Now once upon a time, I considered myself fairly good at Booster Draft MtG. I have memories of drafting very synergistic decks that performed well and caught my opponents off guard. Since the release of Innistrad, I've participated in two drafts and put up the respectable record of 2-4-1.
How is roughly 28% win percentage respectable, you might ask?
Well apparently my memory of my past booster draft performance is highly rose-colored. After taking off my Sunglasses of Urza and looking over my draft record from nine years ago (surprisingly easy thanks to the new Planeswalker Points system and interface), I was surprised to see my draft record of 7-14-2; a solid 30% win percentage. Apparently, I'd only lost 2% of my skill after nearly a decade playing other CCGs. Factoring my performance at the Innistrad Prerelease sealed deck event, my win percentage in Limited MtG events since my "return" jumps to 38%. Awwww yeah.
Seriously however, I have been a bit taken aback by my performances at these events. Maybe it's some overconfidence provided from a few years of tournament success within L5R, but I really thought my dip back in to slinging Sorceries and summoning Creatures would be a bit more... triumphant.
So I guess there is a lot I've got to (re)learn if I want to have my MtG ramblings here taken with anything more than the proverbial grain of salt. Looking over my notes from the second draft I played, I'd thought I'd give you a small bit of run down on the tips I'll be taking away from this 0-2-1 lesson of hard knocks.
During the actual draft portion of the night, I found I still am pretty good at reading signals on what others at the table are drafting. I had easily figured out that likely only one other person in the pod was drafting Blue. What I failed to pick up on was the fact that player was seated to my immediate right, and therefore in two of the three packs we drafted, I was only getting the second best Blue option in the pack.
One of the biggest mistakes I made while drafting was my first pack, first pick: Charmbreaker Devils, a mana expensive but cheap money Rare. I had gotten burned in the previous week's draft, failing to keep any Rares and missing out on prize packs by going .500, and I was determined to not let that happen again. Unfortunately, in my zeal to keep some of my investment, I slid some blinders on and forced myself to commit to a color too early and pass on potentially better cards in order to not feel like I lost out on value. As I can see now in hindsight, I had already put me at a disadvantage going forward in to the tournament portion of the night.For those interested, here are the cards I drafted and how I assembled them in to my main deck and sideboard. Please feel free to critique my choices and tear in to me on how I could have possibly thought this pile of junk could be any good.
Creatures
1 Ashmouth Hound
2 Bloodcrazed Neonite
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Civilized Scholar/Homicidal Brute
2 Crossway Vampire
1 Deranged Assistant
2 Fortress Crab
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Moon Heron
1 Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator
1 Stitched Drake
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Undead Alchemist
Spells
1 Claustrophobia
2 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Geistflame
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Hysterical Blindness
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Traveler's Amulet
Lands
1 Kessig Wolf Run
6 Mountain
7 Island
1 Forest
Sideboard
1 Armored Skaab
1 Curse of the Bloody Tome
1 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Frightful Delusion
1 Sensory Deprivation
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Altar's Reap
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Night Terrors
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Furor of the Bitten
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
1 Cobbled Wings
Now in to the swiss rounds, I find myself first paired against a veteran player from another draft pod. It becomes clear very early he drafted much better (play)value cards in his pod, and he makes short work of the match, winning two games in just over 15 minutes. In both games, I had expected the slightly buildup nature of limited card pools to let me get in to the game while starting defensive, then shifting in to an aggressive board state as I got to my better cards. I vowed to myself that in the next round I'd mulligan to get my best cards in my hand to start with, rather than wait for them to potentially show up.
Round 2 pairs, and I find myself taking the lessons learned in Round 1 to heart. I mulligan my opening hand in to 6 much better cards and easily take game one with my new found confidence. We each make a few sideboard substitutions, but his prove to be better choices, and manages to eventually crack my defenses in a stalemated game to tie us up. I probably could have won this game too, but forgetting that a card can still do things while in your discard cost me the early game tempo I was building, resulting in the clogged up battlefield and ultimately my loss. With only minutes left for game three, we end up going to time and forcing the draw. RTFC (once is good, more is better) is the lesson I take away from this match.
Round 3 sees me facing the worst luck of the night, where after mulliganing and rereading my cards I get stuck on only three Land and can't keep up with his well tailored curve and flow of Creatures. Game two sees me starting off much better, and even maintaining a lead in tempo early game, I once again fall behind and can't draw a Creature, my mana fixing Artifact or my lone Forest to deliver lethal damage with my unblockable Invisible Stalker and onboard Kessig Wolf Run. Seeing as tonight's just not my night, I cut my losses and drop. Lesson here, sometimes shit happens.
Despite my atrocious performance, I really like the feel of the Innistrad design and flavor of the set, so I'm not down on myself for long. I love the thrill of limited card pool events, thankfully to a third pack Liliana of the Veil, I'll have the funds to play in at least a few more events. Let's just hope the lessons learned this week stick with me. Who knows, maybe next time I'll be able to share more than how bad I am at this game.
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