Avatar: The Last Airbender Draft, Round 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

My FLGS, Intergalactic Plastic, held their first Avatar draft and I got to go!  This is usually the most critical event of a new product cycle for me.  I like drafting significantly more than sealed, and if a set is either not popular or really popular, this may be my only chance to draft it for a long time.  If it's not popular, then people might not show up for the second week (e.g. Aetherdrift).  If it's too popular, they might be sold out by that second week (e.g. Final Fantasy).  So, I was really glad I got to go!

I sat down to draft in a pod of nine people.  This is a real good amount for WUBRG drafting; you usually want to be sitting with more people.  Nine to eleven is real good.  (Once you hit twelve, most places will split it into two pods of six.)  We did something I've never seen before: we put the tables into a T-shape and drafted that way.

The best faceless photo I could get before people sat down.

This worked great!  Three people sat along the top of the T and three each on either side of the stem of the T.  It was a little awkward because the people on the sides of the top of the T would be staring right at someone from the side while they were drafting.  (I was one of those people, though, and I didn't see anything I shouldn't.)  

The nine people were all regulars aside from one visitor in town for a Pickleball tournament!  There was a lot of table talk and the newcomer seemed cool with it.  Sadly, I didn't get to play against them, but I loved that they were spending their downtime checking out the local magic scene!  (I don't usually get to draft while I'm traveling.)  

Here are a bunch of things that happened while drafting:

• I took Elemental Teachings early, thinking "Oh look, color fixing," but didn't run it.  I'm not sure this is any good in draft for WUBRG.  If you're looking for a specific color, you need to have at least three lands with different names that produce that color, otherwise your opponent can force any you need into the bin.  Has anyone had better luck with this?  I would rather have a Cycle of Renewal.  
• I half-heartedly went for Shrines.  I only noticed the four that I picked.  They were pretty good, but not good enough for the mana cost.  Is it likely that you'd see more than four in a draft with nine people?  I don't know.  I did get "lucky" in that I passed on the Southern Air Temple in the last pack and it came all the way back around.  
• I often chose landcyclers over dual lands.  I was really excited when I completed the cycler-cycle midway through pack two.  Somehow I still managed to get a good slate of dual lands anyways.  Maybe this is the right way to treat these kinds of sets!  Unfortunately, I also picked them over removal which I was lacking in my pool in the end.

Here's everything I picked:

Let's go Earthen Ally!  I feel like there's a hidden meaning if you're a Rainbow-compatible ally. :)

I didn't have the right cards to run my first pick, the Phoenix Fleet Airship.  Looking back, a food/clue-based build would work.  I didn't do that.  Instead, here's the deck I built:

Dear Rival, does this count as five-color-shrines, or just five-color-soup?

This build has only sixteen lands.  I actually started with fifteen, because of the six landcyclers, but I think that sixteen was probably better.  I had four mana-fixing lands, the six landcyclers, the Great Divide Guide, Energybending, and Cycle of Renewal.  Energybending was not great; every time I cast it, I was just cycling it and not using it to mana fix at all.  

I started off matched up against an opponent running "Gruul Grind".  I kept a bad hand, but I drew into fixing that saved me.  On my fifth turn, I played Earthen Ally, but he was hit immediately by Combustion Technique.  I followed that up with Giant Koi, who was facing down Suki, Kyoshi Warrior, a 1/1 ally token, and (I think) two 2/2 earth-bent lands.  They played Foggy Swamp Vinebender and a Secret Tunnel and a few turns later started used it to hit me for nine unblockable damage, putting me to eight.  I had to drop Meteor Sword the next turn as land destruction.  My opponent played Combustion Man the next turn.  They then went all in for a big attack, targeting my big fish with the Combustion Man.  I took the damage and then blocked what I could, soaking only one more in the end to go to 3.  My opponent tapped out to add a counter to their Vinebender.  I had not damaged my opponent at all, but I took a quick look at my board state and counted exactly twenty.  I equipped the Meteor Sword and swung out to win from what seemed like out of nowhere.  

In game two, I got the Great Divide Guide out on the second turn.  On the next turn, my opponent Rockalanched their Secret Tunnel.  I got Fire Lord Zuko out, which they overmatched with Suki.  I played Southern Air Temple, followed by Northern Air Temple on the next turn.  Unfortunately, in between those turns, they Earthbending Lesson-ed their Secret Tunnel, resulting in a 5/5 unblockable creature.  I attacked for eight, but they killed my guide with Earth Rumble and finished me off two turns later.  

The third game got real exciting.  I pulled off a cool first turn with White Lotus Hideout into the Northern Air Temple.  My opponent got the Secret Tunnel out right away again, but then got stuck on two lands until turn five.  I didn't get to take notes that were quite as good this time, as we were moving quite quickly, but we went to time.  On time-turn 1, I cast Spirit Water Revival waterbent (seriously, that card is great with the landcyclers) hoping to draw into things I could play on turn 3 to attack and win with on turn 5.  On time-turn 3, I played Dai Li Agents and War Balloon.  I had built up four counters on my Airbender Ascension, so I got to flicker Dai Li Agents and double the number of man-lands I was in charge of.  On time-turn 5, I attacked to win...

Here's everything, with some free glare!

See that Pillar Launch on the top left?  That kept my opponent from dying to the War Balloon.  It was the one and only card in their hand.  0-0-1.

In the second round, I was up against Rakdos Facestealing.  In the first game my opponent got mana flooded and I thought that could give me the edge.  Instead it meant they played Rough Rhino Cavalry on turn five, then played Koh and stole my Fire Lord Zuko's face.  On their next attack, Zuko-faced Koh provided six red mana while firebending, so they exhausted the cavalry with only firebent mana.  I tried to get in once with Earthen Ally, but they played Fire Nation Attacks and killed it.  

