Just wanted to share a quick draft I did that was Zen-Zen-WWK on MTGO. I was seriously torn on the first pick between the Skyfisher and the Sovereign but the Skyfisher is easily my most drafted playable common — I think I have more Beast Hunts and Scythe Tigers than any other 10 commons combined. I got passed a Sphinx of Jwar Isle and did not look back. I had been hoping to be blue white allies but I was fine with them being just a sub-theme. The main theme of the deck was Basilisk Collar and I ran the table without much incident.

Take a look and feel free to ask in the comments section about any of the picks.

This is a recent email that I received from Paul Jordan aka PJ, that I thought would be useful to all of you Top8Magic fans. The images did not come out in the post, but the original file is here: Draftcap Instructions.

Enjoy

Matt

Draftcap Instructions (Courtesy of Paul Jordan)

Creating your own “Drafting With” series is pretty straight-forward. All you need is Magic Online and your own webpage. If you don’t have a webpage, you can easily create one at Google, which is what I’ve done.

Creating your webpage

To start a webpage at Google, first make sure you are signed in. Then just go to More > Sites

Then click on Create New Site. Go through the steps, choosing your site name and URL and you’re done.

Recording drafts on MTGO

Go to Menu > Settings > Gameplay and make sure the box for “Enable Draft Recorder” is checked.

MTGO will record all packs and picks and put them into Documents > Games > Magic The Gathering Online > Drafts as text files.

Converting those text files

Go to http://www.zizibaloob.com/convert_images.html and paste the contents of the text file into the Image Converter box and hit Convert Draft. Now there will be 3 boxes on the screen:

Image Converter (where you pasted your text file contents)

Output (what you copy for future use)

Preview (what it will look like on your webpage)

Copy the contents of the 2^nd box (output) onto your clipboard for the next step.

Adding a draft to your webpage

Back at your page in Google, click on Create Page. Enter in a page name and URL. If you’re going to be doing multiple drafts, you probably want a standard naming convention (draft_## or something like that) but it isn’t necessary. Once you have your name and URL, click Create Page. You’ll have a screen something like this:

Click on the HTML button on the top bar and paste the output from the draft converter and hit update. Now your screen should look like this:

You can now add comments, your decklist, or anything else. When you’re done, click Save on the top right of your screen. That’s it, you’re done.

Note – if you want to keep your decklist, you need to save it separately in MTGO during deck construction. To do this, when building your deck click “Save As” and save it as a text file. Then you can just copy/paste it into your commentary.

Hey Top8Magicians,

I posted a Bonus Exercise in this week’s Limited Information <http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/64> and I wondered what you would do.

You’ve just drafted and constructed the following deck:

Zendikar Draft Deck

Main Deck 40 cards
10  Forest 1  Kazandu Refuge 7  Mountain 18 lands	1  Baloth Woodcrasher 1  Frontier Guide 1  Geyser Glider 2  Grazing Gladehart 1  Greenweaver Druid 1  Highland Berserker 1  Mold Shambler 1  Oran-Rief Recluse 1  Oran-Rief Survivalist 1  Shatterskull Giant 1  Territorial Baloth 1  Timbermaw Larva 1  Torch Slinger 1  Vastwood Gorger 15 creatures	1  Gigantiform 1  Harrow 2  Inferno Trap 1  Khalni Heart Expedition 1  Savage Silhouette 1  Vines of Vastwood 7 other spells

You sit down for your first match and draw this hand:

Forest, Mountain, Mountain, Khalni Heart Expedition, Territorial Baloth, Baloth Woodcrasher, Gigantiform

Do you keep this hand on the play? How about on the draw? Why?

XOXO,

Steve

Despite some concern about whether or not we would be welcome at a mono-Japanese hobby store, Zeilend and I went down for the FNM draft last friday. We had been doing a lot of drafts on the tcgplayer utility to try and get familiar with the sets again. I hadn’t drafted since the week of the Conflux release, and Zeilend hadn’t played Magic in about 6 months.

After a short subway ride + walk, we arrived at the store around 5:30pm. We watched a little Legacy action and registered for the draft. We got a full 16 people, so the organizer split us into two pods. Thankfully, he put Zeilend and I together so that she could translate for me. Luckily for both of us, the organizer also elected to use English packs for our pod. There was some grumbling about this and Zeilend told me that it was not a popular decision. Instead of handing out packs as prizes, all the rares would be pooled after the tournament and the players would re-draft them according to place.

Draft begin!

I don’t remember the specifics of the draft, but in the 1st pack I 1st picked a Naya charm, 2nd picked a Magma Spray, and picked up two Druid of the Anima and two Dragon Fodders. Both Fodders tabled back to me, getting them 8th and 10th pick.

2nd pack I 1st pick FOIL Sarkhan Vol, 2nd pick Resounding Roar, 3rd or 4th picked a foil Wild Nacatl, and also got a Rakeclaw Gargantuan, 2 Mosstodon, an Exuberant Firestoker, and a Naya Panorama.

3rd pack I 1st pick Armillary Sphere, passing a Nicol Bolas, which the player to my left windmill slammed. I end up getting a couple Matca Rioters, a Wild Leotau, a Beacon Behemoth, a Viashino Slaughtermaster and a Paleoloth!!!

I end up with around 23 playables, and decide to play my Gustrider Exuberant main deck since I had 5 creatures with power 5, and I imagined recurring it with Paleoloth might be a nice way to break a stalemate. I ended up playing one Swamp that I could mise to pump my Slaughtermaster and Matca Rioters.

Zeilend’s deck looked pretty scary. She had a blue and black Capsule, three Glaze Fiend, 2 Parasite Strix, 2 Sedraxis Alchemist, Resounding Wave, Fate Stitcher, Puppet Conjuror, Oblivion Ring, Sanctum Gargoyle, Grixis Slavedriver, and some Landcyclers. Basically, the BDM dream deck.

