Only 8 guys. Pack 1 was garbage, rare was Tyamat so I picked Returned Phalanx. Pick 2 was a toss up as well: took Hopeful Eidolon. After that I picked up Baleful Eidolon, Dissolve and Cavern Lampad so I force UB control and was rewarded with Thassa in pack 2 followed with a Thassa's Emissary P2P2.

2 Baleful Eidolon
1 Shipwreck Singer
1 Omenspeaker
1 Stymied Hopes
1 Returned Phalanx
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
2 Dissolve
1 Blood-Toll Harpy
1 Triton Fortune Hunter
1 Thassa's Emissary
1 Cavern Lampad
1 Erebos's Emissary
1 Insatiable Harpy
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Psychic Intrusion
1 Lash of the Whip
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Sentry of the Underworld
1 Benthic Giant
1 Sea God's Revenge

1 Unknown Shores
1 Temple of Deceit
2 Plains
5 Swamp
9 Island

Sideboard
Gainsay
Sea God's Revenge
Stymied Hopes

Unused
2 Crackling Triton
Lost in a Labyrinth
Scourgemark
Mnemonic Wall
Scholar of Athreos
Sedge Scorpion
Time to Feed
2 Loathsome Catoblepas
Hopeful Eidolon
Fate Foretold
Observant Alseid
Traveling Philosopher
Agent of Horizons
Stymied Hopes

Didn't see a Nimbus Naiad, Voyage's End, or Griptide in packs at all. Didn't draw Heliod or Sentry in all 7 games.

Match 1: 2-0 vs. bad RUG build
I Sea God's him, then brought it back with the wall, hit him again with it, which was enough to stabilize and get through with my guys in game 1. Cavern Lampad and

Match 2: 1-2 vs. BR deck that won the night at 3-0. Agent of the Fates with lots of bestow guys and 2x Sip of Hemlock. Psychic Intrusion to steal a sip of hemlock and kill his agent won me game 1, but being too cute and playing it again instead of just dropping an Eidolon and Lampad lost me game 2. Game 3 he was just too fast on the board and ran me over.

Match 3: 2-0 vs. RG deck with Purphoros, God of the Forge and Xenagos, the Reveler. Perfectly timed turn 3 Stymied Hopes in game 1 stopped his Flamespeaker Adept from doing anything. Mana screwed did him in game 2.

Took second, won a pack pulling Sylvan Caryatid, w/ Pharika's Cure, Gary and Elemental token. Not a bad night.

Heliod seems awful here... I would rather run scholar or hopeful eidolon. I actually want to cut white altogether, but you are already running 3 counterspells and benthic giant... and sentry is pretty good.

Obviously the 2nd Sea God's seems like an autoinclude. Yeah, you might not want to draw 2 but you ALWAYS want 1.

Maybe the easiest way to cut white is add scourgemark+sea god's revenge. Or crackling tritons - increase blue devotion and it's not like your 3 spot is overflowing with value. Or put in those 4 and cut a land, giant, sentry, heliod. Land vs. scourgemark I could go 50-50 on. Maybe Benthic giant is better.

I can't think of a pack that'd make a returned phalanx a pick 1, nor can I imagine one so bad lampad's a pick 5.

Seems like 2 Sea God's Revenges and 2 Mnemonic Walls is unfair and unbeatable too.

My problem is that I won my last 2 drafts with UB and UG, so I'm pushing blue-based control too much right now. Probably a better red or white card pack 1, but no heroic, no removal and the uncommons were horrible.

I was too timid to play both revenges and both walls. Should have played -1 Heliod -1 intrusion +1 revenge +1 wall.

Figured Heliod's make-a-dude could win once I stablized. I always had the WW for it by turn 7.

No love for Tyramet? I hear he can make for an awesome black/red strategy, using a lot of picks other players tend to stick away from. He turns every Portent of Betrayal into a removal spell + a Shock!

Unknown Shores is kinda half a card, I don't recommend running it in most decks, but it works here. I hate it in 17-land decks.

Yeah, I debated it for a while and put it in to get WW when I decided to main Heliod. Probably would have been better to drop it and Heliod, keeping 18 lands with just the 2 plains.

Was frustrated that I had to pass a Horizon Scholar for the Temple because I never saw another blue or black bomb.

This too. Although I wasn't sure lampad was pick 5.

Uh Zen, you just voted to take lampad on pick 5 in the Theros draft thread.

Reasons!

I'm not sure that Lampad was pick #5. May have been Sea God's Revenge 4, Dissolve 5 Lampad 6...don't remember the order.

(how to improve a double post error):

I DID pick Lampad pick 5 in the forum draft... over triton fortune hunter. I think I learned that "bestow" doesn't mean "pick me" since then, but I am not sure that's the wrong pick. Although TFH+Scourgemark is pretty cool, and I can't remember if we took that 3rd 'mark.

I was not really objecting to Lampad pick 5 anyway but rather phalanx P1P1. Lazy cut and paste? Dissolve P5 is also an eyebrow raiser... but hey it worked for you.

Improv!

Yeah, phalanx there is bad. My point just was that lampad turn 5 can be justifiable.

I really don't think lampad is a card you want before pick 7, but I admit I'm splitting hairs. I've said it in another thread, but Theros has decks that are just as explosive as any Boros deck from Gatecrash. Because of this, you almost never really wanted to play deathcult rogue, so having a more expensive rogue in your deck just feels bad.

Problem is black is so shallow. You are basically talking a choice between vipers kiss, fell hide, wanderer, and lamp ad. Last draft I actually got a last pick lampad.

Harpy is fine. Also, Gary. Whip, Hemlock - wait, you talking about a particular pick? Or being sarcastic?

Yeah, I posted on the train and wasn't super clear. The discussion is - what would you take instead of lampad? (in terms of black commons). All the cards you listed (plus probably cure, returned phalanx, baleful eidolon) are no brainers. But in picks 5-7 or so those cards are gone anyway and you are left with the ones I listed above, plus stuff like returned centaur, scourgemark, boon of erebos.

Basically black has a lot of filler in the 1.5-2.0 range - including cavern lampad. I guess one can argue that fellhide minotaur is USUALLY better than lampad... not sure about returned centaur. The non-creatures seem to be more situational.