In the second game, they played both Mai and Ty Lee, Artful Acrobat, but I was doing pretty good.  I used Meteor Sword to kill Ty Lee (I think) and get the advantage on the board.  They played Koh the next turn.

Bye bye, Mongoose Lizard.

I dragged the game out a bit by blocking Koh with spirits from Realm of Koh, but it wasn't enough to keep me alive.  0-1-1.

In the third round, I was paired up against "Simic Venerables" with pseudo-commanders Gran-Gran and Uncle Iroh.  In the first game, they played Gran-Gran on turn 1 and I didn't have a blocker (Great Divide Guide) until turn three.  We both built up a huge board but I got behind on land a bit.  That mattered because they played The Legend of Kuruk and flipped it two turns before I could hit it with Meteor Sword.   They got some of the shadowy spirits out and then played Flopsie.  I didn't have any spirits to block with and died.  This game came close to the end as they only had five cards left in their library.

In game two I got three temples out and had Fire Lord Zuko plus Airbender Ascension.  I was going to start attacking in for real damage...

Those monks are looking real good here!

... but then Flopsie came down again and put a damper on that.  Giant Koi swung in unblockably four times to kill me.  0-2-1.

I only won one game all night.  Only three of the games were really competitive.  All of my games were fun, though.  (I hope my round two opponent didn't mind my over-dramatic comments about getting my face stolen.  I think I'm hilarious.)  I think there's a lot of unexplored space for five colors here!  I do think I wouldn't bother taking Energybending next time, though.  

This really damaged my overall Avatar: TLA draft record, which is now 2-3-1.

Happy Magicbending!

Avatar: The Last Airbender Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

It's prerelease weekend, but those events are Friday and Sunday at my Friendly Local Game Store, so I got three friends over for a short-notice Avatar draft on the Saturday between.  I didn't prep by looking at cards ahead of time, but I quickly learned what to look when WUBRG drafting:

• There are landcyclers in each color.   
• There are common duals in each color pair.  There are also some filter lands you should be on the lookout for.
• There are three lessons (two in green) that search up basics.  
• I got Hermitic Herbalist and I'm sure there are other good mana dorks. 

I think there are a few five-color fauxchetypes (faux + archtypes) you can shoot for:

• Shrines.
• Enters-triggers (synergizes with airbending)
• Leaves-triggers (also synergizes with airbending) 

I drafted pretty well, even considering that I got distracted plenty by some fancy-looking cards.  I got Diligent Zookeeper early and kept my eye out for non-humans to grab from time to time.  Here are all of my picks:

Aang!

 

I made a few changes over the course of the games.  Here's the deck I wound up with, though I didn't start with Spirit Water Revival in the first game and I tried to force Suki, Courageous Rescuer when I probably shouldn't have:

We attempted to complete the round robin, but didn't quite make it happen that night.  I started off against a relatively new drafter who was running an aggressive Rakdos deck packed full of removal.  They seemed to be having some trouble getting enough land in a bunch of games.  In our first, they were stuck on two land until turn five.  Nevertheless, they curved into Callous Inspector and Corrupt Court Official.  I fell back a bit until I got Appa, Steadfast Guardian out.  I attacked the next turn and dropped Twin Blades to hit for eight.  My opponent killed Appa the next turn with Barrels of Blasting Jelly.  Shortly after that, however, I drew into Hama, which got me the Barrels, which I used to kill a Rough Rhino Cavalry.  I got Boiling Rock Rioter, which I used to fish Aang, Swift Savior from my graveyard and win.

In the second game, I had to mulligan twice.  Callous Inspector showed up on turn one again, followed by June, Bounty Hunter and then Vindictive Warden.  I thought I was going to catch up when I got down Iguana Parrot followed up by Diligent Zookeeper.  That let me get in once with the 5/5 lizard parrot, but my opponent committed a Heartless Act on it on their next turn.  They got a Rough Rhino down and activated it on the next turn to kill me.  

One player had to leave early and they finished their first match at this same time, so we delayed our third game and I switched off to round two.  This time I was matched up against a Jund deck with lots of earthbending.  In our first game, nothing happened until turn three when I played Long Feng, Grand Secretariat.  My opponent got out The Boulder and used Rocky Rebuke to kill Long Feng.  I got my first Mongoose Lizard out and took out The Boulder, only for my opponent to cast a second one.  My opponent swung out for a big attack, but I flashed Aang out, then untapped, flipped him, and attacked with my team for an unexpected 16 damage. 

In game two, the beginning was tough and I was facing down an Ostrich-Horse, Foggy Swamp Vinebender, and Badgermole after my opponent's fifth turn.  I had to trade a Cat-Owl with the Vinebender and then got Giant Koi down to stay alive.  It died to Allies at Last, but recovered with a Mongoose Lizard on the next turn.  The Boulder landed again, then Bumi with all three lessons.  

It's not looking good for Homestar Runner.

My opponent had the ability to earthbend a Foggy Bottom Swamp, so they did that, then sacrificed it to draw a card, which put it back on their board.  They knew they couldn't delay for too long or I would draw into something great.  They launched an all-out assault, which I survived thanks to two Ally tokens from Suki.  I was able to keep my Mongoose alive and then attack back on the next turn.  I played the Twin Blades and won off the extra pump from Suki.  1-0.

