So I have drafted cards about 10 times throughout my MTG career.

And I love to play commander at home free for all style with my two boys….

Mix the two things together and you SHOULD come up with something like Conspiracy Draft, in Theory anyway.

 

We drafted this game at The Tangled Web (where else?).  The drafting was more difficult this time, however.  There were SO MANY GREAT CARDS!  My first pack had “Squirrel Nest”  “Brainstorm” “Tragic Slip” and “Swords to Plowshares.”  In a pool like that, what do you pick?  And there was a rare! But the other cards are just awesome too.  I chose “Squirrel Nest.”  (Not the best choice.)

 

You also got to draft conspiracy cards, which could be game changers.  These cards sit in your “command zone” and may or may not have a big impact on the game.  A couple let you add a booster pack to the draft, which tended to confuse things a little bit…an extra pack floating around.

 

This game offered a few new game mechanics.  The one that hurt me the most was “Will of the Council.”  Your multiplayer game of 4 or five gets to vote on two choices.  For instance, “Bite of the Black Rose” offered you to vote for “Sickness” (All creatures except for those that belong to the caster get -2/-2 until the end of the turn) or “Psychosis” (everyone discards two cards).I would have rather not had either one!  Regardless, I lost the vote EVERY TIME, because someone’s conspiracy card gave them an extra vote.  See how this game works?

 

Other multiplayer mechanics worked out better for me.  “Parley” was good for me.  I Made a Green Blue deck, and got to play “Selvala’s Enforcer.”  The Parley on the card said that everyone revealed and drew the top card.  The creature entered the battlefield with a number of counters on it determined by the non land cards revealed.  This allowed me to put some scary stuff on the board.  Too bad they didn’t fly.

I thought the game was fun, and would draft it again maybe next month given the opportunity.  My children liked it as well.  But none of us did over-the-top great.

I am going to list the upsides and the downsides of this set, and offer a rating based on that, rather than on my poor skills of drafting.

UPSIDES

U*   You get new access to a lot of iconic cards, some of which are Modern playable.  (I don’t know of anywhere that had legacy or   vintage tournaments, at least not nearby.  And if I could afford to play those formats, I guess I could fly!)

 

U*  It is a Multiplayer Draft.  TOTALLY NEW!  You get to know the other players, as well as yourself, better through this game.

 

U*  There are a few odd valuable cards in this set.  A foil “Brainstorm” came to everyones attention.  Then there’s “Dack Fayden,” a Planeswalker card just for this set, Legacy, and Vintage.  He is worth $50 currently.  I saw one opened all night at the store.

 

U*  There is some beautiful new art.  One of the cards, “Magister of Worth,” was given as the promo of rthe night, but the promo and the regular card are absolutely gorgeous.  The regular art has an angel, that reminds you sort of of 1920’s type of style.  The promo is a glamorous classic angel.

    

 

 

DOWNSIDES

D*  Believe it or not, in my “pod” of drafters, there was someone there who this was their very first Magic Tournament.  This guy was a little confused.  Conspiracy isn’t necessarily for new players.

 

D*  Many of the cards you get are not playable in any formats local to Spartanburg.  We just don’t have Legacy or Vintage tournaments.  And this is true for large swaths of the world.

 

D*  This isn’t me, but many people who are longtime collectors are complaining that some cards are being reprinted and losing value, etc.  Maybe that’s you, oh reader.

 

So I came up with four upsides and three downsides.  This set for me gets a 3/5.  If you are good at drafting, maybe you’ll like it better.  If you need old cards like I do, that will make it worth your while.  If you are brand new, this game might not be for you.

 

What do you think, oh Hub City Geeks?  Leave a comment!