HOLDER'S HEROES

I love playing Booster Draft! Lately I've made arrangements with tournament hosts to exchange my judging services for the opportunity to play only this one category free of charge. It's a great deal; I get to play my favorite category and pick up some new FoOF cards and the host gets to play 2 or 3 categories.

Follow up:

I learned my strategy for Booster Draft from Ben Arp. It's worked well over the years but I realized something had to change now that we use FoOF tins for BD. In the past, Ben taught me to grab all the Heroes possible in the draft unless there was a must-have card of another type. That way, I generally have an available Hero to rescue with, no matter how bad of a draw I get. With the advent of FoOF, players now have the opportunity to focus on a single brigade for good and evil, drafting cards that support these main brigades in their tin.

The slight strategic change I've made now when I draft is ______________. :-) But seriously, I'll tell you my secret, as most of you probably employ the same method. Since players start drafting with the Unlimited and Prophets packs, the key is to memorize all the cards you see when you open the pack. Not an easy task for some. But here's the reason: you can pretty much determine which tins your opponents have prior to opening the third pack. So, you know your tin and by the end of the Prophets pack you know your opponents' tins. Now you can focus on specific cards!

For the 2008 Nevada State tournament, I ended up at a table with two opponents. Our Booster Draft was special, since the host included Women's and Patriarchs' packs. Woo hoo! At the appointed time we all look at our tins. I got Tin VII which I thought was great because I hadn't used that one before (I like trying new things.) My next thought was, "Gosh, just think if Mike had included Angel Wars, too!" (Tin VII is silver/pale green.)

So we start off with the uber-powerful Unlimited pack. My rare is Patience of Job. I like it. Blue would be a good supporting brigade for my silver and it can be a battle-winner. The remaining cards were easy to memorize and had a good distribution. By the second time I got my cards back I knew which tins my opponents had. This was important as we moved to the Prophets pack.

Unlimited draft: Patience of Job, Rebekah, Locust from the Pit, Ruth, Angel Food, Goliath's Spear, Banner, Banner of Love, Goodness

The green pack really didn't have much to support silver, pale green or blue. But it did have a rare that would have been very useful to my opponent that had tin IX: Wheel within a Wheel. So I snagged it. Seriously, gamers, keeping powerful cards out of your opponents' hands is another key when you can determine what tin they have. On the first pass, I was passed the rares from my opponent's packs: Large Tree and Lion Dwelling with a Calf. I also received some blue help.

Prophets draft: Wheel within a Wheel, Lion Dwelling with the Calf, Large Tree, Jonah, Zephaniah, Razor, Prophets of Baal

Women's pack is next. No Falling Away, but guess who was hiding in the second to last card? Claudia! Then I picked up a Site since they are prevalent in Women's. Third pass and there's Mary Magdalene. I really did well with the Women's packs and was happy that they were available at this tournament.

Women's draft: Claudia, Egypt, Mary Magdalene, Kir, Sarah, Woman of Thebez, Elisabeth, Lost Soul

Apostles has some nice blue, and it was also my first chance at supporting my FoOF silver. But the rare was Titus, which was okay because I had pulled Lion Dwelling with the Calf. My first pass really had no help except for the third gold Site that I took. Getting all gold Sites proved to be all I needed in addition to my pale green defense!

Apostles draft: Titus, Jerusalem, Angel of Warning, Human Wisdom, Alabaster Jar, Herod Philip II, Angelic Visit, Greek Scholars, Three Crosses, Child of Great Wisdom

I was excited to have Patriarchs available for this draft, but to be honest, except for my initial pull of Death of Firstborn and Jacob's Dream, I really didn't get much help.

Patriarchs draft: Death of Firstborn, Jacob's Dream, Coercion, Host of Heaven, Brother's Reunion, Pit, Loyalty of Ruth, The Serpent, Amorite Invasion, Smashing Tablets

The great thing about my Kings pack when I opened it was that Victory was staring me in the eyes (pun intended). But I had to take a look at what else was there. What if there was a Michael? There wasn't, but there was a 2K Horses. Decisions, decisions. I had to take the Victory since two FoOF tins have demons and I might face them in the next round. Although my opponents weren't pulling pale green, they might use my strategy against me and take the 2K Horses. Imagine my surprise when the first pass of Kings from my opponent had a 2K Horses! Two passes later, there was the other 2K Horses. W00t! And for good measure, a King Shalmaneser V made it through several passes, as well as Helez.