During that game, in the other match my first-round (Rakdos) opponent was having trouble with lands.  We asked how many lands they had, and they realized they had reversed the numbers, running 13 lands and 27 spells instead of 17 and 23.   I matched up with them to finish our round, now in danger from a fully-land-stocked deck.  I got Long Feng out on turn three, and then they got the Vindictive Warden out.  I played Suki on turn four, which looked threatening and got Sold Out.  The Callous Inspector came out late, which I followed with my Ostrich-Horse (with the counter), and they matched with Yuyan Archers.  I played my Zookeeper.  Before it hit the battlefield, they killed the Horse with a Lightning Strike.  Soon after, they traded the Zookeeper with the Warden and a combat trick.  Throughout all this, Long Feng got bigger and I kept getting in until they were down to six.  They left their Inspector untapped to block on the last turn, but I drew Hama and had seven mana, just enough to steal the Lightning Strike from their yard and clear the path for Long Feng.  2-0.  One of the reasons they didn't have enough late game options is that they got mana flooded.  

I didn't get my third round in that night, but I managed to make it happen on SpellTable the next day.  My opponent was playing Azorius Allies with Teo.  They had gone 0-2, but felt that if they could beat me, it would be a successful draft.  I think this person is my current rival!

In game one, I felt like I was doing great with Boiling Rock Rioter, but Teo came down and became a great draw engine.  Then they played Earth Kingdom Jailer, putting my Rioter into prison.  I got Long Feng down, which got targeted with Lost Days, but I responded by using Appa to airbend Long Feng.  I blocked on a big attack and got my Boiling Rock Rioter back, but went to 1 life.  That comboed real well with Appa, who had perished in combat.  I attacked, got Appa back, and also got an Ally token.  I got Aang down and transformed him and looked like I would be able to pull off the win, but I was slightly short on damage to win in one swing.  Unfortunately I didn't have any green mana sources and had Diligent Zookeeper in hand, who would have given me enough for the win.  Instead, my rival played Rowdy Snowballers to open a path to kill me.  

In game two, I got Aang, Cat-Owl, and the Boiling Rock Rioter all out by turn five.  That gave me enough to transform Aang on turn six.  They played Earth Kingdom Jailers on Aang & La and also played a First-Time Flyer.  I got smart with the Rioter and started attacking so I could exile the lessons to keep the Flyer smaller.   I cast Sold Out to kill the Jailers before an Enter the Avatar State could resolve.  With Aang back, I was able to transform him again and win. 

It can be excellent to watch the pieces of someone's deck come together.  (Warning: the rest of this paragraph is me reminiscing 20 years back.)  Many years ago I played a janky green-red standard land destruction deck at Your Move Games in Somerville.  It used Spellweaver Helix for repeatable destruction with Revive and sorceries like Stone Rain and Molten Rain.  I took it to a standard tournament, lost a bunch, and was finally winning a game.  When I had repeatable land destruction that had tied my opponent down, I asked if they wanted to concede.  They said no, they wanted to see my deck do its thing.  So I continued to destroy every land they played the turn after they played it.  They seemed genuinely interested in watching my deck destroy all their land.  

This final game was like that, except I wasn't kind on purpose.  My rivals turns went: Land, Air Nomad Legacy, Glider Kids, a second Air Nomad Legacy, and then Teo.  I think I was dead on turn seven.  2-1.

All in all, this was a great draft!  There are some really strong synergies across colors that you might not expect.  I am looking forward to drafting this set more!

Happy Magicking! 

Clue Magic for 5 with Jumpstart 2022 packs

A few weeks ago I had four friends over to try out the Clue magic format but using (non-Clue) Jumpstart packs.  We each opened two Jumpstart 2022 packs and sat down to play.  I got Merfolk and Fangs decks (and rolled to go first); player two (P2) got Think Again and Holy packs; player three (P3) got Law and Morbid; player four (P4) got Treasure and Rats; and player five (P5) was on Ferocious and Scrying.

We used a slightly different setup to play Clue with five players instead of the normal four.  After randomly choosing the solution cards without showing anyone, we removed three rooms (instead of two) to leave 15 cards.  That's divisible by the five players we had, so we each got exactly three cards.  The rooms we revealed to everyone were Ballroom, Billiard Room, and Study.  I was dealt the Candlestick, Wrench, and Lounge.

The Ravnica Clue packs are designed with lots of evasion, so that format runs with 30 life per player.  In my opinion, you want people to be making accusations when life totals are low.  We played with 25, assuming we wouldn't be able to deal enough damage with these packs for 30.  We weren't even close.  

I started off turn one with Triton Shorestalker, which I expected to be one of my MVPs in this format.  On turn two I attacked P2 and guessed Commander Mustard, Rope, and Conservatory.  They didn't have any of those cards and passed.  They hit me back, guessing Plum, Candlestick, and Dining Room.  I had the Candlestick, so I showed that and got a treasure for my troubles.  P5 also got in on me, guessing Peacock, Wrench, and Secret Passage, which I passed on.  

I attacked P5 back on my turn, guessing Scarlett, Pipe, and Hall, which they passed on.  At this point some of us were asking to be attacked because they wanted treasures!  That was a weird phenomenon that led to P2 attacking P3 on their turn with their Spectral Sailor.  They guessed Peacock, Wrench, and Secret Passage.  P3 showed them a card and took their treasure.  Wild!  

P3 turned around and hit P4 with a Kami of Ancient Law, guessing White, Rope, and Conservatory.  P4 also showed a card and picked up a treasure.  They paid it forward again, hitting P5 with a Burglar Rat and guessing Plum, Rope, and Dining Room.  Then they played Gadrak.  P5 continued the combat, and hit P3 and P4.  They guessed Green, Wrench, and Library and got the maximum amount of information; P3 passed, but P4 showed a card.  

All that was in the first three turns!  Tons of little bits of damage got in, sometimes willingly.  So much Clue-information had been spilled, for such small amounts of blood.  

