Rooms for more Clue Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

The Hobbits are having trouble leaving the Shire.  While I wait for my FLGS to get play booster boxes, I got two friends together and we did a wacky Clue draft.  (Although I generally want four people total to run a draft, I've found that three works quite well with Ravnica: Clue, so we did that.  We decided on 30 life, because there were only three of us and we would each have six Clue cards in our hand.

I just finished watching Avatar this weekend, which I had started because the set came out last year.  Naturally, I was excited to include an Avatar pack!  Here's what we opened:

Would I get a companion to build around this time?

Yet again I failed to open a companion, but I did get something fun to focus on nonetheless.  I took Luminous Broodmoth and actively avoided flying creatures for the rest of the draft.  I opened Intruder Alarm in pack two and hoped I could find more creatures with tap abilities and mana dorks, but I came up mostly empty.  Perhaps the most important was pack three, however, where I got super lucky and picked up four fixing lands!  Here were all my picks:

Reminder: the lack of flyers is on purpose.

With those cards, I built a deck with a very low curve!  

Low for me, anyways.

I felt like I had a lot of useful combo pieces as well as efficient enough creatures that I could get in early and try to solve Guildmage Boddy's murder.  We sorted out the Clue cards, put one of each into the solution sleeve, then shuffled up and dealt the rest.

My hand.

Oh no!  Six rooms!  I knew nothing about the suspects or weapons!  I won the die roll to go first, mulliganed my first hand and kept a risky two-lander.  (Thankfully I drew lands the first two turns.)  My two opponents, P2 and P3, were both running Grixis.  No wonder I'd been able to get my hands on those three white dual lands!

The first round of turns passed with just lands, and only P3 had a play in turn two with a Hexing Squelcher.  

On turn three I played a face down Museum Nightwatch.  P3 cast Charging Strifeknight and hit both of us.  They guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Conservatory and I had to show them the Conservatory.  At least I got a treasure!

On turn four I cast Kyoshi Warriors, then attacked and hit P3 with my Mysterious Creature.  I needed to learn something (anything) about the suspects and weapons, so I made a guess with a room I already had: Green, Wrench, and Hall.  P3 passed.  P2 cast Waterbending Lesson.  P3 cast Lamplight Phoenix and attacked P2 who had no blockers.  P3 guessed Green, Pipe, and Ballroom and P2 showed a card.  (Obviously not Ballroom, because, y'know, I had that along with all the other rooms.)

For turn five I hit both of my opponents and risked asking about a room I didn't have: White, Knife, and Kitchen.  P2 passed and P3 showed me the Kitchen.  P2 played the very intimidating Azula, Cunning Usurper and targeted P3 with the ability.  P3 didn't let her stay in power, though, and cast Extract a Confession.  Azula was the only creature P2 had, so she died while I just sacrificed my 1/1 ally.  P3 then dropped Lightshell Duo and hit me with the Phoenix since I didn't have any fliers on the board.  They guessed Plum, Rope, and Dining Room and I showed them the Dining Room.  

On turn six, I cast Social Snub and copied it.  It didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, though, because P3 was able to sacrifice a creature before the Phoenix and then the Phoenix, and then collect evidence to get the Phoenix back.  I had enough remaining creatures to attack both my opponents, though.  I played the same game I had been playing and guessed Plum, Wrench, and Library.  They both passed.

"Wait, what?" I said out loud before I could stop myself.  I had the Library in my hand, but I had suddenly guessed the murderer and murder weapon!  More importantly, though, because of my idiotic outburst, my opponents knew I hadn't been suspecting that answer.  I still didn't have enough information to make an accusation because I didn't know the room, so I ended my turn without making an accusation.  This meant, though, that my opponents knew I had at least one of those three cards I'd called out.  P2 was still in a bit of catch up, but they played Potioner's Trove and a disguised creature.  P3's Phoenix was still something I couldn't block.  They hit me and guessed the same cards I had guessed.  I showed them my library and feared they also knew the correct suspect and weapon.

I needed to throw them off the scent, so on turn seven I hit both opponents again and named Scarlett, Candlestick, and the Billiard Room.  P2 showed me Scarlett.  I cast Gnarlbark Elm and Joined Researchers and the latter became prepared at the end of the turn.  On their turn, P2 cast Sneering Shadewriter and then hit P3 with their disguised creature.  They guessed White, Knife, and Ballroom, and P3 showed them one of the first two cards.  P3 played Yuyan Archers and then hit me.  They guessed Mustard, Rope, and the Lounge.  I passed.

