Hadn't gotten to seven wins in a while, went 7-1 with this list.

1 x Dead Weight
1 x Hired Poisoner
1 x Dazzling Lights
1 x Thoughtbound Phantasm

2 x Child of Night
1 x House Guildmage
1 x Disdainful Stroke
1 x Enhanced Surveilance
1 x Dimir Spybug

1 x Dimir Informant
1 x Thief of Sanity
1 x Mephitic Vapors
1 x Dimir Locket
1 x Sinister Sabotage
1 x Darkblade Agent

1 x Murmuring Mystic
1 x Wishcoin Crab
1 x Artful Takedown
1 x Capture Sphere
1 x Chemister's Insight

1 x Watcher in the Mist
1 x Douser of Lights

7 x Island
7 x Swamp
2 x Dimir Guildgate
1 x Guildmages' Forum


Went into this draft intending to semi-force Dimir because I had cast blue/black spells quest. Instead I'm confronted with an extremely weak pack and end up first picking Guildmages' Forum over Kraul Harpooner, Rosemane Centaur, and Notion Rain. Second pack was only slightly better and I picked Watcher in the Mist. But then I got a Dimir Spybug third and a House Guildmage around 6-7th pick, and the deck started to look salvageable. Getting passed Thief of Sanity in pack 3 was the icing on the cake. The deck still did not look that strong in terms of power level - no Whisper Agents or Deadly Visits for example - but it had reasonable cards, a game plan, and a good curve.

The run itself went smoothly. Thief of Sanity was great as expected, although one game it did die instantly to Dead Weight (I was considering it too - but it was turn 3 on the play against a BG deck, and I didn't have anything else in hand to bait a Dead Weight with). It also saw some insane cards. Against one BGW opponent I saw only Healer's Hawk among his white cards and was wondering why on earth someone would splash a 1-drop, and then Thief of Sanity found Charnel Troll, Emmara, and another strong rare (don't remember which). Wow.

Most nerve-wracking game was against another BGW deck who was also splashing a Healer's Hawk. This time I got hit by a March of the Multitudes for 9. Next turn he attacked with everything and then cast Might of the Masses on an unblocked token. He went to 32, I went to 3, and he still had a wide board. I just managed to stabilize afterwards - I was at 3 not 1, so in a 6-vs-6 board stall, I was able to leave up enough blockers to survive even against a removal spell. And then he topdecks Swarm Guildmage!! The Mephitic Vapors came to my rescue.

I'll probably play less drafts now, since saving gold & gems for Ravnica Allegiance

I´m saving all my gold.... no more Draft for me for a month or so....

Someone help me please with this build This is what I have laid out:

1 x Healer's Hawk
1 x Hunted Witness
1 x Gird for Battle

2 x Tenth District Guard
1 x Conclave Guildmage
2 x Ironshell Beetle
1 x Sunhome Stalwart
1 x Skyline Scout
1 x Vernadi Shieldmate
1 x Worldsoul Colossus

1 x Sworn Companions
1 x Luminous Bonds
1 x Blade Instructor
1 x Roc Charger

2 x Parhelion Patrol
1 x Trostani Discordant
2 x Rosemane Centaur
1 x Underrealm Lich

2 x Siege Wurm

1 x Golgari Guildgate
1 x Guildmages' Forum


Other cards in sideboard: Righteous Blow, Collar the Culprit, Candlelight Vigil, Loxodon Restorer, Intrusive Packbeast, 2x Centaur Peacemaker, Selesnya Locket, 2x Sumala Woodshaper

I can't figure out if I should go for the late-game and win with my bomb mythics (Trostani & Underrealm Lich), incorporating Centaur Peacemaker and Selesnya Locket as card advantage, or if I should try to aggro my opponent out (do I even play the Lich then?).

I don't think you can make the aggressive strategy work (you have no tricks at all), but a super-lategame Selesnya strategy has the problem of not being able to mitigate flood at all (not having access to Surveil/Jump-Start).
Think I'd go for a simple midrange strategy that can sometimes power out your Convoke guys early and other times have at least some staying power if going late.

