Repack Draft with Real Packaging! WUBRG Drafting

I ran another free draft last night with the repacks I've made.  One of my Christmas gifts was little bags for the packs, so for the first time things looked really good. 

The bags look awesome!

These packs were built mostly from a huge mess of cards that were donated to me nearly a decade ago by some students.  I decided to pay that forward to future students by repacking the cards into packs and running drafts with them.  

I sorted those cards by color to keep packs balanced.  My recipe for packs is: 2 cards of each color, 2 multi-colored cards, 1 artifact, 1 non-basic land, and 1 card from a mix of spells (not land).  Last year a nice IT person here donated an EDH-sized deck box full of bulk rares to the effort, so I've been including those in the place of that last any-spell-card.  (These definitely make things more fun!)

We had seven people last night.  Since we had an odd number, we did single-game matches.  (When we do this, we add that the first mulligan is free.)  Benefits:

• Matches go fast, so we keep the rounds unorganized.  When you finish your game/match, one of you gets matched up with the person who is waiting and you immediately start.  (It's best to prioritize whoever has played fewer matches so far.)  If all three of you have already played each other, then just wait for other matches to end.  (I did have a method for timing games, but I haven't done that in a long while.)  The benefit here is that a person who is waiting to play doesn't usually have to wait very long.
  
• It's more casual, because there isn't the intensity that can come in a best-of-three match.  (This is probably pretty subjective.)  It seems to be really good for newer players.
• You get to play against more people during the draft.  I am a big fan of this.

I do completely understand players who appreciate best-of-three matches more.  I have nothing against that opinion!  For in-store events, I feel the same way.  

I drafted WUBRG pretty aggressively, taking dual lands and land-cyclers as early picks.  I felt really good reviewing all my picks:

Left-to-right, bottom-to-top, as always.

I decided not to run the Sphere of Safety, and I think that was a fine choice.  After I got Krosan Drover, I went heavier into the land cyclers (getting five from Scourge!) and also grabbed that super-late Boros Battleshaper in pack 2, which won me multiple games.  (Seriously, that card was a house!  In the best situation, it's a 3-for-1: it's a big creature, keeps another out of combat, and forces yet another into the meat grinder.) Here's the deck I ran:

The curve looks high, but many of those are land cyclers.

We managed to get all of our matches in!  I was first paired up against an Izzet opponent.  I had to fight through some control, but once Boros Battleshaper hit, I was in control.  1-0

In the second round, I faced off against a Selesnya deck.  They got a bit stuck on having multiple copies of Steel Leaf Paladin in hand, but couldn't keep any of their smaller creatures on the board in order to have one to bounce.  I was able to finish them off before they could get a single one to stick.  2-0

In the third round, I was up against a Rakdos deck.  I didn't hit my land drops and couldn't get enough out to hold off a horde of smaller critters.  2-1

In the fourth round, I faced off against the player who drafted Triskaidekaphobia, a card which had already won them one game and lost them another!  They got it down near the end, but I was not near 13 and I had enough creatures to win.  They decided we would both lose one life when they were at one, so technically the card got a third kill.  3-1

In the fifth round, I was up against a neat Orzhov deck with lots of removal and little utility creatures: Samite Pilgrim and Kabuto Moth among them.  I went down to 1, but I got those taken care of with good combat and Razorfin Hunter.  I brought out Boros Battleshaper, and overwhelmed the board.  4-1

I need to point out that during this fifth round, my match was not the exciting one.  The Triskaidekaphobia player was facing who would be my final opponent.  That opponent played Doom Foretold and it came down to whether the phobia would be sacrificed before it could earn another win.  It did not.  Triskaidekaphobia killed four players!

I went into my game feeling quite confident.  My opponent was also on Orzhov, and was 0-5.  Everyone else was rooting for them, to force a 4-way 4-2 tie (all other games had finished).  I started off real bad.  Doom Foretold came out early and I was low on land.  I think I took six hits from Harvest Gwyllion before I managed to turn the tide and my opponent had to sac the Doom to itself to have an appreciable board state.  I went down to 5 and started hitting back with some fliers.  Boros Battleshaper came down again and I got greedy.  I attacked with too many creatures with what I thought was enough to block.  My opponent happily played Lead Astray on their turn, followed by what I think was Coordinated Charge to kill me with their two attackers.  4-2

What a great event!  I had a blast and I hope I get to do more of these!

