AMONKHET & HOUR OF DEVASTATION
-DRAFTING LIKE A BOSS-


Alright, Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation are the sets to be drafted this week. On their respective release dates, Amonkhet was dominated by the super fast W/R aggro exert with lots of 1-2 drops, while Hour of devastation being a slower format ended up with G/X ramp dominating the late game with big creatures and value. This seems to be an interesting mix of sets that have very different beat and therefore the mix of them can be challenging to draft.

I recommend starting with both sunset reviews from Limited resources those shows really compress a lot of info on the sets right before the new set is released so they have the whole meta developed at the moment of recording, I leave you also one new addition to this compendium with Whats the pick with Huey where you can compare your choices and see how are you understanding the format, those two are very interesting to check and work your way from there.

THE BASICS
Understandig the signals
Beginners guide
Basic booster draft


HOUR OF DEVASTATION
Limited Resources
Commons and Uncommons
Ben Stark/ Block structure and Mechanics
Sun Set Show

Lords of Limited
Commons and Uncommons
HOU send off

ChannelFirebal
Cards that got better or worse with HOU
Whats the Pick P1P1
Whats the Pick P1P2

AMONKHET
Limited Resources
Commons and Uncommons
Ben Stark
Sun Set Show

ChannelFireball
15 guiding commons
Control on the draw

Compleat
Compleat
Happy draft!

Standard is getting really stale.

I'm currently basically only really playing draft and singleton constructed atm.
Just started a Hou draft with a GW deck (first pick majestic myriarch is just so funky) and a black splash for hapatra (I had my doubts about her, but I've got enough fixing and with the tapping zombie, she's already won me a game). I've gone 3-0 so far.

This particular format is ultra-fast, so be ready to be swarmed early. That means draft plenty of removal (I've got 3x sandblast) and plenty of combat tricks and play quite a few cheap early threats. Seems to work for me.

This 2 HOU + 1 AKH leans to less aggressive starts in my experience, I went 4-3 with one Nicol Bolas build around deck with tons of removal and early blockers and I'm currently 3-1 with one RW exert deserts value pile. The format is quite different than DOM so it has been a bit difficult to change the mindset.

In HOU you got pretty decent blockers and lots of removal on the common slot so the RW deck needs to fly to end the game before your opponent stabilizes.
From what I have listened and read G is very good in HOU and has the tools to survive the first wave of the more aggressive decks but I havent draft the color yet.

On other news I always got one quick constructed, one competitive constructed and one draft every now and then so I´m not getting the Standard boredom, I think the worse environment is the ladder by a mile.

I build this RW pile


3-0 ATM

I went 7-0 with my deck, damn those Dauntless avens are bonkers. I drafted 2 or 3 and they won me most of my games, with lots of help from my sandblasts.

Not my favourite format, but was bored today and had a go. Got some nice green 2 drops, some nice red removal then things started getting silly. I very rarely get actual bombs so the draft ended up a bit wonky due to my over enthusiasm. But still, wow.



4-0 at the moment, though not faced any super-fast aggro yet. Going to save the last few games for later or tomorrow since it's just too much fun to do in one sitting Should probably be running 7 forests maybe, worked out well so far though.

edit - went 7-1, the loss coming from a mull to 5 and no third land. Turns out a deck of removal plus bombs is pretty good.

I've done two Amonkhet drafts now. Both went badly. First draft I thought I had a pretty good B/W Zombies deck, but come deckbuilding time I realized I was actually dreadfully short on playables. I not only had to splash blue for some extra cards, I also didn't have bombs. This was really bad since in one pack I opened Glyph Keeper and passed it, thinking it wouldn't fit into my deck. Looking back at the draft, at that point I had like only four black cards (admittedly one of them was Lord of the Accursed) and had been seeing lots of blue so I really should've gotten the bomb rare. Still won like 4 games which was surprising.

The other draft I first picked Sandwurm Convergence but quickly moved into UW. I wound up with a really good deck - or so I thought. It had Curator, nice defensive creatures (1/3 Embalms and Those Who Serve, it had good removal, it had big late-game flyers, it even had Control Magic. And I went 2-3 anyway. One game I mana screwed, another game I couldn't establish a fast-enough clock and the 2/1 gives-unblockable guy won the game, and the last game it turns out that even with Gideon's Intervention, my opponent could just keep attacking with the GW 4/4 guy to unblock all his other stuff while exerting them. Ouch.

Amonkhet sure is a hard format. Maybe I should draft aggro decks instead, all the exert creatures make defending a nightmare.

Amonkhet sure aint easy. The format yields both extremely fast and extremely grindy decks and if you're somewhere in between you're having a hard time.

I'm having a quite good run right now; if I can take that deck to 7 (which I could, the deck's pretty great), I'll post it here.

Amonkhet is one of the most aggressive limited environments, I remember a lot of bitching on the format coz it was absolutely dominated by a Boris Exert deck, I haven't drafted it yet coz is a lot different than HOU HOU AKH, but from what I remember you should be drafting RW Aggro with every exert creature that you can get your hands on, if you succeed you can even go 15 lands. The other T1 deck that I remember was GB negative counters -yes Barney there is a format where that thing is good- and to a lesser extend RU spells but that one is very hard to build.

RU doesn't really want to be spells, RU wants to be the most hyper-aggressive deck you've seen. "I'll play every Slither Blade I see"-hyper-aggressive. You'll pick cheap, evasive creatures, Cartouches (the blue one is amazing for the deck), cheap removal spells. This deck's curve can seriously end on 3 mana.

