JumpSTARt: Battle Royale — Devlog #20: Okaun
JumpSTARt: Battle Royale is a star-format Jumpstart product for Magic: The Gathering. This blog post is part of a series chronicling its development.
Previous devlogs:
Devlog #00: Kickoff
Devlog #01: Packet Skeleton
Devlog #02: Drafting
Devlog #03: Star-Format-Friendly Mechanics
Devlog #04: “Event” Cards
Devlog #05: Rhoda
Devlog #06: Zndrsplt
Devlog #07: Nikara
Devlog #08: Khorvath
Devlog #09: Pir
Devlog #10: Trynn
Devlog #11: Ukkima
Devlog #12: Laurine
Devlog #13: Gorm
Devlog #14: Sylvia
Devlog #15: Toothy
Devlog #16: Silvar
Devlog #17: Cazur
Devlog #18: Timin
Devlog #19: Kamber
BERSERKER BARRAGE! Here’s the chaos that is the Okaun packet. Below is the reasoning for the card choices.
You gotta be careful with Okaun. Famously piloted by Gavin Verhey to arrive at numbers in the tens of thousands; I think it’s still easy to accomplish lethal in a Limited format, depending on the packet design.
Due to this, I think it’s a mistake to include a way to give Okaun trample. However, I am a big fan of granting other combat keywords to help boost Okaun’s terrible might!! There are ways to grant Okaun haste, menace, and first strike in this packet.
Frenzied Saddlebrute and Frontier Warmonger make it so that everyone on your team is rewarded for attacking your opponents. Go, go, go!
Goblin Traprunner and Molten Rebirth causes multiple coin flips, and the potential for gaining a bunch of creatures on your side means Inner-Flame Igniter is here to give a go-wide boost. Sure, it costs 9 mana to gain that first strike reward, but it’s a mana sink for Tavern Scoundrel potentially netting you a bunch of treasures!
Another way to spend a lot of your mana is if you draw a ton of cards from Wheel of Misfortune; or, very unlikely from Fiery Gambit.
In any case, due to Tavern Scoundrel & Wheel of Misfortune, and a mana curve that doesn’t go beyond five mana, we have 8 lands instead of 9.
To help increase those odds is, yes, Krark’s Thumb. Each packet requiring at least one artifact meant this was a no-brainer of an include. Besides, it’s nice to have high-value targets for the artifact removal in these packets.
Goblin Kaboomist and Fiery Gambit split the difference with acting as “one” card slot for creature removal due to how volatile they are. The remaining removal is in Underdark Rift, which also takes care of artifacts and planeswalkers (bonus, for dealing with Will & Rowan and in a non-permanent way).
Wheel of Misfortune is the “multiplayer event” card but it also helps to how chaotic it feels to cast it, along with the D10 rolled for underdark rift. Aiding the coin flips, it augments the feeling that this is the Eye of Chaos’s packet.
There are plenty of Warriors in this packet to fulfill the “2+ Warriors” requirement.
Lastly, we have a very strange “combat trick.” Chaotic Strike not only nods towards Okaun being the Eye of Chaos; but this cantrip spell is also deceiving in its power. The key combat buff here isn’t the +1/+1 — it’s the flip. If you win, and you have Okaun, you’re getting a much bigger surprise boost; perhaps even when it’s not blocked! It’d be +5/+5 if you had not won any other coin flips this turn. At the end of the day, if you lose the flip, at least you still get to draw a card for your troubles.
Go big or go home.
Flip Out
That’s all for now! Catch you next packet.
