This weekend, I got to be part of a four-player draft. I expected slightly less synergy than in a pod of eight due to seeing fewer cards overall. With fewer drafters, finding an open faction would have an even greater payoff.
The draft
P1p1 was a tough choice between Kojo & Booda and a Brassbug Hive (R). Kojo & Booda is probably the stronger pick, but I thought the Brassbug Hive (R) would be a more fun card to build around, and it can absolutely win the game on its own if it’s not answered.
I wasn’t impressed with my options for P1p2, where a Frog Prince (C) as a fairly strong 2-drop edged out Treyst & Rossum as a solid but slow hero in the faction of my P1p1. Fighting for my Brassbug Hive (R), I took a P1p3 Dr. Frankenstein (C) earlier than I probably needed to.
Haven Trainee (F) - not a spectacular rare but a rare nonetheless - was still available by the middle of P1, pulling me further into Ordis. An Ordis Carrier (C) made me feel even better about Ordis and put me on the lookout for Axiom-Ordis permanent synergies.
My P2p1 was an obligatory The Kraken (U) that looked like an acceptable 7-drop for draft, though it certainly wasn’t a pull into Yzmir. What was a pull into Yzmir was a Brassbug Hive (F) whose bugs would be boosted by P1p1 Brassbug Hive (R). As my second late-game permanent, it added consistency to an inevitability gameplan.
The Hive (F) let me feel comfortable taking solid Yzmir commons. Brassbug synergy had me on the lookout for Subhash & Marmo, and I took a late Gift of Self (C) in P2 to plan around Subhash’s card disadvantage. Yzmir fleeting spells also became high picks, since their fleeting downside would be negated if I ended up with Subhash.
Early in P3, I saw a pack with Subhash & Marmo and a Tooth Fairy (R). Noticing that most of the heroes that I was interested in hadn’t wheeled, I gambled that Subhash would stick around and took the Tooth Fairy. Conveniently, the next pack had a Subhash as well. Now almost certain at least one Subhash would wheel, I took the strongest non-hero card for my deck. Thankfully, my bet paid off, and I snapped up one of the Subhashs the second time around, though I noted that the other didn’t wheel.
I was still speculating on Lyra in P2 and P3 after picking an Asmodeus (R) that went later than I felt it should have. By the end of P3, I thought I had closed the door on Lyra, but a P4p1 with Fen & Crowbar and Dr. Frankenstein (F) when there wasn’t anything impressive in my factions almost had me make a late pivot. In the end, I decided I’d be losing too much by cutting any one of Axiom, Ordis, or Yzmir, and I ended up just picking the strongest in-faction cards for the rest of P4.
I wasn’t shocked to see that two other players were in Axiom, given how hard I had to fight for it, but I was slightly surprised to see that I was the only Ordis player since I didn’t feel like I saw many of their premium cards.
Uniques
The Kraken: 3/7
A 7-mana character with no protection is a tough sell, but at least this one is effectively a 9/9/9. For this to be worthwhile, you really want to be sending a character to reserve, which will be hard to engineer since your opponent will usually save a big play for after you’ve tapped out. This unique’s higher cost from reserve is irrelevant, since you’ll almost always be using the support ability to return one of Yzmir’s many spells to hand.
The deck
This deck’s gameplan is to stall my opponents in the early game with removal spells and Brassbugs from Subhash & Marmo’s hero ability. If I can survive long enough, my token-generation permanents will take over the game.
This is mostly a Subhash & Marmo good-stuff deck, but the two copies of Brassbug Hive let me include a small pocket of permanent synergy in the form of Dr. Frankenstein (C), Mechanical Training (C), and Foundry Engineer (C).
Because my hero ability and permanents create tokens, I felt better about including cards like Ozma (C), Kakoba, Legion Commander (R), and Gift of Self (C).
I cut an Ordis Trooper (C) and Paper Herald (C) despite valuing 1-drops highly because Subhash often goes low on cards, and I can’t afford to draw into low-value plays when I’m empty-handed and top-decking.
The games
Round 1 (W): Subhash & Marmo (Axiom-Bravos-Muna)
I had a solid T1 start of putting Ada Lovelace (F) into reserve to make a Brassbug, then using her to put a Kraken’s Wrath (C) into reserve and draw a card. On T2, I put my opening-hand Ordis Carrier (C) into reserve and spent the turn to play it out.
Throughout the early-game, whenever possible, I generated Brassbugs in the same expedition as my opponent to block. With the Ordis Carrier (C) active and the Brassbug Hives in my deck, I figured I’d be favored if I could manage to draw out the game.
My opponent had been using their hero ability aggressively to maintain their lead, and on a turn that I made a push, they played a Physical Training (C) from hand with three other cards already in reserve. That turned the day from a 2-0 into a 1-1 but forced them to discard down to a Brassbug Hub (C) and Jian, Assembly Overseer (C) in reserve with no cards in hand.
When they played the Brassbug Hub (C), I discarded it with a reserved Banishing Gate (C), figuring it wasn’t mana they were choked on but rather things to do with it. On two consecutive turns, they were forced to keep their drawn cards in hand at only 6 mana.
The Kraken’s Wrath (C) I had hanging out in reserve was looking pretty juicy after they revealed an Open the Gates (F), but their Ordis Spy (F) sabotaged the Wrath before I could use it. Fortunately, I had kept a Baku (C) as an alternate play to snipe their last card in hand, winning both expeditions because they had nothing to do with their mana.
On the final turn, I won both sides due to my mana advantage and both regions being favorable to Flamel (C) and The Frog Prince (C).
