Final Fantasy Draft 3 (WUBRG Drafting)

I am obsessed with getting to as many Final Fantasy drafts as I can.  This set is really fun for WUBRG drafting!  (It's also easier for me to get out to things since it's the summer.)

Last night I traveled to Armada Games.  They regularly hold Tuesday night drafts and Tuesday is different from Friday, so I made the trip.  (There was a store near me in New Hampshire that had Sunday night drafts.  I miss that.  I wish FNM wasn't the default for drafts.)  

This was also the first time I was at an event that used the Wizards Companion app in a few years, notably since I got a new phone last year.  In the past it seemed to use a lot of RAM or something because switching between apps forced me to log in again.  It works much better with a more modern phone.  One thing I wasn't prepared for, though, was that end-of-round time wasn't called out; we were supposed to be watching the app.

We had 17 people, so we were put into two pods: 8 and 9.  I was put into the 9-person pod.  I figured that would be a slight advantage for me, given what I'm trying to do.  As it turns out, I overdrafted lands!  Somehow I got ten dual lands!  I picked some of them over the land searchers, which I wish I could have reversed. 

I pushed hard in the first pack to get as much fixing as possible.  I reasoned that in later packs there would be better spells coming around as people were more slotted into their colors, so I could grab those then.  I think I went a bit too hard, though.  Here are all of my picks:

Zodiark was the greediest pick.

There is so much fixing in all of this:

• Ten lands, including Balamb, which was a fifth pick in that last pack!
• Sazh Katzroy helps with fixing (and is awesome).  
• Fenrir, a good summon that I hadn't drafted before. 
• Torgal, who I now get confused with Fenrir.  (I get "Torgal, he's a very very very fine hound" in my head every time.)  
• Four land cyclers
• Ignis Scientia, who I've had in all four of my limited decks now.  
• Gladolus Amicitia, who is just a WUBRG bomb.  He fixes your mana base and powers up multiple big attacks.  The only downside is that he can't pump himself up.  In this draft he wheeled after I first-picked Cecil.  If I had been cognizant of just how good he was, I might have first-picked him instead.  I got real lucky there.
• Vaan and Zell kinda help with fixing, but not a ton.  

Unfortunately, notice the lack of removal I got.  That would play a big part in how I did.  Here's the deck I built:

More non-basics than basics?  Don't mind if I do!

This was the first time in a while where I made my initial want-to-play/probably-not-playing split only to find that I only had 22 cards and I had to add instead of cut.  Also, after my tournament games, I made a quick change, swapping out the Cloudbound Moogle for Rydia's Return.  I think that was the right choice because of how little white was in the deck.  (If I wasn't strict about being WUBRG, I would have taken white out completely.)

In the first round I was paired against a real card-economical Orzhov deck.  In the first game I got Torgal on turn two, Rydia on turn three, then Noctis on turn four, who immediately died to Overkill.  I was still feeling real good until my opponent played Hecteyes and then bounced it with Ambrosia Whiteheart.  This got me stuck at five mana including Torgal as I foolishly kept Sin in hand and discarded other cards, hoping to get those back later.  I was able to get Vaan out, but they never connected.  Then my opponent cast Fight On!

Two more cards are about to disappear from my hand.

In the second game I chose to draw to try to improve my land-chances.  Unfortunately the other half of their economy plays came: Anima hit the board early and they drew into good stuff.  I did get Sin out, but couldn't keep up with the removal.  More Qiqirn Merchants would actually have helped a lot here, just because I had so many towns and needed cards bad.  I had them down to 9 while I was at 27, but Squall came down and with the double-strike granting combined with Dark Knight's Greatsword, I couldn't get back into the game.  0-1.

In the second round I was up against Dune-Brood Legends, probably the closest to what I've been running of any deck I've seen.  It was really cool because they were visiting for work from out of state and got lucky that there was a Tuesday-night draft available!  They lacked the dual lands, however, and ran 19 lands in the deck to compensate.  In the first game they got completely flooded, playing land each of the first nine turns.  Sin came down and got there, even with a piddly little graveyard.

They did have a field of five Legends, though!

In the second game, I had a quick start: turn three Fenrir into turn four Vaan (plus a counter).  My opponent got stuck on four lands, which sucks extra since they were running so much!  I kept up the pressure with Torgal followed by Gladiolus, who let Vaan trample in for damage.  (I kept flipping lands off of their library, though.)  I was able to win again off of the value.  1-1.