On my fourth turn I kept the pressure on, getting in on both P2 and P3.  I guessed Scarlett, Rope, and Lounge, and P2 showed me the Headliner Scarlett card.  I then dropped Windrider Patrol to scare off would-be attackers.  

P2 was stuck on two land, but they got in on P4 and P5, guessing Plum, Rope, and Conservatory.  They were shown a card, I believe by P4.  P3 got through on me (I think they attacked with two creatures) and guessed White, Knife, and Kitchen, which I passed on.   Then they cast Tragic Slip on Gadrak, which everyone seemed to be afraid of.  P4 attacked anyways, hitting P3 for one damage and guessed Mustard, Pipe, and Hall.  P3 showed him one of those three cards.  P5 then attacked me, P2, and P3, guessing Scarlett, Pipe, and Lounge.  I showed them the Lounge.  

On the fifth round of turns, I attacked P2 and P5, guessing White, Rope, and Kitchen.  Both players passed.  We were getting close to solving the murder, but I didn't get the information I needed and passed the turn.  P2 attacked P4 and guessed Plum, Rope and Kitchen.  P4 showed them one of his card.  P4 cast Chittering Rats on their turn, then eschewed attacking to Collect Evidence 6 instead.  With their guess they said White, Rope, and Hall.  P5 passed, I passed, P2 passed, and then P3 showed them a card.  We were saved!

Then P4 spent their accusation, calling White, Rope, and Secret Passage.  They were correct and won the game!  

The life totals were: 18, 21, 17, 21, and 18.  No one was close to dying.  We should have at least dropped the starting totals to 20 instead of 25, but it could have also been a problem with us inviting attacks by little creatures.  I really hoped that I would be able to get a big advantage by trying to prevent myself from getting hit, but it didn't quite work out.  Even though I didn't invite attackers, I didn't do a good enough job of keeping my shields up.  

Bonus Game: After that game the five of us played again with Pre-constructed commander decks and with 30 life.  I won't relate all the details, but the game lasted until the sixth round of turns.  I had a big enough board that I was threatening to win via combat.  One of the players had just died that turn and the remaining life totals were 6, 7, 14, and 22 (me).  I did not win, however, because one person was able to Collect Evidence 6 on their turn, make an incorrect guess, but then make a correct accusation as a result.  That was a great game and it seemed that 30 life was appropriate for that level of decks.

Happy Magicking and simultaneous murder-solving! 

A Very Chaotic and Cutthroat Star

On Monday I got four friends at a draft and we decided to wacky draft into a game of Cutthroat Star.  We opened a good variety of packs with a bunch of Aetherdrift:

My Final Fantasy pack was from GameStop, so the blister made the picture.

The weather finally just got a bit cold here, so I went for a fall theme.  Bloomburrow because the art depicts a lot of autumn style colors, Final Fantasy because its the end of the warm weather (that's a stretch), and Journey to Nyx because we have journeyed into the dark part of the year.  That one's a bit of a stretch too.

Historical note: with the advent of Play Boosters, draft pack prices are higher.  The days of $3.50 packs may have come to an end, sadly.  The price of a chaos draft with friends is more likely to be $15 instead of $10.  I am bummed about that.  

I opened a Fecund Greenshell in my first pack and decided to draft for a big butt tribe.  I did pretty good with that, actually!  In my second pack, I opened Joshua and Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy.  I drafted Joshua instead of the land because I wanted to have enough actual win conditions, but I don't know whether that was the wrong pick.  Here are all my picks:  

Sadly, I didn't have a good excuse to play the Dictate of Karametra.

 

Oviya, Automech Artisan actually works great here.  Because of the way teams work in Star, all creatures had trample while attacking except for my two opponents.  That was a delightful pull. 

 

I did have plenty of land and built a pretty good deck.  Here's what was in that:

There are lots of big-butt creatures in there.

We kept the seats we drafted in so that we were seated next to our opponents.  My left-hand opponent was on Rakdos, on the other side of them was a Simic teammate.  My other teammate was playing Yore-Tiller (everything but green) and my right-hand opponent was on Witch-Maw (everything but red).

I won the roll and went first, starting off with a Wind-Scarred Crag.  My Rakdos opponent played a Snarling Gorehound, getting the evasive creatures started right off.  

Round two included an Ankle Biter for my Simic teammate and Jeskai Devotee for the Yore-Tiller.  

In the third round of turns, I got Rufus Shinra out.  My Rakdos opponent played Ahriman, but my Simic teammate had the biggest play with Warden of the Grove.  

I got in with Rufus Shinra on my next turn.  The Ahriman turned down the trade and both of my opponents took two damage from the cutthroat rule.  The Rakdos player got down a Boneyard Desecrator, and the Yore-Tiller teammate saw the trouble in Warden of the Grove and sadly shut that down with White Auracite.  My Witch-Maw opponent had built up a bunch of little creatures and swung in with their Dragoon's Wyvern, which I threw my Perimeter Enforcer at for the trade.  

On my fifth turn, I played down Oviya.  The table had a quick discussion of when it worked, and then one of my teammates made the hilarious comment, "Kyle has now incentivized you to kill your teammate."  The bigger play of the round was Sab-Sunen by my Simic teammate.  My other teammate played Lion Heart and took out a Gran Pulse Ochu, but it was still looking dire for them.  Then my Witch-Maw opponent cast Stop Cold on Oviya, nullifying her power.  

Sab-Sunen was not just a powerful value creature, but the pseudo commander of the deck.  On their sixth turn they activated their Peter Parker's Camera, meaning they got to both draw two cards and attack.  

I like taking photos of cameras taking photos.

On my turn I made an attack that was turning out bad, so I used Hide on the Ceiling to bounce most of my board.  This freed Oviya from the cold.  My Simic teammate continued to grow Sab-Sunen and get in for damage with more photography.  Then my Witch-Maw opponent killed Oviya with Plow Through and their Wreck Remover.  