Ravnica Remastered: WUBRG Drafting

I loved drafting Ravnica (RGD) block.  I was pretty good with Return to Ravnica (RGD2).  I got in a lot of Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance drafts and did quite well.  Ravnica Remastered?  I got this.

Or not, because I went 1-2.

I went into the draft knowing next to nothing about the set.  (I still feel that way.)  In the first pack, I saw a lot of gates going around, both in the new and old borders.  So... I didn't worry about taking them.  Unfortunately that strategy didn't pay off as they were scarcer in the second and third packs.  I managed to get 7, but I really needed more.  Here were my picks:

Packs left-to-right, picks front to back, as usual.

I was so excited to see that Gate Colossus in pack 3!  My normal rare-drafting tendencies went out the window.  I was not bummed to see a dearth of gates-matters cards, as that made 5-color drafting tricky in Ravnica Block #3, but I should have known that it wouldn't be enough.

Here's what I would try if I were drafting this again.  And... this might only change my picks slightly.

• More gates.  As always, you're always going to run the dual lands you get.  That card is definitely going to make the cut.
• Get those XXYY-cost creatures.  The cycle is so good.  They're hard to cast, but if you take enough gates, you should be able to make it happen a lot of the time.
• There's lots of removal in this set.  It's good.

Here's the deck I ran.  (I did make some sideboard changes in rounds 2 and 3.)

I took this photo long after the event.  Missing is a Blind Obedience I traded.

In my first round, I faced off against an Izzet deck that was a bit low on spells.  (I think they said their deck was split 20 spells/20 lands.)  I was able to capitalize on that, though the second game was nearly lost because they threw out an overloaded Cyclonic Rift.  I rebuilt my board as fast as I could and got in for the last damage, but it was definitely close at the end.  

In the second round, I was up against Tristan, who is becoming quite the blockade for my decks.  He had a Rakdos deck with a white splash for one or two Blind Hunters, which is a card that did a lot of work for me back in Guildpact.  His deck was quite fast.  I lost game 1, but Blind Obedience stymied his assualt and helped me outvalue to win game 2. (Extort is real good.)  In game 3, I was trampled again.

In the third round I faced a strong Dimir deck with loads of good removal, especially multiple Undercity Embraces, when I always had only one creature.  My opponent never gained the life off of it, but it didn't matter and I lost in two or three games.  (I don't remember for certain.)

I don't think my deck underperformed.  I think I underperformed.  In the drafting stage.  I got stuck without the necessary colors multiple times.  (I think this is the first draft where my friend, JC, would have said 5 colors caught up to me.  He would be very happy.)  Of course, it's possible that my plan above would be equally bad, with the XXYY spells often being just as unplayable.  

However, this is a remastered set.  So... I'll probably never get the chance to draft it again.  Which is too bad, because it is really fun.  I like that you're mixing all the guild mechanics together from the last two decades, e.g. Haunt + Extort + Afterlife.  It is perhaps the most fun Ravnica draft format ever.  Even if I'm bad at it.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty: WUBRG Drafting

I love it when stores draft old sets.  I certainly not at all tired with Lost Caverns of Ixalan; I haven't been out to draft it much.  Still, I'm happy to visit old stuff.

Especially since I don't think I'd drafted Neon Dynasty before!  Wow!  Here's what I picked.  First pack on the left, picks from first in front to last in the pack at the back.

Sometimes I didn't feel like reading and just grabbed the pretty land instead. 

Some useful WUBRG drafting notes:  (I am probably the only one who looks at these, but that's good enough.)

• I really don't know this set well.  There were many cards I was reading for the first time.
• I figured out in my second pick that I should be doing 5-color Shrines.  I think that one or two other people were taking shrines, so I only got these four (2x Shared Purpose, 1x Lost Wisdom, and 1x Ancient Wars) plus two Shrine Stewards.  I think I got two or more shrines every game except for one.
• I was so happy to see all the refuges.  I was very underwhelmed by Uncharted Haven, though I did run one and it came in use multiple times.  Don't be afraid to grab it.  It gets the job done.  
• There isn't a cycle of basic land cyclers like in more recent sets, but there is essentially one in white: Sunblade Samurai, with a life gain upside.  
• Greater Tanuki is excellent.  I wish I had got more than just one.  
• Ecologist's Terrarium is great.  

