There may be underlying notions that chaos drafting is mostly about chaos. Mixing things up with no particular thought on what is exactly being mixed up. I'm generally OK with that, but to me, chaos drafting is more about mixing things up beyond the constraints of set design, with enough openness to allow for environments that may have some minimal cohesion beyond the fact that it's Magic cards (this too could be challenged, I think, but that's neither here nor there... for now). This being the case, I put together a draft session centered around three different types of sets: Unstable, Masters sets and Conspiracy sets. This time, every drafter got a fixed set of boosters to draft from (which you can see on the picture) with the idea that every booster would present specific options in how you draft them. Anyway, the packs were the following:
Player 1 (Seba):
• Unstable
• Conspiracy 2
• Eternal Masters
Player 2 (Rob):
• Unstable
• Conspiracy
• Iconic Masters
Player 3 (Edu):
• Unstable
• Conspiracy 2
• Modern Masters 2017
Player 4 (me):
• Unstable
• Conspiracy
• Modern Masters 2015
The pool, in principle, felt like a good idea. In practice, while it was OK, it didn't feel like it coalesced enough to make the drafting experience itself more enjoyable. After a brief discussion we decided to open the boosters in the same order I wrote above, so the first round was Unstable. I was indeed rather excited to draft these packs as every single report on the internet insisted on how fun the format was. If you've read my previous post on Un- sets, you'll know I'm not a big fan of the idea, but since this set was designed with the intention of drafting it, it felt like it should be fine. One of the caveats I wrote about had to do with the fact that packs contained less regular playables because of the contraptions included in the set. I thought, having four packs should be more or less enough to make fuse cards (or whatever you want to call them) and contraptions playable, but when we got to drafting, it became apparent that it simply was not enough. Kinda like when you used to open old starter sets (think Tempest or 5th Edition, for instance), you *could* play with those cards but the experience was rather lackluster altogether, so was the experience of dealing with the format's wacky mechanics like those. Only two of us ended up picking contraptions to play with, and even though they did some of the work they are supposed to, the fact that they were passed so often meant that they weren't comprehensible or attractive enough to play them. Perhaps this problem tends to correct itself after the second pack when it comes to players who're not experienced enough as drafters, but as it was, they were clearly passed too often and attracted little to no attention unless you sort of understood how to play them. Reading the cards from Unstable also took far longer than I had expected, as they tend to be wordy and their wacky mechanics take just a tad longer to understand. We were short on time and this didn't help, sadly.
Opening the Conspiracy packs didn't result in too many complications, mostly because all of the players were more or less acquainted with the funky draft mechanics of the set(s). Somehow I feel drafting mixed Conspiracy 1 and 2 boosters ended up being rather uninteresting because we didn't get fun enough cards to alter the draft and the mixed mechanics didn't show up all that much. Regicide, Archdemon of Paliano, Agent of Acquisitions and Entourage of Trest were the only cards to show up using Conspiracy mechanics. Then again, as we didn't plan on playing a MP game (thank goodness), I guess it makes sense. A couple of cards did work out with the Masters boosters though (I drafted 2 Vent Sentinels from different sets... amazing, isn't it?), so not everything was lost.
When we got to cracking the third pack, we had already lost quite a bit of time. Luckily, Masters sets are easier to chaos draft because the picks seem to be much clearer: Powerful cards are usually very clear, and you're supposed to have your deck more or less built by this point anyway. Again, the boosters were not all that great for drafting, but there was some value in there anyway. Since, as I mentioned, we were running out of time, we ended up going for three single-game rounds.
Seba's deck (RB aggro)
1-0, 1-0, 1-0
Deck: [Chaos draft] S's RB   | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CMC | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 5 CMC | 6 CMC | Lands | |||||||
| 1 | Regicide  | 1 | Agent of Acquisitions  | 1 | Butcher's Glee | 1 | Archdemon of Paliano | 1 | Three-Headed Goblin   | 1 | Public Execution  | 1 | Graven Cairns |
| 1 | Wrench-Rigger | 1 | Bloodthrone Vampire  | 1 | Liliana's Specter | 1 | Unnerve | 1 | Secret Base | ||||
| 1 | Darksteel Axe | 1 | Skulking Ghost | 1 | Night Terrors | 1 | Chandra's Outrage | 8 | Mountain | ||||
| 1 | Target Minotaur | 1 | Unhallowed Pact | 1 | Sulfurous Blast | 7 | Swamp | ||||||
| 1 | Wakedancer | 1 | Galvanic Juggernaut  | ||||||||||
| 1 | Goblin Haberdasher | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Fervent Cathar | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Deputized Protester | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Blood Ogre | ||||||||||||
| 3 | cards | 4 | cards | 9 | cards | 5 | cards | 1 | cards | 1 | cards | 17 | cards |
 Display deck statistics | |||||||||||||
Seba's deck made the most out of the special Unstable and Conspiracy cards. Archdemon of Paliano is so much better than you expect, and while the drawback depends on the point of the draft you pick it at, it's a proper finisher unless swiftly taken care of. Despite the wackiness of the deck (I forgot to write down what Contraptions where used during the game), it was a straightforward aggro pile, with enough removal and damage to take the first place of the draft.
