Two weeks ago I went to FNM and they were drafting Unstable, which I wasn't really interested in. I played a little Standard and then a game of Commander where I had some land trouble and got demolished by Ezuri and comrades and was the first player eliminated in a 4-player game. It was fun but nothing worth writing about.
This Friday I went back, and it seems they have switched to chaos drafting because everyone is bored of triple Ixalan. That's fine by me; I love chaos draft. I did it at a Grand Prix Houston 2 years ago, and it was limited to 1 pack per set and included sets all the way back to Stronghold. This one was a little different, with 1 pack of Iconic Masters and a mix of $3 packs including Conspiracy, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Eldritch Moon, all the current Standard-legal sets. They were mixed up in a black trash bag, and each player blindly pulled three packs. We had 9 people at the table.
My packs were 2 Conspiracy (original) and 1 Eldritch Moon. I had very little familiarity with Conspiracy going in, so I had to do a bit of card reading. It was particularly odd because the Conspiracy sets were designed for multiplayer games, so some cards were better or worse than normal in duels. Here is what I drafted:
Pack 1 gave me a very easy first pick, and a card I was already very familiar with, the old standby since Alpha, Swords to Plowshares. The rare was Sulfuric Vortex, a fun card but not anywhere near StP in power level. Pick 2 was a Conspiracy 2 card that I wasn't sure about, but it turned out to be a great card. See its text in photos below. After that it was a mix of removal and creatures in white-blue, and I was pretty sure about my colors by the end of Pack 1. A couple of my Conspiracy picks were not as good as I thought after I read the cards a little better (Stasis Cell, Messenger Jays). Exotic Orchard wasn't a great pick but the pack didn't have much to offer.
Pack 2 gave my Custodi Soulbinders at rare -- in hindsight that might have been the best card but I don't have much context. The card I took was definitely not the best pick. I misread that it never untaps unless a creature dies, thinking instead that it untaps every other turn plus when a creature dies. In any case, I think it is probably very bad outside of multiplayer or very specific decks, and I wouldn't have picked it. After that I got 2 great auras from recent sets, and then a bunch of playable or borderline W/U cards. Crookclaw Transmuter (another Conspiracy card) turned out to be a great creature and I was amazed that it is common. It would certainly be uncommon in a Standard set. Custodi Peacekeeper taps down creatures with power less than or equal to its draft position, which should have been 7, but I misread the card and wrote 6 on it in permanent marker. It didn't end up mattering.
Pack 3 had Stromkirk Occultist at rare and nothing notable at uncommon, so I took the underpowered version of Lingering Souls. Harnessed Lightning was an odd pick (and an odd card to be available), but I thought there was a chance I splash it. Pariah at 8th pick was a big surprise -- this card has a unique effect that is usually removal + fog but can be very devastating in some situations.
Here is my deck, so you can read some of the weird cards:
The nice thing about white-blue in chaos draft is that those colors almost always make a reasonably good fliers deck, so I didn't have to search very hard for synergies. I played a bunch of reasonably good 2-drops, and evasion at higher costs.
I actually had a first round bye (because of 9 players), so I was able to do some extra evaluation before playing. I realized Pariah makes a nearly unbeatable combo with Seraph of the Suns, so I took a couple bounce spells out and replaced them with Seraph and a Plains. Burrenton Forge-Tender also combos with Pariah against red opponents and just randomly hoses red players on its own.
My sideboard was mostly blue bounce and a few defensive creatures, and I still considered the possibility of bringing in Exotic Orchard / Unknown Shores / Harnessed Lightning against red opponents. In practice, the only sideboard cards I used were Cancel and Leave in the Dust (against non-creature cards that could give me trouble).
Round 2 vs. M.
After the bye, I was matched against M, who was playing mono-red. He was next to me on the left during the draft and had first picked a Walking Ballista followed by the Molten Vortex that I passed. The first game he had the Vortex down but I got the edge with good creatures and timely bounce. Second game I learned the true power of Keeper of Keys. Monarch says "At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, its controller becomes the monarch." In multiplayer Limited (which is what Conspiracy is), this is pretty fair, but in a duel it is much easier to sit back behind a wall of creatures and bounce spells, and then attack with whatever unblockable things I want on my own turn. Of course, I forgot to draw a card the first turn it was in play, but it still set up a situation where even a Walking Ballista a couple turns later couldn't save him. Win, 2-0.
Round 3 vs. A.
A had been sitting to my right during the draft, and he passed me Keeper of Keys in favor of a conspiracy card that allowed him to cast all his casting cost 3 spells with any color of mana. The conspiracy is active for the entire game, like an enchantment that can't be removed. So his draft revolved around grabbing the best available 3-drops in any color. The deck was Mardu (white-black-red) with no other cohesive theme. In the first game I was hanging on and close to turning the corner with Pariah and Swords in my hand, but he cast an unexpected Distended Mindbender (everything is unexpected in chaos draft) to discard Pariah, and I couldn't stabilize. Game 2 I got off to a better start and kept putting out fliers until he was overcome. I also got rid of Daredevil Dragster with Swords to avoid him drawing 2 cards from it and had a timely Cancel to blow him out in combat. In the third game, he kept a risky 1-land hand after mulligan to 6 on the play, and he drew perfectly to make his plays. But I got Keeper of Keys to put on a lot of pressure. Of course, I somehow forgot to draw for Monarch or attack with my other creatures on the turn I played it, and that almost cost me. I was holding Seraph and Pariah, and when I played Seraph he again drew exactly the land he needed to kill Keeper of Keys and then make me sacrifice Seraph. We went into turns. With him at 4 life I flashed in Crookclaw Transmuter (3/1) on his end step before my last turn, and then I drew Carouche of Knowledge (+1/+1) to get the lethal hit. Win, 2-1.