And yes, you'll run 16 lands in most aggressive decks (hyper-aggressive ones can run 15) and 17 lands for grindy decks (there's some that can do with 16, though).

My good run got there. Deck was absolutely busted.



Basically the gameplan was: Cycle/hold out until you find Archfiend, Mastery or enough Horrors, cast them, profit.

Light on removal, but that was partially my fault (passed a Final Reward P3P1 for the Irrigated Farmlands that I need for Constructed).

The maybe dubious inclusions:
-Dune Beetle: 1/4 holds back quite some non-exerting attackers in this format
-Compelling Argument: If you have enough payoff (and Archfiend plus 3 Horror is enough), you just want cheap cyclers. Compelling Argument is just that 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time it mills the opponent for 5 sealing their fate (happened against a G/W player with a live Oracle's Vault)

I'm surprised by the amount of 3 colored decks and the amount of slider blades I'm seeing(and not in RU), are those real options or just inexperienced players?
Got 7-2 with WR and 5-3 With a very grindy WB deck whose curve stopped at 4.

Slither Blade is real; if the deck is aggressive enough that card puts in work. That said, you want to be hyper-offensive for them.

Straight-up 3-colour is asking too much IMO, but it's definitely possible to splash in the format; especially if you're base-Green. Gift of Paradise at common (and Spring // Mind at uncommon), Evolving Wilds, the rare dual land cycle and Cycling in general make splashing fairly easy (if you don't have Black for Wander in Death or even BB for Archfiend of Ifnir, you just cycle em away at no loss), and many of the two-faced cards incentivise to splash the other half.

Had an... interesting draft right now. Deck was basically a Sandwurm Convergence, a Commit // Memory and 38 ham sandwiches in a Simic Ramp shell. The deck started out 4-0 before divine intervention prevented an even stronger shift of reality; thus I ended 4-3.

Currently 1-0 on the next run with a great deck.

So strange, your UB deck doesn't look that different from the UW deck I had, you're even playing without removal while I at least had some and yet you reached 7 wins while I flunked out at 2-3. Maybe I'm making play errors!?

You could be like me and just be a horrible player.

This is a version of the Boris Exert deck, I forced it and it turned quite good, there are some explosive plays here, True Heart Twins are insane when you are exerting 2-3 creatures, the best part is that they don't need to be attacking for the ability to trigger, I won at least 3 of the 7 games coz my opponents underestimated the explosiveness of the deck, this thing can eat big chunks of life in a heartbeat, speaking of that Manticore ETB is no joke, same as Onward //Victory.

Cartouche, Crusher and Compulsory Rest were huge to disable their creatures for the Alpha strike and most games were done by T6-7
The deck was really not so close to the ground so I went 16 lands, I even had one Evolving wild but that sucked the 2 times I draw it so I chopped it.

EXERT is way to powerful in this environment.

Maybe play errors, maybe it was just me havng an incredible bomb (Archfiend of Ifnir) or getting good match-ups.
Mind posting your list as far as you can remember it?


@Cucho: Yup, currently having Boris Exert as well, maybe even a slightly better version than yours. If that goes 7, it gets posted (not quite through the games, couldn't play yesterday) (EDIT: Got 5-3, one loss was due to an unfortunate disconnect, one was to an Archfiend and one was due to me keeping a too slow hand and the opponent being able to stave off aggression and outvalue me with a Trial of Knowledge and a bunch of Cartouches).

Let's see:

Curator of Mysteries
Seeker of Insight
Fan Bearer
Those Who Serve x2
Angler Drake
Cast Out
Aven Wind Guide
Impeccable Timing
Galestrike
Aven Initiate
Angel of Sanctions
River Serpent
Gideon's Intervention
Lay Claim
Illusory Wrapping <-- this card is pretty bad, it doesn't do anything about passive effects, affected creatures can still exert, and in the worst case scenario it's still a chump blocker.

Can't really remember the rest.

That deck certainly has a decent power level, but the curve seems pretty high, especially for Amonkhet Limited. It's possible most of these cards are a tad too slow against really aggressive decks; most of these cards don't line up well against 4/3s like Manticore of the Gauntlet, Emberhorn Minotaur or Bloodrage Brawler, and these will get in damage against you.

These got damage in against me as well, but Liliana's Mastery and Archfiend of Ifnir were really good at stabilizing the board, and due to the absurd amount of Cycling in the deck I'd find them by turn 5 almost every game.

Wrappings is in fact mediocre; most creatures are too small for it to matter and it doesn't stop enchantments and stuff. Those Who Serve are not great either; they get the job done but aren't exciting at all unless your deck cares about Zombies.

Just went 7-1 with UWb; kinda similar deck to Banedon's, but the curve might be lower by quite a bit.
Forgot to take a screenie, here's the list from memory (fairly certain it's exactly the list):

1 x Fan Bearer
1 x Honed Khopesh

1 x Anointer Priest
1 x Gust Walker
1 x Tah-Crop Skirmisher
1 x Cartouche of Knowledge
1 x Essence Scatter
1 x Prepare // Fight

1 x Unwavering Initiate
2 x Hekma Sentinels
1 x Gideon of the Trials
1 x Galestrike
1 x Illusory Wrappings
1 x Wander in Death
1 x Start // Finish

1 x Aven Initiate
2 x Naga Oracle

1 x Angel of Sanctions
1 x Oketra's Attendant
1 x Shimmerscale Drake

1 x Lay Claim

8 x Plains
7 x Island
1 x Swamp
1 x Evolving Wilds


Gideon was mediocre and at a pro level I'd have taken Gust Walker over him (he was my P2P1), but you know, collection and stuff.