@Zlehtnoba & @POSValkir, thanks for the comments. The decklist is below:

This format pisses me off, it punishes absolutely EVERYTHING, which means you have to draft, build, draw, and play perfectly or you lose. Dumb. Miss a land drop...over, Flood...over, bad block...over. It's really annoying when I can't even tell if it's skill or luck.

Ok, I had an interesting one today. Went 2-1, but it taught me a bit. I might have to double back and say Blood Mist is good. It gave me a 3-0 once and it was in this deck as well.

The Draft:


The Deck:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Overall:
Graf Harvest is so amazing. I've used it a few times and it hits the cool sweet spot of aggro/support/combo-piece. It's not even a build around since it makes things which get menace from it.
Haunted Dead was really good, but I may have got lucky with it. It often helped Madness while being a 1/1 flier engine.
Blood Mist works exceedingly well...when it works at all. May want to side it out on the draw if you aren't a super focused aggro + evasion deck. That said, in my 3-0 match, I took someone from 17 to 0 on turn 5
Aggro is creeping up a bit. It seems a great strategy is to have a ton of little un's to peck away. The nullify tempo since their so cheap and you can hold back your big guys until they use their removal in a desperate plan to stop your little dudes. You need combat tricks for this though, which I'm seeing less of.
Playing against white is SUPER annoying thanks to their escalate cards.

Sounds like skill to me Or you played against good drafters for a change

I have a single comment on the draft: Necropod is very good. I think I'd take it over the little Wolves anytime.

As for the little uns tactic: I hear pros are taking Make Mischief quite highly.

Hmmm, at that point I felt my curve was pretty bad otherwise Necropod would have gotten more consideration. In all honesty though, I just never pick it. It reads like such garbage since you two for one yourself if they have any removal...or worse if they can just chump with two little dudes. It's also 6 CMC and I feel like that slot should have undisputed power unless you need a 23rd card and your curve is good.

Thinking about when I've seen it played...its rarely been a hit, although it has closed out some games. Most games it just wrecks their own board and they lose because of it. Most of the time they sac a land and I bounce it or I hold it off and finish out the game.

I guess I just feel too many decks have Instant speed answers for the Necropod...it's really only good against Red and Green. Or maybe I just don't know how to build the right Necropod deck. Oh, but that reminds me!

I sided in Displace the other day on a whim against a deck with an annoying amount of removal. It worked out very well. I managed to get a few two for ones out of it by targeting something hit with an Enchantment and saving something being targeted by a removal spell. I can actually see a lot of situations in this format where it can make the game a lot less stressful.

So my draft today was...fun. Went 2-1 though

The Draft:


The Deck:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Overall:
I hate losing to every single card I passed . I'm not sure if I made the wrong calls, but it makes me think I could have drafted their deck instead of mine...but then again they had Thing, which won them Game 1.
I also hate they were able to build a deck that flipped Thing, something else I have not been able to do because I either see Thing too late in the wrong draft or got cut whenever I draft it early and can't support it in the deck . Basically, screw that player's luck . Dangit, since Shadows the thing I've most wanted to do was flip Thing in the Ice...it's like a slap in the face to lose to it...
This wasn't the deck for Campaign, although it is nice. I sided it out most of the time for Faithbearer, which honestly achieves about the same but plays well with some of my other cards and is easier to cast.
Slayer was once again an all-star.
Sorin is friggin insane...that +1 is so brutal and the option to use removal is just gross.

You just sac lands to Necropod. Which means it should be your curve-topper, and you shouldn't play a lot of other sacrifice effects. It's so brutal cause they can't chump it, and sacrifice is really no cost at all.

In other news, today p2p1 I passed Assembled Alphas and Savage Alliance for my second copy of Galvanic Bombardment. I was mono-red at the time, ended up RG, went 3-0. So sometimes, I pick for the curve too

Did not expect this to go 3-0...
The Draft:

The Deck:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Overall:
Thirsting Axe is actually really nice insurance and I like the interaction with disposable Spirits (or any evasion I guess). It was essentially a repeatable 2 CMC spell that read "Deal 4 damage to target creature or player"
...eh, that's all I got for now...I'm drunk.

