Generally, I enjoy the core sets. Good, solid bread-and-butter magic without crazy mechanics to thwart my limited time availability. However I went on quite the rollercoaster with M21: I plunged to a sub 40% win-rate for the first time since tracking, panicked, got some coaching, and then clawed my way out of the pit (possibly aided by all the Spikes getting bored and moving on). REGARDLESS it remains a net-win in my book.

trophies

All of the conclusion I’ve seen/read/heard agree that the Naya colors were where to be and blue and black were to be avoided. Lo and behold, my trophies were in Naya and nowhere else to be seen. My personal favorite was probably the RW deck with the Bolt Hounds because the haste & team boost always felt amazing. I like dags.

most drafted card

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The Feat of Resistance is definitely juiced by my last two decks having a combined 7 (of my 15 total). Usually cards that powerful, and it’s nearly the best white card, aren’t the “most drafted” because they just don’t get passed to you. The more honest answer of Deathbloom Thallid is the reluctant bridesmaid of, “crap, I’m not supposed to be black, am I?”. Short Sword, winning “Most Improved” from when last seen in Dominaria, almost definitely reflects my “low ceiling/high floor” drafting tendencies as it usually goes in most decks, if at C/C-.

personal lessons

My last few drafts in this format were some of the most helpful drafting I’ve done. Ethan’s coaching of “willfully and intentionally identify both the P1p1 and the ‘best fit’ choice” was really helpful. It’s easy to let the brain get lazy and just say, “Oh, that’s playable and fits in my deck.” Usually that’s fine, but since there’s almost always enough cards to make playables, you can miss out on opportunities to snipe into a more powerful deck.

Overall record: 35-34

That’s above 50%!!! If just barely.

summary

M21 lands in the “I will think of it fondly but no burning desire to draft again.” I think the big miss from this set was the lack of payoffs to splash. The set was so fast, and the expensive, high impact cards so few, that there never was a reason to take the variance hit.