Pack 1 pick 1:
There’s not much else in this pack except for Green cards. Both Acidic Slime and Garruk, Primal Hunter are quite good. Garruk has the problem of being not great unless you’re at least at parity on the board because using him to make a 3/3 won’t get you ahead if you have nothing else. At other times Garruk will often be a five-mana Harmonize, which is fine, but not ideal. Acidic Slime is also good because you’ll usually be able to kill a Pacifism or other aura (like Ice Cage or Divine Favor) while also trading with a good creature. Acidic Slime has a lot of versatility, but Garruk has more potential to go over the top depending on the type of deck you have. If you can pair Garruk with a low curve and/or a deck with a moderate amount of removal (i.e. be able to defend him), then he’ll take over most games.
My pick: Garruk, Primal Hunter
Pack 1 pick 2:
Shock is tempting to take, but it’s better to take the Giant Spider because it 1) sends a better signal 2) is better at defending in most situations. If we take one of the Red cards, then we’ll be fighting with at least two people on the left and have a very mediocre second pack. However, if we take the Spider, then it’s likely we’ll end up with more live picks.
My pick: Giant Spider
Pack 1 pick 3:
Volcanic Dragon is quite tempting, and if we hadn’t already passed the pack with Shock/Volcanic Dragon, then I’d be more likely to take it. However, Llanowar Elves is the better/safer pick because it keeps us restrained to Green for the moment while providing a key piece of acceleration. Acceleration is important, especially with Garruk, because we want to be ahead on the board whenever possible so that we can freely play Garruk without having to worry about him dying.
My pick: Llanowar Elves
Pack 1 pick 4:
Green, Red, and Blue seem like they’re the colors that are open, and for us the best pick is going to be the Giant Spider. Merfolk Looter is certainly a good support card that will help filter draws to ensure you aren’t flooded/screwed, but Giant Spider is on-color and quite good at mucking up the Battlefield so that you aren’t beaten down before summoning your larger creatures like Vastwood Gorger and Greater Basilisk. Giant Spider is as much of a sign that Green is open as Merfolk Looter is with Blue, and that’s not the signal that we want to send.
My pick: Giant Spider
Pack 1 pick 5:
The options aren’t great here. There aren’t any on-color picks and the others are quite mediocre. Unsummon is arguably the best because it has multiple levels of functionality depending on the situation. It protects from removal and complicates combat by removing an attacker/blocker. Combust and Manic Vandal are decent sideboard cards. Red has appeared to be more open than Blue in this pack, although the opposite is likely to be the case in pack two. However, Red is a deeper color overall than Blue, and so it’s better to take a Red card. Combust is generally a better card than Manic Vandal, although we’ve passed a fair number of random artifacts already. Still, having a removal spell against two colors is going to more useful because it’s more likely that we’ll play against a Blue/White creature than an artifact.
My pick: Combust
Pack 1 pick 6:
Plummet is moderately good and always worth a slot in the maindeck. Naturalize is also decent, but not as useful as Plummet because there are fewer targets; it’s also easier to wheel.
My pick: Plummet
Pack 1 pick 7:
Divination is an option, but at this point it would be better to stick with Green until a strong signal is sent about which other color we should be in comes along.
My pick: Vastwood Gorger
Pack 1 pick 8:
Rampant Growth and Greater Basilisk are both good cards in a Green deck. Greater Basilisk is a bit underrated and will normally trade two-for-one, but it’s normally not difficult to pick up because it’s easily misevaluated as just another expensive Green creature. Rampant Growth is more important because acceleration spells are critical for advancing your board plan during the initial few turns.
My pick: Rampant Growth
Pack 1 pick 9:
My pick: Manalith
Pack 1 pick 10:
My pick: Elixir of Immortality
Pack 1 pick 11:
My pick: Brindle Boar
Pack 1 pick 12:
My pick: Circle of Flame
Pack 1 pick 13:
My pick: Amphin Cutthroat
Pack 1 pick 14:
My pick: Jace’s Erasure
Pack 1 pick 15:
Wall of Torches
The first pack went quite well for us considering that we got two spiders, two ramp spells, a Plummet, and a [card Garruk, Primal Hunter]Garruk[/card]. Green is set as our primary color, however our second color is questionable. We have the read on Red and Blue also being open on the right, but that’s not going to be true for the second pack, and we’ll have to wait and see just how much Green we get before being able to decide what to do regarding our second color.
Pack 2 pick 1:
Hopefully either the Garruk’s Companion or Trollhide wheels.
