Current QD format is Dominaria - games go longer, but the decks are a lot sweeter. Also I still need a few rares from that set - let's see if I can open them!

First ever 7-0 with this list:

1 Departed Deckhand
1 Lightning Strike
2 Wall of Mist
1 Lightning Mare - card I'm most unsure of
1 Anticipate
1 Essence Scatter
1 Metamorphic Alteration
2 Aviation Pioneer
2 Divination
2 Cancel
1 Enigma Drake
1 Chaos Wand
1 Dwindle
1 Electrify
2 Salvager of Secrets
1 Totally Lost
1 Demanding Dragon (P1P1)
1 Fire Elemental (never drew this)

1 Highland Lake
9 Island
7 Mountain

Notable cards in sideboard not used: Wall of Mist, Anticipate x2

It's very possible Anticipate is better than Lightning Mare. On the other hand in the run, Mare traded for opposing 2-drops a few times and even threatened a 5/5 Gearsmith (opponent had to use Strangling Spores to kill it after I pumped).

Deck was excellent otherwise. I was a bit afraid that I lacked quality creatures, but Aviation Pioneer, Demanding Dragon and Enigma Drake were more than enough to carry the others. The sheer amount of instants was amazing, at some points it made me feel like I was playing control in constructed. Missed lethal once - I could've used Departed Deckhand to make my Dragon unblockable to swing for the win - but my position was so strong I won the next turn anyway. Chaos Wand was rather medium; I had it two games but only activated it once, and only hit a Shock (which however answered my opponent's 4/2). Metamorphic Alteration turned out to be very strong and I think LSV undervalued it. It's true you don't get ETB effects and it's also possible you get 2-for-1'ed, but being able to upgrade an irrelevant creature to the best one on the board is very strong. I won three games with it: twice it was copying Enigma Drake, and once it was copying Demanding Dragon. Totally Lost was also somewhat mediocre; it did nothing except for one game where I 3-for-1'ed my opponent by bouncing his 2x Infernal Scarring creature to the top of his deck (although he was dead next turn anyway).

Most ridiculous moment was when my opponent had a Rustwing Falcon and put Marauder's Axe on it. It was hitting for 3 every turn over my Wall of Mist, so I cast Dwindle on it. Later, against one open white and red mana, I decided to go for the win by casting Electrify on it to enable an attack with my flyers. It's supposed to be an innocuous 1-drop - that's a lot of effects aimed at it!

To confirm: if my opponent uses Rise from the Grave on my creature, and I Totally Lost it, it goes to the top of my library not my opponent's, right?

Yeah, totally lost puts it on your deck in that case. An effect like Blink of an Eye would put it in your hand also. Forgot to take a screen of my draft yesterday, had a very sweet bw deck with sovreign and demon of catastrophies and leonin warleader, was pretty busted.

edit: dammit, went 3-3 with a really sweet UB controlish list with 2 deckhands. Last game was fair enough, op got me with prodigious growth in a close game (I should have mind rotted instead of kept up a creature counter it seems), but the other 2 were just bs - mana screw despite divinations and anticipates. Wouldn't mind so much but it was such a sweet deck

P1P1 Regal Bloodlord vs. Runic Armasaur.

I played against Runic Armasaur once, it crushed my Dryad Greenseeker and wasn't a pretty sight. On the other hand Bloodlord is the stronger card in a vacuum I think, and picking it P1P1 means I have the rest of the draft to get Vampire Neonates and what not. What's the pick?

Blood lord for me WB is one great deck

Think you can go either way with it. The fun thing about Armasaur is that it hoses cards like Greenseeker and Vampire Neonate while holding down the ground, but a splashable flier that generates tokens cannotbe bad either.
Also, M19 is a format where it's easier to first-pick gold cards because the fixing is quite good.

Chose the Blood Lord, which might've been a bit aggressive since it's a gold card after all. Still, I did keep seeing black & white cards and drafted a nice deck with lots of lifegain cards. Went 4-3. Bloodlord never stuck once. Maybe I should've waited till I can generate a bat the turn I cast it before playing it, but that would be quite heavy on mana since the other lifegain cards mostly take mana to activate.