Apologies to all opponents for not knowing their names, I could not read them. I got by with gestures and one-word sentences.

Round 1 I get paired against a five-color deck that seemed heavily Jund. The guy had a lot of Unearth, some pingers, and both Sprouting and Scarland Thrinax. I lost game 1 to a pretty quick draw. He got both his Thrinax out, and starting growing the Scarland. We were trading hits back and forth and I thought I was winning the race until he started counting up all his creatures. “Soul’s Fire?” I asked. “Hai.”

I got pretty aggressive draws games 2 and 3. Game 2 I surprised him with lethal off of a Viashano Slaughtermaster that got pumped by Resounding Roar.

Game 3 I hit Wild Nacatl, Druid, and then 5-power creatures until he scooped.

1-0

Round 2 I am against another five-color deck. I kept a really loose hand game 1, six lands and shiny Sarkhan Vol. I runner four straight lands and scoop it.

Game 2 we both mulligan, and I think he must have been missing colors because he barely played anything the whole game, even though he was making land drops. Maybe he just kept a slow hand since he saw no spells from me game 1. I played guys, turned them sideways, and won pretty quick.

Game 3 he mulligans and keeps a 1-lander. He misses his 2nd land drop, but I have mono-forests and am beating with a 1/1 Nacatl (this is humorous to his friends who are observing us). He starts drawing lands, but I make a Druid and start dropping big men. I end the game quick by pumping up a Slaughtermaster with a Resounding Roar again.

2-0

Last round and I am paired against the other 2-0 from our pod. He was the player to my left that I had passed the Nicol Bolas to, and like my first two opponents he was also playing five-color. Game 1 he has the option of playing a Wretched Banquet on my Druid or my 1/1 Matca Rioters. Of course he chooses the… Rioters. Druid was the only source of non-green mana I drew all game, and I am pretty sure he would have rolled me if he had just killed the Druid.

Game 2 I side in Molten Frame, thinking I could use it to blow up an Obelisk. Of course I drew it in my opening hand and saw that it would not be nearly as helpful as I thought. I had a pretty good curve, mising my Swamp for my Slaughtermaster, and allowing me to make 4/4 Rioters. Imagine how excited I was when my opponent makes a turn 4 Tower Gargoyle, giving my a target for the Molten Frame. Since he had shown me no artifact Creatures game one, he was pretty shocked to see that I had brought it in. Rather than try to explain that I had misread the card, I said nothing and let him believe I was just that good. He drew some more removal, but I was getting in for damage and made a good trade with Resounding Roar. My opponent top decks a needed land and windmill slammed a Charnelhoard Wurm. He is at 4, and I have two 1/1 goblin tokens in play. Luckily, I top deck Naya Charm and swing with both tokens. He blocks 1, and I charm to regrow my Resounding Roar, pump the unblocked token, and win.

3-0

I won the pod, which meant I was the “Ichi” and would get first pick of the rares. The winner of each pod also got a Kitchen Finks FNM promo, which was pretty nice. I tried to convince everyone that the Path to Exile should be laid out with the other rares, hoping that I could pick it 9th. They didn’t get the joke, and shuffled it in with the other uncommons to be dealt out. I first picked the foil planeswalker, and also got a Sphinx Summoner, Death Baron and Mindlock Orb.

So that was my draft in Japan. I don’t think my deck was really spectacular, but it was definitely well matched against the slow decks that my opponents built.

Next time on Price of Progress: Extended decks, a topic I have been putting off for too long.

~WillPoP

I was in a draft this weekend and the following gameplay situation came up and I am not sure which is the correct way to play it out. Basically I was up against local Level 3 judge Eric Smith and his Grixis-Esper monstrosity which featured six or seven pingers and plenty of instant speed removal including multiple Grixis Charms I had seen in previous games. I was bashing for three a turn with Waveskimmer Aven while Eric was swinging back for three points a turn with Cloudheath Drake. Eric had recently played a Stinger but I was way ahead on damage. I had gotten Eric down to two life and was holding Call to Heel in my hand, which I had planned to use if he had a removal spell for my Aven, and he used the vigilance ability on his Drake intending to chump block my Aven. My dilemma is this:

1. Do I continue to play it slow and steady? Sit back on my Call to Heel in case he has a trick, let him chump my Aven, and hope to finish him off next turn. Eric had all his mana untapped at the time and if he drew anything/was holding anything for my Aven he would have plenty of mana to play it plus I would be giving him a card with the Call to Heel. Even if he drew another blocker he would have to invest his mana into that creature and I would be able to more safely bounce it and swing for the win.
2. Or do I go all-in and press for the win? I could attack, allow my Exalted to resolve, and bounce his Drake. Statistically it is most likely that he is going to draw a creature or a land off of the card and — assuming he was not sitting on a spell the whole time — not be able to do anything about my attacker.

I chose the slow-and-steady approach and Eric did the only thing he could do — putting his Drake in the path of the on-coming Aven. He peeled the next card of his deck for what he seemed resigned to accepting as his last turn of the game and happily slammed Sharuum the Hegemon into play. The recently departed Drake jumped back onto the board and my chances of winning the game plummeted to about zero. I would need to draw the second Call to Heel, bounce both fliers, AND have Eric draw nothing to deal with my Aven. I ended up losing the game, the match, and ultimately the draft for my team as a result.

Although, to be fair, I was down a game to Eric’s ridiculous deck to begin with and he swept through the draft with little resistance. None of which changes my initial dilemma about whether or not I should have just pushed all-in for the game or not. What would you have done under the same circumstances? You do know he has Sharuum in his deck and multiple instants speed removals and bounce such as Grixis Charm and Resounding Wave.