Both of my opponents had now made guesses that seemed to ignore Plum and Wrench.  I couldn't zero in on those already again, though.  I attacked both players on turn eight.  P2 cast Tweeze on my Kyoshi Warriors, but I cast Quandrix Charm to make them too big.  P2 decided not to do the trade and took the hit, so I got in on both of them.  I guessed Peacock, Pipe, and Study, trying to narrow down the rooms that I didn't have.  I was disappointed (probably visibly so) when P2 showed me Senator Peacock.  I cast the Joined Researchers' Secret Rendezvous and Sokka, Lateral Strategist.  P2 still had enough cards that the researchers were immediately reprepared.  P2 just collected evidence 6 on their turn to guess Mustard, Candlestick, and Secret Passage.  P3 showed them a card.  P3 hit me with that dang Phoenix and guessed Mustard, Wrench, and Secret Passage, which I passed to.  Then they dropped Skyskipper Duo.  

It was down to two rooms: Study and Secret Passage.  On turn nine I figured it was time to go all in on Secret Passage, especially since both of my opponents had guessed it last turn.  I attacked both of my opponents, including with Sokka so I could draw.  P2 flipped their creature into Riftburst Hellion and blocked.  P3 also blocked.  I don't know why I thought I would be able to get through, but I really did.  Thankfully both of my creatures were blocked.  If one of them had gotten through, I would have been stuck with that for my guess this turn.  Instead, I collected evidence 6 and made the guess: Plum, Wrench, and Secret Passage.  Pass and pass!  I accused the same thing, checked the envelope, and won.  

There are some things to unpack:

• I obviously got amazingly lucky!  All my cards were in one group and I randomly guessed the other two on my third try.  I very nearly messed up that advantage, but I managed to come back around and figure it out.
• We ended the game with everyone at around 15 life.  I think that 30 life is a bit too much for drafting with three people.  
• It was really weird to not play any flyers.  I didn't like being completely open to flying attacks.  
• I cast Secret Rendezvous on my last turn because I really wanted to draw into one of my cool combolicious cards.  The neatest part of my deck that came into play was the Joined Researchers.  (Which was admittedly still pretty cool!)  

The only thing I have left to say is that I love Clue limited, especially wacky drafting.  It is a fantastic format that I hope everyone gets to experience.  Happy Magicking!

Hobbit Prerelease (WUBRG Sealed)

Sadly, I can't title this one WUBRG Wargs!  

I went to a Hobbit prerelease last night at my FLGS Intergalactic Plastic.  Here's what I opened:

Not pictured: the Azog, Moria's Ruin "promo" that I got and forgot about until the end of deckbuilding.

I really struggled with deckbuilding here.  It's harder in sealed than in drafts; the card pool is much larger yet I have less fixing than I generally pull from drafts.  It's harder to get all five colors to work, as you'll see here.  Here's the deck I had at the end of the night, though the original version was much different:

Most importantly, I cut the Crude Bent Blades because the sacrficing seemed really bad with a bunch of Enchanted River's Grasps.

In the first round I was matched up against an opponent at their second prerelease.  Despite their newness, they had a great grasp of how good their cards were.  (I would call their Mardu deck "Seek the Smaug".)  I played Giant's Boulder (which is an absolutely amazing card for everything I'm trying to do) and they played Nori, Teller of Tales on turn two.  I followed that up with Dáin Ironfoot and then they played The Arkenstone's adventure, Seek the Heart, to tutor up Smaug the Magnificent.  I spent turn four playing Ragged Short Spear and Ravening Warg, but they dropped Smaug, hit me, and it was clear I was in trouble.  I attached the spear to the Warg on the next turn and swung in with the Ferocious trigger and double strike on both my creatures.  I followed that up with Goblin Plate Mail, so I wasn't out of it yet.  They played Sting, Bilbo's Sword on their fifth turn to take the tide back, then Fearsome Goblin Pair, which is a great card.  On my sixth turn I attacked with both creatures and probably shouldn't've.  After they hit me again, I drew for my turn and scooped.