At this point, I figured I should double-check my sideboard for cards I might want to run and decided to swap in Rydia's Return for the Cloudbound Moogle.  Then the round ended and I checked my phone.  I got the bye for round three.  This is a bummer for me because I love playing.  I would rather play a round and lose than get the bye.  The other pod also had a bye, but that person was leaving so we didn't play.  

However, another pair finished early, so I asked whether either of them would want to play.  One of them immediately agreed (they had gone 2-1) so I got an exhibition game in!  Sweet!  The deck they were running was an absolutely brutal Golgari landfall deck.  They had so many bombs, including Ride the Shoopuf, Summon: Titan, and Tifa.  I got some Balamb T-Rexaurs down early thanks to Torgal, and pushed my opponent down to four (while being over twenty myself) before they stabilized and started getting their own beefy creatures down.  

I did not see Tifa until after this.

I tried to break the stalemate after getting Omega, but they played two combat tricks and turned that into a one-sided beating.  I got real lucky after I pulled Rydia's Return and brought Omega back to tap down the giant-sized Sazh's Chocobo with seven stun counters.  I was able to swing in and win a few turns later.  I was certain I was going to lose this game once the balance of board power swung out of my hands. 

1-1 puts my overall Final Fantasy record at 8-2.  I really hope I get to make it to more of these before the format rotates, because this set is so fun.  

Happy Magicking!

Final Fantasy Draft 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

Last night I got to draft Final Fantasy again.  Just like with the prerelease, the store's draft was sold out with twenty players.  (The draft scene at Intergalactic Plastic is really great right now!)  Right before the draft I was chatting with a bunch of people.  The plan was to organize us in three pods of 6, 6, and 8.  I casually mentioned that I liked bigger pods; 10 and 10 would be my preference.  I knew that wasn't going to happen.  I did not lobby for it.  I don't think either the owner or store manager heard me say that.  

The next thing I know, we are organized into two pods of 10.  I do not know how that happened.  I really hope I'm not to blame for that.  (I feel like I have a history of causing this kind of trouble!)

The drafting part was a bit crazy.  Here are all my picks:

So many legends!

 

Here are some thoughts in bullets:

• I passed a bunch of fixing towns early on in pack one, and only got two.  In pack two, I first-picked one because I was feeling quite desperate!  Then I got no more.  Thankfully, in pack three, I got a ton and things came together.  
• I kept picking Balamb T-Rexaur.  It's so good, and was especially excellent given all the green I was running.
• Muldrotha as my first pick was stunning.  Even if I wasn't pre-planning to run five colors, at that point I don't think I could have chosen differently.
• I drafted the Laboratory Maniac because of how good it would have been for my opponent in my final match of the night before.  It seemed to go really well with the Muldrotha as well, as I could be a bit more cavalier about milling myself.  Along that line, I picked the Shinra Reinforcements, Random Encounter, and Esper Origins.  The land-cycling creatures also played into this strategy and I wish I'd taken more of them.  
• The issue with multiple fixing cards in the same pack happened again.  This was the situation with my fourth-from-last pick:

You've got to be kidding me.

Here's the deck I ended up with:

Seven multi-lands!  Let's go!

My original deck included Random Encounter and PuPu UFO, but they came out in favor of the Gaius van Baelsar and Town Greeter over the course of the night.  

In my first match, I was up against one of my favorite people to play against, this time running a synergistic Jeskai deck.  They got out Ultima (the creature) on turn five of the first game.  I was stuck on four lands and Blitzball for a long time, but got Jenova and Kuja out early to hold the fort down.  One of those four lands got wasted by Ultima.  (It became like a Wastes, not destroyed.)  I killed Ultima the next turn with Airship Crash, which is just awesome removal in this format.  I then stupidly whiffed on Mountaincycling my Hill Gigas because my lone Mountain was already on the board!  Kuja flipped and Jenova built up a Wizard token to 4/5 after a while and my opponent had to block and kill it, netting me four cards!  Jenova was trying to get noticed as an important piece of my self-mill strategy too!  At that point my opponent was flooding out so they scooped to move to game two.

In that second game, Ultima died in the same way (though I killed it before it could mess with my mana base).  Kuja flipped again.  My opponent got flooded even harder, sadly; they only drew into two new spells that weren't in their opening hand before I got going.  This was so frustrating for them and that sucks!  1-0.

In the second match I was matched up against another synergistic deck, this time Rakdos Wizards, complete with Cornered by Black Mages, Mysidian Elder, and Black Waltz No. 3.  In the first game I was really slow on land.  Jenova sat out as a blocker without any support for a while until Gladiolus Amicitia showed up.  They pumped each other up and I got in some good swings with Jenova.  I played Vincent Valentine, who died to Vayne's Treachery, then Omega, who died to Odin, who in turn died to Airship Crash.  After Odin was off, I just kept hitting with my remaining creatures and won.

