Draft!
This blog is quickly turning into a journal of my MtG experiences, for better or worse.
We held an 8-man 3-booster draft at Marty's house the other night. The rules weren't my favorite way to play draft, but I'll take what I get (more on this later). My deck was a red-black aggro-burn that went 2-0, 2-0 against Runas' U/W/G control/combo and Marty's G/B in a pseudo-mirror match before losing 1-2 to Anjoy's R/W/? because of a series of bad plays I made. I redeemed myself in the last round against Tal's R/G(?) where we went 1-1 before he allegedly made a key misplay in the third round that cost him the game and match. Summarizing, my overall record was 3-1-0 or 21 points, and good enough for first place (there was a miscalculation with the scores, but all is well).
Regarding the rules, what happens when we draft among ourselves (like the previous single-booster draft we played in Faura) is that we keep what we draft, including the rares, and the winner gets extra packs as a reward. Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad rule set; in fact I think it forces a player to make a decision on whether to play for cards or for the win and thereby asking him (I hope I can soon write /her after that him) whether he has confidence enough in his drafting skills to play for the packs, and not simply break even by drafting rare cards that are inferior in draft over a strong but monetarily cheap common. As an aside, I have to praise Runas for passing a Sulfurous Springs for a (presumably) stronger card out of one of his packs. Shamefully, I picked a Caves of Koilos out of my third pack which was out of color for me. (Again, more on this later)
I personally prefer the Recto-style rule set where rares are collected at the end of the draft and the winner gets to pick one rare and three uncommons, followed by the runner-up, and so on. Beyond forcing players to choose between cards or wins, this rule set forces the player to play for the WIN because winning is the only way you're getting that chase rare. This is especially true when one of the players opens a pack and finds, for example, a Pithing Needle (ahem). In the rule set we played the other night, if I opened a pack with Pithing Needle and a game winning card like say, Blaze, I would pick the Needle and I wouldn't mind if I got Blazed to death in every single game I played afterwards. Not very conducive to a competitive drafting match.
Still on the rules, I'm happy with how the deck building part of the draft was ruled. We picked a total of 42 cards from the boosters, but we only needed exactly 40 cards in our fighting decks, including lands. The 17 or so "extra" cards would go into our "sideboard". I believe that this is an excellent rule because it prevents the scenario where you need to topdeck for the win and you rip that one off-color card you got as your 15th pick and which you didn't even bother to get lands for (ahem*Sylvan Scrying*ahem). This also allowed me to pick the Caves of Koilos without worrying too much about it screwing up my gameplan, knowing that I could just chuck it in my sideboard and play the in-color cards.
Another good thing about that draft was the abolishment of the "shuffle-graveyard-into-library" rule which I thought was silly. Picture having that 'mamaw' you worked so hard to kill getting shuffled right back into your opponent's library along with two or three other cards. Unfortunately we failed to enforce the deck-out rule which is absent in single-booster drafts but present in three-booster drafts. This oversight resulted in one match lasting FOREVER and eventually boring both players and the spectators into declaring it a draw.
So what were the MVPs in this draft? First, Soul Feast was a SUPERSTAR. On several occasions it single handedly swung the momentum of the game in my favor. I will never pick Consume Spirit over it again.
Terror was Terror and Incinerate was Incinerate, making little children cry all over the world. Guerrilla Tactics, two copies of Shock, and two copies of Spitting Earth made sure they kept crying.
Hidden Horror was awesome, usually eating my Goblin Pikers in exchange for 3 mana, 4/4 imbaness. My 2 Goblin Pikers weren't bad either, beating early with some help from Fists of the Anvil. Mass of Ghouls graduated from crap-I-would-never-touch to crap-I-would-draft. It's like Spined Wurm, but black and fragile. Finally, there were Lava Axe and Essence Drain for the win.
All in all, the draft was one of the best experiences in my short MtG career. My only qualm is the ridiculous crappiness of the box we bought. WoG? Pithing Needle? Crucible? Nonexistent. We basically got three lands and a Squee. Would I do it again? Absolutely. We just need 8 people and a venue again. The experience is of course invaluable and as the drafting ability of myself and my play group goes up so too I believe will the excitement of draft.
BLOGGING FOR WHAT'S RIGHT!
