Pack 1 pick 1:
Serra Angel and Sun Titan aren’t too far apart because flying is such a big deal. The main advantage that Serra Angel has over Sun Titan is that it’s so hard to stop. Sun Titan is going to guarantee a bit of card advantage simply because people are encouraged to trade more in this format thanks to Bloodthirst, but it’s also likely to just trade with another creature depending on how complex the board is. Nevertheless, it’s not difficult to set up protection for the Titan which makes its ability to pull you ahead in a game a better benefit overall.
My pick: Sun Titan
Pack 1 pick 2:
Oblivion Ring is, for the most part, a strictly better Pacifism because it’s not limited to just creatures. Granted, most games of Limited won’t involve other types of permanents, but the situations will still come up.
My pick: Oblivion Ring
Pack 1 pick 3:
Gravedigger is the best card followed by Benalish Veteran, Garruk’s Companion, and Mana Leak. Jumping into a second color here isn’t appealing unless you have a specific color preference. Gravedigger is quite appealing just because of how powerful it can be, but it’s safer to take the Benalish Veteran and wait to see what the next picks look like to help ensure that you don’t go into the wrong color. The Veteran is good because a 3/3 attacker for three mana is quite efficient, and so it’s not like we’re sacrificing much by taking the weaker card.
My pick: Benalish Veteran
Pack 1 pick 4:
This pick is rather weak for White, although it suggests that Blue is open. Ice Cage works well with Sun Titan although I’m not too much of a fan of the aura in the first place because of how many other auras there are in addition to the cycle of uncommon mages, Goblin Tunneler, Gideon’s Lawkeeper, etc. Acidic Slime is quite powerful while the rest of the pack isn’t, and so there’s not much lost by taking the best card.
My pick: Acidic Slime
Pack 1 pick 5:
Both Llanowar Elves and Trollhide are quite good, although Trollhide is better off when the curve is low. Green needs acceleration to compete with the other colors, and so Llanowar Elves and Rampant Growth are important. At this point Green looks like it’s one of the colors that are open, and if we end up in Green/White, then creatures like Peregrine Griffin lose a bit of their value because Green already has access to so many expensive creatures. It’s likely that we’ll end up in either Blue or Green in addition to White, and while this pack indicates that Green is the more-open color, the opposite may be true with the next pick. It’s better to take the Peregrine Griffin rather than a Green card because we’re sure to play it regardless of what color we pair with White.
My pick: Peregrine Griffin
Pack 1 pick 6:
Armored Warhorse and Rampant Growth are the two best options. Sacred Wolf and Mighty Leap are both fine but more difficult to use as effectively. The Wolf is good with auras like Divine Favor and Trollhide, but it’s mediocre otherwise. Armored Warhorse is the most consistent pick because it maintains our position in White in addition to having another solid body (like Benalish Veteran). Rampant Growth is still good, but it’s going to make the deck gravitate towards a ramp/big-spell deck (which tends to be more inconsistent) instead of just a deck with a good curve.
My pick: Armored Warhorse
Pack 1 pick 7:
My pick: Benalish Veteran
Pack 1 pick 8:
My pick: Guardians’ Pledge
Pack 1 pick 9:
Green has been readily available more often than Blue, and so it’s more likely that Hunter’s Insight will make it into the deck than Negate.
My pick: Hunter’s Insight
Pack 1 pick 10:
Guardian’s Pledge is going to be better than Llanowar Elves if we end up being heavy-White, but it’s a card that we’ll be able to get as many of as we want (which isn’t the case with Llanowar Elves) if White is as open as is required to want them in the first place.
My pick: Llanowar Elves
Pack 1 pick 11:
My pick: Angel’s Mercy
Pack 1 pick 12:
My pick: Reclaim
Pack 1 pick 13:
My pick: Siege Mastodon
Pack 1 pick 14:
My pick: Mighty Leap
Pack 1 pick 15:
The first pack was good for us, but there were still some problems with the position that we’ve ended up in. Luckily we opened up a good White card and were fed a steady stream of White thereafter. However, one problem that will arise next pack is being cut off from White as a repercussion of passing Serra Angel followed by Pacifism. Green was open and we were able to pick up a few cards, but we didn’t go as deep as we could have which also may hurt us in pack two.
