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

Round 4: Brett McGarry

Brett was running hot coming into the final round of the tournament and was thrilled to have done as well as he had to this point. His deck was terrific and he played pretty well despite being very nervous about playing me — which was flattering but not warranted. His Dawnray Archer worked me over real good in game one — I have never seen that card be as effective as it was in this game — but eventually a combination of fatties and Hissing Iguanar left him choosing between the lesser of two evils every attack step.

The more I mulligan, the more games of Magic I win. Mike has been talking up mulligans quite a bit over on 5WFlores and it is really the easiest way to measurably improve your game. Don’t keep hands that don’t or can’t do anything. I kept a hand with a two drop, 4 lands, and two land cyclers despite knowing I should pitch it back. The deck had been performing seamlessly for throughout and I just told myself that good cards would come — a classic indicator that I am about to lose a game.

I did play the Spearbreaker on turn 6 but I also drew few other action cards. Brett had O-Ring for the fattie and tore me apart with his Bant guys and a difficult-to-kill Elspeth.

In game three I felt like I was always one turn away from taking control but Brett’s deck kept exalting his fliers and I could not squeeze through enough damage to kill Elspeth. My sideboarded Naturalize took out an O-Ring midcombat but the creature under it was not exactly a game changer — I think it was Aven Trailblazer — and Brett took the first pack from the bounty that was on my head. He also won the first flight of the day despite being incredibly nervous during the final turns of the game when it looked like he would win with his friends peering over his shoulder.

Good games Brett and congrats on your first tournament win!

Round 3: Kesley Weeks

My deck fired on all cylinders this round with Knotvine Mystic powering out Meglonoth and basically ending the game in three swings. The card is absurdly unfair. I thought it seemed fine when it was previewed but it is just a total game changer. Your opponent can never reasonably attack you on the ground — and I even had Spearbreaker backup for him — and they are forced to play into your combat tricks with gang blocks.

Game two was fun as I had Topan Ascetic and one of my Rhox Chargers as well as a Bant Charm for his foily Cliffrunner Behemoth. I also got to parlay Druid of the Anima into a turn three Rhox Meditant. The fun part was using a mid combat Glean of Resistance. He decided to not block the 2/2 which was able to do the final 10 damage all by itself.

Glean of Resistance — and all the basic landcyclers — are some of my favorite cards in the set.

Glean was used over the course of the day as an ersatz Fireball with the Ascetic, to counter the tapping mode of Naya Charm, and to regularlly assure Knotvine Mystic mana on turn three. Sylvan Bounty is one of the only good answers to a Banefire, and Fiery Fall was such a good removal spell for me on the day that I was usually cycling the Glean in order to find the Mountain I needed for Fiery Fall.

Updates did not quite go as planned yesterday. I had hoped to post updates throughout the day and in between rounds of my flights. The first update went up pretty fast but after that it was pretty much non-stop Magic for the next 11 hours as I pitted my Sealed Deck against other competitors, giving away a Conflux booster if I lost a tournament match or gunslinging game.

My opening Sealed Deck aquitted me quite nicely giving up a minimum of packs losing only to Elspeth in the final round and a couple of draft decks that could easilly out-tempo a Sealed Deck.

I played a handful of Constructed matches, borrowing a red Burn deck from someone who’s name I have embarassingly misplaced. I lost one game to five color but it incinerated the rest of the challengers — including a timely rip of Demigod of Revenge to squeak out a win against an opponent at 10.

Anyway… I am going to catch up on my updates while flying home to catch the Superbowl. There is wireless Internet access on the flight which is both cool and bizarre. Cool because I can chat, email, and update via my iPhone (good thing I did not bring a laptop because, let’s face facts, I would just be running midair Modos) but bizarre because the plane I am on is not exactly a model of cutting edge aviation technology.

The armrests basically have plates with the no smoking symbol soldered over the ashtrays and thumbwheel controls for the audio programming. Basically it is like being on a bus that is capable of time travel.

Round 2: Joe Garcia

“Its Murphy’s Law of tournaments,” laughed Joe Garcia as we sat down to play. Joe and I had been talking between rounds and he relayed a win that included Wooly Thoctar, Banefire, and Titanic Ultimatum. “If you talk to someone about a deck you will play them a round later.”

In game one we traded blow back and forth with Wild Leotaus on each side. Court Archers game him an edge in the race and by the time I tried to slow things down he was able to finish me off with Banefire.

The second game underscored the abilty of Wall of Reverance to change a game. I was gaining between 5 and 7 life a turn buy neither Joe or I were getting much damage through. Joe had O-Ringed my Behemoth so the Meglonoth was mortal, which meant neither of us was really attacking. I was well over 50 life and waiting on Naya Charm which showed up at some point to lock up the game.

Game three saw a turn four Meglonoth followed up by Rhox Charger. The game notation consists of maybe four pen strokes.

2-0 on the day so far against Banefire.

Round 1: Andrew Hurwitz

There is not really much to say about this round. Andrew seemed like a really nice guy who did not get very good draws in either of our games. I had been on the fence about Knotvine Mystic coming into playing round one but quickly became a believer. Hitting your Shard colored three drops on turn three has gotten much easier with the addition of the Ziggaraut, Spire,and basic landcycling.

The Mystic came down and I had six mana to work with from turn four on in both games. Even without a six drop it was fine for playing a Rhox Charger and having two mana to cycle or play Sigil Blessing.

After the match Andrew good naturedly showed me the Banefire he never had a chance to play in either game.

I just finished building my first Shards-Conflux Sealed Deck pool and I am really confounded as to the viability of a number of the commons. Ruptured Spire is the one giving me the most fits — as it seems to be doing for many of the players here.

It basically eats a whole turn to come online since you have to play it tapped and pay 1 when you do. I have no problem playing Rampant Growth on turn two and even though this does not ramp you mana the Spire seems like a reasonable play both early and late. It’s those pesky turns three through five that are the bitch.

It looks like my deck is going to be solidly Naya with only the slightest hint of blue to accomodate Bant Charm and I am worried about the Spire disrupting my curve but I think I will have to see it in action before I pass judgement.

I also have Ancient Ziggurat to fix mana and it also seems like a it can create some clumsy situations. You can’t use that mana to cycle, activate a Panaroma, or anything else that is not a creature. I am very curious what other players experiences were with these two cards.

Another card that I have been wrestling with is the aptly named Lapse of Certainty. Basically an off-color, slightly more expensive Memory Lapse — and old favorite in Limited and Constructed. In the end I decided not to play them since my deck was quite mana hungry. Had I been Bant I would have definitely given them a try.

I am in Los Angeles this weekend as a guest of Glenn Goddard and the fine folks at Sun Mesa Events to gunsling at their LA Conflux Prerelase — one of forty Regional Prereleases that mark the reintroduction of the “big” Prerelease.

Not only do I get to play a ton of Magic with the new cards but I get to escape the grey dreary cold that has settled over New York for the past several weeks. Plus I get my hands on a Conflux playmat — something that is only available at Regional events and even then not at all of them.

Vectis Agents us not going to have a big impact as far as cards go but the art blows up real good to make a striking playmat.