I had played a Skystreak Engineer, so on my eighth turn I swung in with that, hoping to get rid of the annoying Ahriman.  The Rakdos player was hurting for life, so they blocked with it, then I used the Exhaust ability, then they sacrificed it to the Desecrator before damage.  My teammates continued to slug it out.  Sab-Sunen hit for 12 damage, but then an Eagle of the Watch with Lionheart and Roadside Assistance came from the other direction, helping keep my other teammate alive. 

On round nine, I attacked in the air for three with the Engineer, putting my Rakdos opponent down to 3 life.  Sab-Sunen did not attack that turn (I don't remember why), but my Yore-Tiller temmate got down a Wind Crystal.  I thought I was going to win on my next turn, but my Witch-Maw opponent played a Balamb T-Rexaur.  

I swung in on round 10, killing my Rakdos opponent.  Then I dropped my Temur Monument, discarded a land, drew a land, and used that to crack the monument for the elephant token.   My Simic teammate attacked with a plenty-big Sab-Sunen and killed my other teammate.  That meant they won the game in first place and stepped out.  It was down to me and my other opponent.  They immediately dropped Venomsac Lagac and Peter Porker, preventing me from swinging out right away.  

I continued to draw into excellent cards like Venom, Evil Unleashed, however.  My Engineer died to Broken Wings, but I was still able to get enough on the board for a big attack where they had to block everything.

This is very much in my favor.  

I won (in second place) on the next turn.  

This was a really fun game!  There was a lot of interaction and I was quite invested in what was happening across the board. 

Star is still one of my favorite formats!  I think Cutthroat wasn't something everyone enjoyed as much as I did.  We had really good comments about it (actually before the game started) and I think I like it so much for two reasons:

• I like the dynamic of not choosing who to attack.  Mostly because that's when your teammates are attacking, you can't try to sway them to attack only one of your opponents (obviously your common opponent).  Instead you have to deal with the reality of both of your teammates losing life along with your opponents in those combats.  If you want both of your opponents to die before your teammates, you have to get on the damage-dealing train too.
• I like boards that stagnate a little until some big dramatic things happen.  That can be pretty fun.  I also like it when evasive creatures are more valuable.  

However you like playing Star, I hope you have some Happy Magicking! 

A Bonus Chaos Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

After doing some Clue drafting last night, I made it to a informal chaos draft organized by some friends at my FLGS.  I knew it was probably happening, so I brought three packs that I thought would be unique in the group: Ikoria, Journey to Nyx, and Strixhaven.  I succeeded and we had a really good mix of packs.

Not the most regular Septagon ever.

I have a lot to say about how the drafting went this time!

• I have opened a lot of Ikoria-first in drafts.  One goal here is to get lucky and pull a Triome, which I know I will run.  (I'm opening Ikoria first in case I get a companion and can plan around them.)  This time it paid off for what I think is the second time, as I opened a Ketria Triome.  
• I got greedy and picked Great Train Heist over Dance of the Tumbleweeds in a pack that had two of the land-searchers.  Neither came back.  D'oh! 
• I should have taken more lands.  Three can sometimes get the job done but it wasn't enough here.  I had some other mana fixing, but one or two more lands would have really helped.  
• I was obviously honor-bound to take Marina Vendrell and run her.  I gave an awkward "thanks" to the two people to my left in pack two who passed her.  (To be clear: I don't want people to pass me WUBRG stuff because they're being nice!  I want to have to fight for it and I appreciate it when people hate draft against me.)    

Here are all of my picks:

I tried to get enchantments after I took Marina, but it didn't really pan out.

With those cards I built this deck:

Rootha, Mercurial Glare Artist.

I did decide to run the Revel of the Fallen God at the very end, after I realized it was essentially a win con with Rootha.  The seven of us decided to run best-of-one matches since it was pretty late and we wanted to try to play everyone.  I managed to get in five of my six possible rounds; it was great that I got to play against so many people!

In the first round I was matched up against Jeskai "Oops, All Counterspells!"  I got lucky with a turn three Larval Scoutlander, an amazing mana fixer.  I followed that up with a Ticket Booth on turn four and Colossal Dreadmask on turn five.  In the meantime, my opponent dropped a Spider-Man 2099 and had started to kick my butt with it.  They got rid of my token and kept up the pressure, putting me at seven against their fifteen life.  I played Rootha, put the mask on her, and opened up the Tunnel of Hate, swinging in.  

Fourteen is one short of fifteen.

Normally this would be where my opponent turns things around, but I actually closed this one out on the next turn!  1-0.

I got immediately into my second round against "Orzhov Lifelink Tribal".  They played an Etched Slith, gave it lifelink with Duskfang Mentor, and got in over and over until I drew Deadly Complication and took it out.  There was no respite, however, as Squelching Leeches hit the board next.  I got real lucky and my opponent held their sixth Swamp in hand; I am also wont to hold a land as the last card in my hand.  I got real lucky, though, because that meant it died to the Steel Wrecking Ball I drew.  I played Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose which helped me stay alive.  Their board kept growing, however, including an Emerge from the Cocoon that brought the Leeches back.  The board continued to grow on their side until I was forced to Play a Game.  

Bye-bye, all my spirits!

The Go-Shintai had dragged it out long enough.  1-1.

I got right into round three against "Jeskai Warleader's Call", a very one-sided match.  I was stuck on three land, but fought tenaciously and took out Archmage's Newt with Marvin and the Great Train Heist.  Unfortunately, my opponent followed up their early gas with jet fuel.

This was their turn five.

I killed the warped-in Red Tiger Mechan with Marvin and Reroute Systems.  It didn't matter, though.  They continued to power out threats; Araña was the nail in my coffin.  The turn after she came down, I drew my fourth land.  Unfortunately, I was at one life.  Too little, too late.  1-2.  

Halfway through that round, I realized I hadn't done an evening lesson in Duolingo yet, and it was 11:45.  (I wanted to do an evening lesson to get a bonus the following morning, my regular routine.)  I hoped to have a quick five-minute break between rounds, but that didn't happen and I got right into my fourth match against "Abzan Art School".  Their deck was able to make eleven different kinds of tokens, and they'd been sketching on Infinitokens all night!  (Our group is great at amazing deck names!)

We started around 11:48.  I was dead by 11:55.  I apologize for my inadequate notes, as all I have written down is "So fast!".  I don't even remember what creatures killed me, just that I got run over.  I even had enough time to do my Duolingo lesson.  1-3.

My fifth and final round came against "Enbantments", which made perfect sense when they played Ethereal Armor on Oreskos Swiftclaw.  I killed the enchantment with Shattered Wings, but a Due Diligence showed up right after.  I removed the threat and started to gain ground again, only for my opponent to play Ao.  I only lasted two more turns, as Ao got over my measly groundlings.  1-4.

Maybe this kind of performance should dissuade my draft addiction.  Maybe this should be a sign that I need to do ditch the WUBRG plan.  I never saw Marina (come on!) and I did have problems fixing my mana.  All I can think about, though, is wondering when I'll get to draft again.  

I hope you feel the same way!  Happy Magicking!

Clue Frepack Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

I did a free draft last night with some students using repacked packs of cards donated to me.  (I'm calling these "Frepack Drafts" from now on.)  Some students wanted to do this with the Ravnica Clue set and I really wanted to find out how that works, so I was in.  One of the group was a first-time drafter!  Exciting!  Knowing I wanted to hit players to make guesses, I drafted flyers really highly and got a bunch of Flash-Flyers.  Here's everything I pulled:

Something happened with the last pack.  Either I mis-packed one of them or someone took an extra card.

 

I built what I think is a pretty solid five-color deck:

Five Flash-Flyers seems really good.

We sat down in the play order of: A on a Simic deck, B playing Yore-Tiller deck, myself, and D running Dimir.  The cards I was dealt were Mastermind Plum, Emissary Green, the Hall, and the Kitchen.  (No weapons!)  In the middle were revealed the Ballroom and the Lounge.  We marked up our papers, set our life totals to 30, and got to playing.  (I'm not going to recreate the sheet stage by stage like last time.)

A got a Fleshburrower out on turn two, B played Forerunner of Slaughter, and I joined in with Courier Hawk; a lot was happening right away!  

On the third round of turns, the Fleshburrower attacked me, A guessed Emissary Green, Candlestick, and Dining Room.  I revealed Emissary Green to them.  Then B hit me with the Forerunner, guessing Apothercary White, Candlestick, and Billiard Room; I had to pass.  That was all pretty bad, but I earned a Treasure out of the deal.  On my turn I played a land and attacked D with the hawk.  I guessed Commander Mustard, Rope, and Hall and they had to pass.

On round four, B attacked A with a Vampire Envoy, who let them through just to get the treasure token!  (They were stuck on three lands.)  This was a bad strategy, however, because they had to pass to the guess of Emissary Green, the Pipe, and the Study.  

On my turn I attacked B, who passed at the guess of Scarlett, Wrench, and Conservatory.  D attacked A on their turn, guessing Apothecary White, the Rope, and the Conservatory and forcing another pass.

On round five, A played Academy Wall to try to stop the bleeding.  B got damage through on me and A, however.  They guessed Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Conservatory.  I passed, but A had to reveal a card.  I swung in on D and A, naming Senator Peacock, the Knife, and the Conservatory.  Both of them passed, which was enough to tell me that the Conservatory was the murder scene!  D, stuck on three lands, killed me Courier Hawk on their turn with Moment of Craving.  

On round six, B hit me for seven damage, but that's not the whole story!  They had a first-strike creature, so they got to make two guesses!  This is the first time we've resolved first strike damage in a Ravnica Clue game!  They first guessed Emissary Green with the Wrench in the Hall and I revealed Emissary Green.  The second guess was for Senator Peacock with the Wrench in the Hall, and I revealed the Hall.  Oof!  

I got damage in on A and B.  I guessed Commander Mustard with the Knife in the Kitchen.  A showed me Commander Mustard.  That was pretty good, but I didn't get any information from B.  I used my treasures and all my land to cast Snowhorn Rider and Recommission on my Courier Hawk.  I felt pretty good with my board state at that point.  Then D attacked B, who had to pass on Commander Mustard, the Rope, and the Conservatory.

On round seven, A attacked B, guessing Senator Peacock with the Wrench in the Hall.  B passed, then attacked A back on their turn, guessing Emissary Green, with the Rope, in the Lounge.  That was a pass.  Now I knew who had committed the murder!  B passed their turn, but they later realized they knew the solution and could have won.  On my turn I collected evidence six to guess to the whole table that it was Senator Peacock with the Rope in the Conservatory.  All three passed.  I accused the same thing and won!

Here are some quick notes about how the game went:

• We weren't anywhere near to losing due to life loss.  I was at 19 while my opponents had 29, 29, and 22.  The game was certainly going to be decided via Clue rules, especially when we got (un)lucky by focusing in on the Conservatory so early.  I don't know whether that would happen all that often!
• The evasion matters so much.  The question everyone asked each turn was, "What flying blockers do you have?"  Courier Hawk was amazing.
• There is a great handicap for WUBRG construction here: the treasures you earn from revealing cards.  It speeds other people up and also fixes for me.  I need to remember to find excess treasure token cards I have to include them in the set of stuff.
• We were playing with a bunch of cards from Battle for Zendikar, which had the (unofficially named) processing mechanic where you put exiled cards into that players' graveyard.  That's really unfortunate with the ability to Collect Evidence 6 to make a guess!   