In the second game, I played Old Thrush on turn two and got jealous when they played Thror's Map.  I passed and they cast Dain, Lord of the Iron Hills.  Thankfully I had The Chief Warg on the next turn.  They followed that up with Dwarven Shortsword.  I played Azog, Moria's Ruin (who, you'll notice, is not in the final version of the deck) and sacrificed my thrush to get a goblin army and a card.  My opponent played Iron Hills Stalwart.  On turn six, I played Giant's Boulder, Ravening Warg, and Enchanted River's Grasp on the Stalwart.  They dropped Ori, Keeper of Songs and the board was pretty well gummed up at that point.  On their next turn, they Stirred Up Trouble, to kill my Ravening Warg.  On turn eight, I played The Black Arrow and equipped my Chief Warg to attack and get the Ferocious bonus card.  They cast Seek the Heart to go get Smaug, cast him, and attacked.  Thankfully, I had another Enchanted River's Grasp, which I locked Smaug down with next turn.  I also attacked with (my) Dain and played Guardian of the Halls.  My opponent played Bilbo's Deadly Slice to kill (my) Dain on their turn, but on the next turn I was able to cast Thranduil, the Elvenking and keep attacking.  My opponent played the Arkenstone and Sting, but Thranduil was big enough that I won.

For game three, my opponent wanted to be on the draw.  I got the Ragged Short Spear out on turn two.  They played their own Old Thrush.  I played Ravening Warg and they cast The Mountain King's Return, another cool card, and smartly discarded Fearsome Goblin Pair to it.  I played Ravenhill Flock on turn four.  I play Toothy in EDH (the deck is called "Pir and Toothy go to the Library") so I know how good those draw for counters creatures are.  They got their Goblin Pair the next turn and then immediately Stirred Up Trouble, sacrificing it to kill my Ravening Warg.  With three mana left, they--you guessed it---Seeked the Heart to get Smaug.  I played The Chief Warg on my next turn and they played The Arkenstone.  (They were missing a second red source for Smaug!)  I played Thranduil, Sindarin Liege and made a bad attack, losing my Chief Warg.  They couldn't cast Smaug, but they did have Head of the Hunt, which is really good.  Two turns later, at the beginning of turn eight, Turns were called and I cast Stone-Giant of High Pass.  My opponent had never gone to turns before, so I explained it.  On their turn (Turn 1) they played Thror's Map to get a mountain and summon Smaug and attack.  On my next turn (Turn 2) I attacked well and then killed two creatures with the Stone-Giant's ability.  I foolishly didn't take out the Head of the Hunt first and my opponent got two wolf tokens.  My opponent attacked back on Turn 3 but didn't take me out.  With my beefy Ravenhill Flock and the Stone-Giant, I swung in, put them at four, then sacrificed the new wall to hit them for lethal.  1-0.

In round one, my opponent had played Smaug each game.  In round two, I was up against a Golgari "Fierce and Ferocious" deck, piloted by someone who often drafts with me.  I went first, but they played a Nighthowl Pursuer on turn one that would wind up doing me a bunch of damage.  I played Old Thursh on turn two and they played Troop of Ponies, the second 2-drop colorless card that made me jealous.  They sacrificed it to ramp on turn three.  On turn four I drew and played a second Old Thrush, which they outclassed on their turn with Beorn the Fierce.  Thankfully I had an Enchanted River's Grasp for it on turn five.  They spent turn five playing two Crude Bent Blades that killed both of my Thrushes.  

Bye bye, birdies.

On turn six I cast Gandalf, Wandering Wizard and felt pretty good.  That confidence was misplaced because of a Little Bear.  That stupid little bear untapped Beorn, who attacked and with the power of a Reverent Howl slapped me down to 4 life, putting them to 27.  I played The Chief Warg and Ravening Warg the next turn.  They attacked again, putting me to 1 life.  I played Dain, Ironfoot, but on their turn they Stirred Up Trouble to limit by blockers.  I had nothing to do on turn nine and they attacked to kill me, with Smaug, Wicked Wurm in hand.  

In game two, Nighthowl Pursuer hit the board right away again.  Then I played Old Thrush.  They cast Wargling on their second turn, dispelling the deja vu, thankfully.  I had Dain Ironfoot on turn three and Ravenhill Flock on turn four before they flashed in Little Bear.  My opponent didn't give the ravens a chance to flock, though, and Quarreled it on their fourth turn.  After attacking, they were winning 13 to 16.  I played Goblin Plate Mail, and attacked but once again they played Beorn the Fierce.  That triggered all the ferocity and I went to 5 life.  I cast The Chief Warg, but it wasn't enough.  They used Beorn's ability (which we'd missed before) and it was all over.  1-1.

