Chaos Commander Draft

Commander Draft is an excellent format!  I got lucky enough to be a part of one on Wednesday night with three other players.  We decided to hold a chaos commander draft; every player got to pick packs from any three of the commander draft sets: Commander Legends, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, and Commander Masters.  As of this week, those packs are around $10, $10, and $20 respectively.  So, everyone wound up choosing between the first two.

Pretty Chaotic, actually.

The normal Commander Draft rules include:

• It's a pick-two draft, so you pick two cards each turn while drafting.
• The minimum deck size is 60 (including your commander(s)), not 40.  Unlike EDH, there is no singleton rule.
• The color-identity rule is still in effect, so it is possible to be running a deck without enough spells and upwards of 30 lands.

In addition, we included the following rules:

• We used the Wilderness dungeon instead of the standard Undercity for Battle for Baldur's Gate.
• We started at 30 life instead of 40 for time reasons.
• We used the Commander Masters rule that all zero- and mono-color legendary creatures are assumed to have both "Partner" and "Choose a Background" on them.  We also did this for Neapolitan Commander Draft.  This would not be necessary if the packs were all from Commander Legends or all from CL: Baldur's Gate, but since they were mixed we needed to add this to give more combinations. 

The drafting part of this is really fun.  After the first pack I was really afraid that I would be stuck in two colors.  The reason for this is that there are very few legendary creatures in two colors printed in these sets that either have Partner or Choose a Background.  If you want more colors, you are usually hoping for a three (or more) color legend to snap up.  Very thankfully, one appeared after a few passes in the second pack: Bane.  After that I went hard into Esper, figuring I could maybe equip my creatures a bit to get good value off of Bane's second ability.  Here's everything I drafted.

The Oceanus Dragon and Dream Fracture were the last two cards passed to me.  I just didn't realize they were coming my way until after I'd taken the photo and started deckbuilding.

I (admittedly hastily) built the following deck from those cards, but I was really happy to have a bit of a sacrifice theme.  I wasn't too worried about mana fixing with all that triple of Duodrones.  

I should have been afraid of the drones for a different reason, though...

We sat down to play and rolled to see who was going first.  The player to my right won, so the order was:

• P1: Ganax, Astral Agent of the Iron Throne. 
• Me: Bane, Lord of Darkness.
• P3: Rebbec, Architect of Bahamut.
• P4: Dynaheir, Invoker Adept.  

In the second round of turns, some people got some ramp going and I helped the whole table by playing a Marching Duodrone.  You might see the problem already.  

P1 opened up the third round by playing Shiny Impetus on my Duodrone.  I attacked one of the other players, then played Bane with the treasure.  I was feeling pretty good!  P3 did a bit of ramping then P4 played Roving Harper and drew their card.  

The problem started in the fourth round.  P1 played their background: Agent of the Iron Throne.  Now when they sacrificed any of their two treasures, we would all lose life.  Yikes!  I played my second Duodrone as well as one of my Guildsworn Prowlers and swung in for some damage and more treasures for everyone.  P3 played both Rebbec and the Acolyte of Bahamut background.  P4 got a nice combo going with Flaming Fist Officer and Alora, Merry Thief.  They attacked with their unblockable Harper thanks to Alora, bounced it, and pumped up the Officer.  

Nifty!

 

P1 took their fifth turn and demonstrated just how much trouble we were all in.  They played Ganax, then sacrificed treasures to get the Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind.  We each lost life to the Agent of the Iron Throne triggers.  It was clear to me who the Archenemy was.  I played Horn of Valhalla (without the adventure first, unfortunately), equipped it to the second Duodrone, and swung in with my team.  I attacked P1 with everything except the goaded Duodrone, who I attacked P3 with.  We all got our treasures (two for everyone except P1 who got three) and then P3 hit the goaded Duodrone with Guiding Bolt.  P1 also responded with a Murder on Bane.  Yuck!  P3 dropped an Emerald Dragon and cast Raise the Alarm on their turn.  P4 ended the round by playing Feywild Caretaker.  The Initiative was now in play!  

In the sixth round of turns, P1 dropped Falthis and Nemesis Phoenix, then swung at P4 with Ganax to take the initiative.  We continued to hemorrhage life as they kept using treasures!  I swung out at P1 and took the initiative for myself then played Bane.  P3 played Trailblazer's Torch, put it on their Emerald Dragon, then attacked.  They hit P1 with a bunch but also hit me for three with Rebbec.  I happily went exactly down to 15, perfect for Bane.  P4 played Abdel Adrian to combo even more and exiled their two non-Flaming Fist Officer creatures, making it even bigger.

We had now all crash landed in the Wilderness Dungeon!

