Pack 1 pick 1:
Warstorm Surge and Incinerate are the two good cards. Warstorm Surge has a higher potential, but it’s more difficult to use (it costs six mana, doesn’t immediately do anything, and requires additional cards to become useful). Incinerate is more open-ended and has an immediate effect on games; it’s better in an aggressive deck. Incinerate is more likely to be ‘good’ in whatever deck we end up drafting whereas Warstorm Surge requires a lot more to be powerful. For example, we could end up with a low creature count or all small creatures, and the Surge wouldn’t be great.
My pick: Incinerate
Pack 1 pick 2:
Stormfront Pegasus stands out from the crowd, but there are still a few cards that trail slightly behind it; Chasm Drake, Duskhunter Bat, and Arbalest Elite are also options. The Elite and Drake are somewhat slow which is why I don’t like them as much as Stormfront Pegasus. It’s very easy for a deck to quickly get clogged up with four/five-mana spells, and so putting a lot of value on quality two-drops is necessary. Duskhunter Bat is also an evasive two-drop like Stormfront Pegasus, but it’s more difficult to maximize its potential. Additionally, White’s creatures are better than Black which is another reason to take the Pegasus.
My pick: Stormfront Pegasus
Pack 1 pick 3:
There’s a moderate amount of White and Blue cards here which means our Incinerate might end up in the sideboard. The Blue options are good, but at this point it’s better to take a White card and maintain Red as an option. Benalish Veteran is a good White three-drop, but it’s not as good as a second Stormfront Pegasus because it’s more likely to trade sooner with another creature.
My pick: Stormfront Pegasus
Pack 1 pick 4:
This pick is interesting. Red doesn’t seem like it’s open, despite the Blood Ogre in this pack, and so we’re left with the choice of Spirit Mantle or Aether Adept. Spirit Mantle has a wide range in its power level; some decks can’t beat it while others will have lots of removal to get a two-for-one trade. Aether Adept is the most powerful card, but by taking it, we’d be making the concession of giving up on Red while committing heavily to Blue. Granted, we have seen a number of good Blue cards in the last two picks, but it’s still one/two picks early before we’d be able to say for sure that Blue is open. Spirit Mantle is the safe bet, but I dislike the variance that comes with it, and so the overall benefits of jumping into Blue and cutting off whatever else gets passed to us is a good idea (as there’s not much Red being passed).
My pick: Aether Adept
Pack 1 pick 5:
Gravedigger is sweet, but going into another color is out of the question at the moment. There are still a few Blue/White options, although they’re not as good as Gravedigger. Siege Mastodon is a better choice between it and Amphin Cutthroat because 1) it’s larger 2) it’s better to have a heavy-White component because Guardians’ Pledge becomes a reasonably powerful card 3) the slightly higher cost is negligible. Swiftfoot Boots is also an option, but it’s usually better with larger creatures (not useful in White).
My pick: Siege Mastodon
Pack 1 pick 6:
Black seems to have picked up slightly which is unfortunate because that means that the read on Blue being open may be incorrect. Still, we have a few White options to choose from. A second Siege Mastodon is fine, although Griffin Rider is better (even though we don’t have any Griffins at the moment). It’s very likely that we’ll end up with a few more five-drops, and it’s also likely that we’ll have the option of taking some number of griffins because White is relatively open. In the case of the latter, it would be better to have a Griffin Rider than a Siege Mastodon because the five-drop is very replaceable whereas a two-mana 4/4 flyer isn’t.
My pick: Griffin Rider
Pack 1 pick 7:
Thran Golem is pretty good with Divine Favor, but it’s just like Spirit Mantle except worse (there’s lots of variance attached to it).
My pick: Elite Vanguard
Pack 1 pick 8:
Guardians’ Pledge is better in a heavy-White deck than Mighty Leap, but it’s much easier to get later on than Mighty Leap. If we end up with a creature configuration that’s closer to even, then Mighty Leap is going to be better than Guardians’ Pledge. Unsummon is also an option and a good one, especially in this type of deck (quick, tempo-based), but it’s better to stick with the White options because of signals and being able to maximize Pledge.
