You can find part one here.
By the time I made it down to the store, it was 6:45. I had 45 minutes to test before FNM started. That is, I would have had 45 minutes to test if there had been anyone else there for me to test with. The store was actually packed; there were 20 or so people playing cards on the tables, but they were playing every game ever invented except the one I love. As I scanned the tables for mages tapping their lands, floating mana, and slinging spells, I eventually found two limited/casual-only players trading in a forsaken corner of the store. FNM was definitely a while away.
Of course, the worst part was that I had nothing to do but sit there and watch as they traded the cards I wanted to each other instead of to me. This was definitely not what I had in mind.
Draft 2: Friday Night (Magic)
Format: Shadowmoor
Location: Who’s on First, Dublin
A very long 45 minutes later, the draft started. It was a 16 player tournament, so there were two pods. The player to my right had never drafted before; I explained the basic idea to him while product was distributed.
I don’t really understand this format yet and I’m not sure I can read the signals properly. And the guy passing me cards had very different card evaluations from me since he had never drafted before, which meant that it was even more difficult than usual to figure out what was going on. And, to make things even worse, the player sitting to my left, God bless him, took an Ashenmoor Liege as his first pick and stuck with red and black despite the fact that I cut literally every playable red card in pack one.
The technical term for the result of these three factors is “a train wreck.” I stumbled onto the wrong train at the wrong time, right before it was derailed by a natural disaster. The only good thing about my draft was the fact that I had 2 Shields of the Oversoul and 3 Runes of the Deus. Unfortunately, I had pretty terrible creatures and my curve was really top-heavy. And Runes of the Deus doesn’t really get better in multiples. I also had very little acceleration except for 2 Scuttlemutts.
Round 1 I got bashed by one of the guys who was trading in the corner 45 minutes before. First, he snipes a Mutavault before I could get my binder out and then he 2-0’s me before I could cast any spells. Talk about adding insult to injury. At least he turned out to be a nice guy and we got to trade a bit between rounds. I picked up some cards for my Regionals deck, Manuel B’s Quick’n’Toast. It wasn’t all bad.
The next round was a cake walk. I drew early GW creatures in both games. I played Shield of the Oversoul in each game. My opponent died to a random huge, indestructible, flying dork in both games.
Round 3 should also have been a cake walk, but I was a donkey in a pretty interesting situation. Game one involved suiting up another dork and bashing a mana-screwed opponent. I'll take it, but I'd rather play against someone who casts spells, thanks. Game two involved a mana screwed opponent and a slow hand from me. On turn 4 I cast my first spell, a Scrapbasket. I was holding the Shield of the Oversoul as usual. I planned to cast it and activate Scrapbasket on turn 5, hopefully drawing my 5th land as well so that I could activate the Scrapbasket again on his turn if necessary. On his turn 5, he drew and played his third land, but still had no play. On my turn 5, I drew a Wild Swing and played my Shield of the Oversoul and turned my scarecrow on. “Take 5, sir. You have 3 turns to find an answer.”
This was about the worst play imaginable. First of all, turning Scrapbasket on was stupid. I knew he didn’t have a Puncture Bolt in hand because he would have killed it in response to my aura, but I did leave myself open to him ripping one or another piece of removal (or a land for Burn Trail) in the next turn and killing my game-winning attacker. More importantly, though, he had three permanents in play and I had a Wild Swing that could just be a really sick Stone Rain. It would have put me back exactly where I was a turn ago. He would have 2 lands in play and a hand with no 2 or 3 drops. The only way he could make a play on his turn 6 would be if he drew a 2 drop next turn. And even then, it would be pretty irrelevant because I would still have an awesome attacker.
Basically, I got greedy, grew long ears, a pin-it-on-me tail, and started hee-hawing my way to almost losing a game that couldn’t be lost. He obviously ripped a mountain, cast Murderous Redcap and got a ridiculously strong two-for-zero. But, I just ripped some more lands like a Master and played giant beasts (that were neither Giants nor Beasts) and brought the beats.
I ended up 2-1. My round one opponent won the tournament, giving me good breakers. I was 4th. I was actually pretty pleased with myself. I drafted green which is the worst color ever and managed to win some games. Sure, I did my best Eeyore impression during that last game, but most importantly I managed to avoid embarrassing myself too much as I would have if I had lost that game and had written about it afterwards.
It was 12:00 by the time I got home and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to focus for a whole XXX draft, so I went to bed with the intention of playing another queue in the morning. Little did I know what tomorrow actually had in store…
Tags: Shadowmoor FNM Draft Magic
Related to:
Magic: the Gathering
