Hey first real BFZ draft last night... 10 players with PR packs. Tough night, very tricky set to draft.

My first pack was awful. Faced with the choice of Ally Encampment or Serene Steward, I figured I would pick the land and try to force. (And yes, I confirmed that the guy to my right did indeed take the Steward second. That pack was like a Fate Reforged pack without the Rare).

I started out in WR but green was looking kinda open (although really blue/colorless had some good cards go by) and Red dried up. I ended up nearly mono-white... which was sad because no removals. My "worst" pick was that I let Shambling Vent go by only to take Drana's Emissary 2 picks later.

Guy to my right was WB (so maybe that explains my lack of removal), guy to my left was UR (but went 0-3)

1 x Felidar Cub
3 x Kor Kastigator
1 x Kor Bladewhirl
2 x Shadow Glider
1 x Makindi Patrol
1 x Drana’s Emissary
1 x Ondu Greathorn
1 x Grovetender Druids
1 x Courier Griffin
1 x Tajuru Warcaller
1 x Kozilek's Channeler
1 x Tajuru Beastmaster
1 x Angel of Renewal
1 x Felidar Sovereign
1 x Emeria Shepard

1 x Tandem Tactics
1 x Sheer Drop
1 x Ondu Rising
1 x Unnatural Aggression
1 x Natural Connection

1 x Ally Encampment
1 x Swamp
5 x Forest
10 x Plains


Sideboard (maybe I should have main decked some of these?)


So, I had a lot of playables, and even a couple bombs, but no removal sucks. Also, Unnatural Aggression sucks. I think it's about on par with plummetin this set, although there may be annoying ground guys that won't otherwise get into combat that it's good against. By the end of the draft, I just played Inspired Charge instead.

The Natural Connection I just played over an 18th land, figuring I could grab a 2nd forest or a swamp. I did lose a game where I got stuck on 5 lands with 2 6 drops (including Ondu Rising) and Warcaller (which wouldn't have done much anyway). I did win 1/2 my games but I went 0-2 with a OMP (opponent's match %) of 37% so it was all bottom feeding. Grovetender Druids was not bad, I got to play 2 Castigators with 6 mana up and make 2 plants. And believe me, I needed chump blockers.

Probably the "highlight" was getting to 35 life, deciding not to chump a 7/8, THEN Drawing Felidar Soveriegn (match 3... for the first time). I won anyway though. Resolving Shepard was usually good... but my ground game usually never did much. I didn't have very good starting hands, mulliganed at least 3 times and a 4th I kept a 4 land 2 4 drop Ondu Rising hand against a guy with 2 drops.

Good ol' Toby Elliot creamed our clocks and got the pools' Ulamog. He played 3 Dampening Fields. Card is legit. UR is powerful, but I suspect it will be overdrafted.

This was the second BFZ draft deck I made (on cockatrice when it wasn't on oracle yet and you had to get the set in some convoluted way)

2 x Bane of Bala Ged
1 x Ruin Processor
1 x Breaker of Armies
1 x Eldrazi Devastator
1 x Desolation Twin

1 x Hedron Archive
3 x Kozilek's Channeler
3 x Call the Scions
2 x Lifespring Druid
1 x Catacomb Sifter
1 x Grave Birthing
1 x Giant Mantis
1 x Voracious Null
1 x Altar's Reap
2 x Seek the Wilds
1 x Jaddi Offshoot

8 x Forest
4 x Swamp
2 x Blighted Fen
2 x Blighted Woodland
1 x Evolving Wilds


I had a surprisingly close game against someone who was trying to bleed me to death with 4 Kalastria Healers

Unnatural Aggression is instant-speed removal in a format that's severely lacking in it--I'm not sure it's as bad as you think, Zenbitz. I do think it doesn't work well in the kind of deck you were putting it in, though--most of your non-Ondu Greathorn creatures aren't big enough to kill much of anything, much less survive the experience. It'll probably be better in a deck focused around beefier creatures than yours, maybe a more landfall-centric deck?

The problem is two fold: One, this deck with a bunch of 3/1s and 2/2s doesn't want to fight. But even in decks with 4/4s (and this has a few), there just isn't a need to kill a 3/3 or whatever with your 4/4. I was thinking that using the landfall pump would be pretty sweet.

But the only 1-for-1 (really 2-for-2) I got out of it was I killed a 3/2 in response to a removal spell on my 3/1. It was mediocre at the pre-release too.

What you need removal in this format for is to kill flying things and giant 8/8s. It does the former pretty well, but the latter not so much.