My pick: Overrun
Pack 2 pick 2:
This pick is interesting. Vengeful Pharaoh is quite powerful and by far the best card in the pack. The problems with taking the Pharaoh are 1) triple Black 2) we saw no Black in pack one. Still, with the alternatives being Rampant Growth, Swiftfoot Boots, Wring Flesh, Sacred Wolf, Vastwood Gorger, and Stormfront Pegasus, none come close to the power level of the [card Vengeful Pharaoh]Pharaoh[/card]. We already have a Rampant Growth and a Manalith which should help with casting our trio of triple-colored spells, and so taking the Pharaoh isn’t that bad. We’ll get little to no support for Black in pack three, but if Green’s openness in the first pack is any indication of what pack three will be like, it won’t be a concern.
My pick: Vengeful Pharaoh
Pack 2 pick 3:
Stingerfling Spider is the new Flametongue Kavu; enough said.
My pick: Stingerfling Spider
Pack 2 pick 4:
Sorin’s Vengeance is one of those cards that you should just never pass. Games are played so much differently when the opponent knows they’re starting on ten life, and the ones where they don’t know it are nearly free wins. If you’re Black, take Sorin’s Vengeance and count your blessings. If you aren’t Black, take Sorin’s Vengeance and go into Black.
My pick: Sorin’s Vengeance
Pack 2 pick 5:
Llanowar Elves, Drifting Shade, and Giant Spider are all good cards. The Shade is another underrated creature because it’s a bit on the clunky side. However, like Greater Basilisk, Drifting Shade doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Sure, in a deck with mono five-drops the Shade won’t be at its best. However, even in sluggish decks, the Shade still threatens to be a huge flyer. This deck could make use of a Shade considering its Black spells include two triple-Black bombs, however in this case it’s better to take the Spider for a few reasons. Green’s curve is already higher by nature than other colors, and Giant Spider does an excellent job at stopping both air and ground assaults without any additional mana invested into it. Drifting Shade may be better later on, but efficient, early defense is more important overall, and Giant Spider excels in that category.
My pick: Giant Spider
Pack 2 pick 6:
Disentomb usually isn’t great because its usefulness directly relates to the power-level of your creatures. Most decks won’t have more than one-two awesome creatures, and sometimes won’t have any. For example, we only have a Stingerfling Spider. Swiftfoot Boots is a better tool because it helps protect our Spiders and other fatties from being neutralized. Shroud and Haste are two useful attributes that are often dismissed.
My pick: Swiftfoot Boots
Pack 2 pick 7:
Titanic Growth is quite good, especially in the deck that’s beating down with Garruk’s Companion and Lurking Crocodile. However, in this deck with its Vastwood Gorger, Vengeful Pharaoh, Overrun, [card Garruk, primal hunter]Garruk[/card], and Sorin’s Vengeance, Brindle Boar is going to be more useful because the late-game is where we’re going to shine, and Brindle Boar will help us get there in a pinch.
My pick: Brindle Boar
Pack 2 pick 8:
My pick: Drifting Shade
Pack 2 pick 9:
My pick: Disentomb
Pack 2 pick 10:
My pick: Rampant Growth
Pack 2 pick 11:
My pick: Brindle Boar
Pack 2 pick 12:
My pick: Drifting Shade
Pack 2 pick 13:
My pick: Flight
Pack 2 pick 14:
My pick: Merfolk Mesmerist
Pack 2 pick 15:
The second pack was quite good for us as we were able to find a second color, albeit a very heavy Black component. Meanwhile, we continued to cement ourselves in Green and should have a moderately good third pack due to not passing much. It’s unlikely that we’ll get much more premium Black, but that shouldn’t be a problem because there were still some moderately good cards being passed in addition to us having a healthy number of playables.
Pack 3 pick 1:
A third Drifting Shade is a bit excessive in this deck because its spells are primarily Green. Monomania is admittedly a card I’ve never actually cast, but it doesn’t seem great in most games. It would be better to bring it in from the sideboard against a slower, more controlling deck. Despite having four acceleration spells, most decks will be too fast for Monomania to be more than an expensive Mind Rot, and this deck would rather not play five-mana spells that don’t directly impact the board.
My pick: Monomania
Pack 3 pick 2:
Sadly there’s nothing for us here except Distress, Zombie Goliath, and Reclaim, none of which are going to make it into the maindeck. The quality of our options is so low that it’s worth hating the Serra Angel because it’s magnitudes better and will be troublesome for us.
My pick: Serra Angel
Pack 3 pick 3:
My pick: Consume Spirit
Pack 3 pick 4:
We have enough good cards that Diabolic Tutor would be good, but it’s still quite slow and we should be fine without it because of the nature of our deck; there are enough good four-plus spells and acceleration is going to be more important.
My pick: Llanowar Elves
Pack 3 pick 5:
This pick certainly has quite a few options. Crown of Empires is too intensive for this deck. Garruk’s Companion and Jade Mage are comparable because the deck isn’t likely to be beating down, and so there’s not much difference between a defensive 3/2 and a 2/1 with the exception of dealing with Armored Warhorse and Benalish Veteran (and so Jade Mage is almost strictly better). Jade Mage works best in the deck because it plays an equivalent defensive role as Crown of Empires against ground creatures at first, and then gets ahead; the Mage also combos with Overrun. Llanowar Elves isn’t an option here because we already have two along with two Rampant Growths and a Manalith which should be enough.
