CardShark Content - Alex Lee (8/29/2005)

It may seem strange to some of you, but a lot of Magic players have never drafted. And I used to be one of them. Until this summer, when I went down to California and met some spell-slinging friends that happened to draft every weekend. So, we went down to the local store in San Jose and signed ourselves up for a Kamigawa block draft.

While we were waiting for it to start, I decided to browse the counters, which have every collectible game ever, including the awesome Pirates of the Spanish Main constructible strategy game. I bought some random stuff like Mortal Kombat sleeves and a cardboard box for my cards. And I also purchase a Fat Pack, which turns out to be a better deal than I thought. All the older Fat Packs are pretty much six boosters and a book, but the 9th edition one has all this cool stuff instead, like an oversized Force of Nature

Force of Nature
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 6 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Force Rarity: R Artist: Douglas Shuler Power: 8 Toughness: 8 Text: TrampleYou must pay GGGG during your upkeep or Force of Nature does 8 damage to you. You may still attack with Force of Nature even if you failed to pay the upkeep.

and a 20-sided die.

Anyway, the draft starts up, and I find myself in the same draft pod as one of my friends, and we each decide on a color combination to draft so we wouldn’t take each other’s colors. I decide on Black/Green, and he goes for Red/White. I was kind of nervous, as I had never drafted while everyone else seemed like they came here at least seven times a week. The Kamigawa packs were handed out, and I cracked open my pack, skip to the rare and see…

Reweave

Reweave

Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 6 Color: Blue Type: Instant Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: R Number: 82 Artist: Alex Horley-Orlandelli Text: Target permanent's controller sacrifices it. That player reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a card that shares a card type with the sacrificed permanent. The player puts that card into play, then shuffles his or her library. Splice onto Arcane 2UU

!

My dreams of opening a dragon or Meloku and riding it to victory vanished in an instant. Luckily, I was saved as there was a Glacial Ray

Glacial Ray
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 2 Color: Red Type: Instant Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Number: 168 Artist: Jim Murray Text: Glacial Ray deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Splice onto Arcane 1R (As you play an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)

in the pack. I know I should be drafting B/G, but the Ray’s too good to pass up. The next pack has nothing good except a Kitsune Blademaster

Kitsune Blademaster
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: White Type: Creature Sub Type: Fox Samurai Rarity: C Number: 25 Artist: Keith Garletts Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: First strike Bushido 1 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

, and I start to wonder if I should just abandon Black. But as fate would have it, the next pack is again unplayable crap, except for a Rend Flesh

Rend Flesh
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Instant Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Number: 140 Artist: Stephen Tappin Text: Destroy target non-Spirit creature.

that I take. The fourth pack has another Rend Flesh

Rend Flesh
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Instant Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Number: 140 Artist: Stephen Tappin Text: Destroy target non-Spirit creature.

, and I decide on a whim to try a popular drafting strategy and force a color, in this case Black.

And for the rest of Champions, I just snatch up every Black card I see, even if there are slightly better choices. This seemingly idiotic strategy pays off in Betrayers, where I crack open a Horobi’s Whisper and get another one third pick. And then, something incredibly strange happens. I get a Neverending Torment

Neverending Torment

Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 6 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Text: Search target player's library for X cards, where X is the number of cards in your hand, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library. Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't play spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, copy this spell except for its epic ability. You may choose a new target for the copy.)

fourth pick, a card that seems really good in a 40-card format. And fifth pick, guess what I open. Yup, another Neverending Torment

Neverending Torment

Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 6 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Text: Search target player's library for X cards, where X is the number of cards in your hand, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library. Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't play spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, copy this spell except for its epic ability. You may choose a new target for the copy.)

. When I open an Okiba-Gang Shinobi next, I wonder if there are not many Black drafters at the table. My suspicions are confirmed when I proceed to open two more Shinobis, turning my deck into an ungodly monster.

Saviors gives me some more Black goodies, such as the Hand of Cruelty

Hand of Cruelty
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Samurai Rarity: U Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Protection from white Bushido 1 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

and multiple Raving Oni-Slaves. For the late game, I drafted some Sink into Takenuma

Sink into Takenuma
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Text: Sweep - Return any number of Swamps you control to their owner's hand. Target player discards a card for each Swamp returned this way.

s and Exile into Darkness

Exile into Darkness
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 5 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Text: Target player sacrifices a creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have more cards in hand than each opponent, you may return Exile into Darkness from your graveyard to your hand.

