly, check out all the land cyclers; I got seven in total!  Including two Bebops, two Rocksteadys, and a Bebop & Rocksteady!  Because I got all those land cyclers, I made the dangerous decision to run only 15 lands.  I think that was too much and I should have gone 16 instead, because I did mulligan a lot.  Nevertheless, here's my deck:

Only two cards in the five and six-drop piles don't have landcycling!

In the first round I was up against a very aggressive Rakdos deck.  In the first game, they played Raphael, Tough Turtle on turn two, which wound up being the MVP.  My life total got too low too quickly and I couldn't catch up.  In the second game, I got Bebop & Rocksteady on turn four, but my opponent handled them with The Spot's Portal.  My Ninja Teen came out the next turn, though, and I learned just how amazing that card was, especially with all the land cyclers.  I out-valued my opponent and won.  In game three, I got J. Jonah Jameson out early, then Bebop & Rocksteady.  My opponent was stuck on three lands and couldn't keep up.  1-0.

Before the next round, I got in a bonus game against an Orzhov Ninjas deck a friend was running.  I died to Dark Leo & Shredder.  I put up a fight and kept trying to remove it, but continually failed.   

In the second round, I was up against another Rakdos deck, but this time control-focused.  They played Raphael, Tough Turtle on turn two of the first game, but didn't lay down an absolute barrage of creatures right after, so I got back into the game.  Sadly, South Wind Avatar came down a few turns later, and the combo of creatures hurting me when they came in and left was enough to take me out.  

That card is not from the Avatar: TLA set.  TIL.

In game two, Hobgoblin came down early and got in some big hits, but I was able to deal with it.  Sadly, South Wind Avatar came out again and I lost a lot from it.  I hit it with Retro Mutation late, but my life total was real low.  I finally stabilized at 1 (against my opponent's 24) with the help of Ninja Teen.  At ten lands, I matched my opponent's creatures with my own for many turns and got them under 20 life.  I knew I had limited time, so I needed to keep the pressure on, then use Ninja Teen sneaking to get a creature back in my hand and replay it.  I was keeping enough blockers up to stay alive until my opponent drew Death in the Family and I was toast.  We played a bonus third game and I lost that one too, without facing down the South Wind Avatar.  This loss was not a fluke.  1-1.

In the final round I was up against a removal-filled Abzan deck.  In the first game I got out Bebop & Rocksteady, but they got Grounded for Life.  My opponent, meanwhile, got a Michelangelo, Game Master and a Lurking Lizards out and just kept hitting.  

They got pretty big.

In game two, I got J. Jonah Jameson down on turn three and was ready to go off.  Unfortunately, my opponent Grounded them for Life, then did the same thing to the Putrid Pals I played.  Thankfully I kept drawing into creatures and they drew into lands and more lands.  I was able to win with a flying attack of Sun-Spider with Hard-Won Jitte among others.  In game three, my opponent played Transdimensional Bovine and used that to power out a bunch of good cards.  I played creatures, but they ate it to removal.  (They said they were packing eight removal cards!)  My opponent got six creatures down with the help of Friendly Neighborhood and I could not keep up.  1-2

 

Here are my takeaways:

• Some nights I take better notes than others.  I definitely feel more pressure to keep up the pace of the match at the stores.   
• I got lucky with my game wins.  I think this could've (should've?) gone worse than it did. 
• I'm not sure what to say about massive amount of land cyclers.  I really like them, but perhaps 15 lands is too few and I should have run 16 instead.  When I went with 17, I felt like I was getting flooded all the time.  Maybe 16 is the sweet spot.
• Everything Pizza is amazing.  So many games I got to seven mana and that card made a difference.  Two copies was great.

Not everyone may love the idea of a NYC-themed draft, but this was fun for me because I hadn't done a TMNT draft before.  Happy Magicking to you, whether your next draft takes place in New York or not! 

