Phalanx Leader is very easily the best card in the pack. The next best cards (in order, in my opinion) are Griptide, Nylea's Emissary, Hopeful Eidolon, and Divine Verdict. The rest of the cards are role players at best.
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Pack 1 pick 2:
Keepsake Gorgon is the strongest card in this pack. Observant Alseid is probably the synergistic/easy mode pick, but I'm trying to master both styles of draft.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
Going with the strength theme, Nimbus Naiad is the strongest single color card. I'm not sure if Shipwreck Singer is stronger in general, but I like that card a lot.
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Pack 1 pick 4:
These packs are pretty bad. Griptide is awesome, and it makes me feel confident that I can continue taking blue cards.
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Pack 1 pick 5:
This pick was pretty hard. The best cards are Titan's Strength and Dragon Mantle, but I don't know that they really represent a red "signal" so to speak. I like Traveling Philosopher, especially in the U/W Heroic deck, which is what I'd like to turn this deck into, since I have one of the best possible white cards for it and two really strong blue cards.
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Pack 1 pick 6:
Feeling good about the availability of U/W. Triton Tactics vs. Hopeful Eidolon, however, is a tough decision. They are both awesome. I went with the Eidolon, since they both trigger heroic, and Eidolon enables those build-a-baneslayer games, should I be lucky enough to get a Wingsteed Rider.
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Pack 1 pick 7:
I have been getting more comfortable with taking this card earlier, since I've seen what it can do. All you need is a Philosopher or two and suddenly this card becomes very annoying.
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Pack 1 pick 8:
There are a lot of red cards still hanging out here, so I kind of idly wonder if maybe the white or blue cards were flukes. I don't really want a force spike or a hippocamp for my deck (and if I did they'd be easy to pick up late), so I decide to take a red card as a hedge. As far as which red card is the best one, I'm not really sure. I took Oread because it's a bestow guy, but maybe Skullcleaver is better, since a lot of my R/x aggressive decks never really want a 2/2 first striker, and never have time to bestow it.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 9:
I've seen Triton Shorethief in some Ordeal decks, so it's technically playable in my U/W heroic deck, but it's super crappy and very replaceable, so I took Spark Jolt to continue the red hedge theme (and also to reduce the chances of feeling bad about my Phalanx Leader getting spark jolted).
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Pack 1 pick 10:
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Pack 1 pick 11:
Should have been Spark Jolt, maybe? Not sure. I didn't feel like this pack went very well, and I have a Keepsake Gorgon anyway, so I'd rather keep the door for black open than have a second Spark Jolt that I'm not likely to play.
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Pack 1 pick 12:
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Pack 1 pick 13:
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Pack 1 pick 14:
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Pack 1 pick 15:
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Pack 2 pick 1:
I thought about this pick for a while, believe it or not. I wasn't sure if I should take the blue ordeal or the red one. I basically only saw those two blue cards in that awkward beginning stage of the draft where they could either be signals or just leftover power cards from an insane pack. I went with the blue ordeal because my blue cards were stronger, and if blue really was being cut from my right, then it should flow reasonably well in this pack anyway.
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Pack 2 pick 2:
Nice!
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Pack 2 pick 3:
omg
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Pack 2 pick 4:
Feeling awesome about this deck!
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Pack 2 pick 5:
Well, maybe not THAT awesome.
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Pack 2 pick 6:
I should have taken Burnished Hart, I think. After reviewing this draft I'm not sure why I didn't consider it. I kind of panicked and thought that maybe my colors were being cut again, so I took Titan's Strength in case I had to emergency switch.
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Pack 2 pick 7:
Wow, the beginning of this pack went so well and now it's starting to suck. Warden is occasionally playable and perhaps I should have taken it, but I don't really like it very much so I decided to just cut the awesome trick that could potentially ruin one of my early ordeal starts.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 8:
Weird packs. I basically haven't seen much green at all (or any good cards in any other colors, actually) and then here's this pack with 3 awesome green cards. I just cut what I felt was the best one.
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Pack 2 pick 9:
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Pack 2 pick 10:
I really hope I don't have to play this guy, but I only have like ten playables at this point and I would need a miraculous pack 3 to have a deck (especially considering that I want to play only 15 or 16 lands). Besides, there are worse things than this guy with 3 ordeals.
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Pack 2 pick 11:
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Pack 2 pick 12:
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Pack 2 pick 13:
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Pack 2 pick 14:
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Pack 2 pick 15:
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Pack 3 pick 1:
Tough between Voyage's End and Gods Willing. I don't want Sea God's Revenge I don't think. I decided that I was removal light and took VE.
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Pack 3 pick 2:
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Pack 3 pick 3:
This pick might be closer than it looks, since I don't have all that many creatures. Nevertheless, Gods Willing is very very strong.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 4:
Well, that's a blessing. I still need a ton of playables though.
