A Unique Draft Experience

So a couple months ago, I participated in a draft with two boosters of Dragon's Maze and one booster of Theros. One of the regulars at my local game store had 16 Dragon's Maze boosters left from some prerelease packs he bought, and since we had 8 people, he went ahead and bought 8 Theros packs so that we could do a 3 round draft.

I went ahead and explained the rules to the few players who had never done a draft before, and we then started drafting. My first pack had a Voice of Resurgence that I couldn't pass up (an expensive card that is cheap to play in a draft makes for a great first pick). From there, I knew I needed some White/Green cards and with cards like Armed//Dangerous and Warleader's Helix rounding out a deck, I knew I needed to splash Red, so I collected a few Guildgates and a couple Cluestones. My Theros pack had a Thassa in it, and not seeing anything really useful for my deck in that pack, I obviously nabbed Thassa. In the event I wanted to work with splashing Blue, I picked up a Nimbus Naiad, but I wound up sticking to Naya colors.

Here are the cards I got out of the draft:

Mythic Rares Thassa, God of the Sea Voice of Resurgence

Rares Spear of Heliod Skylasher

Uncommons Dauntless Onslaught Hunt the Hunter Ordeal of Nylea Bronzebeak Moa Debt to the Deathless Feral Animist Gleam of Battle Unflinching Courage Warleader's Helix Armed//Dangerous

Commons Battlewise Valor Haazda Snare Squad Maze Sentinel Observant Alseid Steeple Rock Steeple Rock Wake the Reflections Wingsteed Rider Nimbus Naiad Awe for the Guilds Minotaur Skullcleaver Riot Piker Satyr Rambler Kraul Warrior Leafcrown Dryad Nessian Courser Savage Surge Thrashing Mossdog Armored Wolf-Rider Armored Wolf-Rider Nivix Cyclops Viashino Firstblade Zhur-Taa Druid Zhur-Taa Druid Boros Cluestone Boros Cluestone Selesnya Cluestone Gruul Guildgate Gruul Guildgate Selesnya Guildgate

Since I have three Guildgates, two of which supply Red, I dropped them in (draft decks are going to be slow and dual lands are dual lands, so I had to include those. With so many great card options involved in my pool, I wanted to ignore the three cluestones, but I dropped a single Boros Cluestone in there for mana fixing and of course for the red.

Naya Aggro (White/Red/Green)

1st Place, Casual Draft

Creatures x1 Bronzebeak Moa x1 Kraul Warrior x1 Leafcrown Dryad x1 Observant Alseid x1 Riot Piker x1 Skylasher x1 Steeple Roc x1 Viashino Firstblade x1 Voice of Resurgence x1 Wingsteed Rider x2 Zhur-Taa Druid Land x2 Gruul Guildgate x1 Selesnya Guildgate x7 Plains x2 Mountain x5 Forest

Artifacts x1 Boros Cluestone x1 Spear of Heliod Other Spells x1 Armed//Dangerous x1 Battlewise Valor x1 Dauntless Onslaught x1 Gleam of Battle x1 Ordeal of Nylea x1 Savage Surge x1 Unflinching Courage x1 Wake the Reflections x1 Warleader's Helix

Everything returns to revolving around Voice because it is powerful. Opponent's can't resist either killing Voice or casting a spell during your turn to counter another spell you play, and the tokens definitely helped.

    

Other than Voice, these had to be the most important creatures. Wingsteed Rider could be targeted by the Enchantment Creatures or several other spells and allow for you to defeat your opponent since they lack the ability to stop large flying creatures. Zhur-Taa Druid pretty much taps to deal one damage to an opponent. Without mana burn, you're free to add a green mana to your pool and let it fizzle out at the end of the phase, but if you need the mana, it is there for you. And Viashino Firstblade... This is a great card to use to deal four damage on turn three, because in a slow game, you're opponents can't stop you.

   

Ah, the three most important spells in the deck. Ordeal of Nylea lets you add lands to the battlefield after pumping a creature, Warleader's Helix is great for direct damage or removal, and one of my favorite cards in Dragon's Maze: Unflinching Courage. While just a functional reprint of Armadillo Cloak, If you target Wingsteed Rider with Unflinching Courage (say, turn 4), then you have a 5/5 flyer with trample and lifelink. It's near impossible to stop that, especially in a format that is typically slow and has limited flyers, creatures with reach, or even powerful removal.

If you notice with this deck, I was able to put together low costing cards that involve ways to boost my creatures, where I was typically ending games by turn 6. I did this before with my The most interesting match was between myself and an opponent that went Blue/Black with a couple flyers and Woodlot Crawlers, but fortunately I could get around those, and the last two games were close, but I came out on top based on top decks.

This was definitely one of the most fun drafts I've ever participated in based on the card pools and the very close matches against Dimir.

And Phil, if you are reading this, thanks for supplying the boosters and letting us keep the cards we used in our decks. It was definitely a fun experience.