Pack 1, Pick 1
The Pack:
The Pick:
This is a fairly weak pack to start off a draft. Arrester’s Admonition is below the bar of commons I’m happy to first pick, although it’s not a bad first pick. Admonition is the second-best blue common, and I’m happy to play the card in multiples. I would just hope I can start my draft with better cards.
Frilled Mystic is better and I do like starting my draft with our new Mystic Snake. It’s a bit hard to cast, and not too hard to play around, but the ceiling on the card is absurd. Even though I’m passing multiple Simic cards, which could put people to my left into the same archetype, it also means I could wheel them. Bounce spells work well with Frilled Mystic, since you can bounce a creature to counter it later or bounce Frilled Mystic if you need the counterspell, so maybe this Applied Biomancy can come around.
Pack 1, Pick 3
The Picks So Far:
Deploy has impressed me. I thought the card would be solid, but it turns out it’s fantastic. I don’t pass this card. It’s one of the best splashes for Orzhov and it’s great in any Azorius deck. It’s also solid in Simic and goes well with Frilled Mystic since you can hold up both on the same turn. I’m skipping Pack 1, Pick 2 here because I think the pick was Depose // Deploy by a large margin, but the next couple of picks aren’t so easy.
The Pack:
The Pick:
Rakdos Firewheeler is the best card in this pack by a mile. I’m surprised there’s a common missing from this pack, since I take zero commons above Rakdos Firewheeler. However, the Firewheeler cannot go in the same deck as my prior two picks, and both Summary Judgment and Ministrant of Obligation are of a high enough power-level that I don’t believe I’m missing out by passing the Rakdos Firewheeler.
Simic can sometimes struggle with getting enough removal, so Summary Judgment is a more appealing splash than Ministrant of Obligation. But Ministrant is a card with a reasonably higher power level than Summary Judgment. I’m just going to take the Ministrant, as it still can be splashed alongside Frilled Mystic, but more importantly is the best card here for Azorius, which I believe is the best archetype.
Pack 1, Pick 4
The Picks So Far:
The Pack:
The Pick:
Eyes Everywhere has only been okay for me. The scry matters a bit, and when your opponent isn’t playing or splashing blue, the Mind Control aspect of the card can be quite good, but it’s just too clunky. I play it sometimes, but it’s never one of my best cards.
Skitter Eel is filler. I play it in many of my blue decks, but it doesn’t always make the cut and I rarely miss the card. I originally started high on the card, but the four-drop slot gets clogged in this format and I quickly reevaluated the card from a C+ to a C.
I like Faerie Duelist but not as much as I used to. I got blown out by it so many times in the first week that I had it as the best blue common. That said, I didn’t just jump to that conclusion as I also played with it a lot and kept eating creatures in combat (I even refer to it as Faerie Chupacabra). It’s still relegated to the filler category and I’m not taking it over an on-color Gate if I plan on splashing, which it looks like I do for this draft.
So, if I’m taking a Gate, is it Open the Gates or Azorius Guildgate? I think this is a pretty clear Azorius Guildgate because I’m either Azorius or Simic splashing white, and either way, the Azorius Guildgate will be played. I cannot play Open the Gates in the base Azorius deck.
Pack 1, Pick 5
The Picks So Far:
The Pack:
The Pick:
Azorius Locket and Clear the Mind aren’t actually in the discussion. They’re cards that make my deck at a reasonable frequency, especially given this start, but I’d rather pick up a solid Simic playable.
I like taking Applied Biomancy over Steeple Creeper here. There are plenty of good three-drops for Simic, and, as I stated previously, bounce spells work very well with Frilled Mystic. Plus, Applied Biomancy is just a fantastic card. There’s a heuristic I use: “How often do I just say I can’t play around it and I lose if they have it?” Cards in that category are usually the best combat tricks and you play as many of them as you can get. A recent example of this is Skulduggery. Applied Biomancy can be brutal and swing a game, but the floor of Unsummon is personally suitable.
Pack 1, Pick 8
The Picks So Far:
Cards are just about to wheel and here’s the pack you’re handed. Note that there were two copies of Clear the Mind that could wheel, and this start could certainly end up in that kind of deck. Does that change what you would take?
The Pack:
The Pick:
Most people think Shimmer of Possibility is too fluffy; just play creatures that affect the battlefield.
I disagree with that assessment in this format. Yes, I want to affect the battlefield and play creatures that can attack and block, but I also want to draft a deck capable of gaining a long-term advantage. And the latter is much more important because it’s so easy to pick up whatever random creature you need. What you win the game with in this format is less important than how you win the game.
This observation leads me to take Shimmer of Possibility here. Maybe this deck will be a Dovin’s Acuity deck. Maybe a Wilderness Reclamation deck. Maybe a solid Simic deck with lots of adapt. Or maybe just a multicolor good stuff deck. Regardless, I would rather have Shimmer of Possibility than Senate Courier. Finding the best cards in my deck is a lot more important than whatever filler creatures I have.
This draft took a very interesting turn towards one of the most powerful multicolor decks I’ve had in this format. The combination of bounce spells and multiple Frilled Mystics is incredibly powerful. Below is the deck, and you can watch the matches and the whole draft.