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Pack 3 pick 5:
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Pack 3 pick 6:
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Pack 3 pick 7:
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Pack 3 pick 8:
I wanted to cut the ordeal soooooooooooo bad, but I'm happy I was able to have a bit of discipline for once in my life and take the Chimera.
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Pack 3 pick 9:
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Pack 3 pick 10:
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Pack 3 pick 11:
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Pack 3 pick 12:
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Pack 3 pick 13:
Sadly, both of these guys are probably making it in.
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Pack 3 pick 14:
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Pack 3 pick 15:
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I'm not sure how I feel about this deck. It has 3 ordeals, which I like a lot, and it has lots of other cool tricks. On the other hand I only have one good heroic guy, and a lot of cards that are embarrassing if I can't enhance them somehow. I also don't have much of an air force, and I didn't see a single Aqueous Form, so I could potentially have some trouble breaking through.
My opponent in round 1 was playing U/G. In game 1, I had a Triton Shorethief/Ordeal opening, which was assisted by my opponent missing his second land drop. Whether he didn't actually have a land or whether he accidentally F6ed through his turn, I don't know, but I won that game very easily. Game 2 was more of a struggle. I had a strong opener with Daxos of Meletis and an Ordeal of Thassa on 3 and 4, and my opponent was sad when he tried to block it with a flashed in Breaching Hippocamp and couldn't. The joke was on me though, when he traded it and Time to Feed for my awesome legend. I went with the plan B of playing Phalanx Leader and a bunch of dorks and managed to get him down to 5 before he stabilized by putting Nimbus Naiad on Nylea's Disciple. We spent several turns staring at each other, my opponent casting dorky ground guys that can't attack (including a second Breaching Hippocamp) while I drew lands. Lucky for me, my opponent never seemed interested in attacking with his 5/5 flyer, or the Horizon Scholar he played. I guess the trade would have been too messy. I eventually drew out of my flood and managed to abyss him enough with a 4/5 Triton Shorethief to make an alpha strike lethal in the face of several potential tricks.
Round 2, my opponent was also playing U/G. I expected a lot of white decks, since I didn't see very much white in the draft, but I suppose seeing two blue decks makes sense also. In game 1 he had a Leafcrown Dryad on 2 and a Nylea's Presence on 3. I had assembled a miniature power squad with Phalanx Leader, and Triton Shorethief, with an ordeal to go on my Phalanx Leader. You can imagine how surprised I was when my opponent played an Unknown Shores to go with his islands and forests, and used it to cast Hero's Downfall on my Phalanx Leader before the ordeal could pop. The rest of the game went poorly for me. I had to burn a Battlewise Valor to keep a 2/3 Triton Shorethief alive after I walked right into Triton Tactics on a Staunch-Hearted Warrior, and then my opponent put Feral Invocation on it and pounded me for 8 over and over. Sea God's Revenge put a stop to my plans of playing a crappy chumper every turn and plink him to death in the air.
I won game 2 by assembling a real power squad of Phalanx Leader plus Cavalry Pegasus and Philosopher, and I had enough pumps to bring him down to 8 before facing the revenge of the Sea God. I replayed Phalanx Leader only to have it Downfalled in response to another creature coming down, but simply rebuilt my squad and swarmed a couple times to take him to 0 through a Sealock Monster. I won game 3 as well, with a Triton Shorethief + double ordeal nutdraw. It was close since my opponent played Agent of Fates to trade with my guy after the ordeals all popped, but I had enough gas to leverage my tempo advantage and win through Sea Gods Revenge and Hero's Downfall (for the 3rd game in a row).
In the finals, my opponent was playing red/black. I made a pretty dumb play early in game 1 by deciding that my opponent had a very obvious Pharika's Cure, and played my Phalanx Leader into it anyway. After being punished, my opponent played out two Plains (???) and an Akroan Horse. I went on to lose the game to the all-star squad of Loathsome Catoblepas with Prowler's Helm on it. I suspect my opponent started out drafting red/black, then opened Elspeth, tried to switch for it, and ended up with a pile of 3 color garbage.
I boarded in Annul for the horse. I took out a land because, despite winning both of my first two rounds, I felt flooded in almost every game.
I won game 2 with turn 2 Battlewise Hoplite followed by turns 3 and 4 Ordeals with Gods Willing backup. My opponent played Akroan Horse on 4, which would have been annoying to break through if I didn't end up using the GW to force a lethal attack through.
I won game 3 with a reasonably strong Phalanx Leader draw. My opponent's only resistance was a Flamecast Wheel, which I had Triton Tactics for.
Somehow, I won the draft. I wasn't really expecting to, because my deck turned out kinda crappy. I'm not really sure what happened to all the decks though, since every deck I played against was really bad also. The double hippocamp guy, the guy splashing for Hero's Downfall, and the Flamecast Wheel/Catoblepas/Prowler's Helm guy... I think everyone might have just been ruining each other throughout the draft, and I was lucky enough to assemble a deck with enough focus and cohesion to win.
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