The Open Draft Project: Innistrad: Crimson Vow Episode #1

Welcome back to the latest Open Draft Project, where I force your favorite pros, grinders, and streamers to do the same fake draft for absolutely zero stakes. Unless you count your respect and admiration, which I absolutely do.

Today, we’re tackling Innistrad: Crimson Vow, but with a twist: none of them have actually, you know, drafted the set. Thanks to DraftSim, the same day the set was fully revealed, the virtual seat became available. For some of our venerable guests, it was literally the first time they had seen the cards. It took forever and I have regrets.

As always, participants are instructed to treat the draft as if it were a paper, Best-of-Three pod, so while there are foils, there’s zero vault progress for a random uncommon at the end of a pack. I’ll be giving you their first eight picks, since they’ll all be identical cards, as well as the Pack 2 and 3 Pick 1s. If you have a couple of spare hours and want to hear their complete analysis, check out the YouTube video at the end of the article.

I highly encourage you to try out the same draft seat before reading the article and see how your own evaluations differ from our drafters. If they’re identical, I’m either creeped out or need to reset my passwords.

Sitting down for this episode: Alex Nikolic, Bryan “Veveil” Hohns, Cedric Phillips, Icky, Jamie Topples, Luiz Costa, Ryan Saxe, and Travis “Semulin” Sowers.

Let’s see those picks!

Pack 1, Pick 1

Alex Nikolic: Unfortunately, we don’t get to start off our first draft with a sick bomb rare, but we do have a few good cards in this pack. Cards I’m looking at are Distracting Geist, Archghoul of Thraben, Lantern Bearer, and Courier Bat. Roughly in that order, honestly. I think I would take Archghoul of Thraben. It’s close between that and the Lantern Bearer, but I do think in a good Zombie deck — which I’m kind of hesitant whether or not a actual Zombie tribal deck can come together — but in a good Zombie deck, I think Archghoul is the most powerful card. I wouldn’t be surprised in a week or whatever, after a few drafts, I’m just like “Okay, no, no, Lantern Bearer is just the best card in this pack.” I’ll start with the high-upside card here in Archghoul.

Pick: Archghoul of Thraben

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: The card that I would probably take is Archghoul of Thraben, which seems like a very efficient creature: sort of replaces itself, plays into what looks like one of the best archetypes, every single exploit creature is a Zombie, and most of the exploit fodder are Zombies. Distracting Geist looks like a good aggressive card. Dig Up looks decent, but I’d rather have something to Dig Up before picking it. Most of the commons feel pretty flat. I’m certainly not blown away by Fierce Retribution because most of the white decks look too aggressive. I think it’s a pretty clear Archghoul of Thraben.

Pick: Archghoul of Thraben

Cedric Phillips: I’m going to take what I believe is the safest card in this pack, which is the Fierce Retribution, because I feel like I know what I’m getting myself into with this one the most. “Destroy target attacking creature” for two mana is an effect that has seen play in Limited before and then six mana to kill anything is a little expensive but reasonable, and the flexibility seems to be good, so that’s my first pick.

Pick: Fierce Retribution

Icky: I think here I go Courier Bat. I think it’s probably the best black card in the pack, and I think it’s just an overall good value engine similar to a Gravekeeper if you make it work.

Pick: Courier Bat

Jamie Topples: In this pack, I’m kind of between the Archghoul of Thraben, because that seems super-cool if you have a Zombie tribal deck, which it does seem like there’s going to be a lot of Zombies in this set again, and Fierce Retribution, which seems pretty good, too as removal. It’s really expensive as cleave, though, but it’s still good as versatile removal. I think I would take the Archghoul and just see where that goes.

Pick: Archghoul of Thraben

Luiz Costa: Looking at this Pack 1, I’m not interested much in the rare. I think you kind of want to be in the multicolor green space before you’re interested in that. The things I like the most here are the two uncommons: Distracting Geist and the Archghoul. Also, the Lantern Bearer is pretty premium. I guess the white disturb creature has the most upside. I think I like white from what I’ve seen in the spoilers. I’ll take it to try. Also, I think earlier in the format, you want to take high-variance cards, so I think I’ll take Distracting Geist.

Pick: Distracting Geist

Ryan Saxe: If the cleave was the same color as the casting cost for Dig Up, I’d like it a lot more because I feel like I’d always be able to utilize both modes. Distracting Geist is cool. We’ve had cards like this, and they’re usually commons, and they’re top commons, right? Usually, that kind of card is a must-kill threat, and the fact that you have to kill it twice is pretty great. I’m sure Fierce Retribution is fine, but it’s going to be one of the most overrated commons. Generally, white’s aggressive, which means “Destroy target [attacking] creature” is not something white cares so much about.