My pick: Mighty Leap
Pack 1 pick 9:
My pick: Armored Warhorse
Pack 1 pick 10:
It’s unlikely that Harbor Serpent is going to make it into the maindeck of our Armored Warhorse special, but it’s a reasonable sideboard option against an opposing Blue mage.
My pick: Harbor Serpent
Pack 1 pick 11:
My pick: Wring Flesh
Pack 1 pick 12:
My pick: Auramancer
Pack 1 pick 13:
My pick: Stonehorn Dignitary
Pack 1 pick 14:
My pick: Disentomb
Pack 1 pick 15:
The first pack went well, although it’s unclear whether Blue will come through for us. We’ve passed a moderate amount of it in the first three picks, especially in pick three, which might come back to bite us. White is definitely open, and we should stick with it in situations that we aren’t certain about. The second pack may also have a reasonable amount of Red, in which case we could go back into it for a small splash.
Pack 2 pick 1:
Unfortunately there are too many good White cards here which will result in having a slightly negative impact on the overall quality of the third pack. As far as our pick is concerned Serra Angel is by far the best card of the bunch. Gideon’s Lawkeeper is also quite good but it’s inferior to the Angel because the Serra performs the same role simply because it’s large while also being an evasive win condition.
My pick: Serra Angel
Pack 2 pick 2:
This pick is interesting because there are three good options, each of which are in a different color; Shock, Aether Adept, and Griffin Sentinel are the three choices. The problem with taking Shock or Aether Adept is that neither color seemed definitely open in the first pack. Gorehorn Minotaurs is also good but will be very difficult to support because of the lack of Red. The problem with taking the Griffin Sentinel is that it’s the weakest card but it’s in the safest color. If either Blue or Red had been more open than the other, then taking the respective card in that color would be the best choice because it would help solidify the two colors that we’re in. However, since both Red and Blue were so close to each other, it’s difficult to figure out which color is going to be the best for us in pack three. Given the difficulty of making the right color choice for our secondary color, taking the Griffin Sentinel becomes a much better option because we’ll end up with a moderately good playable from this pick in a color that we know that we’re committed to.
My pick: Griffin Sentinel
Pack 2 pick 3:
Armored Warhorse and Griffin Rider are both fine, but they don’t compare to Incinerate. Chasm Drake is also good, but it’s on the expensive side and doesn’t pair too well with White because many of its creatures are small and already fly.
My pick: Incinerate
Pack 2 pick 4:
This pick is between Benalish Veteran and Goblin Arsonist, but the pick really isn’t too close. Goblin Arsonist is a bit underrated, but isn’t going to shine in this deck. An aggro deck with Goblin Arsonist and Armored Warhorse isn’t going to function well because of mana consistency problems whereas Benalish Veteran fits right in.
My pick: Benalish Veteran
Pack 2 pick 5:
Phantasmal Bear, Goblin Tunneler, and Goblin Piker are all good aggro creatures, but they don’t belong in this deck because it’s White-based; adding cheap creatures of another color is going to compromise the manabase too much and decrease the deck’s consistency. Goblin Tunneler is a bit of an exception because it’s better later on in the game due to being able to force through the last bits of damage. Crown of Empires is going to be the best choice because it’s good at leveraging an advantage on the Battlefield by tapping down the opponent’s relevant creatures so that ours can attack freely. Another point to consider is that the color signals aren’t being clearly defined, and with good cards in both Red and Blue, it’s likely that we’ll not play one of the colors (and shouldn’t pass up on decent White/colorless cards).
My pick: Crown of Empires
Pack 2 pick 6:
Red appears to not be open on the left either which is unfortunate because our Red options are better than Blue. Still, we can still commit to Blue fully and abandon the pair of Incinerates. Both Aven Fleetwing and Skywinder Drake are good options with the Aven being superior (Shroud is a big deal and pairs great with White auras like Divine Favor). Guardians’ Pledge is the other option, although it’s not as good as the Blue flyers. The advantage that Guardians’ Pledge has over the Blue cards is that it’s going to be a very powerful combat trick in a heavy-White deck whereas the flyers will just be fine. White already has a lot of flyers that overlap with the Fleetwing/Drake, and so there’s less of an advantage gained by taking either. The downside to Guardians’ Pledge is that it’s easier to get later on when packs wheel if White is being underdrafted (which is when you’ll end up with a deck that actually should use Guardians’ Pledge in the first place), and thus taking one so early is a bit of a spew. White has been flowing moderately well throughout both packs, and so taking a Guardians’ Pledge here is reasonable if we also want to hold onto the Red cards.
