Monday, January 6, 2014

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

Voice of Resurgence

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.

Wingsteed Rider  Zhur-Taa Druid  Viashino Firstblade

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.

Unflinching Courage  Ordeal of Nylea Warleader's Helix

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.

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