Glenn's perspective: HoM 1 wrap-up

History of Magic is a unique draft format.

The most unique part is the simultaneous draft picks. All participants create a list of cards they want from the set they're currently in, ranked from first to wherever (I went down to 17th on the first round).

"Set?" I hear someone say… well, yes. The draft starts in Unlimited (sans some of the more expensive cards). For the first round, each player submits picks from that set. In the second round, each player secretly chooses to advance one set, or not, and secretly sets their picks for the appropriate set.

I'll give examples from my draft. Round one, I submitted a 17 card long list for Unlimited (accidently including a card I thought of at the last minute that was actually in Legends and 4th Edition). The following round I submitted a ten card long list, also for Unlimited, declining to advance, and did the same for round three. Then the round after that, I advanced to Arabian Nights – the next set printed (in chronological order), and submitted a set of picks for Arabian Nights.

I then advanced one set at a time for a very long time (I think this is slightly wrong, because Shaun got two sets ahead of me, but I'm not sure how).

Now, my strategy… it was a good one. I still think I drafted a deck that stands out amongst the field… but one I needed:

• More time to build (I showed up to the second HoM meeting without it designed, while most of the others had built theirs).
• Some playtest time (my deck was extremely complex to pilot, and I still hadn't figured out how to play it that well by the time I'd already lost two matches…).
• All the cards for my sideboard. I'd drafted quite a strong sideboard out of Lorwyn cards, but without the cards physically being in the BDB, it was awkward wanting to SB them in.

Three card combo: Fastbond, Zuran Orb, and Crucible of Worlds

My general strategy was to take fast mana and card draw. Oh, and pick up the Fastbond/Zuran Orb/Crucible of Worlds combo. I made several mistakes with this plan, though. Here is a rundown on my picks and my thinking behind each:

• I drafted Wheel of Fortune first pick. I didn't end up using it, even in my four colour deck. This was a terrible pick because it was my "if my first two picks are blocked, I'm going mono-red-burn". This was stupid, because Sylvan Library was not in the set. Oops. Had I picked Fastbond right there, and then advanced immediately, it would have benefitted my strategy much more.
• Channel was also a bad pick. I didn't think about how all my cards were going to have tough coloured mana requirements. Dark Ritual, or advancing to Arabian Nights, would have been a much better choice.
• Desert Twister was fine though. Arabian Nights has minimal quality, and I wanted a Disenchant effect.
• Again, Triskelion? Fine. It plays defense pretty well.
• Sylvan Library was what I wanted…
• Gaea's Touch synergized with my plan to pick up Horn of Greed, Recycle and Null Profusion… but wasn't a great card. Still, the early sets are pretty much 100% bad cards.
• Ebon Stronghold: Dark Ritual in land format! Woot!
• Zuran Orb… yeah, I had a plan here.
• Memory Lapse: Hey, it doesn't completely suck.
• Thawing Glaciers was one of the best cards in my deck, and FoW was gone.
• Enlightened Tutor could find a lot of bombs.
• Squandered Resources was an engine card. It did fairly well, but it did mean my deck tended to run out of lands when going off. Perhaps should have been Dark Ritual.
• Lotus Vale was a mispick. It should have been Gaea's Blessing…
• Recycle, Horn of Greed: Massive synergy with Fastbond. I perhaps focused too much on Fastbond – but it is a broken card.
• Oath of Druids: This was a brilliant pick, but I screwed it up immensely later, pretty much halving the power of my deck through sheer stupidity (although to be honest, I blame David here – he took Eternal Witness in, at that point, a mostly U/B deck… yes, my biggest screw-up of the draft was not taking Eternal Witness… Oath + EW = a tutor effect).
• Time Spiral: Possibly should have been Duress or Dark Rit. Still, mammoth draw.
• Grim Monolith: Fast mana.
• Yawgmoth's Bargain: Just broken.
• Brainstorm: Good smoothing. Perhaps should have been Dark Ritual.
• Rath's Edge: Win condition with the Fastbond combo. Also a fairly bad pick, Parallax Wave or Parallax Nexus would have been more powerful, or Parallax Tide…
• Foil: Just not a good set. It did deny it to people, which was nice.
• Sterling Grove: Excellent card for my deck. Finds Fastbond. (FoF was gone.)
• Allied Strategies: A big draw card. Very nice.
• Yavimaya Coast: I went for mana-fixing. Perhaps a bad choice; Pernicious Deed or Vindicate might have helped more in the long run, since there was a lot of other places I could take fixing.
• Tainted Pact: A semi-tutor, Impulse kind of card.
• Far Wanderings: I realized I needed green acceleration to paste my mana base together.
• Krosan Verge: Again, acceleration and fixing.
• Polluted Delta: Fixing!
• Graveborn Muse: It's Legions.
• Tendrils of Agony: Win condition. I needed it. Desire was a nice thought.
• Sylvan Scrying: Not quite sure why I took this. It does set me up nicely for long games, but I should have realized everyone was building beatdown.
• Skullclamp: Because no one else gets the damned Clamp! :P
• Crucible of Worlds: Essential.
• The rest of my Fifth Dawn picks: Good cards, but Eternal Witness was better omg I'm an idiot this cost me the HoM draft more than any other decision!!!
• Sakura Tribe Elder: I love this guy. :)
• Tendo Ice Bridge: Mana fixing.
• Erayo, Sortami Ascendant: Seemed like he might be useful. Also, Saviors sucks.
• Dark Confidant: He's just the man.
• Dizzy Spell: Fastbond!
• Farseek: Mana fixing!
• Muddle the Mixture: Tutoring!
• Godless Shrine, Breeding Pool: I can find them with Krosan Verge to fix all my colours, and David was fighting me on the other duals. Four colours has its advantages.
• Ghost Quarter: Because apparently I was drunk with thoughts of infinite life and mana combos that can also armageddon your opponent.
• Vanish into Memory: A draw spell.
• Gaea's Blessing: Still good with Oath, although two would be better.
• Null Profusion: Remember how I picked Recycle like 30 picks ago? Yeah.
• Damnation: Just an awesome card.
• Tolaria West: Again, like Sylvan Scrying, seems less awesome than it did.
• Tarmogoyf: No comment.
• Pact of Negation: Okay, Tolaria West can find this… ;)
• Garruk Wildspeaker, Liliana Vess, Jace Beleren: Good cards, should have played them.

Major mistakes: I didn't take enough mana acceleration, and I let David take Eternal Witness. This made my deck much worse than it could have been, and the slowness was extremely costly.

It was a fairly good strategy, but perhaps overly convoluted. Ultimately, I feel my final performance was worse than it could easily have been for a variety of reasons, most of them mistakes I intend to correct this time.