Foundations Draft #2 (WUBRG Drafting)

I missed some chances for TMNT drafts, but I did get in on a Foundations draft at my FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, last night, with seven other people.  I have a little mantra that "I'm never disappointed opening a Foundations pack" so it seemed like it would be fun to do another one.  This followed the pattern.

One of the other drafters successfully interfered with my photo.  Well, now they're stuck in the blog!

In some ways, this Foundations draft reminded me of a Chaos draft.  The set is so big that there are a large variety of cards that come around.  The player to my right did manage to draft five Gnarlid Colonies, for their Big Green deck, though.  And the draft archetypes are pretty consistent.  Maybe I just have the wrong impression.

A lot happened during the draft, though.  I stared off with Elenda, Saint of Dusk, but then passed on a bunch of synergistic stuff and accidentally went pretty blue.  In pack two I got a bunch of great green cards.  Pack three was where things went real wild, though.  I opened Muldrotha, which has done me well in draft before.  Then I got passed two Homunculus Hordes in a row and suddenly I was hoping I had more ways to draw cards.  Thankfully I had already taken a Spectral Sailor and then Tatyova, Benthic Druid came along later in pack three.  Here are all my picks:

I actually got worried that I might not get into all five colors.

Throughout all of this, I very nearly failed to actually get enough five color support.  Although I only grabbed two lands, I got lucky with the Goldvein Pick, Burnished Hart, and Grow from the Ashes.  

I waffled back and forth about whether to run the Homunculuses.  In the end, I really wanted to, so I did.  That was a good choice.  I also didn't start with Slagstorm, but I had it maindecked after the first round.  Here's the deck I was running by the end of the night:  

Beautiful Homunculuses and all.

In the first round I was matched up against a Sultai deck with lots of graveyard-based value.  They started off with an Infestation Sage on the first turn, then a Strix Lookout.  I had drawn Spectral Sailor, so I played that during their turn, then got my Homunculus Horde out two turns later.  They played Dreadwing Scavenger and managed to get lots of value off of it.  With the Sailor out, I drew another card on turn five to go to two Homunculuses.  They saw the danger and used Eaten Alive with their Strix to take out my original (non-token) Homunculus Horde.  I was down in life, but on the next turn I activated the Sailor again to get two tokens again.  My opponent played Lathril, and I cast Run Away Together on the Sailor and the Dreadwing Scavenger in order to try to keep my life total up.  Thankfully I had drawn into Tatyova, so I could play her, play a land, and run my horde up to four.  On the next turn I played another land to get eight and then cast Quilled Greatwurm, one of my best threats.  I swung to bring the life totals close (my eleven to their fourteen) and get some +1/+1 counters.  One of my horde died, but I played another land next turn to get up to fourteen and win.

In game two, my opponent got some real synergy going.  They played Mischievous Mystic on turn two, which sailed right over my Nessian Hornbeetle, and turned their next turn Think Twice into a faerie as well.  I played another groundling, Cephalid Inkmage, but then they played Abyssal Harvester, followed up by a Gutless Plunderer on their fifth turn.  I convinced the Harvester to Run Away Together with my Hornbeetle, then played Tatyova, which my opponent Imprisoned in the Moon.  I Broke the moon's Wings and then played an Evolving Wilds and fetched to draw two cards.  My opponent started the seventh round of turns when time was called with me at twelve life and my opponent at seventeen.  My opponent started to pull neat tricks with the Plunderer's ETB effect and the Abyssal Harvester, but I was able to stay alive for the five turns without even casting the Homunculus that'd been in my hand the whole game.  The game ended with me at four life.  1-0.  

In the second round I was up against an Izzet Terror deck.  In the first game they had a quick Firebrand Archer, then Mocking Sprite, then Goblin Surprise, which they used to pump up the Archer and kill my Gleaming Barrier.  Turn five brought a Heartfire Immolator.  I had sacrificed Burnished Hart so my fifth turn was enough for Muldrotha to show up.  It got Imprisoned in the Moon (seriously?) and that attack put me to two life.  I thought I still had a chance, though, and went down swinging.  Involuntary Employment gave me the Immolator, which I sacrificed to kill the Sprite.  I had Witness Protection and the Nessian Hornbeetle to help me stay alive, but it wasn't quite enough and I died on the next turn.  