My pick: Jade Mage
Pack 3 pick 6:
My pick: Distress
Pack 3 pick 7:
Rusted Sentinel is outclassed by the deck’s other four-drops (Giant Spider and Drifting Shade), and therefore is unnecessary. Naturalize is a good sideboard option to have against cards like Pacifism and Mind Control, and we don’t have one yet.
My pick: Naturalize
Pack 3 pick 8:
My pick: Naturalize
Pack 3 pick 9:
My pick: Unsummon
Pack 3 pick 10:
My pick: Reclaim
Pack 3 pick 11:
My pick: Lure
Pack 3 pick 12:
My pick: Warpath Ghoul
Pack 3 pick 13:
My pick: Runeclaw Bear
Pack 3 pick 14:
My pick: Reclaim
Pack 3 pick 15:
Pack three was moderately bad and we were only able to pick up a few cards. Regardless of that point, we still have a lot of cards to work with and should be able to construct a powerful deck. We’ll have some issues with mana, in thanks to playing Consume Spirit and Overrun in the same deck, but we’ll still be able to manage.
The main group of cards that should be run includes the following (18) eighteen:
The leftover cards to fill the remaining five slots are:
The deck is light on creatures at the moment, only ten (excluding Garruk), and so we’ll need to add a few. Of the spells that are available, only Distress and Swiftfoot Boots are interesting. However, Distress is going to be awkward because it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to cast it early, and so it would be better in the sideboard to bring in against decks with lots of late-game action. Swiftfoot Boots is decent especially considering that our creatures have a moderately high quality. Warpath Ghoul is a weaker Brindle Boar for the most part because there’s very little difference between two and three-power ground creatures. Brindle Boar’s life-gaining ability will make a difference in some games where the opponent has unblockable sources of damage like Goblin Fireslinger, Tormented Soul, Goblin Tunneler, Scepter of Empires, and assorted flyers. Three Brindle Boars is excessive because there will be scenarios where the three mana prohibits you from playing another spell, and in those cases a Runeclaw Bear will be better. The last slot should either be the third Brindle Boar or the Vastwood Gorger. The 5/6 is going to be better in the situations where we don’t have enough Swamps to power Drifting Shade effectively or hold it back on defense, and having a naturally big creature to attack with is nice. The Boar can get sideboarded in against more aggro decks when needed.
Junk:
The land ratio is a bit complicated because there are five spells that produce mana (two Llanowar Elves, two Rampant Growths, and one Manalith), four require Green mana, and two only produce Green mana. With five spells that produce mana, eighteen lands is out of the question. The Black spells are mostly late-game (two Drifting Shade, one Vengeful Pharaoh, one Sorin’s Vengeance, and one Consume Spirit) which reduces the number of Black sources required for the deck to run optimally. Still, those spells are all basically triple-Black or greater, and that point means that the number of Swamps should be increased from what they normally would be. A split of nine Forests and eight Swamps will be optimal. Seven Swamps would make the deck too reliant on Rampant Growth for Black mana.
Deck:
The deck very easily 3-0’d.
Most Games involved a ramp spell, followed by a Spider, and then a Shade/fatty.
Garruk, Primal Hunter was good in the multiple games that I drew him, again in thanks to the ramp spells and Spiders; defending him was never a problem, and so I was able to freely make Beast tokens without worry.
Swiftfoot Boots was actually much better than I had expected (this being the first time I’d played with it). The boots allowed me to pump Shades freely to the max each turn without worry of being killed with Burn, Sorin’s Thirst, or Wring Flesh. In other games the Boots’ Shroud ability made me sure that I’d be able to hold a creature back on defense and not have to worry about what the opponent did. Lastly, there were a few games where the Boots’ Haste ability came into play when I was chaining Spiders or Beast tokens. Haste made it difficult for the opponent to properly gauge which of his creatures could/n’t attack.
Jade Mage was good in the one game that I drew it. I was able to use it to race a Blue deck that would have been difficult had it been any other two/three-mana creature.
Vengeful Pharaoh wasn’t as good as it could have been, although it was still awesome, because I didn’t have a Devouring Swarm or other way to get it into the graveyard in response to an attack. It got hit with Pacifism in one game but helped with another simply as a 5/4 Deathtouch.
Sorin’s Vengeance was unreal. Seriously, stop passing that card.
Plummet proved itself a worthy maindeck card yet again. There are so many flyers in this format.
Drifting Shade was also good even in this deck with its high curve. It really is underrated.
Happy Drafting.
