1.2 Can't say I agree with this one - white is the weakest colour of the format and, unless you have some sort of a cunning plan or you're getting crazy singals, I can't say I recommend going there. Nurturing Licid is probably better - any kind of licid is awesome, but this one also has great ability.
1.5 warhounds are rather strong, especially if you can get provoke in the second pack (and it usually wheels). dunno, considering that you have it and also the aftershock here, it just feels wrong to see rats picked here.
1.6 tbh, after picking up two lancers you should've stayed white here with repentance - seems like it's flowing, so maybe during this draft it wasn't a bad idea.
1.7 patchwork gromes, imo - keeps your options open and it's a great card(you're sticking too hard to capsize and reckless spite here).
1.8 curse is horrbile - tons of other options here, depending on your previous picks. worst case scenario, you can always hate boil.
1.9 I'm all for the raredraft in the swiss, but this particular time you're low on playables (in two colours) so you really should've cut something or even picked an ambiguous viper here.
1.13 spinal graft (or even divine offering - you're really getting passed white) is much better. lots of free targeting in the format.
2.1 no point for you to go red. especially not after the blade. serpent warrior is a good card in this format. cannibalize also isn't bad in conjunction with other removal (or, say, capsize).
3.5 dauthi jackal - nausea wheels and it's a sideboard card. jackal is pretty strong.
3.9 keeper of the mind - it's not that hard to abuse it, and mirozel is hard countered by some rather common and free abilities.
1.2 griptide is better simply because blue is the stronger (and strongest) color in ths.
1.3 marauder is not that strong of a signal, I'd rather stay in color with either prescient chimera or savage surge.
1.4 no indication of black being open, actually. it turned out to be, yes, but there were no strong signals up to this point. sedge scorpion is the card here - early trades go well with nemesis.
1.8 baleful eidolon - GB suffers from a slow start so it's imperative to have some speedbumps in your deck.
2.2 why so hate? really, scholar is not the card to hate here. besides, you have rescue from the underworld that can allow for some more or less decent BG self-mill strategies - you already have one nemesis, after all.
2.4 ordeal. seems like you're grossly overvaluing whip - it's an unreliable removal for 5 mana. it's workable, but not that great.
2.5 you're spending too picks on the hatedraft - relax, dude, this is no pro tour top-8. hatedraft is only efficient when the metagame calls for it, otherwise it just hurts you.
1.1 This is a very arguable pick. Yeah, revenge is cool, but so is the Anger and, while you may not like it, it also can easily win you the game on its own. All decent mass sweepers are awesome in limited, you just need to know how to set them up. Also, one thing that speaks in favor of anger here is that you pass both tactics and voyage's end - yeah, you also pass a magma jet but it's not half as strong as a signal as those two.
1.2 Actually, even if you put monetary aspect aside, thoughtseize is great in this format. Abundance of tricks means that people always keep some cards in their hands and the overall combo-feel of this format means that you can hurt them greatly by disrupting said combos. Like, today I've screwed an entire game for my opponent simply by discarding his Fabled Hero on my turn 2 - he had a great gameplan, but it was never meant to be. So no need to feel ashamed by picking it.
1.3 If you don't like the ordeals in this format then, well, the only choice you have is to start liking them. They're a free win generator and you just can't skip past free wins.
1.4 Mmm, what makes you think you're passing great green cards? Honestly, apart from nylea's emissary in 1.2, there wasn't any strong signals. And 1.2 isn't the time to read signals.
1.5 Heart is so-so and intrusion is good, but somewhat luck-dependant. Considering how strong voyaging satyr is, it's not big mistake to pick him here.
1.8 it's very strange to hear that the disciple is never making the cut in your decks, it seems like you're grossly underestimating him.
2.1 Griptide. Normally, it's more or less of an even pick, but you have the charlatan and 2x griptide is just devastating in the late game.
2.2 Wavecrash seems like a safer bet. I'm absolutely unimpressed with the artisan.
2.6 nah, mogis is acceptable here - if you play aggressively enough, you don't need to make your whole board intimidating with him, even a couple of critters will do.
2.8 boon is better, I think.
2.9 I think sorrow is scarier for your naiads. or maybe even battlewise valor.
2.10 aqueous form, mb? you don't have that much sorceries and instants.
3.3 yeah, that's probably the biggest problem of this draft - you aren't too sure what kind of game plan you're aiming for.
... and it goes on. Oh, and this is, what?, your 9th or 10th 3-0 in a row? You complain about packs when you win every single draft you join? I find it tiresome.
Nah, I'm not posting everything here, obviously, only the more or less interesting stuff. Out of my last 25 drafts, I've won, like, a half, 0-1-ed 5-7 of them and rest falls somewhere in the middle.
And your whining about my whining is, like... KK, whatever, dude. When a pack has nothing but cards that usually wheel it's a bad pack, no matter how positive do you want to be about it. No amounts of praise will help mediocre cards compete with the truly strong ones, and mtgo drafts are all about competition.
And the high percentage of bad cards in my drafts are due to already stated reasons - I'm posting challenging ones, not stuff when I'm picking p7 phalanx leaders and p9 triton tactics and then it's simply a matter of avoiding getting mana-screwed.
Pack 1 pick 1:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Ray of Dissolution (FOIL)
Two-Headed Cerberus
--> Time to Feed
Asphodel Wanderer
Breaching Hippocamp
Boon of Erebos
Akroan Crusader
Magma Jet
Cutthroat Maneuver
Decorated Griffin
Titan of Eternal Fire
Plains
Ugly pack. Titan & magma jet are fine, but they're not enough reason to march into the worst color from the very first pick. So I'm picking time as it's the only decent non-red card here.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Lightning Strike
Fleshmad Steed
Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Returned Phalanx
Vaporkin
Setessan Battle Priest
--> Sea God's Revenge
Magma Jet
Witches' Eye
Plains
Not much of a choice here - revenge is grossly overshadowing other cards in the pack. Passing tons of red, but it's ok, I don't want to be red unless I'm wheeling broken cards for it.
Pack 1 pick 3:
--> Prescient Chimera
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Satyr Hedonist
Read the Bones
Last Breath
Deathbellow Raider
Opaline Unicorn
Karametra's Acolyte
Flamecast Wheel
Mountain
Ugh. I'm no longer surprised, but packs like this seem to be pandemic in THS - I'm seeing them way too often. Well, sphinx is fine, it's just that you can get them much later than p1p3.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Gods Willing
--> Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Silent Artisan
Unknown Shores (FOIL)
Breaching Hippocamp
Borderland Minotaur
Scholar of Athreos
Glare of Heresy
Sentry of the Underworld
Dark Betrayal
Plains
If this was 8-4, I would've seen gods willing as a definite white signal. However, this is 4322, so it kinda passed under my radar. Anyhow, there's only two decent cards here, gods & courser, and as I've already picked some decent UG cards and seen no good white in previous packs, I'm taking centaur here.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Sip of Hemlock
--> Feral Invocation
Fate Foretold
Thassa's Bounty
Lagonna-Band Elder
Priest of Iroas
Shredding Winds
Boon of Erebos
Gainsay
Stoneshock Giant
Swamp
Not much of a choice here. It seems I'm repeating this a lot, but with packs so sorry as they are there can't be much choice. I guess red is flowing freely, but I'm not a huge fan of it (as you already can understand).
Pack 1 pick 6:
Viper's Kiss
Lightning Strike
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Hopeful Eidolon
Fate Foretold
Savage Surge
--> Centaur Battlemaster
Swamp
Could've been mono-red here, lol. But then, battlemaster is also a card - he's somewhat matchup dependant, but he can produce some easy wins if you cook him right. He's especially good in UG as it gives him access to lots of evasion abilities. Another card to notice here is hopeful eidolon - another strong white signal. But I dunno, at this moment I was more or less content with the UG cards I was being passed so I wasn't thinking about a switch.
But maybe I should've thought. Dunno. As you can see, I'm trying to hop on a red gravy train here, but it's probably too late to do so - passed too much of it already. Better pick would've been nylea's presence - we're cutting our color and it allows for some splash, keeping us open. Or, if we ready the white signal in time, maybe it's even traveling philosopher.
Yeah, could've been easily in mono-red. But then, no dragon mantles being passed, and mono-r isn't so cool without lots of them.
Pack 1 pick 9:
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Ray of Dissolution (FOIL)
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Breaching Hippocamp
Akroan Crusader
Plains
Eh, don't like them, but, when it's possible, I'm trying to stay in UG.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Crackling Triton
--> Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Setessan Battle Priest
Witches' Eye
Plains
Or maybe it's GR?
Pack 1 pick 11:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Battlewise Valor
Satyr Hedonist
Last Breath
Mountain
This is when the sheer scale of white's openness became apparent to me. Mind you, these were the only white cards in this pack. But it's hard to say - is p4 that much of a white signal? Is p6 eidolon worth switching? Apart from those two, we hadn't had any reasons to go white. Well, whatever, I'm taking the better card here and we'll just keep that white option open in our mind.
Pack 2 pick 1:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Spearpoint Oread
Vulpine Goliath
Yoked Ox
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Horizon Scholar
Anvilwrought Raptor
Warriors' Lesson
--> Artisan of Forms
Plains
Ugh, another one of these. I need some early drops and artisan is fine in UG, but, once again, I want to see something better than this in the packs I open. Much better.
Something like this, yeah. Sucks to pass 2 mana satyr, but 3 mana one is just broken - so much crazy stuff you can do with him. Easy slam.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Nessian Courser
Lash of the Whip
Chosen by Heliod
Unknown Shores
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
Sedge Scorpion
Scholar of Athreos
--> Horizon Chimera
Dauntless Onslaught
Witches' Eye
Gift of Immortality
Island
I really like this card and I'm solidly UG so I cheerfully slam it. Excellent creature - really flexible, helps you race (in some cases, it saves your life) and even trample is often relevant. Because, see, people sometimes forget that this creature has trample, which can be a very expensive mistake, especially if you have tricks in your hand.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Demolish
Leafcrown Dryad
Lagonna-Band Elder
Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Tormented Hero
--> Ordeal of Nylea
Tymaret, the Murder King
Forest
Between ordeal & the dryad, I like ordeal more. It's all about risk vs reward - dryad is safer, but not as broken, ordeal is risky, but it can win you the game.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Demolish
Portent of Betrayal
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Opaline Unicorn
--> Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Dissolve
Peak Eruption
Shipwreck Singer
Forest
Agent is obviously good in UG, but, with the amount of enablers I already have, warrior seems better. It's hard to draft UG heroic because of the relative scarcity of said ability, but it's definitely workable.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Defend the Hearth
Leonin Snarecaster
Priest of Iroas
--> Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Artisan's Sorrow
Sentry of the Underworld
Forest
Even less choice here - I like to have a good sideboard, but no picking them above mainboard cards.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Loathsome Catoblepas
March of the Returned
Silent Artisan
--> Titan's Strength
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Blood-Toll Harpy
Peak Eruption
Forest
Umm, green? White? I'm feeding the red backup plan here, but, honestly, I've already too deep in UG to get out of there safely.
Pack 2 pick 8:
Scourgemark
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Leonin Snarecaster
Scholar of Athreos
--> Hunt the Hunter
Evangel of Heliod
Plains
Decent sideboard, but I really don't like where this is heading.
Yeah, we're officially in trouble - too much people in our colors, no chance for decent wheels, and we've picked only 6 card pack 2 and maybe 7 cards pack 1. We've got a huge deficit on our hands.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Viper's Kiss
Benthic Giant
Borderland Minotaur
--> Battlewise Hoplite
Flamecast Wheel
Island
Giant is a card, but no, even with all the troubles, I'd rather hape hoplite - it's too much to let someone pick a 12+ hoplite.
Pack 2 pick 11:
--> Chosen by Heliod
Unknown Shores
Asphodel Wanderer
Witches' Eye
Island
Besides, maybe I can splash or even play white?
Pack 2 pick 12:
Demolish
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Ray of Dissolution
Forest
Maybe...
Pack 2 pick 13:
Demolish
--> Peak Eruption
Forest
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Defend the Hearth
Forest
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
--> Leafcrown Dryad
Chosen by Heliod
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
Triton Shorethief
Traveler's Amulet
Ordeal of Erebos
Kragma Warcaller
Coordinated Assault
Agent of the Fates
Mountain
And it goes on. Dryad is fine, but nothing to wheel here and I'm passing a freaking agent. If I was doing better here, I'd hate it for sure, but nah, don't have that luxury at this point.
Pack 3 pick 2:
Dragon Mantle
--> Nessian Asp
Bronze Sable
Returned Centaur
Hopeful Eidolon
Portent of Betrayal
Observant Alseid
Borderland Minotaur
Sedge Scorpion
Vanquish the Foul
Karametra's Acolyte
Dark Betrayal
Firedrinker Satyr
Island
Asp is cool, but, once again, no hope for decent wheels here and, with the card deficit I have, I'm not having those 23 cards unless I'm tabling something good.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Sip of Hemlock
Commune with the Gods
Hopeful Eidolon
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
Tormented Hero
--> Horizon Scholar
Flamespeaker Adept
Prophet of Kruphix
Swamp
Not a big fan of Prophet. She requires extremely specific hands and decks to be powerful and I just don't believe they'll occur often enough to merit her presence. And without those hands, like, when you topdeck her with an empty hand, she's what? A 2/3 that gives your guys vigilance? Cool. I'd rather have a trusty scholar.
Pack 3 pick 4:
Gods Willing
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
--> Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Scourgemark (FOIL)
Vaporkin
Deathbellow Raider
Prowler's Helm
Favored Hoplite
Plains
Satyr over vaporkin - I have some expensive but good creatures here, I need some tempo.
Pack 3 pick 5:
Guardians of Meletis
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Aqueous Form
Ray of Dissolution
--> Wavecrash Triton
Chronicler of Heroes
Favored Hoplite
Coordinated Assault
Daxos of Meletis
Mountain
Really late Daxos, but he's not that surprising after p11 battlewise hoplite. And, well, in this pack, unlike in pack one, it's really obvious that white is flowing, but it's kinda late, isn't it? Well, I'm still not sure how heavy in white I will be, or, rather, I preferred to hope that I'll pull the clean UG somehow, so I took wavecrash here. After all, daxos is not that good if you can't drop him on turn 3 reliably.
Despite going white, I'm still hating cerberus here - the point of philosopher is to come at the second turn, no later. Besides, even then he's not good without pegasi enablers.
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Triton Shorethief
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Island
All in all, this is one of my sucky drafts, this time no puns included. Was trying to force blue too strong, I think, and it hurt me. Couldn't go red because, by the time the shallowness of UG became apparent, I've passed too much red. Never received a black signal and white one was so faint that it totally passed under my radar. Result is kinda disaster.
Well, tbh, the deck is not that horrible - I mean, it is, but not really. It has some powerful cards and is quite synergistic, the only problem is the mana base - it's a freaking lottery. Still, in situations like these, it's the only way to go - sure, I'll lose some games due to my mana base, it's a given, but at least I'll have a real chance of winning those games when I'm given all my colors.
Games:
And match 1 is a definite proof of that. BG opp. KK, game 1 I mull to five, no islands, terrible hands, dead to rights, let's go next. Game 2 I'm given a decent UG hand with no trace of either plains or white cards. He opens up with a returned centaur (slow curve?), targeting me for some reason. Well, in another draft today (easy 3-0), my opp actually tried to deck me with these - 3x centaurs, Rescue from the Underworld, Whip of Erebos, he was dangerously close, but nah. It's a different story, though. So he mills me while I do a Staunch-hearted Warrior into Boon Satyr mega-punch. And while he plays Erebos's Emissary and Loathsome Catoblepas afterwards, he's forced to chump block Warrior (because if he didn't, I'd cast a feral invocation on him and dealt 12 lethal damage) and you don't win races by chump blocking with your fifth and sixth drop. And, well, that's the problem with honest two-colors when your pool is weak - you're forced to play with really, really bad cards that just aren't able to bring you back into race.
Game 3 I'm finally lucky with mana and, after trading my leafcrown dryad for his baleful eidolon (really questionable trade on his part), I drop down a battlemaster (versus his recurring duo of returned centaur and erebos's emissary) and go mad with him. Ordeal of Nylea, attack for 7, drop a Wavecrash Triton was my sixth turn. Time to Feed battlemaster vs Pharika's Mender, 2x battlewise valor into wavecrash triton, tapping out remaining blockers, swing for lethal 15 damage was my seventh turn. Yeah, battlemaster is radical if you let him be.
Game 2 - forest-plains-island for me and even a third turn nessian courser. He responds with spear on his turn, no early drops for both of us. I follow up with a wavecrash triton, but miss my 4th land drop - guess it couldn't be too good. But then, he also misses on his 4th drop, so he sits on the spear. Well, what can I do? I drop fate foretold on my courser and trade him for another card & 3 damage, finding my fourth land in the process. He untaps and, topdecking his first forest, drops an Opaline Unicorn - weird choice for GW. My turn, I drop a voyaging satyr and ordeal of nylea on wavecrash buddy, locking the unicorn down and attacking for 2. Then, he makes a totally weird decision - instead of playing something, he chooses to sit on his spear. Cool, but I'm playing prescient chimera (while obviously not attacking) and you've wasted your turn. Next turn, he's finally casting heliod's emissary (leaving 3 mana open for the spear), but it's too late - dauntless assault in wavecrash & chimera, tap emissary. No, gods willing, he says. In responce, I cast battlewise valor in wavecrash, tap his emissary once more then swing for the lethal.
Game 3 - GW hand for me, mono-white for opponent (though in the first two games I haven't seen him casting green cards at all). He opens up with lagonna-band elder, I curve chronicler of heroes into non-bestow leafcrown dryad (to block elder) + ordeal of nylea onto chronicler. Turn five, he trades his gods willing for my dryad, but I have boon satyr for my chronicler, making it 9/7. And opp has no fifth land so he can't answer it properly, though, at that point, little could've saved him. Well, he could've popped the chronicler, but I had tons of good stuff in my hand. Maybe he got screwed earlier? I dunno. Anyhow, he was misplaying in game 2 so it's probably his punishment that I get lucky here.
Match 3 - a proper UG. well, I guess this guy stole all my cards, lol. Anyhow, game 1 I live the dream - battlewise hoplite, feral invocation (at the end of his turn though - I'm not risky enough to cast that into two open mana), Horizon Chimera, Leafcrown Dryad on chimera, race that.
Game 2 he has a weird Vaporkin-> Aqueous Form opening (digging for lands?) whereas I do nothing until turn 4. It's staunch-hearted warrior + time to feed opening again for me. He, however, also doesn't to much 'til turn five, dropping agent of horizons, and I even somehow manage to eat his vaporkin - he has 2 mana open, but no voyage's end follows. Risky play on my part, but I'm stuck on 4 mana, got no islands and there weren't any other plays available. Afterwards, I go mad and even attack with my warrior, fully willing to trade with his agent, but he trades me the triton tactics instead. Cool, nice to get rid of that card so early. On his turn he once again does nothing and I topdeck my fifth land and drop Nessian Asp. And he's apparently flooded like hell (or has some blank cards in hand?), so while I continue to improve my board, he just makes agent unblockable. He brings me down to 8, but that's it.
Now, I fully admit that I was lucky as hell during these games - or, rather, my opps were somewhat unlucky here. Still, it's not like I haven't lost because of my manabase and, most importantly, it's not about getting lucky, it's about having a chance to get lucky. Sure, I'm a filthy lucksack to get that Battlewise Hoplite into Feral Invocation opening, but if I stayed in UG and had, like, Benthic Giant or Breaching Hippocamp instead of the hoplite, where would I be? Sometimes, when things go bad for you, the only choice is to make an educated bet - stuff a 3-color deck with as much goodness as you can and hope your lands will forgive you.
GW is really underrated here (almost as much as RW is overrated). It's an archetype with issues, true, but it's not like it has zero tools to overcome those issues. Besides, picking a lampad over Nemesis p1p2 is not something you do - what if we see zero white cards in the next pack and are forced into another color? Lampad is cute, but nemesis is bomby.
Seriously, this draft was the strangest thing I've seen all format. So much nothing in all your packs, then a late Rider and then a preposterously later Rider. If this had been a Swiss draft the entire comment thread would be full of people saying "LOL! Swiss!".
Truth to be told, people just don't play enough 8-4s here so they have rather mythical ideas about them. The skillgap between them and swiss is not that huge - it is present, but usually it's formulated in 1 or 2 skilled players around the table. And rest aren't that much different. So stuff like this happens on quite a regular basis there.
Pack 1 pick 1:
Gods Willing
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Last Breath
Scourgemark
Griptide
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Sedge Scorpion
Felhide Minotaur
Artisan's Sorrow
Heliod's Emissary
Nylea's Emissary
--> Fabled Hero
Forest
Obvious slam. Sucks to pass two decent white cards here, but hero is hero, he's worth the risk.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Pharika's Mender (FOIL)
Prescient Chimera
Fleetfeather Sandals
Thassa's Bounty
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Triton Shorethief
Cavern Lampad
--> Nemesis of Mortals
Burnished Hart
Spellheart Chimera
Island
Don't want to choose my second color that fast, but zero white cards in this pack - what can I do? Also, it's a horrible pack - Nemesis and a metric ton of fillery stuff.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Lagonna-Band Elder (FOIL)
--> Gods Willing
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Returned Phalanx
Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Artisan's Sorrow
Mogis's Marauder
Steam Augury
Forest
Another rather weak pack, but not without a treat for us - GW is all about huge beaters and, well, in this format, nothing promotes huge beaters as well as this card does. Also, GW suffers from the lack of tempo and, considering how expensive therosian removal is, Willing gives you opportunity for some rather big tempo swings.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Battlewise Valor
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
--> Time to Feed
Felhide Minotaur
Borderland Minotaur
Ordeal of Erebos
Dark Betrayal
Mountain
Now this one is a hard one. We have a rather strong signal in black - basically, fourth pick ordeal means that the color is open. However, we already have some pretty good stuff for GW and it doesn't look like it's being drained completely. Now, if this was 4322, I would've taken ordeal - but see, in Theros, main difference between 8-4 and 4322/swiss is that the packs are not nearly as deep in 8-4. In 4322, you can table ridiculous bombs, in 8-4, your deck is almost bound to get stuck with some filler, and maybe lots of it. So dabbling in secondary colors while passing good stuff in yours can be rather risky here - I decide to play safe for a moment. Besides, time to feed is excellent in GW - it has great synergy with your huge heroes and it also restores lost tempo. You're not winning with GW if you're not compensating for your inborn tempo deficit.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Last Breath (FOIL)
Stymied Hopes
Lost in a Labyrinth
Rage of Purphoros
Returned Centaur
Akroan Crusader
--> Savage Surge
Hunt the Hunter
Witches' Eye
Steam Augury
Plains
Another truly horrible pack, ugh. Well, we're getting a decent trick from it so it's fine (last breath is also decent, but you can get them much later), but tricks are not as valuable in GW. They're needed, obviously, but there's so much of them that you have to really try to construct a GW deck without enough heroic enablers.
