Friday Night Magic Odyssey Pre-release Tourney
*Undefeated*

Hello, all you residents of Reader Land! It is I, Dan, Prince of Denmark, here to regale you with tails of adventure, deceit, romance, and a FNM tournament.
Right now, it’s Saturday afternoon. I’m writing the article now, while the memory of the event is still fresh. Otherwise, I’d probably forget the decks and whatnot I was up against. Maybe even my own.
At 6:40, I arrived at Hero’s Comics and Collectables. The TO and owner of the store, Chris, had spent a lot of time and money to get DCI certification, and was now offering the FNM and DCI Premium prize. Instead of putting up an entire box to the winner, he gave us all four boosters to draft from (instead of three), and put thirty-two bucks in store credit as an addition to the foil.
I was very nervous going into the tourney, since I have only drafted one other time, and that was over the summer at the same store. I had gone 2-4. In retrospect, it was probably because we (by which I mean the majority of us, not me) decided to go Nemesis, Invasion, Apocalypse. Whatever. But, anyway, I was scared, and insecure in my skills.
I arrived really early for the tourney, so I decided to do some trading before hand. I got a Skizzik and some other stuff that I needed for a constructed November T2 deck. Anyway, by 7:30 about fifteen guys had shown up, which is okay for a suburb of Houston with about a hundred or so Magic players.
I sat down next to my friend Ronald C. (who was featured in another of my articles). That way, he could pass me the good stuff going right, and vice versa.
Now, I had spent a week gearing up for this. I read all the works on Odyssey drafting by Anne Forsythe, Zvi Mowshovitz, and all the other big guys. Anne, for those of you who don’t know, is the wife of Aaron Forsythe, and wrote an article a week ago or so about her drafting her first tournament, which was at the OD pre-release. You can find the article at http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandsub.php?Article=1990. Anyway, using the insight of these players, and extensive Apprentice prepping, I was ready to draft. Here are the major lessons I learned:
1. Black sucks.
2. Draft 23 spells, 17 lands.
3. Green rocks.
4. Red is back!
5. Blue and White are both good.
6. When you spend five hours a day talking tech with Ronald, your brain starts to itch.

So, as you can see, I learned a lot quickly. But, anyway, back to the article.
We sat down to draft, like I said. Ronald opens up his pack, and, low and behold, his rare is a foil Wayward Angel, slightly misprinted. Dork. Anyway, it looks like most people aren’t aware that Black is a bad color to draft, so I appear to be in good shape. Groovy. I continue to get good stuff passed to me, since everyone else is fighting for the Black and Blue spells. I decide from the get-go to draft G/R, since they not only complement each other well, but also have some kick-butt cards in them.
My deck winds up like this:
2: Ember Beasts (a strong attacker and blocker for a cheap price)
3: Wild Mongrel (one of the best cards in here; hard to kill and cheap to play)
3: Chainflinger (great removal, and even better with threshold)
3: Minotaur Explorer (a relatively strong attacker/blocker that’s cheap and easy to play)
1: Call of the Herd (probably runner-up for MVP in the deck, as it added two 3/3s that my opponents found very hard to deal with)
1: Overrun (MVP; won me probably half of my games)
3: Woodland Druid (nice first-turner. Didn’t normally take to the offensive, but provided a blocker to other, wussier first-turners)
3: Flame Burst (great removal; kindle is back!)
2: Blazing Salvo (fortunately, my opponents were stupid and let their important creatures die instead of paying 5 life)
2: Pardic Firecat (in mainly because they boost-up my Flame Bursts and let me deal some damage with haste)
10: Forest
7: Mountain

After some play testing against Ronald (who’s playing G/W with Emboldens and other evil stuff), I know I’ve got the thing as tuned as I can get it with the cards I had drafted. And now on to the report!

Match 1: Daniel, playing some B/W deck. I never get to see much of it.
Game 1:
I swiftly bring out my Ember Beast, Call of the Herd, and a couple Minotaur Explorers. Flame Bursts and a Salvo make sure he doesn’t have anything to block with.
1-0
Game 2:
This game, I manage to get out only four lands. But it doesn’t matter, as my highest cost spell is four mana (excluding Overrun). I get out an Explorer, two Mongrels, a Chainflinger, and a couple Woodland Druids. He gets out a Mystic Zealot and a few wussy things, but I draw another Forest and introduce him to Mr. Overrun. Smack.

Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0

I cool my heels for another forty minutes, as my deck is so fast that it knocks down the opposing decks very quickly. I watch Ronald play Victor, a 1337 guy who’s good at drafting. He has a deck similar to mine, but with more burn. Apparently Ronald and I aren’t the only ones who know what they’re doing.
Ronald beats Victor the first game, but loses the second. It took them a very long time to play their game. Eventually, though, Ronald wins and goes on to the next round.

Match 2: Tim, playing G/B/R Atog deck
Yes, Tim managed to get Lithatog and Sarcatog for his deck. Whatever.
Game 1:
Tim’s deck is slow off the line, which means my deck just has a field day with his. I whip out two elephant tokens, an Explorer, two Wild Mongrels, and 2 Woodland Druids. He does pull out a few creatures, which slows me up a turn. Unfortunately for him, I draw just right. Tim quickly finds out that Wizards has reprinted Overrun.
1-0
Game 2:
Again he is slow. This time, he kills an Explorer and a Chainflinger. He also brings down an Ember Beast. However, burn, Kitty Cats, and Doggies take him all the way.

Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0

Again, I go to watch Ronald’s match. He’s up against Paul, who’s playing a funky B/U deck, with a Finkel (!). He’s got a bunch of fliers, but Ronald eventually overcomes him in both games. However, it takes Ronald a long time.
Match 3: Ronald, playing G/W Rush thingy.
Game 1:
It takes a while, as Ronald has evil Second Thoughts and Emboldens. We sit in a stalemate for six or seven turns, until I draw an Overrun. I have out a Cow, two Dogs, a Cat, two Druids, and a Chainflinger. He dies a very nasty death.
1-0
Game 2:
This game also lasts a while, as his evil white stuff takes out some of my stuff. However, I’ve got more removal in my deck than he does, so I slowly take out his wussy stuff. He is left with an Angelic Wall and a Woodland Druid (I don’t have Threshold). Then he pulls out the dreaded Wayward Angel. I finally achieve Threshold, and smack down his little Druid with the Flinger. However, he hits me for four. I attack, and kill his wall, giving him Threshold, and leaving him creatureless. I wind up at five, with him having to sack his only creature to itself.

Games: 6-0
Matches: 3-0

This puts me into an awkward position. There are two other people who are undefeated: Herman and some man I don’t know the name of. Herman and I are slated to play each other, since the dude is still playing Tim (remember Tim?). Herman and I agree to split the prize money and play for the DCI foil if Tim manages to win. Unfortunately for us, Tim looses strictly because of a Cultural Exchange.
So the three of us just sit there and look at each other. I have the highest number of games won, but, unfortunately, that matters not a quid. So we agree to split it like this: the dude and Herman take $14 each, and I take the Quirion Ranger foil and $4.
I feel stupid now, because I succumbed to my fear. I probably would have been able to beat either one of them. I know I could have taken down Herman, letting me then ID with the dude. Oh well. I have a 1337 foil!
Thanks for reading, and good luck to all players going on to a tourney in the next week. This is Dan, signing off.

Also, I'll be posting a new deck list for a new breed of deck soon. Lots of you responded well to my last tech article. Thanks for any positive feedback!

If you draft only two colours, you might want to go as low as 15 lands and 25 nonlands, depending on your curve and manafixers.