I haven't seen this card in action yet, but it seems like it could be really strong, so I'm willing to first pick it and try it out. The other cards I want (Magma Spray, Eagle of the Watch, Supply-Line Cranes, Bladetusk Boar) are commons that seem easy to pick up.
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Pack 1 pick 2:
This card is very strong and I'm willing to take it super high. I think Sigiled Skink and Golden Hind might be equally strong, but so far I think white is the best color in this format.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
I thought about taking Cranes or Cavalry, but then I remembered my previous problems of "too many creatures." I'd have taken a creature over Aerial Formation, and perhaps I'm underrating the Cavalry, but I'm happy with this pick.
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I still haven't had a chance to play with Mastiff, but I took Hubris because if it's anything like Voyage's End, having at least one is super important in this format.
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Pack 1 pick 5:
Nice blue heroic creature. Why would a blue creature get bigger?
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Pack 1 pick 6:
I don't love this guy but having 3 toughness is actually kinda nice.
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Pack 1 pick 7:
I thought about cutting Riddle of Lightning here but decided against it.
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Pack 1 pick 8:
Yesss, I love this guy. It feels pretty bad to use a removal spell on it since it's so fragile, so having an offense that features it is pretty nice. Being able to attack (in the air no less) and defend against surprises is pretty strong.
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I was tabbed away for this pick, otherwise I'd have taken Rise of Eagles and then not played it.
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I can't believe this wheeled.
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Pack 2 pick 1:
Bleh. Is it wrong to want to take Deepwater Hyptotist here? I actually considered it but figured that with Archetype in the pack it had a good chance of tabling. I just went with Nyxborn Triton.
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Pack 2 pick 2:
Luckily this one's easier since Glimpse is a slamjam.
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I love Skirmisher but I'm in desperate need of 2 drops.
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I didn't feel like I was likely to play Divination so I just cut the awesome uncommon.
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Pack 2 pick 9:
Argh, the hypnotist didn't wheel. The other one probably won't wheel either. I like Archetype but I like it better in sealed and I'm not likely to play it here.
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Pack 3 pick 1:
I'm not sure this pick is right. Gods Willing is the best card in the pack for my colors, but I have an awful lot of tricks and two pseudo Gods Willings in Ajani's Presence. Given that I have a ton of stuff that targets, maybe Triton Fortune Hunter is better here.
Still, even if it was a worse pick, I'm super happy to have a Gods Willing in my deck.
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I wish these cards were more evenly distributed. I took Battlewise Hoplite because it's super strong and it's a 2 drop. I don't have any ordeals to make Favored Hoplite OP, and I don't have any Wingsteed Riders or anything bulky-ish to make Hopeful Eidolon extra effective.
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ugh
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Pack 3 didn't go so well, and this time I'm light on creatures, but overall I'm not unhappy with this deck.
Round 1
My opponent had a U/G deck. It looked to be mostly G, but he had U for some cards like Agent of Horizons.
Game 1 his most important play was Nessian Wilds Ravager vs. my board of three crappy 2 power guys. Still, I let him have a 12/12, since my plan was to chump it forever and take to the air. That plan was thwarted when he played the 4GG 5/5 constellation guy that gives trample, meaning I had to take one turn of punishment until I came up with another plan. It turns out, that plan was to keep his big guys on lock down with tap spells and Griptide, which was long enough for me to seal the deal with my crappy 2 power team.
Game 2 he had more action, including two Voyaging Satyrs, but I played Sealock Monster on turn 5 (boy am I glad I ended up starting it) and suddenly he couldn't really do much. I just patiently bashed with it every turn until he started chump blocking (which was really early, because nice format) and it was enough to win.
Round 2
My opponent had a U/B deck.
Game 1, he led with a turn 2 Sigiled Starfish, which was a beating - I had no way to remove it, so he just played a discount Thassa basically. Luckily he missed his third land drop and could only muster a Shipwreck Singer.
Still, it was pretty good, since my offense consisted of a 1/3 2U heroic guy and the 2/1 flying vigilance guy, so I needed to do some fancy maneuvering to beat it.