 

Two of my opponents had some extra time, so we tried playing again with the three of us!  We made some changes:

• We started at 20 life instead of 30.
• We didn't remove the two rooms before playing.  This meant there were six cards for each of us and no all-known cards.  I had Mastermind Plum, the Candlestick, the Knife, the Library, the Ballroom, and the Hall.
• The Dimir player (D) added green to become Sultai.

I lost the turn roll, but I'll keep the player pseudonyms from before.  It was D, A, and myself in turn order.  

I got my Courier Hawk again on turn two.   

On their turn three, D hit me for two damage, guessing Commander Mustard, the Candlestick, and the Kitchen.  I had to reveal the Candlestick to them.  I hit A, who passed on my guess of Headliner Scarlett, the Wrench, and the Secret Passage.  

In round four, D hit A, guessing Commander Mustard, the Knife, and the Study.  A showed them a card.  At the end of A's turn I spent my treasure to play a Ulamog's Nullifier.  Then I played a second Nullifier on my turn.  (I couldn't flash it in because my fourth land drop was Crumbling Vestige.)  I also hit A, guessing Peacock, Pipe, and Lounge.  They showed me the Lead Pipe.

D started round five off by attacking A.  They guessed Green, the Rope, and the Dining Room.  A showed them a card.  A played a Territorial Baloth on their turn.  I played Armasaur Guide, then attacked with my three flyers, giving the Armasaur the +1/+1 counter.  I hit both opponents and guessed Apothecary White, the Rope, and the Billiard Room.  D revealed Apothecary White to me.  

In round six, D attacked us both.  I successfully blocked, but they had a Touch of Moonglove to kill my blocking Armasaur.  Yuck!  They guessed Mastermind Plum, the Knife, and the Ballroom.  A passed, which didn't help me at all.  Then they cast two Containment Membranes on my tapped nullfiers.  A played a Giant Mantis, then pumped their Baloth and attacked with a non-trampling 9/9.  I let my Courier Hawk bite it, going from a strong board to a nearly empty one.  On my turn I could only play a Helpful Hunter, draw the land from it, then pass.

In round seven, D removed my little cat, then both players hit me for four damage.  I had to reveal Mastermind Plum to both of them and went to 8 life.  I played the Sphinx of Uthuun I drew.  

I chose the pile with Baloth Null.

With the excess cards in my graveyard, I was able to Collect Evidence 6 and guess Headliner Scarlett, the Rope, and the Lounge.  D showed me the Lounge.

In round eight, D made a deal with A that they wouldn't attack if they could remove my Sphinx.  That was bad for me, because A then Swept it Away and hit me for nine, killing me.  My opponents were still at 18 (D) and 11 (A) life.  Upon my death, I revealed my six cards to the table.

In the ninth round, D collected evidence of six to ask Emissary Green, the Knife, and the Secret Passage, to which A had to show a card.  (Note: both knew the Knife was revealed from my hand, but was a purposeful whiff on the weapon.)  A did the same thing on their turn, guessing Apothecary White, the Wrench, and the Dining Room.  D revealed a card to them.

A had less information than D, who was pretty certain they could solve the murder.  A calculated that they had a one-in-four chance of getting an Accusation right, but it was their best chance to win via Clue.  They accused Senator Peacock of killing Guildmage Boddy with the Wrench in the Secret Passage.

It was incorrect.  A could no longer win by solving the murder.

To start off round 10, D played an Eldrazi Devastator.  They now had the strongest board, but didn't attack with their creatures because they knew A was going to start attacking to try and win.  A threw their haymaker the next turn, swinging out, but mostly going ineffective.

On round 11, D attacked for the win.  This was an exciting end to a game, with one players going for the murder-solving win and actually having an okay chance to make it happen.  Great finish!

Here are some thoughts about the life totals:

• 30 was probably too much life for the Frepack draft with four people and sixteen hidden cards.  (12 unknown cards per player.)
• 20 was either too low or just right for the same thing but with three people and eighteen hidden cards.  (12 unknown cards per player.)
• Personal preference: it's better to overestimate the amount of life because I'd rather the game ends by solving the murder with lots of life than ending by killing opponents with damage and not being close to solving the murder. 
• If I was doing the same thing, I would try something like 25 life with four to see how that goes. 
• Alternatively, we could add two more rooms to the mix, not remove any rooms, and deal out five to each player.  That means there would be a total of twenty hidden cards, 15 per player.  Presumably that would increase the time to solve the murder.
• It could just also be that we solved the murder so easily in the first game because we happened to zero in on the Conservatory before we actually should have.

I'm curious to hear what you think.  If we added two rooms, what would they be?  Urza's Hot Tub room?  If you try something else, let me know!  Happy Magicking!

A Chaotic Non-Cutthroat Star (WUBRG Drafting)

I sat down to draft with four other people last night and casually tossed out the idea of a Star draft.  Two of the players knew how to play Star, so they were in.  The other two good-naturedly joined in and we unexpectedly were doing something extra wacky.  Oddly, I could not convince the group to do cutthroat.  This was the first time I played non-cutthroat Star in a long while.

We opened our first packs, and then one of the players reminded me that we needed to take the picture!  So, here it is; with the first pack each disguised to not look opened. 

Thanks to the pair that brought brownies!  Yum!

