No Repeats Chaos Draft (WUBRG drafting)

I chaos drafted with some friends today.  The best part: we didn't open any two of the same pack.  Here's what we opened:

Am I getting too predictable in my pack choices?

The drafting started really well.  Three dual lands came around easily and I grabbed them, and I expected to get more.  Somehow I didn't keep my eyes open for other modes of mana fixing, and that cost me in the end.  I often had unplayable cards in my hand because of one or two missing colors.  I really dropped the ball there.  

The atmosphere was excellent, however.  The experienced player to my right opened the Mystery Booster second so that they would pass to the right, towards the younger players.  They were smart enough to know that I would have a hard time resisting the playtest card and wanted the younger players to have a chance to see and play with it.  (It worked; they took it.)

After three packs, here's what my picks looked like: 

As always, these are left-to-right, front-to-back.

 

You may notice that I got a single Tales of Middle Earth card, but the remainder of the picks are only from Wilds of Eldraine, Brothers' War, and Strixhaven.  That's because the player to my right pulled the trigger on his Agent of Acquisitions to claim the rest of the Tales pack.  

Nevertheless, this was a really fun draft deck, mostly because I got really lucky during the drafting:

1. General's Enforcer tabled a few times and I grabbed it because I like to run multi-colored things.
2. In pack 2, I saw Halana and Alena, Partners and Errant and Giada.  I was very excited about the cross-set synergy.
3. Finally, in pack 3, I opened War of the Last Alliance then immediately saw Greta and Loran.  Together with the Ognis I had already found, I was ready for my legendary tribal deck to go off.
   

Here's what the deck looked like:

Only three non-basics, and only in three colors.  Who am I?

I don't think I made the best choices for the deck, but I never went back and fixed it because the games just kept going and it was too fun to play.

In the first round, I was up against Gruul aggro, which went very smoothly.  They played some nice mana-fixing rocks and I sat with dead cards in my hand for most of the two games I lost.  I put up a fight in game two, but it wasn't enough.  In the first game, I actually thought I had a chance to come back from 1 life after I played a Bloodfell Caves, went up to 2, and had enough to win on blocks against everyone but a 1-power attacker.  The caves would have given me enough fixing to run stuff out.  Unfortunately, my opponent had removal and that was that.  0-1.

In the second round, I faced an aggressive Orzhov deck that also put me on the ropes early.  Once again I was stuck with dead cards in my hand and I lost in two games.  In both games I had trouble dealing with Black Knight's protection from white. 0-2.

In the third round I played against a slick Simic deck with a neat balance of aggro and control.  (Is that what midrange means?)  I lucked out in both games, however, and managed to get my legendary human gang moving with General's Enforcer.  

Greta also combos well with Meticulous Excavation

After Greta, Errant and Giada and Halana and Alena both came down in excellent fashion.  I ground out two wins, but neither of them were easy.  1-2.

This was an amazing draft!  I loved going through cards from 12 different sets, and it was even more amazing with the inclusion of a Mystery Booster.  I would love to do this again, even it meant another 1-2 showing!

Chaos Draft: Unfinity in the Mix (WUBRG Drafting)

I got to run a little chaos draft on Saturday with three other people.  I thought I was in real trouble because I didn't take enough lands.  As it turns out, I got lucky enough that it worked out anyways.  

Here's what we drafted:

Nine different sets in twelve packs, pretty good.

Yes, there are three Unfinity packs, all taken by the same person.  This brought up some unexpected rules questions that we had to decide on the spot, because the normal Unfinity draft rules don't work very well.  Here's what doesn't really work and what we decided to do, mid-draft:

• Attractions.  
• Normal, official rule: "If you want to use Attractions in Limited formats (Booster Draft and Sealed Deck), your Attraction deck must contain at least three Attraction cards and may contain duplicates. In Booster Draft specifically, Attractions are drafted like other cards in the booster pack. If you don't draft at least three Attraction cards, you won't be able to use an Attraction deck."
• We just had to straight up ignore this rule.  If you only drafted one or two Attractions, that's enough for a deck.  If you manage to get some awesome combo out of that, then good for you.
• Stickers:
• Normal, official rule: "In Booster Draft events, sticker sheets aren't drafted. After you open an Unfinity booster pack, remove the sticker sheet before drafting any cards. Each game, choose up to three sticker sheets from among the ones you opened. Again, you can use the same ones each game or switch it up."
• This really wouldn't work, because then only the player who opened Unfinity would get access to stickers.  In this case, it would highly incentivize everyone to open at least one Unfinity pack, which would make the draft a bit less chaotic.  
  