Pick: Distracting Geist

Semulin: This pack is not blowing my mind. I feel like I tend to hone in on the uncommons pretty early, especially new in a new set. I think I’m between Distracting Geist and Archghoul of Thraben, and I have no idea which one to pick. I’m going to flip a coin and pick Archghoul of Thraben. It seems like that’ll be fine in any black deck and it’ll be nice if I get some Zombie stuff going. If I don’t, I certainly don’t mind abandoning it.

Pick: Archghoul of Thraben

Pack 1, Pick 2

Alex Nikolic: Well, we do get to follow up Archghoul with a card that ostensibly goes with it pretty well with Diver Skaab. Diver Skaab, I think, is in the running for top uncommon in the set. Anybody who played the last set knows how good Revenge of the Drowned is. Obviously, you want some foddery stuff to come down and sacrifice, but this is one of the exploit cards that you’d actually be okay sacrificing a real creature to because turning your creature into removal is so good. It can stabilize you so well, can put you so far ahead, and, of course, it is a Zombie.

Pick: Diver Skaab

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: Archghoul is pretty straightforward: it wants to go in a Dimir exploit deck with Zombies. Lo and behold, one of the best cards in the pack is a Dimir Zombie, the Diver Skaab, which can sacrifice things for a free Riptide, which is pretty absurd. The other best card is probably Lambholdt Raconteur, but I would just slam Diver Skaab.

Pick: Diver Skaab

Cedric Phillips: I’m going to take Diver Skaab, I guess, because white is the disturb color, so it just seems like there’s some free value there.

Pick: Diver Skaab

Icky: The cards that stand out to me are Diver Skaab, Gluttonous Guest since we’re already on a black plan, and then a couple more blue cards with the Repository Skaab and the Lantern Bearer. I think Diver Skaab is probably the best card in the pack, but seeing how we already have some lifegain incentive with the Courier Bat, I would just like to follow up with Gluttonous Guest, which I think is going to be an underrated card in general.

Pick: Gluttonous Guest

Jamie Topples: Repository Skaab seems kind of cool if I’m trying to do Zomie synergy stuff. I’m still not committing to it, but that does seem nice. I guess I’m just not really excited about anything else, so I’m going to take the Repository Skaab.

Pick: Repository Skaab

Luiz Costa: Here, looking at the white cards, not that much good stuff. Estwald Shieldbasher seems fine. The other two cards seem kind of bad. I think I just take the best card in the pack again. That’s the Diver Skaab. 

Pick: Diver Skaab

Ryan Saxe: [Diver Skaab] is good. It’s probably really good in an Azorius deck because you can actually exploit these disturb cards, and there are two Lantern Bearers that might wheel. The Nebelgast Beguiler is usually a cheap card. It’s between Diver Skaab and Lambholt Raconteur. I’m going to take the Skaab. I think it pairs better as top end with what I’ve started with, and there’s blue cards I’m excited to wheel.

Pick: Diver Skaab

Semulin: And now we’re here with “Do you want to get all-in on some Zombie shenanigans?” and take you a Diver Skaab. Would you like to hedge with some red cards and the Raconteur? Do you want a Honeymoon Hearse? I think I like Diver Skaab. Let’s again try to build around something and if I have to get off it, I have to get off it. 

Pick: Diver Skaab

Pack 1, Pick 3

Alex Nikolic: The cards that are standing out to me are Desperate Farmer, Kindly Ancestor, and Bloodcrazed Socialite. Steelclad Spirit and Skywarp Skaab as well. There are a few mid-level playables. The best card in this pack is Kindly Ancestor. I think Kindly Ancestor is going to be really, really good. There’s a thought of taking Desperate Farmer here — that’d be my next pick — because Farmer is going to be pretty good in the exploit decks where you turn this into a 4/3 lifelink pretty reliably early on. But I think Kindly Ancestor is in the running for one of the top commons and plays pretty well with our Skaab as well as something to sacrifice.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: So if we want to continue to Dimir theme, what would we take here? Desperate Farmer is probably decent. I like Skywarp Skaab. I want one copy but it seems unimportant. Overall I think the power level of this pack is very flat. I just want to take the card that works best with my Dimir shell.

Pick: Desperate Farmer

Cedric Phillips: We’ll take Kindly Ancestor to go along with my Skaab, and generally attempt an Azorius disturb/exploit deck, even though we’re only three picks in.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Icky: This pack’s interesting. We’ve got some blue cards but none of them are really too noteworthy. The Bloodcrazed Socialite is probably more of a filler card. I’m very interested in just taking a black card here to continue that trend. I think I’m interested in the Desperate Farmer at this point and trying to stick on a black plan and just anticipate that we’re going to be trying to do a lifegain deck. This card isn’t super-exciting but I think it’s just overall fine and it keeps us on one plan right now.

