Stone Soup Draft Report
My friends and I were able to organize a last-minute meetup for another Stone Soup draft this weekend, and it was a blast per always. For those looking for more about stone soup, click [here](https://luckypaper.co/podcast/265-stone-soup-a-magical-community-stew-with-dsb/). The basic idea is everyone brings 45 sleeved cards to draft with (and sleeved basics for deckbuilding), then you shuffle everyone’s 45 together and make a “cube” which you then draft from (people’s cards are returned to them at the end). For an example of 45, [here](https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/242daa1b-5e2b-4e0c-8e1b-fffd330b8684?display=spoiler)’s mine from today.
Because the draft was so last-minute, we were only able to get a pod of four to draft with. As before, pros of a 4-pod: each person’s 45 is better reflected during deckbuilding. Cons: you need to draft with 5 packs of 9 cards rather than the typical 3 packs of 15 cards, but aside from different pack sizes the draft goes as normal.
Our first deck was a Dimir control deck that went 3-0 without much contest. It used cards like [[Stock Up]] and [[Flow State]] to find it’s threats like [[Mobile Clone]] and [[Black Cat, Cunning Thief]] that would take control of it’s opponents best creatures & spells. Not to mention the multiple Lilianas in the decklist, and its premiere threat [[Deep-Cavern Bat]]. The deck absolutely clobbered every opponent it faced, but losses like those ended up yielding plenty of laughs.
The second deck was an unusual Golgari combo deck which ended up 2-1. The deck’s main combo was [[Phyrexian Obliterator]] + any fight spell it could find, though more often than not the wins actually came from [[Invoke Despair]]. The deck also had the classic [[Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth]] and [[Cabal Coffers]] combo going (two cards that were actually brought by two different players who didn’t know the other would bring the card the other brought), but it tended to be a bit of a “win more” combo for the deck.
The third deck was a five-color midrange deck that ended up 1-2. The deck handled itself well, and played to its plan of tutoring [[Vaultborn Tyrant]] with [[Mwonvuli Beast Tracker]] and ramping into it or a [[Rottenmouth Viper]] with [[Nightshade Dryad]] and [[Summon: Fenrir]], but a couple unlucky draws were ultimately responsible for the low win rate. Unlucky, but what can you do?
And the last deck at the table was a five colors shrines deck that ended up 0-3. This deck was easily the worst one, but it was definitely the most fun deck at the table too. Its main strategy was to use its two copies of [[Dingus Egg]] plus a [[Fall of the Thran]] to combo win against their opponent, but the dream unfortunately never came together. However, against the Golgari combo deck, in what I can only describe as the best game of Magic: the Gathering I have ever enjoyed, the deck cast a [[Twinferno]] doubling the next spell they cast that turn, then used a transformed [[Brass’s Tunnel Grinder]] to cast [[Opening Ceremony]]. They copied the ceremony, opened nothing much out of their Eldritch Moon and Dragons of Tarkir packs, but then they discovered 6 off of the Tunnel Grinder trigger, and hit an [[Animate Graveyard]]. With 19 cards in their graveyard, and several more on the way from the opened booster packs. On the Golgari player’s next turn, they topdecked a Phyrexian Obliterator and made it fight the newly-animated 19/19 graveyard, resulting in the five-color player sacrificing their whole board and losing on the spot.
Stone Soup never disappoints, and I highly recommend trying it with your friends if you get the chance!