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Booster drafting is probably one of the formats that requires most improvising on the player's behalf to make their deck work. Not only does the player have to work out the spell/creature count, mana curve and deck strategy in their head but they also have to second guess what color their opponent is going. Lesser players are often swayed to choose a color that the person to their right is going to choose because they have opened a bomb rare and try to force the color even though it was an unwise thing to do. The ability to give up while you still can and improvise on what you are given is what I believe to be the line that separates a good draft player from the average ones.

I woke up extra early on Friday to go and enjoy the infamous "big breakfast" Scott and Sab were yamming about the day before. As we were getting ready, Paul Ross was genuinely surprised when he saw the large range of hair-care products I brought with me which included shampoo, conditioner, gel, hair spray and a hair dryer to boot. In defense I merely replied: "Bad hair doesn't necessarily make you a good Magic player."

The breakfast was as good as the guys said and we managed to get to the convention center right on time. We were allocated to different pods after the long "Rules breaking is bad, winners don't use drugs" speech and the only person that I recognized on my first draft table was Andrew Bailey, who I have played against a couple of times in constructed tournaments in Sydney. I secretly hope that we will not get paired against each other so at least one of us will have a better chance of getting into second day.

As most good players know, blue is probably the best color to draft in Odyssey because blue provides the most synergy with the 3 main mechanics (Threshold, Flashback and Madness) in the block and is usually less drafted then the highly coveted colors like Black and Green. Red, on the other hand, is what I considered to be the weakest color in Odyssey draft as it is the only color in the set that does not provide a way to discard by choice. The quality of red creatures is also sub-par compared to the other colors and red is only good when combined with green or black.

With that in mind, I was hoping to draft a defensive Blue/White deck because I favored the defensive strategy but the only card worth taking in my first pack was a Firebolt. So I picked it up and never looked back as the stream of Red cards just kept coming in. I ended up with an average red/green splash black deck that have Shower of Coals but was really lacking in the creature department as I did not have any 'Rabid Elephants' and decent 2 drops. To improve the deck quality I splash black for Soul Scourge and Sickening Dreams hoping that it will give me the extra push that I would need for the win.

My first round opponent was Andre who drafted a rather slow red/blue deck with multiple Scriveners to return his burn spells and Repels. We split the first 2 games but his Repel/Scrivener combination turned out to be too much for me as he kept killing and repelling my creatures and returned those spells to his hand with Scrivener. His army crashed through as my lone Ember Beast stare impotently back at me as though he is trying to say: "Well, you know I'm crap without Pardic Firecat". Feeling gloom after the defeat, I told my little joke about what it would take for a person from Northern Territory to qualify for the Nationals (answer: to play Magic) and wished him good luck in the future matches as my resistance depends on his performance.

During the break between the first and the second match, I did a little play testing with a couple of Sydney players and nearly all their decks could smash mine. This is when I begin to think if I have wasted my time traveling all the way to Canberra just so I can lose. Things began to pick up as the round progressed and I was able to win my second and third rounds. However, the pressure was still on since I could only afford another loss through out the day. After the third round was over, I went to lunch with a bunch of Sydney players and we all had a good laugh about Andrew's exploits at the club the night before and was beginning to feel better with some food in my stomach.

My sitting arrangement at the second pod was rotten as it featured not 1, not 2, but 4 Sydney players including Scott Smith, Dan Turner, Wayne Steele and myself. My choices in the first pack was between a Cephalid Looter and Nomad Decoy and I choose the Decoy because I know how much people love blue after the first pod and didn't want to fight for it. I was later handed a couple of blue cards and entertained the idea of going Blue/White but this idea was kicked into oblivion when I was passed a second pick Cabal Patriarch in our second pack.

What the!?

Personally, I was immensely surprised that anyone would pass that card and could think of little that the person to my left could pick over it. Taking this as a signal that he is not going black, I drafted a couple more black cards like Dirty Wererat, Afflict and Whispering Shade before Odyssey ran out. At this stage I was desperately low on removal despite the mighty Patriarch and was hoping that Torment would provide me with a couple of Faceless Butchers and Crippling Fatigue to round off the deck.

Chainer, Dementia Master screamed, "pick me!" when I opened my first pack and for a second, I thought that I would obey the lord of nightmares' command. However having seen Chainer in action, I realized that he was not as great as he seem on paper. Firstly, his ability is rather late game and by that time you usually cannot afford to give 3 life for his half ass ability. Secondly, Chainer's ability is easily disrupted and a mere Repel could send him and his nightmare buddies packing so the 3 life is usually not worth that hassle. Therefore, instead of going Chainer, I got a Cabal Torturer because it sits well as both a removal and a 3 drop in my deck.

This is the deck I ended up with:

Black

1 x Afflict
1 x Cabal Patriarch
2 x Cabal Torturer
1 x Carrion Wurm
1 x Dirty Wererat
1 x Gravegouger
1 x Whispering Shade
1 x Waste Away

Lands

1 x Tainted Field
1 x Abandoned Outpost
8 x Swamps
7 x Plains

White

1 x Nomad Decoy
1 x Hypochondria
1 x Patrol Hound
1 x Confessor*
1 x Angelic Wall
1 x Kirtar's Desire
1 x Spirit Flare*
1 x Mystic Zealot
1 x Aven Flock
1 x Equal Treatment*
1 x Beloved Chaplain
1 x Mystic Familiar
1 x Pilgrim of Justice
1 x Aven Cloudchaser

You might be wondering why I choose to use the cards with the little * at the end as they are rather crap compared to the rest of my deck. The main reason behind that decision is that I did not draft enough good White/Black cards so I have to use some fillers to have enough cards in my deck. I thought about splashing blue for Aether Burst and Deluge but I think anyone who tries to play 3 colors in Odyssey without lots of sac-lands or Green is just deluding themselves to believe that it would work.

