Conspiracy Video Draft Recap

Episode notes

I had a lucky chance to draft Conspiracy before it was officially released. I drafted it with a bunch of awesome Magic personalities, you can see the video here:

Here is the deck I drafted:

I had never seen the cards before, so I was forced to evaluate on the fly. After they explained to us how the actual conspiracy cards worked, I was astonished. Besides the draft pick itself, they were completely free to run. I decided to prioritize them under the theory that if I snatched up a bunch of them while other people figured it out, I could get way ahead of the rest of the drafters.

I ended up with six total conspiracies. Muzzio’s Preparations, Immediate Action, and Brago’s Favor all seemed best with multiples of one card. Once I got my second Screaming Seahawk, I tried to take as many of them as I could to maximize these conspiracies.

I also picked up two Sentinel Dispatches, along with a single Vent Sentinel. Vent Sentinel is one of my favorite cards ever, and I was super excited to see it in my booster. I was less excited when I didn’t open or see a single other one in the whole draft. Still, I figured the Dispatches would help hold the ground while my Seahawks (GO HAWKS) flew over for damage. I also wanted them to protect my planeswalker…

Yup, I got shipped Dack Fayden, and while this was kind of hilarious given my history with “The greatest thief in the multiverse”, I also just thought it was a fantastic planeswalker. Looting has long been a favorite mechanic of mine, and double-looting is twice as nice.

My last conspiracy card was Advantageous Proclamation, which lets you run a 35 card deck. Originally I thought this was one of the better conspiracy cards, but have since realized that in multiplayer (a format I have relatively little experience in) decking yourself is a real possibility. This can make having a smaller library a liability. Especially when you have two Reckless Scholar, Dack Fayden, and a Compulsive Research 🙁

With a little help from Kathleen from Loading Ready Run, and two instances of Dack Fayden (one being my own), I was getting decked. Kenji finished me off before that happened, but either way I was losing.

I did learn some lessons from my Conspiracy experience. First, it was fun. I was skeptical a bit that it would be my kind of fun, but it was. Second, I was not prepared to build for multiplayer. I think in a heads-up duel my deck was friggin’ awesome. But in a four-player match, it wasn’t optimal. Looting effects lose a lot of their luster when the game is almost guaranteed to go long anyway.

The next time I draft this set, I will be focusing on a longer game. I’ll also keep prioritizing the conspiracy cards, as I think I had that strategy correct from the get go. I really enjoyed my deck, and it was definitely my kind of strategy.

Overall I had a great time and look forward to drafting Conspiracy again. How have your experiences with this unique set been?

Marshall