In multiplayer formats, my draft priorities shift quite a bit.  Instead of BREAD, I like, um, BVERD: Bombs, Vigilance, Evasion, Removal, and Aggro.  Let me try to defend these:

• B: Bombs aren't the same, because not everything that's a bomb in a duel is still a bomb in multiplayer, but you still want to pick cards that will win you games.
• V: Vigilance is very important because having a blocker up will let you ward off attacks from multiple other players.  You want to get damage in and being able to make that decision without worrying about not having blockers is really great.  Flying vigilant creatures are amazing.
• E: Evasion is still very useful.  The board is going to gum up and you're going to need to get damage in, so you want creatures that can get past defenses.
• R: Removal is much less useful because it only affects one opponent.  Getting other players to spot removal things is better than doing it yourself, so sometimes you'd rather these are in other peoples' hands than your own!
• A: Aggressive creatures can be good for early damage.  This is more useful in Cutthroat rules because getting ahead can keep you ahead.  Still, I think this is less important in multiplayer situations.  I didn't even list Duds because they're kinda close to this.

(You may want to take all of this lightly until you see how I actually fared!)

Here were my picks:

I think I did a really good job with the lands here.

I really was not certain on which cards to put in my deck.  Since there were a lot of Spider-Man cards, I wanted to try a bit of Web-Slinging, so I ran Spider-Man, Web-Slinger and Spider-Girl, Legacy Hero (and should have included Gallant Citizen) over things like Broadside Barrage.  Here was the deck I built:

Three deathtouchers, excellent!

We sat down and the player (opponent) to my right won the roll to go first.  They were playing Orzhov Humans.  To my left (opponent) was a Dimir player who flooded early.  Next was a Golgari teammate with some fast stuff.  Finally, my other teammate was running Grixis.  Note: everyone was running black!

My first two turns were excellent, playing Radioactive Spider followed by Dollmaker's Shop and getting my first Toy token.  My right-hand opponent started to put together a strong board of white weenies and my left-hand opponent played Blood Hustler that lived up to its name and hustled a lot of my blood over the course of the game.   

I couldn't safely attack on turns three, four, or five as I needed to keep my spider back as a rattlesnake blocker.  (Both of my opponents cited the spider as the reason they had to go easy on me early on.)  Thankfully my two teammates played some good creatures, including Swarm (Golgari teammate) and Kaine (Grixis teammate).  

On turn five I played Spider-Girl.  On the sixth I played Night Market for my first blue mana source and started getting in with Spider-Girl, building up Toy tokens.  Unfortunately, due to activations of the Blood Hustler and growing swarm of humans by the Orzhov opponent, I was down to 13.

All this before they played their Lifecraft Engine!

On turn seven I drew into an island.  Spider Girl attacked again and I played my Sabotage Strategist.  I ended the turn at 11 life.  I think it was around this turn that my Orzhov opponent played Alacrian Armory, which was an amazing card, granting their whole team vigilance!

On turn eight I attacked with the Strategist, but my Dimir opponent killed it with Consuming Ashes.  I was often losing two life per turn: one via an attack from a flying 1/2 on my right, and one from activation of the Blood Hustler on my left.  That creature was now 6/6, the biggest thing on the battlefield.

On turn nine I played the Oscorp Research Team, which prevented the growing ground threats from attacking.  With my new draw potential (though I only had six land at this point) both of my opponents were nervous about me drawing a second white source and opening the Porcelain Gallery side of my room.  My Dimir opponent played Rattleback Apothecary on their turn, which worked real well with their ability to commit crimes.  On turn ten I played my seventh land; the Research Team was ready to go.  I attacked and passed, keeping all my mana open.  

Right before my eleventh turn, two things happened.  First, the Orzhov player Trapped my rooms In the Screen.  That was bad, but I still activated the research team, hoping to draw into ways to stay alive.  One of those cards was Hell to Pay, which I used to fry the Rattleback Apothecary.  I didn't generate any treasures because I wanted to save my mana to cast Glimmerburst.  I think this is the point where my Grixis teammate succumbed to the pressure from the Orzhov player.

On my twelfth turn I played my first swamp and played Peter Parker and Venomized Cat.  That cat put my Spinewoods Armadillow in my graveyard and I had Back for More in hand!  I ended the turn at 6 life.  In the ensuing round I blocked with my Radioactive Spider to kill a biggish Orzhov creature.

On turn thirteen I tried to cast the Back for More.  (I didn't realize it was an Instant, derp!)  Unfortunately, the Dimir opponent cast School Daze to counter it.  Oof.  I remained at six life, but my remaining teammate died that round to the Blood Hustler finally attacking in.  On my fourtheenth turn I just did not have enough gas in my hand.  The Dimir player finished me off with a big Morlun.

8 > 6

 

The two remaining players ended the game tied for first place.  

This was wicked fun!  There were two powerhouses (my opponents) that continued through most of the game, but it wasn't like it was decided out of the gate.  There was some good back and forth and maybe I would have done better if I'd've had some removal to handle the Blood Hustler.  

On thing I realized today (the day after the event) is that the lack of the Cutthroat rule had an unexpected change.  I thought that it would make the game take longer (that's debateable) but I didn't realize that it made me less interested in what my teammates were doing.

In Cutthroat, your opponents have to be more careful about attacking because each attacking creature can be blocked by both you and one of your teammates.  Because of that, in some ways you care more about what is on your teammates' boards.  You want them to have good blockers and you are more invested in what they choose to attack with. 

I'm sure I was doing this wrong anyways, but I was a bit less invested in my teammates' battlefields.  I didn't always pay good attention to what they had out and I think that made the game a bit less interactive.  I think that next time I would lobby even harder for including the Cutthroat rule.

I'm curious what you think!  Mostly I just hope you get a chance to do a star draft!

Happy Magicking!