Draft(s) at WMG 12 March 09

So there were a couple of drafts that evening, and here are my picks from the first draft....


Pack 1

Kiss of the Amesha
Cloudheath Drake
Bant Charm
Resounding Silence
Resounding Roar
Rockcaster Platoon
Angelic Benediction
Etherium Sculptor
Gather Specimens
Dawnray Archer
Skill Borrower
Vectis Silencers
Behemoth's Herald
Coma Veil
Forest

Pack 2

Kiss of the Amesha
Sphinx Sovereign
Steward of Valeron
Guardians of Akrasa
Obelisk of Bant
Welkin Guide
Deft Duelist
Bant Battlemage
Obelisk of Bant
Guardians of Akrasa
Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
Marble Chalice
Angel's Herald
Lush Growth

Pack 3

Martial Coup
Rhox Meditant
Skyward Eye Prophets
Celestial Purge
Frontline Sage
Gleam of Resistance
Worldly Counsel
Traumatic Visions
Unsummon
Brackwater Elemental
Jhessian Balmgiver
Elder Mastery
Vedalken Outlander
Grixis Illusionist
Forest

...and here is what I came up with...

5 Forest
5 Island
7 Plains
2 Obelisk of Bant
1 Angelic of Benediction
1 Bant Battlemage
2 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Resounding Silence
1 Rockcaster Platoon
1 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
1 Welkin Guide
1 Cloudheath Drake
1 Bant Charm
1 Deft Duelist
1 Kiss of the Amesha
1 Steward of Valeron
1 Gleam of Resistance
1 Martial Coup
1 Rhox Meditant
1 Brackwater Elemental
1 Frontline Sage
1 Unsummon
1 Jhessian Balmgiver
1 Skyward Eye Prophets


Round 1

Josh Hastings

Game 1

Josh is playing Naya but doesn't get a quick start. I drop a couple of early Exalted guys and go to town with the Duelist. A timely Unsummon on an activated Knight buys me a little time before he drops some beef to slow things down but I have the Coup and wait long enough to wrath and swing back for the win in 2 turns.

Game 2

Josh gets a better start and Magma Sprays my Frontline Sage to slow down my searching. Soon enough, he gets an overwhelming force and we go to game 3.

Game 3

I think that I eventually drew the Coup again for the win.

Round 2

Josh Bayless

Game 1 and 2

Josh is in Esper and gets some ridiculously fast flying draws(Sculptor, Tower, P.Strix, Windmage) that wreck me before I can even get set up even though one game I was able to get the Amesha off(drawing 2 of the 12 land I drew that game).

Round 3

Ward Allen

Game 1

Ward is in Naya as well, and I am on the draw. I have mulliganed too much in the last two rounds and decide to keep dumb hands against him. For the first game I kept the 6 land Kiss of Amesha hand. I drew an early drop and an obelisk and ramped into the Kiss. I whittle him down 2 at a time to 10 and I go to 2 myself, all the while holding the Coup. I wait for him to empty his hand then Coup for 8. He gets a blocker down but two swings is all it takes.

Game 2

Here I keep a sub par hand again, but I get an early Steward to help ramp up. It is 17-13 in his favour when I drop the Rockcaster Platoon to gum up the ground. I activate once at 9 mana on his turn, drop a land on my turn and say go with the score 15-11(I forgot to activate the Balmgiver). He thinks for quite some time, trying to figure how to make an attack work out well for him. He thinks that I have the Coup(and I do) but drops a few more critters on board to hope to get an Alpha Strike on soon then says go. I figure that I have the win so I activate the Rockcaster twice, preventing 1 to me this time with the Balmgiver to bring us to 11-8. I swing in with the big Rhino, superflously tapping something with the Benediction before targeting him with the Balmgiver's second ability(Unblockable).

"So I take 5?" Ward asks.

"No, he's a 7/9 with the 2 Exalted triggers." I reply.

I wait a little bit while he does the math, then he scoops up his cards. Golliher had come in and was watching the second game so he saw my opening hand, so I started chatting with him about both of the awful openers loud enough so that Ward knew what I kept. I think it made him a little perturbed, because he seemed in a bit of a rush to make his picks and be on his way. I guess he didn't want to stay for the Midnight Draft.


That's right...Midnight Draft.

And it was a Friday Night Magic Event!(that is why we had to wait for midnight to start)

So it was a while in the making, but I had scheduled the FNM for special reasons. Not only to make the Hat Trick for Win More(3 FNM's on that Friday), but to celebrate something that I found out on the Ratings page.

This was my 1000th DCI Sanctioned Event!!!!!!
(or at least close enough, I think I was 3 over)
(that is as player, judge, organizer, scorekeeper, etc)

My wife was nice enough(because she is fantastic) to make cupcakes for me to bring to the shop. I also bring some chips and salsa for those not fans of the sweets. So people have something to snack on while we wait for the Witching Hour. People get some playtesting in and then I start taking sign ups. I wait for as long as I can before letting out the next bit of information about this special event.

This is a Free Draft.

That fact keeps a few people in that would have left and we keep trying to juggle a nice draft pod number. We thought it was going to split perfect but we had 3 more come in at the buzzer and brought the grand total up to 27 people for the Midnight Draft.

We go over a few things since I am changing up some of the normal rules. We opt for going 3 rounds and I end up making the 'Keep what you draft' call so that noone feels obligated to stay around and try to get better picks in a redraft. I let everyone in on why I wanted to put this event together and to the best of my knowledge everyone had a good time. It was a close one there when the girl with the Peanut Allergy bites into a cupcake not knowing that my wife had put a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in each one. Luckily it was not a severe allergy and she found it before eating it.

Many thanks to Josh Olson at Win More for staying open late and letting me hold the event at the store. Thanks to everyone who came out to help me celebrate.

As Always,
DHT