Many years ago, 2018 to be precise, I had a newborn and a clumsy online Magic account called MTGO. Or “Modo” for even more esoteric reasons. However, any drugs are good drugs and Chris came over so we could draft as the Benalish Daddies. And we drafted one of the most memorable draft experiences I’ve ever had.

Merfolk was one of the four tribes of Ixalan and it was… fine. It wasn’t the world’s most powerful nor flexible so it was usually pretty open as the table fought over more reliable lanes like pirates or dinosaurs. Here I was the lone UG drafter at the table where rares were opened and oddball uncommons would safely wheel. And boy howdy, did they ever. The Deeproot Elite was the engine and the curve was so low to the ground yet also had legs it felt like playing a constructed deck. All-stars include:

• 

• 

• 

A curve of one-drops that reliably come in at 2-power (or more with the Deeproot Elites!) is already verging on oppressive. But then you get janky uncommons that turn into busted combos.

• 

• 

• 

In OG Ixalan (this was back in the time where drafts would have two packs of the “expansion” and a pack of “original”) Deeproot Waters was a hard miss. Slowly creating 1/1 merfolk wasn’t really relevant and who cares if a 1/1 has hexproof? Well I assure you, confidentially putting +1/+1 counters on a hexproof body is absolutely busted, and once it gets to 6/6 (or bigger) there aren’t a lot of answers any oppo could have. The Augur and Adept were both fine cards, sort of a glorified 4/5-mana creature that cantrips. But when it is either free and/or guaranteeing more Merfolk action, it just got busted.

The Daddies just couldn’t stop giggling as we played it. You play one card and the stack would just fill up with extra +1/+1 counters and extra 1/1 merfolk (which began more counters). Sadly this was pre-17lands so there are no gamelogs, but there were so many games that it just felt like we were playing on a different axis. One game we mulled to 5 and it STILL wasn’t even close. There was a game where I had three hexproof merfolk tokens, all bigger than 5/5.