2024-02-18 Dragon Snack Games RCQ MKM Limited Win* (6-1-1)

Introduction

First time the store was running a limited RCQ. Fortunately we had several experienced players and an L5 judge on hand to keep things on track. I had played one prerelease and several Arena Bo1 drafts before this.

Morph formats are inherently mid-size, if that makes sense? Lots of cards will trade into a 2/2 with no (combat) abilities. The combat tricks are very high quality, reminding me a bit of ONE. A successful trick will almost always blow a game open, and vice versa a counterplayed trick can lose the game.

Fixing is above average in terms of quality and availability. More on that during discussion of my draft deck.

Sealed Pool

• Blue was the deepest color but low on creatures. Black had some okay individual cards but not deep enough.
• Red green and white covered all the bases: bodies, fixing, removal, tricks. Even Treacherous Terrain as a win-con since nobody else researched the MKM List cards ahead of time. Also very powerful to have your opponent on a one-turn clock that they don't know about.
• Might even have had too much fixing - Gravestone Strider played defense duty very well and I don't think I filtered with it at all in any games.
• Changes, probably cut the Absolving Lammasu for a Push // Pull. Consider adding a second Mountain for late game.
  

Sealed Rounds

• R1 Nick R on RW WW (1-0)
  
• R2 Michael N on GRu LWW (2-0)
  
• R3 Aaron M on RGW WLL (2-1)
  
• R4 James B on RWG WLW (3-1)
  
• R5 ID (3-1-1, 3rd in Swiss)
  

Draft deck

• P1P1 Vein Ripper, hadn't seen the card before but clearly S-tier bomb
• P1P2 get passed Hide in Plain Sight and another rare. Either a 3-rare pack or neighbor is setting me up in green I'll take it.
• For the rest of the draft I tried to keep myself open, picking up numerous pieces of fixing and morph disguise creatures to keep creature counter reasonable.
• White was clearly not open, and pack 3 passed an early pack with two Rubblebelt Mavericks neither of which wheeled.
• Blue was a back-up plan but very splashable.
• Because Vein Ripper was a first pick it allowed be to draft the color balance. Green was a ramp color but never had to be a primary (it wasn't open enough to be a primary color). The color-fixing between Escape Tunnel and They Went This Way (my unofficial invitational card) also doubled as deck-thinning for finding my Vein Ripper.
• I should have played Make Your Mark and a Plains over Cryptex and an Island. Cryptex would have been better if I had two-three more graveyard payoffs/enablers.
  

Draft rounds

• QF Michael N on GBr splashing Incinerator of the Guilty. Won via insane topdecks
  
• SF Aaron M on RGu. Won via mana screw
  
• F Patrick P on WB. Not terribly aggressive, but high quality removal suite. He had to boardwipe 7 creatures in G3 with Vein Ripper out, then I rebought it with Macabre Reconstruction.

* I split the finals and gave Patrick the invite.

Thoughts

• I enjoy formats with quality fixing that enables moderate amounts of nonsense.
• Cheap 1/3s and 1/4s are key to stalling out board states. Much worse if people are appropriately valuing combat tricks.
• Bo1 league draft continues to be vastly different from paper pod & Bo3. Generally I think pod draft power level is down because you're actually fighting over lanes and cards, and you have a general idea of threats you'll run into.
• Enjoyed playing against all of my opponents and battling it out (and the triumph)
• Got to do the top 2 split draft I had been thinking about. Instead of proposing a fixed split: put all prize items into a pool, then draft them with finals winner getting first pick. That said I misplayed my pick 1 because shiny treasure go ooh