I've been missing out in sharing what I do with this game. I love Magic The Gathering and fortunately there's Magic Arena. It isn't perfect, but I can still play a game I like a lot even when it's just 1v1. But it doesn't beat the excitement of playing with your friends.
This is one of the limited formats of Magic. Limited meaning that you have to play with cards you would get from packs.
A booster draft is a format played among 8 players in a table. Each player gets 3 Booster packs. These contain 15 cards.
It starts with each player opening a pack, removing the tokens and advertisements and picking one card. Then, they pass the rest to the next player.
This is how the cards will move according to the pack. There's direction shift on the second and then another for the third.
You pick cards. One per pack until there are no cards left. You'll have somewhere around 42 - 45. Then, each player builds a 40 cards deck. Then it's a showdown.
However, in this digital environment, you can draft against bots. It is faster and cheaper in in-game currency. Although, the prices are reduced.
The interesting thing about drafting in Arena is that you can end up in a mirror match. This happens because you never play against the same people in your draft pod. That's an interesting choice from the developers.
So the current set is Crimson Vow. It is set in the plane of Innistrad, a place that's a gothic horror story lover's wet dream. Filled with all the classical monster and humans that are prey. The format is a bit slow. But I have had a hard time trying to get a decent draft.
My deck always fell short on something. Not enough creatures, bad quality of cards, not enough removal. Sometimes it was a thing of connection dropping me out of games. I could catch a break.
But yesterday, I drafted this beauty of deck.
I had 2 bomb rares. The spirit isn't important even when it's pretty powerful, especially when you cast it from the graveyard with disturb¨. I'm talking about the Hullbreaker Horror. That thing is a beast!
I was losing a game. I was at 1 life. Doom was imminent. I had the chance to cast it and it flipped the odds. Suddenly, I was able to bounce the creatures that were a threat and I won in 3 turns. Up to that point I was 6 - 0 a fantastic record! I thought I could repeat my Ikoria: Lair of Behemots draft achievements of going 7 - 0. Nonetheless, the internet had other things to say. Then, I was 6 - 1. I lost the next game to a great Black/White deck that applied tons of pressure from the beginning. It had a lot of removal as well. Not even my bombs could save me.
Then, I thought that everything was lost. In the last game, my opponent conceded after I started making drops in each turn. Maybe they had a poor hand. Whatever the reason may be, I went 7 - 2. This has been my best result in this set. I have had some pretty lame ones. Even some consecutive 0 - 3 drafts.
I'm excited to see what the new set will bring to the table. We are going back to Kamigawa, the plane inspired in Japanese culture. There will be tons of fine stuff there. For the moment, I'll what's the next Quick Draft set. Hopefully, it will be Strixhaven. I don't have cards from that set. So drafting will give me some.
I don't have paper magic, but I can still play with this. If you're a Magic Arena player, find me in discord and let's get some friendly brawl matches. You know, as friendly as a game of Magic The Gathering can be ;).
