2024-8-16 Mystery Booster draft (Casual)

Mystery Booster draft at 3rd Universe.

My first pick was Sudden Demise. I didn't have many good cards in the first pack. The other card I was looking at was Plaxcaster Frogling. The Plaxcaster Frogling looked like a really good build around but I didn't want to lock into two colors so quickly.

My second pick was Kaya, Ghost Haunter. It didn't look like a very good card. It's slow and a bit win more, but it was Mystery Booster draft and I wanted to try the playtest cards and also planeswalkers are generally speaking very strong.

I started building Mardu cards but the red cards looked very boring and not particularly strong. Green and black looked more open so started moving towards that direction.

Unfortunately, most of the creatures I was picking was a bit on the expensive side, 4 or 5 mana value. However, when I opened up Sword of the Animist, I felt much more relieved, knowing I have a chance of ramping up. As soon as I picked it up, I started picking whatever cheap creatures I could get.

I got passed Sorin Markov which fit perfectly into my deck. Someone also passed me a Revel in Riches and even though I know it was terrible in draft and I had lots of better picks, I took it anyway because I knew it was quite valuable. I can't remember all the cards I passed but at least a Reassembling Skeleton and some other black cards.

I definitely thought about playing A Good Thing. I did see one Shadowcloak Vampire go around that would have been perfect with A Good Thing but that was before I got A Good Thing.

First round, I lost 0-2 to an aggressive red midrange deck.

In the first match, I got to maybe 3 life. I drew Sorin Markov which could kill a creature and gain me back life but I think I was just one life short. The opponent had menace creatures, creatures that had pump abilities, and afflict creatures like Frontline Devastator that made it hard to stabilize my life. Sword of the Animist was great though, got out at least 5-6 lands. The opponent played a really early Blightning and I'm still kicking myself for not discarding Gorilla Tactics. I knew about the card even before the draft and somehow in the moment, it just didn't registered. Perhaps could have changed the outcome.

In the second match, Sword of the Animist pulled its weight again. I got out every single land, except a single forest in my graveyard. I should have only gas but I only drew bad cards. Very disappointing, 4-5 bad draws later and the opponent caught up.
The opponent also saced 3 lands to get into play a suspended Greater Gargadon but I immediately played Putrefy to kill it. I knew it was coming for 6 turns so I had the Putrefy saved.

Second round, I won 2-1. The opponent played a simic deck.

This opponent had the Plaxcaster Frogling from my first pack. My deck was just overall stronger. In these games, Sword of the Animist did great things and also I got Kaya, Ghost Haunter to steal a bunch of creatures. I remember the opponent having a Basilisk Collar and also a Frilled Sea Serpent.

I lost the first game because of Distortion Strike and not seeing that it had Rebound. He killed me with the Frilled Sea Serpent.

Last game, I won 2-0. The opponent was playing a Selesnya aura deck.

Kind of a bad match up for my opponent. My deck was just stronger and I had a lot of removal and combat tricks. The evoke creatures Briarhorn and Shriekmaw were MVPs. We later played two or three more games with free mulligans for the opponent and he still lost every game. The initial game was a bit scary because he put on a couple auras onto a Bristling Boar and at that point, only hard removal like Putrefy or Shriekmaw could kill it but I did not draw into it.

Sorin Markov saved a game and Kaya, Ghost Haunter was great too.

One rule question I had was if Gnarlid Pack would get multiple extra counters or only one extra counter with multikick and Winding Constrictor. This came up twice but on both occasions, I only kicked once so it was clear it only get one extra counter.