Pick: Desperate Farmer

Jamie Topples: Winged Portent seems like a fun build-around but I haven’t looked at how many creatures have flying in this set. I’m sure it’s a ton, but I’m not sure it’s enough to warrant taking that. If I were really trying to force the Zombie deck I would take the Skywarp Skaab, but I don’t want to do that because I don’t know where it’s going. I’m going to take the Desperate Farmer here I think.

Pick: Desperate Farmer

Luiz Costa: I think that Kindly Ancestor is a pretty premium card. One of the best white commons. I think it goes nicely with both the exploit creature and the disturb creature, so I guess I take it here.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Ryan Saxe: Usually, I like to mess around with rares in the beginning of the format. I think it’s actually pretty important to do so, but that’s not one that I’m going to. I’m probably going to start solidifying into one color. I already have a five-drop, so I’m not as interested in the Skaab. I’m a huge fan of Kindly Ancestor. I’m one of the few who thinks lifelink is better than flying.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Semulin: I don’t feel like I need to force blue because I got a Diver Skaab. This is a tough pick, man. I think with time running out, I would click on Kindly Ancestor as it looks like at least a decent common, and if I have to shift into Azorius, it’s a decent common there too. But I’m not in love with any of these.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Pack 1, Pick 4

Alex Nikolic: This is actually a pretty good pack for us. So we have that Lantern Bearer. We have Markov Purifier, which is a pretty good payoff. It remains to be seen how reliably a good lifegain deck can come together, but I’m definitely willing to put stock in the designers’ choices early on and go, “Well, let’s just see how this deck works out.” Past that, there’s Diregraf Scavenger, which I think is going to be a little bit of a sleeper. Very reminiscent of Vampire Spawn. Not as good, I don’t think, but it’s a pretty good card. I think, overall, I would probably just take Lantern Bearer here as the slightly less powerful but more flexible card over Markov Purifier.

Pick: Lantern Bearer

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: We have our first curveball, which is this Markov Purifier. If we wanted to continue the Dimir exploit strategy, we could take different flavors of filler. All of these cards are playable but not particularly impressive, so I would just take the Markov Purifier. I don’t want to commit to Dimir based on bad filler, so I want to try my hand at the multicolor card.

Pick: Markov Purifier

Cedric Phillips: Okay, a 1/1 flyer, good to exploit, and you can have something get a little big. Seems weak for a fourth pick. I guess it could be better than I think, and it is a good thing to put the enchantments on. I guess I’m going to take fourth-pick Lantern Bearer, and people will make fun of me.

Pick: Lantern Bearer

Icky: So here we get a big payoff in Markov Purifier. We’re already three lifegain synergy cards in. It’s exactly what we’re looking for. The rest of the black cards aren’t too exciting except for Diregraf Scavenger, which I think is a good Orzhov card. We see Lacerate Flesh and a couple of good blue cards, which is noteworthy, but there are also three black cards and the exact card we’re looking for in Markov Purifier.

Pick: Markov Purifier

Jamie Topples: I like the [Diregraf Scavenger]. I think that’s kinda cool. It seems a little overcosted but the deathtouch is nice and if I were still trying to hold on to the Zombie theme it’s kinda good. The Lantern Bearer I’m kinda looking at that as well. Maybe even the Purifier because I could still be open to Orzhov. I think this is a turning point in the draft. Maybe I’ll take a chance on Markov Purifier. I love lifelink so if I can make that work, I’d be happy.

Pick: Markov Purifier

Luiz Costa: Another disturb creature seems pretty fine. Also, very good with exploit because it’s cheap, attacking for damage, and then you can sacrifice it to something and also getting a density of disturb cards is pretty good. They kind of make each other better.

Pick: Lantern Bearer

Ryan Saxe: I already have a lifelink card. It’s a little awkward to take Markov Purifier and the fact that I have a bunch of threes, but as I said, I think lifelink is pretty busted. I already have a lifelinker. This thing cares about lifegain. I could take Syncopate. I think Syncopate’s a pretty good Limited card. The exile clause is pretty relevant. But the thing is, this Azorius that has all this disturb is not going to be great at holding up mana. I could take the Lantern Bearer here and try to lean into Azorius, but there are two other Lantern Bearers, and both of those Lantern Bearers are with other blue cards, which makes me feel like I can wheel them. And I don’t think they’re premium premium cards, so I think it’s important here to speculate on the Purifier.

Pick: Markov Purifier

Semulin: I remember liking some of these. I thought Frenzied Devils was all right. I thought Syncopate was always fine for curve-filling. But we just got a great lifelinker, we’ve got a great black card, and here’s Markov Purifier being like “Dude, you wanna gain some life?” Yeah, let’s party, man.

Pick: Markov Purifier

Pack 1, Pick 5

Alex Nikolic: There are a few other pretty good cards here — Valorous Stance is great — but I think I’m just going to take Stitched Assistant. It also plays well with most of our cards. It’s a Zombie for our Archghoul of Thraben. We also have some sacrifice fodder here with the Ancestor and Lantern Bearer, and it’s an exploit creature. This is one of the better commons for any blue deck with any amount of fodder.