You're right that it won't help with the 8/8s, at least not unless you have your own, but there's also a few utility creatures with powerful abilities that it deals well with--stuff like Hagra Sharpshooter or Coralhelm Guide--and taking out a key Rally creature in response to an ally spell, or even just a landfall creature in response to the trigger, seems potentially useful. And of course the fliers.

I dunno, maybe just don't let one bad experience stop you from trying the card out again when your deck's a better fit.

Did my first draft yesterday, I ended up with a GU pile that felt like it didn't have a battle plan, thanks to facing some newbies I still got 3-1.
This is mostly to remember myself to post the decklist, unnaturall aggression was much needed removal in that color combination, not sure how it fares in the ones that actually have removal.

So, I started with part the waterveil over foil plain and other good stuff just because I wanted to try that effect in limited(ended up cutting it )
Picked a couple of :R: and :B: cards but by the end of the pack I was pretty sure I was GU eldrazi with the 10-11 picks being 2 void attendant.
First pick pack 2 is ob nixilis because money, but I keep seeing good GU cards like ruination guide, 2 incubator drone and a brood monitor, I also managed to grab a couple of evolving wilds midpack between the two packs.
Unfortunately the big eldrazi seem to elude me.
The third pack has serpentine spike and I still don't see a single big eldrazi, but between the second and third pack I manage to grab a ugin's insight, a skyrider elf, 3 lifespring druid and an exert influence, so I decide to go for the "play mostly solid cards and pray that your opponent gets unlucky" plan.

I have read next to no report on the format other than exert influence and ruination guide being good, so my deck was this pile without a clear end game:

Lands
7x forest
6x island
2x evolving winds
1x swamp
1x mountain
(no plains because I felt I was risking enough this way)

"Creatures"
1x blisterpod wanted some early game stuff, guys that played the format told me it was jank, drew it only in the final round during game one ,then became anticipate game 2 and 3.
1x oran-rief invoker :never pumped, never threatened to pump it, still solid.
2x coralhelm guide : used the effect once, still good.
1x skyrider elf was pretty much always a 3/3, always ate some delicious removal.
1x tajuru stalwart usually a 3/4 .
1x lifespring druid:my plains, wasn't that good, still useful.
1x desolation guide never pumped eldrazi, pumped 3 lands at once together with...
1x halimar tidecaller that was as nutty as expected(2 targets in the deck, both pretty unexciting, still awesome)
2x cloud manta basically the deck main wincon.
1x giant mantis this one managed to eat some removal and tricks too, since common flyers are still mostly 3 or less power.
2x incubator drone wasn't as awesome as I was hoping, still a good way to drop some blockers.
1x murasa ranger was pretty good, even if paying wasn't always an option got to 7/7 once.
1x rush of ice they told me it was bad, but it felt like a 1.5, might have been just the deck sinergising with it.
1x brood monitor I think I won every game where I casted it.
1x coastal discovery They told me it was very bad outside control, tried it anyway because I lacked the high drops, wasn't that good, except again control where it won me the game, might start sided from now on, still felt pretty good again control so still picking it up over some things.

noncreatures
1x swell of ground never used the landfall, helped a couple of times at keeping the big guys at bay.
1x Tightening Coils worked decently enough, highlight was enchancing a null after it ate a couple of 1/1.
1x unnatural aggression was better than prey upon in the deck, lots of 3 power dudes that the opponent wanted dead and could be launched to annoying things in response to make up for the lack of removal, funnily twice that play was countered, the first with removal->aggression->counterspell, the second with removal->aggression->pump, at least it ate removal.
1x ugin's insight awesome, once I scryed 4 and kept everything on top, LOL.
1x exert influence pure awesomeness, stole a coralheel guide that was threatening lethal, the 3/3 flying vigilance and the blue 3/5 that loots, felt like there was a lot of awesome stuff to steal for just 3 different mana.

side:(forgot some cards at the shop)
at least one red and one black uncommons+ob nixilis.
2x lifespring druid(felt unsure about having multiple 2/1 three drops.
1x anticipate(preferred the other noncreatures.
1x infuse with the elements, was unsure about it strength, preferred playing other 4 drops instead.
1x pathway arrows felt I was too slow for it.
1x part the waterveil deck felt too durdly to abuse the free attack phase.
1x roilmage's trick felt too durdly, too many 4 drops already
3x broodhunter wurm seriousy, my 4 drop spot was ridicoulusly big due to these arriving near the end of each pack,felt bad I didn't play them.
1x dispel
1x seek the wilds Didn't inspire me that much
2 cards I forgot at the shop(I think one was the 3 mana instant rampant growth)