My deck (RGw midrange)
1-0, 1-0, 0-1
Deck: [Chaos draft] C's RGw   | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CMC | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 6 CMC | 9 CMC | X CMC | Lands | ||||||||
| 1 | Cinder Wall | 1 | Wall of Roots  | 1 | Ghostly Prison  | 1 | Wolfbriar Elemental | 1 | Wildfire | 1 | Artisan of Kozilek  | 1 | Ol' Buzzbark  | 1 | Arid Mesa |
| 1 | Lay of the Land | 1 | Really Epic Punch | 1 | Rousing of Souls | 2 | Vent Sentinel | 1 | The Big Idea | 2 | Evolving Wilds | ||||
| 1 | Flinthoof Boar | 1 | Shellephant | 1 | Wrap in Flames | 1 | Thunderous Wrath | 2 | Plains | ||||||
| 1 | Echoing Courage | 1 | Willing Test Subject | 6 | Forest | ||||||||||
| 1 | Steamflogger Temp | 1 | Sickleslicer | 6 | Mountain | ||||||||||
| 1 | Just Desserts | 1 | Pilgrim's Eye | ||||||||||||
| 2 | cards | 6 | cards | 6 | cards | 4 | cards | 3 | cards | 1 | cards | 1 | cards | 17 | cards |
| Display deck statistics | |||||||||||||||
My deck was rather slow and a bit too silly for what I actually wanted to do. Wildfire was rather pointless, and Ol' Buzzbark was actually a terrible card: Only once did I manage to snag a +1/+1 counter off its ability, which is both a testament to how hard it is to get value from dexterity cards and how bad I myself am when it comes to using them (and I think I rolled close to 10 dice with it!). My long game wasn't terrible, and having the extra value of the three contraptions I was playing (sorry, still can't remember which ones they were) meant I had a small edge during the late turns of the game.
Rob's deck (RG midrange)
1-0, 0-1, 0-1
| Deck: [Chaos draft] R's RG | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CMC | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 5 CMC | 6 CMC | Lands | |||||||
| 1 | Goblin Balloon Brigade | 1 | Mogg Flunkies | 1 | Inner-Flame Igniter | 1 | Ill-Tempered Cyclops | 1 | Multi-Headed | 1 | It That Gets Left Hanging | 1 | Secret Base |
| 1 | Simic Initiate | 1 | Just Desserts | 1 | Nantuko Shaman | 1 | Ravenous Leucrocota | 1 | Entourage of Trest | 1 | Beast in Show | 9 | Forest |
| 1 | Seal of Strength | 1 | Explore | 1 | Curse of Predation | 1 | Charging Rhino | 1 | Thunderous Wrath | 7 | Mountain | ||
| 1 | Ground Pounder | 1 | Search for Tomorrow | ||||||||||
| 1 | Wrap in Vigor | 1 | Incandescent Soulstoke | ||||||||||
| 1 | Really Epic Punch | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Wild Crocodile | ||||||||||||
| 3 | cards | 7 | cards | 5 | cards | 2 | cards | 3 | cards | 3 | cards | 17 | cards |
| Display deck statistics | |||||||||||||
Being able to craft a silly deck is part of the appeal of a chaos draft, and using silly sets can make this exercise a lot more challenging and rewarding. One problem though was how closed red was, with 3 of us drafting all the aggressive red cards. This tends to happen during 4-player drafts, so it's common that some decks will just not get where they want to be power-wise. Rob did manage to make some funny plays with Multi-Headed, and I unwittingly high-fived him when he played It That Gets Left Hanging. Come to think of it, it feels unlikely that someone will indeed leave you hanging when you play it, so perhaps you should lower your expectations when picking it during the draft, huh?
Edu's deck (UWB control)
0-1, 0-1, 0-1
Deck: [Chaos draft] E's UWB  | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CMC | 2 CMC | 3 CMC | 4 CMC | 5 CMC | Lands | ||||||
| 1 | Stifle  | 1 | Telling Time | 1 | Pariah | 1 | Blizzard Specter | 1 | Peregrine Drake | 1 | Dimir Guildgate |
| 1 | Brainstorm | 1 | Steel Squirrel | 1 | Assassinate | 1 | Bonds of Quicksilver | 5 | Plains | ||
| 1 | Fleeting Distraction | 1 | Wind Dancer | 1 | Man-o'-War | 3 | Big Boa Constrictor | 5 | Swamp | ||
| 1 | Raise Dead | 1 | Mana Leak | 5 | Island | ||||||
| 1 | Valor Made Real | 1 | Counterspell | ||||||||
| 1 | Adorable Kitten | ||||||||||
| 1 | Serum Visions | ||||||||||
| 1 | Thought Scour | ||||||||||
| 2 | GO TO JAIL | ||||||||||
| 10 | cards | 5 | cards | 3 | cards | 5 | cards | 1 | cards | 16 | cards |
| Display deck statistics | |||||||||||
Edu's deck ended up a control deck that lasted long, but lacked depth. GO TO JAIL is really annoying and sometimes it even attacks as a Swords to Plowshares, and Mana Leak and Counterspell are always great cards to hold in your hand. The big problem with the deck was the top of the curve. Pregrine Drake is too weak and easy to deal with to be a finisher, which left him with more of a mid-sized barrage of creatures that were hard-pressed to deal actual damage. However fun Big Boa Constrictor may be, its embedded randomness means you're unlikely to deal a lot of damage with it. Blizzard Specter is a great card though, to be perfectly honest, and for a while during our game it felt like it could've won him the game. Luckily I was able to remove it and with it gone, the road was pretty much clear. Still, a good experiment that could've been much better.
All in all, I really overestimated how much fun mixing these sets like this would've been. It's not that it was unfun, but rather, mixed wackiness didn't amount to much more than you'd usually get from a chaos draft, and so my rather high expectations were not met. It's hard to balance a draft like this, and my initial thoughts about Unstable were more or less confirmed as a set that doesn't really play well with chaos drafts unless properly supported. It's a good thing to keep in mind anyway.
As for the pulls, we had some nice ones this time:
• Arid Mesa
• Enlightened Tutor
• Graven Cairns (foil)
• Stifle
• Ghostly Prison
Plus 3 Unstable Forests and 1 Plains.
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