I think I should have come back and modified my deck, but here's what I started with, and I didn't bother to change it throughout the night:  (Please point out where you think I made mistakes!)

I never saw the flying turtle nor the flying fish!

In the first round I was playing against an Abzan deck who unfortunately got quite mana screwed.  I had a slow start, so they had the chance to get in to the game, but I out valued them with shrines both time and won the first two games.  We finished pretty quick, so we played two more games, trading wins, I think. 

In the second round I was matched up against a fast Gruul deck.  In one of the games they got stuck on two lands for a long time, but still managed to hold me off with Bamboo Grove Archer, Jukai Trainee, and some combat tricks.  I managed to get the upper hand, then they cast Invoke the Ancients.  I had an amazing response to that in hand, thankfully: Hidetsugu Consumes All.  This match didn't seem to last longer, but we were the last ones playing.  I won 2-0.  

In the third round I got flooded.  I don't say this as an excuse for losing both games, but as a note to future me not to keep lots-of-land hands, even if they have all my colors.  It is way too common for me to draw land the first three turns when I already have plenty.  My opponent was a strong and fun opponent who had drafted a Rakdos deck with lost of low-cost creatures and flip-sagas, which got a lot of value.  I got overrun, though I put up a pretty good fight in game 1.  Game 2 was short, and deservedly so.  My Inkrise Infiltrator held out as long as it could, but I just kept drawing land.   

Some other cards that were just great for me:

• Roaring Earth, which I'd drafted before in a chaos draft.  Either great early value or another creature later.
• Gravelighter is so cool.  I don't think I've even seen this card before.  
• I felt like my opponents misplayed against Kappa Tech-Wrecker.  I got way more value out of this card the two times it showed up than I should have. 
   

Most importantly, perhaps, is that I particpated in the Wheel of Fate, a cool thing that Intergalactic Plastic does.  When they are running Wheel of Fate events, you can pay an additional $5 to participate.  Then, whenever you finish a game during the event, win or lose, you get to spin the wheel, for up to five spins.  At a draft like this, so long as you don't get a bye, you're going to play at least six games, so you're good.  (The store is pretty good at avoiding the bye by including staff if there's an odd number.)  It seems like you don't need to spin during the actual event either; I think that if you played an EDH game before or after the event you could also count that for a spin.  They want you to get to the five spins.

It is too small to be a Wheel of Fish, thankfully.

I spun the following prizes:

• Promo: some random promo cards.  (I got the one at the top that looks like "Prom".)
• Snack: I chose a Slim Jim.
• $3 card
• $3 card.  I got to combine these into $6 towards singles.
• Drink, which I didn't redeem.

This was very fun!  I will probably do this next time it's happening during the draft!

Lost Caverns of Ixalan: WUBRG Drafting

I made it to an LCI draft!  This is a great set to draft a bunch of colors, and it's not because of the land, but because of the most recent trend in new magic sets: a cycle of basic land cyclers.  

To be fair, I had forgotten about the five new land cycling dinosaurs.  When I noticed them in the packs, I knew I had a chance.  Here were my picks:

Yeah, I started with dinosaurs right off the bat.

With these cards, I built the following deck:

The blank sleeve is for a Forgotten Monument that I traded right after the draft.

Getting the mana was a bit tough because I somehow managed to only draft the white discover lands.  I would have really liked to get some in other colors!

In my first round, I was matched up against someone who was playing for the second time.  Nevertheless, she had managed to draft a competent Golgari deck.  I won the first game.  Time got called during the second, but I still won a few turns in.  There were dicey moments in both games, so it was quite exciting.

In my second round, I was up against Boros with lots of crafting, including a splash of blue for two Master's Guide Murals.  I put up a good fight, but I got out-valued, and lost both games.

There was no third round.  The draft had gotten started late and the store needed to close.  I was left desiring more, but knowing full-well that I probably won't get another chance for a LCI draft before the format rotates.  Such is the holiday season! 

I really think that focusing on three things can make LCI WUBRG drafting work:

• Grab the land cyclers.
• Grab other useful low-cost spells.
• Grab the discover lands.

I also really appreciate how basic land cyclers are more common in packs.  I hope this trend continues and that future chaos drafts will be full of them.

