After thinking about it some (and getting some quality chats in with Jarvis Yu), I decided that good tricks are harder to come by in the full block, and that Ajani's Presence might be the best of them all. So good, in fact, that I'm willing to first pick it.
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Pack 1 pick 2:
(The missing non-land is Banishing Light, which also happened to be my pick.)
Nessian Game Warden is pretty good, but Banishing Light seems very very strong since it takes out basically anything with no questions asked.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
With no white card to lean on, I am forced to evaluate the other colors. I'm looking at Satyr Grovedancer, Brain Maggot, and Grim Guardian, but none of them seem all that strong. I decide to avoid the green card because I don't want to end up in W/G, and I think Brain Maggot is probably a bit too weak to take this early (although Grim Guardian isn't that much stronger).
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Pack 1 pick 4:
I had picked this card out on the spoiler as a potential super sleeper common, since it does two things that are very pleasing in combination (weaken an attacker AND take it out as a blocker). I think Golden Hind and Magma Spray are the best cards in the pack, but I think the green ship has sailed (and I don't want to be on it anyway) and I don't think a 3rd pick Magma Spray is enough to make me move in on red.
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Pack 1 pick 5:
At this point, I need creatures, so 2 drop it is.
One day I'll get to play with Sigiled Skink.
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Pack 1 pick 6:
This pick was hard because all these cards seem so crappy. I'm not likely to have a ton of swamps in play in a 2 color deck, and spending 4 mana for a 2/2 that eats a graveyard over and over again doesn't really thrill me, so I went with the big booty. I'd rather be attacking, but whatever.
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Pack 1 pick 7:
I had a hard time with this pick. 2 drops are almost always good, and I do kinda want to try out Cruel Feeding. However, the deathtouch scorpion in Theros was always a huge pain in the butt, and Pharika's Chosen is the same exact card in a color with more defensive/control capability. I think this card is better than it looks.
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Pack 1 pick 8:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy7Obm6x86o#t=19m41s
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Pack 1 pick 9:
The 2/3 seems OK, kind of dorky, but probably a safe pick. I really want to try the Quarry Colossus.
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Pack 2 pick 1:
It looks like I have a B/W deck going. My B/W decks aren't typically very aggressive, but all these other B/W cards kinda suck, and I don't mind being aggressive if those are the cards I have.
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Pack 2 pick 2:
Tough pick between Eidolon and Asphyxiate. I think I should've taken Asphyxiate, but to be honest I was nervous about passing too many white cards since I wanted to have a good chance of getting some of the good ones in Theros. As I type that, it sounds like a ridiculous reason to take a card over another one.
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Pack 2 pick 3:
The missing card is Thunderous Might.
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Sorry for the lack of explanations in pack 2. All of the packs seemed pretty underpowered, with one clear-ish pick for me in each one. I'm sure I got one of them wrong, but I also don't think I lost that much from any wrong picks.
Pack 3 pick 1:
Man, what is it with me and this card in JBT drafts?
With any luck I'll wheel that Scholar.
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Pack 3 pick 3:
Pretty sick pack. I want Gray Merchant and both Eidolons. I eventually decide that the lifelink aspect of Hopeful Eidolon is too strong, and I already have two 1/1 deathtouch guys (and not really enough black devotion to make Gray Merchant super effective).
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Pack 3 pick 4:
omg it's on color AND there are no other cards for me
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Pack 3 pick 5:
I love Harpy, and I think having three good bestow creatures at 5 puts it over the top. Were it not for those, I'd be pretty happy taking either Read the Bones or Boon of Erebos here.
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siiiiiiick
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I don't think this deck is super high powered but I like it quite a bit.
My last cut was Excoriate. I figure I'll bring it in on the draw, since I have a bit of an aggressive lean.
Round 1, my opponent had a G/W deck. I won game 1 pretty easily after setting up a strong flying offense and baiting out all his tricks with Acolyte's Reward on some irrelevant ground guys.
I lost game 2 to a pretty bad block on a 3/2 Hexproof REMOVED guy (who got a +1/+1 counter from the 1/1 1G guy) with my Scholar of Athreos, thinking that I'd be OK losing it to any trick. Turns out when that trick is the green +1/+1 counter Strive thing, it makes it a lasting threat that is really hard to deal with. I never drew a 1/1 deathtouch guy to trade with it, and I ended up losing the race to that and a Setessan Griffin that I never found a blocker for.
Game 3 had a great start - I played Hundred Handed One on turn 4 and monstrified it on turn 6, but he quickly built a defense of two 2/1 hexproof REMOVED guys, which meant that I'd lose my monstrous guy to an Aspect of Hydra that I saw game 1. To make matters worse, I wasn't really drawing anything, and he was stuck on 4 lands, which was enough to play out his cards slowly (and it also meant that he had way more gas than me). Eventually he found a flyer and started attacking with it, and I didn't have any way to stop my 6/8 from dying to Aspect of Hydra so I just took it over and over until I couldn't possibly take it any more, at which point he definitely found Aspect (if he didn't already have it).
So, I lost. Kind of crappy to lose in the first round, but I guess my deck wasn't really all that strong.
What I learned was that having trick trumps is still really really good - things like Gods Willing or Divine Verdict, or Mortal's Resolve, or the new Ajani's thinger. Even a Hold at Bay would have been great in that game. Since tricks seem to be harder to come by overall in JBT (or at least, they were to me in these 3 drafts), shift your priorities accordingly.
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