There's always some expectation that some cool cards and decent plays will be seen when chaos drafting. I don't think we had a great pool, but there were fun things to do. We played a 3 round tourney and had some good fun with decks that weren't exactly powerful, but they were quite playable anyway. Instead of going for multiplayer like last time, we went for a more traditional approach, and even though drafting with 4 people always yields suboptimal decks, there's some good fun to be had with them anyway. That is, it's an exercise in deckbuilding.
This time it was Nico, Seba and Edu, who is a newer player and has only drafted a couple of times before (and one of those was my cube). The draft pool was:
• Fate Reforged
• Origins
• Battle for Zendikar
• Eldritch Moon
• Eternal Masters
• Conspiracy 2
• Kaladesh
• Modern Masters 2017
• Amonkhet
• Ixalan (2)
• Iconic Masters
Again, nothing too exotic because I didn't want Edu to be any more confused than necessary. This time I didn't want the boosters to be picked randomly, so the order was:
Nico: Ixalan (1), Eternal Masters (2), Eldritch Moon (3)
Edu: Origins (1), Conspiracy 2 (2), Kaladesh (3)
Seba: Amonkhet (1), Modern Masters 2017 (2), Battle for Zendikar (3)
Me: Fate Reforged (1), Iconic Masters (2), Ixalan (3)
The reasoning behind this was that I didn't want the strongest packs to be opened in the beginning to avoid players getting stuck on a color because of a powerful rare. I also wanted to have an exciting peak when opening the second pack instead of the first, leaving the third pack as the moment for focusing on getting the final playables for decks that should've already been defined, more or less. In both Nico and my case I think it worked, but I'm not completely sure it did with Seba and Edu because I didn't have a chance to ask them about their picks.
Anyway, here's the decks we came up with.
1. Nico's RB aggro (3-0)
(2-1, 2-0, 2-1)
The clear winner of the night, Nico's deck was very effective at dealing a lot of damage rather fast. Being the competitive player that he is, he found pretty good synergies and snatched good cards no one else was picking in red. His P1P1 was Vraska's Contempt, by far the best removal in the pool. Red was wide open, so he had access to basically all the best playables in the color. What stood out to me was that his aggro strategy was centered around red Amonkhet creatures, even though we only opened 1 AKH pack, complementing them with red Ixalan pirates. It makes sense that AKH creatures would support aggro well because of the nature of that environment, but the synergy between both AKH and XLN was so strong. The deck had really fast openings, but it would lose to slower strategies when failing to find enough fast playables in the first turns. I saw Malfegor enter the battlefield once, but I'm not sure if it really had a big impact. It'd make sense it did, I just don't know to what extent it actually changed the board vs. being a win-more kinda card. Reave Soul was also another very strong playable that shouldn't be underestimated.
2. My BUG midrange (2-1)
(2-1, 2-0, 1-2)
I thought I had a rather balanced deck, but I knew I was lacking in good removal. Most of it was, in fact, conditional. Virulent Swipe and Supernatural Stamina were OK, Die Young felt lacking most of the time and Fleshbag Marauder, while good, doesn't give you a proper choice of removal. One of the most fun plays I made was playing a Fleshbag Marauder and casting Supernatural Stamina on it, but this was a rather desperate move to try and remove as many creatures as possible at a moment when I was basically dead on board. The deck was value-centered and it was very playable really, but it didn't have enough tools to deal with aggro. I'm always happy to draft cards like Entourage of Trest because it's a great blocker that will draw you at least one card, and in good cases, a bunch of them. Temur War Shaman was probably the biggest bomb in my deck because it's good enough value (6 power for 6 mana is decent, and having two bodies to block is not something to scoff at). Still, playing a 3-color deck always means you gotta be careful with your mana base, and I wish I would've picked a BG tapland.
3. Edu's WGur (1-2)
(1-2, 0-2, 2-0)
Edu is a new player and his draft experience is rather limited. I think his deck reflects that because it really doesn't seem to have a focus, playing a bunch of cards that should've been kept for the sideboard, if at all. The creature to spell ratio is fine, and you can't be too demanding when drafting in a 4-man pod. Now, that's also one of the challenges of chaos drafting: As many seeded strategies become unfeasible, the need for creativity with semi-playables is a much more valuable asset. Say, Sigil of the Empty Throne can be a strong finisher given the right deck (though I never felt it was good enough in ORI, despite ridiculous bombs like Knightly Valor), but running only two other enchantments doesn't really feel like a good justification for such an expensive card. Cards like Slice in Twain are at most sideboard cards because of how conditional they are too. Despite those errors, the deck did have some flying dudes that could hurt you, and while I disagree with splashing UR for Hypersonic Dragon, chaos drafting is a good way to experiment with cards that sometimes don't have a place anywhere else.