Horrible packs galore! Marauder makes me to regret passing that ordeal for a second, but then, I can't really say that black is overflowing and marauder isn't that great in BW - remember, we want to play hero. And, apart from him, this pack has no significant cards for any color - sphinx, maybe, but in this format you don't want to pick him early, however ridiculous that sounds. So I choose last breath over griffin - as I've said, gw has huge beats and a tempo problem. Now, beats here can be so huge that 4 life is not really a problem. Same can't be said with tempo and, however horrible last breat may seem, it can remove their early drop and that's great. In fact, it deals with lot of dangerous cards of the format - Voyaging Satyr, Keepsake Gorgon, Sedge Scorpion, Scholar of Athreos, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, enough of them. Griffin is fine in GW, but we don't need to many of them and we'll be definitely tabling them.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Dragon Mantle
Bronze Sable
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
--> Blood-Toll Harpy
Setessan Battle Priest
Witches' Eye
Artisan of Forms
Plains
And suddenly, our colors run dry. But is it a matter of us refusing to heed that black signal or is it just a peculiarity? I mean, it's not like there's some great cards here - harpy is rather meh and artisan of forms is not half as good as he seems, at least in my experience. Anyhow, I'm picking the harpy hear - yeah, if we'll be tabling some crazy good black cards, we wouldn't mind against switching.
Pack 1 pick 8:
Loathsome Catoblepas
March of the Returned
Returned Centaur
--> Portent of Betrayal
Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Swan Song
Mountain
Thing is, we don't. It's another empty pack, so we're hating portent - GW wins on the back of really really big dudes and we don't want them being stolen from us.
Second last breath is... Bad, but serviceable. At least we've got, like, 6 playable card for GW in pack 1 so we can continue to fight for it - doesn't look like there's an opportunity for the switch.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Triton Shorethief
Spellheart Chimera
Island
Sandals can be workable in GW, but I'll prefer to cut the green card here, simply for the sake of signals.
Pack 1 pick 11:
March of the Returned
Lost in a Labyrinth
--> Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Forest
Pack 1 pick 13:
--> Stymied Hopes
Lost in a Labyrinth
Plains
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Scourgemark
Forest
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Plains
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Omenspeaker
March of the Returned
--> Observant Alseid
Scourgemark
Coastline Chimera
Rage of Purphoros
Satyr Hedonist
Voyage's End
Setessan Battle Priest
Rescue from the Underworld
Purphoros's Emissary
Cutthroat Maneuver
Abhorrent Overlord
Mountain
A-a-and we open another pack that is horrible for us and makes us regret not going black. THough, tbh, if we went black it's not like our pool was significantly better than it is atm. Well, at least alseid fits our plan.
Just great - blank-filled packs just don't bother to cease. Ugh... Totally expecting griffin to wheel and GW doesn't really need vanilla bears in this format, so let's take an early, early valor.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Commune with the Gods
--> Hopeful Eidolon
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Centaur Battlemaster
Erebos's Emissary
Swamp
Now that's much better! As I've said, GW is about huge guys and compensating tempo loss and, well, coupled with huge guys, this eidolon is nearly unraceable. Not absolutely, but nearly. He's one of the cornerstones of this archetype, so we pick him over battlemaster - master is sweet, but replaceable. He's not the only huge guys in our colors, y'know.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Commune with the Gods
Returned Phalanx
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
Pharika's Cure
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
Tormented Hero
Swan Song
Swamp
The most horrible thing is that the guys near me also never bothered to read that black signal and it's totally flowing back. And yeah, now we see some really great cards being offered, but it's too late at this point. Now we have to stand and fight for our GW. At least we're getting workable cards - I like elders, they're a good defensive card and, once again, more often than not they'll give us a tiny bit of tempo. A tiny bit here, a small part there and, suddenly, you're winning the race. That's how GW survives 'til its huge drops.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Messenger's Speed
--> Gods Willing
Annul
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
Time to Feed
Glare of Heresy
Flamespeaker Adept
Temple of Mystery
Plains
Easy choice here - as I've said, tempo matters almost everything to us so cmc 1 card over cmc 3 card. Besides, you have to protect those bombs.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Stymied Hopes
Nessian Courser
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
--> Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Scholar of Athreos
Hunt the Hunter
Witches' Eye
Plains
However, this time it's cmc 4 warrior over cmc 3 courser because, well, surviving 'til bombs is only smart if you have said bombs. And warrior is too synergistic with our key cards to pass him by - you need at least one or two of 'em in GW.
Don't mind against the second one, but, of course, elder is something that I would prefer to table. I mean, with how scarce GW was at pack 1, I expected a real payback here, but no. Another thing is that black somehow stopped flowing - was it some kind of pack anomaly?
Pack 2 pick 8:
Demolish
Gods Willing
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
--> Hopeful Eidolon
Artisan's Sorrow
Forest
Yeah, this is what I expected pack 2 to be (and it should've been so, instead of tons of filler and black returning). Anyhow, we pick another eidolon - with mediocre card pool we're bound to be slow so we have to overcome this torpidity somehow.
Pack 2 pick 9:
Loathsome Catoblepas
March of the Returned
Scourgemark
Coastline Chimera
--> Satyr Hedonist
Cutthroat Maneuver
Mountain
Nah, black is flowing, just in a very irregular manner. What the hell is wrong with these packs?
Pack 2 pick 10:
Guardians of Meletis
Titan's Strength
Boon of Erebos
--> Setessan Griffin
Satyr Piper
Swamp
At least something tabled.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Loathsome Catoblepas
--> Nylea's Presence
Commune with the Gods
Spark Jolt
Swamp
Wanna have bunch of communes in case I pick up another Asp, but this draft is so bad that I might be forced to splash so gotta prepare for that.
Pack 2 pick 12:
--> Commune with the Gods
Lost in a Labyrinth
Boulderfall
Swamp
That's actually awesome - glare is a terrific sideboard card.
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Witches' Eye
Plains
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Plains
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Baleful Eidolon
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
Akroan Crusader
Savage Surge
Stoneshock Giant
--> Evangel of Heliod
Flamecast Wheel
Artisan of Forms
Mountain
This draft makes me want to bang my head on the wall. I mean, seriously, what kind of crap this is? How such relentless stream of filler is even possible? Ugh. I pick Evangel because I really need some creatures, especially big ones and he kinda qualifies.
Pack 3 pick 2:
March of the Returned (FOIL)
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Blood-Toll Harpy
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Spearpoint Oread
Vulpine Goliath
--> Sedge Scorpion
Felhide Minotaur
Akroan Hoplite
Triton Tactics
Sentry of the Underworld
Swamp
I'm not even surprised. At least we're getting scorpion here and he's a great speedbump - never forget about tempo concerns in this deck.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Divine Verdict
Guardians of Meletis
Unknown Shores
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Vaporkin
Setessan Battle Priest
Glare of Heresy
Destructive Revelry
Labyrinth Champion
Mountain
Not much of a choice here - I'm happy to have verdict, at least some way to deal with opposing heroics and monsters. Also note that, contrary to the first pack, black is kinda absent. Red flows, but we had few reasons to go boros pack 1.
Pack 3 pick 4:
Dragon Mantle
Bronze Sable
Annul
--> Wingsteed Rider
Wild Celebrants
Two-Headed Cerberus
Time to Feed
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Anvilwrought Raptor
Coordinated Assault
Plains
Finally, at least some kind of reprieve from this relentless stream of mediocrity. Easy rider over time since we are starved for creatures.
Pack 3 pick 5:
Divine Verdict
Sip of Hemlock
Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
--> Time to Feed
Sedge Scorpion
Scholar of Athreos
Horizon Chimera
Coordinated Assault
Island
So it seems like some of the players who were white and green pack 1 switched into black during pack 2, that's my explanation (there was at least 3 black decks at the table and I haven't seen all of the replays). They switched, I persevered and, well, I'm not left without rewards. Now, this is an arguable pick - I really need the speed of scorpion, but I also want to squeeze out as much as humanely possible from my heroes (they are my main hope, basically) so I go greedy with time.
Pack 3 pick 6:
Stymied Hopes
Defend the Hearth
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
--> Setessan Griffin
Rescue from the Underworld
Gainsay
Arena Athlete
Island
Kinda early for him, but I'm fine with a second griffin. More is bad, but two are fine.
Pack 3 pick 7:
Demolish
Fleshmad Steed
Blood-Toll Harpy
--> Wingsteed Rider
Spearpoint Oread
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Anger of the Gods
Forest
Man, I wish red was signaled so strongly during pack 1. Well, whatever - I'm getting a huge reward in form of p7 rider here which actually makes my deck somewhat competitive so I won't complain.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Prescient Chimera
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Defend the Hearth
--> Vanquish the Foul
Warriors' Lesson
Island
I prefer to keep this one in sideboard - it's a decent card, just not against every opponent. It's also really heavy and GW has enough heaviness as it is.
Pack 3 pick 13:
--> Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Island
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Defend the Hearth
Island
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Forest
All in all, not the most pleasant draft in my life - horrible packs opened, questionable signals received, no money opened and a rather mediocre card pool. I guess I should've switched to either BW or WR, but going BW was kinda risky (although that risk would've definitely paid off) and openness of red got apparent only at pack 3, when it was too late.
Yeah, I decide to go totally greedy here and to ignore random fillery 2/1 second drops - in this deck, it's not like they're gonna be able to either attack or block so what's their point? Yeah, we can lose to ultra-fast decks and, well, we can also loose to good late-game decks because this deck is rather meh but at least we have a strong mid-game capabilities and, well, it's better to be good at least at something (while being horrible at everything else) than being mediocre in all directions.
Games:
Match 1 - Boros, and a rather unfocused one. He has some pretty good cards, but he's absolutely lacking direction. He's not aggro, he's not midgame and, obviously, he's not control. So game 1 we're holding his board with scorpion and lagonna-band elder while swinging with a big Rider - he has no breaching spells so he has to endure. He tried to stop it with a Hundred-Handed One, but a well-placed Divine Verdict showed him the futility of such hopes.
Game 2 we both mulligan. He has a WIngsteed Rider of his own under a Hopeful Eidolon of his own (i've made a stupid mistake here, blowing sided-in glare of herecy too early on an insignificant pegasus), and things seem good to him, only we have Nessian Asp and Staunch-Hearted Warrior, both under our eidolons. Tough to race that. I play carefully, and while he manages to eventually overcome warrior, the snake proves too much for him.
Match 2 - UB opp. Now that's a bad, bad matchup for us, especially since I lost the dice. Game 1 we're both seriously flooded and the game goes rather long, allowing me to make some good tempo trades and thus shift the game in my favor. I can't give you any concrete exapmles because I haven't seen his hand (obviously), but it felt like he really misplayed some of his cards and could've won it. Well, tough luck.
But no, tough luck for me in game 2 - I get a good start and almost take a grasp of the game, but after a certain point he draws nothing but answers and I'm getting flooded. And so my advance is stopped and, eventually, I'm defeated. The only thing is - he plays really slow. Like, he thinks a lot and he occasionally makes huge pauses in the game (real-life issues? multi-queue?), so by the end of this game he has little over five minutes worth of time. I make a huge mistake here, btw - I've conceded, whereas, by playing suicidally and without a hope for the win, I could've bled at least another minute from him. Dirty tactics, but hey, it's not like making your opponent wait and wait and wait can be called good-mannered.
Game 3 I get the worst luck possible - mull to 6, decent starting hand, but mana-flood afterwards. And once again he draws nothing but answers - I saw his replays from round 1 and, well, his deck was fillery enough, seems like everyone had a rough draft here, but against me, he drew nothing but relevant cards. Still, careful plays and tempo trades in my favour made him waste a lot of time, so by the time my land flood got into terminal stage, he had, like, 40 seconds to win, and I had lots of life. Mind you, I'm out of shape so I wasn't even paying attention - it was a total surprise to me. If I bled him properly in game 2, we wouldn't even come that far. But nevermind - he's not fast enough to win under such pressure.
Match 3 - split. I always split whenever is possible, especially after such daunting games - in the long run, the difference between splitting and playing is almost invisible, but it really saves some effort that I can spend elsewhere.
Best card in the pack, one of the best commons in format. It's too easy to make a bomb out of it to pass it away.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Prescient Chimera
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Lost in a Labyrinth
Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Purphoros's Emissary
Ordeal of Erebos
--> Triton Fortune Hunter
Island
No white here, though, but lots of other yummy stuff. I puck up a strong blue heroic card because UW is probably the best heroic deck of them all. So let's stick with the best.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Minotaur Skullcleaver
--> Favored Hoplite (FOIL)
Nessian Asp
Hopeful Eidolon
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Ray of Dissolution
Wavecrash Triton
Mogis's Marauder
Favored Hoplite
Coordinated Assault
Forest
Good news - I'm getting passed a hoplite. Bad news - I'm passing tons of white stuff. Well, I'd rather have good packs 1 and 3 than pack 2, so I guess nothing can be done here. I also notice red flowing freely.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Demolish
Leafcrown Dryad
--> Gods Willing
Last Breath
Scourgemark
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Triton Shorethief
Magma Jet
Rescue from the Underworld
Satyr Piper
Forest
And blue isn't here to be seen. Well, there are good green and red options (backed up by appropriate signals), but I'll stay in white for a while.
Pack 1 pick 5:
March of the Returned
Fleshmad Steed
Wild Celebrants
Two-Headed Cerberus
Time to Feed
Asphodel Wanderer
Akroan Crusader
Cavern Lampad
--> Ordeal of Heliod
Spellheart Chimera
Forest
At least I'm sure that white is totally mine (for the moment).
Pack 1 pick 6:
Nylea's Presence
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
--> Time to Feed
Blood-Toll Harpy
Borderland Minotaur
Shredding Winds
Forest
GW, perhaps? There's lots of red going around, but I'm afraid I've passed too much of it already, besides, I don't like boros that much.
KK, no longer can I ignore red - the only red card in the pack tables? Now that's a signal.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Lost in a Labyrinth
Returned Centaur
Opaline Unicorn
Island
I love this guy. He goes late (usually), yet he packs quite a punch. That's the main advantage of red in this format - you get awesome stuff from the bargain bin.
Pack 1 pick 11:
Spark Jolt
Coastline Chimera
Ray of Dissolution
--> Coordinated Assault
Forest
Not the latest assault I've seen, but still rather ridiculous. OK, we're boros.
Passing the onslaught is unfortunate, but spear is just way too strong, especially since we already have heliod's ordeal - lifegain is really synergistic with it.
Pack 2 pick 2:
--> Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Griptide
Commune with the Gods
Deathbellow Raider
Opaline Unicorn
Peak Eruption
Ordeal of Thassa
Nylea's Emissary
Mountain
I've expected my second pack to be empty, but not that empty. TBH, I want deathbellow for my curve, but on a table like this I expect it to table.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Silent Artisan
--> Titan's Strength
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Cavern Lampad
Sedge Scorpion
Rescue from the Underworld
Thassa's Emissary
Swamp
Well, maybe it's not all that bad. I don't like philosopher (even with the pegasus plan) and I expect to see cyclops later, so I'll take a decent pump spell. Strength over valor because strength is cheaper.
Eidolon over alseid because of that spear synergy. Besides, in WR, we can have some rather big monsters so sometimes simply giving them lifelink wins you the race.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Sip of Hemlock
Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Scholar of Athreos
--> Centaur Battlemaster
Sentry of the Underworld
Dark Betrayal
Island
And here's the first empty pack - let's hate the battlemaster, we can't do much about him.
Ehh, what is the green doing here? It was more or less flowing pack one, why no one bothered to notice it? And I'm picking vanquish, but I see it as a rather sideboard-ish card. It's really, really slow against most decks.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Fleshmad Steed
Unknown Shores
Crackling Triton
Commune with the Gods
Wavecrash Triton
--> Chronicler of Heroes
Forest
Don't want to play warden, so I'll hate an efficient early blocker. And I'm hating this over wavecrash to cut some white out of the process.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Commune with the Gods
--> Peak Eruption
Mountain
Wha-a-at? No priest of iroas? No deathbellow raider? On the table where there was p12 coordinated assault? Ri-i-ight. At least I'll hurt them if I'll meet them.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Silent Artisan
Yoked Ox
--> Rescue from the Underworld
Swamp
Nah, I'm not passing one of the most ridiculous rares of the format. Not for some fillery crap.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Messenger's Speed
Mnemonic Wall
Cavalry Pegasus
Coastline Chimera
Rage of Purphoros
Satyr Hedonist
Boulderfall
Savage Surge
--> Magma Jet
Anvilwrought Raptor
Ordeal of Nylea
Reverent Hunter
Swamp
Jet is fine, but, to be honest, once again it doesn't seem like either white or red are open. Bad packs?
Pack 3 pick 4:
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Lagonna-Band Elder
Triton Shorethief
Traveler's Amulet
Dissolve
--> Flamespeaker Adept
Swan Song
Mountain
I have a bunch of scry spells going on so she'll be good in my deck.
I dunno, is 3 gods willing too much? Or is it not? From my games I can say that it was quite enough. Besides, no other options here.
Pack 3 pick 6:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
--> Spark Jolt
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Chronicler of Heroes
Artisan's Sorrow
Swamp
Umm, red and white are open, right? It's kinda playable with the adept, but still...
Pack 3 pick 7:
Mnemonic Wall
--> Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Priest of Iroas
Thassa's Bounty
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Disciple of Phenax
Swamp
At least something.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Mnemonic Wall
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Wavecrash Triton
Flamecast Wheel
Island
Our colors are not 100% dry, so I dunno. horrible packs? Weird printruns? Red is too shallow a color?
Well, contrary to the first pack, someone took strength and the athlete here, meaning that red indeed became occupied. Well, I'm in dire need for some muscle atm so I'm happy to pick celebrants.
And I'm happy to pick minotaur over a bear - see, looking on our curve, it's obvious we just can't do any sort of weenie rush. So let's go midgame. We're in the wrong colors for it, but that's the only option here.
Not quite what I hoped for, indeed. Probably due to red and white being two weakest colors in this format, so if someone starts to cut your stuff or if some scrappy packs are opened, they won't support all of you.
Games:
Match 1 - janky RB with a rather bad pilot. I had a rather land-flooded hand in game 1, but he got terribly greedy and, instead of killing my Wingsteed Rider asap with his Magma Jet, he allowed me to untap and waited before I cast a Chosen by Heliod on it. Like, he wanted to 2-for-1 me - good luck versus a triple Gods Willing. After that point, he was out of the race. Game 2 he got slightly screwed so it was even easier.
Match 2 - hellish UGr with double Prognostic Sphinx, Arbor Colossus and at least two Voyaging Satyr. Never seen what he splashed red for, though. Anyhow, game 1 it's prognostic sphinx turn four for him - welcome to he permanent topdeck mode. We struggled for a while, but that was an uphill battle for me.
Things go my way game 2 - once again, he has a fast sphinx, but I manage to build my Wingsteed Rider into a killing machine - Ordeal of Heliod counters, Hopeful Eidolon, Heliod's Emissary. And he's removal lite so he can't do much about it. By the time he scryed his arbor colossus, he was forced to chupmblock with it or die immediately - rider was, like, 11/11 or so.
Game 3 - we have slow hands, he has another t5 sphinx(i'm already used to them), I have an Ill-tempered Cyclops with hopeful eidolon & ordeal counters, all under protection of spear of heliod. Things go well for me, but sphinx brings him relentless godlfishes, so spear gets dismantled and, while I put him down at 1 life, I can't go any further. I have some creatures, though, so, for a while, he also couldn't do a thing - it was too risky to do so. Game calms down for a while, but, as he thrown all his land away with his scrying, he has a huge advantage over me - soon, I see another prognostic and an arbor giant across the board. Things seem almost hopeless, but playing those sphinxes in the slow games has a drawback - he's almost out of time. So he's forced to attack with everything, leaving but 2 blockers at the base. I'm not dead, but I'm in the desperation mode - I feel like I can win here, I have some outs (both his blockers are green, so I had 3 outs in the 16 cards of my deck - hasty skullcleaver minotaur, third gods willing and a heliod's emissary), so on my upkeep I cast Titan's Strength at my eidolon (he's under 40 seconds so, even if I'm not topdecking, maybe I'll waste enough of his time - cheap tactics, but it's a cheap life we're living) I'm wasting his time. Scry - mountain. Down you go. Topdeck - hello there, mr. Emissary. What can I say - you need to know when to take a freefall and hope God will catch you.
Match 3 - slow and bomby bg. With Reaper of the Wilds even. Hail... Oh, wait, this is the wrong draft. Well, it went rather simple here - first game I'm screved so he wins, second and third are rather easy for me. They were so easy that I barely remember them - dude lacked removal so I just assembled my monstrosities and went for the win. First time it was another huge rider, iirc, second time it was an ordealed Flamespeaker Adept Nanto Suicho Ken-ing though his 8/9 viper (magma jet is a tech).
