1) Red and White are over drafted.
2) Green is very good... against last night 3 of the top 4 decks were playing green.
3)Are any of the dual color uncommons 1st or 2nd pickable?
Specifically - Zendikar Incarnate, Iroas's Champion or Thunderclap Wyvern

Shaman of the Pack is very strong but I am not sure you can force elves like that. The 3 above are more generic.
Citadel Castellan is pretty good too, but I think I would rather be in 1 of the 2 colors first, ditto Bounding Krasis.

Possessed Skaab is to slow to commit to early but a snap pick in UB. Blood-Cursed Knight[c] and [c]Blazing Hellhound are fine if you are in the deck.
Reclusive Artificer seems like win more. Thopters are more sought after than elves.

Also, I thought this format would be all about 2 drops but I think I am wrong.

I got two Shamen in my nuts Elves draft on Friday... but I did lose one match to that damned 6/6 Spider. If I had been able to land a little bit more unconditional removal I think it would have been my best limited deck ever. But my removal package was weak on ability to kill big fatties (one Unholy Hunger wasn't enough - 3 Reave Soul, a Languish, and an Eyeblight Massacre did a lot of removal work for me through the evening but couldn't cope with the deck that was running Skysnare Spider and Skaab Goliath. Even when I finally reached the point that I was able to actually cast Languish and Massacre the same turn and take down that damned spider... Skaab Goliath would have remained to finish me off (so I kept those cards unrevealed and conceded that game).


I don't think I'd take a Shaman 1-1 though. I took Languish 1-1, and never even cast it. Did take my second Shaman as the first pick out of pack 3 after I was already established in Elves - wasn't willing to risk seeing if it would wheel.

I'd say Zendikar Incarnate is a solid contender for a first pick. Thunderclap Wyvern is, too. I don't think Iroas's Champion is... I'd give more consideration to Bounding Krasis.

I'd consider going in on red/blue as an uncommon than blue/black or red/white guys because the red/blue color combo has the most depth. The white green and the red green are probably the strongest in the cycle.

What i've learned is Red/White could be overdrafted, and seem the best aggro deck which isn't uncommon. That would be my theory

Renowned looks like Wotc "here's your limited Mechanic of the set" . G/W renowned has been very good at pre-release 3 of the top 8 went G/W and Renowned triggers way more often than I first thought it would

Enshrouding mist is really good. no it is really good. but still can't seem to put more than 1 in my deck and 0 with less than 13 creatures.

My thoughts on Zendikar Incarnate were this. at 6 mana it's a Marsh Hulk at 5 mana it's a Feral Krushok. now were talking about 18-23rd filler cards here, but does the 4CMC and 2 colors make it 1st pickable? I won't pretend to know that answer. my gut says no and i wont argue with you if you say it is 1st pickable. it's definitely a premier creature in G/R Stompy. Truthfully all the gold uncommon creatures are very good . some more than others but will always toss them in if i'm in those colors. I've even splashed for some.

RED - my favorite color in general but with loads of really great commons. Example
Ghirapur Gearcrafter is a almost functional reprint of Sandsteppe Outcast which was the best white common creature from FTR, outcast is .0004 better with the counter ability but this isn't Pauper and were not playing around Scouring Sands I brought up that comparison because you could argue a handful of other red commons are better than gearcrafter. a short list is
firefiend elemental
akroan sergeant
boggart brute
prickleboar

And of course I haven't lost my affection to Sphinx's Tutelage being a great limited build around card/Win Con

I really want to know what people think about Zendikar's Roil? i've been locked out by it twice, beat it once with my last flyer in the deck. My thoughts are U/W skies should kill it and decks without evasion/trample would have a hard time with it such as i did. It always swung the race for my opp and gave him a board state where he could eventually alpha and still leave crack back blockers.

My reasoning is that the RW pump deck is straight forward and doesn't really compete with other decks for spells, beyond Fiery Impuse, can ignore Prickleboars and really creature above CMC 4. Krasis is a better *card* but I would hate to have picked it then get cut out of green.

Blue is by far the shallowest color. We had a 7 person draft with I think exactly 1 blue card being played (not even sure what it was!) splashed off of a yavimaya coast in a GB elves deck that came in second.



It's pretty good for a 5 mana 2/2. It's a form of inevitability, and green often gets into board stalls -- even vs. fliers because ground power beats flying on a per-mana and per-card basis. Basically - the flyer deck needs enough ground defense to not lose the race, and 3 random "extra" 2/2s can change the balance there.