Nice! Well done.

Woooohoooo, I got to meld Hanweir Garrison and Hanweir Battlements today! Thankfully, Battlements is so garbage I knew I would get one after I P1P1 Garrison. Although when I flipped it I was super far behind and still lost . Up until the finals, Garrison was really awesome with either Nahiri's Machinations or Blood Mist though. Too bad those 1/1s are so easy to block for free without extra support.

POSValkir - I always read these, but never comment. Thanks for posting your experiences!

Are there any interesting combos that people have discovered that may otherwise fall through the cracks?

On a whim I decided it would be fun to draft drunk tonight...it may have been the right call...but I'm typing the intro as I wait for the first round to start...I am excited to play my deck though.

Edit after play: HAHAHAHAHA so much for ******* whims! 1-2...with literally the worst luck I've ever had in a draft...this is why I think this format is heavily weighted towards luck over skill. Don't get me wrong, skill can still fill out the edges, but the more punishing a format is the more it favors luck. I think this is my least favorite format of any I've ever played. I mean...it's not even about bombs, its just sort of damn random...I've seen decks which should never 2-1 go 2-1 after I beat them, I've beaten decks that looked insane out of nowhere, I've went 1-2 with decks that would typically go 3-0...it's just so annoying...I don't know, maybe I'm drunk...but also...I've never seen a format with so many unplayable rares and uncommons...and with so many commons that are first pickable if you're in that archetype...which kinda defeats the purpose right! Ugh, I'm ranting cause I'm angry now...I should have gone at least 2-1 this time, especially against my last match...maybe I'm missing something, but I hate this ******* format and can't wait for it to end...

The Draft:


Hey! This still looks like a fun deck capable of some crazy stuff!

The Deck:


Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Ugh, just...ugh...

Hey...thanks! After a night like tonight, that helps lol.

I found a fun one tonight...Fogwalker and Nebelgast Herald. Although I didn't get to take advantage of it, the combo shores up Fogwalkers natural weakness (which is that something needs to be tapped for it to be effective).

Edit: There was one that shocked me...but I can't remember what it was...I'll think about it. A few other mini-combos though:
1. Emerge and Haunted Dead, not an obvious emerge target, but a very good one. You will eventually be able to dump lands to them. In a few games I've combo'd it up with (mostly It of the Horrid Swarm) for significant advantage.
2. Lone Rider and Nearheath Chaplain is a fun one, but hard cause they're both Uncommon.
3. Spectral Reserves and Thirsting Axe...because who cares about those dumb spirits anyways.
4. Spectral Reserves and Nebelgast Herald...pretty obvious, but I haven't heard anyone talking about it.
5. OHHHHH, the one I remember...not worth going for, but Hanweir Garrison and Nahiri's Machinations...it's just free tokens...especially if you can pair it up with Borrowed Grace///

^^^Drunk. This format is great.

I saw someone on twitch do the Bloodbriar + Emrakul's Evangel combo.

Evangel is a combo on it's own . It did well with Bloodbriad, Haunted Dead, and Relentless Dead when I had it.

Some interesting posts here. Maybe I should post the story of my weekend drafts?

I turned into a draft junkie lately. If it looks like I can spare two hours, I go draft. This usually means I draft once a day Saturday, Sunday and Monday (my wife works the afternoon shift on Mondays). First up, Saturday:



This is the 3-0 draft where I took the second Bombardment over Assembled Alphas and Savage Alliance p2p1. Noose Constrictor was the first green playable, p2p2. Pack three was passable, Prodder working fine with the rest of the cards. Runaway Carriage was an experiment, and it succeeded beyond expectations. It helped with both Prey Upon and delirium for the Survivalists, plus everybody just took five if I decided that was the thing to go for. I misbuilt the deck slightly, and I ended up boarding in Cultist's Staff every time, over Prophet or Thornhide Wolves. Not that Wolves are bad, just a bit slow for what I was trying for.

This deck basically said, can you stop me before I kill you? Turned out they couldn't. Very straightforward, keep-up-the-pressure, run-them-over deck. First two matches were somewhat boring, but the first game of the finals against UR spells was interesting. I went second, but had a fast start with Constrictor and Wolves on turns two and three. They had a Thermo-Alchemist on two. I ran the snake into the alchemist on three, did not pump. They thought for a long time on their turn four, and then pointed a Fiery Temper at my snake. I discarded two lands to keep it alive. Then on my turn four, I attacked with everything, wolves did their thing, Alchemist blocked, I did not pump, finished off the Alchemist with Make Mischief. In response, they threw a Galvanic Bombardment at my snake, and I saved it by discarding the Thornhides. Next turn, they play an Advanced Stitchwing. I greet it like an mad alchemist would on my turn, hit them for seven. A few turns later, they concede.

On Sunday, I must have felt like a change of pace:



But then, p1p1 Bruna will do that. White was very open, I remember passing at least two Faithbearer Paladin. I tried for emerge, but it was cut. So straight-up value town. Three removal Auras, two Slayers to bring them back, and if they still refused to roll up, Bruna can bring back a Slayer for even more fun. I did almost no sideboarding this time, but the one time I did board a card, it worked out great.

This deck was quite demanding. Games went long, I lost three, won two from one life, decked my finals opponent twice. Many intense moments, but my favorite is the second game of the finals. They had a great BW Zombie deck, first time I saw a functioning one. White was there mostly for two Angelic Purge. Zombies had Graf Harvest, two! Noosegraf Mob, Gisa's Bidding, some Crows to get things in the yard, some recursion to get them back. I lost game one quickly to color screw. We battled for a long time in game two, and then I finally felt I may have a chance. They had a Graf Rats and a Crow, six cards in the library, four life; I had the Griff and the Skaab, one life, seven cards in library. And then, they topdeck Zombify and bring back my Bruna. I tap my top card a few times (yes it can be done online ) and draw - Ironclad Slayer. Whew! And then, tilt. Instead of bringing back Faith Unbroken, I decide on Choking Restraints, so that, if they were to kill my critter, they wouldn't get their back. Trouble is, I would have been exiling the Bruna, which would come back on my side! As it happened, they double-blocked the Skaab, dropped to one, and then sacrificed Bruna to Ruthless Disposal to clear the board. I still managed a win, but it was much closer than it should have been. What can I say, it was a long evening of Magic. But I did remember the Manic Scribe in my sideboard, brought it in for game three, played it on turn five, with delirium, and it won me the game, and the draft with it.

Monday:



I was quite tired on Monday, from my job, and from the Sunday draft. But I had three hours free, so ... the train wreck above. p1p1 was Voldaren Pariah, then Hanweir Garrison (combo!), but then for some reason, I did not take the Alchemist's Greetings that came my way next. I should have ended up in BR madness, as black was wide open (it usually is). Deck did not play well, lost soundly to a halfway-good deck, but somehow managed two wins to salvage the day from a complete disaster.

I boarded out the Necropod a lot, for the second Malevolence and once for Vessel of Malignity. Clear Shot and the Pariah were the stars. I transformed the Pariah three times, won all three games. And Censer is even better than it used to be, turns mediocre creatures into real threats.

I love this format. It is a rare occurrence that you can draft all color combinations, there are different builds for most of them, and opening a bomb rare is not a requirement for a good deck.

From last week, here is what I feel to be a classic draft deck:



No frills, no thrills, no rares, just a curve, creatures, removal. There's a really big thing in the sideboard, and Sorin is foil, so this one was a succes financially too.

Sorin is there mostly to shore up my insecurities. It just felt wrong not to include him when I was in one of his colors. I never played him. A couple of times he was stuck in my hand, a few times he wasn't needed. I had a Weaver of Lightning in the sideboard for a UW skies deck, Magmatic Chasm for board stalls, Long Road Home for clunky removal decks.