Pick: Stitched Assistant

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: I guess the best card in the pack is Valorous Stance. Valorous Stance is a weird removal spell and an okay trick, which is a card you’re pretty much never going to cut from a white deck, but I don’t view it as some windmill-slam uncommon. There’s also Abrade, which is pretty good. The best Dimir card is Stitched Assistant, which is actually decent, but we haven’t seen any fodder for it. I would just take Stiched Assistant. I don’t value Stance enough to take a white card.

Pick: Stitched Assistant

Cedric Phillips: This is a straight-up Valorous Stance. It’s the strongest of the three cards, given its modality.

Pick: Valorous Stance

Icky: Now it looks like we’re headed in the Orzhov direction we were thinking of so I’m very interested in staying on that plan. Valorous Stance I think is a good card in general but I think I would like to get another Gluttonous Guest at this point. It still keeps us on just black if we want to do a cool toughness build.

Pick: Gluttonous Guest

Jamie Topples: I think in this pack I might like Valorous Stance because I like the flexibility of that card a lot. Being able to give something indestructible seems great because so far, a lot of removal seems expensive and clunky, so being able to respond to that with [Valorous Stance] seems awesome. And there are a lot of creatures with toughness four or greater, so I’m kinda into that as removal.

Pick: Valorous Stance

Luiz Costa: I could see playing one copy of Selhoff Entomber, but I’m not much into it. I think Valorous Stance is the best card here. I could see playing Stitched Assistant, but I think Valorous Stance is the best thing; it’s removal that doubles up as a trick. I think we want some interaction.

Pick: Valorous Stance

Ryan Saxe: Valorous Stance is a dope card. That card is so good, but I’m not necessarily taking it because Stitched Assistant is also really great. I think at this point I’m committing myself to white, though, and then I’ll see if I’m either blue or black.

Pick: Valorous Stance

Semulin: All right, so we’re looking at basically our off-ramp into blue cards if we want them, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t just take the Valorous Stance here and say, “Yeah, we’re probably doing this.” So, yeah, put me down for Valorous Stance.

Pick: Valorous Stance

Pack 1, Pick 6

Alex Nikolic: This is interesting. I wonder if this is the point we want to take Chill of the Grave. If I knew I was Dimir, I’m pretty sure I would just take Doomed Dissenter here as a good two-drop play, one of the better sacrifice fodder cards. But considering there’s a chance we’re Azorius still, I wonder if we take Chill of the Grave. I think I’m willing to take Doomed Dissenter here to try to get into more synergistic deck. This deck is pretty interesting because we’re basically asking a question, “What are we giving up for staying open?” I think Doomed Dissenter would be a really, really good addition to a Dimir deck, but Chill is going to be pretty good in any blue deck, especially an Azorius tempo-ey deck. Overall, I don’t think we’re giving up that much if we don’t end up playing Doomed Dissenter.

Pick: Doomed Dissenter

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: We can just take our Doomed Dissenter here. This is the kind of card that works perfectly for Dimir’s gameplay loop. Chill of the Grave is actually good here, too. I wouldn’t hate Chill of the Grave, but I think getting the Dissenter is too important when you have two exploit creatures. I think Dissenter might be the best fodder common.

Pick: Doomed Dissenter

Cedric Phillips: I guess I’ll take a Heron-Blessed Geist. It seems to line up with what I’m trying to do here a little bit with a disturb deck. A five-mana 3/3, and then I can create some people because I assume I’ll control an enchantment because of disturb.

Pick: Heron-Blessed Geist

Icky: None of the white cards are super-exciting to me. There’s one black card in the Doomed Dissenter, which is mostly exploit fodder. Since we’re doing Orzhov, we’ve got some Blood-makers. The Heron-Blessed Geist isn’t a card I’m generally excited about, but since we already have some Blood, looting it away gives us access to get it back from the graveyard and do the second mode, which makes this card much more playable.

Pick: Heron-Blessed Geist

Jamie Topples: I think I like Doomed Dissenter. This is a reprint, I’ve played it a lot before, and it seems like a great exploit target that comes back as a 2/2 Zombie.

Pick: Doomed Dissenter

Luiz Costa: Heron-Blessed Geist seems pretty fine, but I’m kind of concerned with the amount of interaction that I’ll end up playing. I know blue doesn’t have much, and also the removal in white seems pretty poor for an aggressive deck, so I guess I’ll take Chill of the Grave here. 

Pick: Chill of the Grave

Ryan Saxe: We’ve seen Doomed Dissenter many times, and it’s never been great. So what’s more important to me? The ability to have Heron-Blessed Geist as my top-end or making sure that if I ended up Orzhov that I have a two-drop? This is a hard pick, but it’s funny, because it’s a hard pick, but it’s a pick that’s not likely to matter all that much. I’ll take the Geist.