In game two, an early Reno and Rude put them ahead on life and cards.  My Ignis Scientia got Cornered by Black Mages.  I started clawing my way back into the game and got the T-Rexaur down, getting my life total back on track.  Then they played Odin again, killing the dinosaur.  I played two blockers to have a chance against the summoned norse god...

And then I got Phaged out of existence.

In game three, I played a turn 4 Kuja who died to Sephiroth's Intervention, but not before enlisting one wizard token.  Jenova later made that a bit bigger and Ignis helped me get the mana I needed and the Shinra Reinforcements and Cloud of Darkness kept me alive.  I later flashbacked Esper Origins to get Maduin for the first time.  Omega came down right around when time was called, but it was enough for me to swing in on turns two and four of time and win on the latter.  2-0.  What a match!

In the third round I was up against Selesnya Chocobos.  I went six turns of the first game without green mana, which was the worst color for me to be missing.  I played Gladiolus on turn seven to finally start to fix my mana, but he got imprisioned in White Auracite right away.  The birds stomped all over me.  For the second game, it's important to note that I had sided the Laboratory Maniac out for Gaius.  We went very long, the power on the board swinging back and forth.  Multiple times my opponent said they might have to mill me out.  (Whoops!)  Thankfully I played Muldrotha late (that drew some surprise as it was the first time I'd cast it) and used the card advantage to overpower for a slow win.  

Here's my board at the end of that second game.

For the third game, I definitely sided Lab Man back in, then aggressively burned through my library.  I saw all three T-Rexaurs and only had to land cycle the first.  Jenova helped again immensely.  They had some extremely powerful synergy with Zanarkand and Chocobo Kick, using the kicker to put it back in their hand to power out another big creature!  My opponent was really mana flooded in this game, but that kept them in.  I barely managed to deal with each of the big creatures, mostly thanks to Gaius.  Then one of my T-Rexaurs pumped up by two Jenova counters died while I was attacking.  That meant I got to draw eight cards.  After discarding at the end of turn, I kept Muldrotha and Lab Man in hand.  

Just in case.

I didn't need to worry about decking, however, because I won shortly there after with big beats from Gladiolus.  3-0.

Okay, I have a few remarks about this:

• The format really seems slow enough to facilitate the five-color strategy.  It's a bit fragile mana-wise, but it's doable.  
• I need to thank my previous opponent the night prior for getting me into a self-mill mindset that powered up Muldrotha and Lab Maniac.
• Take the lands and take the landcyclers!
• Unfortunately there will be some packs with multiple fixing cards, so be prepared to make some tough choices.
• Ignis Scientia is great.  
  
• I still haven't tested the five-color-equipment strategy, going for five-color-Legends instead.  I'm not sure I'll be able to deviate from that, though I expect the equipment army is really strong too.  
• This format is just wicked fun.  I love playing with cards from the games I know (that's mostly 1, 4, and 6 with some 2 and less 3, 5, and 7).  
  

If you count both of the last two drafts (one was best-of-1, one was best-of-3 matches) then my overall match record is 7-1, with games at 10-3.  I don't know which is more appropriate.

I hope you get to try to draft WUBRG in this format.  Happy Magicking!

Final Fantasy Draft (WUBRG Drafting)

My little group decided to do a Final Fantasy draft instead of a Wacky draft last night.  We had six and I did the smallest amount of lobbying for an Emperor Draft, but that did not catch on.  We did decide to play single-game rounds so we could play as many people as possible.

Why only one character on the packs?

 The draft was very interesting.  I didn't do a good enough job of taking lands.  I think at one point I picked some conditional removal over a land and then didn't run it anyways.  Unfortunately there were multiple times where mana fixing was clumped four or five pieces in one pack.  (I should probably start taking pictures of those tough picks.)  I did get lots of land cyclers (only missing Hill Gigas) through, and being in five colors helped me grab some real good cards on late picks.  Here's everything I drafted:

So much combo potential in the first two picks of pack 1.

A lesson I learned from last week's sealed was to keep my mana levels pretty even instead of dumping a ton into one color.  Here's the deck I wound up with:

 

 

The mana curve is admittedly pretty high, but five of those are land cyclers.

