Ugh this draft was train wreck. I first pick Dauntless and got white cut by the guy to my right. I kinda tried to switch into green (2 time to feed) but guy on my left was in green. Both were in blue. Guy to my left was in blue most because I shipped him blue to go with his green bombs he cracked. I probably could have gone UR but the Flamespeakers both came late pack 3. It seems like black must have been open for me, but I didn't say any good black cards…

My plan was to draft a bunch of enablers and assume the heroes would get shipped. But when it came down to it there were 2 Anax and Cymede in this draft and I got shipped neither. 2 guys (9 man pod) were in RB, and 1 in WGr and 1 in WU. I should say this is a pretty strong group of drafters/players (except the 1 new guy who plays netrunner).

At the last second I squeezed 24 playables and got this

4 Titan's Strength
2 Battlewise Valor
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Chosen by Heliod
2 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Divine Verdict

1 Akroan Crusader
1 Akroan Hoplite
1 Traveling Philosopher
1 Arena Athlete
2 Deathbellow Raider
1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
2 Two-Headed Cerebus
2 Wingsteed Rider
2 Flamespeaker Adept

8 Mountains
8 Plains

RW cards I didn't play:
2 spark jet
1 yoked ox
1 priest of iroas
1 Ephara's warden
1 Silent Arisan

I went 0-2 with a bye. Both my matches were similar. I blew them out with an aggro start in game 1, they borded in 2 drops, stabilized and beat me with 3/3s and 4/5s. The first match was against a not-very-good BR deck with a new pilot, but I mulled to 5 game 2 (but almost won) and game 3 he nutted me with T2 crusader into T2 ordeal of purphoros.

What's wrong with this deck:
Well, 2 things. First off it has a pretty decent number of enablers, BUT they don't draw cards and they don't permanently boost anyone (except wingsteed). So you end up doing 10-12 damage and have an empty hand and a bunch of weenies. Obviously it has blowout potential with 2x titan's strength and either Cerberus or Flamespeaker… but the only time I had this finisher in hand I was stuck on 1 mountain (M1G2). I think if you have all tricks you need to have phalanx leader/favored hoplite.

I also think that the mana base cannot support wingsteed AND cerberus. It would be better off with dropping one see of those and putting in 2 1 drops, but 1 drops are only good if you have ordeals. I also think that playing 16 lands was a little greedy but flooding out is so bad in this deck. I think possibly this deck was above average if you could mulligan to a great hand... but since the killer cards are all CMC 3 this is problematic.

I agree the double white heroic cost runs opposite Cerberus and dragon mantle

A nickle found it's way into my boros deck and I haven't withdrawn it

It reminds me of the g/w populate deck back in Return to Ravnica. You had to get the centaur's heralds first because there were more populate cards than token generators. I think it's important to figure out which half of the combo is harder to get, then go for that first.

I am not sure in general that the creatures are harder to get than enablers. But while picking ordeals, dauntless and coordinated assault (not that I got one) is mandatory... you can't be drafting mediocre combat tricks in the dark, hoping you get phalanx leaders. But then again, I did end up with some pretty great mid game combo potential.

I kind of wonder if this deck (aside from the rider/cerberus mana conflict flaw) is actually not that bad, but I played it wrong. I basically just dumped my hand before they could get anything out... but maybe it's better to save the tricks up for one or two lethal blows. Or maybe if you go the pump-a-three drop route you need a more traditional deck with 15 creatures and and a couple finishers. a couple Ill tempered cyclops might have worked here.

But the weenie theme (akroans, minotaurs) and the combo theme are in conflict here. The "original" heroic combo DOES use akroan crusader of course, but that's the deck that MUST have the enchatrips or it just gasses out. Flamespeaker is just a different deck, more tempo-y.

In my experience, the hardest card to get, and the best, is Coordinated Assault. Also, good combat tricks and bad creatures is better than good creatures and bad combat tricks. So I go for tricks first, and creatures second. After all, a Hopeful Eidolon with a turn-two Ordeal is quite hard to beat.

people are playing last breath where i draft

I put this deck into cockatrice and goldfished it a bit. It's actually not that bad. I would estimate that it's a .500 deck. But you do have to have a good hand.

You wanna hear about train wrecks? I drafted UR last night for giggles. Then I got double Flamespeaker Adept. And none of the 5 Aqueous Forms in the draft tabled.

Then I drafted a monoblack deck that didn't have any Gray Merchants.

Last night was overall horrid for me.

I keep losing to Elspeth in round 1 or 2. In my store, if you're in my pod, you're 67% more likely to open an Elspeth.

I could only get one traveler's amulet and Nylea's Presence last night

my battlemaster got stopped by scorpions