Last week I did a wacky draft with three other people. We decided we wanted to play a big multiplayer game, but not play Ravnica: Clue. I lobbied for some alternate formats to promote attacking people, but that got vetoed. I was still happy to play in a bigger game. Here's what we opened:
We used the first-pick-take-two rule so we got to make two picks from each pack but only as the first person. I was very careful not to make sure I wasn't a fraud and had cards in all five colors by pick six. Here are all the picks I made:
I put together a fun deck with that:
We rolled to see who would go first. The order was:
- P1 was running "Take to the Skies" in Bant.
- I was second up.
- P3 was Temur, "Free Spells into Suicide"
- P4 was another WUBRG deck, "Class is Outside Today". (At least they mused "I don't know how Kyle always plays five colors," partway through the game.)
In the second round of turns, P3 played Ominous Seas and P4 played Chrome Companion. Both of those became important throughout the game!
On turn three, P1 played Glider Kids, I played Lumbering Laundry face down. P3 dropped a Magnifying Glass, and P4 attacked P3 with the dog.
P1 turned their attention to me on the fourth round of turns. I did not take it personally and attacked P4. P3 ramped with Zimone's Experiment and P4 cast Pensive Professor, another value generator described as the Instructor who would be teaching today's class.
Player 1 played Bristling Boar to start off the fifth round of turns. I played Deepcavern Imp but didn't attack with it. P3 cast Rapturous Moment into Elemental Mascot and Spore Crawler. P4 finished the round with Sanar, Unfinished Genius, one of the students.
In the sixth round of turns, P1 made another move for air superiority by casting Empyrean Eagle and attacked P4, recognizing the value engine that was spinning up. I played Water Tribe Captain. P3 hit P4 as well, then played Frilled Sparkshooter. Player 4 reacted, but to me, taking out my imp with Blooming Blast, then playing Abigale, Poet Laureate (I just noticed the pun, ha!) and Hydro-Channeler.
P1 cast Angelic Quartermaster to claim the dominion of the skies. They attacked me, bringing the life totals to P1: 20, Me: 8, P3: 15, P4: 14. I responded by attacking back for two damage, then cast Nebula Dragon to take out the Quartermaster. P3 cast Improvisation Capstone and this was the first time I'd ever seen the Paradigm keyword. (It's like Epic but better.) With that they dropped Knowledge Seeker and Zaffai and the Tempests.
P3 then also attacked P1 now that their defenses were down. P4 out WUBRG'ed me and cast Prismatic Undercurrents for five. They then played Lluwen, Exchange Student and announced that all three students were prepared for class! Ha!
On turn 8, P1 passed. I attacked P3 with the Nebula dragon, they blocked with the Frilled Sparkshooter, I activated the Water Tribe Captain, they cast Aquitect's Defenses on their lizard, and I cast Harsh Annotation on it in response. I definitely overspent my resources on that battle! P3 activated the Ominous Seas at the end of my turn. They cast Tenured Concocter then attacked me with the 8/8, the Knowledge Seeker, and the Elemental Mascot. I blocked the 8/8 and went to 3 life. P4 cast prepared spells and re-prepared things and got Spirit Mascot out. They then played Tester of the Tangential.
At the end of P4's turn, P1 cast Ajani's Response on P3's 8/8 Kraken token. The life totals were P1: 16, me: 3, P3: 15, P4: 14.
P1 passed on their ninth turn, keeping all their mana and creatures open. I finally played the Lifecreed Duo that had been in my hand all game, followed by my Iguana Parrot. P3 cast Disruptor of Currents, bouncing P4's Pensive Professor. They swung into P4, which went okay.
P3 continued by casting Icecave Crasher and Stock Up, but realized their deck was living up to its name: they only had ten cards left in their library. They replayed the Pensive Professor and put Aetherize into their hand. (I don't remember how that happened.) They were also low on cards in their deck. At this point I realized that everyone was out landing me. Urf!
P1 passed to open the tenth round of turns. I attacked P4 with my Iguana Parrot, which happily flew over, then I cast Crovax, Ascendant Hero. That notably took out P4's Chrome Companion, which had been putting in a lot of work all game. P3 cast Dreadlight Monstrosity and already had eight counters on Ominous Seas again. They attacked me and I had to throw my now 1/1 parrot in the way. P4 cast Fire Nation Warship, then Biblioplex Tomekeeper. They attacked P3 with their 7/7 Spirit Mascot, but P3 cast Gone on it. The life totals were now P1: 16, me: 5, P3: 15, and P4: 9.
P1 was sitting pretty and passed again on their eleventh turn. I cast Tributary Vaulter, hoping I could stay alive. P3 attacked me with Dreadlight Monstrosity, making it unblockable. That would have been three damage, but P4 intervened.
P4 really wanted Crovax off the board, and the Auspicious Arrival was enough of a boost to take me out. On their turn, P4 cast Pinnacle Emissary and attacked P1 with their 4/6 Pensive Professor. After combat they replayed their Spirit Mascot. The life totals were: P1: 4, P3: 15, and P4: 9.
On turn 12, P1 cast Finch Formation, but didn't offspring it. P3 declined to use the Capstone's Paradigm ability this turn, then attacked both opponents. P1 used their untapped mana to cast Uncharted Voyage on the Dreadlight Monstrosity to stay alive. Then P3 used Calamitous Tide to get some of P4's students off the board. P4 cast Sanitation Automaton and attacked P3. They cast Sanar's spell, Wild Idea, but failed to find a card in their small library.
P1 shocked the table on turn thirteen with Avatar's Wrath! They kept Bristling Boar, cast Treeguard Duo, and swung into P3. P3 cast their Dreadlight Monstrosity and P4 cast a Chaos Spewer. The life totals were: P1: 4, P3: 8, P4: 9.
In the fourteenth round of turns, P1 recast the Finch Formation with the Offspring. They went to attack, but P3 cast Frostveil Ambush, which P4's Chrome Companion had tucked many turns ago. P3 attacked with their player-killing Dreadlight Monstrosity to take P1 out. P4 recast Tester of the Tangential as well as many of their other creatures.
On the fifteenth turn, P3 recast more of their creatures, but P4 had more on the board and attacked. P3 went to three life.
On the sixteenth turn, P3 didn't have enough and P4 swung for the win.
This game was great! I do really enjoy the social aspect of playing in one large multiplayer game and it was fun to see everyone's decks fire off. Although we didn't add any wacky formats, we didn't really need them. We had lots of aggression and interaction and it was exciting to see all the different cards interact with each other across so many different sets.
Happy Multiplayer Magicking, whether you add rules spices or not!
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