For the first time in a long while, we finished all fifteen matches!  In the first round I was matched up against an opponent who often steamrolls me with aggressive white + something decks.  The trend continued as they were on Abzan and I didn't have any plays my first four turns.  My life total dwindled against Black Mage's Rod and Ashe, but I wasn't out.  I got The Regalia and Blitzball Tidus and drew into Ultima.  They transformed Crystal Fragments into Alexander, and combat put me to 4, while they were at 24.  I responded with Ice Flan to tap Alexander down and buy me a turn with enough to block everything else.  I got real lucky then, because they played three non-creature spells on their turn, knocking me to 1 and threatening to win off of Alexander's last chapter.  

Swinging out before dropping the Ultima.

 

I didn't have any choice then.  I cast Ultima and we were both playing off the top.  I cast Omega with one non-basic to double my life total.  I couldn't attack, however, because they had Goobbue Gardener.  We each got more creatures down and I took the chance of attacking whenever I had enough blockers to stay alive, even though they had a card in hand.  Choco helped me draw into more gas.  Although I didn't have any other birds in my deck, Zidane let me steal a bird to get even more and attack with lifelink, putting me at 5.  I won the turn after that with enough creature damage on the board.  1-0.  This was easily one of my biggest comebacks ever!

The second round had me up against an Izzet deck that kept stifling anything I tried to do.  They smartly "bolted the bird" (Suplexed the Torgal) before I could untap with it.  Their Ultros had me saying "Seafood Soup!" as they kept tapping down my stuff.  I got Ignis Scientia down, which didn't net me any new colors.  Even The Regalia couldn't make it to the battlefield.

I was told these cards together are the plot of FF XV.  No theme combo for me.

Without that recurring land searcher, I was in dire straits.  Try as I might, I could not keep up.  I thought I was close to putting stuff together in the end, but I got dinked and dunked until I was dead.  1-1.

The third round was comborific for me.  I was up against a nifty Orzhov deck, but I just got way too lucky.  Turn two I played the Smuggler's Copter, which I don't think I'd really played with before it got banned in standard a few years ago. 

Kaladesh is NINE years old?!?

(Image from Hyperbole and a half.)

On turn three I played Gran Pulse Ochu and swung in with the Copter.  I hit again on turn four, drew into Balthier and Fran, cast them on the next turn to hit for four more that turn, achieving the combo from my first two picks.  They crewed the Copter the next turn, letting me attack twice.  That was enough and they finally took the copter out.  I had been pitching land to the copter and was a bit low on mana, but finally got I got enough and confidently played Balamb T-Rexaur.  I blocked a 1/1 hero with it next turn.

Oops.

There was a bit of stagnation until Zidane showed up and I was able to hilariously steal Kain and attack.  They attacked with Kain (such good flavor!) on their own the next turn to die to the life loss on his ability.  2-1.

Round four was very unusual for me because we were both swinging recklessly each turn, expecting to win the life race.  I got a turn one Ochu and turn two Copter, acting like an aggro deck which faced off against an Izzet deck that played Astrologian's Planisphere on turn two.  This kept going until I had seven life to their four.  The Copter got Suplexed and I got their big token stuck in the Summoner's Sanctum.  They did the same to an Ice Flan I got down.  I got to eight mana with Torgal's help and started swinging in with a more-dangerous Ochu.

Six counters, that's why it got lost in the sanctum.

 

I was able to pull off the win from there, holding Ultima in hand. 3-1

 

Going into my final match was exciting because we had three people at 3-1, all three people were playing, and I was up against one of them.  The other one had beaten me in the second game.  While we were playing ours, that person won again.  If I won, I would claim second place.  If I lost, my opponent would win the event, having beaten the 4-1 player.  

My opponent was playing a self-mill Dimir deck with Emet-Selch, Unsundered in a pseudo-commander role.  After losing the first round, they had won the last three games with one card left in their library.  The self-mill strategy, using multiple copies of Shinra Reinforcements and Resentful Revelation helped to flip Emet into Hades, giving them a ton of graveyard gas to win with. 

 

In our match I was given some time to build up, but I was stuck without blue mana.  I used Zidane's treasure to cast Ignis Scientia and did stick him in The Regalia for a turn, completing the synergy.  Unfortunately, my opponent Stuck The Regalia in the Summoner's Sanctum.  Although they were afraid of Ignis removing things from their yard, this was the correct choice for two reasons.  First, I was stuck without Blue mana for a long time, so I couldn't use his ability anyways.  Second, that shut down The Regalia's crew ability so it couldn't become a Legendary Creature, which mattered because I got Clive's Hideaway down (with Omega insides) and didn't quite get to four legendary creatures.  

