So this was my first draft of MH2. First pick was Fast // Furious, IIRC, because it seemed pretty flexible (I passed an Aeve, because I wasn't sure I could get them to pop off easily enough in Limited). Second pick (or possibly first?) was Clattering Augur. This led me loosely in the direction of RB madness, which I was fine with because one of my hardest opponents in the prerelease was on RB, and it seemed pretty good.

It turns out that was a VERY open archetype in my pod. I picked up some Cabal Initiates pretty early, then got some Terminal Agonies. Then I got multiples of Hell Mongrel. And hell, I wheeled a *Flametongue Yearling*, which I absolutely did not expect. The multiples are why I've named this deck "Maddeningly Consistent", but my first inclination was just to name it "Maddeningly Open". Because seriously, was no one else in this archetype?

There was an interesting deviation from straight RB madness value town: Pack 2, Pick 1 I took Chitterspitter, because I'd seen it totally pop off at the LRR PPR and it seemed like a limited bomb. I even managed to take *3* Chatterstorms, as well as a RG dual land and even a Squirrel Sovereign. I also found a bit more fixing in Ornithopter of Paradise, fixing/token synergy in Tavern Scoundrel, and fixing/token synergy/storm synergy in Strike it Rich. So I was contemplating going Jund.

However, when I laid out the pure RB core, it seemed way too good to dilute with other cards. I even cut one of the Cabal Initiates (though in retrospect, I'm not sure the Batterbone was better). I also cut the Mine Collapse, on the basis that it was more expensive than madnessed Terminal Agony, that I'd want to hold extra lands as discard fodder rather than playing and sacking them, and that I could just board it in if I came up against a planeswalker. I also planned to try the Jund squirrel version for fun if I ended up doing poorly in the event.

However, that did not happen. Round 1 I was up against a WB reanimator deck. I took down Game 1 pretty handily, despite keeping a 1-lander and missing 1-2 early land drops. Game 2 was closer, with my opponent absolutely popping off with their reanimation effects. But I still managed to get them for exactsies by removing one of their blockers after they swung with two larger fliers to increase their clock. (I didn't even notice at first since I was locked into thinking about whether to lifelink with my Cabal Initiate; also, in retrospect, their Dauthi Voidwalker couldn't block anyways, so I should've killed something else).

Round 2 was up against an esper affinity style deck that used discounted affinity cards to pop off with a thopter maker guy. I managed to beat them in Game 1 due to my solid removal package and hitting Delirium at a key moment to power up TWO Unholy Heats. And then in Game 2 I hit their Ornithopter of Paradise with an Unholy Heat I held up turn 1 and then proceeded to have an absolutely amazing curve out with Cabal Initiate, Hellmonger, etc. It was nuts, and I won rapidly. We played a game three for funsies and it was closer, but I still won that. OPP said he hoped I took down the whole event because that would make him feel better.

Which brings us to round 3. OPP and I are the only undefeated in our pod, and the prize pool has 9 packs for first and second. So we ID to secure our rank, then play out our games to for the odd pack. Opp is also on Esper affinity, and had a very solid deck. Including an Urza's Saga, which was quite good. I manage to narrowly win in game 1 after a prolonged stretch of flooding out (amusingly, my opponent hit me with a Tourach's Canticle, only to see a mountain and 4 swamps). I'd lacked most of my discard outlets that game, but managed to get there with some of my other creatures (Augur, Curator, Underworld Hermit, Persist on the Curator, etc.). Game 2 saw us trading big blows in the early game as I slammed with a Skophos Reaver and they got out a big Murktide Regent that I took a while to remove. I also regretfully kind of over-questioned my opponent's escaping of their Tizerus charger a second time (my mental math had totally forgotten about one of their removal spells). As such, I'm kind of glad they won that one after I punted and attacked all out into their Urza's Saga Karnstruct, forgetting that I was at 4. They blocked enough to stay alive, and I didn't think to pitch a land to my dying thresholded Cabal Initiate to gain a bit of life until they untapped and I realized I had no blockers for the big Karnstruct that was about to get a friend. So yeah, PUNT! And finally, game 3, the big finale: this one went pretty smoothly for me, as their early Urza's Saga only ended up making 1 Karnstruct and I managed to curve Charger into Mongrel.

My turn. They were at 10. They had one Karnstruct. I had my 3/2 Charger and my 4/3 Mongrel. In my hand: Curator, second Mongrel, and two other cards. If I played the Curator, had it exploit itself, and pitched all my remaining cards to the Mongrel, I could hit them for exactsies. But they had two mana up, and had shown me an instant speed edict in a previous game... so I played it safe, attacking with just the Mongrel. No blocks. I madness the second Mongrel, and they drop to 5. I don't really remember what they did on their turn, but I had two creatures that could kill them and a Curator to clear away blockers. So yeah, I won!

Both of us opened a fetchland in our 4 prize packs, so I think we both came out pretty well. And in my 5th pack, the one we'd played for... a Verdant Catacombs. I kept that to myself. Not just because I didn't want to rub it in his face, but also because it felt kind of special: a Verdant Catacombs is the first fetchland I ever owned (from my MH2 Prerelease kit, lol). And it being the GB fetch reminded me of my height of MTG play, around the time Guilds of Ravnica came out, when I opened an Assassin's Trophy in the prerelease and eventually collected 4 of them (and 4 Overgrown Tomb). It's the only duplicate of the five fetches I've opened so far, but it being in GB feels kind of... right.

After opening my packs, I stopped to chat with some other players from the other pod (and possibly the Standard pod?). One of the guys was the player I'd faced off against in the finals of the prerelease. In the other pod, he had ALSO drafted RB and he ALSO won (so yeah, seems pretty strong). Anyways, we talked Limited for a while, and it was pretty good. I waited for a lull in the torrential rain that was pouring down, and then I left.