Another day…another draft! Let’s get it started!
Pack 1, Pick 1
The Pick:
This pack is reasonable: some good commons, a solid rare, and some good uncommons too! At the beginning of this format I would have been very happy to start my draft off with Angler Drake. And while the card is very powerful and I don’t mind first picking it, I really try and prioritize cheap spells. If you end up in a deck that wants late game, it’s not too hard to find, but you can almost never get enough cheap things to do in a format so fast. That being said, let’s see if our other options dethrone Angler Drake.
Aven Mindcensor is a lot flashier than it deserves credit for. For all intents and purposes, it is a three-mana 2/1 flash flier. That card is good, but not much more than that; and to be honest, I would just take the Angler Drake if it were just between those. But lucky for us, I think the last option may very well be one of the best cards in the set.
At the beginning of the format, many players disregarded Trial of Solidarity. As it turns out, in the best decks, it is often the best card in your deck. These white aggressive decks prioritize cheap creatures and Cartouches! And vigilance with exert is no joke. When the world didn’t know that aggro with a bunch of one-drops was the best thing to do in the format, this card was much better as it was easier to capitalize on. It’s hard to tell where exactly this will fall, but I’m still thinking it’s a bomb and am happy to start my draft off with Trial of Solidarity.
Pack 1, Pick 3
The Picks so Far:
The Pack:
Other than the two on-color gold cards, this pack is pretty much terrible
(I guess Soulstinger is good). Lucky for us, we get to pick another
first-pickable card! But which one is the question?
In Amonkhet Limited, there are two ways to build U/W: A
low to the ground aggressive deck, focusing on embalm and often playing
Slither Blade, or an extremely potent midrange deck that trades resources
very well due to embalm and chips in the air with fliers. The former is, on
average, a better deck, and Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun is certainly better
in that specific deck. But Aven Wind Guide is a little bit better in the
midrange deck.
The fact of the matter is that the delta between these cards is only stark
for the aggro deck. The best U/W aggro decks would much rather prefer a
two-drop to a four-drop. Whereas the midrange deck will still need
two-drops, and Temmet is the best of the bunch. Because of this, I am
taking Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun.