I drafted RGwb aggro-ramp and went 2-1 losing the last match. I was in a 6-person pod, so that made drafting a bit strange.

Pack 1, pick 1 was Pride Sovereign which felt not super exciting. However, soon I pulled Overcome which made my Pride Sovereign pick feel a lot better. I ended up picking a few green two drops which felt great. I like red in this format, but unfortunately had to pass Open Fire twice. I had sort of given up on red but then ANOTHER Open Fire popped up and I had to take it. It felt bad because by that point someone downstream must have planted their flag in red, but I had hopes for more nice red cards seeing so many get passed to me.

I was definitely aggressive leaning early on with strong green two-drops like Rhonas's Stalwart, but still grabbed a couple ramp-style cards like 2x Oasis Ritualist, and 3x Beneath the Sands near the end of the 2nd HOU pack. I was hoping to just play an aggro strategy, but ramp cards kept popping up instead. Then Pack 3 pick 1 I opened Sandwurm Convergence, an incredibly powerful card, especially in ramp strategies. I grabbed 2x Evolving Wilds and 2x Start / Finish as an afterthought.

The deck ended up somewhat disjointed. It was capable of aggressive curve-out starts, and also ramp starts. However, it could also produce a strange mix of cards that didn't go very well together. Knowing what I know now, I wish that I would have been less indecisive in deck building and committed more strongly to a focused strategy. However, I set myself for this kind of trouble with how I drafted.

Aggro cards I left out: Frilled Sandwalla, Feral Prowler-ish, Manglehorn, Brute Strength, Limits of Solidarity, and Consuming Fervor.

Ramp cards I left out: 1x Beneath the Sands, Desert Cerodon, Greater Sandwurm

I think there is a better way to build the deck using the cards above, but I'm not quite sure how.

MATCH 1 vs UW (2-0)

Game 1 had my favorite play of the night. It's my turn 3 and my opponent had 2x Oketra's Avenger and I have Start / Finish in hand. At first I was going to attack with my Rhonas's Stalwart and then cast Pride Sovereign to start generating cats, but then decided to try and bait the double un-exerted attack. So I attacked with my only creature, she didn't block, and she did in fact attack with both Avengers (no exert) my instant speed Start / Finish blockers killed the Acengers off and left me in a great position. I was able to close out the game with follow up creatures and beating down.

In game 2 my opponent was starved on lands the first few turns despite multiple cards cycled. My opening hand had Pride Sovereign and Overcome, so I played Pride Sovereign ASAP to start generating an army. Soon I had a bunch of creatures and was able to win abruptly with a 21 damage Overcome attack.

MATCH 2 vs BW (2-0)

Game 1 my opponent was mostly playing defensive creatures, and I just kept applying pressure and was able close out with an active Gilded Cerodon.

Game 2 played out similarly. But was even more lopsided in my favor. Magmaroth did a lot of work and a few more creatures and a removal spell sealed the deal.

MATCH 3 vs GWu (1-2)

Game 1 was disappointing. My opponent had a decent start and I wasn't doing much. I probably should have managed my life total a bit better, but Sidewinder Naga and Rhet-Crop Spearmaster chipped away at me. Also my opponent was pinging me with an active Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs. I was at 3 life and finally drew Sandwurm Convergence, but my opponent was at high life still. It was a hard choice, but I opted to NOT cast Sandwurm Convergence. I only had 3 turns to live because of the pinger which wasn't enough time for Sandwurm Convergence to turn things around for me. My rational was that Sandwurm Convergence is such a devastating game-ending card, I didn't want to reveal I had it in an unwinnable position and then allow my opponent to sideboard against it in game 2. There was a slim chance of drawing Start / Finish to kill the wall, but I think it was correct to hold back.

Game 2 went better. Things ground to a halt before too long, but then I was able to resolve Sandwurm Convergence. It was as good as advertised. I had to kill off a River Hoopoe to shut down the cards and life it was providing my opponent, but the wurms eventually took over for the win.

Seeing how grindy game two was I boarded out 1x Beneath the Sands for Greater Sandwurm to have another threat. Game 3 was annoying. He deployed some nice threats including Adorned Pouncer, but I was able to stave off the attacks with Rampaging Hippo and a few other blockers. It then became a top-deck battle, but I was just pulling lands while my opponent kept deploying threats. This went on a few turns, but eventually they attacked with everything and used a combat trick to kill my Rampaging Hippo. Not long after, the rest of my blockers died and I lost the game. I think I might have been able to pull out the win with a Sandwurm Convergence topdeck or Start / Finish or Pride Sovereign to buy more time. This was a match where I wished I had grabbed some of the cycling lands as insurance against mana flood. This match felt really winnable, I bet I could have sideboarded better.

THOUGHTS

I liked my mana base and was able to get all 4 colors pretty easily every game. It was fortunate that my mana base could support splashing Start / Finish because I ended up playing two of them.

Even though they were an afterthought, 2x Start / Finish was really good. They fit the Overcome plan, and they were much needed removal spells for my deck.

Sandwurm Convergence is really powerful if you can get it down. It takes time, but if you can survive it will win you the game.

Gilded Cerodon is really nice. It's a beefy creature with a really powerful trigger if you can enable it.

Devotee of Strength would have been nice my last match. It would have helped turn combat to my favor.

Overcome is powerful, but I sadly only was able to play it once. You need to prioritize keeping you creatures around when you know you're using it soon.

Pride Sovereign is nice, but very slow. This is another creature I would have loved to had that last match. The supply of linklinking tokens might have turned those games for me.

Resilient Khenra was a little underwhelming. I think it shines best in a very aggressive deck, which mine wasn't for the most part. This feels more uncommon than rare as far as power level.

Rampaging Hippo is such a great card. You can cycle it early for lands or cheaper spells, or cast it as a nice threat late.