2023 Multiformat League – Stage 2: Draft

Last Sunday, the second stage of the 2023 Edition of our local Multiformat League took place. A series of tournaments from different formats where you can get points to rise up in the rankings.
The second tournament of this league was a Phyrexia: All Will Be One Draft.

I wasn’t expecting that I would end up drafting a deck like this one! The draft round was a bit of a roller-coaster: pack one I started drafting Gruul and I was getting some good cards too for the archetype; pack two green completely vanished from the boosters and so I ended up drafting only red cards. My thought was starting to draft a secondary color to support red during the final pack but then the revelation! I open my third pack and I have a foil in it: Koth, Fire of Resistance! It was the clear signal to start following the dream and build a mono red deck!

You can click here to see the decklist I played.

We were 22 players and, after announcing that there will be 4 Swiss rounds, we started playing.

Match 1 vs WG Toxic
Game 1
I start with a Vindictive Flamestoker that I’m able to quickly fill with oil counters thanks to two Hexgold Slash that easily get rid of his creature with toxic. I empty my hand and he decides to concede when, with his empty board, I’m ready to refill with the Flamestoker.
Game 2
I start again with two Hexgold Slash that remove his first two toxic creatures and leave the board empty for me to start a race with Bladegraft Aspirant with some equipment, opening the way with Forgehammer Centurion.

1 win – 0 losses

Match 2 vs UBr Proliferate
Game 1
He starts the game with Glistener Seer that with that huge body for a 1-drop quickly slows down my race, followed by a Gitaxian Raptor. These huge bodies surely give me a hard time and I’m not able to dish in enough damage and he turns the game in his favor when he plays Ovika and puts me on a clock that I’m not able to stop.
Game 2
I’m able to start a nice race but he is again able to play Ovika to stop me. I’m able however to force him to trade by attacking with Oxidda Finisher. This leaves the board empty enough to let me win the game with Bladegrafter Aspirant.
Game 3
I’m able to play Koth but he is full of flying creatures and so he doesn’t do much. I try to force him to some nonoptimal block with a combat trick but he nullifies it with a well placed Offer Immortality that puts me behind. I’m not able to recover and he wins the match

1 win – 1 loss

Match 3 vs Boros Equipment
Game 1
He starts by playing Barbed Batterfist into Bladehold War-Whip into Hexgold Hoverwing. This lets him create a Rebel token that hits hard and is hard to block! He quickly wins the game.
Game 2
I’m able to set up a race but I’m stuck at three lands where four would be the optimal number. I’m not able to move the equipment around as fast as I would like. He turns the game in his favor when he plays Solphim that is quite big and easy for him to make indestructible. He also wins the second game.

1 win – 2 losses

Match 4 vs UBw Toxic
The last match I was against a friend that had more points than me and high possibilities to enter the top8 with these three points and so I decided to concede right away. We still played to spend some time and because the deck was quite fun to play… and I was able to win with Koth Emblem! We were able to reach the dream!

1 win – 3 losses

With this result I ended up being 16th in the rankings! Not what I hoped for but at least the deck was fun!

The next tournament of this league will be a Legacy one… so stay tuned!