I picked up a box today (Friday, June 07, 2013) from my local store and grabbed a few people to draft. I thought it would be fun to follow the Draft and see what and who took what! After all, drafting a new set is always supposed to be cool, right!?

Now, there are a few caveats first. We play Multiplayer Draft, so these cards are used for multiplayer games and not duels. Also, we don’t have a full eight players—sorry. We only have six. That may mess with the math or distribution a bit. Still, it’s a fun Draft with six players and a new set that is supposed to be among the best Drafts formats ever. Afterward, will I think so (with the caveat of multiplayer play, and six-player Draft)?

Let’s Go!

Pick two arrives, and it is missing the rare. I’ll skip listing the whole pack. I like Take Possession a lot, and I grab it. The other top cards were Search for Tomorrow, Path to Exile, and Pardic Dragon. In the third pick, I consider Electrolyze and some generic Faeries. I hope the guy to my right does not take the Dragon after I scooped up the Electrolyze. Other good cards included a bunch of blue decent cards such as Aether Spellbomb and Latchkey Faerie, but there’s not not that much good elsewhere. The fourth pick has Traumatic Visions and Thundering Giant as my major choices. Outside of my colors, the best cards are Relic of Progenitus and Worm Harvest. I grab the hasted Giant—haste is strong in multiplayer. At the five spot, I take Pyrite Spellbomb over the Stinkdrinker Daredevil or Torrent of Stone—no blue cards in the pack. I pass Torrent again for Pestermite. I need creatures more than bad removal this early.

Now that we know each other’s cards and have seen what is going, the next six cards fly by pretty quickly. I take Myr Enforcer, Terramorphic Expanse, Aether Spellbomb, Echoing Truth, Torrent of Stone, and Myr Retriever. Those are very playable cards. My final three cards were Peer Through Depths, Rift Elemental, and Arcbound Stinger.

Okay, what was in pack two? Great stuff?

Even when not playing black, the Redcap is a great choice, so I grab it. I am passed Keiga, the Tide Star, and I snag it—duh. That means he is not playing blue. In pick three, I have a few options. Petals of Insight is good. I also have Aethersnipe, Empty the Warrens, and Tar Pitcher. I really like the blue cards. I go with Aethersnipe, but it was close. My fourth pick has some odd cards in it. Incremental Growth, Bonesplitter, and Stinkweed Imp give me pause. There are a ton of cards in my colors, though. I grab a second ’Snipe. The only real choice at pick five is the Shrapnel Blast. I take it over Stingscourger, Arcbound Worker, and Mothdust Changeling. The final pick before the first pack returns sees a second Shrapnel Blast as well as Grapeshot, Frogmite, and a foil Fiery Fall. I’m tempted to Fiery Fall. My deck could use mana-search early and burn later. I’d love the removal of another Blast, but back-to-back Blasts without knowing how deep my artifacts will run is rough. So, I take the Fall.

My seventh pick is between the two lands I cracked and the Tribal Flames. I take the Expanse. I follow with a foil Faerie Mechanist, another Myr Enforcer, Bonesplitter, Arcbound Worker, and Frogmite. Then, the final dregs arrive, and I nab Fury Charm, Arcbound Worker and Reach Through Mists.

Time for the final pack!

It’s not a great pack for my colors. Rift Bolt and Mechanist are really my only choices. Seeing as I am moving to an artifact theme, I’m leaning that way. But I need more removal, so I snatch up Rift Bolt. I might see the Mechanist return; I won’t get the Bolt back. Once again, I am passed a bomb rare from Kamigawa: Meloku the Clouded Mirror. There’s no question that I collect it. The other value cards for me were Myr Enforcer, two Traumatic Visions, Esperzoa, and Pyrite Spellbomb. Some of that will come back.

I see a tough third pick. I could take Arcbound Ravager. In the pack is also Careful Consideration, and I need card-draw. Which do I take? After consideration, I am still unsure. The Ravager is good because it’s very synergetic with the artifacts I’ve been picking up. I know another Myr Enforcer is in these packs. How many playable artifacts am I rocking? Bonesplitter, one of each Spellbomb, maybe my two Enforcers, a Mechanist, a Retriever, a Frogmite, and some small Arcbound dudes. I believe that the Ravager makes my deck potentially better than the Consideration does, so I slip it out of the pack, but that was a close call.