They played Emet with 13 cards in their yard, drawing and discarding to hit the magic number.  I failed to draw into an island and they flipped Emet on their next upkeep, attacking me down to 5.  I finally got my island with four cards atop their library and activated Ignis's ability to exile a Hecteyes from their yard and net a food.  A turn-and-a-half later I blocked a Malboro with Ignis and Fang.  I activated Ignis and they killed him instead of the meld-potential.  They played Undercity Dire Rat and passed to me with seven untapped lands, ten life, and two cards on the top of their library.  I drew into one of my two outs.

 

I don't know how to type out the FFVI sound that Ultima makes.  Pretend I typed that.  "Bwoooom", maybe.

 

They had Syncopate in hand.  I had six untapped lands, exactly enough.  If they hadn't cast the Rat I would have died.  If they had chosen to kill Fang, then I would have activated Ignis before the Ultima and the Syncopate could have done it's job.  If I had drawn into Vanille, then they could have Syncopated so I couldn't meld them into Ragnarok.  They grabbed Emet with Fight On! and played Locke Cole, but I stayed alive.  They cast Emet their next turn to die from the draw.  4-1.

 

What an amazing night!  I had so many tight games and my other wins were directly off of the power of Smuggler's Copter hitting the board on turn two.  If there's any lesson I need for future drafts, it's that those land cyclers are real good.  Since they're double-pip cards, you're very likely to cycle them instead of cast them, but they're still great.

 

I look forward to doing as many of these drafts as I can.  This set is wicked fun!  Happy Magicking!

Final Fantasy Prerelease (WUBRG Sealed)

I went to the Final Fantasy prerelease last night.  Intergalactic Plastic sold out (both yesterday and tomorrow); there were over thirty players there!  I went searching for my old white-mage Halloween costume and found it just in time.  

Thor's Hammer is an important item in FF I, vital to a 4-white-mage run.

Before going, I took the time to look up good Common and Uncommon cards for mana fixing.  I felt pretty dedicated to running five colors.  I immediately noticed that Cloudbound Moogle, Ice Flan, Malboro, Hill Gigas, and Balamb T-Rexaur were the basic landcyclers.  I also figured these would be good:

• Undercity Dire Rat
  
• Prompto Argentum
  
• Sandworm  
• Vaan Street Thief  
• Prishe's Wanderings  
• Reach the Horizon 
• Torgal, a Fine Hound  
• Town Greeter 
• Gladiolus Amicitia 
• Ignis Scientia 
• Zidane, Tantalus Thief 
• Blitzball 
• Magic Pot 
• World Map 

I got some of these and although I decided not to run them, it was helpful to have already looked them up so I recognized them pretty quickly when flipping through packs.  (Unfortunately, I was unaware of the Final Fantasy: Through the Ages bonus sheet, so I didn't know about cards like Farseek being in there.)  I will definitely do this again, especially before a sealed event.

Here are the cards I opened:

Tellah is the promo I opened.  Sadly I only got one landcycler: a Balamb T-Rexaur.

I put together a removal + good stuff deck, but I'm not sure that was the best choice.  I had lots of equipment, so maybe doing that would have been better.  I'm sure you can design a better deck!  Here's what I put together:

I am not used to a mana curve this low.

All three of my opponents turned out to be mostly Commander players who wanted to do the prerelease specifically for the Final Fantasy cards!  Very cool!

In the first round I was up against someone with an an Orzhov weenie deck with Ninja's Blades that I dedicated a lot to playing around.  I got Fynn out on turn two, and managed to get my opponent up to 6 poison counters.  I was missing Black mana sources until I drew Midgar on turn 7 or 8, but it was too late.  In game two, I got turn four WUBRG, but their The Final Days put too many horrors on the field.

That token in the middle represents three 2/2 creatures, not a single 3/3.

I lost on their next turn.  Even Chaos couldn't save me.  0-1.

In the second round, I was matched with a Gruul Landfall deck complete with Chocobo Racetrack and Sabotender (and Tifa, though I didn't see her).  In the first game I got a turn three Ahriman and Fynn the following turn, driving my opponent to six poison again before they removed Fynn.  I also got WUBRG land on turn five.  I idiotically missed a chance to win on poison and then the game dragged out as we continued to mana flood.  I drew into more non-land and won.  In the second game, I killed the Chocobo Racetrack with Fate of the Sun-Cryst (I think I did that in game one also) but two Sabotenders wound up killing me.  

This was at the peak of their landfalliness.

I died right as time was called.  0-1-1.

