Round 1 vs Nathan V
Nathan went first and pushed with Thaddeus (Di). I blocked with one of my small guys and played Idol Worship to capture Thaddeus to Nathan’s LoB. Not until later would we realize that would turn out to be one of the key points in the game. Nathan had drafted My Lord and My God, plus two copies of Faith as a Mustard Seed so he had tons of Purple support but not in his opening hand. I attacked on my turn and promptly got blocked Orpah (FoM). The next several turns pretty much repeated that pattern. Nathan attacked and I would burn a battle winner to block. I would attack and Nathan would just discard any O.T. card from hand with Orpah. Eventually he switched his block and used Shame to try and set me aside. I used a regular negate only to see him play a second copy of Shame… My defense kept holding however, and I even got off Besieging the City to stall a turn. Finally I drew my copy of My Lord and My God and exchanged Judah to the captured Thaddeus. He tried to block with Orpah again, but this time I had My Lord and My God to negate and discard Orpah. After finally getting by Orpah my offense didn’t lose another rescue. Meanwhile I literally used every single evil battle winner I had drafted and was nearly decked out when I won 5-2. Overall, I think Nathan’s deck was definitely better “on paper,” but I had just enough tricks to bob and weave. (He ended up winning his final 3 games to finish in second.)
Round 2 vs Aidan S
Aidan also had a really good deck. He had first turn Mighty Warrior (FoM) which got him a LS, but then on my turn I used Hiding Joseph’s Cup to negate MW’s ability and I was able to defeat him in the next battle. I managed a few LS until Aidan drew his Enchanter…once again I was facing an EC with an “auto-block” ability and Aidan had plenty of orange and pale green enhancements to burn. Finally I had the opportunity to use Idol Worship to capture Enchanter and clear the way for my offense. Going for LS #5 I had Adino (K) in territory with Adino’s Spear and Gibeonite Treaty (FoM) in my hand. I decided to not put the spear on Adino thinking that if he blocked high I could play the Spear, and if he blocked low to play a battle winner, I could redirect it with Treaty. Unfortunately he blocked with Lying Spirit, granted a choose the blocker to his Habakkuk and then used Suicidal Swine Stampede. Ouch. The choose the blocker combo worked to give him LS #4, but fortunately he had also drawn one more LS on his turn. I decided to just put the spear on Adino from the start and hope the numbers would be enough. Sure enough they were, and it was a good thing I did because Aidan also had Death of Unrighteous, which would have stalled me and likely allowed him to win on his turn.
Round 3 vs Ryan E
This was a really fun game as both Ryan and I made several nice attacks and blocks. The key point came late in the game when Ryan made a battle challenge with Gabriel (neither of us had LS at that point) and I blocked and played Besieging the City. Even though I didn’t have any LS, I wanted Ryan to go a turn without drawing because I had some LS generation options and I knew he was getting thin on defense. It worked out perfectly as I generated a LS with Midianite’s Slave on my turn (unfortunately not having Judah though) and then after Ryan didn’t draw (or rescue because I ended up drawing LS) because of Besieging, I was able to break through for #5.
Round 4 vs Nathan W
Nathan had by far the most ridiculous defense I’ve ever seen in booster draft. I made some aggressive plays early in the game trying to keep up, but he thwarted each attempt. Realizing that my only hope was to be patient and hope my LS didn’t all come out, I didn’t do any extra drawing or searching. That strategy worked as my LS came out in singles about every other turn or two. Nathan had two copies of Emim, which pretty much wins battles by itself. Finally I was able to use My Lord and My God to defeat one, then sacrificed a block (giving him LS #4) so I could use Idol Worship to capture the other Emim and pave the way for my Abishai+Adino w/ Spear band that allowed me to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-4 tie. Nathan is a great player, but fortunately for me he made a couple decisions that didn’t work out. The final major battle was him using Siege to bring in all his defense with a combined toughness of 48 and all my Heroes with a combined strength of 45—which put me in a tough spot because Adino w/ Spear was preventing everything except banding…and I didn’t have anyone else to band to. However, I had Jonathan, son of Shimei in battle and Nathan had an EC with toughness 8 or above so my Red OT enhancements were now CBN. I played Gibeonite Treaty to redirect Siege which reversed the band effect and allowed me to get to LS #3. I then walked in with Abishai and Adino for #4 after stalling him with Herod’s Treachery.
