Our LGS may do a few more battlebond events if they get enough interest, but otherwise the assumption is that they're done. In total I did 3 sealed events and 3 drafts.
My sealed experience was...ok. I've never loved 2HG limited because you only get the one game, which leaves a lot more room for variance. On top of this, the format felt very prince over pauper, and very go-wide. Most games we lost ended because the opponent had some big overrun play - regna's sanction, crowd goes wild, trumpet blast, etc, or some bomb we couldn't answer.
My draft experience was significantly worse. I'm not sure if this is the scheme used at all stores, but at our LGS the sealed event had no promos, and drafts you got a promo pack (with a partner pair) to start. I haaaaaaaaaaate those promo packs. For all three drafts we got uncommon partners, and ended up playing our hardest matches against teams that got rare (or in one case, mythic) partners. Not only are they up 2 rares on top of us, but their rares are extremely powerful because they each fetch the other rare. Granted, some of the uncommons are pretty solid - I think the UG pair performed quite well - but we got the GB pair once and the BW pair twice, and activated the "make a token" ability I believe once across all games because most games were too tempo-y to spend mana that inefficiently. If they wanted to do the promo packs, imo they either needed to all be uncommon, all be rare+, or not be playable in your deck. Starting the draft immediately down by two bomb rares from half the table is a miserable experience.
As far as the mechanics go - they're not well suited to limited imo. Partner with synergizes with...having the other partner? Wow, you're a genius drafter to have drafted the two cards that literally say each other's names on the card. Real deep strategy there. Friend or foe synergizes with being able to identify which side of the table you're sitting on, so as long as you're a vertebrate you're probably safe to figure that one out. Assist is a cool keyword that is nicely strategic in-game...but doesn't really offer much in terms of draft or deckbuilding strategy. This basically leaves support as the sole build-around mechanic for the set. There are a few payoff uncommons in the set (steppe glider and the GW dragon come to mind) but that's basically it. The only other build-around that comes to mind is warriors, which is probably the deepest synergy pool available, but that's basically the limit as far as synergy goes. Sure, you can argue that go-wide is also a strategy, but as there's very little token production in the set the only think you really have to do is play creatures and play one of the overrun spells. This really reduces the skill cap and also makes most drafts feel very similar imo. Play a bunch of replaceable creatures. Play your removal. Play your bombs. End of strategy.
I also don't love the limited number of packs. Because you're playing the vast majority of your cards in draft, it means that there are very few totally junk cards...which really reduces the skill cap. 90% of the cards felt nearly interchangeable, with the only standouts being removal and bombs. There didn't seem to be any particularly deep synergy decks, and in a lot of cases by far the biggest synergy payoffs are at rare, which means if you don't get good rares you get to build a deck full of C-level cards and get stomped by people who got more exciting rares. The second reason I dislike the limited number of packs is that our LGS charged the same amount per person for a 2HG draft as a regular - despite getting 2 packs per person instead of 3 (and they even had the added gall to reduce the prize support as well). Sealed was a less bad deal, but still significantly more per pack than normal drafts. I'm all in favor of making drafts cheaper, but that didn't seem to happen here at all. But that might just be our LGS. Weirdly they offer battlebond packs interchangeably with DOM as prize support.
So overall - extremely high variance, low skill cap, and a bad price point. I guess I see the appeal for the casual crowd, but as an experienced drafter it left me unsatisfied.
The format is simple, and bombs do indeed decide the game. We had Sylvia and Khorvath, and they were as lethal as one might predict. I was also surprised by how crucial tempo was, as that made Assist much better (making sure mana didn't go unspent) and it made expensive activated abilities like on Blaring Recruiter just unconscionably slow.
I would argue that Warrior tribal is something to pay attention to, as Aurora Champion was pivotal to our success in chipping in for early damage. There are so many warriors in all colors, however, that you are likely to end up with enough to turn on the 'champ by accident. As a result it is a classic "BREAD" format - draft Bombs, Removal, and Evasion, in that order, and respect your curve. It was fun once or twice but I am not sure I'd play it a ton.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Draft decks were in fact for more difficult to build due to the limited number of playables you had access to. But because of this, I found that drafts were much more skills demanding. Comprehension of the format was key. Sure, it was about removals and bombs. But many limited formats are about that, especially sealed limited formats. In fact, Battelbond drafts were pretty to close to a sealed environment since options were so much limited. Every pick matters and because of that you could get punished real fast by not making the right one at the right time.
First, you got to be in green. That's your first goal. One of your team's deck has to be green. Then draft all Jungle Wayfinder and Veteran Explorer you can. Play 3 colors (both of your deck) and slot in every pieces of removal you can. Prioritise 4-drop creatures and up. Pick and play all the X/4 evasive creatures you can. Stall the board with all the 4/X creatures you can. Pack a Negate and a Return to the Earth if you can. Make sure you have acces to suffisant card advantage in at least one of your deck. Know the instant speed interaction that are in the format. Play around them. Don't assist your team too much when not necessary and play spells instead if you can. Create some tempo by converging actions into the same turn. There's a lot of flyers in the set, so make sure you have an odd agaisnt them. You should be good to go.
My sealed experience was...ok. I've never loved 2HG limited because you only get the one game, which leaves a lot more room for variance. On top of this, the format felt very prince over pauper, and very go-wide. Most games we lost ended because the opponent had some big overrun play - regna's sanction, crowd goes wild, trumpet blast, etc, or some bomb we couldn't answer.
My draft experience was significantly worse. I'm not sure if this is the scheme used at all stores, but at our LGS the sealed event had no promos, and drafts you got a promo pack (with a partner pair) to start. I haaaaaaaaaaate those promo packs. For all three drafts we got uncommon partners, and ended up playing our hardest matches against teams that got rare (or in one case, mythic) partners. Not only are they up 2 rares on top of us, but their rares are extremely powerful because they each fetch the other rare. Granted, some of the uncommons are pretty solid - I think the UG pair performed quite well - but we got the GB pair once and the BW pair twice, and activated the "make a token" ability I believe once across all games because most games were too tempo-y to spend mana that inefficiently. If they wanted to do the promo packs, imo they either needed to all be uncommon, all be rare+, or not be playable in your deck. Starting the draft immediately down by two bomb rares from half the table is a miserable experience.
As far as the mechanics go - they're not well suited to limited imo. Partner with synergizes with...having the other partner? Wow, you're a genius drafter to have drafted the two cards that literally say each other's names on the card. Real deep strategy there. Friend or foe synergizes with being able to identify which side of the table you're sitting on, so as long as you're a vertebrate you're probably safe to figure that one out. Assist is a cool keyword that is nicely strategic in-game...but doesn't really offer much in terms of draft or deckbuilding strategy. This basically leaves support as the sole build-around mechanic for the set. There are a few payoff uncommons in the set (steppe glider and the GW dragon come to mind) but that's basically it. The only other build-around that comes to mind is warriors, which is probably the deepest synergy pool available, but that's basically the limit as far as synergy goes. Sure, you can argue that go-wide is also a strategy, but as there's very little token production in the set the only think you really have to do is play creatures and play one of the overrun spells. This really reduces the skill cap and also makes most drafts feel very similar imo. Play a bunch of replaceable creatures. Play your removal. Play your bombs. End of strategy.
I also don't love the limited number of packs. Because you're playing the vast majority of your cards in draft, it means that there are very few totally junk cards...which really reduces the skill cap. 90% of the cards felt nearly interchangeable, with the only standouts being removal and bombs. There didn't seem to be any particularly deep synergy decks, and in a lot of cases by far the biggest synergy payoffs are at rare, which means if you don't get good rares you get to build a deck full of C-level cards and get stomped by people who got more exciting rares. The second reason I dislike the limited number of packs is that our LGS charged the same amount per person for a 2HG draft as a regular - despite getting 2 packs per person instead of 3 (and they even had the added gall to reduce the prize support as well). Sealed was a less bad deal, but still significantly more per pack than normal drafts. I'm all in favor of making drafts cheaper, but that didn't seem to happen here at all. But that might just be our LGS. Weirdly they offer battlebond packs interchangeably with DOM as prize support.
So overall - extremely high variance, low skill cap, and a bad price point. I guess I see the appeal for the casual crowd, but as an experienced drafter it left me unsatisfied.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
As a result, I felt like we ended up with suuuuuper consistent decks, and were able to afford a few money picks (Najeela,, The Blade Blossom, Greater Good) and a few hate picks (Lava-field Overlord, Apocalypse Hydra, someone trying to float Impetuous Protege back) while still ending up with a wealth of playables for our UBr Tempo and GW Beatdown decks.
The format is simple, and bombs do indeed decide the game. We had Sylvia and Khorvath, and they were as lethal as one might predict. I was also surprised by how crucial tempo was, as that made Assist much better (making sure mana didn't go unspent) and it made expensive activated abilities like on Blaring Recruiter just unconscionably slow.
I would argue that Warrior tribal is something to pay attention to, as Aurora Champion was pivotal to our success in chipping in for early damage. There are so many warriors in all colors, however, that you are likely to end up with enough to turn on the 'champ by accident. As a result it is a classic "BREAD" format - draft Bombs, Removal, and Evasion, in that order, and respect your curve. It was fun once or twice but I am not sure I'd play it a ton.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
First, you got to be in green. That's your first goal. One of your team's deck has to be green. Then draft all Jungle Wayfinder and Veteran Explorer you can. Play 3 colors (both of your deck) and slot in every pieces of removal you can. Prioritise 4-drop creatures and up. Pick and play all the X/4 evasive creatures you can. Stall the board with all the 4/X creatures you can. Pack a Negate and a Return to the Earth if you can. Make sure you have acces to suffisant card advantage in at least one of your deck. Know the instant speed interaction that are in the format. Play around them. Don't assist your team too much when not necessary and play spells instead if you can. Create some tempo by converging actions into the same turn. There's a lot of flyers in the set, so make sure you have an odd agaisnt them. You should be good to go.
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