This past weekend our local Limited community of Los Angeles gathered together to sling some spells at the inaugural Spider-Man double draft. Long-time community members Kyle and Shaun banded together to host a single-slim double-draft of Spider-Man, the first event of its kind since the days of "Find Your Battlefield," a similar double-draft experience hosted in Los Angeles only a few years prior.

Los Angeles' Limited community has grown tremendously over the last few years. At the end of the pandemic, my friend Alex and I formed the LA Limited Discord group, inviting players for house drafts. This eventually evolved into a Team Draft League, a vibrant Cube community, as well as various brewery and house drafts hosted weekly across LA. While we had hosted some larger single-day events in the past, the Double-Draft was a first for our community.

Kyle, a local Burbank business owner of a Pa Kua dojo, graciously hosted our 32-person single elimination event. Kyle has been a prominent member of the local Burbank/San Fernando Valley Magic community, and was probably the only person who could offer up a space large enough to host 32 Magicians!

Although I had not much experience playing Spider-Man I was stoked to crack some packs and get down to business. In the first draft I opened on two very powerful rares, the Death of Gwen Stacy and Black Cat, Cunning Thief. From there I sealed my fate, opting to take every Dimir villain card I could. While I had only done one draft of Spider-Man prior (or rather, Through the Omenpaths) I went with what I know best as a Limited player - drafting durdly Control decks.

At the end of the draft here's what I ended up with:

One card I should've spec'd early on was Hot Dog Cart. Every time I've seen this card I've been super impressed by it. Not only can it help bridge the gap for your two-color deck to be three-color, but the random food token is pretty vital to keep you stabilized, especially if you're drafting a grindier Control-esque deck. This also would've helped me curve out better into my White splash for The Spot, Living Portal.

Round one I actually got paired against my friend Aaron, piloting a deck that felt almost identical to mine, give or take a few cards. Since Spider-Man is a pretty small set, decks in the same color combination end up being pretty similar due to recurring cards you'll see. We had a pretty intense match, with game one me losing to getting out-drawn by The Clone Saga.

In game two I elected to be on the draw, and when Aaron missed his third land drop on the play I was able to stabilize pretty quickly with a few threats in play and double Amazing Acrobatics. Game three Aaron was again on the play, but didn't hit an Island until turn four, and my Black Cat was able to find not only an Amazing Acrobatics, but his copy of The Clone Saga, keeping me pretty far ahead on cards for the remainder of the game.

Round two I played against my friend Marc on a Naya deck. With his deck being more of a ramp strategy as opposed to a go-wide strategy, my removal spells matched up pretty well in this matchup, as cards like Hot Dog Cart are basically blanks when I have so much card advantage in my Dimir cards. After two games I sealed my top 8 spot and said goodbye to probably the best deck I'll draft in this set.

In Top 8 I also opened up on a p1p1 The Death of Gwen Stacy, and then got passed a Spot, Living Portal. Again, while I haven't played this set much (and only still know about half the cards) I again followed the path of going Dimir splash White for Spot and a SP//dr, Piloted by Peni that I got passed in pack two. However, at the end of the draft I didn't feel as confident about my deck as in draft one.

I think the biggest hole my deck had was efficient, cheap removal. While I had a Venom's Hunger, and two copies of Spider-Man No More, what my deck lacked was Scorpion's Sting. I did try to draft around The Death of Gwen Stacy, with my two copies of Whoosh!, but I still felt like I was one or two spot removal spells short of a solid strategy.

I got paired against my friend Matt on Azorius Spiders in the first round. I didn't exactly know his deck configuration going into round one, so I opted to keep a slower hand that had a third turn Doc Ock's Henchmen, and it ended up being way too slow, as he opened on Skyward Spider into Silver Sable, Mercenary Leader. This start ended up being too fast for me to deal with.

In game two I was able to cast a turn three The Death of Gwen Stacy into a Spot, Living Portal, and it helped me offset my opponent's start. However, in game three I died after a mulligan to six due to a Wraith, Vicious Vigilante into Biorganic Carapace. I kept a hand that didn't have enough interaction and that insane start was enough to put the nail in the coffin.

Matt went on to be our champion as his Azorius Spiders Heroes deck annihilated his next two opponents. Matt is honestly one of the nicest guys there is, so it was exceptionally fun to see him take down this event. Like me, he admitted he didn't know many cards in the set, so good on him to take it down relying on his skills from years of drafting. Congrats Matt!

While Magic grows and changes over the years one thing that's been a constant reason for me to play is the wonderful community that I'm a part of. I don't think I've seen another Limited event in Los Angeles have this many players that wasn't at a store. It's still amazing to me that 32 players can show up just for the love of drafting, and do it all day long!

As my relationship with Magic changes I'm constantly reminded of the reasons why I play this game in the first place: the joy I get from just cracking packs with friends over the course of a good ten hours. I know I'll be back for the next double-draft day, and I hope it's double the size!

LOVE ROMAN

P.S. - While I didn't clinch the trophy, I did get a nice 2-0 split with this Chaos Draft deck I played afterwards. And no, I did not get to cast Sunfall once.

Until the next one...