On Thursday night I had three friends over to do a wacky draft. The group that came was ready to do some multiplayer chaos, so we drafted to play a single game of Ravnica: Clue followed by Explorers of Ixalan. One player decided they really wanted to open Dragon's Maze. I was out of loose packs, so it was time to open a box! (I can't believe I still had a box of this left.)
I fell back into my old rut of Ikoria and LotR, and it's finally been paying off with Triomes! Here were all my picks:
I had a hard time making cuts. I wound up cutting Snare Tactician really close to the end. I built one deck and used it for both games. Here's what I ran:
We rolled for turn order:
- Player 1 was running Jeskai.
- Player 2 was also on WUBRG.
- Player 3 was Glint-Eye (UBRG) but mostly Jeskai.
- I was going last, running WUBRG.
No wonder some of the mana fixing hadn't come back around!
We started with the Clue game. We pulled out a hidden suspect, weapon, and room; removed two rooms and revealed them to everyone (Dining Room and Study); and then dealt four cards to each player. I got Emissary Green, Mastermind Plum, Senator Peacock, and the Kitchen. The first turn was all a land each, but I finished up the second round of turns with an Abzan Devotee. P1 also cast Frontline Rush at the end of my turn.
On the third turn, P1 attacked P2 and P3. They guessed Green, Knife, and Kitchen and both players passed. P1 played Dragonfly Swarm, so I sent my Devotee at P3 and guessed Scarlett, Wrench, and Lounge. They passed.
P1 kept up the attacks on their fourth turn, hitting P2 and P3 again. They guessed Plum, Pipe, and Library. P2 showed them a card and took their Treasure token. P2 cast Falco Spara, Pactweaver, but P1 hit it with Disdainful Stroke. P2 would be stuck without creatures for a while. P3 cast Hakoda, Selfless Commander, which was their first pick of the draft. His vigilance kept my creatures at bay for a long time. I played Hawkeye, Master Marksman and hit P1. I guess Peacock, Rope, and Conservatory. They showed me the Rope.
On the fifth turn, P1 hit P2 and me. They guessed Green, Knife, and Kitchen, the same as their first guess. P2 passed and I showed the Kitchen. My rationale there was that I should leverage the power I had with half the suspects and keep them hidden, so I revealed the Kitchen and took my treasure. P1 continued their turn by playing Monastery Messenger and Nivix Cyclops. P2 decided to clean up the board a bunch and cast Gaze of Granite for 3.
That left only the Messenger and Hakoda alive, but I had the mana to put the Devotee back in my hand. P3 cast Invasion Reinforcements, then hit P1 with Hakoda, guessing White, Wrench, and Billiard Room. P1 had to pass. I cast Glidedive Duo and passed the turn.
On turn six, P1 cast Nightwhorl Hermit and hit P3 with the Messenger. They guessed Mustard, Candlestick, and Billiard Room and P3 showed them a card. P3 cast Riling Dawnbreaker, then hit me and P2. They guessed Plum, Pipe, and Kitchen. I showed them the Kitchen too. On my turn I attacked P1 with the Glidedive Duo. They blocked with the Messenger and cast A Little Chat, sacrificing the Messenger. Post combat, I cast Abzan Devotee and Bearer of Memory.
On turn seven, P1 cast Kirol, History Buff, but P2 had their revenge by countering it with Glorious Gale. Sadly, they didn't have any creatures to give the ring to. Unfortunately, P1 now had Threshold, so they hit me with the hermit, asking Green, Knife, and Secret Passage. I showed them Emissary Green. P2 cast Bronzebeak Moa, their first creature! P3 cast Warren Elder and Ascendant Dustspeaker. They went to combat, killed P1's Threshold by exiling a graveyard card, and hit both me and P1. They guessed Green, Knife, and Conservatory. I revealed Green to yet another person. Everyone was finding out about my hand! I attacked and hit P1 and P2 and guessed Scarlett, Candlestick, and Hall. P1 showed me the Hall. Then I played the only thing keeping me from being afraid of all of P3's fliers, my Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion. At the end of my turn, the life totals were P1: 6, P2: 12, P3: 12, and me: 10.
On turn eight, P1 just Collected Evidence 6 at the end of their turn, guessing Scarlett, Knife, and Billiard Room. P2 showed them a card. P2 then cast Claim the Precious to kill the Hermit. They hit P1 and guessed Peacock, Rope, and Conservatory. P1 showed them a card. P3 cast Mind Spiral to tap my Moose-Lion. Then they cast Honorbound Page and attacked and hit everyone.
They guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Conservatory. I passed and P1 showed them a card. I attacked P3, but they blocked. I resurrected and replayed my Abzan Devotee. P1 was down to 1 life, P2 had 8, P3 had 11, and I had six left.
On the ninth turn, P1 again just went directly to Collecting Evidence 6 and guessed Scarlett, Knife, and Conservatory. We all passed, but I was convinced P1 had at least one of those cards. Unfortunately, they accused the same set of three, checked the envelope, and won. They said they were pretty confident about Scarlett because there was "lots of action" on her, but got lucky with the other two. I couldn't believe it!
It was already pretty late, but I guessed that the Explorers of Ixalan game would take about an hour (it took longer) so we laid out the tiles. We stayed in the same seats, but P3 won the roll to go first. I don't want to change the names, so the play order for this game was P3, me, P1, and P2.