4. Seba's WGur (0-3)
(1-2, 0-2, 2-0)
Seba's deck didn't get a big splashy bomb, but it did have a bunch of decent playable creatures that could do some work. He was lacking in removal, with Humble as basically the only choice to deal with whatever creature the opponent would throw at him, and Duress as a proactive way to get rid of problem cards. The issue with Duress though is that during a draft, you're more likely to find a creature or a land than any other kind of card, and while the ones you do find are in theory going to have a big impact, the numbers do not really bode well for you. I feel like his creatures didn't really work together, with dudes like Ajani's Pridemate being nothing but bears 90% of the time, or Dragon Bell Monk not producing enough value (I would play it in this deck anyway). Encircling Fissure probably works better in a control shell, but I don't know if the deck wanted to go aggro or midrange. Lingering Souls was probably the MVP of the deck because of its raw power and flexibility, but in the end, it wasn't enough to make the deck run smoothly.
So this was the first chaos draft I played with an Iconic Masters pack, and it was rather disappointed: Both the pulls and the playables were just meh, though I'm always happy to play a Wall of Roots if I'm going for a green deck. At the same time, Ixalan has enough decent cards that can be played in basically any type of deck, making it an OK set to chaos draft. I had fun and liked my deck despite the lack of removal, and even though I don't think I could've taken on Nico's deck, it was fun trying.
Pulls
The pulls were rather underwhelming again, as usual. The Iconic Masters booster deserves a special mention though, as it really sucked opening it only to find a Malfegor and a foil Hypersonic Dragon. Two of the worst rares of the set in just one pack! And getting a Zealous Conscripts from MM17? Not fun!
• Sunpetal Grove
• Part the Waterveil
• Queen Marchesa
• Maze of Ith
• Lingering Souls (foil)
This time it was Nico, Seba and Edu, who is a newer player and has only drafted a couple of times before (and one of those was my cube). The draft pool was:
• Fate Reforged
• Origins
• Battle for Zendikar
• Eldritch Moon
• Eternal Masters
• Conspiracy 2
• Kaladesh
• Modern Masters 2017
• Amonkhet
• Ixalan (2)
• Iconic Masters
Again, nothing too exotic because I didn't want Edu to be any more confused than necessary. This time I didn't want the boosters to be picked randomly, so the order was:
Nico: Ixalan (1), Eternal Masters (2), Eldritch Moon (3)
Edu: Origins (1), Conspiracy 2 (2), Kaladesh (3)
Seba: Amonkhet (1), Modern Masters 2017 (2), Battle for Zendikar (3)
Me: Fate Reforged (1), Iconic Masters (2), Ixalan (3)
The reasoning behind this was that I didn't want the strongest packs to be opened in the beginning to avoid players getting stuck on a color because of a powerful rare. I also wanted to have an exciting peak when opening the second pack instead of the first, leaving the third pack as the moment for focusing on getting the final playables for decks that should've already been defined, more or less. In both Nico and my case I think it worked, but I'm not completely sure it did with Seba and Edu because I didn't have a chance to ask them about their picks.
Anyway, here's the decks we came up with.