That round was very quick.  Thankfully my opponent was willing to play more.  They beat me in a third game with the deck (Beorn again!) and then borrowed another friend's deck to whip me a fourth time.  After that I made a bunch of changes to my deck to get the version pictured above.  In particular, they told me about the Thrandul, the Elvenking combo with Guardian of the Halls and Woodland Weavemaster, so I added the Weavemaster to the deck.  I had been having trouble figuring out what to keep in for White (my plans with equipment and dwarves hadn't really panned out) but my friend advised that I put An Unexpected Party in, which was a good call: even if I didn't get the second white source, the adventure was worth it.  

In round three, I was up against another skilled opponent that is a regular at Intergalactic Plastic, who was running a strong Mardu deck.  (This round was quite intense and my notes are sparse due to my concentration on the game, sorry!)  I again had Old Thrush on turn two.  The next play was on their turn four with Dwarven Provisioner.  I cast Thranduil, the Elvenking on turn five, but they had a Bilbo's Deadly Slice for it.  I recovered the next turn with Gandalf, Wandering Wizard.  They played Gollum, Silent Slinker and a Ravening Warg.  I played Guardian of the Halls, which they outclassed with Esgaroth Garrison.  The game dragged on, but I got out a second Elvenking and won with it.

In game two, I got hit early.  I went to 1 life against their 18, but I held on.  I got the Elvenking combo with both elves so I could pump it up.  Many times my opponent made a play that seemed like it would spell my demise, but I got around it on my turn.  I must have been at 1 for over five turns before I started to turn the game around and at least ten turns before I won.  (I think I won with the Stone-Giant this time.)  This was pretty criminal.  The probability I was going to win that game was vanishingly small and didn't tip to my side until the very end.  I got very lucky.  2-1.

2-1 is respectable, but that could have easily been 0-3.  I squeaked out round one, got mauled in round two, and then won round three on the smallest of life margins.  I-... oh, it's not time for the post-mortem yet because my friend wants to play a third game with me!

In bonus round four, I was up against the player who had helped me fix my deck up after round two.  They were running Simic, which I assumed meant Elves, but instead it was just lots of card draw.  They won in three games, and had multiple copies of good cards like Old Fat Spider Can't See Me, Bilbo Baggins, Burglar, and Lakeshore Apothecary.  I did not take notes and I'm not even sure how I won a game.  (They frequently read these posts, so maybe they'll chime in in the hard-to-use comments.)

This was officially a 2-1, kinda a 2-2, and something that was very close to a 0-4.  I really don't trust my sealed deckbuilding skills.  I hope I get some good comments about how I should have built my deck differently.  The one thing I realize is that I definitely should have run my Mirkwood Nurturers.  They would have worked great with many of the cards in my deck, including the Old Thrushes and the Ragged Short Spear.  With them it might have even been worthwhile to put the Crude Bent Blades in too!

No matter what, I had a really great time.  Happy Hobbit Magicking to you! 

Finding Thunder and Lightning in Chaos (WUBRG Drafting)

Apparently Thor has been a Marvel villain a few times, such as during the Blood and Thunder storyline.  I had Lightning, Thunderbolts, and Villains in last night's draft, so maybe that was me.  I'm already way ahead of myself, though.  I got some people over and we drafted a bunch of fun packs:

Lots of Super Heroes and a mish-mash for everything else.

Here are all my picks:

A bit unfocused, but there's no way to be unhappy with this pile.

After taking The Dawning Archaic second, I pushed towards instants and sorceries spellslinger-style.  I took the Regal Leosaur to have more than just one Mutate creature.  In the second pack, I was thrilled to open Cosmic Cube and then saw Thunderbolts Conspiracy and figured I could work to make that happen.  I got a few more Villains and went deeper into Black in the rest of pack two and then even further in pack three.  Also in pack three, I tried to make Castle Doom work, but I decided in the end it wasn't worth it.  The other Archaic (Rancorous) was an obvious choice.  I took Labratory Maniac because I had a couple big draw spells (Boon of the Wish-Giver and Steal the Show) and if those went off twice with the Dawning Archaic, I might have a second win condition.  (The obvious flaw in that logic is that if the game goes that long, I should be winning anyways.)

Given all of that, here's villanous "Thor" deck that I built:

There are a lot of game winners in here.

That's a bit of a lie.  This isn't what I built right off the bat.  I started the night with Regal Leosaur in instead of the Barbed Bloodletter.  

Nevertheless, this deck seems like a winner.  We had planned to do a round robin, so there would be three rounds.  The curve is pretty low and reaching the late game will be good for me.  Can this deck of bombs go 3-0?  We paired up shuffled.