• Instead, we put all the sticker cards in a collective pile and agreed that when someone did an action with stickers, they could browse through the cards and choose any of the available stickers. 
   

Those rules seemed to sit well with everyone, and they worked out just fine during play.  (I had one sticker-relevant card, and I just ignored it's effect, mostly because I didn't have many tickets.

Here's what I pulled in the draft:

Left-to-right, front-to-back, as normal.

I failed to pull any Open an Attraction cards, so those Attractions were useless.  The biggest problem here is the lack of lands.  I did not get enough dual lands.  I had to resort to pulling non-land fixing, like the Nervous Gardener and Wose Pathfinder.  Both of those are good cards, but I don't know that I would have taken them as early as I did.  

Another thing I worked for was 6-mana spells to combo with the Imoti that I grabbed second overall.  I tried very hard to get more, but there just weren't that many.

Cutting was tough.  Here's the deck that I ran with:

Two white and two red mana-producing lands was tough to look at.

 

Since I didn't have enough mana-fixing lands, I planned early on to revert to my strategy of choosing to be on the draw instead of the play whenever I got to pick.

In the first round, I was up against a Temur value deck.  Both games were a big comeback for me, as I took an early beating, then managed to claw my way back into the game.  (I think my wins were at 5 and 6 life, respectively.)  Turn 2 suspending of Gargadon seemed really good, except my opponent just held on to an Essence Scatter to deal with it.  In the first game, a pair of Swiftfoot Boots kept me on my heels and my removal in my hand.  I had to get a big board down before I could finally safely start to hit back.  In the second game, he had a great combo with the new Krenko and Floodhound.  Each turn he was gaining a hasty goblin and either drawing a card or putting counters on all his creatures.  I thankfully managed to keep the numbers of goblins down and cast Rune-Brand Juggler the turn before Krenko went to a 5/5.  Unfortunately, on their next turn, I couldn't activate the juggler because I needed to use Artistic Refusal to counter a new threat and Krenko went up to 6/6.  I was able to kill it the next turn in combat with the juggler and Iridescent Blademaster, and then turned the tables for the eventual win.

In the second round, I fought an Orzhov deck with very efficient creatures.  I won the first game decisively, but the second was one of the best limited games I've played in a while.  My main adversary was the card Wispdrinker Vampire, which paired well with nearly every single creature he cast.  He also had a Concordia Pegasus that became his ringbearer, making it unblockable.  I dropped to seven life, then drew into Six-Sided Die.  I was ready to use it to kill the vampire when he attacked next, since I had a Glitterflitter ready to block.  Instead of swinging in full, which would have killed me without my trick, he saw the card in my hand and just hit with the pegasus. I kept saving the Six-Sided Die for combat, worried that I wouldn't roll above a  to kill the Wispdrinker.  I started to swing back on the ground with the Blademaster and enough mana for two activations, finally bringing him below 20.  (He had gained a lot off the Wispdrinker.) 

Finally I got a Doom Blade to deal with the pegasus, after going down to 2 life.  He played another little creature, and the Wispdrinker trigger put me to 1.  I had no choice and had to use the Six-Sided Die (I should have responded to the spell with it).  I rolled a 5.  Byebye, vampire!  After that the tide turned quickly.  I got a few more very useful creatures and the Iridescent Blademaster along with Wose Pathfinder were able to push through the blocks for the second win.  What an amazing game!  

In the third round, I made some big hand-decision errors.  In the first game I kept a land that I thought had a forest but didn't.  Oops!  I died shortly thereafter.  In game 2, I had Bant land in my hand, then drew into a bunch of Rakdos creatures.  I did get a Treasure token off of Jewel-Eyed Cobra, but I had to use it right away as an eighth mana to pump up Iridescent Blademaster.  I died but put up a fight and got my opponent to 7.  I finally suffered the pain of trying to run five colors.  (That doesn't mean I'll stop!)

2-1.  Another excellent chaos draft in the books!

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.)