Changes I'd make for sure:
In:
1 x Righteous Blow
2 x Sumala Woodshaper
1 x Collar the Culprit

Out:
1 x Gird for Battle
2 x Tenth District Guard
1 x Worldsoul Colossus
1 x Underrealm Lich


Blow is needed as an interactive card. Sumala Woodshaper is a really good Selesnya common IMO; the body is relevant for Convoke, it hits most of the cards you care about (in your case, being able to fetch Luminous Bonds or Trostani is nice) and helps you not flood out in the lategame (which is a problem with Selesnya decks). Finally, I'm not in love with Collar the Culprit, but the deck is too low on interactive spells otherwise.
Gird only fits into purely aggressive strategies, which I don't think we can make work. Tenth District Guard are your worst 2-drops by far, and we have more than enough. Worldsoul Colossus is at an awful place in the meta; it can't beat opponents going wide, is held back by a single deathtoucher (which you don't have the means to get out of the way otherwise) or gives the opponent a mana-efficient deal for their otherwise clunky removal spells.
The Lich splash is dicey at best since you have very little interaction, very little fixing (Guildmage's Forum sucks) and it doesn't really work with your deck all that well aside from the card selection. I'm a little less certain about this one since it is a powerful card still, but I just don't think the splash is worth it.
This would leave you with 23 playables, befitting a 17 land deck. You can include a Centaur Peacemaker over an Ironshell Beetle, a Sumala Woodshaper, the Collar the Culprit or even a Siege Wurm if you feel that the curve is awkward, but I think it works less well with your deck and is a fairly mediocre card in general. I don't think I'd want the Locket; you don't have a ton of use for excess mana and your colour situation is okay the way it is (I'd love a Selesnya Guildgate to have a 9 7 1 manabase; but 9 8 should be fine).

Thanks for the answer. I changed some cards following your suggestion (bringing in Righteous Blow & Collar the Culprit, but not Sumala Woodshaper) and promptly went 1-2, both losses coming to Boros opponents. Their draws were simply too fast, and they had combat tricks & removal to gain tempo and kill my blockers. One opponent went Healer's Hawk into Skyline Scout into Healer's Hawk with Integrity//Intervention backup into Roc Charger, which I simply could not beat. I flooded out slightly in the other while holding Collar the Culprit, which was completely useless. After the second loss I sided it out as well as some 2-drops to bring in the Centaur Peacemakers. I won two games, then lost again to Boros after a mulligan to 5.

Underrealm Lich did literally nothing since it was never cast. Worldsoul Colossus did a little bit more since I actually cast it once, but I already had a huge advantage by then. I did think about what it would've been like if I had Sumala Woodshaper instead of one of these cards, but it would never have mattered in the three games I lost because it's just too slow.

I dunno, maybe I just don't know how to draft Selesnya. I know I had chances to pick up cards like Take Heart during the draft, maybe I should've drafted that.

Ok so listening to Ryan Spain apareance on LR, you should really... with big emphasis... REALLY care about signals.
He said that if a pack has loots of good cards in a color combination then bots will lock on those colors so if you got one of those sick packs when you really want to be in Sealed... then you might wanna look to other color combinations.
Bombs pick 5-6 should be read as open colors.
Just something to have in mind.

Here is the behind the curtains show.
https://youtu.be/aYSW9uYNfJk?t=3061

Reached 5-1 in traditional draft with this deck. I'm surprised, because I didn't think the power level was that high.

1 x Hunted Witness
1 x Healer's Hawk
1 x Prey Upon

1 x Emmara, Soul of the Accord
1 x Conclave Guildmage
1 x Ironshell Beetle
1 x Kraul Harpooner

2 x Generous Stray
1 x Centaur Peacemaker
1 x Luminous Bonds
1 x Sworn Companions
1 x Sprouting Renewal

1 x Nullhide Ferox
1 x Parhelion Patrol
3 x Ledev Guardian

1 x Status//Statue
1 x Divine Visitation
1 x Rosemane Centaur

1 x Siege Wurm
1 x Affectionate Indrik

1 x Selesnya Guildgate
2 x Golgari Guildgate
6 x Forest
8 x Plains


Notable cards in sideboard: Skyline Scout (used this once when I realized I was up against a control deck with at least 3 counterspells; didn't draw it but it's likely bad because opponent had loads of defensive creatures), Candlelight Vigil and Pack's Favor (boarded these in against heavily-defensive Dimir decks), Crushing Canopy, Hitchclaw Recluse (used this fairly often especially against decks with Bartizan Bats and Healer's Hawk), Rampaging Monument, 2x Sumala Woodshaper, 3 Vigorspore Wurm (used these two against control decks). Not sure if the build was right. It's possible Rampaging Monument is a bomb that I should've played, especially since I had quite a lot of multicolored cards. Sumala Woodshaper I left in the sideboard to bring in against grindy matchups, since they're so bad against Boros.

I had some bad cards in the maindeck because of Divine Visitation - I'd usually never play Sprouting Renewal, but I figured I needed cards that made tokens. In the end this turned out to probably have been overkill. Divine Visitation won me a couple of games but was weak otherwise. Surprisingly I literally never saw opponents board in enchantment removal against my Divine Visitation. Hunted Witness was pretty bad, which I ran because I wanted to be able to convoke stuff; this turned out to barely matter too. 3x Ledev Guardian was great at stopping aggro, same as Kraul Harpooner sniping Healer's Hawks and Dimir Spybugs.

The single match loss was to Dimir control. His standout card was Nightveil Predator, which he enhanced with Guildmages' Forum. I couldn't race the 4/4 with all his Wishcoin Crabs, Passwall Adepts, etc. If I could re-draft this I'd probably draft a couple of combat tricks like Take Heart to put in the sideboard for this reason. I boarded out all my Ledev Guardians for game 2 for more top-end and won (he kept in his Barrier of Bones against me - no idea why, it's not like i can actually attack for damage). Game 3 I was one turn away from winning with Divine Visitation, but he drew Connive//Concoct to steal my Conclave Guildmage, which stopped me from making angels. I then drew 4-5 lands in a row and died to Passwall Adept.

Play of the run was when I used Sumala Woodshaper to draw Nullhide Ferox. I never cast it - Dimir opponent had small blockers out, making Ferox less good, so I played cards like Parhelion Patrol and Vigorspore Wurm instead. With two cards left in hand, opponent cast Thought Erasure!! He must've guessed the other card in my hand was a spell, or maybe he just really, really needed to boost his Dimir Spybug / surveil. The free 6/6 made my board overwhelming and I attacked for the win two turns later.

Overall I'm surprised this deck made it to 5 wins, because it doesn't look that good.

Bots do suck. Maybe arena bots were close to as bad before their (relatively) recent tweak, but in doing a bunch of Allegiance drafts since yesterday, I'm being passed stuff late that has no business being there with some regularity.

I'm putting this here cause I don't want to piss in Chuco's cheerios by starting this thread for RNA, but I have a few observations from test drafting.

Gruul and Simic look strong (prob rank in that order). I was able to pull off Temur quite a bit, but I don't think it'll be as likely when I'm not being passed guild gates all the time. You just get so much beef from 4 mana on. In best of 3, you can get so many sideboard tools for Gruul to deal with flyers. Really felt like those two guilds will be what limited meta warps around.

UW fliers looks good. Addendum basically blows (never had the opportunity to take the few good ones, and when I did put cards with the ability into a deck, I wasn't thinking about casting them as sorceries), but it seemed fairly easy to build a good looking UW tempo flyers deck.

Orzhov didn't seem as strong as I was initially thinking. It felt pretty mediocre drafting in packs. Think it has quite a bit to offer constructed Orzhov n Esper decks, but in draft it felt middle of the road. I ended up with some decks I wouldn't hate playing, but none that seemed amazing. Suspect you could force Gruul/Simic/Azorius if you want to, but not Orzhov.

Rakdos felt really weird. I really need to see how those decks play out in action. It seemed tough to build an aggro version. Spectacle did not seem good to draft around. Often when I'd try it, I'd wind up with decks that can't reliably turn on specticle until T4/5, at which point the cost reductions become less meaningful. One major bummer was the 3/2 menace deathtouch that gives your spells deathtouch - since there isn't a ton of burn in the set.. Still a good card to draft, but the spell clause won't come up too often. I get the feeling Rakdos will make for a more controlly midrange deck that will win by grinding out value while constantly chipping away (thinking that 4 mana enchantment that life drains/gains 1 each turn and can sack to drain/gain 4 will be a staple for Rakdos builds). Mardu or Jund was where I felt myself wanting to go when being passed Rakdos cards.

Primary caveat to these observations: I was amped for Simic and Gruul going into this, so when I would have choices between quality cards in early picks, I'd often prioritize those guilds. However, after the first several drafts I made an effort to evaluate more neutrally, so I don't think my observations are entirely clouded by that bias.

Drafted this truly busted deck in GRN draft. It was really good, maybe my best ever.