In game two, my opponent had Balmor out and two Mocking Sprites on turn four.  I thankfully wiped it all with Slagstorm.  They were stuck on three land for a bit, giving me the chance to get things going.  They wound up starting to play Tolarian Terrors, super cheap with all the spellslinging they'd been doing.  Things were looking pretty dicey when I was at four and they had twenty two life:

My big beaters spent a lot of time moonwalking.

I got real lucky and drew the Broken Wings again.  I ate one of the serpents, and started attacking with my Wildwood Scourge and turned the game around and won.

In game three my opponent played Leyline Axe for free, but got stuck on two then three land.  I'm not an aggressive deck, but I was able to win before they recovered.  2-0.

In round three I was up against Boros Angelic Goblins.  They played a turn one Goblin Bushwhacker and a beefed up Goblin Boarders on turn three.  I managed to keep them down, but then the angels started to come out.  Serra Angel (which I did put in Witness Protection) followed by two Vanguard Seraphim.  I nearly stayed alive, but those two kept flying over my ground blockers.  

They were too good to forget about the Bulk Up in the yard, sadly.  My Inspiring Call did not draw me into any answers in the last minute.

In game two, I got Burnished Hart down early, but they got a Sun-Blessed Healer and then the Goblin Boarders again.  With my extra land, however, I got a Homunculus Horde down with the Spectral Sailor.  In four turns I was up to seven Homunculuses and was starting to get their life total back down to twenty.  (It had gone up to thirty.)  I Involuntarily Employed their Dazzling Angel, their last blocker, and they scooped before I could activate the Sailor and gain seven life.

In game three, I kept a hand with two mountains and Slagstorm, figuring I could let them get ahead and then three- or four-for-one them.  That's not how it happened, though.  They got a Dazzling Angel then just kept drawing land while I built up a squad of attackers.  Things were going great until they played Herald of Eternal Dawn, which they'd sided in against me.  They tried to kill me with an attack and a Bulk Up, but I was able to bounce it with Run Away Together and win before it could stick back on the board.  3-0.

Some thoughts: 

• I really lucked out.  I was down by a game in the last two rounds and pulled out exactly the cards I needed multiple times.  And I only survived the first round because we went to time.  (Normally I'm the one behind when time is called.)  
• This was a much better showing than my previous Foundations draft.  I'm now 4-2 in total.  I guess WUBRG is feasible with only two fixing-lands.
• Triggering Homunculus Horde is really fun.  Any kind of repeatable draw engine will do! 
• I'm surprised I had better luck with the Homunculuses than Muldrotha and the Quilled Greatwurm put together. 

This is a fun format to run five colors in.  Give it a try!  

Happy Magicking! 

Chaos drafts with Ooze (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to hold another wacky draft last night with four other people, the first since the TMNT set released.  I told my group I was going to open a Lorwyn Eclipsed and a TMNT pack, but wasn't certain about the third.  Without a moment of hesitation, one the players said Bloomburrow.  It was so obvious!  The natural middle ground between Lorwyn and radioactive-ooze-infested NYC!

Everything we drafted.  My packs: no ooze, some ooze, lots of ooze, in that order.

I did not do a good job getting multi-colored lands.  I passed on many early on and then they got taken before coming back around.  Oops.  At the beginning of pack 2 I thought about trying to go Enchantress after the Sterling Grove showed up.  I did not see many enchantments after that, sadly, so it didn't wind up running the Grove.  One interesting thing that happened is that one player opened a pack with some money they didn't want to run.  I was very clear in that you are allowed to keep any pack like that and open a new pack.  Here's everything I took:

I also, like, didn't read Terminal Velocity right.  I am bad at reading cards.