Pack 2 pick 1:
Hey look, a Jade Mage!
My pick: Aegis Angel
Pack 2 pick 2:
Arbalest Elite and Stormfront Pegasus are the two White cards that we’re interested in. The Elite can take over in the late game, making it very difficult for the opponent to trade at parity or better. However, in most of the games the Elite isn’t going to be more than a four-mana 2/3 because it takes so much mana to use. Most decks tend to get bogged down with slow/expensive cards which is why it’s important to assign a high value to the low-end of the curve.
My pick: Stormfront Pegasus
Pack 2 pick 3:
Roc Egg isn’t always good in an aggro deck with a few exceptions: 1) you’re playing against another aggro deck in which case it’s more likely that you’ll be on the defensive than in other matchups 2) most of your creatures have evasion and force the opponent to race. The information to use for deciding whether Roc Egg will be good in a specific deck should be limited to the knowledge of what has been passed in the draft along with what the deck you’re drafting looks like. We have a bunch of ground-pounders and are on the aggressive side which means Roc Egg isn’t going to be good. Greatsword isn’t good either because we don’t have lots of fliers or cards like Throne of Empires or Reassembling Skeleton. Warstorm Surge is the best option because it’s a good card to splash and will provide a powerful effect to add along with another card (like Shock, Incinerate, or Fireball from an empty pack) if we decide to splash Red.
My pick: Warstorm Surge
Pack 2 pick 4:
My pick: Lurking Crocodile
Pack 2 pick 5:
My pick: Auramancer
Pack 2 pick 6:
Rampant Growth, Trollhide, and Arbalest Elite are all good picks here. The deck’s curve is low enough to really take advantage of Trollhide in addition to having an Auramancer for a bit of added value. Rampant Growth is tempting because there are a number of five/six-mana spells in addition to having an off-color Warstorm Surge. Arbalest Elite is also fine and make the deck’s low-cost creatures more likely to force through damage. Between the three cards, Rampant Growth provides more options because it makes the expensive creatures better along with the off-color spells.
My pick: Rampant Growth
Pack 2 pick 7:
My pick: Manic Vandal
Pack 2 pick 8:
Picking up expensive, large creatures like Stampeding Rhino is quite easy compared to cheap tricks like Stave Off. Stave Off is quite effective at protecting your creatures in addition to dealing with troublesome auras like Angelic Destiny.
My pick: Stave Off
Pack 2 pick 9:
My pick: Vastwood Gorger
Pack 2 pick 10:
My pick: Vastwood Gorger
Pack 2 pick 11:
My pick: Angel’s Feather
Pack 2 pick 12:
My pick: Distress
Pack 2 pick 13:
My pick: Kraken’s Eye
Pack 2 pick 14:
My pick: Dragon’s Claw
Pack 2 pick 15:
The second pack wasn’t great and that was likely a repercussion of the first few picks in pack one. We’re currently not married to Green, although having two ramp spells is nice.
Pack 3 pick 1:
There’s not much to consider here besides Gideon’s Lawkeeper because tappers are quite good throughout the course of the game in almost every archetype.
My pick: Gideon’s Lawkeeper
Pack 3 pick 2:
Again, there’s nothing that compares to Serra Angel.
My pick: Serra Angel
Pack 3 pick 3:
My pick: Gideon’s Lawkeeper
Pack 3 pick 4:
This is the first interesting pick from this pack. Arachnus Web, Stave Off, and Jade Mage are the top cards. Hunter’s Insight can be good, but it requires a lot of things to go your way. Jade Mage would give the deck another end-game while Arachnus Web would make Auramancer slightly better (in addition to Sun Titan, but that’s less of a concern) while also being another piece of removal. Stave Off would protect the deck’s bombs from removal. Stave Off is the best option because the deck has quite a few good creatures, and it’s likely that most decks won’t have more than a few ways to remove them (especially Aegis Angel and Sun Titan). If the creature quality were lower, then the value of Stave Off wouldn’t be as high, but that’s not the case here.
My pick: Stave Off
Pack 3 pick 5:
A third Stave Off isn’t as necessary as the second. Griffin Sentinel is a good mid-curve creature that will stop a lot of creatures while putting pressure on the opponent. Currently we don’t have much support in the middle part of the curve with only two Benalish Veterans and a lackluster Auramancer which makes the Sentinel the best choice.
My pick: Griffin Sentinel
Pack 3 pick 6:
My pick: Griffin Sentinel
Pack 3 pick 7:
My pick: Mind Rot
Pack 3 pick 8:
My pick: Jace’s Erasure
Pack 3 pick 9:
My pick: Armored Warhorse
Pack 3 pick 10:
My pick: Guardians’ Pledge
Pack 3 pick 11:
My pick: Crumbling Colossus
Pack 3 pick 12:
My pick: Hunter’s Insight
Pack 3 pick 13:
My pick: Fog
Pack 3 pick 14:
My pick: Guardians’ Pledge
Pack 3 pick 15:
Pack three was much better than the second and gave us enough White cards to allow for a lot of different options during deck construction. Overall the draft went well and we should be able to win without too much trouble.
The cards (16) that should be auto-included are:
Every card in the group is White, including thirteen creatures, which has a few implications. Guardians’ Pledge gets much better. It’s possible to go mono-White, play Green, play Red, or even play both Red and Green.
The remaining options include:
White/Artifact:
Most of these cards would have to be included if we play mono-White. The obvious problem with playing mono is that the card quality will take a dive, mainly because we’ll have to play everything from the list above. Auramancer is particularly weak because it’s almost always going to be a Gray Ogre while Crumbling Colossus won’t be very effective either (because we don’t have Fling). The main benefit to playing mono is that Guardians’ Pledge is pretty awesome.
Green:
The best cards in Green are Acidic Slime and Hunter’s Insight. The Insight fits well with Guardians’ Pledge and Benalish Veteran (especially in game two after a Pledge has been played). Drawing more than two cards is really what you want to be doing with the Insight, and the setup of two Veterans, three Pledges, and two Insights should be rather effective. Llanowar Elves is less good because it doesn’t combine well with Armored Warhorse in addition to there not being many double-Green mid-curve spells (like Cudgel Troll). In fact, Llanowar Elves is quite weak with the current set-up that we have and would only be good if at least one Vastwood Gorger were also included. Rampant Growth on the other hand is fine because it can get White/Red mana.
Red:
Warstorm Surge is the only real option in Red, and it’s a powerful one. The Surge won’t always be great because you’ll be playing against very aggro decks at times, and spending six mana on a spell that doesn’t affect the board could set you too far behind. The deck can play defense moderately well if it wants because two Armored Warhorses, two Griffin Sentinels, along with two Gideon’s Lawkeepers will go a long way in holding off the opponent’s creatures up to the point of being able to tap out to play Warstorm Surge (with other creatures still in hand).
Unplayable:
Overall, the benefit of running Warstorm Surge alone with just White is the best option. Warstorm Surge doesn’t take nearly as much effort to set up compared to Hunter’s Insight and function well with how the deck will be playing out. If we play Green in addition Red, then the mana is going to become very unstable and playing Armored Warhorse on turn two will become more difficult. The deck wants to play an aggressive role, and stumbling on mana will hurt it significantly.
Deck:
The deck played out quite nicely, although it lost in the finals to Hideous Visage in both games. There were a few instances where I had to draw a Plains to summon Armored Warhorse on turn two, but the deck didn’t let me down.
The Auramancer never got back the Oblivion Ring, although it was still fine thanks to the aggressive nature of the deck. The three Guardians’ Pledges made the 2/2 acceptable.
Stave Off was excellent. There were a few instances where I had set up Serra/Aegis/Titan with Stave Off to protect it if the opponent had some way to deal with my monster. In most cases they didn’t and so the Stave Off wasn’t necessary in the end, however it was still the correct pick during the draft. In general, being able to trade one-for-one with a card that costs a lot more mana is favorable, and Stave Off does a nice job of doing so.
Warstorm Surge was decent. In most games I wouldn’t have more than one/two creatures in hand after casting it, but I’d still draw more and have them be Flametongue Kavus. It’s difficult to say whether the Surge would have been better than a Pacifism, but it still performed well enough.
Sun Titan was awesome. There were usually a few creatures to get back with it, and once my opponent was aware of its presence in my deck, they had to hold off on using their removal on some of my other creatures regardless of whether I had the Titan or not.
Happy Drafting.