It wasn't enough, though.  P1 started round seven and played Fang Dragon with their orb, giving it haste.  They had exactly fourteen damage worth of flying power on the board and put me at one with a treasure sitting open.  I was now naught but their pawn.  I played Grafted Wargear and tried to draw into an answer with Bane's ability.  I did not succeed.  P3 played Stingerfling Spider to kill Ganax and P1 used a treasure to kill me in response.  P3 did not attack and passed the turn to P4, who played Pegasus Guardian.  

In the eighth round, P1 attacked P4.  The life totals were now 13 (P1), 5 (P3), and 6 (P4).  Then they played Dragon Noble, gifting them two more treasures!  P3 did not attack on their turn, but P4 did swing in to P1.  Unfortunately the Archenemy blocked well and only took three damage and lost two of their creatures, causing more life loss.  (One of those creatures was Dragon Noble, which gave them a third treasure token.)  P4 then cast two spells that gave them the initiative, using it three times in one turn!

It didn't matter, though.  On turn nine, P1 untapped with the life totals at 10 (P1), 3 (P3), and 4 (P4).  They attacked P3 who was at three life with two fliers.  P3 could block them both, but they had to kill one of the attackers, causing another loss of life.  That was enough for P1 to sac their remaining three treasures win by the triggers of their background!

What a great game!  I think we needed to move against P1 with a little more focus in order to defeat them.  I certainly didn't help with my repeated Duodrone attacks!  

I also think that the granting of partner and choose a background to mono-colored legends is the correct rule to use.  

If you've never had a chance to Commander Draft, I hope you get one soon!  Happy Limited Commander Magicking! 

Chaos needs to read the whole card (WUBRG Drafting)

I hosted a little chaos draft last week with four other people.  We decided to run best-of-one rounds and use the Andrew McLaughlin rule: you can replace your third turn draw with adding a basic land from outside the game to your hand.  The hype for Lorwyn Eclipsed is still going strong, so there was a lot of that opened.  I picked a Foundations pack and my last two packs grabbed from GameStop.  Here's what everyone chose:

I've never been disappointed by a Foundations pack.

I definitely got greedy while drafting.  At one point I picked a pretty Plains way too early.  I also picked the Survey Mechan without reading to the end of the ability.  Notably, I didn't read the cost reduction part.  I'm lucky I got it!  (I should have taken it over Broodguard Elite.)  Here are all my picks:

I did not have a coherent draft strategy.  Had I read my cards better, I might have.

I was the last one to get their deck figured out.  That was true even though someone else was drafting for the first time.  Yikes.  I definitely made some bad choices (e.g. Jeong Jeong over Sizzling Changeling) but I didn't take the time to change my deck up between rounds.  Here's the deck I ran for the whole night:

I also think Mm'memon, the Right Hand might not have been a good choice.

We completed the Round Robin so I got to play all four opponents.  I was matched first against the new drafter, running "Mild Discomfort from Above", an Esper deck with lots of fliers.  In the past few years I have a terrible record against first-time drafters.  Even with the Andrew McLoughlin rule, I still had to mull my first two hands.  (Thankfully the first mull is free in Bo1.)  I got Cori-Steel Cutter and Ba Sing Se down but they started dropping their fliers.  I played a turn five Wildvine Pummeler, but they Rallied the Monastery it.  I tried to catch back up but without any way to deal with the flying assault, mild discomfort turned into perishing.  0-1.

In the next round I was up again Ink-Treader "Kithkin Alliance", powered by (guess what) Kithkin and Allies.  I got the Steel Cutter out on turn two and played Dragonbroods' Relic the following turn.  They Liminally Held the cutter before I could get the trigger, but I followed that up with Survey Mechan.  They had a great turn five with Professional Wrestler and Thoughtweft Lieutenant, but I warped in Broodguard Elite and put the four +1/+1 counters on my Mechan at the end of turn.  I played the Broodguard for good the next turn and started swinging with the five-power hexproof Mechan.  They followed that up with Iroh, Grand Lotus and swung in with the Wrestler.  I blocked with the Broodguard for the trade and threw these counters on my Mechan as well.  (This led to the political-future-ending statement by my opponent: "You're over there with a flying 9/11.")  I swung in for big flying damage.  They used Iroh to recast Tend the Sprigs to get a reaching blocker and dropped Omni Changeling.  Then they swung for 13 damage.  I might've been in trouble, except that I had Trystan's Command to pave the path to victory.  1-1.

