Lately around the old Interwebs and Brooklyn drafting Google Groups, there’s been a significant amount of “meh” over M15. Team drafts haven’t fired, crickets have been invoked, and “come back when Khans is out” has been said.
Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m very excited by Khans of Tarkir, and can’t wait to play with Morph cards, which I haven’t ever really played with before on a competitive basis. But I’m not at all yet tired of M15 draft!
Possibly that has something to do with how much I’ve played. I’ve done 16 drafts and two sealeds, which is a lot less than some serious grinders clock during any given format. Maybe if I had done 50 drafts I’d be singing a different tune.
But in the meantime, M15 has still been getting my juices flowing, and I’ve still been discovering interactions and adjusting ratings and learning things. And that, for me—as a nuts ‘n’ bolts Spike, as Marshall Sutcliffe of Limited Resources would put it—is the main point. That’s why I really love Limited: I love making “bad” cards work, playing to my outs, and in general trying to spin gold from straw.
Take tonight. My Team Draft League team, Ace of Base Power & Toughness, played Team CastHaven in an epic battle. I first-picked Garruk, Apex Predator, and moved in on a GB mildly graveyard-y strategy. Unfortunately the second Undergrowth Scavenger I passed didn’t make it back around the table, but I still managed to assemble a deck worthy of its 2-1 record. Here ’tis:
Dom, who is on my team, was playing a nearly mono-blue monster with about nine Welkin Terns and a Chasm Skulker. He also had a Kapsho Kitefins that he almost wasn’t going to play until me and Sam “Werb” Werbalowsky talked him into it.
Then, in the last round of the tournament, Dom was to my right, playing Jesse, who moved to combat. “Wait,” Dom said, and I looked over. Dom went to crack his Chasm Skulker, with four counters on it, and I figured he was planning to chump block and swing back for the win, as I think he could have. Instead Dom said, “OK, I get four tokens. And four triggers from Kapsho Kitefins.”
Dom grinned over at me. “I wanted to make sure that was going to work,” he said. “I just realized it.”
“I didn’t even see it,” I said.
So that was an awesome play, and it won us the draft.
It’s stories and stuff you don’t see like that that keeps me coming back. Hopefully we’ll be getting much more of that in Khans of Tarkir—but in the meantime, don’t mind me: I’ll be here, bouncing Hammerhands with Invasive Species, and making tough picks between (as I did tonight) Haunted Plate Mail and Will-Forged Golem. Happy drafting!
23/17 is a Hipsters of the Coast column focused on Limited play—primarily draft and sealed, but also cubing, 2HG, and anything else we can come up with. The name refers to the “Golden Ratio” of a Limited deck: 23 spells and 17 lands. Follow Hunter at @hrslaton.