The Prison, the Playables and the Pulls

On the peripheries of Kansas, on the bank of the Missouri River, there stands an imposing prison looming over a game shop. Is not this prison standing as a symbol of what TCG's have become, incarcerated to the flux of the secondary market and the ebb and flow of print runs taking priority over the experience of the game that we all know and love???

    Okay, this is an exaggeration, but the prison is very real, and the gigantic building is impossible to miss when you drive into Leavenworth, Kansas. As I mentioned in my introduction, Limited play will be an important part of making this adventure successful. I would love to get the cards I need to have a competitive Standard or Modern deck to win larger prizes, but this is a long way off. In the meantime, doing well at drafts will be how I gain prizes, and since my closest game store failed to gain enough people to draft MKM, I had to drive over an hour to Gators Games and Hobby. Talking to the owner, he said that the shop is in the same building that used to be a stable that Abraham Lincoln had once stabled his horse in. People talk badly about Kansas, but if you dig beneath the surface, you will find lots of interesting places in the state. 

 I was hoping to draft MKM to get some cards that I can use in Standard, but apparently, the set is quite unpopular, so we did a Mystery Booster draft instead. I am not altogether disappointed by this, as getting more cards for Commander, or staples that I can trade is fine with me as well.

  

The Draft

    I still haven't quite figured out the strategy for drafting Mystery Boosters, and there doesn't seem to be much advice online, either. However, I was still fairly happy with my draft. Some cards that I drafted were simply insane, like Bear with Set's Mechanic, which in one game dealt 16 damage in the first few turns. Thank goodness this isn't legal in constructed.

I ended up with a Green-White aggro deck with lots of pump spells and removal. But I simply had to splash Blue once I opened an iconic card, Sakashima the Imposter. 

I love this card, and he did some heavy lifting during the games that I played. When I opened it, I thought that it paired well with the Mimic Vat that I opened in my first draft, but I don't have enough cards yet to truly build an EDH deck around Sakashima. His value is quite high at the moment, and I think I will trade him when I get the opportunity.

Match 1:

While I was happy with my draft, my opponents simply had better decks, even though almost every game was close. In my first matchup, I got close to winning but was ultimately beaten back by Elesh Norn, a card that I had no effective removal for and something that Sakashima can, at best, equalize. Elesh Norn is a brutal card and a great pull in Limited, no wonder it is so expensive.

A card that I also had in my deck (though it isn't the best in Limited) is Mana Tithe. In this matchup, I likely would have won if I would have been more aggressive with this card. There were two times when my opponent was tapped out and was playing a creature, a creature that I could have countered. Both times I held my Mana Tithe in hopes of sniping a bomb. Of course, if I did this and eventually sniped Elesh Norn, I would be talking about the merits of holding onto Mana Tithe, but the way I see it, it is best to use it as early as you can in this sort of format. Lesson learned.

Match 2:

Match 2 was more interesting and ended in a draw. My opponent's deck was wild to play against, having both the test Tibalt and Sliv-Mizzet.

My deck was able to overpower this deck due to my pump spells, combat tricks and board presence, but unfortunately we ran out of time and couldn't play Game 3!  

Match 3

Match 3 was quite a bloodbath, with my opponent having both Draco and Sword of the Animist. Quite the combo! There was a funny moment where I had Sakashima copy Draco in order to myself from him, but this led my opponent to simply get too far ahead. 

But all was not lost! Even though I didn't win enough to get prize support, Gators Games did have a fun feature of giving players a spin on a type of wheel of fortune, giving cards or packs to you if you land on a winning spot. I got fairly lucky and got some nice cards, including a very nice Foil promo of Unclaimed Territory. Nice!

Improvements to the Wayta Deck 

I also got a few other cards that were just objectively better than some of the others that I had in the first edition of my Commander deck, and looking at the newest edition, I might dare say the deck might be half-playable now! A few new cards stand out:

Firstly, I drafted this card because I find it quite good in Limited in Krosan Verge. I always had this card in my old EDH decks that used white and green, and it certainly will help the mana fixing for the Wayta deck. I also drafted some actual ramp instants and sorceries  such as Natural Connection, though they aren't the best, they will work! 

Secondly, two cards that I drafted, not knowing that they are staples for "good" Wayta decks are Boros Reckoner and Frilled Death Spitter. It is obvious why these cards work with Wayta, as they do things when damaged, which Wayta can achieve through the fight mechanic. 

This deck is looking more and more like an actual commander deck with ramp, a win-con (Felidar Sovereign,) and synergy!

What's to come:

I am visiting family over Holy Week and Easter, so I won't have a chance to draft this week. But while rummaging through some of my old things, I found a box of my old bulk commons and uncommons from Dragons of Tarkir, along with Ixalan through War of the Spark. I mentioned before that I sold almost all of my old magic collection, and this is the only thing left of it. I plan to search through this collection to see what is left and see if anything can be added to any of my current decks. After this, I am hoping that next week, I can attend at least one MKM before the new set, Outlaws from Thunder Junction , which, I must admit, has me quite excited.