Well it’s on to week two here at Ask Ken. Keep those questions comin’ kids, because you can’t get them answered if you don’t write in. Speaking of writing in, it’s time for a little Reader Mail! Hey!
Today’s question comes to us from Elmo. Elmo took time out of his busy schedule on Sesame Street to write:
Ken-
In a recent two-on-two money draft (MMD) my first pack contained Luminous Angel, Fangren Hunter, Pyrite Spellbomb, Silver Myr, Vulshok Battlegear, and Creeping Mold. What do you think best card in the pack, and what would you first pick?
Thanks-
elmo
Well Elmo, there are a lot of things to consider when doing money draft, much more than those in a regular draft. In a money draft you have a smaller set of opponents, and you know exactly who they are. This means that in addition to drafting a good deck for yourself, you want to make sure that your opponent’s decks are as weak as possible. I have learned that in this format you generally want to avoid Green. If you take the Luminous Angel, odds are the person to your left will take one of the two Green cards and then you run the risk of your partner taking the other one and getting cut off in two of the packs.
The way I would handle this is to take the Pyrite Spellbomb. Then I would move into White cutting off the person to your left, stranding the Angel in the sideboard. This also has the added bonus of allowing your teammate to put the person on his left in Green, and then cutting him off.
The Pyrite Spellbomb is the pick, but it is a difficult thing to see at first glance. Of course if you are drafting against experienced money drafters like Bert and Ernie, you will have to rethink things, as the Luminous Angel would send a big warning sign.
Tell Big Bird hi, and tell Oscar to chill the f*** out.
Your Pal,
Kartin’Ken
It is nice to see Magic growing in the muppet community. I eagerly await the time they will capture their first top 8 slot. So keep those e-mails coming, and remember it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice. So long!