I faced "Counterspell!Counterspell!Counterspell!" in the third round, a Dimir control deck.  I had an aggro-style start with Spider Manifestation, Jeong Jeong, and Mechan Shieldmate on turns two, three, and four, respectively.  They played a Selfcraft Mechan, but I had a Spiral Into Solitude for it and put them down to seven life on my fifth turn.  They played Sandskitter Outrider with the token to slow me down.  I played Electroduplicate on my Shieldmate to keep the pressure on and attacked one more time.  They blocked well but went down to one life while I was at 21.  They used Dragon's Prey to kill Jeong Jeong and I was down to only the Spider Manifestation.  I got the Dragonbroods' Relic and would win off of the activation, but I needed another creature to have enough mana.  I played Doc Ock, but it got Wildly Unraveled.  Then my opponent Temporally Cleansed the Spider Manifestation, which I dropped to the bottom.  I drew into Trystan's Command and grabbed both Doc Ock and the Spiral Into Solitude while I took out the Outrider.  They Unburied it, then cast Strategic Betrayal to exile my yard, though a turn late.  I played Doc Ock and then untapped with enough on turn ten to get the Reliquary Dragon out of the Relic and win.  2-1.

My final round opponent was running "Mono G with White", a Selesnya counters deck.  If I could pull off the win, then my 3-1 record would win on tie breakers from my second round opponent.  They started off with Lys Alana Informant and dropped Goldvein Pick and hit with it the next turn.  I got Jeong Jeong out, but they attacked and tricked with Biosynthic Burst, so I didn't get the trade.  I played Survey Mechan and had Ba Sing Se, but they dropped two more creatures: Earth Village Ruffians and Rebellious Captives on turn five.  They had a big attack before I could catch up, playing Mechan Shieldmate, Bender's Waterskin, and Glacial Dragonhunt all on one turn.  Unfortunately they took out the Mechan Shieldmate with a Make Your Move, then played Sage of the Fang.  I took my turn and played Shimmerwilds Growth, which let me play Wildvine Pummeler for cheap, but they Bit it Down.  Attacking on their turn put me to 1.  (They were still at 20.)  Dear reader, I have had some great comebacks, and I planned another one here.  I cast Mm'menon and was ready to put it together, but they Flashed in Thompson, tapped my flyer down, attacked and won.  2-2.

In the whole night, I don't think a single person used the Andrew McLaughlin rule.  

These drafts are so much fun.  I love all the crazy card interactions.  Happy Magicking, no matter how you do it!

*Update: Fixed the spelling for Andrew McLaughlin and an important note: my final round opponent did take an advantage of the rule in a prior round and took a land! 

Frepack Draft #(n+12) (WUBRG Drafting)

I ran an impromptu free draft last week with repacked cards for some students.  It initially looked like there were going to be three of us, but then the number jumped up to six!  Four of the six of us were relatively new drafters with one here for their first draft ever.  

During drafting, there were some comments about how a lot of my packs have a lot of eldrazi in them.  That's not on purpose; I've been sorting through a bunch of donated cards from Battle for Zendikar, so that's just how the cookie crumbles right now.  

Also, the person sitting to my left told everyone they were going five colors, so I had to put in some extra work getting the lands I wanted.  After the first pack I thought I was in trouble, as they'd be passing to me.  However, I got four lands in a row early in pack two, so I felt pretty good midway through the whole thing.  Here's everything I drafted:

Garrison Sergeant is one of my favorites.

From these cards, I built this deck:

I know Ghostly Sentinel is undervalued at five mana, but I've won too many limited games with it.

 

We decided to play best-of-one rounds in order to get as many matches in as possible.  (Note: this doesn't work as well with an even number of people.)  I was matched up first against an Izzet Eldrazi build.  Thankfully I drew well and got Tunnel of Hate online on turn six, with the manifested 2/2, Oran-Rief Invoker, Ulamog's Nullifier, and a Ghostly Sentinel on the board.  I won two turns later.  1-0.

In round two I was up against a Rakdos deck.  I dealt with their scary Valakut Predator with a turn four Torch the Witness.  In the next three turns I played 4W-cost fliers back to back: Ghostly Sentinel, Charmed Clothier, and Ghostly Sentinel.  I won the turn afterwards.  2-0.

In round three I was facing down a Dimir enchantments deck.  I was stuck on five mana for a while while they played a good defense with Grim Guardian (triggering off things like Necrogen Communion) and Pharika's Chosen.  I got Kozilek's Channeler down which got me unstuck.  Soon I had Eldrazi Devastator out and my Oran-Rief Invoker was looking a lot more imposing.  I lost both the Pharika's Chosen, which came back due to shenanigans, but not after dealing enough excessive damage in subsequent attacks for me to win.  3-0.

Round four was set to be exciting.  One person had already left without playing me, so this was to be my final round.  My opponent, running Mardu Life Drain with a bunch of effects like Drana's Emissary, had just come back big to win their fourth straight.  Only one of us would remain undefeated.  And, unfortunately, they got mana flooded.  They played their own Grim Guardian, but thankfully never the Emissary.  Kozilek's Channeler hit the board for me and nearly got there on its own.  4-0.

These little drafts are great!  I love getting together with students to reuse these cards that might otherwise be discarded!

Wrap up your own packs and Happy Magicking!