I’m usually really bad at drafting. The reason is that there are about five important guidelines and I always forget at least one. Creatures are good, disruption is VERY good, have a smoothish mana-curve, stick with a few colors, and be able to finish the game. On top of this, I usually find it difficult not to money draft (even if the money card is bad, like Memoricide). Regardless of my limited success in Limited, I still greatly enjoy the format. It’s interesting, it’s wonky (Sorin’s Vengeance is viable?) and the best players aren’t the ones with the most money. Similarly, everybody is usually pretty social about picks and nobody is super serious about their decks, as they can’t be consistent, so the environment is simply more casual.
With that in mind, I draft about once a week; usually at CoolStuff because it’s a middle ground for me and David. This Tuesday, we went to Coliseum of Comics in Kissimmee to say good-bye to our buddy Orion, who is going off to college this week way up the East Coast (good luck hombre!). Now, CoC is about 45 minutes from my house, so this location is less than convenient for me, but hey, everything is better with friends. I got there about an hour before drafting, introduced myself to the locals and started Magic-ing.
When the draft finally started, we had about 24+ people opening packs and making picks. My first pack was lackluster: Warstorm Surge and some hate Uncommons, so I ended up picking the Chandra’s Outrage. By pick eight of pack one I was playing primarily blue with red and green as possible back-up colors. I snagged a pick-two Mind Control and was PASSED another one later (opened my third one in pack-three), with some Aven Fleetwings and other fliers making up the bulk of my creature base (hey, evasion is good, right?), so I now had to decide on my second color. The early Chandra’s Outrage followed by a Shock had me leaning towards red, but a Cudgel Troll and a pack-three WHEELING Jade Mage nudged me to play green. I hadn’t picked up any Manaliths, so tri-color was out of the question, so I was faced with a real tough decision.
I knew my blue could probably stand by itself, but I had some very strong support cards in two other colors that I thought could complement my deck. I looked at the two colors and considered the functions they covered. Jade Mage is an absolutely incredible card that can both create blockers for you and possibly set up a win if you happen upon an Overrun. As I was not fortunate enough to pick up an Overrun and I figured I would sooner be pouring leftover mana into Azure Mages, this pick was not as strong as it could’ve been. I ended up going red for one reason: Fling. I had two Flings and I believe there is little more satisfying in draft than taking control of a creature (usually via Act of Treason), attacking my opponent with it, and Flinging it at their face for an encore of damage. Coupled with the Mind Controls I had, this seemed like a solid bet (Shock and Outrage helped, though). On a more serious note, burn spells and Fling often help you close out the game if your opponent gains field position (via more creatures or Gideon Jura) or as surprise finishers. With those decisions made, I sleeved up my Ur-fliers and sat down for round one.
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Round one was another UR deck with an emphasis on Bloodthirst. Bloodthirst creatures can really control the board if they have reliable damage. Cards like Tormented Soul, Goblin Fireslinger and Scepter of the Empires make activating Bloodthirst easy and the creatures usually have a secondary ability to make up for their mana-mediocrity (Flying, First Strike, Lifelink, etc.) I won a close first match with a Mind Controlled Gorehorn Minotaurs after a bit of a stand-off of big creatures (Belltower Sphinx doesn’t KILL much, but nobody likes attacking into it). Match 2 was close at first, but he always seemed to have one more Shock than me to get creatures through unblocked. Match three was pretty much a blow-out as I got Mana Leak, Skywinder Drake, Aven Fleetwing and Chasm Drake out in perfect succession for too much flying and disruption to handle. Victory!
Round two was against mono-black with artifact support. David has mentioned this before, but Crown of Empires is pretty freakin’ good. Similarly, Throne is amazing and Scepter doesn’t hurt. Well this guy had them all. I lost match one to a brutal Tormented Soul with Dark Favor (holy 4/2 unblockable, Batman) and some good early game trades. Match two was fairly close but again, one Crown of Empires isn’t great against two Mind Controls. Match three was a bit of a nail-biter where I almost lost to two un-boosted Tormented Souls and a Scepter of the Empires (being on a clock is NOT fun). I made a very frustrated play near the end and was forced to Shock one Soul and Mind Control the other (yes, I spent 5-mana on a 1/1) to slow my clock down by a fair bit. I almost stabilized at the end but a Sengir Vampire with Swiftfoot Boots took me by surprise for the loss.
Round three was UB fliers with direct damage. I won game on the back of his Djinn of Wishes. That’s not to say he made it easy. The first time I Controlled it, he used Æther Adept to break my enchantment; so I Controlled it again. He responded with a SECOND Æther Adept, but I top-decked a third Mind Control and a Fling the next turn for the win. I lost match two to a hilarious Sorin’s Vengeance (which I originally mistook for a Sorin’s Thirst). Match three was also ultra-close wherein an early Sorin’s Vengeance put me a bit behind and Consume Spirit’s “spend only Black mana on X” stipulation kept me from losing on the spot.
2-1; not bad so far. Round 4, my opponent had dropped, so I cruised to 3-1. Round five was Mill America (RWU) where I won 2-0 quickly with two unanswered fliers and a Fling in match one and another 1-2-3 punch of fliers in match two.
I ended up 4-1 and second place (my only loss had been to the first place fellow) at around 1am. Two key take-aways from this experience were: (1) Don’t be the stranger. If it’s your first time drafting somewhere, try not to be reclusive or cliquish and try to integrate yourself into the community. I spoke with a pair of resident drafters there and they said they didn’t like losing to strangers because they came to draft mainly as a social event. Most people don’t mind losing to their friends, but some random guy who shows up, drafts and leaves can be a tad annoying—why was this guy here anyway? (2) Try to help new drafters. I can’t complain too much about my three Mind Controls, but I felt like I could have helped more by high-lighting the importance of removal in draft. I think half of the people at my table were inexperienced drafters, as I was passed two Shocks and two Mind Controls and the gentleman across the table from me had three Chandra’s Outrages and three Doom Blades. Advising new drafters also helps build relations a la take-away (1); people see you’re not afraid to help others at your own expense and will likely be more welcoming.
Drafting is a ton of fun and I recommend it to everyone. If you can’t get to a card shop on the right days, consider getting a pool of 8 friends together and buying a box (~$13/person and you get one extra pack to keep!) Thanks to everyone I played at Coliseum of Comics for a splendid night of Magic and shout-outs to David Jetha and Orion Taylor for joining me.
-Javier Remy
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