The One Ring Remains Hidden in Chaos: WUBRG Drafting

I managed a nice little chaos draft on a Sunday afternoon.  I followed my own advice from last time (and Logan did too) and opened Ixalan first.  (Ace actually mentioned that if you open March of the Machines, you have a higher probability of getting a Companion... I will definitely be keeping that in mind!)  

Here's what we opened.  (I picked the same three packs as last time.  I have fallen into a chaos rut.)

Lost Caverns of Ixalan has its pre-release at the end of this week, so people wanted to open some old Ixalan.

I did not get a companion to build around this time, sadly.  Nevertheless, I got passed a bunch of cards that seemed great for five colors; I didn't have to make many very hard picks.  Then, however, in the third pack, I opened one of the most valuable cards I've opened in a draft: The One Ring.  Here are all my picks:

Immediately in a sleeve.

I had plenty of non-basic lands this time around.  I quickly built this deck. (I needed all the islands in order to have any chance to cast Invoke the Winds.) 

 

With an odd number of people, I prefer to do single-game rounds and see how many people we can each match up with.  We managed to get all 10 matches in!

In the first round, I was up against a first-time drafter running a well-built Golgari deck.  The game was running pretty even, with creatures dying on both sides evenly.  I spent a turn getting Sharknado down, then got played Vivisurgeon's Insight the following turn to get my 5/5 Flying Shark.

The Infinitokens got a work out today!

See that Rise of the Witch-King in the picture?  It killed my Shark immediately and gave my opponent a big beatstick back from the yard.  Thankfully, the three cards I drew made the difference, and I popped out a bunch more creatures and overwhelmed them.  

These were all from that one game!

In game 2, I was matched up against a Temur value deck.  I started off by trading over and over again with Master of Death.  Nevertheless, I fell behind in the life totals quickly, but I felt like I was about to stabilize when I lost to a spell I can't remember that made my opponent's creatures unblockable that killed me at 5.

In game 3, I was matched against another first-time drafter piloting a Grixis deck.  Sadly, they got extremely mana flooded, even with a number of card draws.  I managed to overwhelm them before they could get into normal card mode.  I did draw The One Ring midway through the game, but I had enough cards in hand that it didn't seem necessary to play.

In game 4, I fought the only undefeated player at the table, playing a Boros Aggro Humans deck.  Perimeter Sergeant kept got on the board and kept getting past my blockers, especially after Eowyn, Lady of Rohan came down and granted it first strike every turn.  I got some chump blockers in, trying to get something that would survive a flow from the Sergeant, but it kept getting bigger power with the help of equipment and counters.  I had a Chrome Courier made bigger by Lagrella. I got Wingspan Mentor down, but had to spend my man doing things other than activating it.  Finally I got Sharknado again, which meant fliers and blockers to keep things in check.  I think I was able to win two turns later.

I went 3-1 and with that win had a three-way draw with the Boros and Temur players.  I guess that is a downside of single-game rounds: the lack of tiebreakers.  

This was a super fun draft!  All the decks seemed really good, and I escaped just barely.  (I won one of the games at 1 life... but I don't remember which one it was.  I'm sure someone will remind me.  In the future, there'll probably be an update after this.)

Chaos to 60 Cards: WUBRG Drafting

Open the Ikoria pack first.  Open the Ikoria pack first.  Open the Ikoria pack first...

I held a four-person chaos draft last night.  It went really well, but I need to learn an important lesson: Open the Ikoria pack first.

Here are the packs we opened.  Thanks to Matt for venturing all the way back to Dragon's Maze!

I got pretty lucky, because I lost a lot of dual lands to the other drafters early on, especially in pack 1.  That is usually the worst thing for me, but in this case, it turned out to be great.  I got fewer dual lands, instead got some higher spell picks, and that helped me in all of my games.  I needed nearly every spell I could get.  And it's all because of Ikoria.

Here are my picks.  If you look at the first card I picked in the second pack, you'll see that I needed to pump the brakes on dual lands and focus on as many spells as possible.  (First pack is on the left, picks go from front to back.) 

Right... companions.

Yorion called out a challenge to me and I took them up on it.  Thankfully that was the first card of pack 2 so I had barely enough time to draft the spells to play a 60-card deck.  If I had opened Ikoria third or if my table had passed me more dual lands in pack 1, I might have been stuck with some real bad cards.  I even pushed it a little bit and took the fancy Kamigawa island instead of a spell midway through pack 2.  As it is, I ran 35 of the 39 spells I drafted, not including Yorion.  My sideboard only had 3 spells!  (I really wanted to run Goblin Test Pilot, but I just didn't think it was good enough.)

