Draft to Build

One of the best ways for new Magic players to start building a collection is drafting.  They get to learn all the rules of the game, while grabbing new cards.  Eventually, they can get enough cards from drafting and trading the cards they draft to build constructed decks. 

After being out of commission for a week, due to being sick, I was able to play in a draft this last Sunday.  This wasn’t your standard Scars and Besieged Draft. It was an Urza’s block draft.  I started playing Magic at the end of Shadowmoor. Consequently, I had never drafted from Urza’s block and I was unaware of most of the cards I would be drafting. 

In situations where I am drafting a set that I am uninformed about, I go straight to the BREAD method. (Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Aggressive, Dregs).  For my biggest bomb, I ended up getting passed a Shivan Hellkite.  I got it pack 1 pick 5, which is insane.  I would have picked this card over nearly every other card I saw in this format.  It is a bomb that can be used for removal and has evasion in the form of flying.  I ended up playing a primarily blue Grixis deck.  Blue had powerhouse cards like Palinchron, Rewind, Miscalculation, Thornwind Faeries and Thieving Magpie.  Black had some amazing removal. I grabbed multiple Bone Shredders, Befoul and multiple Sick and Tireds.  This draft format was so slow, that I wasn’t hurt by having 3 colors and no mana fixers.

Round 1 – Mono Green Stompy

Game one - He dropped some huge creatures down onto the board.  I ended up casting Bone Shredder three times thanks to bounce spells, and countered some of his bigger threats.  Eventually, I resolved a Palinchron, and that was more than he could handle. 

Game two – He stalled out on land, while I hit 7 land drops in a row with the help of a Thieving Magpie.  Turn seven was huge.  I resolve both Palinchron and Shivan Hellkite on the same turn.  Faced with such a large air assault, he scooped up his land.

1-0

Round 2 – Black/Red Fast

Game one – His deck was based on the idea that he would play a lot of little creatures and burn.  He tried to end the game as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately for him, I drew both of my Sick and Tireds the first game and resolved Thornwind Faeries.  His little creatures couldn’t stand up to that level of removal so the board was clear for my fliers like Palinchron to bash through.

Game two – The second game played out nearly identically to the first game.  Once again, the card advantage created by Thieving Magpie, paired with spells like Snap and Rewind, were too much for a straight aggro deck to handle.  After Shivan Hellkite hit the board, he scooped up his cards.

 2-0

Round 3 – UG Elves and Wizards

In an unusual turn of events, 2 people ended up going to time and tying for a round.  This meant that I was actually paired down for the last round and played someone with one win and one tie.  I had seen this Elf deck playing earlier and I had to give him some credit for trying to get the tribal theme to work.  Ironically, I had drafted Engineered Plague which would keep about half of his deck off the field.

Game 1 – He wins the toss.  I keep a very control heavy hand while he mulligans to five cards.  I play a turn 3 Thornwind Faeries.  This locks down almost every creature in his deck, while allowing me to slowly chip away at his life total.  I find that he is running a lot of library manipulation, such as Frantic Search.  His only big play I see all game is a Whirlwind.  He plays the Whirlwind, but I still have a grip full of creatures.  Shivan Hellkite proves to be too much to handle.  At the end of this game he promises to hold onto the whirlwind next time.

Game 2 – I go on the aggressive with my fliers, while keeping the ground clear with Sick and Tired.  I hold onto the Hellkite until I have 9 lands available.  When I finally play the Hellkite, he has the Whirlwind in hand to kill it.  Fortunately, I was planning for this and a timely Miscalculation keeps the Hellkite alive to win the game.

3-0

You may be wondering why I would write about an obsolete draft format in a Commander themed blog.  At this particular store, we draft the rares after an event is over.  On the day of this draft, only one good rare was opened.  That rare was Time Spiral.  If you look at the list for Karona, Time Spiral is one of the more expensive cards on the list.  By winning the draft, I was able to pick up one of the most expensive cards on the list without trading or buying any singles.

I recommend drafting to everyone who plays magic.  I try and find stores that draft the Rares afterwards.  It gives a little more control to player over which cards they get and gives additional incentives to draft well instead of rare drafting.  It also makes sure that each player leaves with at least 3 rares or foils.  This fosters a steady growth in players trade binders.

I was given a foil proxy Timetwister by a friend recently.  With Timetwister and Time Spiral taken care of, the rest of these cards fell together rapidly.  I have spent 247.94 out of the $309 maximum for the deck, and there are only six cards remaining to get in foil.

• Mana Reflection
• Mirari’s Wake
• Forbidden Orchard
• Grand Coliseum
• Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• Reliquary Tower

The total value of these foils on SCG is aprx 50 dollars.  That would put me just under the maximum spending for the deck.  If anyone has any ideas for new a new collecting challenge, please let me know.  I would be happy to attempt to try something outrageous like “pack to commander” or something along those lines.

Thank you for reading!