Yeah, seeing the packs from this perspective and then getting to see how each other teams drafts went and their own perspective on it is going to be really intriguing. Currently I think U/W Heroic is looking like a promising direction, I'm just hoping we see some Battlewise Hoplites come round late. :P

@Absinthman: Sounds realistic enough to me :p

"Girlfriend"? What is this "girlfriend" you speak of?

Might be an app or something, what does it do and where can I download this?

It's actually a creature. Usually rather calm and pleasant to spend time with. However, usually once in a month it temporarily gains monstrosity and then you don't want to be anywhere near it untill the effect wears off.

is that a new kind of monstrosity? because that effect is permanent. or maybe you have some stuff to flicker?

What kind of abilities can it gain? Trample? Living Weapon? Hellbent?

I'd like to tell you more but I gotta go now. Going to Theros FNM draft. Hopefully, I'll learn something useful. I'll get to you with a report on both the draft and the Girlfirend creature later.

Both white cards in this pack are quite good. Gotta go with the creature, though.

+1 Emissary.

And the Monstrosity effect of this "girlfriend" creature consists of a sort of combination of Unearth and [Silence]. She'll dig up things from the past that have no business resurfacing, and you won't be able to do a goddamn thing about it.

girlfriend thread. pure gold.

Yeah, the debate kind of got derailed. Super funny though.

What debate? Dat Emissary.

Emissary it is then. Sending to Caley.

So how did the draft go?

Not well. First of all, we had an awkward number of players, so I was in a six-player pod. I started very strong with picking two back-to-back Wingsteed Riders followed by Phalanx Leader. Unfortunately, I was unable to mix it all with blue and ended up with green as secondary color. My deck looked strong, but refused to cooporate. My results were 1:2. One game thought was hilarious. I had turn one Favored Hoplite, turn two Ordeal of Nylea. Turn four, my opponent had Fabled Hero with 2 counters and 2 Scourgemarks (6/4 double strike), but I was able to slam an early Evangel of Heliod due to extra lands from the Ordeal. My opponent was unable to accompany his hero with anything else, so when I bestowed Heliod's Emissary onto my hoplite the turn after, the game was over.

Learn anything interesting or something you didn't know before you went into the draft Absinthman?

Unfortunately no, nothing in particular. Maybe something will come to me later as I replay the matches in my head.

Has the pack not been sent to you yet? Kaley said he already sent them.

Hi guys. Pack 6 is here. Sorry for the delay. I was trying to post it for like an hour and always got an error with Ornithopters, so I decided to give it some time, and now finally it works.

Before everyone automatically just throws their +1 at Fanatic of Mogis there is one other card in this pack that I think should at least still be considered that is very easy to over look.

Lagonna-Band Elder.

Now before you pick up your phone and send me to the crazy house hear me out.

Fanatic of Mogis is a good card. A 4/2 for 4 is a very aggressive drop and 3R keeps it as a relatively flexible casting cost, but there's one big thing I'm concerned about. It's a 4 drop in a color with some STUPIDLY good 4 drops. It's competing with Ill-Tempered Cyclops, a common 3/3 with trample that can monstrous into a 6/6 and Borderland Minotaur, a common 4/3 that is harder to cast. We have to be careful about overflooding our 4cmc drops and there is some tough competition for that slot at the common level for red not to mention that we ALREADY have a powerful 4 drop, Heliod's Emissary, and wouldn't be terribly surprised if we see at least one more (hopefully in our colors) before this draft is over which would also take up 1 more 4 cmc slot.

Lagonna-Band Elder on the other hand is a 3/2 for 3. What competition is there at the 3 drop level? Well, only 2 cards on the aggressive end at the common/uncommon level. Minotaur Skullcleaver, a 2R Viashino Firstblade which is an even more aggressive pick than Band Elder who I wouldn't mind grabbing, but only if there isn't anything better to pick, and Two-headed Cerberus, a hard to cast 3 drop with double strike who is terrifying with any aura or combat trick but is pretty subpar without any enhancements. Imo Lagonna-Band Elder is probably one of the better 3 drops that we are realistically going to see and shouldn't immediately overlook it. We are probably going to want at least a couple of 3 drops and this may not be a bad time to take 1.

I guess the real question is how many 3 drops and how many 4 drops is our deck going to want.

Fanatic of Mogis is a good 4 drop, but I would more classify him as a sidegrade compared to red's common equivalents and if we aren't careful we could end up with too many 4cmc drops and have to cut them or draft much worse cards over them because we already have too many. At the same time though how many 3 drops are we going to want in the first place. It's not like we are going to run the same number of 3 drops to 4 drops. We are probably going to run more 4 drops then 3 drops since 4 drops tend to be quite a bit stronger over any 3 drop equivalent.

One other thing to keep in mind that might be rather important is that picking the Fanatic of Mogis is much better for signaling purposes. If someone sees a late Fanatic of Mogis they might get the idea that red is open and try to move into it while I don't think anyone to our left has any doubt that white is relatively open.

I'm not quite ready to vote yet as I want to hear peoples thoughts on how many 3 drops and how many 4 drops we should be running in our deck.

I tend to agree with Supersun. Apart from signal value and the crowding that I too have observed in draft/sealed with THS, I do believe that the 3/2 for 3 CMC is a good choice. In THS it could be a Centaur Healer for 2W.

I'm not going to say that we should definitely settle for white, but UW with a splash of red could be powerful. I am yet undecided, but I agree that we should think this through more thoroughly. It is after all one of the upsides we have with this form of drafting, in comparison to a regular store draft.

Trying to build our deck this early seems like a really bad idea. We need to go with the flow, and finding reasons to limit ourselves can only set us back in the long run.

Fanatic is by far the stronger card, even if we're not super-heavy into red. Four power is a significant upgrade from three power, and even if it only pings for one damage, that still helps us in the race. In my experience, putting your opponent in an uncomfortable place is much more beneficial than gaining 3 life (maybe).

In the fight between the Fanatic and the Elder, I have to give it to Fanatic. As NobodyPicksBulbasaur has said, it is to early to start concerning ourselves with 3-drop : 4-drop ratio and I think we will be able to pick some 3-drops that in the end will be better than the Elder. Fanatic is a strong card and it can help us being the aggressors better than the Elder can.

Now there is another card, I'd like to bring to attention: Ray of Dissolution. If we end up in any of RWU combination, this card is by far the best and maybe the only instant speed enchantment/creature removal that we will have available, and the 3 life bonus is not irrelevant. I'm not saying it's a better pick than the Fanatic here, but we have to keep an eye on those. In the yesterday's draft, I ended up with none, and I really regretted not picking one or two earlier.

ehmm... my vote still goes to Ray of Dissolution, it's a creature removal in this format

Honestly I think Enchantment Removal in this format is WAY over rated, at least when people consider it as creature removal.

Ray can only kill 13 creatures. Out of those 13 only the 8 non-common creatures imo are worth killing (the common creatures are at best a bear with an effect, which while good cards are not worth main decking a 3 cmc removal against them especially when white has Last Breath which hits WAY more targets).

Now I give you that any of the uncommon or higher Enchantment Creatures that it can kill are a pain in the rear and totally worth using this card against, but in my eyes this makes the card a sideboard choice at best, (especially since this card can be a giant liability against any aggro type deck) That said, we will want some form of enchantment removal for our sideboard in this format and Ray of Dissolution is one of the best.

(Also, despite what my post implied, I was actually leaning towards Fanatic as well. I just wanted people to at least stop and consider the 3 drop since it is one of the best in R and W and at the rate this draft is going I wouldn't be surprised if we end up making a RWu midrange tempoish deck.)