Pick: Heron-Blessed Geist

Semulin: Doomed Dissenter would be nice if we were in the exploit deck, which we’re not going to be. I don’t know man, this pack doesn’t look amazing to me. I guess I’ll take an Heirloom and see if I want to splash something or change directions.

Pick: Honored Heirloom

Pack 1, Pick 7

Alex Nikolic: Kind of middling pack here. We’ve got a Rot-Tide Gargantua which I think is okay. We’ve got Innocent Traveler, which I think is quite bad. I guess we just take Rot-Tide Gargantua. Just a big ol’ biggum for our potential Dimir deck here. 

Pick: Rot-Tide Gargantua

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: We can just take the Rot-Tide Gargantua. We’re gonna move towards Dimir, and then if we do anything else, it’s probably a splash because it seems like we have all the commons we want, and the Orzhov cards haven’t been flowing after the Purifier.

Pick: Rot-Tide Gagantua

Cedric Phillips: Give me Innocent Traveler. I don’t think the Parish-Blade Trainee is particularly good, and Innocent Traveler does seem pretty powerful, so I’m going to take that and maybe end up in Orzhov, perhaps? I’m not sure I’m attached to blue right now, so let’s try that.

Pick: Innocent Traveler

Icky: I don’t think this is a deck for the Parish-Blade Trainee so we can write that off. The Vampire’s Kiss I’m not very excited about in general. I think the Innocent Traveler is probably a little overrated in general, but the Rot-Tide Gargantua is probably not gonna be for our deck at this point. I think we just go Innocent Traveler as the generic, curve-filling flyer.

Pick: Innocent Traveler

Jamie Topples: I wouldn’t do this, but I totally want to do this at some point: to take all the Vampire’s Kisses and see where that goes. If you get four of them, it’s substantial damage. I wouldn’t do it, though. But I’d be a little bit tempted. I think I’m sort of into the Rot-Tide Gargantua. Those are pretty good stats for five, but it’s kind of expensive. I’m digging the Traveler because I think it’s going to transform pretty soon. I don’t think your opponents want to just keep sacking creatures to prevent that from flipping.

Pick: Innocent Traveler

Luiz Costa: I think Parish-Blade Trainee seems pretty weak, but I’ll take it here as it’s the only white card. Trying to send a signal.

Pick: Parish-Blade Trainee

Ryan Saxe: Rural Recruit is pretty good, right? It can get bigger, but it comes with this token which is nice. I just don’t know how good this Parish-Blade Trainee is gonna be. Basically, if you can put a single counter on that card it’s so good. It’s a two-mana 2/3 that dies and puts a counter on something. Potentially more than that. And I know I’m white. I don’t know if I’m the other colors. Even though green and black look like they’re more open, and I think in Selesnya I’d probably rather have the Recruit; I also don’t have any two-drops.

Pick: Parish-Blade Trainee

Semulin: I’ve mostly evaluated the Innocent Traveler as a four-mana 3/3 flyer that’s sometimes a 5/3 flyer and that seems fine. I’m also looking at the Rot-Tide thinking it’d be nice to have some exploit here but I’m gonna default to the uncommon here and take Innocent Traveler here. I think I can still hedge my way back into Dimir if I need to, but I’m feeling pretty committed to Orzhov right now. 

Pick: Innocent Traveler

Pack 1, Pick 8

Alex Nikolic: I’ll take Wretched Throng here, I think. I’m making some concessions here to stay a little bit closer to our blue cards here, which is fine. I do think passing Kindly Ancestor is a power hit, but again, I’m taking the course of just trying to make this deck happen. Especially early on, I’m not necessarily looking to get into the absolute best deck or most open deck for my seat early on. I kind of just want to see for myself, “What do the paths look like for getting into Dimir?” and I think an eighth-pick Wretched Throng is the point where I want to take this. Picking up one here makes every future copy better. 

Pick: Wretched Throng

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: We can take another Gargantua and lock up all of our fives early. I think Throng is okay. We could speculate on Throng as our fodder card, but I was doing these drafts online, and I was getting a lot of Dissenters and Skeletons, so I don’t think the Throng is particularly important.

Pick: Rot-Tide Gagantua

Cedric Phillips: I think I will be selecting Kindly Ancestor again. 

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Icky: I think we go Kindly Ancestor here for the lifegain strats. It’s a good thing to discard with Bloods, also. Solid pick.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Jamie Topples: I like Kindly Ancestor here. I love disturb cards because they’re a two-for-one immediately and the lifelink goes with the Purifier.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Luiz Costa: Okay, another Kindly Ancestor. Pretty premium card; I’m glad that it’s here. I’ll take another copy.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Ryan Saxe: I’m just going to take another Kindly Ancestor. I think that card’s insane.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Semulin: Ooh. The Traveling Minister is interesting. I had speculated that’d be another Orzhov gold card but there’s another Kindly Ancestor here. I just want that. Let’s get these lifelinkers and see if we can get it with the Purifier and see if we can get another payoff. Yeah, let’s go. 

