Still averaging about a week between drafting and actually fitting in all three rounds. Though I have a better excuse this time: cross-country flights with the Baby Raptor. Yes, 6 hours of pick me up set me down I want to go over there high five high five high five no pick me up again no over there I’m hungry hahaha just kidding high five. It’s… pretty damn exhausting, I can definitely see why my sister ordered me to do a big trip *before* they turn one. She was right to do so.
Channel Naptime 8-10-18
Draft
This was an interesting draft in a slightly different way. P1p1 Sarkhan’s Unsealing with a P1p4 Colossal Majesty pretty quickly cemented me into RG “ferocious”, especially once I got the P1p6 second Colossal Majesty! I get four 5+ power creatures in the first pack and I’m feeling pretty smug.
That feeling rapidly dissipates. While I eke out a P2p3 Shock, there is a whole lot of nuthin’. I think the first pack made me take for granted how easily I could get triggering creatures. In P2p9 I take a dual-land over Siegebreaker Giant, and P3p3 I take a druid of the cowl over a second Volcanic Dragon.
Deck
That’s… a lot of Sparktongue Dragons. Which is a good card, don’t get me wrong, but it clearly says “3 power” not “4 power”. I have 7 triggering creatures… which is a little light. It turns out the ramp isn’t that helpful (though getting to 8 mana to start turning my Sparktongues into 2-for-1s was helpful) in this deck. Hopefully you’re stable enough to slip in one of your enchantments and then start either drawing cards or burying them in resources.
It played out pretty entertainingly. I had a great R1g3 that came down to the final turn before I decked myself with double Colossal Majesty. I made a mistake putting my Talons on a 4/4 so it could attack past their Horizon Scholar… not realizing that I would have been better off making my Sparktongue Dragon a 4/4 to trade. The other two rounds were very straightforward.
Channel Naptime: 8-6-18
Draft
Very strange draft. After a P1p1 Luminous Bonds, blue was pretty solid
Deck
Learnings
So I made (at least) two mistakes. One was reflexively using Hieromancer’s Cage to exile a lame 2/2 bear rather than the more threatening Marauder’s Axe (which made most of his creatures functionally unblockable). That was careless and making moves without thinking. The other was a little more subtle. Here’s the board state
With Cleansing Nova in hand, my game plan needs a 5th land. So I should CLEARLY bottom these guys, even though a 3/5 (5/5) Gearsmith Guardian is pretty good against this deck. I didn’t have faith in my game plan. Know your game plan. Stick to said plan.
Channel Naptime with Vivien Reid!
I was able to start a third draft with Monsieur Chris but was sadly unable to finish it before I struck the forbidden hour of 10pm. What’s funny is that this was pretty close to my Pumpkin Hour in my 20s… well now it’s REALLY time to pass out. Baby Raptor is up at 6am and is sadly lacking a snooze alarm.
I could make a lot of money selling a baby snooze alarm.
Benalish Daddies 7-29-18
It’s time for another hilarious issue of Benalish Daddies! Can Chris and Jed successfully copilot a draft without clocking ourselves? THE WORLD WATCHES. Also, for additional degree of difficulty, the Baby Raptor was not quiiiiiiiite asleep for the first round. Depending on what you think of adorable baby cooing (and less adorable baby complaining), you may want to skip straight to the second round.
Channel Naptime 7-28-18
We draft! We parent! We draft again! (it’s possible that the Mad Max: Fury Road reference isn’t aging particularly well, but damn fine movie) Wasn’t able to comment on the draft, as the Raptor Momma was working, “saving the world from cancer.” Doesn’t she realize that we also need saving from bad drafting? Who’s the real hero here.
Draft
Channel Naptime: 7-11-18
Fresh on the heels of teaching Baby Raptor High five, a new core set is in! Apparently it’s called Core 2019 with the acronym M19. That seems clear.
A case of the slumps
Current reporting from the ceaseless psychological warfare that is the PPTQ front lines is official Benalish Daddy, Chris. FYI: the timestamp on this submission was a few minutes before 2am.
A Case of the Slumps
I recently attended a Dominaria sealed PPTQ in Lake Stevens with a few good friends of mine. It was the first PPTQ I’ve been to in quite a long while but I felt really good about my chances going in. I’d drafted more DOM than any other set ever, and I’d even done six sealed leagues on Magic Online. After taking inventory and looking over my pool, a shit-eating grin climbed its way up my cheeks. I built an Esper control deck with 4 bombs that win the game on their own and lots of removal and counter magic. My curve was great and my late game was stupid good. Three out of the four of us opened a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (myself included) and my deck was bonkers!! Going into the first round I felt like there was NOOOO way I wouldn’t make top 8. Please enjoy this montage of my playing discipline and rigor:
Gold Card Review: Core 2019
A while back, I came up with a heuristic of categorizing gold cards. Not all power levels are the same, not carry the same message as a signal, not all are worth compromising your deck’s mana base to try and cast. To review:
Bombs: the best of the best, these cards combine a win-condition with being able to stabilize a losing board. Planeswalkers are often Bombs.
Accelerator: A subset of Bomb, these cards make a good deck a lot better but don’t always help a weak deck.
Core 2019 Preview
Spoiler season is finished! Now it’s time to take a look at some of the broad strokes of what’s in the set for Limited. I will only focus on commons and uncommons, since that’s the bread and butter of drafting.
Removal
Benalish Dad 