A long time ago at a Nationals far, far away…

No, this isn’t the beginning of a certain sweeping space saga set some millennia past. This preamble hearkens back to Nats 2015 in TN. It was a tournament I hadn’t planned on attending at the start, but Nats booster is always appealing so I was drawn to it as the date got closer. The combination of drafting with new cards among such a large pool of players from everywhere makes for quite an enticing draw. So, after a win in MN Nats ‘14 the year before, I thought I’d brave the waters and make the journey south, to play once more.

That year, not only did you get to draft with the new cards, there was a possibility of winning and making your own card! I’ve always enjoyed coming up with new card ideas so this was like a bonus for doing well in my favorite category- something I didn’t want to pass up. My hopes were high, the stakes were higher. I hitched a ride with the good folks from IA and made it to TN.

Still, it wasn’t meant to be. Though it was a lot of fun, as always, my draft was average and I ended up tying for 3rd. Not bad, but not good enough to make a card. Fortunately for everyone (or not, depending on your PoV), Daniel came through with a stellar creation for winning booster. My hat was off to the winners and things slowed down again as I put Redemption on the top shelf to focus on other things.

Flash forward to this year. Where the Persecuted Church set didn’t impress me much Cloud of Witnesses seemed like an ideal set to play booster with, having so many high-value cards in and outside of constructed categories. Not only that, but the offer from last year stood again: the winner could create a card! I couldn’t wait to play booster again so I went to NC Regionals for practice. That draft was entertaining but not as exciting as I’d anticipated. Knowing better what to expect I went to this Nats with only one thing in mind: have fun. And fun was had.

The packs drafted were Kings, Priests, Texp, Di, EC, PC, and CoW; daunting packs loaded with powerful cards. I won’t lie, those seemed to me like they would make the draft too easy. And, true to form, there were some amazing draft pulls. Even at our own table, the person across from me pulled Shipwreck while the person to my right -who eventually took 2nd- drafted a KoT (war). That doesn’t even begin to cover some of the shenanigans I saw at other tables.

Needless to say, things could get pretty crazy. The competition was some of the tightest it’s ever been with over 75 people drafting that Thursday. There were 6 rounds and there was hardly a game that didn’t go down to the wire. In a fortunate twist, even after losing in the last two rounds and anticipating 2nd, I somehow placed first overall just barely holding on with a 4-2 record. Close doesn’t begin to do it justice.

But enough of that, on to the draft! Since I only brought 50 sleeves, as I believe that to be the best size for booster, I had no choice but to limit myself. I had to cut great cards (Benaiah, another Abraham’s Servant to Ur, etc) to make it fit in 50. My final list was as follows: