TWI Draft… in a brewery!

Attended my first ever draft. Well to be more specific, it was the first ever Star Wars Unlimited draft as I’ve been involved in more limited events for other games and cube drafts than I can recall.

The event was hosted in New Jersey by The Golden Dice crew. Tremendous event. Three full eight person draft pods. Many giveaway items such that everyone got something. A couple high end raffles. All proceeds went to charity.

Oh and it was in a darn brew pub tap room!!! Draft while having a draft!!!

Star Wars Unlimited draft worked out much better than I thought it would. My deck (Quinlan Red) ended up being more coherent than I had anticipated based on my very recent experience with a Twilight of the Republic sealed pre-release event.

The only odd part was trying to open the packs to remove the leaders without accidentally viewing the other contained cards. For casual events this does not seem to be an issue. However, if draft ever becomes part of major competitive level events there may need to be some better method to separate the leaders out without players seeing if there are bombs of specific aspects contained in their packs which would of course be an advantage.

Ended the event at 2-1. Losing in the second round to the eventual winner of the pod I was in. She ran an Obi-Wan. Obi’s ability pretty much negates Quinlan’s. Her deck also had a vast number of sentinels in it which became problematic.

Other assorted thoughts…

• The new R2-D2 card is really darn good. I covered him briefly when he was spoiled. (R2-Take 2: A Look at the Droid’s New Card). As a first turn play in a limited event he helps round out the resource curve for the first couple of turns which is nice, plus at 2/4 he sticks around a bit to poke your opponent. Also key seems to be drawing him every game, which even in a best of one event seems statistically hard to do with just the one in a deck of 30. Not doing the math here, but probably a small percentage.
• Plo Koon is a beast. Cannot wait to try him out in Premier.
• Low Altitude Gunship is really fun. Paired with Quinlan it was able to take out units easily. Once was able to nail two targets by doing 3 points to the first target and then Quinlan handling the last point of damage to a second target. Good thing this doesn’t have Ambush or it’d be really freaky good.
• My free raffle prize selection was a Gamegenic Bastion 50+ deck box. It is a solid choice for a limited event. It easily holds a 30 card deck in sleeves plus two of the slide cases or the UltraPro Mini Snaps for a leader and base. I prefer the Mini Snaps personally as I’m less worried about scratching during the slide of the other style and they also tend to stay sealed a bit better. There’s also a bit of room to squeeze in a couple cards for side boarding in best of three events or a few token cards.

Oh and did I mention the event was in a brew pub? It was held at the Bonesaw Deptford Pilot House. No doubt that a couple of beers before the event and between rounds made for a fun Saturday afternoon. Many players stuck around after the event to continue playing Premiere and Twin Suns using many of the cards from the latest set. I recommend the Swoosh Hazy IPA and the Lemon Drop Pale Ale.

Till next draft event. Cheers.