The games were more or less the same, early drops softened them up, and the Outcasts finished them. Reduce to Ashes is great in this format, as it kills most of the Emerge creatures. Faith Unbroken is a bit risky, but it won the game the two times I used it. The biggest achievement of this deck was winning against a solid UB control deck which managed to cast Distended Mindbender four times in three games. The finals were against GW humans, with Ulvenwald Mysteries and Heron's Grace Champion. I managed to outrace them two games, where they played no creatures the first three turns, and a removal aura that my Extricator of Sin turned into an Eldrazi. They went to five on their turn five both games, facing four attackers.

And that is why this kind of deck is good. It's not the most powerful, but if they stumble even a little bit, they just die.

As you might have heard, online Swiss draft queues were replaced by draft leagues this Wendesday. Everything but outpod pairings is better than the old system; and I'm not sure how big a deal that is.

Here is my first pass through the league:



For some reason, a Galvanic Bombardment is missing from the picture. I had a hard time paring the deck down from 30 playables; there's a Turn Aside, another Tattered Haunter, another Make Mischief, and an Exultant Cultist in the sideboard. I boarded all except the Cultist during the matches. I even boarder a Falkenrath Reaver over the Haunter against the finals opponent's Weaver of Lightning. This wealth of options led to me submitting a 16-lands deck. Not so bright an idea. In a league, you can edit your deck between rounds, so I went with 17-lands, 41 cards for rounds two and three.

I haven't posted a draft record in a while, so here it is. They changed the format a bit, so the card(s) before the spoiler block are the cards I clicked, in order, the last one being the pick; and all the options are listed in the spoiler block. As you can see, the big rewards were all first-picks; nobody passes the first two, and Rise over Flameblade Angel p3p1 was probably the hardest decision in the draft for me.



The deck played an aggro-control game, with Haunters and Wolves delivering the damage, Inventories cycling to the threats, Frost daddy and Reveler mopping up. Of course, it's never that easy, but the Wolves were just amazing.

Round one was against a RWB deck, two against against RB, three against RU. Three 2-1 wins. Made some mistakes which made it a lot harder than it needed to be, had some fun moments with Fortune's Favor which won me two games. I might write those up later.

Man I missed this whole format. My draft group collapsed in August and I am sitting on 4 boxes of EMN. This format was fun, too!

I might play on MTGO a little.

I missed your posts. I hope you can get something going now that vacation time is over.

The draft leagues make it easier to play for people who can't spend three hours in a stretch. Generally, I plan to finish the draft in a single sitting, but if something comes up, it's nice that you can just finish the current match, and continue some other time.

My latest try ended up in UW emerge:



Seems like blue in general, and emerge in particular, is strong enough that you can pair it with any open color and get a draft-winning deck. I was a bit concerned with the lack of removal, but it turns out that a 5/7 flash creature can play that role quite effectively. Twice, opponents played Choking Restraints on my Wretched Gryff and attacked into my one open blue mana. Behemoth ate their best creature, and then was pretty unstoppable on attack. Enchanting it with Gryff's Boon was just filthy.

Wharf Infiltrator was a big disappointment. It never connected. Ulvenwald captive, Thraben Inspector, Thermo-Alchemist, every opponent had a two-drop that was able to block it. At least I could emerge off it.

The first column in the sideboard are the cards I boarded in, and the second are the ones I did not. I barely had enough playables for a deck, mostly because white was cut from one side and blue from the other, so I took some nice green cards from weak packs. But of course, green turned out to be cut from both sides. As was the UR spells deck. There is also a Stitcher's Graft in the sideboard.

Displace was a pleasant surprise. I decided to include it mostly to make up my spell quota, and for the synergy with the Enlightened Maniac, and I managed to turn it into a kill-two spell, untapping my attackers to block.

Definitely a fun format. And the next one looks like there will be a lot to explore too.