1. Nico's RB aggro (3-0)
(2-1, 2-0, 2-1)
Deck: [Chaos draft] N's RB   | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conspiracies | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 5 CMC | 6 CMC | X CMC | Lands | ||||||||
| 1 | Assemble the Rank and Vile | 1 | Battlefield Scavenger   | 1 | Spireside Infiltrator  | 1 | Emberhorn Minotaur  | 1 | Turn Against  | 1 | Malfegor  | 1 | Death Wind  | 1 | Bloodfell Caves |
| 1 | Fathom Fleet Firebrand | 1 | Recover | 1 | Maulfist Doorbuster | 1 | Storm Fleet Pyromancer | 9 | Mountain | ||||||
| 1 | Dragon Fodder | 1 | Oath of Liliana | 1 | Vestige of Emrakul | 7 | Swamp | ||||||||
| 1 | Mardu Scout | 1 | Firefiend Elemental | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Pathmaker Initiate | 1 | Gavony Unhallowed | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Altar's Reap | 1 | Fathom Fleet Cutthroat | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Reave Soul | 1 | Vraska's Contempt | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Millikin | 1 | Carnage Gladiator | ||||||||||||
| 1 | cards | 8 | cards | 3 | cards | 8 | cards | 2 | cards | 1 | cards | 1 | cards | 17 | cards |
 Display deck statistics | |||||||||||||||
The clear winner of the night, Nico's deck was very effective at dealing a lot of damage rather fast. Being the competitive player that he is, he found pretty good synergies and snatched good cards no one else was picking in red. His P1P1 was Vraska's Contempt, by far the best removal in the pool. Red was wide open, so he had access to basically all the best playables in the color. What stood out to me was that his aggro strategy was centered around red Amonkhet creatures, even though we only opened 1 AKH pack, complementing them with red Ixalan pirates. It makes sense that AKH creatures would support aggro well because of the nature of that environment, but the synergy between both AKH and XLN was so strong. The deck had really fast openings, but it would lose to slower strategies when failing to find enough fast playables in the first turns. I saw Malfegor enter the battlefield once, but I'm not sure if it really had a big impact. It'd make sense it did, I just don't know to what extent it actually changed the board vs. being a win-more kinda card. Reave Soul was also another very strong playable that shouldn't be underestimated.
2. My BUG midrange (2-1)
(2-1, 2-0, 1-2)
Deck: [Chaos draft] C's UBG   | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CMC | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 5 CMC | 6 CMC | 7 CMC | Lands | ||||||||
| 1 | Jungle Delver  | 1 | Wall of Roots | 1 | Orchard Spirit | 1 | Penumbra Spider | 1 | Entourage of Trest | 1 | Temur War Shaman | 1 | Gurmag Angler  | 2 | Thornwood Falls |
| 1 | Virulent Swipe | 1 | Ixalli's Diviner | 1 | Fleshbag Marauder | 1 | Entomber Exarch | 1 | Riparian Tiger | 1 | Simic Guildgate | ||||
| 1 | Supernatural Stamina | 1 | Sylvan Might | 1 | Lawless Broker | 1 | Aspiring Aeronaut  | 1 | Air Elemental | 1 | Evolving Wilds | ||||
| 1 | Die Young | 1 | Man-o'-War | 1 | Storm Sculptor | 1 | Kozilek's Channeler  | 5 | Forest | ||||||
| 1 | Mist Intruder | 5 | Swamp | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Merfolk Looter | 3 | Island | ||||||||||||
| 3 | cards | 6 | cards | 4 | cards | 4 | cards | 4 | cards | 1 | cards | 1 | cards | 17 | cards |
| Display deck statistics | |||||||||||||||
I thought I had a rather balanced deck, but I knew I was lacking in good removal. Most of it was, in fact, conditional. Virulent Swipe and Supernatural Stamina were OK, Die Young felt lacking most of the time and Fleshbag Marauder, while good, doesn't give you a proper choice of removal. One of the most fun plays I made was playing a Fleshbag Marauder and casting Supernatural Stamina on it, but this was a rather desperate move to try and remove as many creatures as possible at a moment when I was basically dead on board. The deck was value-centered and it was very playable really, but it didn't have enough tools to deal with aggro. I'm always happy to draft cards like Entourage of Trest because it's a great blocker that will draw you at least one card, and in good cases, a bunch of them. Temur War Shaman was probably the biggest bomb in my deck because it's good enough value (6 power for 6 mana is decent, and having two bodies to block is not something to scoff at). Still, playing a 3-color deck always means you gotta be careful with your mana base, and I wish I would've picked a BG tapland.