My 4th round opponent (Glenn I think) must have thought that I was a scrub by playing first turn Confessor but he became quite astonished when I played my 5th turn Carrion Wurm. As I was beating him away happily with my wurm I got another surprised look out of him by saving it with my poor man's Embolden (Equal Treatment) when he chump blocked my wurm. Just as I was going to ride my wurm to victory, a judge came over and gave me a game loss because I forgot to register a Dedicated Martyr. I remember trying to choose between using either him or the Confessor during deck construction and decided to go with Confessor because I would gain more life with him in this discard-filled environment. Well the stupid Martyr got his revenge and I must be the first person on Earth to lose a game because of that card.

Game 2 started well with the same 5th turn Carrion Wurm and just when I was about to close the deal again, one of the judges (Lindsey) came over asking if he could check my deck. Feeling another game loss coming my way I ask him what is wrong this time and he just kept telling me that he suspected that something was wrong but refused to tell me what it was. So we stopped playing and started playing again when the judge reckons we should keep playing while they check out the problem. I some how managed to win the second despite the hovering Lindsey who is going through my deck over and over again. The 3rd game was kind of tense without my 5th turn Carrion Wurm and by this time the judges must have already counted my deck at least 9 times in between games adding more stress to my desperate situation. Fortunately, nothing else was wrong with my deck and I managed to get Patriarch for the win.

Feeling cheated that the judges annoyed me when nothing was wrong I asked them why they had kept checking my deck after the match was over. It turns out that one of the people I sat with accidentally scooped up some extra cards during deck construction and the judges were running around to see whose cards he scooped up. If Lindsey bothered to write down the amount of cards I had in my deck in the first place, he would have worked out that there was nothing wrong with my deck after all. Enraged that I was bothered by this incident, I insisted on getting a sideboard pen for all the trouble that they have caused me.

I can be so petty at times.

My 5th round opponent was none other then Scotty Smith and the last time I played against him he had a Patriarch in his deck, which was smashed by my B/U deck. It would appear that our situations has reversed as he ran a very similar B/U deck to mine, sporting tons of walls and fliers and he quipped that this should be a sign that he is going to repay the favor. We stall on the first game as our creatures stare at each other until I busted out Beloved Chaplain to soar through his ranks. Scott tried to retain his advantage by attacking with all his fliers but my Confessor has gained me so much life by then that Scott decided to scoop when my Hypochondria came down as well. Second game was kind of similar to the first until I drew his Syncopate out and went smack smack smack with my Patriarch. Oh well, you will have to get me next time Gadget.

Confessor has once again proved himself by giving me precious life after receiving some severe beatings from my 6th round opponent's weenies. Spirit Flare also helped to take out his horde of small creatures and Dirty Wererat with threshold pretty much sealed the first game. Second game was all about the Patriarch with Hypochondria and I heard that's kind of hard to beat. So in the end I went 5-1 after losing the first round, how lucky.

We returned to the backpacker's hostel after dinner to do some play testing and saw my first round opponent Andre with a couple of his friends. After asking how he went, we trash talked a bit as this girl walked past and asked if the game we were playing similar to Snap. Finding this immensely funny in a nerdy manner, we all bellow with laughter while I explain to the girl "Yes, it is like Snap, except 10000 times more expensive." Seeing that she does not belong to our world, she went down stairs to go where the normal people belong.

Just when I was about to turn in for the night, Kwong Siu asked if anyone wanted to go to the club downstairs with him. I struggled a bit and ended up going because even though I will need my strength and attention tomorrow, I REALLY wanted to go to check out the scene in Canberra. Besides, I can be certain that I can get pissed, but not so certain if I would win at the Nationals tomorrow.

The bar/club was packed when we got there and not only did I get to see some major pool playing skills from Matt and Alex Brown but also Lenny Collins there putting the manoeuvres on the chicks. The world became a wonderful place after a couple of double vodka and orange juices (they actually gave double dose of both Vodka AND orange juice, how odd) and it was not until someone tell another Magic player "You went 4-2 and you're not sleeping?" that I thought maybe I should go hit the sack. Being the weak-minded fool that I was, I went to the bar for one last drink only to find that it has closed an hour before the club closes. I do not know how things are ran in other states, but bars do NOT close until at least half an hour before the club closes in Sydney. So being pissed and pissed off, I was ready to dish out some choice words to the bartender when this girl next to me went spazz before I could. Seeing that we have something in common in our deluded mind, we went in to this intense discussion about how crappy the system was and before we know, the club has closed and we are being hustled out! Chatting to a pretty girl or wake up early to play Magic, there was never really a choice there.

Due to these unpredictable factors in life, my sleeping plan pretty much went down the drains. With 3 hours left before I had to wake up, my only conscious thought was that I should get some coffee as soon as I get out of bed.

I will need it.

End of Day 2

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