In hindsight I should have just abandoned Red because it was obviously not open on either side, and I’d been the unfortunate victim of being picking at the scraps of a few heavy-Red packs. Blue was clearly open but I ignored it.
My pick: Guardians’ Pledge
Pack 2 pick 7:
Divine Favor is a fine card and is useful against decks that have the ability to race us; it also makes the Auramancer a bit better. However, Arbalest Elite is a better option because it can do more things by itself than the Favor. The Elite is expensive to use just like Crown of Empires, but it adds a lot of complexity to combat that enables our smaller creatures to attack freely.
My pick: Arbalest Elite
Pack 2 pick 8:
There’s nothing interesting here except for Goblin Bangchuckers which needs a bit of help from other cards to be useful (Goblin Chieftain, Divine Favor, Spirit Mantle, et al).
My pick: Goblin Bangchuckers
Pack 2 pick 9:
My pick: Stave Off
Pack 2 pick 10:
My pick: Auramancer
Pack 2 pick 11:
My pick: Alluring Siren
Pack 2 pick 12:
My pick: Manic Vandal
Pack 2 pick 13:
My pick: Disentomb
Pack 2 pick 14:
My pick: Firebreathing
Pack 2 pick 15:
The second pack was quite rough because Red wasn’t as open expected and we stubbornly stuck with it instead of dumping it in favor of Blue. White was also not as open as expected and some of our picks suffered as a result. In pack three we should expect more White than in pack two (although not necessarily as much as pack one due to additional people going into the color in the second pack) to solidify our base-color, and it’s far less likely that Blue/Red will be as much of an option.
Pack 3 pick 1:
This pick isn’t ideal for us as an opener because the options are so lackluster. Griffin Rider has the most potential, although it’s unlikely to return dividends because we only have one Griffin to pair with it, and thus we’ll be left with a measly 1/1 most of the time. The only other option is Rusted Sentinel which is quite mediocre, and ideally it won’t end up in our deck if at all possible.
My pick: Rusted Sentinel
Pack 3 pick 2:
Merfolk Looter and Chasm Drake are both options, although the Drake is quite expensive and generally won’t provide as much advantage as the Looter will. Merfolk Looter is going to ensure that we never run out of spells whereas the Drake will just be a fine late-game option (although it’s not at its best in Blue/White because the color combination already has a lot of flyers and the creatures tend to be smaller). The other option is Stormfront Pegasus which is better than the Looter because it fits better into the deck. Even though the Looter is going to help win games where we don’t draw optimally, the Pegasus directly increases the deck’s consistency.
My pick: Stormfront Pegasus
Pack 3 pick 3:
Here’s another weak pick with very few good options. Unsummon is the best card overall because it’s useful at generating tempo along with protecting your creatures from removal. However, Manalith is going to be the best option because will help make splashing the pair of Incinerates a viable option.
My pick: Manalith
Pack 3 pick 4:
It’s very difficult to justify taking anything over Oblivion Ring because it’s one of the most flexible removal spells for any type of permanent.
My pick: Oblivion Ring
Pack 3 pick 5:
Phantasmal Dragon is usually pretty good because a lot of decks won’t have many ways to target it, and having such a large, evasive body enables it to end games quickly. Skywinder Drake is going to be a better option than the Dragon in this deck because its mana-cost is much more manageable especially if we decide to splash Red).
My pick: Skywinder Drake
Pack 3 pick 6:
Swiftfoot Boots can be useful in a deck with good, large creatures (which this deck has very few of). The Boots are also good against decks with lots of removal, but they aren’t as useful if they’re only protecting a Stormfront Pegasus because it’s very difficult to race effectively with only one. Crumbling Colossus is a better option because it’s a way to both block the ground while racing in the air as well as providing large source of damage to finish off the opponent with.
My pick: Crumbling Colossus
Pack 3 pick 7:
At this point and Unsummon is going to be better than second Guardians’ Pledge because the deck’s creature base doesn’t have enough good White creatures to want a second one. Unsummon is going to be quite useful because of the tempo-orientated nature of the deck.
My pick: Unsummon
Pack 3 pick 8:
Mighty Leap and Greatsword are the two options to consider. Phantasmal Bear is decent but will be difficult to play along with the two Incinerates. The second Mighty Leap loses a lot of value since we have a bunch of flyers already which leaves Greatsword. The equipment is quite slow to use, but it can be another useful way to force through damage against problematic creatures like Giant Spider.
My pick: Greatsword
Pack 3 pick 9:
Cancel is a fine card, although it’s difficult to cast and won’t be useful until later on in the game when our hand has been depleted of creatures. Combust is a better option because it’s a very good removal option from the sideboard.
My pick: Combust
Pack 3 pick 10:
My pick: Siege Mastodon
Pack 3 pick 11:
Even though we have Crumbling Colossus and Rusted Sentinel, playing Buried Ruin is quite ambitious in our three-color special.
My pick: Buried Ruin
Pack 3 pick 12:
My pick: Negate
Pack 3 pick 13:
My pick: Firebreathing
Pack 3 pick 14:
My pick: Disentomb
Pack 3 pick 15:
Pack three was quite disappointing despite the fourth-pick Oblivion Ring. White wasn’t flowing at all, and when combined with our poor open along with waffling between Red/Blue in the first two packs, we have ended up with a mediocre pool to build with. We’ll still be able to build a deck that can win because of the number of flyers/disruption, but it will still be difficult.
The White/colorless cards (17) that should be included are the following:
The deck’s core is very aggressive and tempo-based, and the remaining cards that are used to construct the deck should also focus on those characteristics. The remnants of the card pool can be grouped into three categories: White/Artifact, Red, and Blue
White/Artifact:
Red:
Blue:
The best cards in groups are 1 Manalith, 2 Incinerates, 1 Aether Adept, 1 Skywinder Drake, and 1 Unsummon. However, playing both Red and Blue will be difficult because we’re also trying to play Armored Warhorse in an aggro deck and can’t afford to stumble on mana. Eliminating one color will mean that we’d have to play more White/Artifact cards, none of which are great. Auramancer has no support except from Oblivion Ring which is unlikely to go to the graveyard. Stonehorn Dignitary is quite mediocre because we don’t have all flyers and will have to attack on the ground. Greatsword is also uninteresting. The non-White options are even worse.
The best option is to play both Red and Blue and hope that the mana works out. Another option to help aid the deck is to make it a bit more controlling and add Alluring Siren instead of a random Auramancer. The Siren will give us a bit more play with the Battlefield and allow us to control it. Blue has more cards than Red, although still not many, and so we’ll be able to get away with a minimal number of Mountains/Islands while still playing with a high number of Plains. Minimizing Islands will mean that summoning Aether Adept will be difficult, but it’s a necessary sacrifice to make everything work.
Deck:
The deck ended up winning the draft despite having terrible mana.
What really kept the deck going were the flyers in combination with the various tricks. Stave Off, Unsummon, Guardians’ Pledge, along with the removal made it difficult to properly play around the quick clock that would often be established within the first few turns of the game (thanks to the trio of Stormfront Pegasus).
The Alluring Siren never did anything, although it was absent in most games. Having more large creatures would have made the Siren better, although two Siege Mastodon, one Serra Angel, one Rusted Sentinel, and One Heavy Arbalest seemed good enough at the time.
Combust was quite good whenever it was sideboarded in; it’s quite a good removal spell and should always be considered highly when drafting. Sideboard removal such as Combust, Celestial Purge, and Deathmark tend to be passed more often than they should be.
Unsummon was quite useful as always; its multi-functionality continues to impress.
Greatsword never got sideboarded in, although I never played against a deck with Arachnus Web/Ice Cage.
Happy Drafting.