For the third round I played against an aggressive Naya deck.  In the first game I had turn five WUBRG.  And I handed out six poison counters with an early Fynn.  Their Samurai's Katana was trouble, but then I got enough down to take over the board.  My opponent cleaned it up with Ultima, but I still had the Balamb T-Rexaur in my hand and won with that.  In game two, I got Garland out, stalled until I could play Chaos, but that was met with Ultima again.  I had plenty of mana, however, and played my biggest bomb, Absolute Virtue.  I felt great, but that immediately got locked down with Ring of the Lucii.  

The clock is not fast enough!

I was being chill, looting with Qiqirn Merchant.  Then they played the memeful Jumbo Cactuar.  Instant-speed removal during an attack could catch me off guard, so I used the Merchant's ultimate ability (I only paid 3) and drew into Locke Cole and a Suplex.  I blocked the Cactuar, killed the Ring, and attacked two turns for the win.  1-1-1.

What a fun event!  I loved it!  I'm not really in love with sealed (except for sealed 2HG; I love that).  Playing with Final Fantasy cards is great, though.  I wish I had signed up for Sunday too.  If you have any advice about WUBRG sealed, please send it to me.  

Happy Magicking!

Chaos Gets Some Games in Late

I got a chaos draft running on Thursday evening.  We had a couple of young drafters, which was excellent.  Things ended a bit early and I only got one single-game round in on the draft that night.  I'm hoping to catch some of the drafters to play our games in the next few days.  If so, I'll update with those.

We had seven total people and decided to do single game rounds.  I actually like seven for drafts!  It's big enough that you get a lot of diversity in packs and being odd means that if we run single-game rounds on the fly, then the person sitting out usually doesn't have to sit for very long.  Anyways, here's what we opened:

Applejack approves of these packs.

The Wilds and Innistrad Remastered packs are some I've won recently and... I like opening LotR.  Here were my picks:

Cryptolith Rite seems like a sign that I'm doing the right thing.

I got enough cards that seemed good that I didn't even run Phial of Galadriel.  Here's the deck I put together:

Lots of green is fine with me!

In the first round I played against a temur deck with lots of efficient creatures.  In this game, I actually started off strong.  I got WUBRG lands out, dropped Treetop Snarespinner, and kept my life at 21.  I didn't draw much else, but I spent my mana putting counters on creatures with the spider.  My opponent dropped Kavu Primarch and then attacked for 15 when my spider wasn't ready to block safely.  Down to 6, I dropped more counters on Snarespinner so it could block the Kavu and live.  On the next attack, I was able to take out three attackers without losing anything, though I did take more damage and went to 2.  My opponent still had a few creatures, but I figured I needed to hit back, which I safely could with one creature given what was on the board.  I had three blockers and they had three creatures with a smallest power of 2.  

Then they drew into removal... and that was the end of that.  0-1.

See that tapped Faunsbane Troll?  I shouldn't have attacked with that.

Three Days Later...

I didn't get to get in any other games that night.  Thankfully I was able to catch up with two of the other drafters on Sunday and get our games in!  I love that we were able to make these happen!

In this second round, I was up against a Mardu (mostly Orzhov) aristocrats deck.

Some nifty combo pieces here!

Bartolomé del Presidio hit the board on turn 2.  I had Worldsoul's Rage in hand, but Bartolomé was always out of range because they kept playing other creatures.  On turn 4, I had two other land in hand and Karakyk Guardian.  I tried casting the Rage on their Mardu Devotee, an obvious play mistake.  They sacrificed it to Bartolomé, fizzling the spell so I didn't get to play out my extra lands.  I died before I got the Guardian out.  0-2.

My third round was against a speedy Jeskai deck of efficient creatures.  This time I used the Worldsoul's Rage successfully, taking out Heartfire Hero before it got bad and ramping me into the Karakyk Guardian on turn 5.  That was enough to keep me on top for the win.  1-2.

This was not a great showing for me, but it doesn't whet my desire to draft at all.  I'm ready for another one!  I... wait, what?

Bonus Round!  3-Player Cutthroat!  

The three of us decided to play an extra game together.  Getting to use your draft deck for extra innings is great!  We shuffled up (two of us took our free mulligan) and we were off to the races.  

The cutthroat rule is that when you attack, you attack both opponents, who can block together.  Damage that goes through is dealt to both opponents.  (Combat-damage-to-players effects only trigger once.)

I started off slow in the first three turns, but became the archenemy after getting Faunsbane Troll out, then Wildwood Scourge with five counters.  The board continued to develop and I got even more creatures out.

Stormkeld Vanguard is on its adventure, but it came out soon after.

