I just started playing competitively again since Shadowmoor. I played Duels of the Planeswalkers for several years though.

I did my second M15 draft yesterday. Went 2-1 with a Green/White deck using Seraph of the Masses and Feral Incarnation as my only high impact cards. I P1p1 a Hornet Nest, had to pass the rare from pack 2 and got Perilous Vault pack 3, got passed an Ob Nixilis, Unshackled 4 picks into pack 3 that I couldn't use, and a Hornet Queen made it half way around the table, but not to me. So there were no true bombs available to me. What I did have was a Geist of the Moors which is one of the better uncommons in the set and 2 Sunblade Elf's which I saw in all but 1 of the 7 games I played and a Paragon of Eternal Wilds. At one point I had to choose between the Seraph I ended up with, Raise the Alarm, Triplicate Spirits and Pillar of Light. It would have been nice to have the Triplicate Spirits but the Seraph ended up being a beast without it.

The white in this pool was ridiculous. I basically only splashed white (had 5 creatures and 3 removal cards) but I also had the White Paragon (2/2, +1/+1 to white other white creatures) that I didn't use, but every white card I did use was of high quality. There were 3 other players at the table of 8 that were in white. Now I'm not saying they were all good players (one guy was using Hydrosurge but not Raise the Alarm in his UW deck), but they were all taking white and still leaving enough behind that I had a few good picks. And the guy immediately to my left was in green too which is one of the reasons I never saw anything larger than a Charging Rhino.

Hornet Nest and Hunt the Weak have a nice way of creating tokens when your opponent isn't cooperating (attacking blindly into it).

Midnight Guard has nice synergy with Convoke where you can bring in a creature main phase one, untap the guard and still have him to attack or block.

Restock may not be needed. It's possible I wasted a P2p2 draw on Restock. Only saw it once but it was too slow, and too costly to use.

Sunblade Elf is a high quality card in the early and late game. +1/+1 to all of your creatures just wins games.

Convoke is way more powerful that I thought.

Flying is damn near as good as unblockable in this format. Only one of my opponents every played a flyer (the blue 2/1 bird) so my Geist, Seraph and Razorfoot Griffins were able to carry me to the win in most cases.

Don't be scared away from the cost of Feral Incarnation. I was able to play it with only 6 land in play most of the time and could have (did once) played it with 5 land.

Invasive Species can be a high value common. I really can't believe it but a foil one wheeled around and nobody else that was in green grabbed it. I got both the Feral Incarnation and the Species from the same pack. With Shaman of Spring you get to draw extra cards and with Living Totem you can boost creatures with mediocre stats into big threats. But I wouldn't run more than 2 Living Totems because the counter is restricted to "other creature." (I only had the 1)


You know what's fun to play after your opponent plays Juggernaut? Hornet Nest

You know what your opponent thinks is fun afterwards? Turn to Frog

That scenario happened in both Game 1 and 3 of match one. The guy only had 1 Jugger in his entire deck and he pulled it all three games. I only had the one Nest and happened to get it in two of them. Both times I got Nest, he ALSO got his singleton Turn to Frog. What are the chances?

I really like restock. Especially with triplicate spirits.

I could see that working out well. Wish I would have gotten one. I ran it for a couple games but ended up sideboarsing it for a second hunt the weak which ended up helping win my last match up. I probably will draft it again if I play green and see it but it just didn't get used in this pool. I'll post the pool I drafted and my final decklist later

Okay, so here's the deck and sideboard. Pardon any formatting issues, I post from my phone.

