This week's draft is a little less straight-forward than the previous, and hinges a little more on my gut feelings and intuition.
P1P1 - The very first pick of the draft is difficult this time around. The best cards in this pack are Conclave Naturalists, Leaf Gilder, Anointer of Champions, and Nantuko Husk. None of them are particularly exciting as a first pick, but all of them would find a place in most decks in their respective colors.
I rule out Anointed and Husk pretty quickly, though. Anointed, while good, plays best in an aggressive, low-curve deck that can abuse the ability to potentially pump one of multiple attackers, making your opponent have to overcommit on his blocks; it's also not really a card I can count as part of my "curve", and it's pretty bad as a topdeck in most situations. Husk, on the other hand, is pretty mediocre unless you can construct a deck that runs a lot of disposable creatures, like Dragon Fodder and thopter tokens; he does occasionally muck up combat enough to give you an edge when you're running him in just a regular mid-range deck, but his floor dips especially low in control decks, where you often don't have extra creatures that you can just "throw away" for the sake of pushing through damage or eating an opponent's bomb creature.
On the other hand, Leaf Gilder and Conclave Naturalists are likely to make any deck I put together, if I end up in green. I also feel better playing them, because they have a simple, noticeable, and immediate impact on the board, most of the time.
In the end, I decided on Leaf Gilder. As much as I'd love to pick up Conclave Naturalists, 2-drops are just too important in this format. It's not a pick I really want to make at p1p1, but green comes with plenty big beaters that I don't need to pass on an early 2-drop for a rather mediocre one that has an occasional upside. Mind, when that upside is relevant, it's often very good, but it's just not enough to make me pass over a guaranteed curve-filler like Leaf Gilder.
I rule out Anointed and Husk pretty quickly, though. Anointed, while good, plays best in an aggressive, low-curve deck that can abuse the ability to potentially pump one of multiple attackers, making your opponent have to overcommit on his blocks; it's also not really a card I can count as part of my "curve", and it's pretty bad as a topdeck in most situations. Husk, on the other hand, is pretty mediocre unless you can construct a deck that runs a lot of disposable creatures, like Dragon Fodder and thopter tokens; he does occasionally muck up combat enough to give you an edge when you're running him in just a regular mid-range deck, but his floor dips especially low in control decks, where you often don't have extra creatures that you can just "throw away" for the sake of pushing through damage or eating an opponent's bomb creature.
On the other hand, Leaf Gilder and Conclave Naturalists are likely to make any deck I put together, if I end up in green. I also feel better playing them, because they have a simple, noticeable, and immediate impact on the board, most of the time.
In the end, I decided on Leaf Gilder. As much as I'd love to pick up Conclave Naturalists, 2-drops are just too important in this format. It's not a pick I really want to make at p1p1, but green comes with plenty big beaters that I don't need to pass on an early 2-drop for a rather mediocre one that has an occasional upside. Mind, when that upside is relevant, it's often very good, but it's just not enough to make me pass over a guaranteed curve-filler like Leaf Gilder.
P1P2 - This pack isn't especially strong either, but the best cards are all in red. Thopter Engineer and Akroan Sergeant are about equal, power-wise, but a lot of the Engineer's power is wrapped up in giving haste to your other thopters and whatever other artifact creatures you happen to draft. It's tempting to just take the Sergeant here, being a great standalone 3-drop, but there's always a chance I'll run across a Ghirapur Gearcrafter or two, or even a Pia and Kiran Nalaar, so I take the Engineer.
Other decent cards here are Firefiend Elemental, Fetid Imp, and Llanowar Empath, but they're all a solid tier down from the Engineer and Sergeant. I suppose Aspiring Aeronaut is decent, too, but I've never been a big fan of the card; it's always felt more like a nuisance than an actual threat.
Other decent cards here are Firefiend Elemental, Fetid Imp, and Llanowar Empath, but they're all a solid tier down from the Engineer and Sergeant. I suppose Aspiring Aeronaut is decent, too, but I've never been a big fan of the card; it's always felt more like a nuisance than an actual threat.
P1P3 - Since I already have a green card from my first pick, and the only decent non-green card here is Enshrouding Mist, I default to picking up the Leaf Gilder. There's an argument to be made for grabbing the Timberpack Wolf, on the off chance that you can end up in multiples, but I'd rather just bank on the 2-drop that I know will do the work I draft it for.
P1P4 - This is my first hard decision of the draft. There's a choice here between Evolutionary Leap, Eyeblight Assassin and Nantuko Husk. I played Evolutionary Leap in my last draft, and it did OK, with the heavy top end of quality creatures I wanted to dig into. I... don't exactly have that with this draft so far. I could very well go that way, especially if I end up green/red, since that color combination tends to be the "big beats" deck. That said, there's a lot of decent black here, which makes me wonder if I wouldn't be better off just dropping the one red card I've drafted and swinging into green/black.