.

When I finished, I ended up with this Mono-Black deck:

Creatures: 14
3 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
2 Kami of Empty Graves

Kami of Empty Graves
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Spirit Rarity: C Power: 4 Toughness: 1 Text: Soulshift 3 (When this is put into a graveyard from play, you may return target Spirit card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to your hand.)

2 Kuro’s Taken
2 Raving Oni-Slave
1 Hand of Cruelty

Hand of Cruelty
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Samurai Rarity: U Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Protection from white Bushido 1 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

1 Ogre Marauder

Ogre Marauder
	Set: Betrayers of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Ogre Warrior Rarity: U Number: 75 Artist: Adam Rex Power: 3 Toughness: 1 Text: Whenever Ogre Marauder attacks, it can't be blocked this turn unless defending player sacrifices a creature.

1 Ashen-Skin Zubera
1 Deathmask Nezumi

Deathmask Nezumi
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Rat Shaman Rarity: C Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: As long as you have seven or more cards in hand, Deathmask Nezumi gets +2/+1 and has fear.

1 Painwracker Oni

Painwracker Oni
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 5 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Demon Spirit Rarity: U Number: 136 Artist: Hideaki Takamura Power: 5 Toughness: 4 Text: Fear At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature if you don't control an Ogre.

Spells: 9
2 Neverending Torment

Neverending Torment

Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 6 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Text: Search target player's library for X cards, where X is the number of cards in your hand, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library. Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't play spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, copy this spell except for its epic ability. You may choose a new target for the copy.)

2 Horobi’s Whisper
2 Rend Flesh

Rend Flesh
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Instant Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Number: 140 Artist: Stephen Tappin Text: Destroy target non-Spirit creature.

1 Genju of the Fens

Genju of the Fens
	Set: Betrayers of Kamigawa Cost: 1 Color: Black Type: Enchant Swamp Rarity: U Number: 66 Artist: Tsutomu Kawade Text: 2: Until end of turn, enchanted Swamp becomes a 2/2 black Spirit creature with "B: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn." It's still a land. When enchanted Swamp is put into a graveyard, you may return Genju of the Fens from your graveyard to your hand.

1 Exile into Darkness

Exile into Darkness
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 5 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Text: Target player sacrifices a creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have more cards in hand than each opponent, you may return Exile into Darkness from your graveyard to your hand.

1 Sink into Takenuma

Sink into Takenuma
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Text: Sweep - Return any number of Swamps you control to their owner's hand. Target player discards a card for each Swamp returned this way.

Land: 17
17 Swamp

Swamp
	Set: Oversize Cards Color: Land Type: Land Rarity: X Artist: Tony Roberts Text: T: Add B to your mana pool.

s

Now, onto the rounds:

Match 1 against U/G:

Game 1: He gets manascrewed while I get a perfect curve with turn 2 Hand of Cruelty

Hand of Cruelty
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Samurai Rarity: U Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Protection from white Bushido 1 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

, turn 3 Ogre Maraudar, and turn four 4 ninjitsued Okiba-Gang Shinobi.

Game 2: Now I know why my deck didn’t get any crazy bombs. He gets an Imawori of the Open Fist, Meloku the Clouded Mirror

Meloku the Clouded Mirror
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 5 Color: Blue Type: Legendary Creature Sub Type: Moonfolk Wizard Rarity: R Number: 74 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Power: 2 Toughness: 4 Text: Flying 1, Return a land you control to its owner's hand: Put a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token with flying into play.

, and Tatsumasa the Dragon’s Fang. My life total read 20, 10, 0.

