Nie to hear; congrats on the 7-1!

If you can reliably trigger Adamant, I'll play one Once and Future in all but the most aggressive decks. Buying back any two cards from the graveyard at instant speed is deece.
If you cannot reliable trigger Adamant, the card is mediocre at best and unplayable at worst. So, if Green is fairly open at the table, I'm not surprised to see Once and Future go late or even last.

Your current build is a lot trickier.
I don't think we have the pool to cut Green or just splash Grumgully, seeing how Irencrag Pyromancer seems really out of place (Thrill is its only enabler, and it's a mediocre one especially in multiples).
Aside from Grumgully, none of the green cards are particularly splashable, but they are some of your better bread-and-butter cards; but they do need a serious commitment; we're talking a 7-10 manabase here. This means we cannot play the Fireborn Knight or Henge Walkers, but since we're low on playables otherwise we'll have to suck it up and play our Rosethorn Acolytes and Tuinvale Treefolks instead.

In total, my build would look something like this:
-1 Irencrag Pyromancer
-2 Thrill of Possibility
-1 Fireborn Knight
-2 Henge Walker
-1 Ferocity of the Wilds (okay to have one, bad in multiples)
-1 Bloodhaze Wolverine (your worst 2-drop if you don't draw extra cards)

Further considerations on my end would be Maraleaf Rider > Jousting Dummy (3/1 is better than a 2/1 that needs to pay 3 mana to become a 3/1; makes the mana slightly worse though) and, as I stated, the 10-7 manabase. Whether you want one of the Mountains to be the Dwarven Mine is up to you; though I'd lean on the side of yes.

Raging Redcap into Oaken Boon might not be the most exciting play ever, but it definitely can steal games. I would not expect 7 wins here, though.

Lol, your predictions are spot on. I went 0-3. First two games I don't think I had a chance. One opponent played Rampart Smasher on turn 4, buffed it with Treefolk the next turn, and although I was holding Searing Barrage it was already out of range. The other played a T2 Order of Midnight and I never drew removal for it (in spite of all the red burn spells I had ...). In retrospect I could've played more aggressively, using Rimrock Knight to buff a double striker and raced, but opponent played Reaper's adventure mode and made me discard it. Ultimately I think it was still a defensible play, since if I drew removal I'd be fine, I just never did before he finished me off. In last game I literally decided to race my RW opponent's aggro deck with my Rosethorn Acolyte because he was 1) stuck on 2 lands and 2) I had removal spells in hand. Bad idea. I flooded a bit but being at 16 life to 10 is completely different from being at 10 life to 6. But since I played badly and lost, I'm not complaining.

7-2 with this list:

1 x Foulmire Knight

1 x Faerie Vandal
1 x Golden Egg
1 x Run Away Together
1 x Wishful Merfolk
2 x Epic Downfall

2 x Didn't Say Please
1 x Queen of Ice
3 x Tome Raider
1 x Charmed Sleep
1 x Brazen Borrower

2 x Mistford River Turtle
1 x Bake into a Pie
1 x Turn into a Pumpkin

1 x Syr Elenora, the Discerning
1 x Clackbridge Troll

1 x Reaper of Night
1 x Into the Story

8 x Island
8 x Swamp
1 x Mystic Sanctuary


Cards in sideboard not used: Memory Theft, Moonlit Scavengers, Trapped in a Tower, Jousting Knight, Vigilant Scarecrow, Roving Keep

A bit surprised since the deck didn't feel that good, but the Troll is a huge bomb and carried quite a bit. This deck could badly have used a Forever Young regardless to recur the threats. I lost one game to Outlaws’ Merriment, which was also a huge bomb - once it landed my only out was to bounce and counter, but never drew either of the counterspells and I got run over. I was expecting to lose to mill as well, but didn't play against any dedicated mill decks.

It's possible some of the filler cards should've been one of the other cards in the sideboard, idk, perhaps Roving Keep since otherwise this deck is really short of win cons. I almost decked one game because my opponent had the 1/5 Reach spider and I couldn't attack through it - near the end I realized the only way I could win was to use removal on it, followed by Didn't Say Please on a second copy, and won with 1 card left in my library. That was scary.

got 0-3 drawing the great henge in all 3 games.

Back-to-back 7-0s with super low-to-the ground Gruul decks.

Barge in is awesome

Kinda surprised you didn't run the Seven Dwarves in the first list - it's a 2-drop after all in what looks like an aggressive list.

P1P1 The Cauldron of Eternity, Foulmire Knight or Hypnotic Sprite? Never played with the Cauldron before, don't know if it's a bomb; the other cards aren't particularly strong though and I don't have any good options left.

I’ve never seen it played, but LVD calls Caldron a bomb in his limited set review:

Limited: 4.5

Cauldron is slow, but it’s definitely a bomb. It’s not hard to get 3 creatures in your graveyard, at which point this is a 6-mana spell that threatens to take over the game. It’s easy to imagine getting the game to a point where you have 5+ creatures in the bin, and that makes this just absurd. Also note that self-mill works even if this is in play, as it only puts creatures that die on the bottom, not creatures that get milled. This card is insane if you build towards it, and still very good even if you don’t.


The other options you mention are fine and sure to make the cut if you finish in their colors but they’re not bombs - for P1P1 I’d prob try out the Caldron, especially since you have the whole draft to build towards it

I first picked Cauldron, then Vantress Gargoyle, then Epic Downfall, and somehow ended up with a monored deck. Lol. What would you cut out of this pool?



I'm thinking some of the higher-end stuff, Embereth Paladin and Ogre Errant, maybe one Searing Barrage - but these cards all benefit from Adamant and/or work well together, and it seems a bit of a shame to have to cut them. Fling could be a cut since I only have one Dragon to combo it with. Weaselback Redcap is another possibility, but it is a knight that works with synergies Trebuchet & Trainer. Maybe Brimstone Trebuchet isn't good enough in a monored list and is the cut instead?

My cuts would probably be Burning-Yard Trainer, Raging Redcap*2, probably one of the Embereth Paladins and either Fling or one Searing Barrage.

Redcaps are mediocre in your deck aside from the Rimrock synergy; Burning-Yard Trainer I found to be mediocre in general.
Embereth would be my cut for curve considerations (worst of your 4-drops), but I could see an argument for cutting one Ogre Errant or the Weaselback Redcap (maybe worst card on power level in the deck, but not that bad) instead.
Fling is your worst burn spell, but it could be worse than your third Searing Barrage, especially against aggressive decks where your Rimrocks cannot block their attackers. I'd probably lean on the side of cutting Fling, but it is a very close decision.

I'm fine enough with Trebuchet blocking stull like Improbable Alliance fairies and getting continuous damage through that type of deck; and you have enough knights (even with the cuts!) to make it 2 damage on many turns.

Sorry for late update, but that deck reached 4 wins, losing three times after a 4-0 start. Don't remember too much beyond that in the run but in case you were curious

Also hit 7-2 with this list:



Definitely not sure if the build was right. Benching a card as powerful as Fierce Witchstalker feels weird as hell. But the other green cards were fairly meh, and by going so heavily red I could run Dwarven Mine + Fireborn Knight, so I decided to take that path. It worked out, although I'm still not sure if a more traditional RG build would've worked better. Turns out Rampart Smashers are good when played on curve. Although the double-strikers would certainly combo well with Treefolk, that interaction never actually came up (the buffs due to Heraldic Banner worked much more often, though). Never got two Seven Dwarves in play at the same time either. Ogre Errant was very meh. Embereth Paladin was great when I was ahead, but aside from that it was also quite meh. Stonecoil Serpent and Bonecrusher Giant overperformed, which shouldn't surprise anyone.

Waiting for next draft format now

Surprisingly this list went 7-2:

1 x Gingerbrute

3 x Jousting Dummy
2 x Smitten Swordmaster
1 x Forever Young
2 x Reave Soul

2 x Belle of the Brawl
1 x Murderous Rider
2 x Henge Walker
1 x Oathsworn Knight
1 x Lost Legion

1 x Deathless Knight
1 x Locthwain Paladin

1 x Barrow Witches
1 x Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 x Cauldron's Gift
1 x Festive Funeral

1 x Reaper of Night

16 x Swamp
1 x Witch's Cottage


I won my last game on turn 6 after going T2 Swordmaster T3 Belle T4 Deathless Knight T5 Reave Soul one of your two blockers (= can't block Belle), swing, Jousting Dummy. Opponent had 2 life on turn 6 and I had three lethal attackers, one of which had menace.

Festive Funeral overperformed. I'm actually rather surprised at how effective it was. It's no Final Death, but it was great removal that killed what needed to be killed, especially given that creatures traded a lot. There's a small combo with Cauldron's Gift, too. For similar reasons (trading), Syr Konrad also overperformed, although this is less surprising since everyone knows it's a good card. I picked it over a Baked into a Pie that would've triggered Deathless Knight too, think it was the right choice in retrospect. I never got to return Deathless Knight in my run, although as a 4-power hasty attacker it was definitely one of the better cards in my deck. Similarly I never got to return anything with Witch's Cottage. Maximum drain I got with Swordmaster was five!

Lost one game against an Improbable Alliance deck whose 1/1s match up really well against my 2/1. He had played Alliance turn 2 and then followed up with Merchant of the Vale, and had Irencrag Pyromancer later, and it wasn't close. A couple of rounds later I ran into another Improbable Alliance deck that played two (!!) Improbable Alliance, Merchant of the Vale, and Irencrag Pyromancer. It was piloted by a rank 40+ Mythic player too. Opponent came extremely close to stabilizing but with him on 2 life (and Golden Egg in play), I activated Syr Konrad twice, hit two creatures, and he died. I misplayed the last turn by not attacking with Syr Konrad, so this was very fortunate.

At one point during the draft I was given the chance to pick Javier (aka. Fervent Champion) and passed, since it felt like I was going all-in on monoblack. Coincidentally, the other loss was to a real R/B knights deck that had Steelclaw Lance.

New draft (when is ranked Theros coming by the way?), how would you guys build this? Started out with Beanstalk Giant, then took Bog Naughty and was thinking of BG food, but then speculated on a Wandermare and kept picking up the good white common adventures, but then P2P1 was Opportunistic Dragon, then P2P2 Grumgully, and ended up with Naya colours.



The synergy is real but not sure if I actually want Naya colours, because my 2-drop slot is crowded and I seem rather short on late-game win conditions (but then again Pathlighter Wandermare etc are not cards I am familiar with).

Also: literally never played with or against Bog Naughty, how good is this card?

Bog Naughty is good if you have enough food production, but an over costed 3/3 flyer without (then it’s more filler level evasive threat). You have some food production options, but don’t have enough other good black cards to go b/x.

I think you cut red. Splashing a 3rd color for a double red spell in the dragon is very ambitious. Bit unrealistic even with giant and acolyte. Could splash Grumgully, but I don’t think it’s worth it as a high percentage of your creatures are human. Also splashing 3rd color makes outmuscle harder to adamant.

I’d cut red and replace with unicorn (adventure synergy) and maybe weapon rack (another shambling suit buff, and size up your flyers or 1st striker). Could go smasher instead of rack with giant and acolyte to help cast since rack isn’t amazing, but you’ll rarely be able to cast on curve. Maybe go 10G/7W manabase since you really want adamant on outmuscle and don’t need double white on any spells.

Wandermare looks good in your deck. It’ll be a must-answer with your adventure count. Pathlighters too to a lesser degree - they’ll help your adventure guys trade up and can win the game attacking over a gummed up ground stall.

I might definitely be underrating Adamant.

Followed your advice and cut the Dragon, but played Grumgully. Deck lacked late-game beef somewhat (e.g. none of my ground creatures can attack through a 5/5 without a combat trick) so I played the Prophet for four games, but it turned out to be very clunky and the deck had enough flyers + value to power through. Wound up playing Weapon Rack for the reason you gave as well, over Curious Pair, which didn't seem good without other food synergies (although by the end I was playing Insatiable Appetite). Went 4-1 before losing to Embercleave & Feasting Troll King in back-to-back matches, RIP, gg.

When's Theros BO1 draft coming? Not keen to play more Eldraine limited, and don't want to play BO3 either.

I wanna say ranked draft of the new set usually arrives a bout a week after prerelease.

A few of the adamant cards are worth putting in the effort, but especially outmuscle. Changes it from an over costed Prey Upon (that you’re paying 3 more mana for a 1/1 counter) into a powerful Rabid Bite effect that allows you to swing in indestructibly afterwords. Changes it from a mediocre removal spell you accept in a green deck into a pretty powerful removal spell that can net a 2 for 1 or let you push damage.

It's such a great time in the Arena when Eldraine Draft returns!!!!!