He is fantastic, if you are already in the color combination.
I wouldn't first pick him in Pack 1, but he is a powerhouse, especially in an offensive UW deck. Had some major fun with this guy in multiple drafts.
I just really can't get over the shuffler. In the last two years I never had this amount of bad land count. Either it's terrible flooding (like drawing 10 lands and 2 playable cards) or screw > mulligan > screw > mulligan > screw
It happened before, it always happens, it's random... but i feel like it's 5 time worse with oath
P1P1 for me is clearly between Acolyte of the Inferno and Topan Freeblade.
Both are bombs at turn 2/3. I'd take the acolyte, i like him even more than freeblade, he was a beast for me in lots of games.
P1P2 Boggart Brute or Leaf Gilder - i like both, but i don't like green too much in origins and cutting red is great here.
P1P5 Bloodlust is fun with Boggart Brute, but I'm not too much of a fan. Grasp is cool too, but black seems open and the strongest cards are Shambling Ghoul and Deadbridge Shaman.
I love the shaman, but I'd take the Ghoul, we already have three 3-drops.
Ofcourse there are the obvious choices (too many lands, too few lands, too high CMC etc.) but what are the turning points you go by?
Sort of like, do you want your hand to at least be able to do something useful (not just dropping lands) for the first 3 turns, and go from there?
Do you ever take a gamble with a mulligan when you're at a turning point where your hand, might be fine depending on your next few drops?
yeah, the most critical hands are always the 2 or 5 land hands.
If I draw 2 lands and have can't play anything, i should absolutely mulligan.
If i have one or multiple two drops that can hold the enemy back for a bit and some good three drops, I'd gamble.
5 land hands with only low drops are not too fancy, i want something big that can be played with all the mana that effects the board enough to make me draw further good stuff.
Keeps are 5 land hands with one low drop and a good cmc card
Also do you make different mulligan decisions based on the deck you are facing, i.e. if you know it's an aggro, midrange, control deck?
that's the biggest influece in mulligan decisions. This makes me decide if my hand is good against an average hand from my enemy, or if a random 6 card hand might be better.
1st Event - RW Aggro 3-1-1
Picked White Seed, ended up playing WR Aggro. I had an overall solid deck.
I had 3x Celestial flare and 3x Topan freeblade. The only thing i didn't have was a solid finisher. The promo was the 2/2 first striker (meh) and my only endgame were two fliers and the 4/6 imbalanced Sentinel.
Still a good run (2-0, 1-1, 2-0, 2-0, 1-2)
2nd Event - GR Something 5-0-0
I didn't like my deck first. Chose the Red Seed Pack, opened Embermaw Hellion (olé), but all other cards were off color and unplayable, besides Molten Vortex.
Ended up with a GR Deck with solid midrange and red removal.
It overperformed completely and i ended up winning the whole thing (2-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-1). Molten Vortex was a beast, changing each land draw to a shock. In the finals i won the game with Vortex + Embermaw Hellion, discarding 3 lands and smashing 9 to the face.
I was surprised by Acolyte of the Inferno, he was a beast. Pings every x/2 creature away and trades for a x/6 creature. This could be a 1st pick in drafts for me.
One of the most flawless 3-0 was with this deck and it was great to play.
UG was extremely open, and i got rather lucky with great cards being passed to me (Deepfathom Skulker, cyclone sire, Prophets)
First picks: Reality Smasher; P2 World Breaker; P3 Clutch of Currents
MVPs: Cyclone Sire, World Breaker (turned around and won 2 games)
Special Mention goes to Void Grafter, he can cause a huge blowout.
I wouldn't first pick him in Pack 1, but he is a powerhouse, especially in an offensive UW deck. Had some major fun with this guy in multiple drafts.
It happened before, it always happens, it's random... but i feel like it's 5 time worse with oath
P1P1 for me is clearly between Acolyte of the Inferno and Topan Freeblade.
Both are bombs at turn 2/3. I'd take the acolyte, i like him even more than freeblade, he was a beast for me in lots of games.
P1P2 Boggart Brute or Leaf Gilder - i like both, but i don't like green too much in origins and cutting red is great here.
P1P3 Another Boggart Brute for sure
P1P4 overall weak pack, Runed Servitor over Chandra's Fury
P1P5 Bloodlust is fun with Boggart Brute, but I'm not too much of a fan. Grasp is cool too, but black seems open and the strongest cards are Shambling Ghoul and Deadbridge Shaman.
I love the shaman, but I'd take the Ghoul, we already have three 3-drops.
Acolyte of the Inferno
2x Boggart Brute
Runed Servitor
Shambling Ghoul
yeah, the most critical hands are always the 2 or 5 land hands.
If I draw 2 lands and have can't play anything, i should absolutely mulligan.
If i have one or multiple two drops that can hold the enemy back for a bit and some good three drops, I'd gamble.
5 land hands with only low drops are not too fancy, i want something big that can be played with all the mana that effects the board enough to make me draw further good stuff.
Keeps are 5 land hands with one low drop and a good cmc card
but it mostly depends on this:
that's the biggest influece in mulligan decisions. This makes me decide if my hand is good against an average hand from my enemy, or if a random 6 card hand might be better.
1st Event - RW Aggro 3-1-1
Picked White Seed, ended up playing WR Aggro. I had an overall solid deck.
I had 3x Celestial flare and 3x Topan freeblade. The only thing i didn't have was a solid finisher. The promo was the 2/2 first striker (meh) and my only endgame were two fliers and the 4/6 imbalanced Sentinel.
Still a good run (2-0, 1-1, 2-0, 2-0, 1-2)
2nd Event - GR Something 5-0-0
I didn't like my deck first. Chose the Red Seed Pack, opened Embermaw Hellion (olé), but all other cards were off color and unplayable, besides Molten Vortex.
Ended up with a GR Deck with solid midrange and red removal.
It overperformed completely and i ended up winning the whole thing (2-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-1).
Molten Vortex was a beast, changing each land draw to a shock. In the finals i won the game with Vortex + Embermaw Hellion, discarding 3 lands and smashing 9 to the face.
This was the deck:
1 Molten Vortex
2 Undercity Troll
1 Thopter Engineer
1 Valeron Wardens
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Llanowar Empath
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Firefiend Elemental
2 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
2 Rhox Maulers
1 Prickleboar
1 Zendikar Incarnate
1 Titanic Growth
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Ravaging Blaze
1 Wild Instincts
1 Magmatic Insight
10 Mountain
7 Forest
I was surprised by Acolyte of the Inferno, he was a beast. Pings every x/2 creature away and trades for a x/6 creature. This could be a 1st pick in drafts for me.
Topan Freeblade and Undercity Troll were rock solid two drops, especially the troll, he was never a bad draw.