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Pack 2, Pick 1

Alex Nikolic: Well, I was saying it was unfortunate we didn’t open one in Pack 1. We open a sick bomb rare in Pack 2. Mirrorhall Mimic is just insane. It’s a Clone on the front side; it’s a Clone that keeps cloning things on the backside. Put it on your opponent’s thing or your thing. Yeah, we’re just going to slam that card.

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: There’s the Drake, which is nice with Auras, but I’m just slamming the rare. It’s a very solid Clone.

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Cedric Phillips: Yeah, I’m just going to take Mirrorhall Mimic, just wanted to make sure I knew what the rest of the cards were. Gotta take the rare and find out, and also just seems like a good rare.

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Icky: Only one white card, one black card, neither are particularly what we’re looking for in this deck, but I think we have a strong enough base, and archetype, and it seemed open, that I don’t think we want to mess with it and speculate on anything. I’m trying to figure out if the Mirrorhall Mimic is worth splashing just as a Clone. The disturb side does cost double blue, so if we’re pitching it to disturb cards, it’s not that great. I don’t think the deck wants Militia Rallier, as it’s not going to have a lot of buddies to attack with. I think I’m just fine with taking a Mindleech Ghoul. It may or may not make the deck.

Pick: Mindleech Ghoul

Jamie Topples: So I guess I would speculate on the Mimic here because I’m not sold on my second color. The backside of that card is just really solid.

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Luiz Costa: I kind of want to take Stormchser Drake here. I think it’s awesome in this archetype, but Mirrorhall is a stonecold bomb, I guess. I’ll take the rare. Seems like an awesome card. I don’t think the Drake will wheel, but that would be awesome. 

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Ryan Saxe: So it’s a Clone that comes back as a card that says “If you don’t have a removal spell, I win”? Am I reading that correctly?

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Semulin: I could splash that Mimic. I’ve got that Manalith and we have some compulsion to get into blue. It’s not like my black is that deep. It’s mostly my Purifier and I could splash that too, so yeah, I’m on the Clone.

Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic

Pack 3. Pick 1

Alex Nikolic: Our options are Investigator’s Journal which is a fun card advantage card, Grisly Ritual which is a very expensive but value-ish removal spell, and there’s Chill of the Grave, which is a cheaper interaction spell but doesn’t actually get things off of the table. I’m assuming that Chill of the Grave is just going to be better than Grisly Ritual in this format, especially if you have the Zombies.

Pick: Chill of the Grave

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns: We’ve got an interesting rare. It’s cheap card advantage, but you must let the battlefield develop first, you get to pay it in increments, and when you’re done with it, it sacrifices to itself, so you can look at it like a really bad Mazemind Tome. Mazemind Tome was busted, so I think it’s playable, but I don’t know how good it is. If we weren’t going to take that, we’d take Chill of the Grave, an efficient tapping spell in an all-Zombies deck, or Grisly Ritual, which is very slow, but you can usually afford a copy. This really comes down to what our deck is missing. I would just pick the Journal to try it at this point. We have a fairly high creature density, and we don’t have that much raw card draw, but it’s possible a week in, I realize this was wrong.

Pick: Investigator’s Journal

Cedric Phillips: [Gryffwing Cavalry] is a four-mana 2/2. We already got a lot of four-mana cards. That effect is generally good, but I do have flyers, so it’s probably not going to be that good. It’s probably going to be better in green. And then Kindly Ancestor? We’ve already got two of those.  I’m going to take Nurturing Presence over Kindly Ancestor, which seems bold-ish.

Pick: Nuturing Presence

Icky: I don’t think we have too much that will train the Gryffwing Cavalry, but even so, it’s still a really solid card. The other consideration is the Grisly Ritual, which is actually looking pretty solid in this deck. We have a few pieces of a removal. None of them are stellar. This is a catch-all. It does give us more Blood for later in the game. I think we’ll just go Gryffwing Cavalry here so we have more threats.

Pick: Gryffwing Cavalry

Jamie Topples: I like the Cavalry; being able to hop something is really appearling. Grisly Ritual is expensive. Geez, that’s expensive. Oh no. But that might be necessary to have one of those in this deck. I’m kind of into Investigator’s Journal. If you have a nice go-wide deck, you can put a bunch of counters on it and draw a bunch of cards, which seems good. I do love Clues, and I like mana sinks. I think I’m selling myself on the Journal here.

