As I sat with 8 of my friends (me being the only girl, FWIW) during our latest Magic draft on Sunday, I thought back to my journey into Magic.
-It all started with my brother. He was obsessed with Magic when we were in high school (circa 2000), which of course had the side effect of me wanting absolutely nothing to do it. I judged it negatively, and never thought I would ever learn or play it. I especially thought it wasn't fair that it seemed like the more money you spent on cards, the better your decks would be.
-Fast forward to me meeting my husband in 2012. Soon after we met, he decided to try Magic (his first purchase was a huge box of random cards). He and his best friend start getting really into it, and he really wanted me to learn. I resisted, but eventually was willing to at least try it. As we packed for our honeymoon trip to Hawaii in 2014, we packed up some Magic cards, and while we waited for our plane at the airport, he started teaching me and we played. I hated it, I felt there was no way to win and didn't think the play style was fair, and I ended up crying there at the airport on my honeymoon.
-But my husband did not give up. He started getting into a style of Magic called Commander that he thought suited us better, and he built me a deck that he thought I would like, especially because it was a strong, winning deck, commanded by Niv Mizzet, a red/blue dragon. The deck had lots of flying and counter spells, which definitely was a winning combination, and I did actually start to enjoy playing, now that I could win.
-In around 2015, my husband and I started a gathering at our house every Tuesday to play Magic (because the local pizza place does two-for-one pizzas on Tuesday, so we called it "Magic Pizza Tuesday"), with just one or two other friends, soon growing to 20 or more, but then to 10 or less during the Pandemic.
-After playing more, I decided to build my own deck. My first was commanded by Prossh, another powerful dragon with flying. I have since built several commander decks, including Marath, Ojutai, Tazri, Derevi, Kaalia, Skullbriar, Yurlok, and Depala; I edited prebuilt Atraxa and Lord Windgrace decks; I assisted my friend's Kumena deck; and I'm working on a Hans Ericcson deck now.
-While I love the Commander style of Magic, I also very much love drafting. It's fun and competitive way to play that I think equals the playing field even more and taps into the creativity of deck building. Every time a new set of Magic cards is released, I gather together a group of 8 people to draft. This particular new set is based on Harry Potter, and like Hogwarts, there are 5 different schools with different personalities.
Lorehold (Red and White, or Boros): "Leave no stone unturned." Diligent researchers, daring adventurers, passionate scholars of history, they explore the past by pouring over archaeological artifacts and summoning long-dead spirits.
Prismari (Red and Blue, or Izzet): "Express yourself with the elements." Theatre kids who express themselves with magic. Spells can be spectacles of raw creativity or meticulous artistic expressions.
Quandrix (Green and Blue, or Simic): "Math is Magic." Math magicians who study patterns, fractals, and symmetries to command power over the fundamental forces of nature. They'll solve a Rubik's Cube while contemplating the metaphysical properties of the universe and can recite every number of Pi backwards.
Silverquill (White and Black or Orzhov): "Sharp style. Sharper wit." Mages who wield the magic of words, from inspiring battle poetry to biting arcane insults with a razor-sharp wit and natural charisma.
Witherbloom (Green and Black or Golgari): "Get your hands dirty." Goth bio majors. They draw power from the essence of living beings, riding zombie crocs, picking herbs for potions, and hanging out in their swamp making grim jokes.
(By the way, other two color combinations do not have "schools" in Strixhaven, but do have traditional names in Magic. White + Blue = Azorius, Blue + Black = Dimir, Black + Red = Rakdos, Red + Green = Gruul, Green + White = Selesnya)
Some of my favorite cards in the new set have amazing flavor, such as:
- Eager First Year ("Today, she learns the basics. She'll knock out advanced theory later this week.")
- Star Pupil ("When I'm done here, they'll name entire buildings after me.")
- Study Break (You've been cramming all night. You're taking a nap whether you like it or not.")
- Bury in Books ("There are no weapons allowed in the Biblioplex, but a clever mage is never truly defenseless.")
- Divide by Zero ("Misery. Inadequacy. Failure. The common denominator is you.")
- Pop Quiz ("Today is hydromancy? I thought it was amplimancy! I studied for amplimancy!")
- Snow Day ("Advanced Elemental Manifestations is canceled until all students have thawed.")
- Hall Monitor ("No unauthorized summoning. No writing in the library books. And absolutely no indoor dueling!")
- Heated Debate ("While you were wasting time with abstract equations, I mastered ancient Oggyar fire magic. Your move.")
- Sudden Breakthrough ("Rootha created constantly, passionately, in hopes of impressing her greatest critic: herself.")
- Make Your Mark ("Those who do learn from history may still choose to repeat it.")
- Teach By Example ("Learning to imitate a master is the first step in becoming one.")
I first did a sealed draft with my husband on Friday. We each opened 6 packs of cards and used the cards we got to form decks to play against each other. I created a red, white, and black deck, and I won both games easily. My focus was lifelink (gaining life) and unblockable.
On Sunday, we did an official draft with 8 people (my husband was the 9th, helping out a brand new Magic player). Each of us opens a pack of cards, picks a card, passes the pack to the left, pick another card from the pack passed to us, keep passing, keep picking, etc etc. When that pack is done, we each open another pack, pick a card, pass to the right, etc, and then we do the third and final pack, passing to the left. Afterwards we each have 45-ish cards. We then work to create a deck of at least 40 cards-- we use about 25 of the drafted cards, and 15 or so lands from our land collection. Then we play one-on-one games in a tournament style bracket. After the tournament, we turn in all of our rare and foil cards that we drafted and we do what's called a final draft. The winner of the tournament gets first pick of the rares/foils, second place gets second pick, etc. This time, the most valuable card was worth over $30, others were worth $5-$10, but most hovered around about $1. I created a red, white, and blue deck (with lots of flying, a touch of unblockable, and little bit of tapping/response) and I ended up getting third place, so I had third pick. It was a delightful evening, and I look forward to more and more drafts in the future.
With delight,
♥Jamie
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