MTGCube.com’s January Draft
A blustery evening in Portland, Oregon brought Cube drafters indoors from across the metropolitan area for MTGCube.com’s monthly booster draft. With The Cube running at a leaner 495 cards, down from its previous 540, participants crowded around the draft table in stark anticipation of higher quality picks and a chance to crack one of the three newest additions: Hero of Bladehold, Thrun, the Last Troll, and Black Sun’s Zenith. (These were proxied in from one of the many Mirrodin Besieged Spoilers floating around the internets.)
The clock struck seven. Silence blanketed the room, and nine drafters popped the first pack to survey the selection. From the sounds of it, or rather lack of sound — some players have been known to spam the “Vuvuzela” app on their smartphones upon windmill slamming a top pick — you would think the recent Cube reduction was all for naught. Personally? I kept quiet as I slipped a Pack 1-Pick 1 Black Lotus into my pile. The rest of the seasoned drafters remained equally subdued as they thoughtfully pieced together their masterpieces.
Four rounds of Swiss, three large pizzas, and five hours of trash-talking later, the two top contenders sat down at Table One for a classic archetype battle: Clearence’s Blue/Green Beatsy Control versus Adams’ Mono-Red Burn. While the night’s winner would ultimately be determined by the total number of accumulated match points (Win = 3, Tie = 1, Loss = 0), all eyes were on Steve and Mike as the two duked it out for bragging rights.
Sadly, even at 3-1, my Green/Red Ramp could not Kodama’s Reach its way to the final table. However I did savor a sweet game victory over Clearence with a top-decked Banefire for the win, as he held not one but three counterspells in his hand. But moving on to the spotlight match for the evening…
"Clearence's Blue/Green"
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"Adams' Mono Red"
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Indeed it was a battle of epic proportions — Chandra versus Jace. Meloku versus Inferno Titan. Wasteland versus Library. Don’t blink or else you may have missed this one. In fact, that’s indeed what happened. As I was munching on some leftover pizza, I glanced over and both players had already started reshuffling their decks. Could it really have ended that quickly?
The answer is a resounding yes.
In two straight games, Adams’ mono-red proved to be too hot to handle for his worthy adversary. In a friendly game three, Adams added insult to injury by Forking Steve’s Cryptic Command, both countering the original spell and netting an additional card. And with that, Steve scooped in defeat, but not without walking away the ultimate winner of the night by edging out the competition with his 3-1 record.
Congratulations to Steve, and to the remaining drafters who really raised the competition to a new level. Stay tuned for next month’s draft report and a full update on changes to The Cube.
Happy Drafting!
-Tavish
January 22nd, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Wow, that red deck looks ridiculous. SO much burn and fast creatures plus Strip Mine and Wasteland ! YIkES
January 27th, 2011 at 12:31 am
Wow both of those decks look insane…