Sunblade Elf x2
Elvish Mystic x1

Runeclaw Bear x1
Venom Sliver x1
Titanic Growth x1

Geist of the Moors x1
Midnight Guard x1
Hornet Nest x1
Invasive Species x1
Netcaster Spider x1
Devouring Light x1
Pillar of Light x1

Living Totem x1
Shaman of Spring x1
Razorfoot Griffin x1
Paragon of Eternal Wilds x1
Hunt the Weak x2
Perilous Vault x1

Charging Rhino x1

Seraph of the Masses x1

Feral Incarnation x1

9 Forests and 8 Plains (due to so many double white costs)


Sideboard in no particular order:

Generator Servant x2
Vineweft x1
Crowd's Favor x1
Plummet x1
Back to Nature x2
Ephemeral Shields x1 (would have loved to use this with Hornet Nest)
Verdant Haven x1
Paragon of New Dawn x1 (picked early and ended up not getting enough white creatures)
carnivorous Moss-Beast x1
Satyr Wayfinder x3
Sanctified Charge x1
Blastfire Bolt x1
Unmake the Graves x1
Restock x1

Hey 64.5, good to see you over here. I'm just lurking before heading off to bed, but I'll be sure to have a look at that pool and build a deck that's worse than yours.

I think I would put in restock for pillar of light, but keep it close in the sideboard.

Restocking a hunt the weak and a titanic growth (or feral incarnation) is just back breaking

I main decked it Round 1, but sideboarded it for the second Hunt the Weak before Round2. I did see it once but it was too slow to be able to help me that game.

I got one of my Hunt the Weak (don't know if it was the first or the one I sideboarded, let's assume the sideboarded one) Round 3. In conjunction with Titanic Growth it helped me win the game. If I had Restock instead; I would have gotten my Deathtouch Sliver and my Devouring Light back AND kept my Titanic Growth for later. I still would have won, but it would have taken 1 more turn to do it.

Had I had 1 less removal/Combat trick available to me, I would have ran Restock no questions, I just really wanted to get those 5 cards and couldn't see dropping from 16 creatures because I was either going to have to win through early aggro or with Seraph/Feral due to the size of my creatures.

I agree I wouldn't take out hunt or growth for it without a specific opponent (someone with creatures you don't want to fight?).
Pillar is only good against specific rare bombs (like the Souls), Green, Wall of Frost, and Rotfeaster Maggot. I guess Illusionary Angel.

So I am partial to restock but I would move it in and out of the board.

Another week, another draft, another decklist.

Heat Ray x1

Bronze Sable x1
Alterac Bloodseeker x1
Generator Servant x1
Child of Night x1

Xathrid Slyblade x1
Necrogen Scudded x1
Goblin Roughrider x2

Juggernaut x1
Accursed Spirit x1
Zof Shade x1
Scrapyard Mongrel x1 (not real happy about it's inclusion)
Stoke the Flames x1

Nightfire Giant x2
Cone of Flame x1
Lava Axe x1
Flesh to Dust x2
Unmake the Graves x1

Miner's Bane x1

Siege Dragon x1

Evolving Wilds x1
Mountains x8
Swamps x8

I went 2-1 with this deck losing round 1 to the eventual winner running a BW deck with more removal than I and a lot of lifegain. Multiple times I had him to 5 or less and he would Covenant of Blood out of a bad situation.

My second Opponent was a gimme. He had a 20 land 3 color deck and was running 2 Mind Sculpt. Besides the RWB he was running he also had about a dozen green cards in his sideboard so I don't know what his strategy was during the draft.

I saw a Shaman of Spring pick 14 pack 2 and pick 7 pack 3 and I saw a Roaring Primadox pack 1 pick 2 so I don't know what the people in green were doing. I brought up the question of why those were still available so late when someone had Primadox and I couldn't get an answer out of anybody. One guy (who was UG and also had Frost Lynx) said he did not like that synergy anyways.

Instead of Scrapyard Mongrel the only things I could have ran were;
Witches Familiar - I had plenty of 3 drops and even as a 3/3 mongrel is better.

Belligerent Sliver - same reasons as above

Forge Devil - This is one I considered seriously.

Miner's Bane - my deck had enough from 5-7 already especially with Nightfire Giant abilities.

Festergloom - In hind sight I should have ran this. Would have helped a couple of times during round 1 and 3 at the times that I saw scrapyard mongrel. My only problem with running this over mongrel is that I'm getting into lower creature counts than I'm normally comfortable with.

My goal is to one day draft a RG deck with a lot more Covenant of Bloods (only saw one and already had all the removal I already had so I picked Generator Servant, my favorite m15 common) along with a bunch of Lightning Strikes Stoke the Flames and Cone of Flames and maybe a lava axe or 2. I just really want to burn someone to death and I think it's possible with Lightning and Covenant at common.

Lava Axe is just bad. Sure, it'll snag you some games, but you're basically choosing to maindeck a card that has no interaction with the board. Limited games are won on the board. People will go into detail about the one time it worked and get all anecdotal about how good it is. It is not.

Unmake the Graves is the same in that it has no board interaction. It's better when you're running Necromancer's Assistant or Satyr Wayfinder because then it's a powerful draw spell.

Forge Devil is a removal spell. You should've played it.

Festergloom is good against Triplicate Spirits decks or as a post-combat sweeper. I don't know if it's maindeckable. I have a feeling it's just premium sideboard material.

I would've removed the Graves and Axe and played the Devil and the sliver. Or, since this is an aggressive deck, I would've played a combat trick or something--Crowd's Favor or whatever is a good, cheap card.

Mongrel is fine. 4-mana 3/3s are nothing to write home about, but they fill your curve and this one has upside.

I'll agree with rstnme. Lava Axe is plain bad. It's a 23rd card when your draft goes wrong.

I also don't understand your statement on the sliver/familiar that 'you had enough 3s'. I count four. Your curve is skewed to the right in this deck (top-heavy). I would have definitely played the beefier Two-headed Sliver over the Axe. Especially with removal, it can keep getting through until you're ready to drop your high end/bomb or it's evasive when you attack with a lot of your group.

I also don't get the complaint of the Mongrel. He's a Hill Giant. Last I checked those are still normal in limited. The fact that he can become a 5/3 with trample if you have one of your two artifact creatures on board is just gravy.

I'm not sure on Unmake the Graves though. On the one hand, I like the fact that it's an instant and convoke and in games where you are both trading and removing each other's creatures it can get you ahead on creatures by returning two. On the other hand, with your deck build, I can see games where you are using removal but board stuck and have it wasting away with no good targets or a couple of low end creatures. Might be a better sideboard card against removal heavy decks to bring back dead Giants and/or your Dragon.

Lava Axe changes the rules of the game without your opponent knowing. In a format like m15 limited where people rarely run counterspells you are playing a game where you have 20 life and your opponent has 15. I know all the arguements against it. It's slow, sorcery. It's not removal, player only. It's a horrible topdeck if your losing and your opponent is at 6 or more life.


Sry, at one point I was running 6 3 drops. That's where the "I had plenty of 3 drops"comment came from. Round 1 I did run the two belligerent slivers over unmake the graves and lava axe. I lost 2-0 both times with my opponent being at 5 or less life and killing the vast majority of my creatures with no way to get them back.

Am I making mistakes? Probably. I haven't drafted since Shadowmoor and haven't played DCI events since Shards of Alara so thank you for all your feedback.

I agree that forge devil and sliver are better than lava axe. But I might keep lava axe over miners bane which is an overcosted down trader. Game 1 lava axe, then boarded out is effective as well.

I am also on the fence about maindecking festergloom or unmake.

Well, I would say you didn't lose because you didn't have Lava Axe, you probably lost for a myriad of other reasons. However, if reach was what you felt you needed, then I'd say the Axe is better than the Miner's Bane.

Do you guys know of any good draft simulators? I'm currently using http://draft.bestiaire.org/index.php for drafts. I think it occasionally makes some questionable choices for the other 7 AI players and I don't feel that it accurately represents what you will run into IRL all the time. Most of the times it's fairly accurate though.

I also use http://www.magicdrafting.com/sealed-m15/ for random sealed pools.