Also, surprisingly this pile of bad cards went 7-2:

2 Shock
1 Thud
1 Highland Game
1 Field Creeper
1 Sure Strike
1 Talons of Wildwood
1 Marauder's Axe
1 Onakke Ogre
1 Daggerback Basilisk
1 Elvish Rejuvenator
2 Act of Treason
1 Transmorgifying Wand
1 Volley Veteran
2 Havoc Devils
2 Rhox Oracle
1 Siegebreaker Giant
1 Sparktongue Dragon
2 Colossal Dreadmaw

10 Mountains
7 Forests

I had opened a very weak pack 1 and took Gigantosaurus because the next best card was Druid of the Cowl. It became apparent that red was most open, but it wasn't apparent what the second colour should be, and P2P1 I took Cleansing Nova to go along with an Angel of the Dawn I'd picked up in pack 1. Then white dried up too while red kept flowing, and it was only by pack 3 that I fully settled into green as a second colour. The deck looked so bad I was playing Highland Game and Field Creeper. Like, it's an aggressive deck with all the high-power-low-toughness red creatures + the trample, yet it was also a ramp deck with Rejuvenator and Rhox Oracles.

I was somewhat skeptical about the Wand since not that many of my creatures can attack past 2/4s, and those that can (such as Havoc Devils) are very vulnerable to gang blocks. I was trying to pick up more combat tricks as a result, but the only non-Sure Strike card I saw was Trumpet Blast, and I didn't dare run that without token makers. Still, Transmorgifying Wand + Act of Treason is one wicked combo. In my last game, I beat a Gallant Cavalry into an Ajani on the back of these cards.

Some of the losses were terrible though. I lost to an opponent who mana screwed on 2 lands because he had loads of two drops into Daybreak Chaplain + Knight's Pledge + Knight's Pledge. By the time Transmorgifying Wand took out the Daybreak Chaplain, he already had a significant life lead. Once he drew out of his mana screw it was over. The other game, I had Thud in hand against a 2/1 flyer in a semi-board stall. I could sacrifice a Highland Game, but I'd be 2-for-1'ing myself. Since I was at 10 life decided I could take a few hits while hopefully drawing Act of Treason. Next turn, he puts Knight's Pledge on the flyer and swings, and a couple of turns later with a Marauder's Axe added to boot I conceded.

It still looks like a genuinely bad deck to me, but again, 7 wins - I'm not complaining.

Just got a 7-1 with Gruul Sarkhans Unsealing with 8 cards with 4 power.

Got three 7-wins in a row today:

Control (7-2)
1 x Vampire Neonate
1 x Fountain of Renewal

1 x Omenspeaker
1 x Surge Mare
1 x Doomed Dissenter
2 x Walking Corpse
1 x Anticipate
1 x Essence Scatter
1 x Macabre Waltz

1 x Aven Wind Mage
1 x Death Baron
1 x Isareth, the Awakener
1 x Divination
1 x Dwindle

1 x Two-Headed Zombie
2 x Strangling Spores

1 x Salvager of Secrets
1 x Vampire Sovereign
1 x Rise from the Grave
1 x Lich's Caress

1 x Frilled Sea Serpent

7 x Island
8 x Swamp
2 x Submerged Boneyard


Salvager for Lich's Caress MVP. Was cutting it close when I needlessly misplayed against Boros Aggro and lost the game because of that, but the deck pulled through.

Dragons (7-1)
1 x Shock

1 x Omenspeaker
1 x Wall of Mist
1 x Goblin Instigator
1 x Disperse
1 x Metamorphic Alteration

1 x Tolarian Scholar
1 x Boggart Brite
1 x Dragon Egg
1 x Divination
2 x Dwindle
1 x Uncomfortable Chill
1 x Cancel
1 x Spit Flame

2 x Havoc Devils
1 x Bone to Ash

1 x Sparktongue Dragon

1 x Horizon Scholar
1 x Frilled Sea Serpent
1 x Volcanic Dragon

1 x Meteor Golem

7 x Island
7 x Mountain
3 x Highland Lake


Alteration is really cool; turning the opposing Isareth into a Wall of Mist or your own Omenspeaker/Goblin token into a Volcanic Dragon is fun if nothing else.

Midrange (7-0)
1 x Fountain of Renewal

1 x Doomed Dissenter
2 x Druid of the Cowl
1 x Dryad Greenseeker
1 x Abnormal Endurance
1 x Macabre Waltz
1 x Rabid Bite
1 x Titanic Growth

1 x Hired Blade
1 x Daggerback Basilisk
1 x Elvish Rejuvenator
1 x Reclamation Sage

1 x Bristling Boar
1 x Giant Spider
1 x Strangling Spores

1 x Vampire Sovereign
1 x Rhox Oracle
1 x Thornhide Wolves
1 x Lich's Caress
1 x Declare Dominance

1 x Colossal Dreadmaw

1 x Pelakka Wurm

7 x Swamp
9 x Forest
1 x Foul Orchard


"It's not just a boulder, it's a rock!" Incredibly solid iteration of BG; good removal, fat creatures, recursion for card advantage.

I opened 3 meh packs, built a **** UW Tempo, quit after 0-1.

Bleagh, built a strong UG deck, piloted it badly, and went 1-3. I lost two games in which I was in control to Heroic Reinforcements, Act of Treason, etc.

How do you guys play around these things with a control deck? Do you just sit there until you have an unbeatable mesh of creatures on defense before attacking? I certainly felt like I had the superior late-game, but still had to attack, because who knows what bombs the opponent might have. My deck had pretty weak removal, and would've flat out lost against e.g. a Lathliss, a Nicol Bolas, etc.

You can only play around these things to a certain degree, but my thought process in that case is something like that:

1) "I'd want to attack with these creatures naturally."
2) "If I attack with exactly these creatures, how fast is my clock?"
3) "Does my opponent have a clock on me? If so, how fast is it?"
4) "If I attack with exactly these creatures, which cards am I losing to?"
5) "How does adding/removing certain attackers affect the clock/cards I'm losing to?"

And then you weigh in specifics. Can you beat Heroic Reinforcements if you take a turn off your clock? Can you beat Act of Treason later? What about Inspired Charge/Trumpet Blast/Mighty Leap?
Then I'll go into the attack with the mindset: "Well, I can't beat card X anyway, but by not attacking with creature Y I take the same amount of turns to kill my opponent while playing around Z".

That's what I do in constructed, yeah. But in limited, I have no way of knowing the cards in my opponent's deck. He could have virtually any card in the set, which means I have to play around everything, which is going to be overly conservative and lose me games. For example I scarcely consider Act of Treason a main deckable card in a deck with no sacrifice synergies unless I'm a very aggressive deck, but my opponent did that to me ...

Do you project what cards are in your opponent's deck? Do you play with the entire M19 card list in front of you?

EDIT: P1P1, Cleansing Nova, Herald of Faith or Murder?

I'm not playing with a list in front of me, but I try to memorize most combat tricks to not get blown out in combat anyway; add the few cards that grant out-of-combat reach and you have a fairly good picture of what he opponent can realistically do to you.

Also: Yes, Act of Treason is a maindeckable filler in aggressive decks (I consider it better than Lava Axe most of the time) and becomes actively great once you have sacrifice outlets (some of which are even in Red only). You'd prefer to not start it in Boros, for instance; but if your deck is low on interaction otherwise Act is often better than an 18th creature.

Your P1P1 is between Murder and Cleansing Nova; the decision between these two is close but I'd lean Nova. Herald is a good bit worse than these two.

Murder is amazing, so much of the removal is sorcery speed, but Nova is a unique effect that you're very unlikely to see again in the draft. I'd take Nova with the expectation that I'll pick up some removal later (worse removal, but still). I'd probably assume that the bot I'm passing Murder to in pack 1 will be in black so wouldn't count on black being passed to me in pack 2 (if black is massively open pack 1 I'd still take it, just something to be aware of).

I waffled over it a lot and eventually took Murder. I don't mean to say that I don't trust you guys' opinions (sorry), but it felt like Cleansing Nova forces me into a control archetype which I can't guarantee I will see. Many/most limited decks have 14+ creatures after all. Murder on the other hand is unconditionally good, so I took it.

Here's another mindbender later in the draft. My sideboard had at this point Reclamation Sage, Colossal Majesty, Bristling Board, Woodland Stream, and not much else. What's the pick?



Here's what I think of the options:

Diregraf Ghoul - probably the weakest since my deck's not a beatdown deck.
Hired Blade - based off the fact that my deck's playing a lot of things at instant speed so flash gains in value.
Aviation Pioneer - it's a reliable 3-drop in a deck which is already short on creatures.
Manalith - this would be for ramp, which is likely to be great since my deck is so top-heavy.
Submerged Boneyard - it's an on-colour dual, but so is Manalith (to some extent).

What's the pick? I'm leaning towards Aviation Pioneer with Manalith second choice, but only just.

Sleep might be getting cut from the deck come deckbuilding. It's a very powerful card in an aggressive deck, but this one's looking so defensive it might just be an uber fog. Don't know if it's worth a card then.

The pick Murder vs. Nova is in fact very close and I can see Murder being correct; definitely don't fault you for picking it.

Your P3P3 is definitely interesting. At this point I think the pick is between Aviation Pioneer and Submerged Boneyard.
Diregraf Ghoul is a filler earlygame creature and a much worse topdeck in a control deck than, say, Walking Corpse due to entering tapped.
I'd basically only run Manalith if I am splashing or have multiple 6-and-7-drops that I want to hit. In your deck, I'm not even sure if a Manalith would be better than an 18th land to be honest.
I think Hired Blade is a worse 3-drop than Aviation Pioneer in general (Pioneer holds back 2 creatures against R/W and provides evasion) and while your deck has some instant-speed interaction, it's not insanely loaded with it, which is why I'd want Pioneer over Hired Blade.
Finally, I think your deck needs a high quality 3-drop more than another removal spell (you're fairly good in this department), which leads me to rule out Dwindle (Dwindle vs. Hired Blade would be closer).

Submerged Boneyard is Pioneer's main competitor. I like having 1-2 dual lands in my 2-colour decks for fixing and like to pick them if I'm good on playables. You have at least 19 playables right now (cards currently in your deck minus Sleep (not the deck for it), one copy of Mind Rot (gets a lot worse in multiples) and maybe Totally Lost (your other removal spells are a lot better, and you're lacking the counterspells to make Totally Lost really effective)), which is a decent number. However, I think Pioneer helps your deck out more than Submerged Boneyard at this point, plus there might be a chance for you to wheel it (the pack overall has a very high density of playables distributed among all colours).

By the way, depending on how the draft goes I'm not even sure what the pick would be between Boneyard and Hired Blade should both wheel (unlikely, but not impossible).

TL;DR : Pioneer is the pick over Boneyard and Dwindle.

I like: Dwindel over Pioneer, its very good removal while Pioneer does not deal with any threat permanently, maybe with abdominal endurance -which would be great with your Salvager too- but as things are presented in the pic I rather have Scholar than Pioneer and there is no way I pick a Scholar over Dwindle, you got 4 removal I would grab a filler over removal at 6 not anytime sooner.

Sleep seems way off in that deck, and it has kinda the same effect that Pioneer it buys you a turn but it really does not deal with anything, and I also think that two Mind Root is one Mind Root to much

What did you end up doing?

Dwindle is indeed good removal, but in my experience that can be picked up later and the deck doesn't need a ton more removal (you wouldn't mind 1 Dwindle, but doesn't really want more than that). However, the deck so far is seriously light on the curve (total of 9 creatures, 4 of which are CMC 5+, 1 of which is understatted (Fell Specter)) and Pioneer is a very good 3.

The deck wouldn't mind a Tolarian Scholar indeed; in fact one of them tends to make most of my UB decks. The 2/3 statline has absolutely been overperforming for me in this format.

I never considered Dwindle actually. It's bad removal imo - the creature can still sit there and activate its abilities, e.g. it only partially removes Epicure of Blood or Dryad Greenseeker. It can also be removed in the future by cards like Reclamation Sage or Cleansing Nova. If my deck were short on interaction then it's a necessary evil, but as it is it's not a consideration.

I'm surprised modulo you don't consider Manalith an option. Ramp is ramp, and it can potentially enable a splash later (Rec Sage is a good card). Submerged Boneyard ... it's an on-color dual, but if I'm playing a 2-color deck I tend to prioritize these much lower. When do you run 18 lands?

I haven't picked anything yet ... still waffling