The last time I did a physical draft was when Odyssey came out. There were only eight people, and Odyssey was brand new. I signed up because I wanted to see the new set, but I had only perused the spoilers. None of us really knew anything about the power draft cards of Odyssey - most of the decks were really bad. The least terrible deck won.

The last time I did an online draft was in May while Magic: Online was still free. At that time, I had a two-draft a day a habit - Od/Od/To. I did so many that I had the common print orders memorized for both Odyssey and Torment.

Since then, summer has come and gone. I didn't play Magic at all over the summer, and I casually read the Judgment spoiler. Since then I have played a few Standard games, but not much else.

On Friday, I wandered down to the shop, expecting Standard. My friend Nate was there, so I was going to borrow one of his decks: He informed me that it was Od/To/Jd draft day. I debated internally, and he said he would pay half on my entry fee to get enough people: I signed up for the draft.

Let me pause here for a moment to describe the shop: It is a very narrow place in the downtown that has a front entrance and an alley entrance. The front entrance is for the gaming shop; the back is an entrance to the"Adult Toy Store." The tables are wedged in between the two stores. The same people own both. The fact that ten feet from the game tables there are walls covered in leather, chains, and all sorts of plastic devices might account for why so few Magic players show up, even though there are many players in town. On this particular Friday, we have to be done by 6:50 p.m. The monthly drag show at a local club starts at eight o'clock, and since the owners run the drag show as well, they need to be there at seven. It's one of those game shops that give gaming a bad name... But they have the sanctioned tournaments. We start the drafting at four, so we have to be fast.

There actually were ten people on this Friday, a good showing for a booster draft; there would have been more, but several of the regulars were at a PTQ. Two pods of five for drafting made for some odd choices, to say the least. The order of the packs was Od/To/Jd - which doesn't seem odd except the storekeeper picks the order at random.

First pack of Odyssey, the rare was Time Stretch, and the pack went downhill from there. I chose a Beast Attack over a Werebear. After Nate passed his pack (I was seated to his right), I had to choose between a Firebolt and a Morbid Hunger; I chose the Firebolt, remembering that I did better in R/G than G/B in the Od/Od/To drafts. I had neglected in factor in Judgment, but I made the choice anyway. Nate later told me that the Morbid Hunger made it back to him.

Besides two Hallowed Healers, nothing really amazing showed up in Odyssey. Torment was a little better: Basking Rootwalla, Narcissism, Arrogant Wurm, and Petravark. To say I didn't know what to pick in Judgment is an understatement: I felt like a moron trying to draft Judgment. I had to read a bunch of the cards, and probably sent odd signals by picking wrong cards. I tried hard to pick well, and I suppose I didn't do too badly. Here is a list of my deck and the rest of the cards:

G/R/w beats:
Aven Flock
Hallowed Healer (2)
Patrol Hound
Shelter
Basking Rootwalla
Beast Attack
Ironshell Beetle (2)
Nantuko Tracer (2)
Rites of Spring
Krosan Restorer
Narcissism
Refresh
Krosan Archer
Arrogant Wurm
Firebolt
Reckless Charge
Barbarian Bully (3)
Browbeat (foil! Hoody Hoo!)
Longhorn Firebeast
Petravark
Forest (7)
Mountain (5)
Plains (3)

The leftovers:
Cantivore
Mystic Familiar
Equal Treatment
Ray of Revelation
Floating Shield
Giant Warthog
Defy Gravity
Mental Note
Laquatus's Disdain
Thought Nibbler
Predict
Hydromorph Guardian
Hydromorph Gull
Pulsating Illusion
Barbarian Outcast (2)
Pardic Collaborator
Goretusk Firebeast
Cabal Torturer
Treacherous Werewolf (foil - last pick Judgement)

I initially tried to run blue instead of white, but the mana didn't feel right - so I went with white. I only run fifteen lands in any draft deck I build (unless the mana curve is extremely high) for one simple reason: I have land-draw powers. In any given deck, shuffled thoroughly by an opponent, I can reveal the top twenty cards, and ten will be land. Even with shuffling, pile shuffling, and having an opponent shuffle my deck, I can mana-flood with Stompy (not a joke, sadly).

First round: My friend Nate.

(We play each other first in any given local tournament. Random pairings, my ass!)
Since I am running a deck with nearly zero removal, I am hoping for the random foil prize. He is running a nearly mono-black deck (with white), because no one else drafted black at our table. I win the die roll and choose to draw. He plays land, says go, and I do the same. He plays his second land, and says go. I begin to see the power of my deck. I play my second land and play Nantuko Tracer. He drops land, says go. In the next few turns, I drop a Barbarian Bully, then a Petravark. His Phantom Flock gives me a little trouble, but it doesn't take long at dropping one creature a turn for me to beat him down. The Petravark kept him from ever casting his Faceless Butcher - he never saw another swamp.

Second game I mana curve perfectly: Basking Rootwalla, Ironshell Beetle, Barbarian Bully, Petravark, and Arrogant Wurm. Again, the Petravark delays the Butcher. Game two doesn't take long. Both games I pitch about five cards to Bullies. I don't sideboard for either game - there's not much there to help me.

Me: now 2-0 games, 1-0 match

While waiting for other games to finish, Nate goes outside to smoke and I go with him to talk. He describes his deck to me, and I am lucky to have had a fast deck. He had many of the good black power commons, a Phantom Flock, two Ancestor's Chosen, and a Glory. His mana curve was so high it hurt to think about, but he did get a lot of quality cards.

Second round: Jeremy (someone I have never seen at the shop before)
I saw his deck earlier, and it looked like U/W control. I win the die roll and choose to draw. I play out my hand quickly the first game, and proceed to Bully him to death. He did no damage to me this game. He played Keep Watch to draw four cards, but still failed to do anything but be Bullied.

Second game, he mulligans twice - good sign. Victory lap time, right? A slow start later, I am actually a little low on land (that is to say, under five lands between my hand and board), so I cast Browbeat on my third turn. He was at twenty life, but let me draw the cards. I had no creatures in play, three lands, and he was at twenty life. By not taking five damage, he let me Ancestral (sort of) in Limited. He dies to Barbarian Bullies yet again.

I think between both games, he cast two creatures. He had Plains and Islands, but I don't remember any white spells being cast. He did cast a Mists of Stagnation, but I just kept pitching cards to Barbarian Bullies during my attacks, which allowed me to untap nearly all my permanents. I didn't sideboard for either game - I never saw enough to make sideboarding worth while.

Me: 4-0 games, 2-0 match

Third round: Mikey (a regular)
He is playing pure G/W, so I am prepared for slow games. He wins the die roll and chooses to play. The first game involves me dropping a creature from the first turn to fifth turn. I wear him down while he tries to find something... But he forgets about a Firebolt in my graveyard. On to game two.

I get some fast damage in, but then he drops a Phantom Nomad with an Exoskeletal Armor. Seeing my doom coming, I begin to drop every creature I can as blockers. I pitch cards to my Patrol Hound to reach threshold so my two Hallowed Healers can save me. He fails to attack many times, so my life total doesn't change much. I had drawn more cards, but I was holding a Browbeat. He was at three life, so it could be the way to win. Not too long after, he plays Folk Medicine and then flashes it back. With Browbeat no longer an option, I bunker down: He keeps building his army until time is called - but with five turns, he can't do it. On my last turn I draw my deck's last card, say go, and he can't kill me on his last turn. Second game ends up unfinished. I purposely played fast so he could have the chance to kill me and so it couldn't be said I stalled, but he never picked up the advantage.

Again, no sideboard for either game. The high casting cost of most my usable sideboard cards kept me from putting them in. My deck worked too well with the highest casting cost card as five.

Me: 5-0 games, 3-0 match

Final round: Shaun (a regular who is about twelve)
This kid irritates me so bad I have to be careful not to lose my temper. It's not really his fault - he is just a kid, so it's not like he can do anything about being hyperactive. Nevertheless, playing him always puts me in a bad mood. I shuffle up in glowering silence, win the die roll (choosing to draw), and proceed to slap him around first game. The flow of green weenies was too much for his deck.

The second game I do well until Cabal Patriarch hits, and then I proceed to lose. When I mean lose, I mean lose. He had a Shade's Form and a Crackling Club on that Patriarch: He cleared out five creatures in two turns, and then proceeds to give me a cold cabal enema.

The only card I sideboard in is Ray of Revelation.

Third game, he misses a land drop on third turn, and that spells the end. My Petravark slows him down more, and he dies to Bullies. I would feel bad if it was a random little kid getting mana-screwed, but Shaun is pretty good and beats me regularly enough that I don't feel sorry.

Me: 7-1 games, 4-0 match

I'm so shocked I got first that it took a moment to sink in: Three Judgment packs and a foil Forbid from a deck that I thought was terrible! I knew fast creatures were good in a deck, but I thought the lack of targeted removal and combat tricks would ruin me. What really shocks me was the value of Barbarian Bullies; I thought they were nothing more than filler, but they ended up the MVP's of my deck. I probably made an error by not playing the Giant Warthog or Goretusk Firebeast, but that is debatable. My land draw powers did not fail me. By third turn of all but one game, I had a Forest, Mountain, and Plains out. I was only a little mana shy one game, but I still had three lands by turn three; more than enough for my deck to run on.

As far as choosing draw versus play, I think that my choice of draw whenever possible was a good plan. I remember an article by a pro about the tempo versus card advantage, and that for most draft games the slight tempo difference wasn't enough to make it worth playing first. This may be standard for more polished drafters, but it certainly caught the other people off guard to have me win the die roll and choose to draw. As a side note, I never had to mulligan.

The Judgment packs yielded a Glory, Breaking Point, and Shaman's Trance. I gave most of my cards to the shop commons box, and kept a few. Nate and I went and found food and then played OBC and Vintage until about 1 a.m. Another successful Friday.

No slops and props - I really, really hate those.

ACM
Email at sarnath7@hotmail.com