I was able to draw Retraction Helix and trigger Heroic on my 1/3 (making it a 2/4) in response to his forcing my 2/1 to attack, which let me bounce his singer and get my 2/1 in safely. Instead of replaying it next turn, he chose to play the 5/3 4BB guy with Constellation - opponent discards, which I was thrilled about since it let me get in a free turn of beats.
I made a mistake on the next turn, when he tried to cast Weight of the Underworld on my 2/4. My hand was Gods Willing, Griptide, and Sealock Monster, so my plan was to let it resolve and then play GW end step to get rid of it and keep the pressure on. What I didn't realize was that Weight would trigger constellation, so by letting it resolve I basically just discarded my Sealock Monster for nothing. I can also imagine a perverse situation in which I try to GW my creature end step and he responds with some black removal spell to blow me out, so I think not responding to the Weight was just a mistake all around.
Still, with Griptide in hand, I was able to keep the pressure up long enough for him to flood out a bit and never activate Shipwreck Singer before dying.
Game 2, he must have kept one of those 4 land, 3 spell hands and then got punished by drawing more lands, because he hit all his drops up to turn 7 and didn't have much action. On the other hand, I played a creature on turns 3, 4, and 5, so by the time he found some creatures I was able to get them through for the final few with Sudden Storm and Glimpse of the Sun God.
Round 3
My opponent had a R/W aggro deck.
Game 1, he played a mountain and missed his 2nd land drop, so I thought I was in great shape. Then, he drew out of it with 4 lands in a row and built a board of Sigiled Skink, Heliod's Emissary, and Oracle of Bones (which I made a 5/3, since I figured if he was drawing lands off the top he probably has at least one nice spell in his hand). I went from 20 to 10 in one attack since I had no good blocks, and although I was sculpting a really great Hour of Need finale, I died to a Bolt of Keranos the turn before I could win.
Game 2, he played Firedrinker Satyr on 1, but missed his 2nd drop multiple times. This time, when he found it, I was too far ahead and was able to seal the deal with Presicent Chimera and Eagle of the Watch plus Ajani's Presence.
Game 3 he came out quick again, with a turn 2 Sigiled Skink that got multiple scrys in. I didn't have much in the way of creatures, just one guy that got Bolted pretty quickly. There was one turn where I had a choice between using Sudden Storm and Divine Verdict, and I chose Sudden Storm. I didn't think much of it at the time, but replaying the game in my head I might have had a better chance to win if I just took his guy off the board with Verdict (it was a Kragma Butcher) and then saved the Sudden Storm for when it could have more of an impact, since for the rest of the game I was stuck with the decision of having to either develop my board or save mana for Divine Verdict.
I ended up losing to too many creatures on the board. I came really close to stabilizing, but a Coordinated Assault off the top ruined what was left of my board and I died.
It sucks that I lost, but I'm happy to have made the finals, especially since I didn't think my deck was all that. I definitely learned some things from this draft.
Tempo is still king. It might be harder to assemble a consistent tempo deck (due to there being so much more variety with 3 different sets) but the basic strategy of play early guys and defend yourself with cheap bounce, taps, etc. is still probably the best strategy.
Sigiled Skink is awesome. I lost the finals mostly because my opponent had Skink every time he got to 2 mana, and was able to defend it with multiple spells (usually Rise to the Challenge). Especially in aggressive red decks with low land counts, Skink is a very strong 2 drop.
As a corollary to the above, the shitty removal from Theros got even better. Spark Jolt, Last Breath, even Eye Gouge. There are tons of great targets for these spells, like Skink and Eagle of the Watch, and Sigiled Starfish (for Last Breath, anyway). They will probably have a target.
Hour of Need is bonkers. Given that you are playing crappy cheap creatures (you probably are because nice format), it's incredible to have the ability to play them out in the early turns and then on turn 5 just convert your squadron into Air Elementals. Just think, for 7 mana you could have 12 power worth of flyers out of nowhere.
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