The Benalish Daddies are BACK. We’re pioneering a new co-draft, where we draft and just play one game, then the other drafts and plays a game. Maximizes drafting and minimizes being trapped on the draw with a subpar deck. So let’s see how we did. Note how I apparently screwed up the portion of the screen to capture, emphasizing getting Chris’s rugged profile but cutting off about… 25% of the field. I did better on Chris’s draft though!

Draft

This was an interesting draft that I think speaks to the power of not overcommitting. It was a very murky first pack with some early gate payoffs and late blue playables, very little in the sense of “signals.” Then late Dovin’s Acuity and a pair of High Alerts put us in Azorius. I disagreed strongly with taking Windstorm Drake over Spirit of the Spires and I feel somewhat vindicated by the outcome.

Draft Log

Deck

Results

• Round 1 vs. Bant: Bad deck gets crunked
• Round 2 vs. Temur: I mulligan and struggle to come up with an answer for a 6/6 Sauroform Hybrid. Spoiler: I don’t. Game 2 I curve out pretty viciously with High Alert and oppo doesn’t have a play before turn 5. Game 3, oppo mulls to 5 but I flood like crazy (11 lands, 4 spells). We stall out, as I’m lacking my engine cards. His Chillbringer eventually breaks though my defenses. Opponent plays Theater of Horrors, a card I didn’t know even existed in this set. That’s actually enough to grind me down as I draw Dovin’s and High Alert too late. Opponent actually casts End-Raze Forerunners as an elegant coup de grace.
• Round 3 vs. Rakdos. Oppo gets stuck on mana as I build out my fleet. I Precog and just steadily pull away. Same story next round: stuck on 2 mana as I roll out.

Learnings

Honestly seemed very straightforward. The good cards were good, flooding out is bad. I think on reason the Junkroller was so good in my trophy deck was that it blocks those damn Sauroforms!

2-1