Monday, October 10, 2005
Ravnica
Oooh, we the Ravnica draft was so fun! Okay, I don’t need to go into the details, those who are interested were there, those who weren’t there aren’t interested, so I would just say that the draft was fun! Ravnica is definitely an interesting set with a lot of mechanics and ideas that work well together. The guild mechanic works well, and now we can’t wait for future Ravnica drafts.
I think one of the key things for me that allowed me to enjoy the draft (other than Ravnica being a great set) was being able to play cards, which was mostly due to good mana fixing and acceleration. It’s also nice when you formulate a strategy which works, and thus you win with your strategy. Winning isn’t everything, and it might be just me, but is does add to the fun of the draft. I’ve won against all but Duy, and I’ve had some close calls (Andy – 2 cards left in library, David – 20 life vs 2 life left), but in the end, Watchwolf and Phytohydra pulled me through.
So does that mean I will try to play green in drafts now? For quick mana production? Well… not necessarily, since a lot of the mana comes from signets – but a fair bit is mostly green. But no, that doesn’t mean that – but green certainly is good for me. As I always say – it depends on the first round of boosters.
The next day was also fun. I’ve opened a bunch of boosters from my box and fatpack, but I still had about 10 boosters. And with my two cousins there were 5 of us. So… we had a draft! A draft, where all the cards in the end will come back to me, but a draft anyway. 2-packs each, so 30 cards in total, in which to build a 40-card deck – so you take out 6 you don’t want, and then you have the bulk of your deck.
Damn my cousins – the girl cousin opens Agrus Kos and the guy cousin opens Gleancrawler. I open the Hunted Horror which is probably the worst of the Hunted; but the draft was okay, despite everyone having so limited # of cards. Second pack had so many bad rares too… including a foil Hunted Horror…
Anyway, after all that, we played with our first draft decks and some constructed decks in free-for-all and team games. One particular special moment occurred when my cousin brought out Akroma. Before my turn, I congregate at dawn for a skysweeper and two guildmages – so insurance against the Akroma. If Akroma would attack me, the skysweeper would take it out.
Also, in these games I would sometimes trade protection for power; in otherwords, I’d attack with my phytohydra, they’d block it, and my hydra becomes stronger; and then I would grant them protection by not attacking them with the hydra, at least for a few turns.
Then it was my turn, and I played the skysweeper. Meanwhile, Duy started giggling strangely. I wanted my hydra to get stronger, and since the Akroma couldn’t attack me anyway, so I wanted to trade protection with him.
If you can understand why Duy was giggling, congratulations, and don’t say the answer – just reply with “LOL” or whatever you want, and let Wen or David guess.
So that’s a good Ravnica review. Maybe Alan will write one. But most probably not.
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I think one of the key things for me that allowed me to enjoy the draft (other than Ravnica being a great set) was being able to play cards, which was mostly due to good mana fixing and acceleration. It’s also nice when you formulate a strategy which works, and thus you win with your strategy. Winning isn’t everything, and it might be just me, but is does add to the fun of the draft. I’ve won against all but Duy, and I’ve had some close calls (Andy – 2 cards left in library, David – 20 life vs 2 life left), but in the end, Watchwolf and Phytohydra pulled me through.
So does that mean I will try to play green in drafts now? For quick mana production? Well… not necessarily, since a lot of the mana comes from signets – but a fair bit is mostly green. But no, that doesn’t mean that – but green certainly is good for me. As I always say – it depends on the first round of boosters.
The next day was also fun. I’ve opened a bunch of boosters from my box and fatpack, but I still had about 10 boosters. And with my two cousins there were 5 of us. So… we had a draft! A draft, where all the cards in the end will come back to me, but a draft anyway. 2-packs each, so 30 cards in total, in which to build a 40-card deck – so you take out 6 you don’t want, and then you have the bulk of your deck.
Damn my cousins – the girl cousin opens Agrus Kos and the guy cousin opens Gleancrawler. I open the Hunted Horror which is probably the worst of the Hunted; but the draft was okay, despite everyone having so limited # of cards. Second pack had so many bad rares too… including a foil Hunted Horror…
Anyway, after all that, we played with our first draft decks and some constructed decks in free-for-all and team games. One particular special moment occurred when my cousin brought out Akroma. Before my turn, I congregate at dawn for a skysweeper and two guildmages – so insurance against the Akroma. If Akroma would attack me, the skysweeper would take it out.
Also, in these games I would sometimes trade protection for power; in otherwords, I’d attack with my phytohydra, they’d block it, and my hydra becomes stronger; and then I would grant them protection by not attacking them with the hydra, at least for a few turns.
Then it was my turn, and I played the skysweeper. Meanwhile, Duy started giggling strangely. I wanted my hydra to get stronger, and since the Akroma couldn’t attack me anyway, so I wanted to trade protection with him.
If you can understand why Duy was giggling, congratulations, and don’t say the answer – just reply with “LOL” or whatever you want, and let Wen or David guess.
So that’s a good Ravnica review. Maybe Alan will write one. But most probably not.