September 9, 2007, 5:22 pm
We held an 8-man 3-booster draft at Marty's house the other night. The rules weren't my favorite way to play draft, but I'll take what I get (more on this later). My deck was a red-black aggro-burn that went 2-0, 2-0 against Runas' U/W/G control/combo and Marty's G/B in a pseudo-mirror match before losing 1-2 to Anjoy's R/W/? because of a series of bad plays I made. I redeemed myself in the last round against Tal's R/G(?) where we went 1-1 before he allegedly made a key misplay in the third round that cost him the game and match. Summarizing, my overall record was 3-1-0 or 21 points, and good enough for first place (there was a miscalculation with the scores, but all is well).
Regarding the rules, what happens when we draft among ourselves (like the previous single-booster draft we played in Faura) is that we keep what we draft, including the rares, and the winner gets extra packs as a reward. Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad rule set; in fact I think it forces a player to make a decision on whether to play for cards or for the win and thereby asking him (I hope I can soon write /her after that him) whether he has confidence enough in his drafting skills to play for the packs, and not simply break even by drafting rare cards that are inferior in draft over a strong but monetarily cheap common. As an aside, I have to praise Runas for passing a Sulfurous Springs for a (presumably) stronger card out of one of his packs. Shamefully, I picked a Caves of Koilos out of my third pack which was out of color for me. (Again, more on this later)
I personally prefer the Recto-style rule set where rares are collected at the end of the draft and the winner gets to pick one rare and three uncommons, followed by the runner-up, and so on. Beyond forcing players to choose between cards or wins, this rule set forces the player to play for the WIN because winning is the only way you're getting that chase rare. This is especially true when one of the players opens a pack and finds, for example, a Pithing Needle (ahem). In the rule set we played the other night, if I opened a pack with Pithing Needle and a game winning card like say, Blaze, I would pick the Needle and I wouldn't mind if I got Blazed to death in every single game I played afterwards. Not very conducive to a competitive drafting match.
Still on the rules, I'm happy with how the deck building part of the draft was ruled. We picked a total of 42 cards from the boosters, but we only needed exactly 40 cards in our fighting decks, including lands. The 17 or so "extra" cards would go into our "sideboard". I believe that this is an excellent rule because it prevents the scenario where you need to topdeck for the win and you rip that one off-color card you got as your 15th pick and which you didn't even bother to get lands for (ahem*Sylvan Scrying*ahem). This also allowed me to pick the Caves of Koilos without worrying too much about it screwing up my gameplan, knowing that I could just chuck it in my sideboard and play the in-color cards.
Another good thing about that draft was the abolishment of the "shuffle-graveyard-into-library" rule which I thought was silly. Picture having that 'mamaw' you worked so hard to kill getting shuffled right back into your opponent's library along with two or three other cards. Unfortunately we failed to enforce the deck-out rule which is absent in single-booster drafts but present in three-booster drafts. This oversight resulted in one match lasting FOREVER and eventually boring both players and the spectators into declaring it a draw.
So what were the MVPs in this draft? First, Soul Feast was a SUPERSTAR. On several occasions it single handedly swung the momentum of the game in my favor. I will never pick Consume Spirit over it again.
Terror was Terror and Incinerate was Incinerate, making little children cry all over the world. Guerrilla Tactics, two copies of Shock, and two copies of Spitting Earth made sure they kept crying.
Hidden Horror was awesome, usually eating my Goblin Pikers in exchange for 3 mana, 4/4 imbaness. My 2 Goblin Pikers weren't bad either, beating early with some help from Fists of the Anvil. Mass of Ghouls graduated from crap-I-would-never-touch to crap-I-would-draft. It's like Spined Wurm, but black and fragile. Finally, there were Lava Axe and Essence Drain for the win.
All in all, the draft was one of the best experiences in my short MtG career. My only qualm is the ridiculous crappiness of the box we bought. WoG? Pithing Needle? Crucible? Nonexistent. We basically got three lands and a Squee. Would I do it again? Absolutely. We just need 8 people and a venue again. The experience is of course invaluable and as the drafting ability of myself and my play group goes up so too I believe will the excitement of draft.
BLOGGING FOR WHAT'S RIGHT!
September 9, 2007, 5:22 pm
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