#magic drafting

This week opened with another hard decision pack one pick one. With my rare being the completely unplayable Old-Growth Dryads I was torn between two cards, Pious Interdiction and Dusk Legion Dreadnought. In previous weeks I have taken Dusk Legion Dreadnought operating under the principle that it's better to take a card that keeps you open over better cards. In order for this to be true though the card that you take must be playable. Dusk Legion Dreadnought is a perfectly fine card in theory, but in practice it has yet to make the cut in my deck. Each and every time I've taken it to stay open I have ended up playing another card that plays into the archetype of the deck better. With this in mind there are three possible options, I take the Dreadnought and have a card I can't play, I take the colored card and don't play that color and end up with a card I can't play, or I take the colored card and do play that color and have a good card. As long as I continue to read the signals and don't overcommit to the color in question the downside is the same but the colored card has the only potential upside. All this thought to take a Pious Interdiction pick one that I didn't play. Pack two was lower quality and a less interesting choice. Unfriendly Fire is a decent removal that works in all red archetypes. Headstrong Brute is a card that performs better outside it's tribal archetype than one might guess. Since in this format there isn't a whole lot of blocking anyway (everyone is attacking!) it needs neither evasion or to block to do what it does. Thrash of Raptors definitely needs to be in a Dino deck, but I'd seen some Raptor Companions go by and thought there was the possibility that R/W dinos could be open. Bonded Horncrest showed that at least the red dinosaurs were open. Again looking back to the swingy nature of the format it's downside isn't likely to be relevant; most of the time you are either swinging with a bunch of creatures or none. Dinosaur Stampede like the Brute works better than one would think outside of dinosaurs. As I've said a bunch there isn't a lot of blocking so if you miss on the trample it matters less and a pump like that can really swing a race. Tilonalli's Knight is a powerhouse in any deck that has red and dinosaurs so I snap it up and firmly commit to the archetype. Although I'm still leaving myself open for my secondary color. When evaluating the cycle of keepers you have to ignore the activated ability and just evaluate it as a creature; under this lense Fire Shrine Keeper is one of the playables. A 1/1 menace isn't spectacular but it can chip away for one or two damage and in a racey format like this one those one or two points can make a big difference. Hijack isn't great but at this point in the pack I'd like to stay red unless I can't or there is really worth playing. Next pick I got such a thing by the way of Grazing Whiptail. It looks mildly unexciting but this particular combination of stats makes this one of the few really good blockers in this set. I took this as a sign green was being underdrafted and snatched it right up. Nothing else of value came by in pack one. I got the sad Rummaging Goblin as a boot, this isn't your format my furry friend.

Pack two my rare was an awful off color card Axis of Mortality but I contained the premium uncommon Lightning Strike. Next pack I was light on red and I had to make the choice between a decent green card, and a decent white card. I had partial commitments to each but opted for green because of the Whiptail late last pack. The second Fire Shrine Keeper was probably a mistake, I don't remember what else was in the pack but the card isn't good enough to play two off so anything close to playable would probably have been a better pick. Next pack was a combat trick debate. It had both Sure Strike and Crash the Ramparts. While I think Crash the Ramparts is better situated for this format I wasn't fully committed to green and took the Sure Strike. Raging Swordtooth fully made that commitment. The next few picks practically made themselves. At this point I'm devoted to G/R and have four dinosaurs which is a place that makes Thrash of Raptors very good. Colossal Dreadmaw is the perfect top end in this format; it eats most things on blocking and trades with one or two creatures when they try to block it. Swashbuckling is better is more in the more aggressive pirate decks but still good with taking. Thrash of Raptors was good a few picks ago, it's even better here. Getting Commune with Dinosaurs this late really felt like a win. At one mana you rarely miss out on other spells to play it and filtering through 5 cards to find the one you need at that particular moment is really powerful. You have to be sure you can find a creature when you need one, but I'm not worried about this the way my deck is at this time.

I forget what the rare was pack three but I was very happy to grab a second Raging Swordtooth. Since I'm reasonably confident it will be online I'm ready to take as many Tilonalli's Knights as I see. Savage Stomp is as devastating at the name would imply even when you cast it for three and almost broken when you can cast it for one. Next pick I thought about for a long time because three Commune with Dinosaurs seemed like too many. The other card in the pack with my attention was a Thundering Spineback which while very powerful in my deck is very expensive. In the end I concluded that three was not too many Commune's and took that. When another Spineback came in the subsequent pack I thought it was worth it to take. Nest Robber isn't the best because it's so fragile, but it can sneak in for two on turn two sometimes and gets my Tilonalli's Knights online before they swing the first time. The rest of the packs were east picks as there wasn't many options in my colors. Getting Ixalli's Diviner was a the best thing that happened; since my deck is more mid-range having a good early blocker can help prevent me from getting run over before I stabilize.

The Final Decklist

Instant/Sorceries: 3x Commune With Dinosaurs 1x Lightning Strike 1x Pounce 1x Crash the Ramparts 1x Savage Stomp 1x Dinosaur Stampede 1x Unfriendly Fire Creatures: 1x Fire Shrine Keeper 1x Ixalli's Diviner 1x Ixalli's Keeper 2x Nest Robber 3x Tilonalli's Knight 1x Grazing Whiptail 1x Bonded Horncrest 3x Thrash of Raptors 2x Raging Swordtooth 1x Colossal Dreadmaw Lands: 7x Mountain 8x Forest

Round 1 (0-2) was a mirror match against a G/R deck that was drafting two seats to the right of me. Both of our decks were built very midrange with their deck being slightly more powerful at the top end. Both games I believed I had stabilized by dealing with their threats only to be confronted with a Sun-Crowned Hunters that I couldn't afford to block, and couldn't afford not to block.

Round 2 (2-0) I got lucky plain and simple against a R/U pirates deck. Game one I mulliganed to five and keeps Ixalli's Keeper, Savage Stomp, Pounce and two forests on the play. On my third turn I Stomped their Fathomfleet Firebrand and got in for three. On my fourth turn they couldn't block with their Headstrong Brute and took three again. Then on their turn four they attempted to play Pirate's Cutlass so I Pounced in response. I followed up with Thrash of Raptors and Bonded Horncrest which ate his Lightning-Rig Crew. Game two they missed their fourth land drop and had no creatures while I curved out. They found the fourth land drop but they were on such a backfoot by this point it didn't matter.