Match-ups:UB, he felt like he knew what he was doing,only rare I saw was the 3/2 that gives -3/-3 but outside of the 5/5 eldrazi that processes stuff for counters(2 of them,plus the black common land) was lacking in big treats, so even if he fueled the processors he ended up losing.
First game I was at two life, but I had stole his coralhelm guide and used rush of ice on his 2/1 eldrazi flyer, then managed to stabilize from there, second game he had a slow start and didn't manage to process enough. 2-0

RB(had 1 win, won the tournament): Knew what he was doing, deck was mostly "colorless", had serpentine spike, that 3/1 eldrazi pinger was just a beating for my deck considering my removal, and he was way too fast, tried siding the bow but didn't see it, kept a very questionable hand game 1(3 forest+lifespring druid)0-2

WU(had 1 win and one loss):Eldrazi control, somehow, rare I saw were the awaken counterspell(thankfully in cancel mode) and the 5/5 that sacks things to tap. First game I end up with three flying lands using rush of ice + tidecaller to keep the 8/9 trample eldrazi at bay and tightening coils on the 5/5.
Second game I drew 7 extra cards with 2 coastal discovery+ugin's insight and manage to have enough resources to 2 and 3 for one myself blocking the 8/9,the 4/4 that ramps, the 5/5 to kill them and still win.2-0

WB(had 2 win and 1 loss):ally lifegain, was pretty inexperienced,I lost the first game to lack of lands, then switched blisterpod and coastal discovery for a second lifespring druid and an anticipate,she had gideon during the third game, but thankfully she plus oned it twice before I managed to remove it, managed to find removal for the draining WB wind drake(that was powering up the 4/5 with conditional flying), ate some tricks and removal and thanks to her playing the 0/6 wall I managed to just have bigger things. 2-1

I don't think you can find a better green common or uncommon kill spell then Unnatural Aggression, but it's green and requires set-up cost, such is green. being an instant which is rare for fight cards you can maneuver the game for some real blow outs. Pass 'em to me.

So you realize if you have an 8/8 and they have an 8/8 aggression does nothing, right? I mean, I guess it's niche in that if you attack and they don't block trying to race you can trade post combat or on their turn. Or if they are 8/9s and you chump with one you can 2-for-1 yourself (1 for 1 with first strike?). I have had this card in all 15 of my games (minus the 2 I boarded it out for charge) and it was just really, really hard to get value out of. It's still playable, but it's not a high pick and not one of the top 5 green commons. The fact that green gets no removal doesn't actually make this a good card. There is plummet as well.

I think you should play Scour from Existence over the first (maybe even 2nd) aggression 90% of the time, unless you are a low to the ground landfall deck.

Since I am ranting here... it's a removal spell that does not work when you are behind (*exception fliers). You need like a 5/X to kill stupid Benthic Infiltrator. At least Complete Disregard kills 3/5s.

Oh and I am pretty sure Coastal Discovery is awesome in this set, but I am not that enamored with Rush of Ice (I would play Roilmage's Trick over it for sure, especially in 4 color).

I think I would have run 1 more Lifespring Druid, Probably over blisterpod. I think your deck wants exactly 1 8-9 drop to ramp to.

Everything in color and big was gone extremely fast, I don't think I saw anything after pick 4 outside of maybe the first pack.

blisterpod was probably a mistake, sided it for a druid after seeig it once.

I didn't now how to value the trick and wanted another target for the tidecaller, how is the trick? Have you played it?Runs felt okay as far as bad removal goes.(1.5 out of 5, not out of three)

As I said for some reason whoever was in G and U was ignoring the 4 drops and probably picking bigger and smaller stuff, got flooded with them.

it's been used to good effect against me. I mean you can get a 2 or 3 for 1 if you have blockers. Plus, at worse it saves you some damage and cycles.

My first two picks were Brood Butcher and Grove Rumbler. I then was passed Turn Against, Tunneling Geopede, and Forerunner of Slaughter. Went red/black from there.



I won my first round easily. Round two I lost. Game one I won easily (even through a from beyond), game two he drew his bomb rares, game three was essentially a matter of me mulligaining to 5 game 3 and he had double of that 2/1 flier that gives a 1/1 on turns 3 and 4.

Vile Aggregate did a lot of work, even when it was only a 2/5 trample. It rarely was smaller than a 3 in my deck though. Kozilek's Sentinel did more work that I had originally expected it to, as well.