Kings draft: Victory, 2K Horses, Potter's Field, 2K Horses, Helez, King Shalmaneser V, Angel Chariots, Displeased Philistines, Spear and Shield, Joshua Burns the City

An Angel Wars pack would have been nice at this point, but I realize now that would boost Tin VII unfairly. Of course, I was still giddy about my Kings pack pull that it took a split second to recognize the Protection of Angels in my Priests pack. Death of Firstborn, Victory, and now Protection of Angels...back to back to back home runs! As host, Mike Lasky, said, "[I] was about to fall out of my chair!"

Priests draft: Protection of Angels, Blindness, Hophni, Son of Eli, Angel at the Tomb, First Fruits, Amaziah, the Ungodly Priest, Banner of Truth, Jethro, Day of Atonement, Covering the Sacred Things

So I ended up with this 50-card deck:

Cards in deck: 50

Lost Souls: 7

• Lost Soul - generic x7

Gold Sites: 3

• Egypt
• Jerusalem
• Kir

Artifacts: 1

• Assyria's Tribute

Silver Heroes: 5

• Angel at Tomb
• Angel of God
• Angel of Warning
• Hosts of Heaven
• The Destroyer

White Heroes: 1

• Titus

Teal Heroes: 1

• Jethro

Blue Heroes: 4

• Claudia
• Helez
• Mary Magdalene
• Sarah

Multi-Color Hero Enhancements: 3

• Burning Censer
• First Fruits
• Gabriel meets Zecharias

Silver Hero Enhancements: 6

• Angel Chariots
• Angelic Visit
• Death of Firstborn
• Fire, Smoke, and Sulfur
• Protection of Angels
• Victory

White Hero Enhancements: 1

• Lion Dwelling with the Calf

Blue Hero Enhancements: 3

• Alabaster Jar
• Jacob's Dream
• Patience of Job

Pale Green Evil Characters: 6

• Assyrian Archer
• Herod Philip II
• Hophni, son of Eli
• King Asnappar
• King Shalmaneser V
• The Tartan

Black Evil Characters: 2

• Amaziah, the Ungodly Priest
• Greek Scholars

Pale Green Evil Enhancements: 5

• Captured by Assyria
• Human Wisdom
• Large Tree
• Two Thousand Horses x2

Black Evil Enhancements: 2

• Coercion
• Displeased Philistines

As I look back, I made a couple of errors in my deck-building, but at least they weren't egregious. The silver and pale green were pretty powerful in and of themselves. The first game, I was up against Tin VIII and Tin IX. Amasai got out pretty quick and started to do a quick demolition of my deck. I would have loved to draw my Helez but I did get my Claudia on the initial draw and won a Lost Soul on my first two turns by banding. I was blocked successfully on turn three. No Lost Souls were available on turns four, six and seven. I won a Lost Soul on turn five with Sarah and Alabaster Jar just with the numbers. On turn eight, I won my fourth Lost Soul against the opponent with Tin VIII using the special ability of The Destroyer to discard the Evil Character they really wanted to use. Then I won the game on turn nine using Angel at the Tomb with Fire, Smoke and Sulfur. The score was 5-3-1.

The second and final game, dubbed The Champion's Table, I went against three siblings who declared they would gang up and "pwn" the old man! Starting on my left and going round the table I was playing against Tins IV, VI, and III. The player to my left started (so I was last to go) and started a rescue attempt against me and said, "since I'm a cute little kid, I'm sure you just want to give me your Lost Soul." Au contraire! I blocked with my King Shalmaneser V to prevent the hero from trying to get a quick free Lost Soul. The game was so much fun! It lasted about the same number of turns (9 or 10). I rescued on my second and third turns using Angel of God, once with Protection of Angels and once with Angel Chariots. I set aside my Assyrian Archer with Large Tree early on and actually got him to a 9/11.

The last three turns, no one attacked me. I actually used the special ability on The Tartan in a very strategic way. There was a Lost Soul in an Ashdod site in the LoB of the opponent across from me. The player on my left attempted a rescue against me and I blocked with The Tartan and discarded the Ashdod site. The player to my right said that was a bad move because now he had access to it when it became his turn. Of course, I gambled on the player across from me having enough defense to block the player to my right so that I could waltz in for the Lost Soul when it was my turn. Worked like a charm! I went on to win 5-3-3-2. The "old man's" wisdom showed the folly of the youngsters. Maybe another day the young grasshoppers will get the chance to beat the master!