This time there were 31 people, and I was at a table of 8. I've been doing some draft simulations, but the AI on Draftsim is really not close to what real people are drafting. I've also been keeping up with various assessments of draft strategy for this set. Let's see what I ended up with.
First pick at bottom left, going up each column.
The planeswalker in pack 1 was not super exciting, and I can't remember who it was now. Dreadhorde Arcanist is a perfectly fine 2-drop with the possibility of recurring some spells for free, especially if you can boost its power. I decided to try it out. Next 4 picks were 3 good removal spells and another excellent 2-drop. Ugin's Conjurant was a big surprise at 6th pick -- this card is very underrated. People see it losing counters as a downside, but it is a very flexible card and always fits in your deck. It should be one of the first picks from any pack after any top end rares and the best uncommon removal and planeswalkers. The rest of the pack fed into my interest in building a black-red spell-heavy deck.
Second pack Domri was a great card to open, and I decided it was good enough to either splash or to try to switch into a green-based multicolor deck. My neighbor to the left opened Liliana and foil Domri in the same pack, so I was lucky enough to add a second copy (although I weighed it against taking Ob Nixilis's Cruelty number 3). I added a couple Gateway Plazas so that I'd have a chance at playing my Domri's alongside the strong black cards from pack 1. Spellgorger Weird 7th pick was pretty unexpected, signaling that red was likely to be open. The Narset's Reversal pick was mostly because I like the card for constructed play. Not a lot available in the rest of the pack, but I snagged a New Horizons in case I needed to go harder into green for any reason.
Third pack rare was Role Reversal, a good card that I couldn't play, and the planeswalker was Arlinn, who is good but didn't really fit what I was doing. The Taskmaster is an over-statted 2-drop and gives some recursion to the deck. Mobilized District was a weird one. I think it's a really good card, and it's worth having a land that can turn into a creature even though I didn't have many ways to reduce its cost (just Domri). It also clashed with my bad manabase. Picks 4 - 8 confirmed that red was open to me, and I ate them up happily. Role Reversal actually went back past me. Living Twister was one that I almost drafted the first time I saw it, but it's so hard to cast. It was a free pick near the end though.
There were some chances for me to go different directions in this draft. I think I did a good job getting strong cards in black and red, and I also think splashing in Domri was a good plan (especially since he pumps Dreadhorde Arcanist enough to cast some spells from the graveyard). Even though I didn't have a lot of planeswalkers or any bomb rares other than Domri, I had a few sources of repeat value in my first picks of each pack, as well as some spells that burn the opponent out in the late game. On the negative side, I hedged toward value over aggression, which is probably correct in this format, but maybe not for this particular deck. I really wanted some of the black and red uncommon planeswalkers, but I never saw them.
Here's the deck:
It ended up being a deck almost entirely of 2- and 3-mana spells, with almost all of my action at 3. I had a few mana sinks like Mobilized District and Spark Reaper, but I decided to try to go with 16 lands and a tight curve, with a plan of attacking early, using removal to push through in the middle, and Heartfire-ing late.
With so many 3-drops, Gateway Plaza wasn't so bad, since I could usually skip turn 2 if I had to. I did miss the black source that was replaced by Mobilized District, and I occasionally needed a green source I didn't have, so the Plazas were good to have early. The reason I skimped on black (instead of red) was that my splash cards all had red-green mana costs, so I didn't want to have my green source and be unable to cast them for lack of a Mountain. I made that kind of mistake in a 3-color manabase during guilds.
Here is what stayed in the sideboard:
Tithebreaker Giant is a really good card, but I kept it out of the main deck because my lands were tight. That might be a mistake.
My main plan with the sideboard was to bring in Davriel's Shadowfugue on the play and add something in place of Mobilized District (going down to 15 lands) on the draw. I also juggled the number of Sarkhan's Catharsis between 0 and 2 copies depending how much I felt it was necessary for burning the opponent or their planeswalkers.
Round 1 vs. White-Green Arkbow.
In game 1 he got Vivien's Arkbow down on the first turn and just buried me in card advantage as the game went on. Second game I was able to boost a Spellgorger Weird to an unstoppable 7/7 while casting my removal. Third game he blew out my Domri (-2) fight ability by casting Pledge of Unity in response, and that was basically the game. Loss, 1-2.
Round 2 "bye."
My opponent left before the round, so it was a free win. I found some guys to play a game of Commander. I had made a few changes to my Intet the Dreamer deck, and I got to test out Rhonas the Indomitable, Stormbreath Dragon, Growth Spiral, and the new Kiora during the game. All were excellent, especially Kiora for drawing cards and for untapping Lotus Vale. Growth Spiral got me Lotus Vale on turn 4 to untap with 5 mana on turn 5. I didn't win, but I got some mega attacks in with Atarka and the Stormbreath (which I was able to Monstrous the same turn I cast it).
Round 3 vs. Jeskai.
He played a little aggressively in the first game, and I was actually able to grind him out after falling to 3 life. The next 2 games went to the player who played first. Win, 2-1.
Round 4 vs. 4-Color Bombs.
He was playing every color except green in a deck full of good rares with an Amass subtheme. First game he had the more powerful cards and won on the draw, and then we each won on the play. Loss, 1-2.
I dropped at 2-2, with a game record of 4-5. It wasn't horrible, but the person who played first won almost every game. With all the planeswalkers, I consider this a play-first format even though many games go late. The deck was pretty fun to play, especially with Domri or Spellgorger Weird out. Heartfire was great, and I fizzled my opponent's removal with it twice (once stopping Wanderer's Strike from proliferating). Most of the decks in this format get off to slow starts, so I think this deck could have worked well if I had a couple more cards to support its aggression plan, like Angrath, Samut's Sprint, and Grim Initiate. My rounds did go fairly long, but never to turns.
As for money value, I drafted a very high 7 rares, but none worth more than about $5 (Foil Domri). I balanced that by only drafting 6 uncommons. The total draft was worth roughly the cost of entry.
I did have fun and learn, and I also got better at the patterns of play in this format.
Thanks for reading!
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