Pick: Investigator’s Journal

Luiz Costa: I guess I’ll take the Ancestor. I kind of want as many of those as I can get.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Ryan Saxe: That rare is some good card advantage, but only if you cast it later. It probably would be better if disturb worked like it was making creatures, but it’s not making creatures, so I already have a card advantage spell that I think is better. I only have one four-drop creature, which makes me want to take the Cavalry. It’s just awkward because I don’t actually have that many things that have three power, which makes the Cavalry pretty awkward because basically, that card, if it doesn’t get a counter on it, is bad. I’m going to pick up my third copy of Kindly Ancestor and never, ever, ever lose to any aggressive deck.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Semulin: I kind of feel like I’m really unexcited about this, but I think I might want this Gryffwing Cavalry. I’m not exactly sure how it’s going to fit in with my curve because this pack is kind of weak and I feel like I should have gotten into Azorius and I didn’t and now I’m having some regrets. I can live with it and I feel like it’s kind of too late to change. I feel like, actually, I need to other Kindly Ancestor. It kind of sucks to be picking a common out of this pack, but there’s not really anything else here for me and this is giving me the lifelink I need for the payoffs and the enchantment I need for the other payoffs.

Pick: Kindly Ancestor

Now, let’s see how the final drafts shaped up for our intrepid heroes.

Alex Nikolic

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Wretched Throng (Pack 1, Pick 8)

The last time we saw a similar effect in Limited, Whisper Squad was laughed at in Ikoria until people got hip and started yeeting them at said laughing faces for lethal. Nikolic speculates on Wretched Throng and, while not accruing a Sisqó “Throng Song”-worthy crew, he has enough to give him a couple of additional exploit targets early compared to fellow Dimir drafter Hohns. Mark this down as a card I can’t wait to experiment with. I’ll give an honorary mention to Boarded Window over Bleed Dry in Pack 2, Pick 5. The man clearly wants to experiment with uncommons.

Final Thoughts: “I mean, for my first draft of the format essentially, I’m very happy with how it went. I think we had a really hard time making cuts there at the end so that’s always good sign. We were very lucky to open some really good cards and get passed good cards in Pack 2, but I think we have a reasonably powerful and synergistic deck.”

Bryan “Veveil” Hohns

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Investigator’s Journal (Pack 3, Pick 1)

Hohns is fully embracing the spirit of the season like my mom hanging Christmas lights on November 1st. It’s early in the format, so don’t be afraid to try a weird rare or two. On a stalled battlefield, this represents massive card advantage at an incredibly reasonable rate. Sure, he doesn’t wheel anything that makes his deck, but it’s a pretty weak pack, so you might as well go nuts.

Final Thoughts: “We’re a little short on fodder. We would have liked a little more, but I think we mostly prioritized our picks okay. It’s also possible that Binding Geist is good and I should be playing it. It’s kind of a two-for-one, but then again, the back mode is so weak that I don’t know.” (Author’s Note: Two minutes later, Hohns had a change of heart and cut a Swamp and Cruel Witness for that Binding Geist and a Selhoff Entomber to help filter through to land drops.)

Cedric Phillips

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Every Cruel Witness (Pack 2, Picks 4, 9, and 14)

As a Magic Boomer and Uncle Cardboard, please, readers, sit on my knee while I tell you a story of how busted the four-mana 3/3 flyer once was. While more recently, they’ve played out closer to the Hindenburg than SpaceX, I think Phillips might be on to something, as the passive ability on Cruel Witness represents real value in a deck with ten disturb cards. Being able to chain together binned Auras into potentially more Auras that you can slap on the Bird Horror might be a key to this archetype. This may also be old me pining for a simpler time in the game.

Final Thoughts: “If [Beach Comber] is super-good in the disturb archetype that I’ve attempted to draft, then I’m feeling great. I have no idea if my deck is good. It seems like the deck is trying to generate a lot of value, even if my creatures aren’t that big. Cruel Witness seems like it might be the kind of common that ties this archetype together. Drogskol Infantry seems like the two-drop that ties this archetype together that’s common. Got a lot of removal, and removal solves a lot of problems.”

Icky

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Courier Bat (Pick 1, Pack 1)

Talk about planting your flag! Icky goes full Aldrin/Armstrong to kick the draft off as the only player willing to go all in on Courier Bat, which in my book is essentially an Orzhov common. You’ll rarely cast it on three and get any value, but it’s looking right at home in Icky’s lifegain synergy deck that features two Restless Bloodseekers. Why not select Bleed Dry Pack 2, Pick 5, like other black drafters in that spot? Passing Archghoul of Thraben was enough of a sign to put one bot into black and they snatched it up. I’ll also note Icky was kicking himself after the draft for not selecting either Dying to Serve in Pack 3, which is pretty sweet with an endless supply of Blood tokens from Bloodseeker and Gluttonous Guest.