1 x Devkarin Dissident
1 x Ironshell Beetle
1 x Vernadi Shieldmate

2 x District Guide
4 x Centaur Peacemaker
1 x Ledev Champion

1 x Parhelion Patrol
1 x Conclave Tribunal
1 x Price of Fame
1 x Beast Whisperer
1 x Conclave Cavalier

2 x Rosemane Centaur

1 x Siege Wurm
1 x Affectionate Indrik
1 x Worldsoul Colossus
2 x Find // Finality
1 x Status // Statue

3 x Golgari Guildgate
1 x Selesnya Guildgate
7 x Plains
8 x Forest


Cards in sideboard not used: 2 Douser of Lights, 1 Righteous Blow, 1 Vernadi Shieldmate (I figured even if I missed my 2-drop I have 4 Peacemakers to make it up with), 1 Skyline Scout (same reason), 1 Righteous Blow (I had plenty of good removal), a few other filler green creatures. It's possible Siege Wurm isn't as good as a Douser, since even with convoke 7 mana is heavy. Devkarin Dissident as a mana sink literally never came up either, in which case another Shieldmate is better.

I still managed to lose two games. Both games I misplayed. First game I was like, hmm opponent has 4 mana up + 1 card left, I'll hold on my Find//Finality in case he has Sinister Sabotage and try to bait the counter first with a 9/9 Worldsoul Colossus. It resolves, then he activates Passwall Adept twice and attacks for exactly lethal. Missing an on-the-board kill like this is really embarrassing. I was even calculating that Sinister Sabotage would surveil which would buff his Dimir Spybug by one, but I'd still have lived. Second game, the board was completely stalled and opponent taps out. He has two cards left, I have three, and I have 2 Rosemane Centaurs in play. For some stupid reason I decide not to play Find//Finality and again go for the Worldsoul Colossus. Opponent plays Cosmotronic Wave and wins. Boy, those two games were terrible, and I'm still kicking myself a little for them.

Regardless, awesome deck. Many Boros decks didn't even get me to under 10 health, and most games, I didn't even need to grind because my superior card quality just overwhelmed the opposition.

So GRN is back on ranked draft on Arena. I can't remember the last time I played this format. So far working through a draft with a sweet Boros gravitic punch combo deck. The goal is to get opponent near lethal then get the final points of damage in by gravitic punching a hammer dropper. What are yall playing?

Boros is the way I would want to draft also. Won many a game with punch. Funny that since Arena has come around I have found that I am a pretty dang good limited player. Never drafted before that and the only sealed I did was in DOTP.

Haven't played any games yet, but I think my deck's insane:



P1P1'ed Cratermaker, then Sunhome Stalwart, then a P2P1 Tajic, and then a P2P4 Boros Challenger. Ouch. I was kind of hoping to try out Street Riot to see how good it is, but with my card quality this high I don't think I want to.

Not sure if I want to cut some of my expensive cards (like Command), drop a land, play the 2nd Take Heart + Maniacal Rage, and try to overrun opponent.

I'm cheering for you guys fighting the good Boros fight in this stinker of a format
Do you face anything but Dimir?

There's def alot of dimir. I capped out at three games after running into Dimir decks heavy on the removal. My deck was basically a meme so I can't be that mad. Hopefully yours goes better, Banedon.

Went 5-3. The three losses were, respectively:

1. Opponent cheesed me with Maniacal Rage on Skyknight Legionnaire.
2. Kept a 2-plains hand with Healer's Hawk, a few more white spells, and Goblin Cratermaker. After five draw steps, drew a few more Plains, no Mountains.
3. Kept a 4-land, 3-spell hand on the draw. This might not have been ideal, but it is a hand of lands and spells and hard to mulligan, especially since I had eight 1- or 2-mana creatures to draw. Didn't draw them, and opponent leaped into the board with Venerated Loxodon too. However he made several mistakes with attacks (e.g. attacking with a temporarily-buffed 7/7, 3/3 and 2/2 into my 2/2, 3/3 and 4/4 board) and I stabilized. And then I draw 3 lands while he draws 3 spells, and wins.

Pretty disappointing, oh well.

I probably won't be drafting much GRN. It's not a very deep draft format, all five decks are clear and I know how to draft them.

Boros is the strongest in GRN. Dimir is second. Izzet third. Selesnya fourth. Golgari is trash.

Not going to draft it any more since I have all the cards, but that's how I did it.