3. Edu's WGur (1-2)
(1-2, 0-2, 2-0)
Deck: [Chaos draft] E's WGur  | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 5 CMC | 7 CMC | 8 CMC | Lands | |||||||
| 1 | Ulvenwald Captive | 1 | Ghirapur Guide | 1 | Slice in Twain | 1 | Spike-Tailed Ceratops | 1 | Belligerent Brontodon  | 1 | Ancient Brontodon | 1 | Sequestered Stash |
| 1 | Swell of Growth | 1 | Those Who Serve | 1 | Backwoods Survivalists | 1 | Gleam of Resistance | 1 | Izzet Boilerworks | ||||
| 1 | Sigardian Priest | 1 | Rally the Peasants | 1 | Archers of Qarsi | 1 | Skyswirl Harrier | 7 | Forest | ||||
| 1 | Kor Skyfisher | 1 | Rootborn Defenses | 1 | Pterodon Knight | 1 | Sigil of the Empty Throne | 7 | Plains | ||||
| 1 | Grasp of the Hieromancer | 1 | Honor's Reward | 1 | Sustainer of the Realm | 1 | Hypersonic Dragon | ||||||
| 1 | Angelic Gift | 1 | Worn Powerstone | ||||||||||
| 6 | cards | 6 | cards | 5 | cards | 5 | cards | 1 | cards | 1 | cards | 16 | cards |
| Display deck statistics | |||||||||||||
Edu is a new player and his draft experience is rather limited. I think his deck reflects that because it really doesn't seem to have a focus, playing a bunch of cards that should've been kept for the sideboard, if at all. The creature to spell ratio is fine, and you can't be too demanding when drafting in a 4-man pod. Now, that's also one of the challenges of chaos drafting: As many seeded strategies become unfeasible, the need for creativity with semi-playables is a much more valuable asset. Say, Sigil of the Empty Throne can be a strong finisher given the right deck (though I never felt it was good enough in ORI, despite ridiculous bombs like Knightly Valor), but running only two other enchantments doesn't really feel like a good justification for such an expensive card. Cards like Slice in Twain are at most sideboard cards because of how conditional they are too. Despite those errors, the deck did have some flying dudes that could hurt you, and while I disagree with splashing UR for Hypersonic Dragon, chaos drafting is a good way to experiment with cards that sometimes don't have a place anywhere else.
4. Seba's WGur (0-3)
(1-2, 0-2, 2-0)
| Deck: [Chaos draft] S's BWG | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CMC | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4+ CMC | Lands | |||||
| 2 | Duress | 1 | Humble | 1 | Sultai Runemark | 1 | Courier Griffin | 1 | Rogue's Passage |
| 1 | Typhoid Rats | 1 | Ajani's Pridemate | 1 | Encircling Fissure | 1 | Skysnare Spider | 1 | Sunpetal Grove |
| 1 | Blight Keeper | 1 | Guardian of Pilgrims | 1 | Lingering Souls | 6 | Swamp | ||
| 1 | Blisterpod | 1 | Raptor Companion | 1 | Dragon Bell Monk | 6 | Plains | ||
| 1 | Whitemane Lion | 1 | Rhet-Crop Spearmaster | 5 | Forest | ||||
| 1 | Sky Skiff | 1 | Drogskol Shieldmate | ||||||
| 1 | Prowling Serpopard | ||||||||
| 1 | Netcaster Spider | ||||||||
| 5 | cards | 6 | cards | 8 | cards | 2 | cards | 19 | cards |
| Display deck statistics | |||||||||
Seba's deck didn't get a big splashy bomb, but it did have a bunch of decent playable creatures that could do some work. He was lacking in removal, with Humble as basically the only choice to deal with whatever creature the opponent would throw at him, and Duress as a proactive way to get rid of problem cards. The issue with Duress though is that during a draft, you're more likely to find a creature or a land than any other kind of card, and while the ones you do find are in theory going to have a big impact, the numbers do not really bode well for you. I feel like his creatures didn't really work together, with dudes like Ajani's Pridemate being nothing but bears 90% of the time, or Dragon Bell Monk not producing enough value (I would play it in this deck anyway). Encircling Fissure probably works better in a control shell, but I don't know if the deck wanted to go aggro or midrange. Lingering Souls was probably the MVP of the deck because of its raw power and flexibility, but in the end, it wasn't enough to make the deck run smoothly.
So this was the first chaos draft I played with an Iconic Masters pack, and it was rather disappointed: Both the pulls and the playables were just meh, though I'm always happy to play a Wall of Roots if I'm going for a green deck. At the same time, Ixalan has enough decent cards that can be played in basically any type of deck, making it an OK set to chaos draft. I had fun and liked my deck despite the lack of removal, and even though I don't think I could've taken on Nico's deck, it was fun trying.
Pulls
The pulls were rather underwhelming again, as usual. The Iconic Masters booster deserves a special mention though, as it really sucked opening it only to find a Malfegor and a foil Hypersonic Dragon. Two of the worst rares of the set in just one pack! And getting a Zealous Conscripts from MM17? Not fun!
• Sunpetal Grove
• Part the Waterveil
• Queen Marchesa
• Maze of Ith
• Lingering Souls (foil)
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