I got to do a little four-person draft on Wednesday. The context for this is that it came shortly before Wacky Worlds, set to occur three days later. It was, therefore, a bit of a calm before that storm. I was coming off a tough record at a Modern RCQ, but not to worry! I was back in the element that I thrive in!
I stuck to my plan of opening Ikoria, included Secrets of Strixhaven (spending my Gamestop money for the month), and threw in an Adventures in the Forgotten Realms to mix things up. Here's what we all opened:
We decided to do the variant where the first pick of each pack is actually two picks instead. I was very excited when I opened my Ikoria pack and found what I wanted: a triome! During that first pack, I tracked my colors, being dedicated to getting all five sooner rather than later. I got a bit stressed because I failed to draft any use for black mana. I didn't solve that until halfway through pack two with Locust Spray, but I wound up drafting many black spells anyways. Also of interest was my third pick in pack two, The Dominion Bracelet. "Dominion" isn't "Domain", but it's close. I really wanted to activate that during the games. Here are all my picks:
I really don't know whether I did a good job with this deck. I agonized quite a bit over the construction. Here's what I put together:
We decided to do a round robin of full matches. I sat down against my first opponent, running a vicious Rakdos deck. They started off by casting Umbral Collar Zealot on turn two. I drew The Dominion Bracelet and cast it on turn three; they followed by casting Page, Loose Leaf. I drew well again, grabbing Bruenor Battlehammer. I cast him and used the free equip, making him an 8/4 creature right off the bat. Sadly, my opponent Extracted a Confession from me, then played a Common Crook. On the fifth turn, I played my Culvert Ambusher, face down. My opponent then cast Mornsong Aria. I'm very well acquainted with Maralen of the Mornsong, having played her in various of my Shuffleupagus decks for years. There are, however, two very important differences:
- Mornsong Aria is an Enchantment, not a creature, and
- Players can neither gain life nor draw cards. This second part I wasn't aware of!
Look at that deck above. See any enchantment removal? See any in my draft pool? Nope! I was behind on life and without any mass removal cards, so all my opponent had to do was remove my creatures for a few turns before I died.
In game two, they played the Common Crook on turn two, then the Aria on turn three before I'd played anything. I put up a fight, using each of my searches to find useful removal. Orbital Plunge, Electro's Bolt, and Farideh's Fireball all hit their targets, but the last of those was Judith, Carnage Connoisseur, who also created a 2/2 with Duel Tactics. I lost on what I think was turn seven. 0-1. We played two more bonus games (since we were done so quickly) and I lost both of those as well.
In round two I was up against "Temur Tam" a real strong Izzet value deck. They played Tam, Mindful First-Year on turn two, the namesake of the deck. I cycled my Topiary Panther on turn three and they played Tend the Sprigs. With my mana sufficiently fixed, I got Bruenor out, but he was hit immediately by a Debris Field Crusher. I hit Tam with Electro's Bolt on turn five, then they played a Rimeshield Frost Giant, which turned out to be a real problem. I played The Dominion Bracelet and they attacked me, putting me at 12 with them undamaged. I had nothing on my turn and they played Spider-Rex. I died on turn eight.
In game two, they got Virulent Emissary out right off the bat. I played my Timid Shieldbearer then they traded in combat. They cast Tam, which I hit with Electro's Bolt again on my third turn. I cast Garrison Excavator on my next turn, but it got countered with Quandrix Charm. On their fifth turn they played the Rimeshield Frost Giant again, and all I had to do was cast Lorehold Charm during their end step to get the Timid Shieldbearer back. They played Elemental Mascot during their sixth turn, which they claimed was one of the best cards in their deck. (They had two.) I cast Ancestral Anger and realized that it was not the card I'd thought: Fists of Flame. (I'm not sure how I mixed those two up!) I took the card out of the deck for future games. My opponent had Tend the Sprigs again, but this time got the bonus 3/4 Treefolk. On their next turn they mutated Lore Drakkis onto that creature and grabbed Quandrix Charm back. I took out the combination creature with Farideh's Fireball.
On my ninth turn I played my Riftburst Hellion face down, but my opponent hit me with Homesickness at the end of my turn. They played Slumbering Trudge and killed me on their tenth turn. 0-2. We played a bonus game afterwards and I was very excited because I got to activate The Dominion Bracelet and win! It doesn't count for anything, but it was still fun!
Dear Reader, at this point I was on a 7-round streak of losing matches 0-2, if you count my performance at the Modern RCQ just ten days prior. It's time to turn this around! My final opponent was running an aggressive Bant deck. They started the first game with a turn one Studious First-Year. I played the Dominion Bracelet on turn two and then they cast Elite Interceptor. (Slightly better than Squire.) I played a second equipment on turn, my Ranger's Longbow, only because I didn't have any creatures I could run out yet. Thankfully, on turn four I drew a land and got to play Garrison Excavator. My opponent played a Starbreach Whale, which I immediately hit with Orbital Plunge on my fifth turn. (Five toughness? Perfect.) My opponent cast Daily Bugle Reporters and then we went back and forth hitting for six damage. Sadly, they played a Badgermole Cub on turn seven. With that extra power on the attack, I couldn't get in for the last bit of damage to win and I died when they swung back. I died with 8 mana on the board and the Bracelet on a 6/6 creature. One mana away!
In game two, I started off with Dungeon Descent and they played the Elite Interceptor again. On their second turn they warped in the Starbreach Whale. I cast Ranger's Longbow on turn three, then Bruenor on turn four, making him a 9/4. My opponent cast Studious First-Year and then the Rejoinder to draw a card. I attacked on turn five. They cast a scary Badgermole (not the cub) but I had Electro's Bolt for it and continued my attack on my sixth turn. They played Facet Reader and scared me away from attacking on turn seven with four power of creatures on the board. I cast Topiary Panther, equipped the Longbow to it, and passed. They cast Uthros Scanship. The Panther was big enough to survive an attack into everything, so I had it press in and used the Dungeon Descent and Bruenor to go delving. (Not that delving.) My opponent scooped on the next turn.
In game three, my opponent played three creatures in the first three turns while I played only the Longbow: Curious Farm Animals, the Facet Reader, and an Infirmary Healer. I played Garrison Excavator, but it got Essence Scattered! My opponent cast Spider-Man India, web-slinging the Facet Reader. I had an Electro's Bolt for it, but they followed that up with Daily Bugle Reporters. All I could do was cast Sneering Shadewriter on my turn, but I was down to five life and couldn't block all the attackers.
0-3. I ended the night on a streak of eight match losses, but at least I won a game in that last one!
Takeaways:
- Wacky drafting? Do I even know how to do that?
I had so much fun with this deck, though! My games were all really fun. Happy Magicking: may you have as much fun as I do!
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