Set 3 TWI: Our First SWU Draft

11/24: Pulled our second Showcase; I went 3-0, Alyssa went 0-3

Table of Contents

1. 11/24 - Cardboard Games

   1. Prizes

   2. Deck - Anakin Green

   3. Draft Thoughts

   4. Matchups

2. Conclusion

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11/24 - Cardboard Games

Format: Bo3, 3 rounds, pack-per-win, 12 players; https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/197493

Prizes

Three packs prizing (not shown), but the real prize being the showcase pull (later sold to CBG).

Deck - Anakin Green

Draft Thoughts

This has been our first irl draft in general. We’ve only done Winchester draft (https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Winchester_Draft) between us two in MTG.

My leader choices were Anakin, Palpatine, and Padmé. There was a brief moment where I considered going with a different leader, because a person next to me also had Anakin, which meant that we would both compete for the same cards right next to each other. But I still ended up going with Anakin Green after seeing a lot of early game green units early in the draft.

My initial mindset was rare drafting, such as when I picked a hyperfoil Droideka Security early on even though I’ve already settled on going with Anakin leader. Then picking uncommons over commons, assuming all of the cards were meh. While I was prioritizing my early game (I really didn’t want to brick), I wasn’t really paying attention to the rest of my cost curve until much later.

Looking at Alyssa’s picks, which I’ve told her to rare draft if she doesn’t know what to draft, her notable drafts are one rare and one hyperspace uncommon (Anakin’s Interceptor) -_-.

When looking at what I ended up drafting, I had to add in five bad cards to get to the 30 card deck size minimum. The unwanted cards were: Steadfast Senator, Aggrieved Parliamentarian, Headhunter Squadron, Manufactured Soldiers, and The Zillo Beast. I never got close to being able to play The Zillo Beast, but did end up playing the other ones at least once, including the off-aspect Manufactured Soldiers multiple times.

Knowing that I basically only had two late game bombs, I always held onto Tranquility / AT-TE if drawn in the starting hand as I knew that was my only top end.

Matchups

Vs Anakin Green 2-0

They didn't do as much board control, so I was able to make some favorable value trades.

Vs Quinlan Green 2-1

Lost the first game; this was my hardest opponent. My opponent had multiple capture cards (they ended up capturing my AT-TE and Tranquility), so I was a bit more aware of that in the next two games. 

My opponent was pretty conscious of my base health early game and was focusing on board control / trading one-for-one. So, by the time my leader deployed, it was a non-buffed Anakin.

I think I had resupply for two of the games, so I was able to deploy the same turn as them.

Vs Obi-Wan Green 2-0

First game, I had an early Strategic Acumen on a Clone token unit, which allowed me to play out a Tranquility on the Resource 6 turn. They did play Sword and Shield Maneuver on their very wide board (4+ ground units), so I was basically trying to board control on ground. My opponent had no answer to my space.

Second game, I focused more on just aggro’ing them down.

Conclusion

Drafting is alright, though I still much prefer the sealed format, because of the idea that I get to fully keep the packs I open. I do really like the skill expression in these formats. Though I do feel like my wins are worth “less” simply because of the Anakin leader. Though I do want to point out my performance with Wat and Maul (ignore my Obi-Wan’s record haha) in pre-release.

Financial snippet: After selling our Grievous and Anakin showcase and some Set 3 Legendaries, that basically paid off our five Set 3 boxes and three pre-release events costs.