Collectible Card Game Headquarters

Do you remember that old TV show that was named the “Wild Wild Wild West,” well I wanted to name this column “Wild Wild Wild Draft.” Thankfully the sane part of my brain booted up and I decided against it. What sort of draft makes you choose between a Mox and Meloku the Clouded Mirror? The choices are antagonizing. One of my draft decks featured 2 Moxes, 3 Serendib Efreets, Ancestral Recall, and Keiga, the Tide Star, which makes it the most expensive limited deck ever.

No I wasn’t drafting Alpha, but I was drafting some of the best cards from Alpha and from all of Magic’s history. I wrote this little program called MTG Forge that lets you play and draft against the computer. Someone suggested drafting all of the cards programmed with no rarity, so Juzam Djinn comes up as often as a common land. I thought it was an insane idea, but I tried it. This sort of crazy drafting is the most fun ever. Picking between Flametongue Kavu and Rorix Bladewing is just grueling. What is better, Wonder or Regrowth? Does Godless Shrine beat Terror or vice versa?

OK, so I open my first pack and what do I see. The standout cards are Birds of Paradise, Helldozer, Jokulhaups, Keiga, the Tide Star, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Man, I wish I could open a booster like this in real life. I read once that a game, video or otherwise, is made up of interesting choices, unlike life. Drafting like this gives you a ton of interesting choices. Once you draft a Mox, you will never go back.