Pack 1 pick 1:
Battlewise Valor
Nessian Asp
Viper's Kiss
Annul
Titan's Strength
Yoked Ox
Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Deathbellow Raider
Savage Surge
Battlewise Hoplite
Warriors' Lesson
Pharika's Mender
--> Reaper of the Wilds
Mountain
I absolutely hate this pack. I'm not really keen on picking these multicolor rare bombs p1p1 as you can never guarantee you'll be passed at least one of their colors, but thing is, the only non-green decent card here is battlewise hoplite and it suffers from pretty much same problems. So I pick up the Reaper as the strongest card here, but, unless I'm given a pretty convincing reason to do so, I'm not fighting for green.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Divine Verdict
Sip of Hemlock
Bronze Sable
--> Wingsteed Rider
Island (FOIL)
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Chronicler of Heroes
Arena Athlete
Warriors' Lesson
Plains
Well, no green here, and p1p2 sip of hemlock also doesn't sound reasonable. KK, let's take the strongest card of the pack again and see where it'll lead us.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Sip of Hemlock
Stymied Hopes
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Breaching Hippocamp
Silent Artisan
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Boon of Erebos
Setessan Griffin
--> Coordinated Assault
Spellheart Chimera
Titan of Eternal Fire
Island
This time, it's nothing but red. Can't say that either assault or titan are signals 'cause they tend to go pretty late, but maybe they'll land us in the free color?
Pack 1 pick 4:
--> Nessian Asp
Viper's Kiss
Dragon Mantle
Fate Foretold
Portent of Betrayal
Observant Alseid
Defend the Hearth
Felhide Minotaur
Shredding Winds
Vanquish the Foul
Karametra's Acolyte
Forest
But no, suddenly, green is the free color. Well, not that I mind, but what about black, black interests us too?
Pack 1 pick 5:
Lash of the Whip
Chosen by Heliod
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Setessan Battle Priest
Rescue from the Underworld
--> Shipwreck Singer
Colossus of Akros
Plains
And black is also ripe for the taking. I make a stupid mistake here, though - I mean, staying open is nice and dandy, but we've got no reasons to go blue here. Should've picked either lash or rescue - they're roughly of the same power level.
Pack 1 pick 6:
Bronze Sable
Ephara's Warden
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Fate Foretold
Portent of Betrayal
Sedge Scorpion
--> Ordeal of Erebos
Horizon Chimera
Plains
So we're lucky with the reaper. KK, let's follow with some ordeal madness - scorpion and feral are less of a signal than the ordeal.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Blood-Toll Harpy
Benthic Giant
Scholar of Athreos
--> Mogis's Marauder
Forest
Marauder is the most explosive one of these three, so I take him.
KK, first pack was good, but now let's prepare for a sucky second one - we've passed way too much green and black cards. Tough choice between nemesis and hydra, but I guess the title of the thread made this pretty obvious. I like hydra better - you can cast it at 3-4 mana reliably (if things go badly for you), haste gives it crazy tempo and it's absolutely devastating versus blue, the best color of format. Especially if they're deeply in blue - then it's a walking gg, wp. Hail, HYDRA!
Pack 2 pick 2:
Nimbus Naiad
Nylea's Disciple
Lash of the Whip
--> Baleful Eidolon
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Akroan Hoplite
Rescue from the Underworld
Witches' Eye
Forest
The biggest problem of BG is it's lack of cheap removal and tempo, so it really needs either mana accel or some speed bumps to survive until that sweet, sweet late game.
Hmm, this pack is much better than I thought it would be - everyone got too scared about bg? Good. And yeah, sedge vs ordeal because I won't have that many aggressive early drops and I still need defenses.
Pack 2 pick 5:
March of the Returned
Fleshmad Steed
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
Blood-Toll Harpy
Borderland Minotaur
Destructive Revelry
Witches' Eye
Insatiable Harpy
--> Temple of Deceit
Mountain
Ticket, please. Otherwise - insatiable harpy.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
--> Blood-Toll Harpy
Spearpoint Oread
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Opaline Unicorn
Destructive Revelry
Gift of Immortality
Island
Don't think I need another goliath and I have to block those flyers somehow.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Guardians of Meletis
Loathsome Catoblepas
Peak Eruption (FOIL)
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Borderland Minotaur
Scholar of Athreos
--> Tormented Hero
Swamp
More and more early game. And he isn't that useless late game for us - he's a great target for those baleful eidolons.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Traveling Philosopher
Silent Artisan
--> Disciple of Phenax
Rescue from the Underworld
Witches' Eye
Forest
I really like discard in this format - proliferation of tricks means that people almost always have something remaining in their hands. I've yet to cast him as a vanilla 1/3. Also, same tricks-dependency means that knowing your opponents hand can be really, really, really awesome as you know exactly what to expect. Sucks to let another rescue go, but what can I do?
Good. I'm extremely low on tricks and removal atm and you have to get that damage through somehow. Besides, it helps us block fliers.
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Swamp
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Nessian Courser
Returned Centaur
Griptide
Commune with the Gods
Hopeful Eidolon
Mogis's Marauder (FOIL)
Setessan Griffin
Artisan's Sorrow
Mogis's Marauder
Arena Athlete
--> Nylea, God of the Hunt
Forest
Judging by our green costs, here chances of actually running somewhere are minimal, but that's ok - we have tons of deathtouch and big bodies, and those two do wonders when sprinkled by trample. Pump is also not to be underestimated and, finally, she's worth enough money to merit a first pick.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Messenger's Speed
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Commune with the Gods
Ray of Dissolution
Wavecrash Triton
--> Hunt the Hunter
Plains
Should've took fade, probably - I don't have that much green critters to cast it reliably.
Pack 3 pick 9:
Cavalry Pegasus
Stymied Hopes
Returned Centaur
Commune with the Gods
Setessan Griffin
--> Artisan's Sorrow
Forest
This pack was choke-full of both black and green so I've expected for an awesome tabling, but... At least this is workable.
Well, that's one of the biggest dangers of 4322 - colors may shift suddenly and absolutely unpredictably. At least I've grabbed enough crazy picks before that happened.
Match 1 - boros opp. First game he gets mull into land screw, doesn't stand a chance against the nefarious might of the HYDRA. Hail, HYDRA! Second we both have slow hands, so it results in a stand off - I have a board full of my naturally huge guys + Nylea (heck, she was even animated, just so you understand what a stall that was), he had a lesser board but also with huge creatures as he was pumping and pumping and pumping his Phalanx Leader, and I, obviously, couldn't really attack into that crap as he had a hand full of tricks, and all went fine and dandy until I got my Mogis's Marauder and suddenly attacked for 33 unblockable damage or so. He played all of his tricks before my attacks, hoping that I misclick and skip the attack, and when that didn't help, he ragequit. And made my day by doing so - I dunno, it's so awesome when your opp ragequits.
Now, yeah, sure, he was screwed in the first one, but second one? His fault for failing to break my early defenses (especially when I was missing my fifth mana for two turns, and that's with a hand choke full of 5 mana spells) and doing random stuff like wasting Portent of Betrayal on his leader to get 4 +1/+1 counters spread around. It wasn't even that lucky of topdeck - I have lampad, mogis and sandals, with 16 cards in my decks remaining, it's not surprising I've topdecked at least one of those.
Match 2 - nice UW opp. Game 1 he gets screwed (yeah, some easy wins for me here), game 2 I rush him with various deathtouchers (no matter how cool Hundred-Handed One is in blocking, he sucks against deathtouchers) and Hydra. Hail, HYDRA!
Match 3 - UG opp. More like UUg, even. Game 1 - we both mull to six, resulting in a rather slow game. I bait out his Sedge Scorpion in the process, then, as I hit my 7th mana, 6/6 hydra jumps on the table. He's at 12 life and he's really, really blue. Hail, HYDRA!
Game 2 - time for me to get screwed. For quite a while, I'm sitting on 3 forests, I'm even forced to play Hydra as a 2/2, and play "early beats" with it and my own Sedge Scorpion. Still, his hand is kinda slow, so by the time I get my mana, I'm still on the offensive. I drop a couple of enchantments on my hydra and rush with it for the win. Hail, HYDRA!
1.4 it was 2.4 tix at that moment. you collect 6 of those, you get a free draft, basically. good enough in my book.
1.5 there's zero point to pick asphodel wandered 1.5 - it's a horrible card (and let's draft some ordeal first to live that dream) that you can easy see pick 11+.
2.2 there were strong signals that red was dry pack 1, going strike here would be suicidal.
2.3 I'm already in two colors and revenge isn't that good for a defensive WB deck. so I bounce their guys, then what? It's not like I'll be able to do tons of damage in a short period of time.
2.4 in 4322, 4th pick dauntless is almost always a huge signal.
3.2 yeah, we need lampad because the archetype is totally about tapping your creatures.
And the title of the thread is a rather obvious pun, it shouldn't be hard to understand, I think.
No offense meant, but if you want to look at this draft from the point of some cosmic justice, then the results are absolutely deserved. it's really not a 3-0 deck. And it doesn't look much like 2-1. Let's look:
1.1 It's a bad pick. Sure, lion is a bomb, but theros is not a multicolor format and, by taking it, you're absolutely banking your first pick on the chance that you'll get passed both green and white. That's a very cheeky strat, especially since you pass both voyaging satyr and a divine verdict. Verdict is fine, but satyr is a really strong green card passed. The valid pick here is either voyage or merchant - they're equally powerful so choose your favorite flavor. But even if you want to play an all-in with lion...
1.2 You don't do this. You've made a commitment to lion, you've gotta honor it. Now, there are two good ways to do so - Akroan Horse (which is much better than it looks; and it's really good with two white main strategies - phalanx leader and wingsteed rider) or Ordeal of Thassa (so you go UG splash white). Oread is a mediocre card in the worst color and it doesn't deserve to be picked that high.
1.5 Triton is a huge blue signal, btw. At this point, you should've really considered switching into said UGw.
1.6 Definitely scorpion. First, you already have an ordeal - you want first drops for those sweet, sweet ordeal wipeouts. Second, in this format, early drops are rare (and mostly weak) while late drops are rather plentiful, so when you're choosing between expensive and a cheap card, almost always go for a cheap one. Besides, you're not surviving until goliath unless you kill their early aggression with scorpions.
1.7 you're in gw - you have enough filler creatures so you will never have to play these. pick glare of heresy, you'll want to side it in and you don't want to see it used by your opponent. Other option here is dragon mantle as you've already taken the oread.
2.3 divine verdict. pump spells are overabundant in this format, besides, you have no heroes and, at this stage, you're not that likely to gain lots of those. Not the broken ones, at the very least. And removal is scarce, so verdict is the pick here.
2.7 battlewise valor, last breath or even triton tactics for the splash (blue is flowing freely so you have good chances of splashing for something powerful). 3rd griffin is awful - you never want to play with more than two.
2.11 I'd hated the sip - seems like you have enough early drops.
3.3 Ordeal. I love time to feed, but, looking at your pool, your creatures don't look big enough to guarantee reliable fighting. Also, you have chronicler of heros and you have to activate it somehow.
And, well, after that you see that your blind dedication to lion has led you into overdrafted colors and there are no good cards for you there. Should've stayed flexible and went blue, probably.
And, well, it's your right, but what's the point of quitting now, without learning from your mistakes? It just guarantees that during the next set you'll have same problems.
Truth to be told, I don't like Kraken that much. Or, well, I like him enough because 6/6 brick for six is rather acceptable in this format, but I don't really expect him to be something more than that - this isn't sealed, decks are much faster here and often you'll be dead long before you hit that eighth land. He's still a bomb, but he's not the "end of all" guy that he seems to be (same goes for Hythonia - from my experience, she's much more situational than she seems to be). Still, rest of the pack is rather weak - I don't feel like forcing minotaurs with first pick warcaller (you force minotaurs after you get, like, 9th pick warcaller) and hopeful eidolon is good, but not good enough to go white for him. So Kraken it is.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Gods Willing
--> Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Prescient Chimera
Coastline Chimera
Pharika's Cure
Defend the Hearth
Leonin Snarecaster
Priest of Iroas
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Borderland Minotaur
Ordeal of Erebos
Horizon Chimera
Ordeal of Nylea
Plains
Now that's a pack with a tough choice. Ordeal offers us the usual potential ordeal madness and it's really synergistic with kraken. But merchant can be pretty radical too and he also helps our beastie, just in a different way - he (and the whole UB deck) can stall the game long enough for us to gather those 8 lands. I don't think there's a right pick here (one of the biggest fallacies of some players is thinking that there can only right pick in every pack - that's absolutely untrue; lot of stuff can and will depend on your personal preferrences and playstyle), so I go with a controllish pick because that's the style I prefer.
And what follows is another horrible pack. I don't mind against maneuver or boon or even fates, but definitely not as a 3rd pick. The only cards that's worth a 3rd pick here is Magma Jet (and even that, barely) so that's what we'll take - red is the most underdrafted color in theros so I like to keep it as my back-up plan. If one of your colors is suddenly closed, most of the times, you will be able to catch up with red.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Chosen by Heliod
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Read the Bones
Last Breath
Unknown Shores
Crackling Triton
Disciple of Phenax
Dissolve
Peak Eruption
--> Temple of Triumph
Island
To quote the great Al Pacino character, when in doubt... KK, let's not quote that. But what I mean is - since I've got absolutely no Idea which colors I'm drafting and signals are anything but clear at this point, I'm picking money. And, if I end up with a lousy faildeck in the wrong colors, at least I'll be able to splash something good.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Divine Verdict
Time to Feed
Asphodel Wanderer
Breaching Hippocamp
Silent Artisan
Titan's Strength
Ray of Dissolution
Battlewise Hoplite
Prowler's Helm
Swamp
5 picks - 4 different colors, way to go! The choice here is between time to feed, hoplite and verdict. Hoplite seems risky with our muddled colros, time to feed is dangerous because we've passed some good green, so let's take the verdict. Maybe we'll construct a removal-heavy UW or BW deck and I really love removal-heavy decks in this format.
Pack 1 pick 6:
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Unknown Shores
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Returned Phalanx
Scholar of Athreos
--> Disciple of Phenax
Sentry of the Underworld
Forest
Sentry is tempting, but he's not a signal, there's no more signals for white and I really want to play that Gray Merchant. Let's try to finalize ourselves in black and choose the second color later.
Keeping the UB option open - fate is kinda fillery, but it's pretty much required if you want to run a wavecrasher triton or two.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Coastline Chimera
--> Pharika's Cure
Defend the Hearth
Priest of Iroas
Ordeal of Nylea
Plains
Finally, some positive signal! Slamming the cure, but what's amazing here is this late, late ordeal - from the previous packs, could you really say that green is this open? Well, there was a time to feed - nylea's disciple - nylea's disciple chain and maybe I'm undervaluing disciples a little... but there were no voyaging satyrs, for example, or early game drops, and without those disciples are rather crappy. So I'm not sure if going green is legit option here.
UB? Hippo can do wonders against bad players, but then, pretty much everything can.
Pack 1 pick 12:
--> Viper's Kiss
Unknown Shores
Peak Eruption
Island
Pack 1 pick 13:
Silent Artisan
--> Ray of Dissolution
Swamp
I love to hate disenchants whenever I'm able - you really don't want your baleful eidolon to catch one of this, especially when in bestowed form and after blocks.
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Commune with the Gods
Forest
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Nylea's Disciple
Lash of the Whip
Messenger's Speed
Gods Willing
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Wingsteed Rider
Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Ordeal of Erebos
Horizon Chimera
Thassa's Emissary
--> Purphoros, God of the Forge
Plains
And so, after a sucky first pack, I open money in the second one. Money and tons of the card my deck needs. Ouch. Still, it's not a 8-4 so passing tix doesn't sound like a winning proposition to me. Not to mention that, with black being the only fixated color of ours, we can still go BR. Now, if this was 8-4, then second merchant would've been a perfect choice (it's a snowball type of card so getting as much as possible is necessary), but we're rocking the 4322 way.
Pack 2 pick 2:
Lightning Strike
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Divine Verdict
Spearpoint Oread
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Voyaging Satyr
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Glare of Heresy
Ordeal of Nylea
Prowler's Helm
Swamp
And so the opportunity to go red arises... But I rewatch my picks from pack 1 and understand that no amount of red was going around late, meaning it's too risky to do so. No good blue or black here, so let's go with our third option - white. Seems like we can do well with BW at this point.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Chosen by Heliod
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
--> Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Savage Surge
Opaline Unicorn
Sea God's Revenge
Tormented Hero
Evangel of Heliod
Island
Revenge is tempting, but point is, are we blue? We don't know so we take weaker, but 100% useful Pharika's Cure. One has to now when to be greedy and when to let it go.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
Cavern Lampad
Hunt the Hunter
--> Dauntless Onslaught
Swamp
KK, black-white we are. Dunno about next pack, but during this we're certainly in for a treat.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Returned Centaur
Commune with the Gods
Spark Jolt
Setessan Griffin
Centaur Battlemaster
--> Keepsake Gorgon
Witches' Eye
Forest
Well, I've expected white treats, but I won't mind against black ones either. p5 Gorgon is almost too good to be true.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Leafcrown Dryad
--> Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Destructive Revelry
Evangel of Heliod
Swamp
Charity time is over, it seems. Doesn't look like I'm having enough white to use evangel efficiently, so let's take the trusty chosen - at its worse, it cycles. It's also rather good with baleful eidolons.
At least something. It's not that bad in defensive BW strat - trades with lots of attacking creatures and we're all about stalling the game so 3 life are rather important.
Pack 2 pick 8:
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Lost in a Labyrinth
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
--> Scholar of Athreos
Felhide Minotaur
Island
Good, pointless to go BW without at least a pair of them. They're the reason you stall the game, after all. They're still not a high pick, but they are gamebreaking in the properly built archetype.
Pack 2 pick 9:
--> Lash of the Whip
Messenger's Speed
Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Plains
Considering how tightly-packed this booster was, not much surprise in seeing the Lash circle. I don't like it that much, but I'll still take it - I want as much removal as possible.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Ray of Dissolution
--> Glare of Heresy
Swamp
excellent sideboard card, never hurts to have these.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Chosen by Heliod
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
Evangel of Heliod
Island
once again, evangel is for white-centric deck so we'll just take another elder.
Pack 2 pick 12:
Defend the Hearth
--> Agent of Horizons
Hunt the Hunter
Swamp
gotta hate what I can't block.
Pack 2 pick 13:
Commune with the Gods
--> Witches' Eye
Forest
Pack 2 pick 14:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Swamp
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Swamp
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Gods Willing
--> Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Prescient Chimera
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Griptide
Messenger's Speed (FOIL)
Ray of Dissolution
Vaporkin
Karametra's Acolyte
Phalanx Leader
Insatiable Harpy
Steam Augury
Plains
Harpy is cool & stuff, but she has to survive and get through the blockers to deal that damage and, at the moment, our deck has almost nothing to help her do so. I'll rather pick the reliable merchant. And, well, phalanx is awesome, but we also have almost nothing to support him.
Not much choice here - let's play kill 'em all style of deck. Verdict over sip because 4 mana removal is better than a 6 mana one. And I expect either sip or lampad to circle.
Rats. A perfectly empty pack for our already scrappy card pool. That's a serious hit below the waist. Well, I pick unicorn as there are zero other options her and it, at least, allows us to splash something (if we want to run him, that is).
Pack 3 pick 4:
Viper's Kiss
Dragon Mantle
Omenspeaker
--> Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Blood-Toll Harpy
Benthic Giant
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Tormented Hero
Horizon Scholar
Triton Fortune Hunter
Forest
Now that's much better! I click on it with a trembling hand, but what's amazing here is this deluge of quality blue cards - really, pack 1 the only decent thing we saw was pick 7 vaporkin (which isn't a big deal anyways). And now it's blue galore - someone changed their plans during the second pack? Eh, these tables are utterly chaotic.
And another empty pack. Well, there's, like, tons of white here, only we want none of that. Let's take the amulet - at this point, we're bound to splash for something.
Ouch. I'm splashing red, obviously, as I have the temple already, and I really wanna this magma jet... But the second Scholar is crucial. There's no other ways of putting it - you either have them or you lose with this kind of deck.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Ephara's Warden
--> Sip of Hemlock
Stymied Hopes
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Commune with the Gods
Lagonna-Band Elder
Ray of Dissolution
Island
Don't have enough enchantments to support 3x elders properly (and I really don't need that much 3/2 bodies for 3, this deck is not about tapping creatures to attack), so more removal for me. Stall the game until their small guys are useless, kill all of their bombs, drain them dry for the victory - that's our plan.
Pack 3 pick 9:
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Messenger's Speed (FOIL)
Ray of Dissolution
Vaporkin
--> Steam Augury
Plains
I don't have much faith in it so I make this stupid raredraft - should've taken the ray.
We're not about attacking, but we still need fillers and lampad isn't that bad in our deck - we drain them low and then finish with one or two intimidating swipes.
Don't think I need him - I'm already well-protected from early assaults, and oxen aren't that great without ordeals.
Pack 3 pick 12:
Benthic Giant
--> Ray of Dissolution
Horizon Scholar
Forest
Thankfully, fellow drafters forgave my stupidity and gave me a second ray. Still, look at how bloody gaping open the blue is - was there a single indication of this pack 1?
Of course, the big question here is Purphoros. Like, ours deck is not aggressive and he's never becoming a creature, obviously, so is there point? Well, I've looked at my creatures and saw that our chances of tapping them are not very likely, meaning that we'll have to drain them dry with merchants and scholars. And, well, Purphoros acting as a plain Lava Axe goes rather well with that plan, besides, his pumping ability may scare off some attacks, allowing us for much better trades than usually possible. And, since I literally had no non-filler cards, what choice did I have? Maindeck ray of Dissolution and that's it. So I went on with "big risk - big reward" option. When your deck is below average, sometimes you have to bet on unstable, but explosive combinations.
The games:
That was the toughest draft of my life. Literally. I was so tired after it that I couldn't do anything for the rest of the day. If I knew it would be so horrible, I would've dropped early, I think, but I got enthralled in the process so that never came to my mind as an option.
Match 1 - BR minotaurs. Lots of Kragma Warcallers (3, at the very least), but otherwise slow and kinda fillery. My first game is won by a very clever decision to delay casting my Disciple of Phenax for a while - I can land him on a 4th turn, but instead, I divine verdict his Two-Headed Cerberus, drop Keepsake Gorgon on my fifth turn and only then comes the disciple, looking at his entire hand and hitting warcaller. He thoughtseizes my gray merchant in return, but after that it all turns into a great stalemate and, as we already have scholar on board, stalemate is absolutely in our favor.
