Draftsravaganza(s)!

DRAFTS!

I still can't pronounce the word correctly, but Draftstraganza 2: The Revenge was very fun. Personally I got pounded in the Shadowmoor draft, despite what I thought was a solid G/R affair with Flame Javelin, Boggart Ram-Gang, and double Tower Above. Oh yeah, Pili-Pala and double Power of Fire. Then I played Julio in the last round, whose G/R deck featured double Deus of Calamity. He showed me how it was done. I was only able to defeat Tabasco in the first round and lost out from there, probably due to my many play mistakes. I feel like if I don't draft at least once a week I just make stupid errors all over.

Ravnica/Guildpact/Dissension draft was way more fun, partly because I knew what I was doing. My plan was to go Red/White/Blue, starting with first pick Hunted Dragon. I also grabbed an early Snapping Drake and a Peel from Reality. I got what I thought was the Izzet hook up in pack two, with dubs Train of Thought, dubs Torch Drake, a Repeal, Gigadrowse, Electrolyze, Pyromatics, and Izzet Chronarch. However, CBG, who was sitting to my left, apparently cut me some Steamcore Weird and Ogre Savant action in the middle pack. Man, Izzet was open!Dissension pushed me into Black instead of White with a very late Wrecking Ball, a Demon's Jester and two Rakdos Signets for the splash. I also grabbed a few decent Graft guys including Helium Squirter and Cytoplast Manipulator. I know the consensus was that if you weren't running four colors, you were doing something wrong, but I really prefer my Rav block draft decks to be three colors if possible (with maybe a fourth color splash for an off color guild land, like one black source for Church of Deals, or the "kicker" on Induce Paranoia). I think there is usually less of a chance of properly drafting mana fixers to actually make a four color deck that doesn't screw you at random than there is of winning based on three color consistency. But hey, I'm the guy who kept playing against opponents who seemed to keep beating themselves with their manabases, so I might be biased. It was actually a challenging deck to build, because I had so many options. More than one opponent did not approve of my Torpid Moloch turn one, but the plan was to be a midrange deck that could basically steal a win with bounce and pumpable and/or hasty flyers. I just needed to stay alive long enough to flip the game around. More than one game I used Hunted Dragon as a five mana burn spell. I ended up losing the finals to Jonathan. That guy had my number all night! I just felt like he not only outplayed me, but knew what I was trying to do and knew exactly how to stop it. To be fair, the final game of the draft he drops a turn two Azorious Guildmage and I draw absolutely zero removal or bounce all game. Nothing. So my options were fairly limited. He roundly outplayed me though, and deserved the win more than me, no doubt.

CUBE!

Well, CBG and I finally came around to Tabasco and The Captain's point of view- we need to expand the Cube. After having nine on Sunday it really seems like the thing to do. The Cube is fun, and even though the usual number is around 4-6, we should be able to support more, just in case. As Tabasco reminded us, this will also make the Cube drafting experience more dynamic since there will be a larger potential card pool. I invited Tabasco and The Captain to make a card list that will take us to 540 cards. I think they are keen to include Eventide goodies too. For ease of reference here is the latest Cube Draft List (v2.0) with only a few changes. We replaced Dimir Cutpurse with Shadowmage Infiltrator and Frenzied Goblin with Taurean Mauler (the joke being that the Shapeshifter was a better Goblin than the, you know, actual Goblin). I would love to put this together within the next few weeks, if possible. The reason being...

Draftstravaganza III: Legend of the Cube

We're trying to keep the Limited flame alive! This is tentative, but I am aiming for July 19th, Casa de TooSarcastic. Free brunch starts at 11, drafts commence at noon. I would like to get three drafts in. Possible formats include: Cube Draft (obv), RGD Rotisserie (eh, CBG?), Reject Rare, Shadowmoor/Shadowmoor/Eventide (it's the weekend after the prerelease) and/or other unusual stuff. If we do the Cube and then the Rotisserie we are looking at a very cheap day of drafting for everyone. Free and brunch and cheap Magic! What else could you want? Maybe we'll start the day out with some bizarre Sealed format, just because. Let me know what you would like to play.

T