Spirit Magic at the Draft Tournament!

We had a blast Thursday night out at Jerry's spot, where we decided to have our draft tournament.  Plenty of parking and room for notorious deck building and general plotting of Magic mayhem.

This tournament was crazy right from the get-go, as many folk weren't very familiar with the block, but we had a ton of fun.  When it came down to it, some of the more experienced players actually fared worse than the relative newcomers!  In fact, not a single player went home in defeat - everyone won at least a pack!  I think this is a clear sign that the club is beginning to benefit from the constant battle!

My friends are here to see you.

I was really pleased with how well we acclimated to the old format.  There were cries of "WTF?!" all over the place as players looked through the draft packs and discovered spells for the first time, often with abilities they didn't really know all the repercussions for.  The decks that took shape were surprising.

The big winner was Mark Mark, who totaled all three of his opponents (including me).  His Green / White deck was mostly mortal monks, backed  up by some powerful kami and support spells.  I drafted Blue, same as Matt - who deserves special mention as not only is he a newcomer to Magic, but it was also his first competitive tournament!

It was a grim and bloody day.

Everyone got at least one match, making this the first time all eight players drew from the prize pool!  That is, it was quite a balanced dust up,  with more than one awesome story for the books.  This has cemented our resolve to do these "backdrafts" - the next one is coming soon!

Our next draft will be New Phyrexia, at the Captain Video Invitational.  More on this soon.  For now, lets just say we plan to show our appreciation to our contributing members in a very real way, very soon.

Until then, keep your katana strapped and at the ready, and draw steel as soon as you reach the Wargate!

Saviors of Kamigawa Draft!

Konnichiwa!

The next back-draft is just around the corner!  I thought I'd give everyone ample time to research the block by spending some time alerting everyone to the mechanics of the Kamigawa block, since we'll be drafting Saviours of Kamigawa in just a week or two!

So what's up on this expansion?  Saviours is the last of the three expansions in the block, and as such you're liable to draft any of the mechanics in the block.  Kamigawa block has some interesting special rules, and will be a blast to draft.  So what's the skinny on what's inside?

Spirits!  Half the creatures in the set are Spirits, and if you've ever been to the plane of Kamigawa you'll know that it's absolutely suffused with Spirit magic...that's sort of the point of the set.  You should be prepared to use some of these Spirit tricks, because they will certainly be used against you!

Saviours is widely regarded as a difficult set to draft from.  Expect a slower format than current Standard, with a lot of back and forths...the spells in this set are generally seen as utility spells, but not the best ones of the block.  I disagree with that sentiment, and it promises a really nice Limited environment with lots of themes to check out.  The game finishers usually tend to be huge and powerful Legendary Spirits, or other sort of Legendary Creature.

Samurai are in!  With their Bushido special ability, which gives them +X/+X until end of turn, these guys are the warriors to watch out for.  There are a few in Saviours, which means we're sure to cross blades with a few of these guys in the draft - the only Legendary Samurai is Iizuka the Ruthless.  Other creature themes you'll see are Snakes (the Orochi - snake men) and Ogres, who need Demons in play.

Spirit Magic comes in many forms.  Saviours will make use of a lot of these, but to a more limited extent.  It's tough to find a victory condition in just one of these themes, so you'll have to use everything you can get your hands on to bring about a win!  There are many Spirit cards, and each will have one or more of the abilities below, and other powers besides!  Understanding and exploiting this Spirit magic will be crucial to victory.  Spells that are not Spirits can be considered "Spirit" magic if they are marked as Arcane.

1. Arcane Spells have the Arcane designator.  They can have spells Spliced into them.  Certain spirits react when you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell (see Spiritcraft, below).
1. Spliced spells are cast with another Arcane spell (usually for reduced cost), but return to your hand.  They effectively "hitch a ride" on the main spell, which has to be an Arcane spell.
2. Soulshift returns Spirits to your hand from the graveyard when they die.  They "shift" a creature (casting cost X) out of the graveyard.
3. Channel lets you use the Spirit as an Sorcery spell, gaining a specific and concentrated effect.  It goes to the graveyard, where it can be revived with Soulshifting.
4. Spiritcraft is the word given to triggered abilities that activate when you cast Spirit or Arcane spells.  This can be getting +1/+1 until end of turn or more permanent bonuses.  Chaining these abilities can be deadly.

Sweep is on very few cards in the set, but they are mostly common so we'll see this.  It allows you to return basic lands to your hand as part of the casting cost of the spell, amplifying it's power.  This allows you to exploit another mechanic, called "Wisdom".  Wisdom is the term used to describe the cards in the set that focus on hand size, a prevalent theme.  If you have more cards in your hand than opponent (some demand you have a full hand) then drastic things may occur.

Also be on the lookout for Flip Cards.  These are permanents that change after fulfilling a condition.  The card will tell you what the condition for flipping is, and there are some strange things in this category...how bout a Legendary Enchantment or two?

I'd like to mention one card here, just for trivia.

To the left here is the spell Evermind.  This is the first Magic card to be printed without a casting cost.  Kamigawa block was adding some new rules, and modifying others.  Legends became Legendary, and they made a whole lot of Legendary permanents that weren't creatures in this set.

Note the casting cost isn't 0...there simply isn't a casting cost.  It's intentionally uncastable.

There's more than one way to cast the spell, but in Limited the only way you can get it's effect is to Splice it!

In closing, I'd like to say this draft is going to be a blast with the Limited environment.  Spirit warriors, unite!