In the first round, I was up against an Izzet Flyers deck.  My opponent dropped a Goblin Assailant on turn two.  (I miss vanilla creatures.)  I had Lightning, Army of One in my hand, but no red source for a while, so it got in for some damage.   They played Iron Man, Master of Machines on turn four.  I flashed in Thunderbolts Conspiracy, but was still without creatures.  Thankfully, I drew into Firdoch Core and then was able to play Lightning on turn five.  They played Hawkeye's Bow and hit me again with Iron Man, putting me to 11 life.  On turn six, I couldn't safely get in with Lightning.  I had Stolen Stark Tech in my hand, but I elected to cast Rancorous Archaic with full converge instead.  Sadly, that got Temporally Cleansed and they also played Aerial Doombot.  On their attack I killed the Goblin Assailant.  I swung in with Lightning on turn seven, but then they played Goblin Assault Team and came in.  I animated my Core, blocked, and cast Stolen Stark Tech to keep it alive.  I made a big play mistake on the next turn and equipped the Stark Tech to Lightning.  Sadly, Iron Man had the Goblin's +1/+1 counter, so it blocked and safely killed Lightning.  I replayed the Rancorous Archaic, but my opponent had Frozen in Ice the next turn.  I passed on turn eight, but hit the Doombot with Zuko's Exile after they powered it up.  They attacked and I went down to 3 life.  They played First-Time Flyer.  I played Killmonger, Scourge of Wakanda, and took out Iron Man (byebye, Archaic) but they had enough to kill me in the air.  That's okay!  Maybe if I hadn't accidentally sent Lightning to her death, I would have pulled that off.

In game two, they had three good early turns with First-Time Flyer, Seize the Spoils, and Goblin Assault Team on turns two, three, and four, putting me to 14 real fast.  I played Oscorp Research Team, perfect for blocking the Goblins.  They dropped Ran and Shaw and I immediately hit that with Zuko's Exile on turn six.  They played Aang's Journey (that's a lesson) then swung in.  I confidently blocked with the Research Team.

Oof, Super Speed.

 

I wasn't out of it yet, though.  I cast Kang, Temporal Tyrant, who put in work for me all night.  Kang pales in comparison to Prismari, the Inspiration, which my opponent dropped next.  I had 9 life.  My opponent had nine flying power.  I cast Pull from the Grave to last another turn, but they played Vibranium Energy Daggers on their turn.  0-1.

Okay, maybe I lost because of a bad play mistake and because I couldn't deal with multiple dragons.  I'm still had a great deck with all kinds of bombs.  I shuffled up and played against my next opponent, running a Simic Clones, Life, and Counters deck.  They started off with a turn one Adventurous Impulse.  I played Lunatic Pandora on turn two.  (I am very curious about a strategy decision I made over and over: if I have a tap land and two basics in my hand, should I play a tap land on turn one or play the Lunatic Pandora?  I chose to play the land because I didn't feel like thinking about it.)  They followed that up with A.I.M. Synthoids.  I played Firdoch Core on turn three and then they played Hellcat, Undying Vigilante.  (I love the flavor of the name and ability.)  They cast Zimone's Experiment, which is a great card.  I dropped the Cosmic Cube on turn five and went to attack with an animated Firdoch Core on the next turn.  My opponent beat me to the punch, however, by flashing in Tigra and then Band Together to kill my Core before moving to attacks.  

No Cosmic Cube trigger for me!

They played Pterafractyl with five counters and I played Kang on my seventh turn.  I cast Pull from the Grave with no targets just to stay alive.  My opponent cast Omni-Changeling to get their own Kang and put me to 1 life.  I attacked on turn eight and got Killmonger from the Cube.  I was able to take out the Pterafractyl, but needed one more blocker to stay in the game.  That game seemed really close!

In game two, I got Lunatic Pandora out on turn two again.  My opponent played Shopkeeper's Bane, which combos great with their Tigra.  I played Oscorp Research Team on turn four, but they continued to attack in safely for a bit.  They played Zimone's Experiment again and got Flux Channeler and another clone: Spark Double.  I played a powered-up Ninja of the Hand and they played the Channeler.  They dropped a Savage Land Dinosaur (what an amazing card) and I sacrificed the Lunatic Pandora to take it out the next turn.  They played Tigra on their seventh turn, as well as Ant-Man's Army.  I mutated Snapdax onto my Ninja and killed the Shopkeeper.  They Omni-Changeling'ed the Snapdax.  They thankfully couldn't mutate it because the card doesn't have that ability, but they did still get my Snapdax's deathtouch, which was not how I thought mutate worked.  (I am bad with mutate rules.)  Then they used Spark Double to get another non-legendary but still deathtouching Snapdax.  Yikes!  On turn nine, I played Killmonger, sacrificed the Oscorp Research Team, and took out the Spark Double.  Finally, I had the initiative!  I played Cosmic Cube the next turn and attacked, hitting Airbending Lesson from the cube onto the Omni-Changeling.  I attacked again the next turn and got Kang.  I was now in a strong enough position that I was okay with the trade of the two Snapdaxes.  ("Snapdaxen"?)  They played Call Damage Control, but when they couldn't get both creatures back, they scooped.  

On to game thr-... Wait.  My opponent had a flash of insight.  What did I mutate Snapdax onto?  Ninja of the Hand?  That's a human!  You can't mutate onto a human!  (I am really bad with mutate rules.)  I cheated and I cheated bad!  (Not on purpose; I'm just dumb.)  Not only did I cheat, but it was pretty clear I wouldn't have won that game without the mutate trigger.  0-2.  (It was at this point that I went through my deck, counted up all the humans, and then sided out the Regal Leotaur.)

My round two opponent wanted to play a third game against me, since that second one had gone wonky, but the other pair had finished, so we moved on to the next round instead. 

Okay, round three.  My last chance to get a win.  Time to focus.  My opponent had built an aggressive nearly-mono white Boros deck, but maybe I could pull it out.  I played Lunatic Pandora on turn two and they played Feisty Spikeling, then Political Triumph on turn three.  I got Kang out on turn five, but they flashed in Flock Impostor and then played Anti-Venom on their turn.  Turn five!  Thankfully, I had a Zuko's Exile ready for it.  They played Pigment Wrangler on turn six and I played Ninja of the Hand and Domri's Ambush to take out the Wrangler before it could cast Striking Palette.  They flashed in Ambrosia Whiteheart and triggered the Political Triumph.  I had eight life, so I would be able to survive the next attack.  I attacked with Kang to get the trigger and the life, but they cast Spider-Man, to the Rescue to keep me from getting in.  Okay, I was still going to be able to survive the next attack.  I blocked Ambrosia with the Ninja because it could get bigger on future turns.

I chose incorrectly.

Avengers Assemble! took me out. 

Okay, alright, round three, game two.  This was now my last chance for a game win, not to mention trying to win a round.  My deck is so powerful.  This might be my worst match-up, but I do have a chance.  I played the Lunatic Pandora again, but this time on turn one.  My opponent played Political Triumph on turn one.  Then Valiant Rescuer on turn two.  Then Spider-Man, to the Rescue on turn three.  Then Daily Bugle Reporters on turn four.  They played S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier on turn five and I responded to it's entering ability with Zuko's Exile on the Political Triumph to try to stay alive.  

Cue Restoration Magic.

I stayed alive one more turn after that.  0-3.  0-6 in games.

I did squeeze in that bonus game with my round-two opponent and I did win.  They did not go easy on me (though they forgot to unsideboard and didn't have Zimone's Experiment) and even got out a combo with Tigra and Earth Kingdom General.  I stayed in the game with Thunderbolts Conspiracy and a bunch of villans, then I got the Dawning Archaic out and took over the game from there.  That game certainly doesn't officially count, though.

There have got to be some lessons here!  Here's what I'm taking away:

• I still need to read my cards carefully.  I've mentioned this before and somehow I continue to fail at this.  For example, I don't think I fully read Cosmic Cube all night.  Obviously, this also messed me up in the cheat-mutate game.
• I made a lot of other play mistakes.  That doesn't always come out in my recollection of events.  Not only did I make an unsafe attack, I also miscounted potential damage and creatures multiple times.  Someday I'll be a good magic player!
• This deck was hard to play.  There were so many things going on and there were some times where I had to make some risky choices.  (Do I attack while the cube is out and see what I get or do I need to do something else instead?)  
• Sometimes you're going to go 0-3.  It just happens.  It might be luck or bad play or bad deckbuilding or just that everyone built to beat you.  It doesn't matter.
• I had a great time.  Playing Magic is just fun.  Many of my games were really tight and I was hanging on in the margins (or not) for a while.  It's tough to be in that situation, but it's fun to figure out how to stay alive just one more turn.  Not only that, I got to play big splashy cards and even activate Cosmic Cube.  It's also great to watch your friends pull out big moments like winning off of Avengers Assemble that turn.
• It is good and fun to be dragged down to earth amidst your own hubris. 

Happy Magicking, whether you go 0-3 or 3-0!