The end of the game drew near.  My left opponent had a Mist-Syndicate Naga with Spirit Mantle on it, getting in for damage each turn.  I had the most life, but my right opponent had Transcendent Master at level 12.  I drew New Way Forward.  Excellent!  No longer needing my left opponent's unblockable naga to kill the other player, I attacked with my Sagu Wildling to kill them.  My remaining opponent then attacked with the Transcendent Master.  I played the New Way Forward.

... and I only had seven cards atop my library.

Oof.  Does that make my record 1-3?

I couldn't draw the eighth card, so I was dead.  What a great way to end a game, though, with everyone relevant right up to the last turn!

I hope you get some great games in too!  Happy Magicking!

Outlaws of Thunder Junction 2 (WUBRG Drafting)

Once again my Friendly Local Game Store, Intergalactic Plastic, took a dip into the past to run an older draft, this time Outlaws of Thunder Junction.  My only other Thunder Junction draft was just about a year ago.  We had a big turnout (14) and I got put in the pod of 8 which had two new drafters.

I thought I drafted five colors pretty well, but I did pass on a bunch of dual desert lands.  I also forgot to maximize my crimeability.  That became vital during the night.  Here are all of my picks:

I often forget just how many crazy things there can be in Play Boosters.

 

I took that Annie Joins Up to heart and went hard into legendary creatures.  In the end, it was ready to combo with Magda, Vial Smasher, Baron Bertram (2), Ertha Jo, Bruse Tarl, and Honest Rutstein.  Cutting cards was hard, but here was the deck I put together:

Is it easier to read with the basics up top?

In the first round I was up against an Izzet deck ready to plot a course through the storm.  In the first game I opened up with High Noon on turn 2.  While I got things set up, my opponent plotted cards on turns 2, 3, 4, and 5.  I should have seen what was coming, though it wouldn't have made any difference.  On turn 6, they Failed Fording the High Noon, then cast the four plotted cards.  The third of these was Outlaw Stitcher.  That was the fourth spell, so they got an 8/8 zombie.  The fourth was Visage Bandit, which became a stitcher and created a 10/10 zombie.  

The definition of a You've-Got-to-Hand-it-To-Them moment.

 

I had removal in my hand, but it wasn't fast enough and I fell quickly.  The second game went much better for me and ended up in a race between their Stingerback Terror (and three Mercenaries) and my Boneyard Desecrator, Rattleback Apothecary, and my own collection of mercenaries from At Knifepoint.  I lost the race, but it was close.  0-1.  They went on to win the pod and the deck continued to storm out.

In the second round I faced one of the new drafters who is apparently the Selesnya prison warden.

Seriously!  That Mystical Tether without a creature voided my 11/11 Dance of the Tumbleweeds token.

Removal on both sides kept anything from happening for turns and turns.  I finally got Bruse Tarl to work with Annie Joins Up, but, as shown in the picture, that got taken by Buried in the Garden.   That might have been the correct choice, because I got Ertha Jo a bit later.  After a long stalemate, I finally got in a big attack with Ertha Jo and two other small creatures, but powered by six mercenaries.  That 18 damage won me the game.  We started a second, but time got called before we got any big hits in.  1-1.

In the third round I was up against a Grixis deck centered around casting Cruel Ultimatum.  (They told me about their deck before any matches started.)  In the first game, they used three treasures to cast it.  Oof.  In the second game I mulliganed into a 6-land hand and kept drawing lands.  They got ahead with Tinybones and were able to pave a path through my blockers with removal.  That allowed Tinybones to steal those recently-removed creatures and use them against me.  Stealing my Magda allowed them the treasures needed to cast Cruel Ultimatum again.  Because of all the land draw, I didn't have much on the board to lose to the ultimatum.  It didn't matter, though, because it put them up so much further that they killed me a few turns later.  1-2.

This was not an improvement on my showing last year when I also went 1-2.  That's a total of 2-4.  I definitely need more experience in this format.  Here are some lessons I have to learn:

• Take the dual deserts!  I passed one up for a Trick Shot because removal has done me so well in the past.  In the end, though, I just didn't run it.  
• Spinewoods Armadillos are not going to come around.  They are bombs.  Take them early! 
• Extra ways to commit crimes are useful.  Cards like Sandstorm Verge commit crimes!  Take them!

I hope I get the chance to try drafting Thunder Junction again and improve a bit.  It really seems like WUBRG should be good here. 