Is grove rumbler ever a 2nd pick? (Although I have seen some bad packs) Maybe after a Locus of Rage.

Did a turbo draft his weekend, got an Overgrown Tomb, and ground out a 3-pack 1 match win.
My deck was pretty dull. I was mostly white with a couple red cards, then got passed pack 2 drana's emissary and went BW. Didn't have much synergy, just 4 removal spells (2 smites/2 sheer drop) and a bunch of fliers.

My son had a sweet ramp deck with Omnath, Locus of Rage, Rolling Thunder 2-3 medium eldrazi and a zillion scion generators (2 Brood Hunters!). But he was soft to fliers - high curve, low removal - and lost his match. He beat me 2-1 in 3 close games (I had fliers and removal but my late game was pretty bad).

This looks like another 18-lands format, and there is nothing wrong with a 5/5 trampler for four; in fact, it's a fine second pick, might even be first-pickable.

it's only a 5/5 on offense, and only like 1/2 the time. I mean I don't have anything against the card, but II don't think it's a high pick. Reminds me of prickleboar and that was a pure beatdown set.

OK, this felt like I knew what I was doing (another 10 man pod)
P1P1 Vile Aggegrate, P1P2 Vile Aggregate. Picked mostly red colorless with a couple green scion makers, a swarm surge, and a clutch. Maybe another black card or two.
P1P1 opened Dust Stalker and Forerunnner of Slaughter. After some debate, went with the 2 drop.
P3P1 Had a foil Omnath and Noyan Dal, Roil Shaper. I took some playable.

Deck was real solid - even though I got blanked in pack 2 because guy to my left was also in exactly BR. He went 2-1 too... so huh.

1 x Sludge Crawler
1 x Forerunner of Slaughter
1 x Culling Drone
1 x Kozilek’s Sentinel
1 x Dominator Drone
1 x Valkut Invoker
1 x Firemantle Mage
2 x Vile Aggregate
1 x Wasteland Strangler
2 x Mind Raker
1 x Silent Skimmer
1 x Kozilek’s Channeler
1 x Shatterskull Recruit
1 x Guul Draz Overseer
1 x Ruin Processor

1 x Outnumber
1 x Touch of the Void
2 x Swarm Surge
1 x Demon’s Grasp

1 x Mortuary Mire
1 x Blighted Gorge
1 x Spawning Bed
1 x Looming Spires
7 x Swamp
7 x Mountain

//Sideboard
2 x Scour from Existence
1 x Shatterskull Recruit
1 x Boiling Earth


Match 1 vs. Esper Awaken with _double_ Shambling Vent. I should have won this match. I won game 1 easily, got comboed out game 2 when he went Clutch of Currents with Noyan Dal out, making a 6/6 Shambling Vent. Which activated into an 8/9 lifelinker.
Game 3 I had in the bag, but got sloppy. I had 5 mana, Forerunner, Aggregate, and I think Culling Drone out.
with Kozilek's Channeler, Firemantle Mage, Blighted Gorge and Swarm Surge in hand.

I went Channeler, attack but I (for some reason) forgot to give the channeler haste with the extra mana (he had no good blocker for it).
Next turn I go Firemantle + Swarm Surge smash in to knock him to 2, just needing to untap and Gorge him for the win. He clutches my Firemantle Mage and hits me for lethal...

Match 2 vs. BW lifegain allies with 2x Healer and Retreat to Emeria. Basically he could never attack into my big guys so if I could keep the drain triggers under control I would win. I lost game 2 when he land dropped into Emeria Anthem + Ondu Rising forcing me to double chump with a 24 point life swing or something. He did have a bunch of other anthems in his deck, it was just a little inconsistent.

Match 3 vs. landfall I won 2-0. Landfall sucks against X/4s and X/5s, although the games were a little tense early on.

By the way - the ingest to processor rate was pretty perfect in this deck. The only time I got hosed was holding a mind raker when opp. had no cards in hand.

This was my third draft of the format, and the first one where I felt as if I had put together a coherent deck, BW drain/lifegain:



Homage to Cato, AKA lessons learned:

p1p1 Gruesome Slaughter over Kor Bladewhirl: both require a specific deck. Next time, I'll pick the two-drop. In this format, finishers are a dime a dozen, good two-drop are scarce.
Fortified Rampart is absolutely essential for this deck. Without at least two of those, you will die in short order.
Silent Skimmer is way better than Courier Griffin in BW. It blocks Ghostly Sentinel, and can even get in two damage through it, or through the common 2/4 spider.
I never played Ondu Rising, and it was the first card I boarded out in all matches. Even though it looks like it fits the theme, this deck has no use for a 4/4 ground pounder, and does not attack all-out for a big life swing.
Stone Haven Medic is way better than Kalastria Healer. Mostly because it turns on your vampires at instant speed. And it blocks bears.
Sludge Crawler and Lithomancer's Focus were clear overperformes. I killed a lot of attackers that dared attack into one open white mana. For some reason, they even tapped out first, so I could do it without fear of being blown out. This will change as the format matures, though. And Crawler took down a few 4/4s. Ramparts were doing such a good job, they felt they must attack with many creatures, and there he was, ready to kill.
Exert Influence is bad. Very bad, unless you can relialably cast it for four. And it gets good at five. Don't splash it in two-color (like I did). It does not do much at three.
I severy underestimated the staying power of this deck. I should have played a copy of Scour from Existence, and the obvious cut is Exert. A Sheer Drop would have been even better, and best of all, a Smite the Monstrous. But Scour would be fine too.
p3p1: Canopy Vista over Grip of Desolation. Money pick obv., but I was able to get removal anyway, and didn't even play it. Seriously though, Grip is the best removal you can get for this deck.
This deck is a lot of fun, but also very tiring to play. You're always the last to finish the games, and they are close. It requires a clear head. Don't try this if you're tired and only want a bit of fun.
All vampires were good, and the four and five drop were all the finishers this deck needs.

I won two tight games against creature decks, and lost the finals to what looked like UG ramp deck: blue tempo tricks buying time for the big guys to take over the game. But I basically lost to turn four Dampening Pulse in both games. That card is just brutal, even more so if your plan is to peck away by two-power fliers.

Interesting stuff. I think that there is a version of this deck that is happy to play 1-2 Ondu Risings but it does not really work with the 0/6s.

I also think that Scour from Existence is perfectly playable in most decks. Even in RG landfall agro you are trying to hit 7 land drops anyway, and if you allied deck gets stalled out by 7/8 you will need it.

It's not terrific but it combos well with 0/6s. Plus you can always exile lands. Which is awesome.

Sludge Crawler so g000t!@!@

This deck ended up OK, but it was quite "off message" in terms of usual archetypes.

I opened Scatter to the Winds and took it... I think over Vile Aggregate. Not sure, it was fairly close.
Pick 2 was Complete Disregard. Pick 3 was the key for the whole draft I think. There was another Complete Disregard, but also Tajuru Warcaller. Warcaller is insane -- at least allegedly. I played it in a mediocre GW deck but it was never a factor. Also, pick 3 is a *little* early but I think it's a pretty strong signal.

As you can see, I ended up with a weird UG tokens strategy. I never saw many allies (guy to my right was G) and I passed a lot of black and red.

I what I thought was a very tough P2P2, I was passed a pack with both Guardian of Tazeem and Coastal Discovery. Power or value? I actually had CD in my pile, then at the last second switched for the flier. I think this was probably right in the end, aside from a great win con, a 4/5 is a very solid blocker.

1 x Clutch of Currents
2 x Tightening Coils
1 x Roil Spout
1 x Scatter to the Winds
1 x From Beyond

1 x Tide Drifter
2 x Corelhelm Guide
1 x Oran-Rief Invoker
1 x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 x Call the Scions
2 x Lifespring Druid
2 x Incubator Drone
2 x Tajuru Warcaller
1 x Guardian of Tazeem
1 x Wave-Wing Elemental
1 x Ruin Processor

1 x Spawning Bed
1 x Blighted Cataract
2 x Fertile Thicket
1 x Plains
6 x Forest
7 x Island

//sideboard
1 x Aligned Hedron Network
1 x Coralhelm Guide
1 x Tajuru Stalwart
1 x Roilmage’s Trick
1 x Smite the Monstrous


This deck performed pretty well. I went 5-2 in games, losing 2-1 in the middle round to a pretty solid landfall deck. The match was pretty close, but I didn't have anything that could deal with Valaukut Predator. I brought in Stalwart and the 3rd 2 drop but they didn't really do much. ( I did start a few games with Aligned Hedron Network but I think it belongs in the board).

I kinda feel like I should have had more allies or better fixing and more converge, or maybe a 10 drop to ramp to, but making a bunch of dudes and giving them +2/+2 did the job.

BONUS tough pick:
My kid was in the draft
P1P2 (after P1P1 ruinous path) Drana’s Emissary or Oran-Rief Hydra??