I actually used up most of my time mulling over this decision, but ended up deciding to bet on black. Since it looks like I may end up in green, Evolutionary Leap is the safe pick, but if black is open I want to start snapping it up now before somebody else does, especially if I can get a decent black/green elves deck going.
I take Eyeblight Assassin over Nantuko Husk simply because I don't have a lot of great experience running Husk outside of black/red. This pick may very well be wrong, however.
I actually used up most of my time mulling over this decision, but ended up deciding to bet on black. Since it looks like I may end up in green, Evolutionary Leap is the safe pick, but if black is open I want to start snapping it up now before somebody else does, especially if I can get a decent black/green elves deck going.
I take Eyeblight Assassin over Nantuko Husk simply because I don't have a lot of great experience running Husk outside of black/red. This pick may very well be wrong, however.
P1P5 - With my last pick being a solid black card, I decide to go the same route here. In red, we have Smash to Smithereens, which is a sideboard card, and Magmatic Insight, which isn't particularly strong outside of the same sort of deck that you might run Molten Vortex (a low-curve, 16-land deck that can run most of its spells on 3 mana). Green has Vastwood Gorger, which I can pick up a million of for free at any point in the draft, and Mantle of Webs, which is also a sideboard card (and a mediocre one, in most cases).
That means my decision is between Deadbridge Shaman and Fetid Imp. Since I'd like to get an elf deck rolling along, I decide on the Shaman. I think either pick is fine here, though, as both cards are about the same power level. It's just that Fetid Imp is more defensive, while Deadbridge Shaman is more aggressive.
That means my decision is between Deadbridge Shaman and Fetid Imp. Since I'd like to get an elf deck rolling along, I decide on the Shaman. I think either pick is fine here, though, as both cards are about the same power level. It's just that Fetid Imp is more defensive, while Deadbridge Shaman is more aggressive.
P1P6 - This pack is pretty picked over, but Yeva's Forcemage is a decent 3-drop. It doesn't do much after its ability has resolved, but that ability does help push damage through, get creatures renown, and otherwise make it difficult for the opponent to deal with combat, especially in board parity situations.
P1P7 - A 7th pick Somberwald Alpha tells me that I'm on the right track with green. This is a card that usually goes second or third in good packs, which means that, excepting potentially the two drafters on my immediate left, probably nobody else is in green. It's especially good in an aggressive, low-curve deck, which is what many of my picks have been leaning toward anyway.
P1P8 - Zendikar's Roil is an interesting choice, but since I've been leaning aggressive in my draft picks, I pass it up for the cheap combat trick in Might of the Masses.
P1P9 - The Conclave Naturalists and Valeron Wardens from my starting pack are both gone, which means the person to my left is probably green, and at least one other person speculated green. However, there's still an Orchard Spirit here, which is a nice pick-up. With my early curve, I'm going to need some evasion to push through the last few points of damage in a lot of games, I suspect.
I did consider Subterranean Scout for a little bit, since I only picked up two black cards up to this point. But I decided against it since I would rather just grab a card I know will make my deck, rather than a replaceable card that I might cut due to being in different colors.
I did consider Subterranean Scout for a little bit, since I only picked up two black cards up to this point. But I decided against it since I would rather just grab a card I know will make my deck, rather than a replaceable card that I might cut due to being in different colors.
P1P10 - Here, however, I question jumping back into red. There were a few decent cards in this pack, but the only better red card than Firefiend Elemental was Akroan Sergeant. I can't make myself believe that there were 8 other cards in this pack that were better than the Elemental, so I decide to speculate red again. This pick doesn't really cost me anything, though, since Caustic Caterpillar is a sideboard card I can pick up at any time, and Rabid Bloodsucker ends up getting cut most times I run black.
P1P11 - I'm not sure I'm going to be in black anymore, and Thornbow Archer isn't very good even if I were. I decide to go with Aerial Volley for my sideboard.
P1P12 - A rather late Yeva's Forcemage just solidifies my decision to go green. Revenant might be an interesting pick if I end up in a green/black creature-heavy deck, but I'm not quite far enough into the draft to figure out if that's going to work. This is another situation where I'd rather just take something I know I'm going to play.
P1P13 - Both these cards are sideboard cards, but Mantle of Webs might come out against flier, and I'm still not sure I'm going to be in red yet.
P1P14 - Well, it's a card I can put in if I'm short on playables, but it's not something I'll be happy doing if it comes down to it.
Pack 2->
Pack 3->
Nuts & Bolts->
Stress Test->
Back to the Drafting Table->
Pack 2->
Pack 3->
Nuts & Bolts->
Stress Test->
Back to the Drafting Table->