Magic: The Gathering – Unboxing an Ixalan bundle, two Limited Decks deep

And for the decks…

My first Limited experience was in a draft with eleven people! It’s not the standard eight that usually attends these kinds of events, but with so many cards flying around the table, I didn’t mind one bit. The only real difference was expecting fewer cards to wheel around the table.

As for my deck, I opened an incredibly weak first pack with very little to build off of, and I simply rare-drafted one of the most infuriating cards in the set… Revel in Riches. It’s a very mediocre build-around card with a huge payoff of winning the game if you meet the requirement of ten treasures. I got passed a Boneyard Parley in my second pack, and I started focusing more on Black… only to find yet another Revel in Riches in my fourth pack.

I had two, and it had to be done. No getting around it.

Following those two picks, I scooped up a lot of Treasure-generating pirates, a lot of Black removal, Blue Flyers, graveyard shenanigans, and counterspells for an insane control deck. My plan was not to win through typical means and get at least one win off of Revel in Riches. The closest I got was nine treasure before my enchantment got destroyed by a stupid Demystify.

I ended up with Blue/Black Pirates, and I splashed Red after nabbing a Charging Monstrosaur and a Lightning Strike. Revel in Riches isn’t exactly the best win condition, so the best uncommons in the set helped me get over the hump.

Overall, I went 2-3 on the day and had a match record of 6-7. Not great, but I just didn’t have enough win conditions in the deck, especially when dealing with 4/4 flyers like Air Elemental and Deathless Ancient. Ixalli’s Diviner is also a morbidly annoying card to deal with once it becomes a 1/4 thanks to Explore. None of my Pirates could get through her, and my Lightning Strike proved utterly useless against one of them, let alone two.

I also, regrettably, boarded out both of the Revel in Riches since they weren’t doing much. I went 2-0 early in the day and had perhaps a bit too much confidence in the deck to win without it them. However, I went 0-3 after rotating them out and had a few long games that Revel in Riches could have easily won me.

In the end, Boneyard Parley nabbed me a Burning Sun’s Avatar, and I cast Charging Monstrosaur on turn-4 in one game and three separate times in another. Both were solid MVPs, but the lesson here is not to abandon your gameplan. I built around Revel and Riches and should have kept at least one of them in the deck.

My other Limited deck was made at a smaller Sealed party, and there was no question what I intended to build around when I opened my six packs. Vamps! Totally Vamps! My deck included two Rare vampires, both of which are pretty solid, and a handful of token generators and other Uncommon and solid Common Vampires.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/10/08/magic-the-gathering-unboxing-an-ixalan-bundle-two-limited-decks-deep/