Since I had the Terminal Velocity and knew half of what it did, I decided to stack up on big creatures, putting a big tail spike on my mana curve:

Also, I had two cards that triggered with Firesong and Sunspeaker, so I clearly had to run them.

We decided to do duels and I managed to get through three of them before the night ended.  In the first round I was up against a Yore-Tiller colored deck with some sweet cards, including a Ragavan they'd pulled!  (This is where all the dual lands I'd passed went.)  They started the first game off with Candlestick, which turned out to provide great value.  I got Demon Wall out on turn two, but they attacked with Nanoform Sentinel with the Candlestick on turn four and had a trick to it.  I played April O'Neil, Hacktivist, and she got me great value!  They played Fear of Isolation, which I hit with Iroas's Blessing.  They Sternly Dismissed April, but I recast her.  They attacked and killed April with a Poison the Waters post combat after I blocked.  Thankfully I had built up enough of a hand and got Oblivious Bookworm and Captive Weird out, immediately transforming the Weird into Compleated Conjurer, exiling Undercity Dire Rat.  My opponent played Ragavan, but it was a bit late in the game.  I attacked and played the Dire Rat, then had enough mana for Peerless Recycling with Splicer's Skill spliced onto it at the end of their turn.  I played April for the third time and the next turn played Altanak which brought me the win shortly after.

In the second game my opponent had to mill twice.  I played really conservatively and was able to outvalue them.  They got an early Fear of Isolation, but I had Take out the Trash ready for it.  I got out Rocksteady, Crash Courser on turn six, but had to play carefully around their Squirrelanoids.  I played A Mysterious Creature (actually Shady Informant) and used that as the main attacking threat.  After my opponent dealt with that, I played out the Altanak I had in my hand and won again.  1-0.

In my second round, I was up against an Azorius deck that had picked it's colors with a pack-1-pick-1 Dream Trawler.  The game started off slow with me playing Offender At Large face down on turn three, but it got waxed the next turn by Fate of the Sun-Cryst.  They got Cult Healer down and played Staggering Insight on it.  (Thankfully lifelink doesn't stack!)  I tried to Overkill it, but they had Shelter waiting.  That healer later got a Nyxborn Unicorn on it as well.  I double blocked the whole thing with Compleated Conjurer and a face-up Shady Informant, willing to make the trade.  My opponent had other plans (again).

Freaking Surge of Salvation!

This was going to be a 3-for-2 in my favor.  (Cult Healer, Staggering Insight, and the hero token at the cost of my two creatures.)  Instead I got 2-for-1'ed and I had to hit myself with the Shady Informant's death trigger.  It was like having to target your own stuff with Festering Goblin all over again!  I died shortly after that.

In game two they got down Warren Elder and I had a hard time dealing with it.  I got Acolyte of Affliction down and got Firesong and Sunspeaker, and even got to gain five off of Brilliance Unleashed with them.  They played Dream Trawler, however, and won off of that.  1-1.

In round three I was up against an Esper player that had been competing with the Dream Trawler player for cards.  In the first game we traded little threats with removal.  They hit my creatures with Anchovy & Banana Pizza and The game was slow and I got Nobody and Oblivious Bookworm down on turn nine.  They played Altar of the Goyf, but I killed their only creature with Take out the Trash + Splicer's Skill.  I used Terminal Velocity with Altanak because I read the card wrong.  (Read the cards, Kyle!)  I still had enough on the board to win.

In game two I just had nothing and got run over.  The played Hullcarver into Judge Magister Gabranth into Adventurer's Airship into Henchbots.  

Game three was more competitive.  Gabranth came out early again, and they used Run Away Together when I targeted him with Overkill.  I played Threats Around Every Corner, which helped.  I just could not keep up with their fliers.  The Prima Vista hit, then Rook Turret and Hullcarver again.  1-2.

I definitely had some play mistakes in here and I likely could have built a better deck.  Let me know what you would recommend!

This was the kind of draft where I was ready to draft again right away afterwards.  I had so much fun!  Happy Magicking!