I also got lucky because I got passed a bunch of removal.  Red was underdrafted at the table, and I was able to grab Voltage Surge, Fires of Victory, and Foray of Orcs all pretty late.  I think I undervalued Foundry Helix; I probably should have run that too.

Here's the deck I ran:

So many cards!

We got a bit of a late start, so we only got to play about half of the games.  We finished round 1 and then played one game in round 2.

My first match was against a strong Golgari deck with a bit of graveyard recursion.  Both games were wars of attrition.  In the first game, removal on both sides kept big creatures off of the board for the most part.  I tried to remove Glissa, Sunslayer with a kicked Fires of Victory during combat, only for Bombadil's Song to not only keep Glissa alive, but fizzle the Fires, negating my draw.  They drew off the combat damage for an effective 3-for-1 play.  I luckily had Fog on the Barrow-Downs in my hand, which stuck for the rest of the game.  I forced a good trade with Efreet Flamepainter and managed to pull ahead with Yorion's help.  

In game 2, I mulliganed down to 5, but got really lucky on my draws.  Jelenn Sphinx came out, but got Possessed Sinisterly, so I kept off the attacks for a while.  Once I had a chance to get Yorion out, the Sinister Possession came off the sphinx and I was able to attack and force some trades, all while Smeagol, Helpful Guide was out.  I gave the sphinx the ring and once I was twice-tempted, I got to start looting, which put me on top enough to win the game.

We only had time for one game of round 2, where I was matched up against a brutal Esper deck with lots of menace.  Thankfully my removal all showed up.  Foray of Orcs, Deal Gone Bad, and Immolation all picked off targets, with a Fire Prophecy waiting in the wings when I swung out for lethal.  

I got real lucky last night, but I'm really glad I took up Yorion's challenge!

Looking Back: Homelands Draft on Nov 20, 2017

Just about six years ago, a student of mine decided to hold a Homelands draft.  They bought a box online (it was much cheaper than the $500+ they are now), got 8 people together, split the cost, and we drafted the box.   

My student wanted to draft this set specifically because the cards are considered to be quite bad.  In 2017, Didgeridoo was the most valuable card in the set, coming in around $5.  (Our draft happened just after the little spike that appears at the end of 2017.)  Today the individual cards are worth about twice as much.  Many of the "chase" cards experienced a big bump in the beginning of 2021, but have settled down.  (At the time of Homeland's release, I remember a lot of excitement around Autumn Willow, the first creature with base Shroud.  Deep Swawn can get shroud and Svyelunite Priest can grant it to something else.)

Homelands was released in 1995; the "36 packs of 15 cards in a box" hadn't become a standard for boosters yet.  Instead, for Homelands, they tried 60 packs of 8 cards each.  (Also, when 3-set blocks became normal, Homelands was considered the second set of the Ice Age block, followed by Alliances.  When Coldsnap was released in 2006, the "block" was reconfigured to be Ice Age/Alliances/Coldsnap.)  We each got 6 packs and drafted them individually.  

I took a few photos of packs I opened.  Serrated Arrows was the right pick in the second pack. 

I didn't draft WUBRG.  I can't remember whether it was because I kept seeing good red cards, or because I didn't see many of the (bad) Homelands tri-color lands.   Looking back, I wish I had tried harder!  That could have been more fun if I saw enough of the lands.

I can't complain about how the draft went, though!  I knew the value of Serrated Arrows, having played with it in 1995, and again in Time Spiral block limited.  They kept coming around, so I kept grabbing them.  I also saw lots of Anaba Shaman, so I got them as well.  I don't have a photo of all the cards I drafted, but I do have a shot of the 23 cards that I think made up my deck:

I went 3-0 quite easily.  I kept nearly every other threat out of the game with direct damage and arrows. 

My opponents' creatures were like the Teen Girl Squad.

I think I won every game, but I'm not certain.  I do remember that I was helped by terrible draws for my opponents.  My MVP was absolutely the three copies of Serrated Arrows.  

It was really fun to play in this draft.  If I had the chance, I would probably do it again, but maybe not at the current cost of the box.  (It would probably cost at least $70 per person now.)  I would really like a chance to draft WUBRG in Homelands, though.  (I would still first-pick Serrated Arrows.)