I forgot to take the usual photo of my full draft before deck construction, and you will be shocked to hear that I don't have a perfect memory for this stuff, so here's my general reconstruction of the draft. Bottom left is the beginning of the first pack, and the mish mash of cards in the middle are sort of in the area I drafted them but not exactly.
Forebear's Blade was my first pack rare, and it is not only very strong, but also left me open to any color, so it was a pretty easy pick over some average-to-good uncommons. I'm fairly certain that my second pick was Ancient Animus from a generally weak pack. Then I was passed another bomb equipment, Blackblade Reforged. These two equipment made me think I would do well with smaller aggressive creatures and a legendary/historic theme. Through the first pack, I had a hard time finding legendary creatures, and I ended up with several cards in white, blue, and red, but generally very open heading into the second pack.
Pack 2 rare was Cabal Stronghold. Black was my least likely color, and it isn't a great card in draft anyway, but I did find a Time of Ice, which I found out last week was a very good card. I don't remember whether Traxos was my exact next pick -- it may have been 3rd or 4th -- but it surprised me because it isn't hard to build a deck that supports it. My deck naturally wanted it since I already had some good artifacts. I hoped to get a Voltaic Servant or two to form the combo with it, but I never saw one. Now that I was strongly in the historic theme, Daring Archaeologist a couple picks later in this pack went from being an average card to a potentially great card. With all my artifacts, I was still pretty open between the same three colors going into pack 3.
Pack 3 gave me a rare I wanted in Shalai. Even without playing green, the rest of her abilities and stats are great, plus she is legendary/historic. Just like last week, I found a Sulfur Falls second pick to help make sure I could use my good red or blue cards as a splash. Somewhere along here, a Juggernaut made it to me later than expected, as well as Fight with Fire and a Skittering Surveyor. As the draft went on and I found more cheap removal spells, I realized I might end up more of a control deck than I expected. I also drafted as many "good" 2-drops as I could in all three of my colors, finishing with eight of those plus a 1-drop in each color to make sure that I could have creatures to equip regardless of the combination I ended up in.
Here is the deck I built.
As you can see, I cut blue down to just Time of Ice and an answer-anything spell in Deep Freeze. Most of my historic triggers were in white or colorless anyway, so having all the red removal seemed better than my blue. White-blue splashing red might have been fine too. I had some tough cuts, especially at the 4-drop slot where most of my strongest spells lay, and I ended up not playing a couple 2/2 fliers at that cost.
I went with 18 lands, but I accidentally played 19 lands (and a 41-card deck) for the first three rounds before I took this picture and corrected it. The high land count helps with Blackblade and Fight with Fire, both of which are game-ending if you can pay their high costs.
Short Sword and Bloodstone Goblin are probably the worst cards here, but I wanted to make sure I had enough historic triggers and enough cheap creatures to keep me alive and equip to. Without any repeatable combos for Traxos, is was really important to have ways to untap it. Short Sword in particular is a card you'd normally play first turn, but I found myself holding when I had it in my opening hand because it is such a cheap way to trigger historic effects. Serra Disciple isn't good on its own, and it's a horrible blocker, but the consistent historic triggers make it ok and Forebear's Blade or Blackblade Reforged make it game-winning.
Here are my main sideboard cards, with the ones I actually used on top.
Just like last week, Fiery Intervention came in for almost every match. The other cards were more situational. I'm not sure if it's correct, but I tend to bring in or switch combat tricks against better players. One of my favorite tactics is to take out combat tricks that were seen in game 1 and replace them with different ones in game 2, but that didn't really apply here. Syncopate is another answer for mega bombs, especially against players who don't seem to be playing around counterspells. I had pieces to turn this into a more aggressive deck, but I never used that tactic.
I once again (almost) always chose to draw first in my games. I have read some advice from PVDDR on draw vs. play in Dominaria, and he suggests that the "correct to draw" situations are when you have fewer sources of card advantage and enough early game removal/blockers to survive. This deck checks both of those boxes. Most of the card advantage here is from the graveyard (Ghitu Chronicler and Daring Archaeologist). On top of that, I really want to get to 6 - 9 lands in this deck for my kickers and Blackblade, and I felt that drawing first helped with that. Everyone I've played against still chooses to play first in this format, but I feel like I'm going to lean toward draw more often than not.
Round 1 vs. R
R was in red-green. Our first game was pretty well-matched until I got enough lands to equip Blackblade, and then I just ran over him. Second game I mulliganed and got stuck on 2 lands for a few turns, so I ended up wasting my kicker cards to chump block. He had a Territorial Allosaurus that I couldn't handle and I lost badly. In game 3 we were again fairly well matched. I had seen Voltaic Servants in the first two games, and now he played Traxos but without any way to untap it. I played my own Traxos and he hit it with Fiery Intervention (second mode). I tried to wait his Traxos out until Time of Ice could return it, but he managed to get an attack with it, and then I had to destroy it with my own Fiery Intervention. We got into trading blows with smaller creatures, and I drew Forebear's Blade for my Serra Disciple and won a close one at 3 life (and vulnerable to burn spells I had seen in previous games). Win, 2-1.
Round 2 vs. N
N had a red-green deck that didn't seem like it should work, but was surprisingly effective with little creatures and pump spells. In game 1, I had Juggernaut, Traxos, and Short Sword but very little early removal. He beat me down a little with his stuff, and I played turn 4 Traxos, turn 5 Juggernaut (attack for 7 to 13), and he did the math, saw I could attack for 12 if I could untap Traxos, and stayed aggressive. I didn't block (down to 4), then played and equipped Short Sword and attacked for 13. Second game we both had smaller creatures and the game went long. I got him to 1 on a desperation attack and lost on the backswing. N is a notoriously slow player (and shuffler!), and Game 3 started with only a few minutes on the clock, so I chose to play first in case I could win quickly. If I had had more time, this would have been the time to put in the more aggressive cards. I mulliganed and then kept a hand full of removal, and I just played defense for the draw. Draw 1-1-1.
Round 3 vs. B.
B. was white-green. Game 1 he got stuck on 2 lands for a while but still put up a fight. I ended up getting to attack with my Goblin equipped with Short Sword down to 4, then Goblin Barrage with kicker (choosing to sacrifice either one) was enough for the exact win. Game 2 I got a Serra Disciple going with Blackblade and won easily. Win, 2-0.
Round 4 vs. T.
T. is a good player and had just come back from playing at Grand Prix Dallas last week. He had a blue-green deck full of value but with few finishers. In game 1, I got all of my equipment but was thwarted by an Icy Manipulator and other bounce/removal. We found out that both players having Time of Ice in play is an interesting way to make the game longer. I was able to kill two creatures plus do 6 damage to opponent with Fight with Fire, getting rid of a nasty Tatyova, but he still pulled it out. I boarded in both my artifact-killers. I drew Traxos and multiple cards to untap him in game 2, but again ran into a lot of bounce and Tatyova. After I went through his Time of Ice, he was at 1 life and had 3 blockers that I was having trouble with, but I had D'Avenant Trapper and the perfect setup: Skittering Surveyor (historic) to tap a creature and get a land, then play the land and cast Time of Ice (historic) to tap the last two creatures, and attack with Trapper. Third game he had all his gross removal and Icy Manipulator, and I just wasn't able to find enough answers. Loss, 1-2.
I might have found a way to sneak into top 8, but it was 11 PM and I decided to make it easier for everyone by dropping at 2-1-1. My game record was 6-4-1, and I think that's about accurate for this deck. I did make some mistakes over the course of the night, playing an extra land for 3 rounds and forgetting to attack with Serra Disciple occasionally, but I don't think any of the mistakes I caught were game-changing.
Here are my rares:
I drafted 6 rares, which is twice expected, and 8 uncommons, which is slightly below the 9 expected. Shalai ($3.50) and Sulfur Falls ($4.50) are the only cards worth more than about 75 cents. Rat Colony is oddly a 70 cent common. In total, maybe $10 value, same as I paid.
I really enjoy this format and I'm excited to play more.
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