Another nap and another draft! Looking to break my streak of 2-1. Always the same: a convincing round 1 victory, round 2 close loss, round 3 victory. Doesn’t feel nearly as good as losing in the finals, but packs are packs I guess.

The Draft

Draft Details

This seemed like a very straightforward draft. It felt a little bad seeing two Kwendes go by as the First Strike deck is rare, but potentially so much fun. But as much as I would want to Johnny that… I’m not speculating on that deck coming together over an Eldest Reborn and Serra Angel. In pack 1 the black felt open in my seat with some late white giving me hope at the table. But it was a clear BW with some late playables (and a P3p8 Seal Away!)

I think I only made one mistake, and that was taking the Memorial to Folly over Invoke the Divine. Sounds like artifact/enchantment removal has steadily creeped up to  main-decking one and as good as the Memorials are (and they are good), I missed having the quality sideboard option during gameplay.

The Deck

Hey I finally ran 18 lands! The curve is a little clunky: only two 2-drops and five 3-drops is a bit risky if I run into a quick aggro deck. But the power level? Five pieces of quality removal (not including Eldest Reborn!) and high quality, evasive 5-drops. I love having the utility lands. Additional bomb in On Serra’s Wings. I feel confident that I can win a long game.

The Learnings

So I actually avoided playing this deck for a few days because it felt like it had 3-0 potential and I was nervous. I should not have been nervous: it ran through all three rounds 3-0, 6-0. Felt good! It won on sheer power level. I just felt confident that I could drop more questions than they had answers. And I could!

1. The first piece of sideboard tech is really valuable and take it highly.
2. The Omnivore and Soul Salvage are both great cards… but they aren’t great with low creature counts. They’re FINE but not great.
3. Arvad the Cursed with On Serra’s Wings is hilarious because it turns OSW into +3/+3, flying, vigilance, lifelink. Wowza.
4. I get that the scry on Cloudreader Sphinx is powerful, and it’s splashable, but ye gods Serra Angel is a powerful card. The vigilance does real work and gives it quasi-bomb status since it stabilizes and provides a win condition. All in one card.