Final Thoughts: “I think we got in a good spot early hedging on a lifegain strategy. Like I said, I do like the Gluttonous Guest in general, as long as you’re not aggressive. I think it’s going to be an overperforming card. We got really paid off as soon as we saw the Markov Purifier and found our seat, and then even speculating on the Catapault Fodder. We saw it in Pack 3 and it’s an excellent Catapault Fodder deck. Absolutely gives us the reach we need to close out these games, especially when we have a couple ways to recur our creatures.”

Jamie Topples

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Repository Skaab (Pack 1, Pick 2)

While every other drafter who started off with Archghoul of Thraben basically snapped up Diver Skaab, Topples honed in on its undead homie with a storage unit. I would chalk this up to possibly missing the card or my internet connection making it hard to read, because I think that the Diver is an objectively better card. Or everyone else is wrong, which would be pretty cool to see, too. I’m here for it. Ultimately, it didn’t matter much, as Topples wound up in Orzhov.

Final thoughts: “I like what happened here because there’s a lot of lifegain synergy, there’s Blood token stuff going on, decent removal, the curve is nice. I like all of the lifegain so much. Lifelink is just hard to keep up with sometimes so I think this deck would be okay.”

Luiz Costa

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Mirrorhall Mimic (Pack 2, Pick 1)

I know, I know: a lot of people took the best card in the draft. For me, this pick isn’t about the card itself, but how Costa made it. Knowing that Mirrorhall Mimic was ridiculous, he still took a pause and asked me to sort based on his curve to see if there was a possible scenario where taking Stormchaser Drake over it could be the correct pick, sensing that he was low on two-drops. It was the type of thoughtfulness that I appreciate in a spot where a lot of newer drafters would simply windmill slam the Mimic and dislocate a shoulder patting themselves on the back without considering a highly synergistic card. Ultimately, he made what many would consider the “correct” pick, but it was cool to watch and I encourage you to check out the video for yourself when you have a few spare hours.

Final Thoughts: “I think Azorius and Dimir, to me, look [like] the most powerful archetypes, kind of like Midnight Hunt again. The card advantage, the disturb stuff, you’re always drawing more things. Dimir has something with exploit because all the exploit cards look very good to me, combined with fodder. I guess Azorius kind of does the same, you just never run out of things to do because you have all those Auras. I think Azorius is playing kind of aggressive/tempo. You have flyers, and then you have lifelink on flyers, and then flying Auras to jump up your stuff. The deck looks very good, very correct.”

Ryan Saxe

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Brine Comber (Pack 2, Pick 8)

Saxe covers this in his final thoughts below, but clearly if he had known he’d be seeing three Combers over the course of a draft, this was a pick he’d have done differently. But hey, sometimes you’re at the buffet and fill up on baby back ribs before you see them bring out the crab legs. That doesn’t mean you aren’t still full of sweet, sweet ribs.

Final Thoughts: “I like my deck a lot. I think it’s very good. I think this particular seat was interesting in the sense that basically, the card that I opened Pack 2, Pick 1 doesn’t really matter exactly what it is. Mirrorhall Mimic was busted, but any busted non-white card would have dictated my draft. I think one of these Brine Combers should have been [Circle of Confinement] and maybe I could have cut the Fierce Retribution and kept the Geist. I’m looking at my deck and I’m less excited about Distracting Geist than I was when I Pack 1, Pick 1’ed it. I think the 2/1 body is a little worse than I was imagining in my brain.”

Semulin

Draft Log

Defining Pick: Honored Heirloom (Pack 1, Pick 6)

Early consensus on Mirrorhall Mimic is that it’s an absolute unit, but not exactly the most splashable unit out there. Fortunately for Semulin, an early pickup of Honored Heirloom (a card I suspect I’m higher on than most) will help his cause here, even if Ghastly Mimicry can be rough to achieve. Semulin is a drafter who regularly prioritizes keeping his options open and going with the flow. Honored Heirloom is the perfect example of that paying dividends down the line compared to Icky’s more straightforward Orzhov build.

Final Thoughts: “There was a point that I should have noticed that Azorius was a little more open to me and I didn’t. I think I might have gotten a little nervous about exploit synergies with Azorius, but I’m recognizing now that we’ve gone through the draft, exploiting my disturb creatures for my blue cards would have been just fine. So I think if anybody figured that out on this and got that deck, they probably have a better one that I do. But I also think I’ve got something here I can win with. So I’m not unhappy about it and I’m excited to get a lot more reps in with this format.”

And that’s another episode in the books! The final breakdown: two Dimir decks, three Azorius decks, two Orzhov decks, and Semulin’s Orzhov with a Mimic. Everyone quickly identified that Gruul was cut off, and from there it was simply a matter of picking their flavor of Esper pie. One thing I’ve identified: I can’t wait to start drafting this set.

As always, you can see the full picks and commentary on my YouTube channel, and a big thanks to the folks over at DraftSim for their help making this all possible.