Wilds of Eldraine 5 (WUBRG Drafting)

My Friendly Local Game Store, Intergalactic Plastic, ran a draft for FNM yesterday.  In their delightful fashion, they went back in time a bit and we drafted Wilds of Eldraine.  On one hand, I haven't yet drafted Tarkir Dragonstorm.  On the other hand, I have a pretty good record at my four previous Wilds drafts, a total of 10-2.  Maybe I could continue my performance here.

There was a torrential downpour that ended right around the start of the draft, so that may have kept people away.  We only had six people, but that's enough to draft!

I started off opening Questing Druid and knew it was going to be a good draft.  I only managed to draft three fixing lands, one Scarecrow Guide, and a single Rootrider Faun.  And a lot of treasure generating spells.  Here are all my picks:

Johann, a familiar Wilds-draft friend!

I drafted a lot of crazy fun cards that I wanted to try to cast.  Unfortunately, I just didn't have the right deck for them.  Thunderous Debut?  I didn't have any big creatures to search for.  Forced Fruition?  I drafted that in my last draft and it wasn't all that fun.  Hatching Plans?  I didn't have a lot of Bargain stuff.  Leyline of Abundance?  Let's make it happen!

Here was my deck:

Yeah, I actually remembered to take this photo before I left the store.

In the first round I was up against a relatively new player with an aggressive Boros deck.  He had some good value in the first game with Dragon Mantle and Stockpiling Celebrant.   

The mantle of the dragon weighs heavily on a young hero's shoulders.

I got Talion out on turn 4, and chose 4 for the mana cost.  (I should have chosen 3.  I should have chosen 3.  I should...)  That meant I only got to profit on the Cut In that killed her.  Nevertheless, I was able to get a big board going.  Dream Spoilers was amazing, taking out three creatures with its ability and I won with a board that was way too big.  In the second game the Boros aggro paid off and I lost in turns while my opponent was at 25. 0-0-1.

In the second match, I was up against a regular drafter at the store, wielding a brutal Glint-Eye deck.  (The colors, not the actual card.)  I got the Questing Druid out early in a pattern of turn 2 Seek the Beast (it's adventure) on their turn. (Actually their turn 3, because I lost all my die rolls.)  Then I could decide whether to play the Druid on turn 3 or use the cards I'd exiled.  Usually I cast those spells and dropped the Druid on turn 4.  He played a turn 6 Hamlet Glutton, but it never came in because the Druid outgrew it within a few turns.  I won with a very wide board and eight +1/+1 counters on the druid.  In game 2, he put Decadent Dragon on an adventure and stole two of my cards.

Hey, that's my Plains!

He got to WUBRG before I did off the back of my plains.  I played Talion again, this time guessing seven due to the threat of Hamlet Glutton.  Instead of that being important, he killed her with the other stolen card: Frantic Firebolt.    I took a lot of damage from those Minstrosities, dropping to three life.  I got some of the engine going with Johann and was able to play my swarm of creatures.  I won using the Leyline to pump my team in the end.  So far all of my wins are from outlasting my opponent until my battle line is longer than theirs.  That is totally in line with my play style.  1-0-1.

In the third round I was up against the tournament organizer, running a deck titled "Abzan Groceries" with lots of food-based tricks.  The first game was a war of attrition, with removal keeping the board pretty clear.  This slow form worked in my favor, though, and I outpaced them with lots of good card draw that gave me the gas to win.  (Thank you, Quick Study!)  The second game was back to the long battle lines.  I got turn five natural WUBRG (woo!) but their Howling Galefang got in for a bunch of damage.  I got Greta on the board twice (thanks, Woodland Acolyte) and sacrificed both foods to put her to 5/5.  I took some more damage here and there, but then they flooded out and I was able to extend the battle line far enough again and win.  2-0-1.

The real winning point here was in all of the instants.

• Instants as adventures are great!  I started with Sleep-Cursed Faerie, but I replaced it with Grabby Giant because it worked so much better with other things.
• Card draw and mana fixing instants were amazing.  Flick a Coin was good, but Quick Study was the MVP.  I cannot overstate just how helpful this card was at giving me gas.  I would have run two more copies if I'd drafted them!
• All these instants were especially good with Johann, Questing Druid, and Dream Spoilers.  Even a simple Flick a Coin could change the damage balance in a potential fight by 3.  (1 damage itself, +1/+1 counter for the druid, -1/-1 with the Dream Spoilers.)  

If you count the adventure-creatures, I had 12 instants in the deck.  It was a real 5-color spellslinger!

Total record in Wilds of Eldraine drafts: 12-2-1

There are many other sets I want to draft, but I don't think I'll ever turn down one of these!  Happy Magicking!