Well I had games where I got my guys to power levels over 9000 (actually more than 6) to punch through. Temur for example has access to the Woolly Loxodon. Also I saw the weirdest combo with Kheru Bloodsucker and creatures with fat butts. There's justification for going beyond 5 counters I guess. And in the mirror, people may keep outlasting while waiting to draw the Falconer or the deathtouch enabler. Or simply be big enough to eat 2 creatures. At least for sealed.
I do agree in draft, over-outlasting may be a more uncommon.
Abzan was good to me. I played a lot of life gain and sometimes went from being down to <5 life back up to over 40 in a game. Had to frustrate my opponents. I know because the mirror match was awful; we went to time. Neither of us could do anything meaningful to the other in game 3. I like grindy, back-and-forth matches, but I'm not sure I'd do Abzan in a sealed deck again because it was so slow. I would do a bunch of mental combat math every turn, only to realize it was STILL a stalemate and finally just started passing the turn without a lot of thought.
Went Abzan splash red for some mardu cards in sealed GWBr and then second sealed went Mardu splash blue for finishers. WBRu both went undefeated and was solid.
Draft experiences, Abzan can be too slow sometimes, though if your playing aggro abzan (using mardu cards as well and temur combat tricks) you can pretty easily get in as a solid midrange.
Mardu is really fast and can kill you before you realize what hit you, especially with overwhelming board and card advantage with proper raid plays.
Jeskai can also be really really fast with prowess triggers and the right cards.
Temur plays a good midrange when it drafts the right tempo cards, but I feel with tempo cards you'd be better off stuffing them and playing jeskai.
Sultai is pretty bad. from all experience in draft and sealed so far.
Personal Preference (Mardu/Abzan, Jeskai, Temur, Sultai)
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As far as sealed goes Abzan seems way overhyped as default choice.
Sultai is better if you go for long game because it has drawing power and can play 1-2 more delve cards due to more enablers, and delve cards are more powerful than everything else below rare.
Mardu is better if you go for aggro route because of different red ways to punch through: cancel blocks, threaten effects, trumpet blasts, etc. And best outlasters are in white anyway, so Mardu isn't really worse than Abzan in long game.
So I will always go for one of those if cardpool gives me the choice.
Jeskai and Temur are tempo clans so I can't really compare them directly to other 3.
I do agree in draft, over-outlasting may be a more uncommon.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Draft experiences, Abzan can be too slow sometimes, though if your playing aggro abzan (using mardu cards as well and temur combat tricks) you can pretty easily get in as a solid midrange.
Mardu is really fast and can kill you before you realize what hit you, especially with overwhelming board and card advantage with proper raid plays.
Jeskai can also be really really fast with prowess triggers and the right cards.
Temur plays a good midrange when it drafts the right tempo cards, but I feel with tempo cards you'd be better off stuffing them and playing jeskai.
Sultai is pretty bad. from all experience in draft and sealed so far.
Personal Preference (Mardu/Abzan, Jeskai, Temur, Sultai)
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Sultai is better if you go for long game because it has drawing power and can play 1-2 more delve cards due to more enablers, and delve cards are more powerful than everything else below rare.
Mardu is better if you go for aggro route because of different red ways to punch through: cancel blocks, threaten effects, trumpet blasts, etc. And best outlasters are in white anyway, so Mardu isn't really worse than Abzan in long game.
So I will always go for one of those if cardpool gives me the choice.
Jeskai and Temur are tempo clans so I can't really compare them directly to other 3.