Game 2 - he has ridiculous start, we have a horrible hand so, with his 2 warcallers on turn 6, he pretty much devastates us.
Game 3 - tbh, either he had horrible card poll or he sideboarded improperly, but he started it with an asphodel wanderer, a cards that's extremely useful against a deck that almost never attacks. We trade some cheap creatures and removals, but then I get stuck on 5 mana - and my hand is keepsake gorgon, gray merchant of asphodel, lash of the whip and sip of hemlock. My board is Lagonna-Band Elder under Chosen of Heliod + a clutch Cavern Lampad (had to spend that mana somewhere), his is Asphodel Wanderer, Akroan Crusader and a Spearpoint Oread under Ordeal of Purphoros. As you can see, I need to lash that oread fast, but that darn fifth land... Then he makes a huge mistake by thoughtseizing our gray merchant - we're at 20, btw, so he's much less important than whip. And he does nothing more for the turn. Of course, instead of land we topdeck another merchant - pass turn. He untaps and drops a Warcaller, but, for some reasons, refrains from attacking. He knows our hand - does he think we're lucky enough to topdeck a Divine Verdict? Then, at last, we topdeck the fifth land, but now we can't spend the lash on the oread - he drops Fanatic of Mogis and in responce we kill the warcaller. Thankfully, we keep topdecking lands, so we drop the gorgon, sip of hemlock the oread and he just keeps dropping Felhide Minotaurs, which, without warcaller, are nothing. I have 7 lands, but I'm rather cautious about gorgon trigger - I need to save it for something decent, i.e. warcaller. I also topdeck another merchant, so suddenly I'm at 29 and he's at 4. No options of getting those final points through, yet. Then I topdecked purphoros, but no creatures, and then he had a merchant of his own, getting back to 10. And then it went like "drop a warcaller - I kill it, drop a dangerous bomb - I kill it" until turn 25 of the game, where I finally topdecked my scholar. With 16 lands (I was flooded horribly - 16 lands with 8 cards in the deck remaining - he had 13 lands and 1 card in hand) , that was more than enough to drain my opp down.
I thought that was a grueling game, boy, I was wrong...
Game 1 - I got beat into sumbission by the whip. You know how it goes - you trade early removal and blockers, then whip goes online and all the life you drained with merchants is vanished and you're getting dealt damage outta nowhere and opp has, like, infinite hps. Good luck racing that.
Game 2 - I make a huge mistake and, disappointed with the result of the first, forget to side in my Ray of Dissolution. Like, I forget they exist. Oh, crap. Early game favors me - my Scholar of Athreos holds off his Tormented Hero and Bronze Sable (i guess RB was real shallow around the table so he was forced to run some filler), he tries to bluff me into not blocking and I get his sable for free. Then we exchange removal and creatures until, his turn 10, he slams down the whip. With a graveyard full of 5/4 and 4/3 bodies. Is that GG? Well, I have a Scholar of Athreos + Cavern Lampad(I hoped to race, lol) and a Scholar of Athreos+ Chosen by Heliod gestalts and 7 lands, so let's see how that whip will fare against a 3/6 and 1/6 blockers that'll drain our lives back. Unfortunately, 1/6 disciple was burned away rather quickly (Lightning Strike finished it off), but at least it taught me that I must be very careful with the remaining one. I also topdecked a clutch Pharika's Cure versus his Labyrinth's Champion+Dragon Mantle combo. So the next time he raised a critter from the dead, I didn't blocked - I just burned the champion and, eot, drained him with my remaining mana. We're both flooded - turn 13 I have 9 lands, he has 10. I'm at 18. And see, the wonder of scholar (in comparison to whip) that, while whip drains us faster, it's bound to run out of the targets sooner or later whereas our scholar can suck all night long. And that's how it went - we topdecked more and more lands, and my refusal to block with disciple made him desperate and so he used his Titan's Strength as a simple "deal 3, gain 3" spell. I was at 7, but he had an empty grave (and 26 life, lol) - big mistake. The standoff continues. He draws his hammer but, before he's able to overcome us with his army of golems, we finish him with a Purphoros+Gray Merchant sudden death combo (sprinkled with tons of scholar activations, obviously). Yet that wasn't a true test of our mettle.
Game 3 was. I hope you'll excuse me, but I just don't have the strength of will to recall the sheer horror of it. Suffice to say it ended with me having 4 cards in my deck remaining - opponent had empty board, 3 cards in his deck, 2 cards, and all those cards were lands. We had to deal with every single card in his deck to win, and, since we've drawn 16 of our lands rather early, all this was done while he had an absolute upper hand. Like, I was hanging by the skin of my teeth for the entire duration of the game, barely finding the answers for his threats, grimly watching how his bronze sable gnaws me to death while I can do nothing about it, drawing lands after lands after lands... I guess the only thing that went right for me here was drawing my two ray of dissolutions (I've sided them in - not stepping on the same rakes twice) right on time when he dropped his whip and hammer. Even so, that was a mistake on his part - seeing the direction the game at that point, he should've waited until he could've activated them immediately. But, well, not many players are actually knowledgeable about ultra-stall, extremely-late game plans - I've got my experience while playing Urza, Masques and Mirage drafts, there it's a relatively common occurrence. Anyhow, he should've got me with his whip if knew what's he's doing - even with his mistakes, I was at 1 life at one point of the game, so that's what he was missing. He spared me another time - I had 12 lands on the table, 2 lands in hand and his attack should've been devastating. Yet he was afraid - he just couldn't have believed I have nothing but lands. After that, I was forced to feed his Wild Celebrants my Gray Merchant just to survive, but, finally, I got some form of reprieve via Keepsake Gorgon. It killed the 5/4, then he traded his bronze sable (the same from before - it lived for, like, 15 turns) and a dragon's mantle for me. I'm at 3, he's at 9. His last hopes were tormented hero and spearpoint oread (separately), but pharika's cure and gray merchant dealt with them. GG time.
Mach 3 - GW. Lots of heroic, lots of devotion, Boon Satyr, Strong deck, but also one of my best matchups. Game 1 is easy for us - 2 x baleful eidolon, other removal and no amount of his creatures and bestows are able to get through our defenses. He tried, but every single trick of his were punished by us, and in an extremely unfavorable manner for him. We got flooded once again, but I had a keepsake gorgon and his 2/2 & 3/2 filler remnants just couldn't do anything about her, so she slowly slapped my opp to his death (while being 2/5 - I saved her monstrous for something huge).
Game 2 he showed us an early fleecemane lion and, well, that's a card we can't deal with. I tried to build a sufficiently big scholar to block it indefinitely, but his bestows were larger and more numerous so I failed, obviously.
Game 3 was like game 1, only I had Rays of Dissolution and Glare of Heresy sided in. And I wasn't flooded or screwed, so I just eradicated everything that he had for the win. Finally, an easy game.
1.6 nylea's disciple. 1 agent of horizons & an omenspeaker isn't a reason strong enough to go blue, whereas disciple is a safe pick that can really help you win races.
2.1 You're overvaluing daxos and, anyhow, you're already green and double-spash is just something that you shouldn't really do. TBH, you should've picked hopeful eidolon and went GW at that point - eidolon is huge with green fatties.
2.5 once again, eidolon. eidolon + either colossus or nemesis is extremely stupid, and if you add a time to feed in the mix...
2.7 sandals. if you're heavy in green, it really pays to have at least one. if not maindeck, then for sideboard purposes.
2.9 warden. it's really great sideboard against the BW matchup, for example. your doublesplash costs you too much.
2.10 last breath. at this point, you really can't hope to proc chronicler reliably. And breath has its place - you think it's jank, then you remove a Keepsake Gorgon with it and suddenly, junk it is not.
2.11 kk, if 2.10 last breath was arguable, here it is definite. you don't have enough humans at this point and there are no guarantees you'll get them.
3.3 time to feed. anthousa is pretty much a vanilla 4/5, her ability is really, really hard to proc decently. and your deck is really removal-lite.
3.4 at this point, I would've seriously considered gods willing. emissary is probably better, but have all sorts of ridiculous bombs already and no means of protecting them.
3.6 if you go blue, go big - take griptide. you don't need a second amulet.
3.7 you don't need chimera either.
3.9 savage surge - once again, zero tricks.
3.11 aqueous form, mb - you need to slip past those defenses.
All in all, the problem of your deck is that it has zero interactivity - you have 1 removal spell and zero tricks. That's really unforgivable in this format (or in any format, really). You also have lack reliable 2nd and third drops - leafcrown dryads aren't really 2nd drop, daxos won't come on the third, reverent isn't good on the third turn, chronicler is average, agent won't have evasion on fourth one (unless you don't play anything)... Basically, it's all about being slow and not being able to recover tempo. You also were really unlucky with mana accel - not even a single voyaging satyr passing by.
to post your three worst results than your three best.
That's arguable. Nowadays, my worst results come from two directions:
1. Screw/flood/whatever in the first round. In a single elimination event, you can't even talk about your deck performance after that because you're left with zero experience of it actually performing anything.
2. Drafting tables that make me question the other players' sanity. Like, today, my first booster is a choice between Spear of Heliod and Keepsake Gorgon. Spear seems like a better card, besides, there are two other black cards in the pack and white is really shallow here. And everything else is mediocre. So I pass the gorgon (she's definite p1p2 for the next player), I pass the black, gathering UW (I was signalled into white with dauntless assault p3 and into blue with voyage's end p5), but then, suddenly, both white and blue run dry and, most bafflingly, what do I see p2p2? Agent of Masks. Agent of freaking masks. Yeah. SUch players either give you monstrosity or, with their constant randompicks, disrupt the table to the point that everyone has a crappy deck and it's all about lucky draws.
Now, it's not like I don't lose because of the skill... But those games usually involve really tricky decisions and I'm usually tired as hell when I lose that way (protip: don't draft if you're tired; go swiss, at the very least). Like yesterday, forgetting that not only I can Divine Verdict my own Sentry of the Underworld, I can regen it as well (opp had a Prognostic SPhinx+Celestial Archon+Hopeful Eidolon voltron).
Besides, not to sound as braggart (though I know I will), but I'm posting these here more to show a thing or two to other people and less to gather feedback.
p1p1: the safer pick financially is to pick the best card, onslaught.
That's a fallacy. Caryatid is a good card and it was tix right now, right there. Now, for the assault to pay off a number of factors must come true:
1. You're getting passed white - if somehow white is not your color (and you can't know your colors p1p1), assault is as good as a basic plains to you.
2. You actually cast it during your games. Let's not forget that, for whatever card you pick, there's a chance that you won't draw it even once or you won't draw it when relevant.
3. You're not getting screwed/flooded to death in the first round. And mind you, magic is random so that's a rather considerable possibility.
4. You're not getting paired with your worst match up. Yesterday, I went 1-1 with a janky BW deck. Real janky. My first round opp was boros and he was god-tier boros - he had perfect curve, burn, assaults & other good pumps, chained to the rocks, anax and cymede, everything. Yet my janky BW deck literally specialized on protecting itself from a deck like his and killing his low curve creeps, so I won him 2-1. Screw in the first game, but I controlled second and third game so hard that I never went under 18 hps - that's against a crazy aggro deck, mind you.
5. Your opponent isn't living in a magical christmasland. So today I lost with a fine boros against t4 Prognostic Sphinx into endless topdecks game 1, t5 Prognostic Sphinx into endless topdecks game 2. And I had extremely mediocre hands without bombs, obviously. Or I've just killed my opp with a good old Favored Hoplite, Ordeal of Thassa, Triton Tactics 1-2-3 combo.
TL;DR - sureproof cash often is sureproof cash, possibility of cash is just that, possibility.
Which is a shame in a way. I love your writeups - lots of interesting detail - but all three of your drafts look like 3-0s, which are the least interesting in terms of opportunities to analyze the draft itself.
Well, I kinda have a lot on my hands and, no offense meant, but sally isn't the most convenient forum to post the draft recaps on. Like, I understand that it's first and foremost workplace friendly and therefore there's no pics and stuff, but one russian forum I hang around has a real neat script for this, which allows to present draft logs either as text or images. And importing your deck manually is also kinda bogus.
As for the 3-0 - well, the only really stupid here is the Xenagos one, other twos you can't say they were easy picks or whatever. Plenty of room for though there, I think.
1.5 warhounds are rather strong, especially if you can get provoke in the second pack (and it usually wheels). dunno, considering that you have it and also the aftershock here, it just feels wrong to see rats picked here.
1.6 tbh, after picking up two lancers you should've stayed white here with repentance - seems like it's flowing, so maybe during this draft it wasn't a bad idea.
1.7 patchwork gromes, imo - keeps your options open and it's a great card(you're sticking too hard to capsize and reckless spite here).
1.8 curse is horrbile - tons of other options here, depending on your previous picks. worst case scenario, you can always hate boil.
1.9 I'm all for the raredraft in the swiss, but this particular time you're low on playables (in two colours) so you really should've cut something or even picked an ambiguous viper here.
1.13 spinal graft (or even divine offering - you're really getting passed white) is much better. lots of free targeting in the format.
2.1 no point for you to go red. especially not after the blade. serpent warrior is a good card in this format. cannibalize also isn't bad in conjunction with other removal (or, say, capsize).
3.5 dauthi jackal - nausea wheels and it's a sideboard card. jackal is pretty strong.
3.9 keeper of the mind - it's not that hard to abuse it, and mirozel is hard countered by some rather common and free abilities.
1.2 griptide is better simply because blue is the stronger (and strongest) color in ths.
1.3 marauder is not that strong of a signal, I'd rather stay in color with either prescient chimera or savage surge.
1.4 no indication of black being open, actually. it turned out to be, yes, but there were no strong signals up to this point. sedge scorpion is the card here - early trades go well with nemesis.
1.8 baleful eidolon - GB suffers from a slow start so it's imperative to have some speedbumps in your deck.
2.2 why so hate? really, scholar is not the card to hate here. besides, you have rescue from the underworld that can allow for some more or less decent BG self-mill strategies - you already have one nemesis, after all.
2.4 ordeal. seems like you're grossly overvaluing whip - it's an unreliable removal for 5 mana. it's workable, but not that great.
2.5 you're spending too picks on the hatedraft - relax, dude, this is no pro tour top-8. hatedraft is only efficient when the metagame calls for it, otherwise it just hurts you.
2.8 prowler's helm isn't that bad in BG.
1.2 Actually, even if you put monetary aspect aside, thoughtseize is great in this format. Abundance of tricks means that people always keep some cards in their hands and the overall combo-feel of this format means that you can hurt them greatly by disrupting said combos. Like, today I've screwed an entire game for my opponent simply by discarding his Fabled Hero on my turn 2 - he had a great gameplan, but it was never meant to be. So no need to feel ashamed by picking it.
1.3 If you don't like the ordeals in this format then, well, the only choice you have is to start liking them. They're a free win generator and you just can't skip past free wins.
1.4 Mmm, what makes you think you're passing great green cards? Honestly, apart from nylea's emissary in 1.2, there wasn't any strong signals. And 1.2 isn't the time to read signals.
1.5 Heart is so-so and intrusion is good, but somewhat luck-dependant. Considering how strong voyaging satyr is, it's not big mistake to pick him here.
1.8 it's very strange to hear that the disciple is never making the cut in your decks, it seems like you're grossly underestimating him.
2.1 Griptide. Normally, it's more or less of an even pick, but you have the charlatan and 2x griptide is just devastating in the late game.
2.2 Wavecrash seems like a safer bet. I'm absolutely unimpressed with the artisan.
2.6 nah, mogis is acceptable here - if you play aggressively enough, you don't need to make your whole board intimidating with him, even a couple of critters will do.
2.8 boon is better, I think.
2.9 I think sorrow is scarier for your naiads. or maybe even battlewise valor.
2.10 aqueous form, mb? you don't have that much sorceries and instants.
3.3 yeah, that's probably the biggest problem of this draft - you aren't too sure what kind of game plan you're aiming for.
Nah, I'm not posting everything here, obviously, only the more or less interesting stuff. Out of my last 25 drafts, I've won, like, a half, 0-1-ed 5-7 of them and rest falls somewhere in the middle.
And your whining about my whining is, like... KK, whatever, dude. When a pack has nothing but cards that usually wheel it's a bad pack, no matter how positive do you want to be about it. No amounts of praise will help mediocre cards compete with the truly strong ones, and mtgo drafts are all about competition.
And the high percentage of bad cards in my drafts are due to already stated reasons - I'm posting challenging ones, not stuff when I'm picking p7 phalanx leaders and p9 triton tactics and then it's simply a matter of avoiding getting mana-screwed.
------ THS ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Ray of Dissolution (FOIL)
Two-Headed Cerberus
--> Time to Feed
Asphodel Wanderer
Breaching Hippocamp
Boon of Erebos
Akroan Crusader
Magma Jet
Cutthroat Maneuver
Decorated Griffin
Titan of Eternal Fire
Plains
Ugly pack. Titan & magma jet are fine, but they're not enough reason to march into the worst color from the very first pick. So I'm picking time as it's the only decent non-red card here.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Lightning Strike
Fleshmad Steed
Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Returned Phalanx
Vaporkin
Setessan Battle Priest
--> Sea God's Revenge
Magma Jet
Witches' Eye
Plains
Not much of a choice here - revenge is grossly overshadowing other cards in the pack. Passing tons of red, but it's ok, I don't want to be red unless I'm wheeling broken cards for it.
Pack 1 pick 3:
--> Prescient Chimera
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Satyr Hedonist
Read the Bones
Last Breath
Deathbellow Raider
Opaline Unicorn
Karametra's Acolyte
Flamecast Wheel
Mountain
Ugh. I'm no longer surprised, but packs like this seem to be pandemic in THS - I'm seeing them way too often. Well, sphinx is fine, it's just that you can get them much later than p1p3.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Gods Willing
--> Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Silent Artisan
Unknown Shores (FOIL)
Breaching Hippocamp
Borderland Minotaur
Scholar of Athreos
Glare of Heresy
Sentry of the Underworld
Dark Betrayal
Plains
If this was 8-4, I would've seen gods willing as a definite white signal. However, this is 4322, so it kinda passed under my radar. Anyhow, there's only two decent cards here, gods & courser, and as I've already picked some decent UG cards and seen no good white in previous packs, I'm taking centaur here.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Sip of Hemlock
--> Feral Invocation
Fate Foretold
Thassa's Bounty
Lagonna-Band Elder
Priest of Iroas
Shredding Winds
Boon of Erebos
Gainsay
Stoneshock Giant
Swamp
Not much of a choice here. It seems I'm repeating this a lot, but with packs so sorry as they are there can't be much choice. I guess red is flowing freely, but I'm not a huge fan of it (as you already can understand).
Pack 1 pick 6:
Viper's Kiss
Lightning Strike
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Hopeful Eidolon
Fate Foretold
Savage Surge
--> Centaur Battlemaster
Swamp
Could've been mono-red here, lol. But then, battlemaster is also a card - he's somewhat matchup dependant, but he can produce some easy wins if you cook him right. He's especially good in UG as it gives him access to lots of evasion abilities. Another card to notice here is hopeful eidolon - another strong white signal. But I dunno, at this moment I was more or less content with the UG cards I was being passed so I wasn't thinking about a switch.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
--> Minotaur Skullcleaver
Benthic Giant
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
Hunt the Hunter
Forest
But maybe I should've thought. Dunno. As you can see, I'm trying to hop on a red gravy train here, but it's probably too late to do so - passed too much of it already. Better pick would've been nylea's presence - we're cutting our color and it allows for some splash, keeping us open. Or, if we ready the white signal in time, maybe it's even traveling philosopher.
Pack 1 pick 8:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Guardians of Meletis
Two-Headed Cerberus
Annul
Yoked Ox
Akroan Crusader
--> Arena Athlete
Mountain
Yeah, could've been easily in mono-red. But then, no dragon mantles being passed, and mono-r isn't so cool without lots of them.
Pack 1 pick 9:
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Ray of Dissolution (FOIL)
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Breaching Hippocamp
Akroan Crusader
Plains
Eh, don't like them, but, when it's possible, I'm trying to stay in UG.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Crackling Triton
--> Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Setessan Battle Priest
Witches' Eye
Plains
Or maybe it's GR?
Pack 1 pick 11:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Battlewise Valor
Satyr Hedonist
Last Breath
Mountain
This is when the sheer scale of white's openness became apparent to me. Mind you, these were the only white cards in this pack. But it's hard to say - is p4 that much of a white signal? Is p6 eidolon worth switching? Apart from those two, we hadn't had any reasons to go white. Well, whatever, I'm taking the better card here and we'll just keep that white option open in our mind.
Pack 1 pick 12:
Silent Artisan
Unknown Shores (FOIL)
--> Glare of Heresy
Plains
Pack 1 pick 13:
Thassa's Bounty
--> Priest of Iroas
Swamp
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Fate Foretold
Swamp
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Spearpoint Oread
Vulpine Goliath
Yoked Ox
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Horizon Scholar
Anvilwrought Raptor
Warriors' Lesson
--> Artisan of Forms
Plains
Ugh, another one of these. I need some early drops and artisan is fine in UG, but, once again, I want to see something better than this in the packs I open. Much better.
Pack 2 pick 2:
Viper's Kiss
Omenspeaker
Voyaging Satyr
Titan's Strength
Baleful Eidolon
Benthic Giant
Annul
Felhide Minotaur
Borderland Minotaur
Keepsake Gorgon
Battlewise Hoplite
Flamecast Wheel
--> Boon Satyr
Island
Something like this, yeah. Sucks to pass 2 mana satyr, but 3 mana one is just broken - so much crazy stuff you can do with him. Easy slam.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Nessian Courser
Lash of the Whip
Chosen by Heliod
Unknown Shores
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
Sedge Scorpion
Scholar of Athreos
--> Horizon Chimera
Dauntless Onslaught
Witches' Eye
Gift of Immortality
Island
I really like this card and I'm solidly UG so I cheerfully slam it. Excellent creature - really flexible, helps you race (in some cases, it saves your life) and even trample is often relevant. Because, see, people sometimes forget that this creature has trample, which can be a very expensive mistake, especially if you have tricks in your hand.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Demolish
Leafcrown Dryad
Lagonna-Band Elder
Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Tormented Hero
--> Ordeal of Nylea
Tymaret, the Murder King
Forest
Between ordeal & the dryad, I like ordeal more. It's all about risk vs reward - dryad is safer, but not as broken, ordeal is risky, but it can win you the game.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Demolish
Portent of Betrayal
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Opaline Unicorn
--> Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Dissolve
Peak Eruption
Shipwreck Singer
Forest
Agent is obviously good in UG, but, with the amount of enablers I already have, warrior seems better. It's hard to draft UG heroic because of the relative scarcity of said ability, but it's definitely workable.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Defend the Hearth
Leonin Snarecaster
Priest of Iroas
--> Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Artisan's Sorrow
Sentry of the Underworld
Forest
Even less choice here - I like to have a good sideboard, but no picking them above mainboard cards.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Loathsome Catoblepas
March of the Returned
Silent Artisan
--> Titan's Strength
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Blood-Toll Harpy
Peak Eruption
Forest
Umm, green? White? I'm feeding the red backup plan here, but, honestly, I've already too deep in UG to get out of there safely.
Pack 2 pick 8:
Scourgemark
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Leonin Snarecaster
Scholar of Athreos
--> Hunt the Hunter
Evangel of Heliod
Plains
Decent sideboard, but I really don't like where this is heading.
Pack 2 pick 9:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
--> Breaching Hippocamp
Yoked Ox
Anvilwrought Raptor
Plains
Yeah, we're officially in trouble - too much people in our colors, no chance for decent wheels, and we've picked only 6 card pack 2 and maybe 7 cards pack 1. We've got a huge deficit on our hands.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Viper's Kiss
Benthic Giant
Borderland Minotaur
--> Battlewise Hoplite
Flamecast Wheel
Island
Giant is a card, but no, even with all the troubles, I'd rather hape hoplite - it's too much to let someone pick a 12+ hoplite.
Pack 2 pick 11:
--> Chosen by Heliod
Unknown Shores
Asphodel Wanderer
Witches' Eye
Island
Besides, maybe I can splash or even play white?
Pack 2 pick 12:
Demolish
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Ray of Dissolution
Forest
Maybe...
Pack 2 pick 13:
Demolish
--> Peak Eruption
Forest
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Defend the Hearth
Forest
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
--> Leafcrown Dryad
Chosen by Heliod
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
Triton Shorethief
Traveler's Amulet
Ordeal of Erebos
Kragma Warcaller
Coordinated Assault
Agent of the Fates
Mountain
And it goes on. Dryad is fine, but nothing to wheel here and I'm passing a freaking agent. If I was doing better here, I'd hate it for sure, but nah, don't have that luxury at this point.
Pack 3 pick 2:
Dragon Mantle
--> Nessian Asp
Bronze Sable
Returned Centaur
Hopeful Eidolon
Portent of Betrayal
Observant Alseid
Borderland Minotaur
Sedge Scorpion
Vanquish the Foul
Karametra's Acolyte
Dark Betrayal
Firedrinker Satyr
Island
Asp is cool, but, once again, no hope for decent wheels here and, with the card deficit I have, I'm not having those 23 cards unless I'm tabling something good.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Sip of Hemlock
Commune with the Gods
Hopeful Eidolon
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
Tormented Hero
--> Horizon Scholar
Flamespeaker Adept
Prophet of Kruphix
Swamp
Not a big fan of Prophet. She requires extremely specific hands and decks to be powerful and I just don't believe they'll occur often enough to merit her presence. And without those hands, like, when you topdeck her with an empty hand, she's what? A 2/3 that gives your guys vigilance? Cool. I'd rather have a trusty scholar.
Pack 3 pick 4:
Gods Willing
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
--> Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Scourgemark (FOIL)
Vaporkin
Deathbellow Raider
Prowler's Helm
Favored Hoplite
Plains
Satyr over vaporkin - I have some expensive but good creatures here, I need some tempo.
Pack 3 pick 5:
Guardians of Meletis
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Aqueous Form
Ray of Dissolution
--> Wavecrash Triton
Chronicler of Heroes
Favored Hoplite
Coordinated Assault
Daxos of Meletis
Mountain
Really late Daxos, but he's not that surprising after p11 battlewise hoplite. And, well, in this pack, unlike in pack one, it's really obvious that white is flowing, but it's kinda late, isn't it? Well, I'm still not sure how heavy in white I will be, or, rather, I preferred to hope that I'll pull the clean UG somehow, so I took wavecrash here. After all, daxos is not that good if you can't drop him on turn 3 reliably.
Pack 3 pick 6:
Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Mnemonic Wall
Yoked Ox
Annul
Setessan Battle Priest
Triton Shorethief
--> Chronicler of Heroes
Spellheart Chimera
Mountain
And here go my hopes of UG. KK, let's go bant - and I'm not even talking splash here because mere splash won't cut it, it seems.
Pack 3 pick 7:
Viper's Kiss
Dragon Mantle
Pheres-Band Centaurs (FOIL)
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Spearpoint Oread
Traveler's Amulet
--> Dauntless Onslaught
Island
At least we're given some crazy bananas picks to compensate for our absent fixing - p7 dauntless onslaught, have you seen something like that before?
Pack 3 pick 8:
--> Battlewise Valor
Lagonna-Band Elder
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Setessan Griffin
Warriors' Lesson
Plains
Trick over elder - I've got plenty of heroic critters, now I need to enable them.
Pack 3 pick 9:
--> Chosen by Heliod
Defend the Hearth
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
Triton Shorethief
Mountain
Moar enablers.
Pack 3 pick 10:
Bronze Sable
Portent of Betrayal
Borderland Minotaur
--> Vanquish the Foul
Dark Betrayal
Island
Won't mainboard it, but it's a good side.
Pack 3 pick 11:
Commune with the Gods
Coastline Chimera
--> Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
Swamp
We've got enough 4 drops so we'll never need a chimera, therefore, let's improve our sideboard even further.
Pack 3 pick 12:
March of the Returned
Wild Celebrants
--> Prowler's Helm
Plains
Pack 3 pick 13:
Traveling Philosopher
--> Two-Headed Cerberus
Mountain
Despite going white, I'm still hating cerberus here - the point of philosopher is to come at the second turn, no later. Besides, even then he's not good without pegasi enablers.
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Triton Shorethief
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Island
All in all, this is one of my sucky drafts, this time no puns included. Was trying to force blue too strong, I think, and it hurt me. Couldn't go red because, by the time the shallowness of UG became apparent, I've passed too much red. Never received a black signal and white one was so faint that it totally passed under my radar. Result is kinda disaster.
The deck:
1 Artisan of Forms
1 Battlewise Hoplite
1 Leafcrown Dryad
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Boon Satyr
1 Chronicler of Heroes
1 Nessian Courser
1 Wavecrash Triton
1 Horizon Chimera
2 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Centaur Battlemaster
1 Nessian Asp
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Horizon Scholar
2 Battlewise Valor
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Fate Foretold
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Time to Feed
1 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Feral Invocation
1 Sea God's Revenge
8 Forest
5 Island
4 Plains
Well, tbh, the deck is not that horrible - I mean, it is, but not really. It has some powerful cards and is quite synergistic, the only problem is the mana base - it's a freaking lottery. Still, in situations like these, it's the only way to go - sure, I'll lose some games due to my mana base, it's a given, but at least I'll have a real chance of winning those games when I'm given all my colors.
Games:
And match 1 is a definite proof of that. BG opp. KK, game 1 I mull to five, no islands, terrible hands, dead to rights, let's go next. Game 2 I'm given a decent UG hand with no trace of either plains or white cards. He opens up with a returned centaur (slow curve?), targeting me for some reason. Well, in another draft today (easy 3-0), my opp actually tried to deck me with these - 3x centaurs, Rescue from the Underworld, Whip of Erebos, he was dangerously close, but nah. It's a different story, though. So he mills me while I do a Staunch-hearted Warrior into Boon Satyr mega-punch. And while he plays Erebos's Emissary and Loathsome Catoblepas afterwards, he's forced to chump block Warrior (because if he didn't, I'd cast a feral invocation on him and dealt 12 lethal damage) and you don't win races by chump blocking with your fifth and sixth drop. And, well, that's the problem with honest two-colors when your pool is weak - you're forced to play with really, really bad cards that just aren't able to bring you back into race.
Game 3 I'm finally lucky with mana and, after trading my leafcrown dryad for his baleful eidolon (really questionable trade on his part), I drop down a battlemaster (versus his recurring duo of returned centaur and erebos's emissary) and go mad with him. Ordeal of Nylea, attack for 7, drop a Wavecrash Triton was my sixth turn. Time to Feed battlemaster vs Pharika's Mender, 2x battlewise valor into wavecrash triton, tapping out remaining blockers, swing for lethal 15 damage was my seventh turn. Yeah, battlemaster is radical if you let him be.
Match 2. GW opp. Game 1 I have a really slow UG hand while he has a first turn hopeful eidolon into third turn Spear of Heliod. Later on, lagonna-band elder and heliod's emissary follow, and while I try to do some staunch-hearted warrior + time to feed trickery to return into this game, it just doesn't give enough tempo versus both spear and emissary. Loss for me.
Game 2 - forest-plains-island for me and even a third turn nessian courser. He responds with spear on his turn, no early drops for both of us. I follow up with a wavecrash triton, but miss my 4th land drop - guess it couldn't be too good. But then, he also misses on his 4th drop, so he sits on the spear. Well, what can I do? I drop fate foretold on my courser and trade him for another card & 3 damage, finding my fourth land in the process. He untaps and, topdecking his first forest, drops an Opaline Unicorn - weird choice for GW. My turn, I drop a voyaging satyr and ordeal of nylea on wavecrash buddy, locking the unicorn down and attacking for 2. Then, he makes a totally weird decision - instead of playing something, he chooses to sit on his spear. Cool, but I'm playing prescient chimera (while obviously not attacking) and you've wasted your turn. Next turn, he's finally casting heliod's emissary (leaving 3 mana open for the spear), but it's too late - dauntless assault in wavecrash & chimera, tap emissary. No, gods willing, he says. In responce, I cast battlewise valor in wavecrash, tap his emissary once more then swing for the lethal.
Game 3 - GW hand for me, mono-white for opponent (though in the first two games I haven't seen him casting green cards at all). He opens up with lagonna-band elder, I curve chronicler of heroes into non-bestow leafcrown dryad (to block elder) + ordeal of nylea onto chronicler. Turn five, he trades his gods willing for my dryad, but I have boon satyr for my chronicler, making it 9/7. And opp has no fifth land so he can't answer it properly, though, at that point, little could've saved him. Well, he could've popped the chronicler, but I had tons of good stuff in my hand. Maybe he got screwed earlier? I dunno. Anyhow, he was misplaying in game 2 so it's probably his punishment that I get lucky here.
Match 3 - a proper UG. well, I guess this guy stole all my cards, lol. Anyhow, game 1 I live the dream - battlewise hoplite, feral invocation (at the end of his turn though - I'm not risky enough to cast that into two open mana), Horizon Chimera, Leafcrown Dryad on chimera, race that.
Game 2 he has a weird Vaporkin-> Aqueous Form opening (digging for lands?) whereas I do nothing until turn 4. It's staunch-hearted warrior + time to feed opening again for me. He, however, also doesn't to much 'til turn five, dropping agent of horizons, and I even somehow manage to eat his vaporkin - he has 2 mana open, but no voyage's end follows. Risky play on my part, but I'm stuck on 4 mana, got no islands and there weren't any other plays available. Afterwards, I go mad and even attack with my warrior, fully willing to trade with his agent, but he trades me the triton tactics instead. Cool, nice to get rid of that card so early. On his turn he once again does nothing and I topdeck my fifth land and drop Nessian Asp. And he's apparently flooded like hell (or has some blank cards in hand?), so while I continue to improve my board, he just makes agent unblockable. He brings me down to 8, but that's it.
Now, I fully admit that I was lucky as hell during these games - or, rather, my opps were somewhat unlucky here. Still, it's not like I haven't lost because of my manabase and, most importantly, it's not about getting lucky, it's about having a chance to get lucky. Sure, I'm a filthy lucksack to get that Battlewise Hoplite into Feral Invocation opening, but if I stayed in UG and had, like, Benthic Giant or Breaching Hippocamp instead of the hoplite, where would I be? Sometimes, when things go bad for you, the only choice is to make an educated bet - stuff a 3-color deck with as much goodness as you can and hope your lands will forgive you.
GW is really underrated here (almost as much as RW is overrated). It's an archetype with issues, true, but it's not like it has zero tools to overcome those issues. Besides, picking a lampad over Nemesis p1p2 is not something you do - what if we see zero white cards in the next pack and are forced into another color? Lampad is cute, but nemesis is bomby.
Truth to be told, people just don't play enough 8-4s here so they have rather mythical ideas about them. The skillgap between them and swiss is not that huge - it is present, but usually it's formulated in 1 or 2 skilled players around the table. And rest aren't that much different. So stuff like this happens on quite a regular basis there.
------ THS ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Gods Willing
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Last Breath
Scourgemark
Griptide
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Sedge Scorpion
Felhide Minotaur
Artisan's Sorrow
Heliod's Emissary
Nylea's Emissary
--> Fabled Hero
Forest
Obvious slam. Sucks to pass two decent white cards here, but hero is hero, he's worth the risk.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Pharika's Mender (FOIL)
Prescient Chimera
Fleetfeather Sandals
Thassa's Bounty
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Triton Shorethief
Cavern Lampad
--> Nemesis of Mortals
Burnished Hart
Spellheart Chimera
Island
Don't want to choose my second color that fast, but zero white cards in this pack - what can I do? Also, it's a horrible pack - Nemesis and a metric ton of fillery stuff.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Lagonna-Band Elder (FOIL)
--> Gods Willing
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Returned Phalanx
Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Artisan's Sorrow
Mogis's Marauder
Steam Augury
Forest
Another rather weak pack, but not without a treat for us - GW is all about huge beaters and, well, in this format, nothing promotes huge beaters as well as this card does. Also, GW suffers from the lack of tempo and, considering how expensive therosian removal is, Willing gives you opportunity for some rather big tempo swings.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Battlewise Valor
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
--> Time to Feed
Felhide Minotaur
Borderland Minotaur
Ordeal of Erebos
Dark Betrayal
Mountain
Now this one is a hard one. We have a rather strong signal in black - basically, fourth pick ordeal means that the color is open. However, we already have some pretty good stuff for GW and it doesn't look like it's being drained completely. Now, if this was 4322, I would've taken ordeal - but see, in Theros, main difference between 8-4 and 4322/swiss is that the packs are not nearly as deep in 8-4. In 4322, you can table ridiculous bombs, in 8-4, your deck is almost bound to get stuck with some filler, and maybe lots of it. So dabbling in secondary colors while passing good stuff in yours can be rather risky here - I decide to play safe for a moment. Besides, time to feed is excellent in GW - it has great synergy with your huge heroes and it also restores lost tempo. You're not winning with GW if you're not compensating for your inborn tempo deficit.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Last Breath (FOIL)
Stymied Hopes
Lost in a Labyrinth
Rage of Purphoros
Returned Centaur
Akroan Crusader
--> Savage Surge
Hunt the Hunter
Witches' Eye
Steam Augury
Plains
Another truly horrible pack, ugh. Well, we're getting a decent trick from it so it's fine (last breath is also decent, but you can get them much later), but tricks are not as valuable in GW. They're needed, obviously, but there's so much of them that you have to really try to construct a GW deck without enough heroic enablers.
Pack 1 pick 6:
Prescient Chimera
Demolish
Crackling Triton
--> Last Breath
Scourgemark
Boon of Erebos
Setessan Griffin
Artisan's Sorrow
Mogis's Marauder
Forest
Horrible packs galore! Marauder makes me to regret passing that ordeal for a second, but then, I can't really say that black is overflowing and marauder isn't that great in BW - remember, we want to play hero. And, apart from him, this pack has no significant cards for any color - sphinx, maybe, but in this format you don't want to pick him early, however ridiculous that sounds. So I choose last breath over griffin - as I've said, gw has huge beats and a tempo problem. Now, beats here can be so huge that 4 life is not really a problem. Same can't be said with tempo and, however horrible last breat may seem, it can remove their early drop and that's great. In fact, it deals with lot of dangerous cards of the format - Voyaging Satyr, Keepsake Gorgon, Sedge Scorpion, Scholar of Athreos, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, enough of them. Griffin is fine in GW, but we don't need to many of them and we'll be definitely tabling them.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Dragon Mantle
Bronze Sable
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
--> Blood-Toll Harpy
Setessan Battle Priest
Witches' Eye
Artisan of Forms
Plains
And suddenly, our colors run dry. But is it a matter of us refusing to heed that black signal or is it just a peculiarity? I mean, it's not like there's some great cards here - harpy is rather meh and artisan of forms is not half as good as he seems, at least in my experience. Anyhow, I'm picking the harpy hear - yeah, if we'll be tabling some crazy good black cards, we wouldn't mind against switching.
Pack 1 pick 8:
Loathsome Catoblepas
March of the Returned
Returned Centaur
--> Portent of Betrayal
Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Swan Song
Mountain
Thing is, we don't. It's another empty pack, so we're hating portent - GW wins on the back of really really big dudes and we don't want them being stolen from us.
Pack 1 pick 9:
--> Last Breath
Scourgemark
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Felhide Minotaur
Artisan's Sorrow
Forest
Second last breath is... Bad, but serviceable. At least we've got, like, 6 playable card for GW in pack 1 so we can continue to fight for it - doesn't look like there's an opportunity for the switch.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Triton Shorethief
Spellheart Chimera
Island
Sandals can be workable in GW, but I'll prefer to cut the green card here, simply for the sake of signals.
Pack 1 pick 11:
March of the Returned
Lost in a Labyrinth
--> Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Forest
Pack 1 pick 12:
Wild Celebrants
--> Felhide Minotaur
Dark Betrayal
Mountain
Pack 1 pick 13:
--> Stymied Hopes
Lost in a Labyrinth
Plains
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Scourgemark
Forest
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Plains
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Omenspeaker
March of the Returned
--> Observant Alseid
Scourgemark
Coastline Chimera
Rage of Purphoros
Satyr Hedonist
Voyage's End
Setessan Battle Priest
Rescue from the Underworld
Purphoros's Emissary
Cutthroat Maneuver
Abhorrent Overlord
Mountain
A-a-and we open another pack that is horrible for us and makes us regret not going black. THough, tbh, if we went black it's not like our pool was significantly better than it is atm. Well, at least alseid fits our plan.
Pack 2 pick 2:
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
--> Battlewise Valor
Titan's Strength
Baleful Eidolon
Benthic Giant
Annul
Traveling Philosopher
Boon of Erebos
Setessan Griffin
Purphoros's Emissary
Cutthroat Maneuver
Satyr Piper
Swamp
Just great - blank-filled packs just don't bother to cease. Ugh... Totally expecting griffin to wheel and GW doesn't really need vanilla bears in this format, so let's take an early, early valor.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Commune with the Gods
--> Hopeful Eidolon
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Centaur Battlemaster
Erebos's Emissary
Swamp
Now that's much better! As I've said, GW is about huge guys and compensating tempo loss and, well, coupled with huge guys, this eidolon is nearly unraceable. Not absolutely, but nearly. He's one of the cornerstones of this archetype, so we pick him over battlemaster - master is sweet, but replaceable. He's not the only huge guys in our colors, y'know.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Commune with the Gods
Returned Phalanx
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
Pharika's Cure
Shredding Winds
Boulderfall
Tormented Hero
Swan Song
Swamp
The most horrible thing is that the guys near me also never bothered to read that black signal and it's totally flowing back. And yeah, now we see some really great cards being offered, but it's too late at this point. Now we have to stand and fight for our GW. At least we're getting workable cards - I like elders, they're a good defensive card and, once again, more often than not they'll give us a tiny bit of tempo. A tiny bit here, a small part there and, suddenly, you're winning the race. That's how GW survives 'til its huge drops.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Messenger's Speed
--> Gods Willing
Annul
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
Time to Feed
Glare of Heresy
Flamespeaker Adept
Temple of Mystery
Plains
Easy choice here - as I've said, tempo matters almost everything to us so cmc 1 card over cmc 3 card. Besides, you have to protect those bombs.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Stymied Hopes
Nessian Courser
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
--> Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Scholar of Athreos
Hunt the Hunter
Witches' Eye
Plains
However, this time it's cmc 4 warrior over cmc 3 courser because, well, surviving 'til bombs is only smart if you have said bombs. And warrior is too synergistic with our key cards to pass him by - you need at least one or two of 'em in GW.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Viper's Kiss
Omenspeaker
Fate Foretold
Thassa's Bounty
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Priest of Iroas
Boulderfall
Satyr Piper
Plains
Don't mind against the second one, but, of course, elder is something that I would prefer to table. I mean, with how scarce GW was at pack 1, I expected a real payback here, but no. Another thing is that black somehow stopped flowing - was it some kind of pack anomaly?
Pack 2 pick 8:
Demolish
Gods Willing
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
--> Hopeful Eidolon
Artisan's Sorrow
Forest
Yeah, this is what I expected pack 2 to be (and it should've been so, instead of tons of filler and black returning). Anyhow, we pick another eidolon - with mediocre card pool we're bound to be slow so we have to overcome this torpidity somehow.
Pack 2 pick 9:
Loathsome Catoblepas
March of the Returned
Scourgemark
Coastline Chimera
--> Satyr Hedonist
Cutthroat Maneuver
Mountain
Nah, black is flowing, just in a very irregular manner. What the hell is wrong with these packs?
Pack 2 pick 10:
Guardians of Meletis
Titan's Strength
Boon of Erebos
--> Setessan Griffin
Satyr Piper
Swamp
At least something tabled.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Loathsome Catoblepas
--> Nylea's Presence
Commune with the Gods
Spark Jolt
Swamp
Wanna have bunch of communes in case I pick up another Asp, but this draft is so bad that I might be forced to splash so gotta prepare for that.
Pack 2 pick 12:
--> Commune with the Gods
Lost in a Labyrinth
Boulderfall
Swamp
Well, now it's the time for communism.
Pack 2 pick 13:
Messenger's Speed
--> Glare of Heresy
Plains
That's actually awesome - glare is a terrific sideboard card.
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Witches' Eye
Plains
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Plains
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Baleful Eidolon
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
Akroan Crusader
Savage Surge
Stoneshock Giant
--> Evangel of Heliod
Flamecast Wheel
Artisan of Forms
Mountain
This draft makes me want to bang my head on the wall. I mean, seriously, what kind of crap this is? How such relentless stream of filler is even possible? Ugh. I pick Evangel because I really need some creatures, especially big ones and he kinda qualifies.
Pack 3 pick 2:
March of the Returned (FOIL)
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Blood-Toll Harpy
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Spearpoint Oread
Vulpine Goliath
--> Sedge Scorpion
Felhide Minotaur
Akroan Hoplite
Triton Tactics
Sentry of the Underworld
Swamp
I'm not even surprised. At least we're getting scorpion here and he's a great speedbump - never forget about tempo concerns in this deck.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Divine Verdict
Guardians of Meletis
Unknown Shores
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Vaporkin
Setessan Battle Priest
Glare of Heresy
Destructive Revelry
Labyrinth Champion
Mountain
Not much of a choice here - I'm happy to have verdict, at least some way to deal with opposing heroics and monsters. Also note that, contrary to the first pack, black is kinda absent. Red flows, but we had few reasons to go boros pack 1.
Pack 3 pick 4:
Dragon Mantle
Bronze Sable
Annul
--> Wingsteed Rider
Wild Celebrants
Two-Headed Cerberus
Time to Feed
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Anvilwrought Raptor
Coordinated Assault
Plains
Finally, at least some kind of reprieve from this relentless stream of mediocrity. Easy rider over time since we are starved for creatures.
Pack 3 pick 5:
Divine Verdict
Sip of Hemlock
Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
--> Time to Feed
Sedge Scorpion
Scholar of Athreos
Horizon Chimera
Coordinated Assault
Island
So it seems like some of the players who were white and green pack 1 switched into black during pack 2, that's my explanation (there was at least 3 black decks at the table and I haven't seen all of the replays). They switched, I persevered and, well, I'm not left without rewards. Now, this is an arguable pick - I really need the speed of scorpion, but I also want to squeeze out as much as humanely possible from my heroes (they are my main hope, basically) so I go greedy with time.
Pack 3 pick 6:
Stymied Hopes
Defend the Hearth
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
--> Setessan Griffin
Rescue from the Underworld
Gainsay
Arena Athlete
Island
Kinda early for him, but I'm fine with a second griffin. More is bad, but two are fine.
Pack 3 pick 7:
Demolish
Fleshmad Steed
Blood-Toll Harpy
--> Wingsteed Rider
Spearpoint Oread
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Anger of the Gods
Forest
Man, I wish red was signaled so strongly during pack 1. Well, whatever - I'm getting a huge reward in form of p7 rider here which actually makes my deck somewhat competitive so I won't complain.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Prescient Chimera
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Defend the Hearth
--> Vanquish the Foul
Warriors' Lesson
Island
I prefer to keep this one in sideboard - it's a decent card, just not against every opponent. It's also really heavy and GW has enough heaviness as it is.
Pack 3 pick 9:
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Silent Artisan
Akroan Crusader
--> Savage Surge
Flamecast Wheel
Mountain
Don't have enough humans for pegasus so I'll take another trick - I can support one more.
Pack 3 pick 10:
March of the Returned (FOIL)
Guardians of Meletis
--> Battlewise Valor
Breaching Hippocamp
Aqueous Form
Swamp
Well, if I knew this one would table, maybe I would've took the pegasus, but, well, with packs like these, chances were small.
Pack 3 pick 11:
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
--> Glare of Heresy
Mountain
Good. Two glares make for a nasty sideboard - now all I have to do is to encounter a white deck.
Pack 3 pick 12:
--> Bronze Sable
Wild Celebrants
Two-Headed Cerberus
Plains
Pack 3 pick 13:
--> Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Island
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Defend the Hearth
Island
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Forest
All in all, not the most pleasant draft in my life - horrible packs opened, questionable signals received, no money opened and a rather mediocre card pool. I guess I should've switched to either BW or WR, but going BW was kinda risky (although that risk would've definitely paid off) and openness of red got apparent only at pack 3, when it was too late.
The deck:
2 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Sedge Scorpion
1 Fabled Hero
2 Lagonna-Band Elder
1 Observant Alseid
2 Wingsteed Rider
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
2 Setessan Griffin
1 Nemesis of Mortals
2 Gods Willing
1 Battlewise Valor
2 Last Breath
2 Savage Surge
2 Time to Feed
1 Divine Verdict
10 Plains
7 Forest
Yeah, I decide to go totally greedy here and to ignore random fillery 2/1 second drops - in this deck, it's not like they're gonna be able to either attack or block so what's their point? Yeah, we can lose to ultra-fast decks and, well, we can also loose to good late-game decks because this deck is rather meh but at least we have a strong mid-game capabilities and, well, it's better to be good at least at something (while being horrible at everything else) than being mediocre in all directions.
Games:
Match 1 - Boros, and a rather unfocused one. He has some pretty good cards, but he's absolutely lacking direction. He's not aggro, he's not midgame and, obviously, he's not control. So game 1 we're holding his board with scorpion and lagonna-band elder while swinging with a big Rider - he has no breaching spells so he has to endure. He tried to stop it with a Hundred-Handed One, but a well-placed Divine Verdict showed him the futility of such hopes.
Game 2 we both mulligan. He has a WIngsteed Rider of his own under a Hopeful Eidolon of his own (i've made a stupid mistake here, blowing sided-in glare of herecy too early on an insignificant pegasus), and things seem good to him, only we have Nessian Asp and Staunch-Hearted Warrior, both under our eidolons. Tough to race that. I play carefully, and while he manages to eventually overcome warrior, the snake proves too much for him.
Match 2 - UB opp. Now that's a bad, bad matchup for us, especially since I lost the dice. Game 1 we're both seriously flooded and the game goes rather long, allowing me to make some good tempo trades and thus shift the game in my favor. I can't give you any concrete exapmles because I haven't seen his hand (obviously), but it felt like he really misplayed some of his cards and could've won it. Well, tough luck.
But no, tough luck for me in game 2 - I get a good start and almost take a grasp of the game, but after a certain point he draws nothing but answers and I'm getting flooded. And so my advance is stopped and, eventually, I'm defeated. The only thing is - he plays really slow. Like, he thinks a lot and he occasionally makes huge pauses in the game (real-life issues? multi-queue?), so by the end of this game he has little over five minutes worth of time. I make a huge mistake here, btw - I've conceded, whereas, by playing suicidally and without a hope for the win, I could've bled at least another minute from him. Dirty tactics, but hey, it's not like making your opponent wait and wait and wait can be called good-mannered.
Game 3 I get the worst luck possible - mull to 6, decent starting hand, but mana-flood afterwards. And once again he draws nothing but answers - I saw his replays from round 1 and, well, his deck was fillery enough, seems like everyone had a rough draft here, but against me, he drew nothing but relevant cards. Still, careful plays and tempo trades in my favour made him waste a lot of time, so by the time my land flood got into terminal stage, he had, like, 40 seconds to win, and I had lots of life. Mind you, I'm out of shape so I wasn't even paying attention - it was a total surprise to me. If I bled him properly in game 2, we wouldn't even come that far. But nevermind - he's not fast enough to win under such pressure.
Match 3 - split. I always split whenever is possible, especially after such daunting games - in the long run, the difference between splitting and playing is almost invisible, but it really saves some effort that I can spend elsewhere.
------ THS ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Nylea's Presence
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Nimbus Naiad
Vulpine Goliath
Yoked Ox
Baleful Eidolon
Annul
--> Wingsteed Rider
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Mogis's Marauder
Nylea's Emissary
Favored Hoplite
Pyxis of Pandemonium
Forest
Best card in the pack, one of the best commons in format. It's too easy to make a bomb out of it to pass it away.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Prescient Chimera
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Lost in a Labyrinth
Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Purphoros's Emissary
Ordeal of Erebos
--> Triton Fortune Hunter
Island
No white here, though, but lots of other yummy stuff. I puck up a strong blue heroic card because UW is probably the best heroic deck of them all. So let's stick with the best.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Minotaur Skullcleaver
--> Favored Hoplite (FOIL)
Nessian Asp
Hopeful Eidolon
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Coastline Chimera
Ray of Dissolution
Wavecrash Triton
Mogis's Marauder
Favored Hoplite
Coordinated Assault
Forest
Good news - I'm getting passed a hoplite. Bad news - I'm passing tons of white stuff. Well, I'd rather have good packs 1 and 3 than pack 2, so I guess nothing can be done here. I also notice red flowing freely.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Demolish
Leafcrown Dryad
--> Gods Willing
Last Breath
Scourgemark
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Triton Shorethief
Magma Jet
Rescue from the Underworld
Satyr Piper
Forest
And blue isn't here to be seen. Well, there are good green and red options (backed up by appropriate signals), but I'll stay in white for a while.
Pack 1 pick 5:
March of the Returned
Fleshmad Steed
Wild Celebrants
Two-Headed Cerberus
Time to Feed
Asphodel Wanderer
Akroan Crusader
Cavern Lampad
--> Ordeal of Heliod
Spellheart Chimera
Forest
At least I'm sure that white is totally mine (for the moment).
Pack 1 pick 6:
Nylea's Presence
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
--> Time to Feed
Blood-Toll Harpy
Borderland Minotaur
Shredding Winds
Forest
GW, perhaps? There's lots of red going around, but I'm afraid I've passed too much of it already, besides, I don't like boros that much.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Demolish
--> Gods Willing
Spark Jolt
Coastline Chimera
Cavern Lampad
Sedge Scorpion
Rescue from the Underworld
Cutthroat Maneuver
Forest
I could've pressed for GW here, but once again, I'm biding my time, making the safest picks possible.
Pack 1 pick 8:
March of the Returned
Benthic Giant
Wild Celebrants
Silent Artisan
--> Gainsay
Satyr Piper
Decorated Griffin
Plains
Yuck, what a pack.
Pack 1 pick 9:
Nylea's Presence
--> Minotaur Skullcleaver
Yoked Ox
Annul
Shredding Winds
Pyxis of Pandemonium
Forest
KK, no longer can I ignore red - the only red card in the pack tables? Now that's a signal.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Lost in a Labyrinth
Returned Centaur
Opaline Unicorn
Island
I love this guy. He goes late (usually), yet he packs quite a punch. That's the main advantage of red in this format - you get awesome stuff from the bargain bin.
Pack 1 pick 11:
Spark Jolt
Coastline Chimera
Ray of Dissolution
--> Coordinated Assault
Forest
Not the latest assault I've seen, but still rather ridiculous. OK, we're boros.
Pack 1 pick 12:
Demolish
--> Satyr Rambler
Satyr Piper
Forest
Pack 1 pick 13:
--> Wild Celebrants
Spellheart Chimera
Forest
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Traveling Philosopher
Forest
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Demolish
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Spearpoint Oread
Vulpine Goliath
Yoked Ox
Baleful Eidolon
Annul
Boon of Erebos
Setessan Griffin
Kragma Warcaller
Pharika's Mender
Dauntless Onslaught
--> Spear of Heliod
Swamp
Passing the onslaught is unfortunate, but spear is just way too strong, especially since we already have heliod's ordeal - lifegain is really synergistic with it.
Pack 2 pick 2:
--> Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Griptide
Commune with the Gods
Deathbellow Raider
Opaline Unicorn
Peak Eruption
Ordeal of Thassa
Nylea's Emissary
Mountain
I've expected my second pack to be empty, but not that empty. TBH, I want deathbellow for my curve, but on a table like this I expect it to table.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Silent Artisan
--> Titan's Strength
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Cavern Lampad
Sedge Scorpion
Rescue from the Underworld
Thassa's Emissary
Swamp
Well, maybe it's not all that bad. I don't like philosopher (even with the pegasus plan) and I expect to see cyclops later, so I'll take a decent pump spell. Strength over valor because strength is cheaper.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Nessian Courser
--> Hopeful Eidolon
Fate Foretold
Portent of Betrayal
Observant Alseid
Defend the Hearth
Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Destructive Revelry
Artisan's Sorrow
Flamecast Wheel
Forest
Eidolon over alseid because of that spear synergy. Besides, in WR, we can have some rather big monsters so sometimes simply giving them lifelink wins you the race.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Sip of Hemlock
Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Scholar of Athreos
--> Centaur Battlemaster
Sentry of the Underworld
Dark Betrayal
Island
And here's the first empty pack - let's hate the battlemaster, we can't do much about him.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Stymied Hopes
Leafcrown Dryad
Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Opaline Unicorn
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
--> Vanquish the Foul
Witches' Eye
Swamp
Ehh, what is the green doing here? It was more or less flowing pack one, why no one bothered to notice it? And I'm picking vanquish, but I see it as a rather sideboard-ish card. It's really, really slow against most decks.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Fleshmad Steed
Unknown Shores
Crackling Triton
Commune with the Gods
Wavecrash Triton
--> Chronicler of Heroes
Forest
Don't want to play warden, so I'll hate an efficient early blocker. And I'm hating this over wavecrash to cut some white out of the process.
Pack 2 pick 8:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Nylea's Presence
Fleetfeather Sandals
Breaching Hippocamp
Yoked Ox
--> Ray of Dissolution
Prowler's Helm
Mountain
At least I need these for sideboarding purposes anyway.
Pack 2 pick 9:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Yoked Ox
Annul
Setessan Griffin
Swamp
At least something good tabled.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Commune with the Gods
--> Peak Eruption
Mountain
Wha-a-at? No priest of iroas? No deathbellow raider? On the table where there was p12 coordinated assault? Ri-i-ight. At least I'll hurt them if I'll meet them.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Silent Artisan
Yoked Ox
--> Rescue from the Underworld
Swamp
Don't want to play ox here so hate.
Pack 2 pick 12:
Defend the Hearth
Boulderfall
--> Destructive Revelry
Forest
More hate - get away from our spear.
Pack 2 pick 13:
--> Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Island
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Witches' Eye
Swamp
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Divine Verdict
Guardians of Meletis
Prescient Chimera
Annul
Titan's Strength
Yoked Ox
Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Boulderfall
Setessan Battle Priest
--> Heliod's Emissary
Arena Athlete
Warriors' Lesson
Reaper of the Wilds
Mountain
Could've been better, but RW has a problem with breaking through defenses and this kinda solves it. Fine enough for me.
Pack 3 pick 2:
Nessian Courser
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Breaching Hippocamp
Silent Artisan
Titan's Strength
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Felhide Minotaur
Borderland Minotaur
Battlewise Hoplite
Cutthroat Maneuver
Decorated Griffin
--> Boon Satyr
Island
Nah, I'm not passing one of the most ridiculous rares of the format. Not for some fillery crap.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Messenger's Speed
Mnemonic Wall
Cavalry Pegasus
Coastline Chimera
Rage of Purphoros
Satyr Hedonist
Boulderfall
Savage Surge
--> Magma Jet
Anvilwrought Raptor
Ordeal of Nylea
Reverent Hunter
Swamp
Jet is fine, but, to be honest, once again it doesn't seem like either white or red are open. Bad packs?
Pack 3 pick 4:
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
Crackling Triton
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Lagonna-Band Elder
Triton Shorethief
Traveler's Amulet
Dissolve
--> Flamespeaker Adept
Swan Song
Mountain
I have a bunch of scry spells going on so she'll be good in my deck.
Pack 3 pick 5:
Messenger's Speed
--> Gods Willing
Fleetfeather Sandals
Asphodel Wanderer
Breaching Hippocamp
Scholar of Athreos
Triton Shorethief
Burnished Hart
Satyr Piper
Steam Augury
Island
I dunno, is 3 gods willing too much? Or is it not? From my games I can say that it was quite enough. Besides, no other options here.
Pack 3 pick 6:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
--> Spark Jolt
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Chronicler of Heroes
Artisan's Sorrow
Swamp
Umm, red and white are open, right? It's kinda playable with the adept, but still...
Pack 3 pick 7:
Mnemonic Wall
--> Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
Priest of Iroas
Thassa's Bounty
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Disciple of Phenax
Swamp
At least something.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Mnemonic Wall
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Wavecrash Triton
Flamecast Wheel
Island
Our colors are not 100% dry, so I dunno. horrible packs? Weird printruns? Red is too shallow a color?
Pack 3 pick 9:
Guardians of Meletis
Yoked Ox
--> Wild Celebrants
Boulderfall
Setessan Battle Priest
Warriors' Lesson
Mountain
Well, contrary to the first pack, someone took strength and the athlete here, meaning that red indeed became occupied. Well, I'm in dire need for some muscle atm so I'm happy to pick celebrants.
Pack 3 pick 10:
Silent Artisan
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
--> Borderland Minotaur
Decorated Griffin
Island
And I'm happy to pick minotaur over a bear - see, looking on our curve, it's obvious we just can't do any sort of weenie rush. So let's go midgame. We're in the wrong colors for it, but that's the only option here.
Pack 3 pick 11:
Messenger's Speed
Satyr Hedonist
Boulderfall
--> Anvilwrought Raptor
Swamp
Pack 3 pick 12:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Commune with the Gods
--> Traveler's Amulet
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 13:
Triton Shorethief
--> Satyr Piper
Island
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Defend the Hearth
Swamp
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Swamp
Yeah, no Heliod here - just lots of his junk.
The deck:
1 Favored Hoplite
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Cavalry Pegasus
1 Traveling Philosopher
1 Flamespeaker Adept
1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
1 Two-Headed Cerberus
1 Wingsteed Rider
1 Borderland Minotaur
1 Heliod's Emissary
2 Ill-tempered Cyclops
2 Wild Celebrants
1 Coordinated Assault
3 Gods Willing
1 Titan's Strength
1 Magma Jet
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Spear of Heliod
9 Plains
8 Mountain
Not quite what I hoped for, indeed. Probably due to red and white being two weakest colors in this format, so if someone starts to cut your stuff or if some scrappy packs are opened, they won't support all of you.
Games:
Match 1 - janky RB with a rather bad pilot. I had a rather land-flooded hand in game 1, but he got terribly greedy and, instead of killing my Wingsteed Rider asap with his Magma Jet, he allowed me to untap and waited before I cast a Chosen by Heliod on it. Like, he wanted to 2-for-1 me - good luck versus a triple Gods Willing. After that point, he was out of the race. Game 2 he got slightly screwed so it was even easier.
Match 2 - hellish UGr with double Prognostic Sphinx, Arbor Colossus and at least two Voyaging Satyr. Never seen what he splashed red for, though. Anyhow, game 1 it's prognostic sphinx turn four for him - welcome to he permanent topdeck mode. We struggled for a while, but that was an uphill battle for me.
Things go my way game 2 - once again, he has a fast sphinx, but I manage to build my Wingsteed Rider into a killing machine - Ordeal of Heliod counters, Hopeful Eidolon, Heliod's Emissary. And he's removal lite so he can't do much about it. By the time he scryed his arbor colossus, he was forced to chupmblock with it or die immediately - rider was, like, 11/11 or so.
Game 3 - we have slow hands, he has another t5 sphinx(i'm already used to them), I have an Ill-tempered Cyclops with hopeful eidolon & ordeal counters, all under protection of spear of heliod. Things go well for me, but sphinx brings him relentless godlfishes, so spear gets dismantled and, while I put him down at 1 life, I can't go any further. I have some creatures, though, so, for a while, he also couldn't do a thing - it was too risky to do so. Game calms down for a while, but, as he thrown all his land away with his scrying, he has a huge advantage over me - soon, I see another prognostic and an arbor giant across the board. Things seem almost hopeless, but playing those sphinxes in the slow games has a drawback - he's almost out of time. So he's forced to attack with everything, leaving but 2 blockers at the base. I'm not dead, but I'm in the desperation mode - I feel like I can win here, I have some outs (both his blockers are green, so I had 3 outs in the 16 cards of my deck - hasty skullcleaver minotaur, third gods willing and a heliod's emissary), so on my upkeep I cast Titan's Strength at my eidolon (he's under 40 seconds so, even if I'm not topdecking, maybe I'll waste enough of his time - cheap tactics, but it's a cheap life we're living) I'm wasting his time. Scry - mountain. Down you go. Topdeck - hello there, mr. Emissary. What can I say - you need to know when to take a freefall and hope God will catch you.
Match 3 - slow and bomby bg. With Reaper of the Wilds even. Hail... Oh, wait, this is the wrong draft. Well, it went rather simple here - first game I'm screved so he wins, second and third are rather easy for me. They were so easy that I barely remember them - dude lacked removal so I just assembled my monstrosities and went for the win. First time it was another huge rider, iirc, second time it was an ordealed Flamespeaker Adept Nanto Suicho Ken-ing though his 8/9 viper (magma jet is a tech).
------ THS ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Battlewise Valor
Nessian Asp
Viper's Kiss
Annul
Titan's Strength
Yoked Ox
Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Deathbellow Raider
Savage Surge
Battlewise Hoplite
Warriors' Lesson
Pharika's Mender
--> Reaper of the Wilds
Mountain
I absolutely hate this pack. I'm not really keen on picking these multicolor rare bombs p1p1 as you can never guarantee you'll be passed at least one of their colors, but thing is, the only non-green decent card here is battlewise hoplite and it suffers from pretty much same problems. So I pick up the Reaper as the strongest card here, but, unless I'm given a pretty convincing reason to do so, I'm not fighting for green.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Divine Verdict
Sip of Hemlock
Bronze Sable
--> Wingsteed Rider
Island (FOIL)
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Chronicler of Heroes
Arena Athlete
Warriors' Lesson
Plains
Well, no green here, and p1p2 sip of hemlock also doesn't sound reasonable. KK, let's take the strongest card of the pack again and see where it'll lead us.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Sip of Hemlock
Stymied Hopes
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Breaching Hippocamp
Silent Artisan
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Boon of Erebos
Setessan Griffin
--> Coordinated Assault
Spellheart Chimera
Titan of Eternal Fire
Island
This time, it's nothing but red. Can't say that either assault or titan are signals 'cause they tend to go pretty late, but maybe they'll land us in the free color?
Pack 1 pick 4:
--> Nessian Asp
Viper's Kiss
Dragon Mantle
Fate Foretold
Portent of Betrayal
Observant Alseid
Defend the Hearth
Felhide Minotaur
Shredding Winds
Vanquish the Foul
Karametra's Acolyte
Forest
But no, suddenly, green is the free color. Well, not that I mind, but what about black, black interests us too?
Pack 1 pick 5:
Lash of the Whip
Chosen by Heliod
Lost in a Labyrinth
Agent of Horizons
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
Setessan Battle Priest
Rescue from the Underworld
--> Shipwreck Singer
Colossus of Akros
Plains
And black is also ripe for the taking. I make a stupid mistake here, though - I mean, staying open is nice and dandy, but we've got no reasons to go blue here. Should've picked either lash or rescue - they're roughly of the same power level.
Pack 1 pick 6:
Bronze Sable
Ephara's Warden
Feral Invocation
Returned Centaur
Fate Foretold
Portent of Betrayal
Sedge Scorpion
--> Ordeal of Erebos
Horizon Chimera
Plains
So we're lucky with the reaper. KK, let's follow with some ordeal madness - scorpion and feral are less of a signal than the ordeal.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Nessian Courser
March of the Returned
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Blood-Toll Harpy
Benthic Giant
Scholar of Athreos
--> Mogis's Marauder
Forest
Marauder is the most explosive one of these three, so I take him.
Pack 1 pick 8:
Cavalry Pegasus (FOIL)
Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Vulpine Goliath
Felhide Minotaur
Prowler's Helm
Island
Probably the best creature out of these four.
Pack 1 pick 9:
Viper's Kiss
Annul
Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Warriors' Lesson
--> Pharika's Mender
Mountain
Bring 'em on, baby.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Bronze Sable
Island (FOIL)
Asphodel Wanderer
Ray of Dissolution
--> Warriors' Lesson
Plains
So this was, like, sole green card of this pack and no one took it? Good. It's not that useful in the bg, but whatever.
Pack 1 pick 11:
--> Stymied Hopes
Silent Artisan
Yoked Ox
Spellheart Chimera
Island
God, I hate these things.
Pack 1 pick 12:
Viper's Kiss
--> Portent of Betrayal
Defend the Hearth
Forest
And, while kiss is sideboardable, I don't want anyone touching my big snake.
Pack 1 pick 13:
--> Lost in a Labyrinth
Setessan Battle Priest
Plains
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Bronze Sable
Plains
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
Fleshmad Steed
Leonin Snarecaster
Feral Invocation
Fate Foretold
Thassa's Bounty
Lagonna-Band Elder
Traveler's Amulet
Boulderfall
Nemesis of Mortals
Burnished Hart
Flamespeaker Adept
--> Mistcutter Hydra
Mountain
KK, first pack was good, but now let's prepare for a sucky second one - we've passed way too much green and black cards. Tough choice between nemesis and hydra, but I guess the title of the thread made this pretty obvious. I like hydra better - you can cast it at 3-4 mana reliably (if things go badly for you), haste gives it crazy tempo and it's absolutely devastating versus blue, the best color of format. Especially if they're deeply in blue - then it's a walking gg, wp. Hail, HYDRA!
Pack 2 pick 2:
Nimbus Naiad
Nylea's Disciple
Lash of the Whip
--> Baleful Eidolon
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
Savage Surge
Disciple of Phenax
Akroan Hoplite
Rescue from the Underworld
Witches' Eye
Forest
The biggest problem of BG is it's lack of cheap removal and tempo, so it really needs either mana accel or some speed bumps to survive until that sweet, sweet late game.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Stymied Hopes
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Leafcrown Dryad
Yoked Ox
--> Baleful Eidolon
Annul
Wingsteed Rider
Wild Celebrants
Voyage's End
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Stoneshock Giant
Erebos's Emissary
Island
Emissary is probably better, but what's the point of a great bestow card if you can't survive 'til you bestow it?
Pack 2 pick 4:
Nylea's Presence
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Satyr Hedonist
Satyr Rambler
Leonin Snarecaster
Feral Invocation
--> Sedge Scorpion
Scholar of Athreos
Burnished Hart
Ordeal of Nylea
Mountain
Hmm, this pack is much better than I thought it would be - everyone got too scared about bg? Good. And yeah, sedge vs ordeal because I won't have that many aggressive early drops and I still need defenses.
Pack 2 pick 5:
March of the Returned
Fleshmad Steed
Aqueous Form
Silent Artisan
Blood-Toll Harpy
Borderland Minotaur
Destructive Revelry
Witches' Eye
Insatiable Harpy
--> Temple of Deceit
Mountain
Ticket, please. Otherwise - insatiable harpy.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
--> Blood-Toll Harpy
Spearpoint Oread
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Opaline Unicorn
Destructive Revelry
Gift of Immortality
Island
Don't think I need another goliath and I have to block those flyers somehow.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Guardians of Meletis
Loathsome Catoblepas
Peak Eruption (FOIL)
Spark Jolt
Returned Phalanx
Borderland Minotaur
Scholar of Athreos
--> Tormented Hero
Swamp
More and more early game. And he isn't that useless late game for us - he's a great target for those baleful eidolons.
Pack 2 pick 8:
Dragon Mantle
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Wingsteed Rider
Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Felhide Minotaur
Warriors' Lesson
Plains
What the hell is going on here? No wingsteed rider tables on my watch, especially as it's one of the cards that bg is vulnerable to.
Pack 2 pick 9:
Demolish
Ephara's Warden
--> Fleshmad Steed
Leonin Snarecaster
Thassa's Bounty
Boulderfall
Mountain
Pack 2 pick 10:
Traveling Philosopher
Silent Artisan
--> Disciple of Phenax
Rescue from the Underworld
Witches' Eye
Forest
I really like discard in this format - proliferation of tricks means that people almost always have something remaining in their hands. I've yet to cast him as a vanilla 1/3. Also, same tricks-dependency means that knowing your opponents hand can be really, really, really awesome as you know exactly what to expect. Sucks to let another rescue go, but what can I do?
Pack 2 pick 11:
Yoked Ox
Annul
Wild Celebrants
--> Erebos's Emissary
Island
Right.
Pack 2 pick 12:
Demolish
--> Satyr Hedonist
Leonin Snarecaster
Mountain
Pack 2 pick 13:
--> Fleshmad Steed
Witches' Eye
Mountain
Pack 2 pick 14:
--> Fleetfeather Sandals
Island
Good. I'm extremely low on tricks and removal atm and you have to get that damage through somehow. Besides, it helps us block fliers.
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Swamp
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Nessian Courser
Returned Centaur
Griptide
Commune with the Gods
Hopeful Eidolon
Mogis's Marauder (FOIL)
Setessan Griffin
Artisan's Sorrow
Mogis's Marauder
Arena Athlete
--> Nylea, God of the Hunt
Forest
Judging by our green costs, here chances of actually running somewhere are minimal, but that's ok - we have tons of deathtouch and big bodies, and those two do wonders when sprinkled by trample. Pump is also not to be underestimated and, finally, she's worth enough money to merit a first pick.
Pack 3 pick 2:
Fleetfeather Sandals
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Guardians of Meletis
Battlewise Valor
Loathsome Catoblepas
--> Baleful Eidolon
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Vaporkin
Deathbellow Raider
Stoneshock Giant
Glare of Heresy
Dauntless Onslaught
Swamp
Tough choice, lol.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Mnemonic Wall
Cavalry Pegasus
Loathsome Catoblepas
--> Voyaging Satyr
Spearpoint Oread
Unknown Shores
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
Boulderfall
Dissolve
Decorated Griffin
Psychic Intrusion
Swamp
Tough choice 2.0
Pack 3 pick 4:
Gods Willing
Prescient Chimera
Yoked Ox
--> Voyaging Satyr
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Gainsay
Pharika's Mender
Nylea's Emissary
Island
Emissary and mender are extremely tempting, but, as I've said, bg needs tempo so that's what I'm giving it.
Pack 3 pick 5:
--> Lash of the Whip
Chosen by Heliod
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Spark Jolt
Coastline Chimera
Triton Shorethief
Traveler's Amulet
Horizon Scholar
Sealock Monster
Plains
I'm getting decent card, but y'know, these packs are surprisingly shallow. Everyone opend a bg bomb and ran there at the third pack?
Pack 3 pick 6:
Nylea's Presence
Nimbus Naiad
Benthic Giant
Unknown Shores
Akroan Crusader
--> Cavern Lampad
Anvilwrought Raptor
Flamecast Wheel
Shipwreck Singer
Mountain
Lampad is pretty cool for me, but once again, it's not what you expect from the previous two packs.
Pack 3 pick 7:
--> Gods Willing
Satyr Hedonist
Last Breath
Unknown Shores
Wavecrash Triton
Traveler's Amulet
Peak Eruption
Evangel of Heliod
Mountain
I'm not willing to pass this card.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Messenger's Speed
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Commune with the Gods
Ray of Dissolution
Wavecrash Triton
--> Hunt the Hunter
Plains
Should've took fade, probably - I don't have that much green critters to cast it reliably.
Pack 3 pick 9:
Cavalry Pegasus
Stymied Hopes
Returned Centaur
Commune with the Gods
Setessan Griffin
--> Artisan's Sorrow
Forest
This pack was choke-full of both black and green so I've expected for an awesome tabling, but... At least this is workable.
Pack 3 pick 10:
Fleetfeather Sandals
--> Loathsome Catoblepas
Traveling Philosopher
Two-Headed Cerberus
Deathbellow Raider
Swamp
Should've hated cerberus.
Pack 3 pick 11:
Mnemonic Wall
--> Loathsome Catoblepas
Asphodel Wanderer
Boulderfall
Swamp
And the wall.
Pack 3 pick 12:
Yoked Ox
--> Wild Celebrants
Gainsay
Island
Pack 3 pick 13:
--> Coastline Chimera
Triton Shorethief
Plains
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Benthic Giant
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Mountain
Well, that's one of the biggest dangers of 4322 - colors may shift suddenly and absolutely unpredictably. At least I've grabbed enough crazy picks before that happened.
Oh, and also - hail, HYDRA!
The deck:
1 Sedge Scorpion
1 Tormented Hero
3 Baleful Eidolon
2 Voyaging Satyr
1 Blood-toll Harpy
1 Mogis's Marauder
1 Cavern Lampad
1 Disciple of Phenax
1 Erebos's Emissary
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Reaper of the Wilds
1 Nessian Asp
1 Pharika's Mender
1 Vulpine Goliath
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Warriors' Lesson
1 Fleetfeather Sandals
1 Ordeal of Erebos
1 Artisan's Sorrow
1 Lash of the Whip
Lands(17)
1 Temple of Deceit
8 Swamp
8 Forest
Hail, HYDRA!
The games:
Match 1 - boros opp. First game he gets mull into land screw, doesn't stand a chance against the nefarious might of the HYDRA. Hail, HYDRA! Second we both have slow hands, so it results in a stand off - I have a board full of my naturally huge guys + Nylea (heck, she was even animated, just so you understand what a stall that was), he had a lesser board but also with huge creatures as he was pumping and pumping and pumping his Phalanx Leader, and I, obviously, couldn't really attack into that crap as he had a hand full of tricks, and all went fine and dandy until I got my Mogis's Marauder and suddenly attacked for 33 unblockable damage or so. He played all of his tricks before my attacks, hoping that I misclick and skip the attack, and when that didn't help, he ragequit. And made my day by doing so - I dunno, it's so awesome when your opp ragequits.
Now, yeah, sure, he was screwed in the first one, but second one? His fault for failing to break my early defenses (especially when I was missing my fifth mana for two turns, and that's with a hand choke full of 5 mana spells) and doing random stuff like wasting Portent of Betrayal on his leader to get 4 +1/+1 counters spread around. It wasn't even that lucky of topdeck - I have lampad, mogis and sandals, with 16 cards in my decks remaining, it's not surprising I've topdecked at least one of those.
Match 2 - nice UW opp. Game 1 he gets screwed (yeah, some easy wins for me here), game 2 I rush him with various deathtouchers (no matter how cool Hundred-Handed One is in blocking, he sucks against deathtouchers) and Hydra. Hail, HYDRA!
Match 3 - UG opp. More like UUg, even. Game 1 - we both mull to six, resulting in a rather slow game. I bait out his Sedge Scorpion in the process, then, as I hit my 7th mana, 6/6 hydra jumps on the table. He's at 12 life and he's really, really blue. Hail, HYDRA!
Game 2 - time for me to get screwed. For quite a while, I'm sitting on 3 forests, I'm even forced to play Hydra as a 2/2, and play "early beats" with it and my own Sedge Scorpion. Still, his hand is kinda slow, so by the time I get my mana, I'm still on the offensive. I drop a couple of enchantments on my hydra and rush with it for the win. Hail, HYDRA!
1.5 there's zero point to pick asphodel wandered 1.5 - it's a horrible card (and let's draft some ordeal first to live that dream) that you can easy see pick 11+.
2.2 there were strong signals that red was dry pack 1, going strike here would be suicidal.
2.3 I'm already in two colors and revenge isn't that good for a defensive WB deck. so I bounce their guys, then what? It's not like I'll be able to do tons of damage in a short period of time.
2.4 in 4322, 4th pick dauntless is almost always a huge signal.
3.2 yeah, we need lampad because the archetype is totally about tapping your creatures.
And the title of the thread is a rather obvious pun, it shouldn't be hard to understand, I think.
1.1 It's a bad pick. Sure, lion is a bomb, but theros is not a multicolor format and, by taking it, you're absolutely banking your first pick on the chance that you'll get passed both green and white. That's a very cheeky strat, especially since you pass both voyaging satyr and a divine verdict. Verdict is fine, but satyr is a really strong green card passed. The valid pick here is either voyage or merchant - they're equally powerful so choose your favorite flavor. But even if you want to play an all-in with lion...
1.2 You don't do this. You've made a commitment to lion, you've gotta honor it. Now, there are two good ways to do so - Akroan Horse (which is much better than it looks; and it's really good with two white main strategies - phalanx leader and wingsteed rider) or Ordeal of Thassa (so you go UG splash white). Oread is a mediocre card in the worst color and it doesn't deserve to be picked that high.
1.5 Triton is a huge blue signal, btw. At this point, you should've really considered switching into said UGw.
1.6 Definitely scorpion. First, you already have an ordeal - you want first drops for those sweet, sweet ordeal wipeouts. Second, in this format, early drops are rare (and mostly weak) while late drops are rather plentiful, so when you're choosing between expensive and a cheap card, almost always go for a cheap one. Besides, you're not surviving until goliath unless you kill their early aggression with scorpions.
1.7 you're in gw - you have enough filler creatures so you will never have to play these. pick glare of heresy, you'll want to side it in and you don't want to see it used by your opponent. Other option here is dragon mantle as you've already taken the oread.
2.3 divine verdict. pump spells are overabundant in this format, besides, you have no heroes and, at this stage, you're not that likely to gain lots of those. Not the broken ones, at the very least. And removal is scarce, so verdict is the pick here.
2.7 battlewise valor, last breath or even triton tactics for the splash (blue is flowing freely so you have good chances of splashing for something powerful). 3rd griffin is awful - you never want to play with more than two.
2.11 I'd hated the sip - seems like you have enough early drops.
3.3 Ordeal. I love time to feed, but, looking at your pool, your creatures don't look big enough to guarantee reliable fighting. Also, you have chronicler of heros and you have to activate it somehow.
And, well, after that you see that your blind dedication to lion has led you into overdrafted colors and there are no good cards for you there. Should've stayed flexible and went blue, probably.
And, well, it's your right, but what's the point of quitting now, without learning from your mistakes? It just guarantees that during the next set you'll have same problems.
The draft:
------ THS ------
Pack 1 pick 1:
Bronze Sable
Ephara's Warden
Sip of Hemlock
Returned Centaur
Hopeful Eidolon
Fate Foretold
Portent of Betrayal
Observant Alseid
Setessan Griffin
Triton Shorethief
Kragma Warcaller
Dissolve
Warriors' Lesson
--> Shipbreaker Kraken
Plains
Truth to be told, I don't like Kraken that much. Or, well, I like him enough because 6/6 brick for six is rather acceptable in this format, but I don't really expect him to be something more than that - this isn't sealed, decks are much faster here and often you'll be dead long before you hit that eighth land. He's still a bomb, but he's not the "end of all" guy that he seems to be (same goes for Hythonia - from my experience, she's much more situational than she seems to be). Still, rest of the pack is rather weak - I don't feel like forcing minotaurs with first pick warcaller (you force minotaurs after you get, like, 9th pick warcaller) and hopeful eidolon is good, but not good enough to go white for him. So Kraken it is.
Pack 1 pick 2:
Gods Willing
--> Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Prescient Chimera
Coastline Chimera
Pharika's Cure
Defend the Hearth
Leonin Snarecaster
Priest of Iroas
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Borderland Minotaur
Ordeal of Erebos
Horizon Chimera
Ordeal of Nylea
Plains
Now that's a pack with a tough choice. Ordeal offers us the usual potential ordeal madness and it's really synergistic with kraken. But merchant can be pretty radical too and he also helps our beastie, just in a different way - he (and the whole UB deck) can stall the game long enough for us to gather those 8 lands. I don't think there's a right pick here (one of the biggest fallacies of some players is thinking that there can only right pick in every pack - that's absolutely untrue; lot of stuff can and will depend on your personal preferrences and playstyle), so I go with a controllish pick because that's the style I prefer.
Pack 1 pick 3:
Nylea's Presence
Fate Foretold (FOIL)
Demolish
Spearpoint Oread
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Boon of Erebos
--> Magma Jet
Cutthroat Maneuver
Satyr Piper
Swamp
And what follows is another horrible pack. I don't mind against maneuver or boon or even fates, but definitely not as a 3rd pick. The only cards that's worth a 3rd pick here is Magma Jet (and even that, barely) so that's what we'll take - red is the most underdrafted color in theros so I like to keep it as my back-up plan. If one of your colors is suddenly closed, most of the times, you will be able to catch up with red.
Pack 1 pick 4:
Chosen by Heliod
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Read the Bones
Last Breath
Unknown Shores
Crackling Triton
Disciple of Phenax
Dissolve
Peak Eruption
--> Temple of Triumph
Island
To quote the great Al Pacino character, when in doubt... KK, let's not quote that. But what I mean is - since I've got absolutely no Idea which colors I'm drafting and signals are anything but clear at this point, I'm picking money. And, if I end up with a lousy faildeck in the wrong colors, at least I'll be able to splash something good.
Pack 1 pick 5:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Divine Verdict
Time to Feed
Asphodel Wanderer
Breaching Hippocamp
Silent Artisan
Titan's Strength
Ray of Dissolution
Battlewise Hoplite
Prowler's Helm
Swamp
5 picks - 4 different colors, way to go! The choice here is between time to feed, hoplite and verdict. Hoplite seems risky with our muddled colros, time to feed is dangerous because we've passed some good green, so let's take the verdict. Maybe we'll construct a removal-heavy UW or BW deck and I really love removal-heavy decks in this format.
Pack 1 pick 6:
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Unknown Shores
Portent of Betrayal
Commune with the Gods
Returned Phalanx
Scholar of Athreos
--> Disciple of Phenax
Sentry of the Underworld
Forest
Sentry is tempting, but he's not a signal, there's no more signals for white and I really want to play that Gray Merchant. Let's try to finalize ourselves in black and choose the second color later.
Pack 1 pick 7:
Nylea's Disciple
Messenger's Speed
--> Baleful Eidolon
Benthic Giant
Annul
Vaporkin
Felhide Minotaur
Witches' Eye
Forest
Late eidolon and vaporkin. Eidolon seems like a safer bet so I take him - as I've said, I'm finalizing myself in black.
Pack 1 pick 8:
Agent of Horizons (FOIL)
--> Fleshmad Steed
Benthic Giant
Annul
Traveling Philosopher
Wild Celebrants
Anvilwrought Raptor
Mountain
Really don't want to play anything from this pack, so let's take the only black card.
Pack 1 pick 9:
Bronze Sable
Ephara's Warden
Returned Centaur
--> Fate Foretold
Triton Shorethief
Warriors' Lesson
Plains
Keeping the UB option open - fate is kinda fillery, but it's pretty much required if you want to run a wavecrasher triton or two.
Pack 1 pick 10:
Coastline Chimera
--> Pharika's Cure
Defend the Hearth
Priest of Iroas
Ordeal of Nylea
Plains
Finally, some positive signal! Slamming the cure, but what's amazing here is this late, late ordeal - from the previous packs, could you really say that green is this open? Well, there was a time to feed - nylea's disciple - nylea's disciple chain and maybe I'm undervaluing disciples a little... but there were no voyaging satyrs, for example, or early game drops, and without those disciples are rather crappy. So I'm not sure if going green is legit option here.
Pack 1 pick 11:
Nylea's Presence
Demolish
--> Breaching Hippocamp
Satyr Piper
Swamp
UB? Hippo can do wonders against bad players, but then, pretty much everything can.
Pack 1 pick 12:
--> Viper's Kiss
Unknown Shores
Peak Eruption
Island
Pack 1 pick 13:
Silent Artisan
--> Ray of Dissolution
Swamp
I love to hate disenchants whenever I'm able - you really don't want your baleful eidolon to catch one of this, especially when in bestowed form and after blocks.
Pack 1 pick 14:
--> Commune with the Gods
Forest
Pack 1 pick 15:
--> Forest
------ THS ------
Pack 2 pick 1:
Nylea's Disciple
Lash of the Whip
Messenger's Speed
Gods Willing
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Wingsteed Rider
Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Ordeal of Erebos
Horizon Chimera
Thassa's Emissary
--> Purphoros, God of the Forge
Plains
And so, after a sucky first pack, I open money in the second one. Money and tons of the card my deck needs. Ouch. Still, it's not a 8-4 so passing tix doesn't sound like a winning proposition to me. Not to mention that, with black being the only fixated color of ours, we can still go BR. Now, if this was 8-4, then second merchant would've been a perfect choice (it's a snowball type of card so getting as much as possible is necessary), but we're rocking the 4322 way.
Pack 2 pick 2:
Lightning Strike
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Divine Verdict
Spearpoint Oread
Breaching Hippocamp
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Voyaging Satyr
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Glare of Heresy
Ordeal of Nylea
Prowler's Helm
Swamp
And so the opportunity to go red arises... But I rewatch my picks from pack 1 and understand that no amount of red was going around late, meaning it's too risky to do so. No good blue or black here, so let's go with our third option - white. Seems like we can do well with BW at this point.
Pack 2 pick 3:
Chosen by Heliod
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
--> Pharika's Cure
Rage of Purphoros
Savage Surge
Opaline Unicorn
Sea God's Revenge
Tormented Hero
Evangel of Heliod
Island
Revenge is tempting, but point is, are we blue? We don't know so we take weaker, but 100% useful Pharika's Cure. One has to now when to be greedy and when to let it go.
Pack 2 pick 4:
Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Defend the Hearth
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Last Breath
Cavern Lampad
Hunt the Hunter
--> Dauntless Onslaught
Swamp
KK, black-white we are. Dunno about next pack, but during this we're certainly in for a treat.
Pack 2 pick 5:
Cavalry Pegasus
Nylea's Disciple
Stymied Hopes
Returned Centaur
Commune with the Gods
Spark Jolt
Setessan Griffin
Centaur Battlemaster
--> Keepsake Gorgon
Witches' Eye
Forest
Well, I've expected white treats, but I won't mind against black ones either. p5 Gorgon is almost too good to be true.
Pack 2 pick 6:
Leafcrown Dryad
--> Chosen by Heliod
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Nylea's Presence
Agent of Horizons
Crackling Triton
Spark Jolt
Destructive Revelry
Evangel of Heliod
Swamp
Charity time is over, it seems. Doesn't look like I'm having enough white to use evangel efficiently, so let's take the trusty chosen - at its worse, it cycles. It's also rather good with baleful eidolons.
Pack 2 pick 7:
Loathsome Catoblepas
Fate Foretold
Thassa's Bounty
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Triton Shorethief
Pharika's Mender
Swamp
At least something. It's not that bad in defensive BW strat - trades with lots of attacking creatures and we're all about stalling the game so 3 life are rather important.
Pack 2 pick 8:
Mnemonic Wall
Viper's Kiss
Lost in a Labyrinth
Fade into Antiquity
Satyr Rambler
--> Scholar of Athreos
Felhide Minotaur
Island
Good, pointless to go BW without at least a pair of them. They're the reason you stall the game, after all. They're still not a high pick, but they are gamebreaking in the properly built archetype.
Pack 2 pick 9:
--> Lash of the Whip
Messenger's Speed
Two-Headed Cerberus
Vulpine Goliath
Traveler's Amulet
Shredding Winds
Plains
Considering how tightly-packed this booster was, not much surprise in seeing the Lash circle. I don't like it that much, but I'll still take it - I want as much removal as possible.
Pack 2 pick 10:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
Vulpine Goliath
Asphodel Wanderer
Ray of Dissolution
--> Glare of Heresy
Swamp
excellent sideboard card, never hurts to have these.
Pack 2 pick 11:
Chosen by Heliod
--> Lagonna-Band Elder
Lost in a Labyrinth
Evangel of Heliod
Island
once again, evangel is for white-centric deck so we'll just take another elder.
Pack 2 pick 12:
Defend the Hearth
--> Agent of Horizons
Hunt the Hunter
Swamp
gotta hate what I can't block.
Pack 2 pick 13:
Commune with the Gods
--> Witches' Eye
Forest
Pack 2 pick 14:
Pheres-Band Centaurs
--> Swamp
Pack 2 pick 15:
--> Swamp
------ THS ------
Pack 3 pick 1:
Gods Willing
--> Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Prescient Chimera
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Returned Centaur
Griptide
Messenger's Speed (FOIL)
Ray of Dissolution
Vaporkin
Karametra's Acolyte
Phalanx Leader
Insatiable Harpy
Steam Augury
Plains
Harpy is cool & stuff, but she has to survive and get through the blockers to deal that damage and, at the moment, our deck has almost nothing to help her do so. I'll rather pick the reliable merchant. And, well, phalanx is awesome, but we also have almost nothing to support him.
Pack 3 pick 2:
--> Divine Verdict
Sip of Hemlock
Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Spearpoint Oread
Unknown Shores
Aqueous Form
Asphodel Wanderer
Wavecrash Triton
Cavern Lampad
Chronicler of Heroes
Warriors' Lesson
Labyrinth Champion
Plains
Not much choice here - let's play kill 'em all style of deck. Verdict over sip because 4 mana removal is better than a 6 mana one. And I expect either sip or lampad to circle.
Pack 3 pick 3:
Nylea's Disciple
Messenger's Speed
Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Benthic Giant
Time to Feed
Savage Surge
--> Opaline Unicorn
Kragma Warcaller
Witches' Eye
Triton Tactics
Psychic Intrusion
Forest
Rats. A perfectly empty pack for our already scrappy card pool. That's a serious hit below the waist. Well, I pick unicorn as there are zero other options her and it, at least, allows us to splash something (if we want to run him, that is).
Pack 3 pick 4:
Viper's Kiss
Dragon Mantle
Omenspeaker
--> Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Blood-Toll Harpy
Benthic Giant
Opaline Unicorn
Ray of Dissolution
Tormented Hero
Horizon Scholar
Triton Fortune Hunter
Forest
Now that's much better! I click on it with a trembling hand, but what's amazing here is this deluge of quality blue cards - really, pack 1 the only decent thing we saw was pick 7 vaporkin (which isn't a big deal anyways). And now it's blue galore - someone changed their plans during the second pack? Eh, these tables are utterly chaotic.
Pack 3 pick 5:
Mnemonic Wall
Cavalry Pegasus
--> Traveler's Amulet (FOIL)
Titan's Strength
Traveling Philosopher
Yoked Ox
Benthic Giant
Setessan Battle Priest
Anvilwrought Raptor
Decorated Griffin
Swamp
And another empty pack. Well, there's, like, tons of white here, only we want none of that. Let's take the amulet - at this point, we're bound to splash for something.
Pack 3 pick 6:
Battlewise Valor
Yoked Ox
--> Baleful Eidolon
Annul
Wild Celebrants
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Battlewise Hoplite
Gainsay
Spellheart Chimera
Mountain
At least something goes our way. Eidolon over valor as we're in dire need of early defenders.
Pack 3 pick 7:
Nylea's Presence
Fleetfeather Sandals
Demolish
Vulpine Goliath
Annul
--> Scholar of Athreos
Magma Jet
Satyr Piper
Swamp
Ouch. I'm splashing red, obviously, as I have the temple already, and I really wanna this magma jet... But the second Scholar is crucial. There's no other ways of putting it - you either have them or you lose with this kind of deck.
Pack 3 pick 8:
Ephara's Warden
--> Sip of Hemlock
Stymied Hopes
Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Commune with the Gods
Lagonna-Band Elder
Ray of Dissolution
Island
Don't have enough enchantments to support 3x elders properly (and I really don't need that much 3/2 bodies for 3, this deck is not about tapping creatures to attack), so more removal for me. Stall the game until their small guys are useless, kill all of their bombs, drain them dry for the victory - that's our plan.
Pack 3 pick 9:
Priest of Iroas
Fade into Antiquity
Messenger's Speed (FOIL)
Ray of Dissolution
Vaporkin
--> Steam Augury
Plains
I don't have much faith in it so I make this stupid raredraft - should've taken the ray.
Pack 3 pick 10:
Bronze Sable
Messenger's Speed
Unknown Shores
Asphodel Wanderer
--> Cavern Lampad
Plains
We're not about attacking, but we still need fillers and lampad isn't that bad in our deck - we drain them low and then finish with one or two intimidating swipes.
Pack 3 pick 11:
Messenger's Speed
--> Yoked Ox
Wild Celebrants
Witches' Eye
Forest
Don't think I need him - I'm already well-protected from early assaults, and oxen aren't that great without ordeals.
Pack 3 pick 12:
Benthic Giant
--> Ray of Dissolution
Horizon Scholar
Forest
Thankfully, fellow drafters forgave my stupidity and gave me a second ray. Still, look at how bloody gaping open the blue is - was there a single indication of this pack 1?
Pack 3 pick 13:
Mnemonic Wall
--> Yoked Ox
Swamp
Should've hated the wall.
Pack 3 pick 14:
--> Spellheart Chimera
Mountain
Pack 3 pick 15:
--> Swamp
The deck:
Sucky draft leads to sucky deck, obviously.
2 Baleful Eidolon
2 Lagonna-Band Elder
2 Scholar of Athreos
1 Cavern Lampad
1 Disciple of Phenax
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Keepsake Gorgon
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Magma Jet
2 Pharika's Cure
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Dauntless Onslaught
3 Divine Verdict
1 Lash of the Whip
1 Sip of Hemlock
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Mountain
6 Plains
9 Swamp
Of course, the big question here is Purphoros. Like, ours deck is not aggressive and he's never becoming a creature, obviously, so is there point? Well, I've looked at my creatures and saw that our chances of tapping them are not very likely, meaning that we'll have to drain them dry with merchants and scholars. And, well, Purphoros acting as a plain Lava Axe goes rather well with that plan, besides, his pumping ability may scare off some attacks, allowing us for much better trades than usually possible. And, since I literally had no non-filler cards, what choice did I have? Maindeck ray of Dissolution and that's it. So I went on with "big risk - big reward" option. When your deck is below average, sometimes you have to bet on unstable, but explosive combinations.
The games:
That was the toughest draft of my life. Literally. I was so tired after it that I couldn't do anything for the rest of the day. If I knew it would be so horrible, I would've dropped early, I think, but I got enthralled in the process so that never came to my mind as an option.
Match 1 - BR minotaurs. Lots of Kragma Warcallers (3, at the very least), but otherwise slow and kinda fillery. My first game is won by a very clever decision to delay casting my Disciple of Phenax for a while - I can land him on a 4th turn, but instead, I divine verdict his Two-Headed Cerberus, drop Keepsake Gorgon on my fifth turn and only then comes the disciple, looking at his entire hand and hitting warcaller. He thoughtseizes my gray merchant in return, but after that it all turns into a great stalemate and, as we already have scholar on board, stalemate is absolutely in our favor.
Game 2 - he has ridiculous start, we have a horrible hand so, with his 2 warcallers on turn 6, he pretty much devastates us.
Game 3 - tbh, either he had horrible card poll or he sideboarded improperly, but he started it with an asphodel wanderer, a cards that's extremely useful against a deck that almost never attacks. We trade some cheap creatures and removals, but then I get stuck on 5 mana - and my hand is keepsake gorgon, gray merchant of asphodel, lash of the whip and sip of hemlock. My board is Lagonna-Band Elder under Chosen of Heliod + a clutch Cavern Lampad (had to spend that mana somewhere), his is Asphodel Wanderer, Akroan Crusader and a Spearpoint Oread under Ordeal of Purphoros. As you can see, I need to lash that oread fast, but that darn fifth land... Then he makes a huge mistake by thoughtseizing our gray merchant - we're at 20, btw, so he's much less important than whip. And he does nothing more for the turn. Of course, instead of land we topdeck another merchant - pass turn. He untaps and drops a Warcaller, but, for some reasons, refrains from attacking. He knows our hand - does he think we're lucky enough to topdeck a Divine Verdict? Then, at last, we topdeck the fifth land, but now we can't spend the lash on the oread - he drops Fanatic of Mogis and in responce we kill the warcaller. Thankfully, we keep topdecking lands, so we drop the gorgon, sip of hemlock the oread and he just keeps dropping Felhide Minotaurs, which, without warcaller, are nothing. I have 7 lands, but I'm rather cautious about gorgon trigger - I need to save it for something decent, i.e. warcaller. I also topdeck another merchant, so suddenly I'm at 29 and he's at 4. No options of getting those final points through, yet. Then I topdecked purphoros, but no creatures, and then he had a merchant of his own, getting back to 10. And then it went like "drop a warcaller - I kill it, drop a dangerous bomb - I kill it" until turn 25 of the game, where I finally topdecked my scholar. With 16 lands (I was flooded horribly - 16 lands with 8 cards in the deck remaining - he had 13 lands and 1 card in hand) , that was more than enough to drain my opp down.
I thought that was a grueling game, boy, I was wrong...
Match 2 - RB. This time, no minotaurs, just good stuff - Agent of Fates, Labyrynth Champion (arguably, he hadn't had enough stuff to support both), Whip of Erebos, Hammer of Purphoros, Keepsake Gorgon... Dude wasn't screwing around.
Game 1 - I got beat into sumbission by the whip. You know how it goes - you trade early removal and blockers, then whip goes online and all the life you drained with merchants is vanished and you're getting dealt damage outta nowhere and opp has, like, infinite hps. Good luck racing that.
Game 2 - I make a huge mistake and, disappointed with the result of the first, forget to side in my Ray of Dissolution. Like, I forget they exist. Oh, crap. Early game favors me - my Scholar of Athreos holds off his Tormented Hero and Bronze Sable (i guess RB was real shallow around the table so he was forced to run some filler), he tries to bluff me into not blocking and I get his sable for free. Then we exchange removal and creatures until, his turn 10, he slams down the whip. With a graveyard full of 5/4 and 4/3 bodies. Is that GG? Well, I have a Scholar of Athreos + Cavern Lampad(I hoped to race, lol) and a Scholar of Athreos+ Chosen by Heliod gestalts and 7 lands, so let's see how that whip will fare against a 3/6 and 1/6 blockers that'll drain our lives back. Unfortunately, 1/6 disciple was burned away rather quickly (Lightning Strike finished it off), but at least it taught me that I must be very careful with the remaining one. I also topdecked a clutch Pharika's Cure versus his Labyrinth's Champion+Dragon Mantle combo. So the next time he raised a critter from the dead, I didn't blocked - I just burned the champion and, eot, drained him with my remaining mana. We're both flooded - turn 13 I have 9 lands, he has 10. I'm at 18. And see, the wonder of scholar (in comparison to whip) that, while whip drains us faster, it's bound to run out of the targets sooner or later whereas our scholar can suck all night long. And that's how it went - we topdecked more and more lands, and my refusal to block with disciple made him desperate and so he used his Titan's Strength as a simple "deal 3, gain 3" spell. I was at 7, but he had an empty grave (and 26 life, lol) - big mistake. The standoff continues. He draws his hammer but, before he's able to overcome us with his army of golems, we finish him with a Purphoros+Gray Merchant sudden death combo (sprinkled with tons of scholar activations, obviously). Yet that wasn't a true test of our mettle.
Game 3 was. I hope you'll excuse me, but I just don't have the strength of will to recall the sheer horror of it. Suffice to say it ended with me having 4 cards in my deck remaining - opponent had empty board, 3 cards in his deck, 2 cards, and all those cards were lands. We had to deal with every single card in his deck to win, and, since we've drawn 16 of our lands rather early, all this was done while he had an absolute upper hand. Like, I was hanging by the skin of my teeth for the entire duration of the game, barely finding the answers for his threats, grimly watching how his bronze sable gnaws me to death while I can do nothing about it, drawing lands after lands after lands... I guess the only thing that went right for me here was drawing my two ray of dissolutions (I've sided them in - not stepping on the same rakes twice) right on time when he dropped his whip and hammer. Even so, that was a mistake on his part - seeing the direction the game at that point, he should've waited until he could've activated them immediately. But, well, not many players are actually knowledgeable about ultra-stall, extremely-late game plans - I've got my experience while playing Urza, Masques and Mirage drafts, there it's a relatively common occurrence. Anyhow, he should've got me with his whip if knew what's he's doing - even with his mistakes, I was at 1 life at one point of the game, so that's what he was missing. He spared me another time - I had 12 lands on the table, 2 lands in hand and his attack should've been devastating. Yet he was afraid - he just couldn't have believed I have nothing but lands. After that, I was forced to feed his Wild Celebrants my Gray Merchant just to survive, but, finally, I got some form of reprieve via Keepsake Gorgon. It killed the 5/4, then he traded his bronze sable (the same from before - it lived for, like, 15 turns) and a dragon's mantle for me. I'm at 3, he's at 9. His last hopes were tormented hero and spearpoint oread (separately), but pharika's cure and gray merchant dealt with them. GG time.
Mach 3 - GW. Lots of heroic, lots of devotion, Boon Satyr, Strong deck, but also one of my best matchups. Game 1 is easy for us - 2 x baleful eidolon, other removal and no amount of his creatures and bestows are able to get through our defenses. He tried, but every single trick of his were punished by us, and in an extremely unfavorable manner for him. We got flooded once again, but I had a keepsake gorgon and his 2/2 & 3/2 filler remnants just couldn't do anything about her, so she slowly slapped my opp to his death (while being 2/5 - I saved her monstrous for something huge).
Game 2 he showed us an early fleecemane lion and, well, that's a card we can't deal with. I tried to build a sufficiently big scholar to block it indefinitely, but his bestows were larger and more numerous so I failed, obviously.
Game 3 was like game 1, only I had Rays of Dissolution and Glare of Heresy sided in. And I wasn't flooded or screwed, so I just eradicated everything that he had for the win. Finally, an easy game.
2.1 You're overvaluing daxos and, anyhow, you're already green and double-spash is just something that you shouldn't really do. TBH, you should've picked hopeful eidolon and went GW at that point - eidolon is huge with green fatties.
2.5 once again, eidolon. eidolon + either colossus or nemesis is extremely stupid, and if you add a time to feed in the mix...
2.7 sandals. if you're heavy in green, it really pays to have at least one. if not maindeck, then for sideboard purposes.
2.9 warden. it's really great sideboard against the BW matchup, for example. your doublesplash costs you too much.
2.10 last breath. at this point, you really can't hope to proc chronicler reliably. And breath has its place - you think it's jank, then you remove a Keepsake Gorgon with it and suddenly, junk it is not.
2.11 kk, if 2.10 last breath was arguable, here it is definite. you don't have enough humans at this point and there are no guarantees you'll get them.
3.3 time to feed. anthousa is pretty much a vanilla 4/5, her ability is really, really hard to proc decently. and your deck is really removal-lite.
3.4 at this point, I would've seriously considered gods willing. emissary is probably better, but have all sorts of ridiculous bombs already and no means of protecting them.
3.6 if you go blue, go big - take griptide. you don't need a second amulet.
3.7 you don't need chimera either.
3.9 savage surge - once again, zero tricks.
3.11 aqueous form, mb - you need to slip past those defenses.
All in all, the problem of your deck is that it has zero interactivity - you have 1 removal spell and zero tricks. That's really unforgivable in this format (or in any format, really). You also have lack reliable 2nd and third drops - leafcrown dryads aren't really 2nd drop, daxos won't come on the third, reverent isn't good on the third turn, chronicler is average, agent won't have evasion on fourth one (unless you don't play anything)... Basically, it's all about being slow and not being able to recover tempo. You also were really unlucky with mana accel - not even a single voyaging satyr passing by.
That's arguable. Nowadays, my worst results come from two directions:
1. Screw/flood/whatever in the first round. In a single elimination event, you can't even talk about your deck performance after that because you're left with zero experience of it actually performing anything.
2. Drafting tables that make me question the other players' sanity. Like, today, my first booster is a choice between Spear of Heliod and Keepsake Gorgon. Spear seems like a better card, besides, there are two other black cards in the pack and white is really shallow here. And everything else is mediocre. So I pass the gorgon (she's definite p1p2 for the next player), I pass the black, gathering UW (I was signalled into white with dauntless assault p3 and into blue with voyage's end p5), but then, suddenly, both white and blue run dry and, most bafflingly, what do I see p2p2? Agent of Masks. Agent of freaking masks. Yeah. SUch players either give you monstrosity or, with their constant randompicks, disrupt the table to the point that everyone has a crappy deck and it's all about lucky draws.
Now, it's not like I don't lose because of the skill... But those games usually involve really tricky decisions and I'm usually tired as hell when I lose that way (protip: don't draft if you're tired; go swiss, at the very least). Like yesterday, forgetting that not only I can Divine Verdict my own Sentry of the Underworld, I can regen it as well (opp had a Prognostic SPhinx+Celestial Archon+Hopeful Eidolon voltron).
Besides, not to sound as braggart (though I know I will), but I'm posting these here more to show a thing or two to other people and less to gather feedback.
That's a fallacy. Caryatid is a good card and it was tix right now, right there. Now, for the assault to pay off a number of factors must come true:
1. You're getting passed white - if somehow white is not your color (and you can't know your colors p1p1), assault is as good as a basic plains to you.
2. You actually cast it during your games. Let's not forget that, for whatever card you pick, there's a chance that you won't draw it even once or you won't draw it when relevant.
3. You're not getting screwed/flooded to death in the first round. And mind you, magic is random so that's a rather considerable possibility.
4. You're not getting paired with your worst match up. Yesterday, I went 1-1 with a janky BW deck. Real janky. My first round opp was boros and he was god-tier boros - he had perfect curve, burn, assaults & other good pumps, chained to the rocks, anax and cymede, everything. Yet my janky BW deck literally specialized on protecting itself from a deck like his and killing his low curve creeps, so I won him 2-1. Screw in the first game, but I controlled second and third game so hard that I never went under 18 hps - that's against a crazy aggro deck, mind you.
5. Your opponent isn't living in a magical christmasland. So today I lost with a fine boros against t4 Prognostic Sphinx into endless topdecks game 1, t5 Prognostic Sphinx into endless topdecks game 2. And I had extremely mediocre hands without bombs, obviously. Or I've just killed my opp with a good old Favored Hoplite, Ordeal of Thassa, Triton Tactics 1-2-3 combo.
TL;DR - sureproof cash often is sureproof cash, possibility of cash is just that, possibility.
Well, I kinda have a lot on my hands and, no offense meant, but sally isn't the most convenient forum to post the draft recaps on. Like, I understand that it's first and foremost workplace friendly and therefore there's no pics and stuff, but one russian forum I hang around has a real neat script for this, which allows to present draft logs either as text or images. And importing your deck manually is also kinda bogus.
As for the 3-0 - well, the only really stupid here is the Xenagos one, other twos you can't say they were easy picks or whatever. Plenty of room for though there, I think.