Game 3: My deck performs well, taking out his Imawori and Moonbow Illusionist

Moonbow Illusionist
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Blue Type: Creature Sub Type: Moonfolk Wizard Rarity: C Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Flying 2, Return a land you control to its owner's hand: Target land becomes the basic land type of your choice until end of turn.

with a Rend Flesh

Rend Flesh
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Instant Sub Type: Arcane Rarity: C Number: 140 Artist: Stephen Tappin Text: Destroy target non-Spirit creature.

and spliced Horobi’s Whisper. My cheap guys overrun his other defenses. I’ve learned that Neverending Torment

Neverending Torment

Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 6 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Text: Search target player's library for X cards, where X is the number of cards in your hand, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library. Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't play spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, copy this spell except for its epic ability. You may choose a new target for the copy.)

is pretty useless when your deck is incredibly fast and needs to keep playing threats.

Match 2 against U/R:

Game 1: He plays out some early fliers that I kill with my removal, and my dual Shinobis rip his hand apart, revealing a Patron of the Moon

Patron of the Moon

Set: Betrayers of Kamigawa Cost: 7 Color: Blue Type: Legendary Creature Sub Type: Spirit Rarity: R Number: 45 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Power: 5 Toughness: 4 Text: Moonfolk offering (You may play this card any time you could play an instant by sacrificing a Moonfolk and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed Moonfolk. Mana cost includes color.) Flying 1: Put up to two land cards from your hand into play tapped.

and some random fliers. I win the game shortly afterwards.

Game 2: This match is similar to the first game, except that he actually gets out Patron of the Moon

Patron of the Moon

Set: Betrayers of Kamigawa Cost: 7 Color: Blue Type: Legendary Creature Sub Type: Spirit Rarity: R Number: 45 Artist: Scott M. Fischer Power: 5 Toughness: 4 Text: Moonfolk offering (You may play this card any time you could play an instant by sacrificing a Moonfolk and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed Moonfolk. Mana cost includes color.) Flying 1: Put up to two land cards from your hand into play tapped.

this time. Fortunately for me, it needs to stay on defense as I got him down to four life earlier. We don’t do anything until I topdeck a Horobi’s Whisper and win.

Round 3 against B/G:

Game 1: He’s the only other Black drafter at my pod, so he probably got some good stuff too. I get out a fast start involving Raving Oni-Slave, while he seems to be playing a spiritcraft deck. It’s going great for me until turn four, when he lays down a Razorjaw Oni

Razorjaw Oni
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Demon Spirit Rarity: U Power: 4 Toughness: 5 Text: Black creatures can't block.

, rendering my defense useless. It and a Fork

Fork
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Red Type: Instant Rarity: R Artist: Amy Weber Text: Any one sorcery or instant spell just cast is duplicated. Treat Fork as an exact copy of target spell except that Fork remains red. Caster of Fork chooses the copy's target.

ed-Branch Garami kill me.

Game 2: This time he curves out perfectly with Promised Kannushi

Promised Kannushi
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Druid Rarity: C Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: Soulshift 7 (When this is put into a graveyard from play, you may return target Spirit card with converted mana cost 7 or less from your graveyard to your hand.)

, Dripping Tongue Zubera

Dripping Tongue Zubera
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Zubera Spirit Rarity: C Number: 206 Artist: Tsutomu Kawade Power: 1 Toughness: 2 Text: When Dripping-Tongue Zubera is put into a graveyard from play, put a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token into play for each Zubera put into a graveyard from play this turn.

, Thief of Hope

Thief of Hope

Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 3 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Spirit Rarity: U Number: 147 Artist: Tim Hildebrandt Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. Soulshift 2 (When this is put into a graveyard from play, you may return target Spirit card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to your hand.)

, Razorjaw Oni

Razorjaw Oni
	Set: Saviors of Kamigawa Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Demon Spirit Rarity: U Power: 4 Toughness: 5 Text: Black creatures can't block.

, and Fork

Fork
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Red Type: Instant Rarity: R Artist: Amy Weber Text: Any one sorcery or instant spell just cast is duplicated. Treat Fork as an exact copy of target spell except that Fork remains red. Caster of Fork chooses the copy's target.

ed-Branch Garami. I can’t hold up against the tide of soulshifting spirits.

I end up going 2-1, and win two packs of Betrayers as my prize. A pretty good first draft, in my opinion. Black seems to be underdrafted, so I’m going to try to force it in other Kamigawa drafts.

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