2 Man Drafts

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I last posted, but since then I have entered into, and successfully escaped alive, from finals. It was a lot more pain and suffering than it was fun and joy, but there was one especially shameful moment - Sociology. I already hated the class and thought the professor was a complete joke, but then his final permanently cemented that for me. It was a true work of art how he managed to embarrass himself:

1 - First he registered the wrong day, time, and location of our final on the school website, telling us a completely different (and earlier) time in class.
2 - The final was held in the same room where we normally have class, which is completely full for his lectures. He decided to combine 2 classes together for the final pushing us all so close together you couldn't get up to walk around, and people were fully pressed against all four walls.
3 - The professor showed up 30 minutes late to tell us he forgot to print out the test and that's what he was working on now (100+ students in room, 10 page test)
4 - The test was all multiple choice with many questions having a blank being filled from the choices. Many of the questions didn't make complete sentences with any of the choices, and one question didn't even have enough choices to fill all the blanks on any choice. I asked the professor about one, and he couldn't figure it out either

So with that fabulous display of leadership, Arturo Ramos-Dalmau proved himself to be a true american hero, and a leader to us all!

On a more serious note, I am now back home and naturally celebrated with a 3 hour nap immediately followed up with a 14 hour nap, followed by a two-man draft. No one showed up for the scheduled 8-man, so myself and Nick decided to do a heads up draft which was actually incredibly fun!

I had done two-person drafts before during the Innistrad-Dark Ascension draft format. The way we did it then was with three piles (I don't know if there are any names for 2-man draft styles). First you have both players open the packs face down, take out the tokens, and then shuffle all 6 packs together. After shuffling, take the 6 packs and place them in a single pile on the table, then from that stack make 3 single card stacks in a line going away from the original stack. The three piles are numbered with the closest to the original stack being pile 1 and the furthest being pile 3.

The first player (determined by rolling) looks at pile 1 and can either keep it or pass. If they keep, they put all cards in that pile into their hand, take the top card of the stack, put it on the pile, and then pass to the other player. If they choose to not take the pile, then they take the top card from the stack, put it on top of the skipped pile, and then move to the next pile, repeating this process. If the player chooses they don't want the third pile they take the top card of the stack, put it on the third pile, and then take the top card of the original stack and put it into their hand. This process repeats until all cards have been used.

When I drafted against Nick though, we tried something new. This played out far more like a Rochester draft, and in the end I liked it a whole lot more. Both players start by opening their 3 packs face down, but this time you don't combine them. Instead each player shuffles their own 3 packs together separately, then makes two face-up piles next to their original stack and places one card in each. The first player can then pick any of the four piles and pull all cards in that piles into their hand, and pass to the other person. After each player takes a pile each pile gets one additional card from each player's respective stacks.

As I said, I liked this rochester-esque style of drafting much better. I won the roll and decided to go second. Nick and I were both in Golgari after the first 4 rounds of picks when Nick snagged a Vraska, the Unseen, so I knew I would have to get out of it quickly. A few picks later I was graced with a Supreme Verdict, and in combination with my Horncaller's Chant, I knew I was going down a much slower road. My deck wound up being a four color monstrocity being primarily Bant but splashing a Goblin Electromancer and Essence Backlash off a single Izzet Guildgate because of a lack of playables in my primary three. I had a lot of proliferate cards like Eyes in the Sky so my game plan was to invest as few cards as possible to build a board presence, gain card advantage through Supreme Verdict, and then go over the top to win. The plan worked worked very well as I was able to beat Nick's BRg deck 2-0.

If you're looking to try something new for drafting, but only have 1 other person to play with, I highly recommend trying the Rochester 1vs1 draft! I had tons of fun, and like a real Rochester there are tons of decisions to be made while picking your cards. I'm looking forward to playing tons of magic over the course of this next month, and bringing tons of reports and technology back to the blog! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack