Fresh blood incoming!

Set is up on draftism for mock drafting
https://draftsim.com/

Set archetypes:
WU - Flying
UB - Flash
BR - Menace
RG - Trample
GW - Vigilance
WB - Humans
UR - Noncreature spells
BG - Graveyard recursion
RW - Cycling
GU - Ramp


Noticed in initial mock drafts: color fixing is prevalent. Expected with all the wedge cards, but was nice reassurance in the early test runs. Green has several options as usual, but there’s a 3cmc 1/1 artifact creature land fixer at common in addition to the wedge artifacts and common rarity dual lands.

This set is very interesting. A lot going on. Very curious to see how the limited meta shakes out

Oh ****. I haven't been playing magic in anticipation of this coming out. Its today, right?




That's much how it was in Khans of Tarkir which was a wedge based set. I dont remember many land issues in that set as long as you aren't a dullard and pass on all the lands you need.

The creature fixer will probably be P2-P3 at most, red got some very nice combat tricks.

@sixty - early access streamer event is tomorrow. Everyone else online gets it on the 16th

@chuco - idk, I think it’s better than that. The wedge cards are very powerful, and the ability to keep yourself open to splashing in any color combo in this set is important, I think. I could see it as a P1P1 in a weak first pack easy. Aside from the powerful wedge cards, every color has strong 1-pip removal spells that are worth splashing for. Skittering Surveyor was considered one of if not the best P1P1 commons in DOM. This does everything that did, but better - historic rarely came together making secondary benefit of surveyor negligible, but I don’t see the same narrowness with mutate so I think the secondary benefit is more important. Set has blink and graveyard recursion effects to net additional resources off it too.

Ikoria released on the 16th? Damn, the next few days are going to be pretty hectic then, since I'm not willing to play less Mythgard but some of the other games I play also released new content.

My first draftsim draft. Just posting it here cuz I did mobile and have no where to put this.

http://draftsim.com/draft-log.php?id=K1WqM8oEM

Went 3-3 this morning in the "premier" draft that we got tokens for. P1P1 was Umori, so I took the dive and built a creatures-only companion deck. Put in a lot of cycling and 3x thieving otter for card draw. Mutate + cycling are fun mechanics. Creates some really interesting decisions over whether to play or hold onto your cards. I thought the deck was decent but got an unlucky one-land hand after mulligan to six and fizzled out.

My first Sealed:

Deck
1 Narset of the Ancient Way (IKO) 195
6 Plains (IKO) 262
5 Island (IKO) 265
6 Mountain (IKO) 271
1 Sprite Dragon (IKO) 211
1 Savai Thundermane (IKO) 205
2 Fire Prophecy (IKO) 116
1 Go for Blood (IKO) 122
1 Helica Glider (IKO) 15
1 Snare Tactician (IKO) 30
1 Splendor Mare (IKO) 32
1 Cubwarden (IKO) 7
1 Vulpikeet (IKO) 37
1 Drannith Stinger (IKO) 113
1 Shredded Sails (IKO) 136
2 Cloudpiercer (IKO) 112
1 Lava Serpent (IKO) 124
1 Yidaro, Wandering Monster (IKO) 141
1 Frost Lynx (IKO) 51
1 Pouncing Shoreshark (IKO) 64
1 Blade Banish (IKO) 4
1 Light of Hope (IKO) 20
1 Raking Claws (IKO) 131
1 Spontaneous Flight (IKO) 33
1 Keep Safe (IKO) 56
1 Heightened Reflexes (IKO) 123

Sideboard
1 Shredded Sails (IKO) 136
1 Cloudpiercer (IKO) 112
1 Lava Serpent (IKO) 124
1 Rugged Highlands (IKO) 252
3 Migratory Greathorn (IKO) 165
1 Gust of Wind (IKO) 54
1 Durable Coilbug (IKO) 85
2 Checkpoint Officer (IKO) 5
1 Cathartic Reunion (IKO) 110
1 Ram Through (IKO) 170
1 Blood Curdle (IKO) 75
1 Back for More (IKO) 177
1 Charge of the Forever-Beast (IKO) 147
1 Lead the Stampede (IKO) 163
1 Frenzied Raptor (IKO) 120
1 Imposing Vantasaur (IKO) 17
1 Frostveil Ambush (IKO) 52
1 Cavern Whisperer (IKO) 79
1 Adaptive Shimmerer (IKO) 1
1 Almighty Brushwagg (IKO) 143
1 Trumpeting Gnarr (IKO) 213
1 Heartless Act (IKO) 91
1 Indatha Triome (IKO) 248
2 Solid Footing (IKO) 31
1 Mosscoat Goriak (IKO) 167
1 Springjaw Trap (IKO) 241
1 Dead Weight (IKO) 83
1 Whisper Squad (IKO) 105
1 Nightsquad Commando (IKO) 98
1 Convolute (IKO) 45
1 Easy Prey (IKO) 87
1 Greater Sandwurm (IKO) 157
1 Thwart the Enemy (IKO) 173
1 Excavation Mole (IKO) 150
2 Hampering Snare (IKO) 55
1 Bushmeat Poacher (IKO) 77
1 Migration Path (IKO) 164
1 Alert Heedbonder (IKO) 218
1 Titanoth Rex (IKO) 174
1 Sleeper Dart (IKO) 240
1 Forbidden Friendship (IKO) 119
1 Suffocating Fumes (IKO) 100
1 Phase Dolphin (IKO) 62
1 Lurking Deadeye (IKO) 94
1 Sonorous Howlbonder (IKO) 230
1 Reconnaissance Mission (IKO) 65
1 Dire Tactics (IKO) 183
1 Frondland Felidar (IKO) 186
1 Wingfold Pteron (IKO) 71
1 Corpse Churn (IKO) 81
1 Unlikely Aid (IKO) 103
1 Blazing Volley (IKO) 107
1 Zagoth Crystal (IKO) 242
1 Unbreakable Bond (IKO) 101
1 Titans' Nest (IKO) 212



I need help on what the last 2 cuts from the main deck are. Most recent cut was the Wingfold Pteron, Sleeper Dart and Lava Serpent

Edit to make list easier to see for suggested cuts

EDIT: you’ve got some powerful cards, but I’ve a few reservations about your build. You have the dreaded 5/5/5 mana base (essentially) and no color fixing. I’d be reluctant to be leaning on a and as 1/3 of my 2 drop creatures. Seems next to impossible to cast on curve. Not having 2 drops landing early makes your mid game mutate creatures less flexible - and the bulk of your mid game creatures are white. I think the baby dragon is very strong, but not sure it makes sense here with color requirements. I can see why you want that mana base, with Narset, but I’d try to focus on 1 or 2 colors for the early game plays.

Currently the deck wants to mutate and cycle and spell sling, which feels a bit pulling in too many directions. Not sure if that’s fixable in any way tho. I’m not sure what’s in your sideboard that you’d consider running in Jeskai colors (long list of names I’m not familiar enough with yet and looks like it’s all colors).

Been an interesting run of Sealed so far. First two runs were a massive flop with back to back 0-3s. Followed those with a 3-3 and finally a solid 6-3. Hadn't milled an Opp out with a Mardu deck before, but there's a first time for everything I guess.

Fifth pool looks good. Got the core of a UB flash deck to work with and a boat load of crystals available. Looking at UB splashing W for extra removal with a hint of red (in case I want to hard cast Lore Drakkis) and a cheeky Thornwood Falls for the full power Mythos of Nethroi dream. Too greedy? Should I run a second Farfinder (seems unnecessary as I plan to mostly use crystal and dual lands to support the splashes) or include Jegantha, the Wellspring in some way?

Okay, so I'm going to drop the Sprite Dragon and the counterspell. Drop my islands to 4 and grab a 7th mountain. I dont think that cycling theme takes away from the other 2 themes. The cycle matters creatures can be mutated or not. And cycle itself is just a way to draw what I need. So far I'm 2-1.

Nice. Have you gotten to cast Narset yet? If so, what do you think of her?

Are there any set reviews for Ikoria available to help me gauge how good each card is?

In my first sealed pool I have these six rares: Mythos of Illuna, Battra, Dark Destroyer, Biollante, Plant Beast Form, Eerie Ultimatum, Zagoth Triome, and The Ozolith. Can't tell if the tricolor cards are bombs or even if they're worth playing, since I have only Dark Bargain for self-mill.

EDIT: Okay nevermind. Biollante must be worth playing, because it's a 5/5 deathtouch lifelink for 5 with abilities. Eerie Ultimatum however I remain unsure about, same with The Ozolith.

LSVs are behind a paywall now. MTG nerd girl has reviews on cool stuff inc - I value LSVs opinion more but she’s not terrible.

My opinion:
mythos is good but you want to be temur. In sealed you’re likely to face better value targets to copy than draft. I’d still say not so powerful as to pull you in to those colors on its own - but def include if you end up there.

Battra is strong and a good reason to consider playing black. Even if you don’t mutate it to get the chupacabra effect, it’s still an evasive 3/3 with lifelink for 4 mana. If it sticks, every subsequent mutation is a removal spell plus whatever effect the new mutator adds

Biollante is a mega bomb. Holy god run that card. If you can’t mutate, it’s still a 5/5 with Deathtouch and lifelink for 5. If you mutate it’s backbreaking value. If you mutate again and opp still doesn’t scoop they’re a masochist. Goes into the same deck as Battra too.

Ultimatums are bombs that are hard to cast, to the point where they don’t have high draft value unless you open one late and are in right the colors. However, I’ve seen Eerie cast and it turned around a game that was a turn away from defeated before it resolved. It’s the same colors as Biollante and gives you redundancy on the recursion effect. I’d play it. With this and Biollante, you just need to make it to the late game, trading resources along the way, and you should win.

Otolith isn’t great in limited. I’d only consider playing it if you happen to have a bunch of counters creatures in your pool. If just a couple, it’s not worth the card slot. It’s a synergy card that useless without the right support.

Idk what the rest of your pool looks like but just on the rares I’d want to be Abzan, with black as primary color. Hopefully you have some color fixing or ramp in green to help you cast your expensive bombs. Ideally I’d want to build a deck that grinds and trades resources until I can resolve one of the big recursion spells to put the game on ice.

I think Mythos is a solid playable even if you aren't GUR and it's just a Clone effect, but Nethroi is a bomb.

I just did my first 3-0 with a GUR deck. The problem is, I disconnected partway through the draft so two-thirds of the deck was picked by the autopicker.

People are seriously underdrafting removal and the companions though.

In these new 8-player Traditional Drafts, do you play your 3 games against the people you were drafting with? Are you required to finish those games right after the draft, like in real life? Or can you just play them whenever, against randoms the system pairs you up against?

Nope, after you finish drafting, you have until the format ends on Arena to play and you play against other people who drafted the same way as you (so in Quick Draft, you won't play against someone who drafted against humans in Premiere Draft, and vice-versa). This is called 'league', versus 'pod' where you have to play against the people you drafted with.

Damn, I was hoping we'd get pod play. I hate it when I run into the one guy who seems to have opened nothing but bombs and removal, and drafted against idiots who fed him 2/3s of it.

Pod play seems implausible. If I play one game and then have to log off, do my opponents get walkovers?

Haven't built the sealed pool yet but I'll probably play Abzan, I have what looks like good cards in those colors.

That's the thing, it would have to be timed, and the answer is, Yes. You'd have to set aside 4 hours to play a pod draft. 1 hour for drafting/deckbuilding and 1 hour for each round. An 8 person pod leads to exactly 3 rounds to determine a single 3-0 player.

It happens all the time IRL so I don't think it's implausible. It may not be your cup of tea, but given the current situation I believe that there would be enough people willing to do that. Especially right now