Draft Report: Second Nature

 A hero emerges from the fray. The local Wizard, Daniel has overcome his opponents with raw card advantage and fliers to grab the trophy. 

  Second Nature is a newer cube project of mine, designed to be accessible to anyone with access to MTG Arena and a small amount of common/uncommon wildcards. Our draft last night took me some effort to get organized, but it was quite fun and 100% worth it. If you are interested in following along with this cube project through future iterations or want to peruse the list for your self, you can view it here: Second Nature / CCobra 

As I mentioned before, Second Nature is designed for accessibility. The draft will mimic a retail limited set from before the change for "set" "play" boosters. Meaning there are a limited number or rare cards, and decks will be almost entirely reliant on commons and uncommons. I cut my teeth on limited sets from the 2018 to 2022 time period, although I have continued to dive into limited formats and cube ever since. This period is nostalgic for me and I thoroughly enjoyed getting excited for a rare or a few quality commons.

Our list of drafters was over 10 to start the day, but as these things go - stuff pops up, headaches happen and so we ended up with 6. Solid number, and plenty to have a variety of decks and cards opened. The group was mainly folks from my local area: Daniel - local tournament grinder and occasional cuber if he isnt running. Flutter - Former #1 ranked Mythic ranked Arena limited grinder and overall cube lover from Canada and internet fame. Joe - Podcaster and well known cube organizer from California. Ethan - regular cuber from Greensboro, NC only 40minutes from me. Willy - Another local from Greensboro and new to Arena drafting. Lastly, myself. 

My draft started out with some solid interaction with Unholy Heat. Instant speed removal is a high pick here as a lot of threats are augmented creatures and there is a lot of auras running around. I ended up seeing some decent white cards in pack 1 and picked up the boros signpost uncommon, Seedglave Mentor pretty late as well. Boros is a heroic/valiant deck that pumps up its early creatures to beat down. The mentor ended up being great. 

My deck was pretty smooth, and I got a 2nd rare with Eidolon of Astral Winds. This card works amazingly well with Valiant triggers and pushing damage in the air to close out matches. The power level of this card embodies what I am going for in this cube. It's a rare that is synergistic and feels impactful if supported. 

  

Here is my decklist: 

Let's get into the matches. 

Round 1 I played vs Daniel, he had a really sweet Selesnya enchantments deck with a blue splash for cloudblazer and soul herder. 

The raw card advantage in his deck was very hard to compete with. I am also happy to see that a light splash is possible without any fetch lands or shocks. These lands are tough to not include in any cube, but my goal of minimizing the need for dozens of rare wildcards means that the mana bases will be less consistent. 

Round 1 loss 2-0

Round 2, I played FlutterDev. He is a Canadian player who is very skilled. I know that he has reach the top of the Arena Limited Mythic ladder previously, so I know he will be a difficult matchup as well. 

Flutter built a sweet UB Ninja deck with Mulldrifter, Ninja of the Deep Hours and Bident of Thassa. His deck had very little interaction, outside of Deadly Cover-Up. That card is one that doesn't see play much in cubes. Due to the fact that it's 5 mana, and the extra effect of exiling the cards from your opponents deck with the same name isnt going to happen in a singleton environment. So the fact that this cube gives drafters 2 or even 3 copies of the same card makes the effect relevant. 

I was able to eventually outclass his threats with my buffed up mice and cats in this matchup for the victory. 

Round 2 win 2-1

Round 3, my opponent was a local drafter Ethan. Ethan is a super friendly and welcoming member of the cube scene in Greensboro and has a few super fun cubes as well. 

Ethan's deck was built around Landfall and was definitely on the aggressive side. 2 copies of the 1 drop chocobo at uncommon, Tannuk from EOE and a fetch land was pretty hard to beat on the play. The removal was timely in our games and my creatures being able to outgrow some of his early threats meant I could turn the corner and swing the game in my favor in a tight game 3. Out of every deck I played, I certainly felt the most early pressure from Ethan. 

Round 3 win 2-1

The 2 decks I didnt face belonged to Willy and Joe. Both of them looked super sweet and Joe was very close to taking down the pod with his UB control deck. 

Willy: 

Joe:

Overall, this was an awesome experience. I am definitely looking forward to playing the cube again, and hopefully with a full 8 pod! 

If you are interested in drafting, feel free to contact me on BlueSky or Discord. 

https://bsky.app/profile/lastabzan.bsky.social

Discord username is LastAbzan -