I get lucky, and the Mechanist is still in my first pack at seventh, and I select it. While the Pyrite Spellbomb does not make it back around, the Myr Enforcer does. I take another Sculptor to match the first. Aether Vial, Fiery Fall, and Arcbound Worker round out the next six cards. My last three are foil Esperzoa, foil Traumatic Visions, and Syphon Life.

So, let’s build my deck!

"Abe’s First MMA Multiplayer Draft Deck"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Errant Ephemeron
• 1 Hammerheim Deadeye
• 1 Murderous Redcap
• 1 Pestermite
• 1 Thundering Giant
• 2 Aethersnipe
• 1 Arcbound Ravager
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 2 Faerie Mechanist
• 3 Myr Enforcer
• 1 Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror

• Spells (7)
• 1 Careful Consideration
• 1 Electrolyze
• 1 Torrent of Stone
• 1 Rift Bolt
• 1 Take Possession
• 1 Bonesplitter
• 1 Pyrite Spellbomb

• Lands (17)
• 7 Mountain
• 8 Island
• 2 Terramorphic Expanse

Buy This Deck

This was the deck I shuffled and played. If I wanted a heavier artifact theme, I could have added in Esperzoa, Artifact Blast, two Etherium Sculptors, Frogmite, Aether Spellbomb, and Aether Vial for other cards.

So, this was my first deck. We sat down and shuffled and began to play. Would others’ be better or worse than my own?

The color combinations that were drafted were (in clockwise order from me), Golgari (B/G), Boros (R/W), Rakdos (B/R), Simic (G/U), and Selesnya (G/W). Green and red were each split three ways. What is interesting about that is that four enemy pairs were represented, but just two allied-pair colors were here. Interesting!

All right, it’s time to rock it!

I keep a hand of Expanse, Island, Island, Torrent, Aethersnipe, Mechanist, and Redcap.

On the first turn, Rakdos Hannah suspends Greater Gargadon. She tells us it was her first pick. I’d take that first, too! The first few turns are otherwise boring—normal for Multiplayer Draft. I set up with Expanse for Mountain and drop the Bonesplitter I draw in turn two. Selesnya Justin has Kitchen Finks in play. We’ve seen a Search for Tomorrow from Golgari Roger. Then, Simic Jamie flashes out Scion of Oona and untaps. She drops Glen Elendra Archmage. I am not running any countermagic, so it’s down. A Moldervine Cloak is dropped on a Finks and swings into the Faerie player. Jamie is the first to take damage, dropping to 15. I untap and play the Mechanist and reveal a Spellbomb and crap, and I pass the turn. With 5 mana on turn four, Golgari Roger pays 2 life to cycle Street Wraith and then plays Warren Pilferers to return it to his hand. It’s a combo I suppose. Hey, you do what you can. At the end of his turn, Boros Steve Lightning Helixes the Scion, which cannot be countered yet by the Archmage, and he goes to 23 life. He untaps and drops Amrou Scout and passes. Rakdos Hannah is not to be outdone. She plays Mogg War Marshal, sacrifices it to make another Goblin token, and then plays Grapeshot to kill the Archmage and bring it back with a -1/-1 counter on it.

Then, Hannah sacrifices the some stuff, including the Demigod and the Greater Gargadon arrives. She plays Demigod of Revenge from her hand. How does she have two? She opened one as her rare in pack two and took it. No one knew. She has two Demigods and a Gargadon with haste. The Amrou Scout taps and searches up a Bound in Silence for the Greater Gargadon. In response; he takes 10 from the Demigods.

We can’t let Hannah live, and she obviously attacked to go out in a blaze of glory. Soon, she is attacked by everyone and dies. Then, Selesnya Justin plays an Adarkar Valkyrie. He says it was his first pick. I swing at the weakened Faerie position for 7 damage and drop Jamie to 8. Golgari boy plays Syphon Life on me. He is back to 20, and I drop to 18. Steve says, “Well, since we are all playing our first picks . . . ” and he drops Figure of Destiny and passes the turn. Simic Jamie follows with Vedalken Dismisser and bounces the Valkyrie to the deck. That’s about all Jamie can do.

And then there were three. Selensya Justin untaps and swings hard at the tapped-out Golgari king. He chumps with his 3/3 Goblin and 1/4 Woodreaders and takes 5, and he goes to 15. Then, Justin drops the Valkyrie. I untap, and I play Aethersnipe and bounce back to his hand the Sporesower Thallid, which was 7/7 with the counters. He makes two Saprolings, and it heads back. I then follow with an attack on Golgari Roger. I could hit him hard, but I don’t want to leave myself too open to an attack by Selesnya Justin, so instead, I just hit him for 8 with an Enforcer and a Mechanist carrying a Bonesplitter, and I keep back Keiga and the ’Snipe. He is at 7. I could have killed him, but it would have required me to tap out, and I’d have died before my next turn.

He untaps and draws. He smiles. He plays Death Cloud for 4. He drops to 3 life and discards jank, and he sacrifices lands. Selesnya Boy sacrifices two Saprolings, Finks, and Mossdog. The Finks come back, and he loses just 2 life, with his total at 17. He has to discard some good stuff, though. I follow up with a discard of Pestermite, Myr Enforcer, Torrent of Stone, and Island. He nailed me hard. I also lost all four of my creatures. I stole the Valkyrie from Keiga’s death. I drop to 14 life. He then passes the turn. Selesnya Justin, with a 2/1 Finks out, suddenly is in a bad spot. He does not think to dredge the Cloak (drop it on the Finks, swing, and kill Steve). Instead, he smashes Steve for just 2, and he then plays the Thallid. I decide not to sacrifice the Spellbomb to kill Steve, instead forcing him to be my serf. I attack Justin for 4 and drop him to 13. I play my top-decked land. I wanted to keep it to bait other plays, but if I drew a land next turn as well, I would be behind a land drop. Steve untaps, and he plays a land and drops Marsh Flitter, making two Goblin tokens. Selensya boy swings with both creatures at Steve. Steve chumps with one Goblin and trades the other with the Finks. Afterward, Justin plays Hillcomber Giant, and I don’t like seeing that!

Next up are a few turns of me drawing nothing but an Arcbound Ravager later while he top-decks Path to Exile for my (his) Valkyrie, and he wins. Good job, Justin!

So, here are some of my thoughts:

First of all, the Draft was okay, but it was not as deep as I was expecting. I don’t know why, but I expected more from the commons in the Draft. Sure, it can’t be every great common ever, but many were a bit lackluster. I thought the choices would be harder since the average level of card quality was up. To be fair, a few bombs were played around the table: Rude Awakening, Greater Gargadon, Keiga, the Tide Star, and more. But most players drew their bombs in one game. We checked decks. I never saw Meloku. Steve’s Golgari deck drew its two major spells. While he had a Maelstrom Pulse, Executioner's Capsule, and Phthisis, his only real offensive threat was the Worm Harvest. The Boros deck has its major threat Figure of Destiny out. It had just one Bound in Silence and five Rebels. The only other major threat it had was the Pardic Dragon. It was the most synergetic deck, though, with the Rebels of various sorts all over. We saw the trio of nasties from Hannah’s deck. She also rocked a Skeletal Vampire. While she had a crazy Molten Disaster, her remaining cards were at the Thundering Giant and Rift Bolt level of quality.

It was fun. All Multiplayer Drafts are. Plus, it was nice to dial things up with these crazy cards. But it was a bit disappointing because I thought it was this amazing Draft format, and it just was okay. (Remembering that we played in multiplayer—not duels—and in a group of six—not eight.)

I hope that you enjoyed my little walk through my first Modern Masters Draft! If you’ve had a chance to draft it, let me know what your thoughts are.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

P.S. In case you care, the rest of the box was weak: two mythics—Jugan and Yosei—and four rares with lower values—Dragonstorm, Pyromancer's Swath, Life from the Loam, and a decent Lotus Bloom. That’s a disappointing six packs to end the box with. I did not do well financially with it. My four mythics totaled around $35. It was no hit out of the park. But it was fun!