Round 2 (W): Kojo & Booda (Axiom-Bravos-Yzmir)
Again, I tried to slow my opponent down as much as possible, placing Brassbugs to contest Booda. My opponent got off to a very aggressive start, however, with a Bravos Tracer (C) for a blowout, a Kelon Cylinder (R) boost to win an expedition, and a Moonlight Jellyfish to let them react to my plays.
Unfortunately for them, the turn after they replayed their Moonlight Jellyfish, they were forced to Gift of Self (C) their Kadigiran Alchemist (C) from reserve to draw, which gave me a turn to catch up.
I especially grateful because this gave me the breathing room I needed to deploy my Brassbug Hive (R). Although I had time, I didn’t have enough time to put it into reserve with Subhash’s ability and instead had to run it out directly from hand. The boosted Brassbug from Subhash’s ability helped me guarantee that we traded expeditions the following turn.
I drew into a very sweet 8-mana turn consisting of playing Mechanical Training (C) to generate a boosted Brassbug, playing Flamel (C) to return the Mechanical Training (C) to hand, then recasting Mechanical Training (C) from hand and from reserve for two more boosted Brassbugs. My opponent had a strong turn but even their Booda and Bravos Vanguard (C) in a forest region barely managed to keep me at 1-0 on the day.
As the first player, a Baku (C) on their last card in hand and Haven Bouncer (R) on their Helping Hand (F) let me dismantle their plans for the turn and close out the day since I just needed a single progression.
Round 3 (W): Kojo & Booda (Bravos-Lyra-Muna)
My R3 opponent played their R1 with Arjun & Spike as their hero. They had some great 3-drops and a Harvest (R) but decided they fell just a bit short of the support they needed for Arjun’s hero ability and swapped to the generically strong Kojo & Booda.
I kept a pretty exciting hand of Ada Lovelace (F), Brassbug Hive (R), and Brassbug Hive (F). Subhash’s ability helped me compensate for keeping two permanents. For T1, I could reserve a Hive, then play Ada from hand.
I drew into a Mechanical Training (C) on the following turn, which I was tempted to keep. Unfortunately, in order to keep pace with Kojo, I needed to reserve the other Hive and play Ada out for a draw by reserving the Mechnical Training (C), even though I would need to discard down to reserve size.
Having both Brassbug Hives in reserve at the same time put constraints on my plays in a way that I didn’t full think through. Half afraid to fall behind on expeditions and half greedy for boost value, I kept my Brassbug Hive (F) in reserve despite having the requisite 5 mana and instead put Flamel (C) into reserve to generate a Brassbug, then immediately played it from reserve.
On T4, I ran out the Brassbug Hive (R). Meanwhile, my Arjun-convert opponent played an Aloe Vera (C) and anchored it with a Meditation Training (R), which fortunately let me trade despite my tempo-negative turn.
I groaned when their Aloe Vera (C) resupplied a Paint Prison (C) while they had an Ouroboros Inkcaster (C) in reserve as fodder. As the first player, I got out my other Brassbug Hive (F) while I could still make a 3/3/3 Brassbug. They topped my Hive (R) with a Paint Prison (C) but we both realized they had chosen the worse target when they closed out their turn with a Mana Reaping (C) on the lesser Hive (F).
My hero ability made it just profitable enough to choose to replay the Hive (R) the following turn, though I lost one side to a Kelon Cylinder (F)-boosted Cernunnos (R).
I drew into a strong hand for the final turn, putting Dr. Frankenstein (C) into reserve with Subhash and playing it to trigger the Hive. With three other characters, Kakoba, Legion Commander (R) was a 3-mana 5/5/5. My final card was an Off You Go (C) to deal with their fleeting Cernunnos (C) to win both sides.
My opponent played their Harvest (R) after the Cernunnos that turn, but after the game, we discussed that if they had led with the Harvest, their low-cost resupplies of an Ouroboros Trickster (C) and Muna Caregiver (C) would have let them slow-roll me and let their Cernunnos dodge my removal.
Takeaways
Subhash’s hero ability fills the role of a 1-drop for mana curve purposes. You can turn any card in your deck into a 1-mana 2/2/2.
Heroes are plentiful in draft. I ended up with an ideal hero despite prioritizing heroes less highly than everyone else at the table. Even if someone had hate-drafted both copies of Subhash & Marmo, I could have pivoted into a perfectly serviceable Fen & Crowbar deck.
I like the idea of being heavily in two factions with a splash faction. I was evenly split between Axiom, Ordis, and Yzmir, which made it impractical for me to pivot into Lyra when I recognized it as the most open faction in P3 and P4.
Overperformers
- Brassbug Hive (R): This won the game for me the two times it came down. If you include this in your deck, it starts to become worthwhile to hate-draft permanent removal.
- Ada Lovelace (F)/Ozma (C): Card draw felt very strong, for Subhash in particular, but also for draft in general.
- Mechanical Training (C)/Dr. Frankenstein (C): Brassbug Hive (R) is the only permanent where I feel like you’re really getting paid off for including these situational cards in your deck. If you do have it, though, these cards are well above-rate.
- Flamel (C): I continue to be impressed with Flamel. Recurring a Mechanical Training (C) or an Off You Go! (C) generates a ton of value. It didn’t come up today, but even returning a fleeting spell to hand can allow Subhash to use his hero ability an additional time.
Underperformers
- Kuwat, the Dissenter (R)/Anubis (R): If you’re sacrificing anything more than a 1/1/1 token, these cards stop being worthwhile. I put them both into mana every time I saw them.
- Banishing Gate (C): All of my opponents built their decks with responsible curves. I don’t think I encountered a single target that this would trade up against.