Round 4 vs. C.
This was a 4-round tournament with prized based on standings, so at 3-0 we drew the match and split the prize. It was 5 packs to 1st place and 2 to 2nd place, and he had the better strength of schedule (since I had a bye), so we split the packs 4-3 with the stipulation that I show him what I got in the pack that would have been his. Not bad!
My final record for actual games played was 2-0 in matches and 4-1 in games, despite a few obvious draft and gameplay mistakes (mainly because I wasn't familiar with Conspiracy)
Here is what I left with:
The pack I opened had nothing notable. So my best money cards were Swords to Plowshares, which is somewhere over $1, and Harnessed Lightning is still a little under $1.
I drafted 3 rares, which is about normal (although it's strange that they're all from Conspiracy: Take the Crown), and I only drafted 7 uncommons, slightly below average.
I love chaos draft, and I'd be happy to get more of these in before the Ixalan follow-up is released in late January.
I actually had a first round bye (because of 9 players), so I was able to do some extra evaluation before playing. I realized Pariah makes a nearly unbeatable combo with Seraph of the Suns, so I took a couple bounce spells out and replaced them with Seraph and a Plains. Burrenton Forge-Tender also combos with Pariah against red opponents and just randomly hoses red players on its own.
My sideboard was mostly blue bounce and a few defensive creatures, and I still considered the possibility of bringing in Exotic Orchard / Unknown Shores / Harnessed Lightning against red opponents. In practice, the only sideboard cards I used were Cancel and Leave in the Dust (against non-creature cards that could give me trouble).
Round 2 vs. M.
After the bye, I was matched against M, who was playing mono-red. He was next to me on the left during the draft and had first picked a Walking Ballista followed by the Molten Vortex that I passed. The first game he had the Vortex down but I got the edge with good creatures and timely bounce. Second game I learned the true power of Keeper of Keys. Monarch says "At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, its controller becomes the monarch." In multiplayer Limited (which is what Conspiracy is), this is pretty fair, but in a duel it is much easier to sit back behind a wall of creatures and bounce spells, and then attack with whatever unblockable things I want on my own turn. Of course, I forgot to draw a card the first turn it was in play, but it still set up a situation where even a Walking Ballista a couple turns later couldn't save him. Win, 2-0.
Round 3 vs. A.
A had been sitting to my right during the draft, and he passed me Keeper of Keys in favor of a conspiracy card that allowed him to cast all his casting cost 3 spells with any color of mana. The conspiracy is active for the entire game, like an enchantment that can't be removed. So his draft revolved around grabbing the best available 3-drops in any color. The deck was Mardu (white-black-red) with no other cohesive theme. In the first game I was hanging on and close to turning the corner with Pariah and Swords in my hand, but he cast an unexpected Distended Mindbender (everything is unexpected in chaos draft) to discard Pariah, and I couldn't stabilize. Game 2 I got off to a better start and kept putting out fliers until he was overcome. I also got rid of Daredevil Dragster with Swords to avoid him drawing 2 cards from it and had a timely Cancel to blow him out in combat. In the third game, he kept a risky 1-land hand after mulligan to 6 on the play, and he drew perfectly to make his plays. But I got Keeper of Keys to put on a lot of pressure. Of course, I somehow forgot to draw for Monarch or attack with my other creatures on the turn I played it, and that almost cost me. I was holding Seraph and Pariah, and when I played Seraph he again drew exactly the land he needed to kill Keeper of Keys and then make me sacrifice Seraph. We went into turns. With him at 4 life I flashed in Crookclaw Transmuter (3/1) on his end step before my last turn, and then I drew Carouche of Knowledge (+1/+1) to get the lethal hit. Win, 2-1.
Round 4 vs. C.
This was a 4-round tournament with prized based on standings, so at 3-0 we drew the match and split the prize. It was 5 packs to 1st place and 2 to 2nd place, and he had the better strength of schedule (since I had a bye), so we split the packs 4-3 with the stipulation that I show him what I got in the pack that would have been his. Not bad!
My final record for actual games played was 2-0 in matches and 4-1 in games, despite a few obvious draft and gameplay mistakes (mainly because I wasn't familiar with Conspiracy)
Here is what I left with:
I drafted 3 rares, which is about normal (although it's strange that they're all from Conspiracy: Take the Crown), and I only drafted 7 uncommons, slightly below average.
I love chaos draft, and I'd be happy to get more of these in before the Ixalan follow-up is released in late January.
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