That one is cool because after you build the deck it'll generate sample hands so you can see how the deck will play out over the course of several turns. It's kind of cheesy though because any bad pools can simply be overlooked with the click of a button. Of course if you really wanted to challenge yourself, those are the pools you're really looking for. Trying to see if you can make something playable out of bad mana curves and wonky/janky synergy.

The simulators are pretty awful, but I still kill time on them. At least it helps you learn set and pack composition. Fake drafts (tappedout.net) with real people aren't much better.


You can usually get a decent match out of cockatrice+drafts.in.

tappedout is terrible and no one should ever go there for drafting ever.

drafts.in doesn't have the set correct and their pack variance is too consistent. I get a grindclock every time I generate a sealed pool, and usually between 1-5 of those uncommon color rods. Still, I like it better than most places.

Chiming in on Lava Axe, it's the type of card that in a vacuum is unplayable. However, contextually is different. In M14, I felt Lava Axe was playable because often heavy red decks would have a problem getting in the final points to kill their opponents after they stabilized. While I think the card is playable in that format because of the texture of matches, I would never actively draft a Lava Axe over something else that I could play that would be better.

My main point is that cards all have their place and we see a lot of trends to know if something is playable or not. However, sometimes the context in which a card exists is drastically different than what we've seen in the past and gives it a new role in a format. Example would be Divination in M14 as compared to other formats. So while we can see things as "bad"/"good" cards sometimes these rules are broken. It's important to stay flexible and be constantly reevaluating cards and how they interact with a format.

New draft deck

Elvish Mystic x1
Ulcerate x1 (swapped this around for another Flesh to Dust depending if I was playing a faster or slower deck)

Satyr Wayfinder x2
Child of Night x1
Bronze Sable x1

Yisan, the Wandering Bard x1 (P1p1)
Necrogen Scudder x1
Gargoyle Sentinel x1
Stab Wound (P1p2)

Living Totem x1
Undergrowth Scavenger x1
Juggernaut x1

Rotfeaster Maggot x1
Charging Rhino x1
Flesh to dust x1
Unmake the Graves x2

Will-Forged Golem x1
Ancient Silverback x1
Endless Obedience x1 (P2p1)

Siege Wurm x1
Covenant of Blood x1

Evolving Wilds x1
Forest x8 Swamps x8


Sideboard:

Tormod's Crypt x1

Ranger's Guile x1

Titanic Growth x1
Sign in Blood x1

Necromancer's Assistant x1
Witch's Familiar x1

Roaring Primadox x1

Flesh to Dust x2
Restock x1

I let a second Undergrowth Scavenger go early pack 1 because I grabbed the Wayfinder out of it, thinking the scavenger would wheel. It didn't. It was a 10 person draft so I didn't realize someone was taking the commons for that deck. Restock was an early pick that got beat out by Endless Obedience because it puts the creature into.play and it got beat by Unmake the Graves because it's instant/convoke.

The biggest problem was the guy two spots to my right (passing towards me pack 1 &3) was pretty much just rare drafting. He walked away with 6 rares ranging from the white Soul to Crucible of fire. He wasn't even playing white. The guy directly to my left was just taking the best card available no matter what color it was. I never once saw any burn. No Welkin Tern. No Scrapyard Mongrel or Aeronaut Tinkerer yet nobody was playing artifacts or blue flying. I saw a Trip Spirits early but never again, nor Raise the alarm. No paragons ever except a green one I passed for the Silverback. I got passed quite a bit of black removal signaling people weren't in black but no beaters except a 2nd Necrogen Scudder that I should have taken. I also mistakenly passed a second Silverback. I knew people were cutting into my green but I never saw anything good enough to spur me towards another color.

What do you do when half your group is either rare drafting or just taking what looks strong regardless of what color it's in? How do you combat that?

I did go 3-1 with the deck and ended 3rd. I felt screwed by 1&2. Their 4th game was a "draw" so that they could have 1sr and 2nd and split the winnings. If one of them had won 2-0 there was a chance I would have been 2nd.