P3 started off by taking a tile and getting High & Dry, Pirates' Market, a Site which lets you rummage at the end of your turn. (When a player deals combat damage to another, the attacker can take one of the defender's sites, if they have any.) I played a tapped land and didn't get to take a tile on the first turn. P1 got the tile Cannons to Port, which is a Quest that rewards them a card draw when they damage the opponent to their left (P2). P2 got Valuable Recon, which gave them a treasure and let them look at any one of the tiles on the board. They looked at one of the 6-mana tiles and were done. (This is one of the best parts of Explorers of Ixalan: that the first turn people are still doing a lot.)
On the second turn, P3 flipped Cannons to Starboard, which does the same as Cannons to Port except it's for attacking the player to their right (also P2). I got Cannons to Port (pointing at P1), and P1 cast the first spell: Rally at the Hornburg. P2 flipped a tile and got yet another Cannons to Port, pointing to P3.
P3 started the third round of turns with Potioner's Trove, a mana rock I was not familiar with! They then flipped a Cannons to Starboard. I was really lucky not to have any cannons pointed my way yet! I flipped Secure the High Ground, the first 3-mana tile, which prevented me from being attacked for one turn. P1 cast Hydro-Channeler and then cast Of One Mind for one mana! P2 finished the round by casting Hog-Monkey.
On their fourth turn, P3 cast Kitsune Ace and flipped the 1-mana tile Broadside Assault, which did 2 damage to the rest of us. I flipped Walls of Adento, which meant that a player had to pay 1 mana to attack me on their turn. This actually kept me safe for a while! I then cast Thornvault Forager, which I had just drawn. P1 cast Moltencore Maestro and P2 dropped Abomination, Terrifying Titan. At the end of P2's turn, P3 cast Firebending Lesson on the Maestro, but P1 cast Seize Opportunity to exile the two cards, using it's ability to make it big enough to survive.
For the fifth round of turns, P3 cast Ascendant Dustspeaker. Now everyone had real threats except for me! I flipped another 3-mana tile, getting Blessing of the Shapers. This was a quest that gave my next creature to enter three +1/+1 counters. I changed my plan and cast Vindictive Warden with my remaining mana, who became 5/6. I was caught up to everyone else! P1 flipped a 1-mana tile to get Plunder the Plunderers. This granted them two treasure tokens after the next player dealt them combat damage. P2 cast Needletooth Pack. At this point the life totals were all still quite high: P3 and me with 19, P1 with 14, and P2 with 16.
P3 started round six by flipping their first 3-mana tile, a Wavering Allegiances. This let them exchange control of any two creatures. They immediately took my Vindictive Warden, giving me the Kitsune Ace. I continued to flip 3-mana tiles, getting Scrolls of Azcanta. This made each player draw two cards and each opponent of mine discard two. With my remaining mana, I cast Tribute to Horobi. Immediately all of my opponents started colluding on how to kill off their rats before I could get them! P1 immediately sacrificed one to A Little Chat on their turn, then cast Kirol and flipped a 1-mana tile. They got From the Mists, which let them put a creature with mana value three or less into play. They dropped their Finch Formation, gave another creature flying, and attacked. (I don't remember who.) P2 cast Root Manipulation and then attacked P1, putting them down to eight life. P3 and P2 both had 15 life, while still had 19.
On turn seven, P3 cast Hero in Training, then flipped a 3-mana tile: Jade Reflection. That allowed them to copy their next instant or sorcery spell. I flipped yet another 3-mana tile and got Unwitting Accomplice, essentially a Threaten. I took Abomination and attacked P3.
The good news is that I killed the Abomination. The bad news is that I didn't deal P3 any damage and didn't kill the Warden thanks to the Lightfoot Technique you can see in the corner of the photo. Importantly, flipping that tile opened up two 6-mana tiles, the first available of the game. I reserved one for my next turn. I cast Celeborn the Wise and ended my turn. P1 had a big turn. They cast Reptilian Recruiter (I don't remember what they took), cast Frontline Rush, and attacked and killed P3, mostly with their Maestro, who became even bigger after they cast Kindled Fury. Wow! P2 cast Hazel Nocturne and Serrated Scorpion. I had 17 life, P1 had 6, and P2 had 14, but we needed a way to kill P1 off.
On my eighth turn, I flipped the Tribute into Echo of Death's Wail. I attacked P1, but they blocked well. P2 and I were discussing what to do and I decided to take a chance and flip the first 6-mana tile. I got Melee at the Gates, which causes all your opponents to attack with all their creatures and they can't attack you! I was quite happy; maybe I could hit P1 back with a lot on my next turn. P1 took their turn and flipped a 6-mana tile and got Might of the Sun Empire. This got them a 3/3 Dinosaur token with trample and then let them put two +1/+1 counters on each creature they controlled. They played the Monastery Messenger and then attacked in to P2, who survived with nine life. P2 cast Claim the Precious on.... my Echo of Death's Wail! No! P1 had 4 life, P2 had 9, and P3 had 15.
At the top of turn nine, there were no exposed 6-mana or 3-mana tiles. I flipped a 1-mana tile, getting Plunder the Plunderers. I cast Hawkeye, but P2 cast Glorious Gale. P1 started their turn and cast Monastery Messenger.
They swung into me and I put up an honorable fight, but lost my board. P2 got another turn and flipped a 3-mana tile, Can't Take it With You. This was a quest that gave them two cards and four treasure tokens the next time a player died. It was too late; P3 was already out of the game.
I didn't have any strong plays. On P1's tenth turn, they swung in and killed us both.
P1 won both of the games that night! Wild!
The only real takeaway I have for my future is that drafting, Ravnica Clue, and Explorers of Ixalan took us just under four hours.
I hope you get to experience as much wacky magic as we did! Happy Magicking!
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