This was probably the funnest/best draft I've ever done. I went 3-0 in matches (splitting prizes in the last one), won a side match, and probably would have won another side match if there was enough time.

I drafted RW, an archetype I've been becoming more and more fond of, and more practiced at. All the times playing RW with many of these cards in the Gideon^3 sealed league battles seems like it helped. I especially like RW in this draft format. My early impression is that red is the best color and I think it pairs quite nicely with white to create a combination that ends games before they even begin.

I was in a 10 person pod, which is really weird, but it turned out really well for me. You end up seeing so many more packs and I feel like it really improves the card quality. Pack 1 pick 1 was Earthshaker Khenra, which I took over a Sand Strangler mostly for financial reasons, but I think it's a pretty close pick and I'm really glad I took the Earthshaker. Pack 1 pick 2 was Adorned Pouncer which was a pretty good sign from the get go because that card is REALLY good. Pack 1 ended up with some decent RW creatures and spells for me along with a couple speculative picks such as Bitterbow Sharpshooters. However, pack 2 is where it all came together. Pack 2 might have been the single best pack I've ever drafted. Pack 2 pick 1 was a foil Neheb, the Worthy passing a Rhonas's Last Stand. I felt pretty good about getting Neheb, but I know now that I underestimated him. Early in pack 2 I was deciding between Vizier of the True and Resolute Survivors, both amazing additions to my deck. I picked the Vizier of the True with the hope of wheeling the Resolute Survivors. I figured that the gold card had the best chance of wheeling, but it's pretty tricky when it has to make it past 9 other players. Well Resolute Survivors DID in fact wheel, which was just amazing. I don't remember all of the specifics, but pack 2 was just an endless stream of amazing red and white cards. Besides what I've mentioned, after 2 packs of HOU I had things like: 3x Puncturing Blow, kenra scrapper, Open Fire, 2x Oketra's Avenger, 3x Mummy Paramount, 2x Dauntless Aven, Gilded Cerodon, and Frontline Devastator. It was just insane. After all that, I was able to snag a LAST PICK Ramunap Ruins. I mean, that card is really good so I was overjoyed to see it last pick. I knew things were going to go well after that occurred. Pack 3 pick 1 was rhonas, the indominable. This was a financial pick, but there really wasn't much competition in RW for the first pick. This pack wasn't as amazing as pack 2, but it was still really great for me. I grabbed an Evolving Wilds to try and work my way towards possibly splashing Rhonas the Indomitable, but it didn't work out and Rhonas didn't make it in.

Another tidbit about how insane the draft went for me. Of all three packs only 4 cards were not red , white, or a land. Red and White were just flowing! I won a promo Reverse Engineer (it was FNM) and opened a Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in a prize pack!

I had a hard time building the deck because I had too many great cards to play. Here are some of the cards that did not make the cut, but I would normally be very glad to play: Pursue Glory, Firebrand Archer, Vizier of Remedies, Manticore of the Gauntlet, Pathmaker Initiate, and Granitic Titan. Never before have I been able to be so choosy about the two-drops in my deck. Also, I think I was able to grab a perfect amount of removal, and powerful removal at that. The final deck was full of individually powerful cards and had some other synergies such as a decent number of zombies (and eternalize/embalm) for Mummy Paramount and Binding Mummy. I also had an Exert subtheme with tons of Exerters as well as payoffs like Resolute Survivors and Vizier of the True.

MATCH 1 vs GUr Control (2-1)

Game 1 was a slightly slow start for the deck, but still ended in my favor. My opponent was able to get things like Tenacious Hunter and sindwinder naga, but I was able to immediately remove them and keep the pressure on with attackers.

Game 2 went pretty poorly for me. I kept a two mountain opening hand with a decent amount of white spells in it. Looking back I don't think this was a good idea considering how aggressive my deck wants to be and how many of my two-drops are white. My opponent did some cool stuff like turbo activate Oracle's Vault with help from Vizier of Tumbling Sands. Soon he was freecasting spells and eventually dropped a Nissa, Steward of Elements with X = 7 and I was killed off without too much trouble by Tenacious Hunter.

Game 3 was pretty close. We both mulliganed to 5 cards, which slowed the game a bit. I was sort of stuck on mana, but was able to deploy a couple of threats to chip in some damage. I was attacking but he locked a few things down with Unquenchable Thirsts. Things could have went really badly for me because my opponent had Nissa, Steward of Elements out. I had done enough damage by this point that I just ignored Nissa and kept attacking my opponent. My opponent got some scrys and mercifully blanked on Nissa's +0. I was able to keep chipping in damage and used Open Fire to the face for the win. Ramunap Ruins did some nice work on my opponent's life total. That's an amazing card in aggro strategies, and I probably should be drafting them even higher. I found out after the match that my opponent had 5 copies of Unquenchable Thirst! 5 copies is pretty insane, and I was pretty fortunate to not have to face too many of them. He also had The Locust God which I REALLY fortunately did not have to face.

MATCH 2 vs GW (2-0)

Game 1 was nice, I had an aggressive start and killed off an early Sidewinder Naga and beat down with Mummy Paramount He then cast Crested Sunmare, but I then untapped and exiled it with Puncturing Blow before it could do anything. My opponent was crestfallen (pun intended) after losing the horse and it didn't take much more for me to finish him off.

Game 2 was closer, I was beating down once again but doing cool things like Exerting Khenra Scrapper and immediately untapping with with Dauntless Aven's trigger. My opponent was able to hold off the assault somewhat with Oasis Ritualist and Dutiful Servants, but then I cast Binding Mummy. The mummy let me keep up the pressure by casting zombies and tapping down those imposing blockers. Rampaging Hippo came down and killed my Oketra's Avenger, but I killed the hippo with Trial of Zeal. Another Rampaging Hippo came down the following turn, but Vizier of the True's tap-downs ended the game that turn. I forget which game, but my opponent told me that he was close to casting oketra's last stand which would have been really hard to overcome.

MATCH 3 vs GB (2-1)

We split prizes but played anyway. Game 1 my opponent had a turn 1 Dread Wanderer, but I was able to be even more aggressive. I was beating him down with Dauntless Aven and other stuff, but then Oketra's Monument came down. I was able to get a few more attacks and some exert bonuses courtesy of Resolute Survivors. My opponent blunted my assault by dropping some big green fatties like Scaled Behemoth. But I was able to get him to 1 on the next Dauntless Aven attack and Resolute Survivors Exert and Open Fire to the face for the win.

Game 2 was interesting. The big play of the game was a turn 4 Torment of Scarabs placed on me. I was at high life so I just lost 3 life over and over again. I was able to get him pretty low, but once the big blockers came down I had lost too much life and lost the rest of my resources. Despite some late help from Neheb, the Eternal, I got him to 4 life then died.

Game 3 was close, but I managed to pull through. Thankfully Torment of Scarabs didn't come down as soon this time. This was a game where I was able to stick a couple threats and keep removing blockers to clear the way for direct attacks. My opponent played Oketra's Monument again and eventually played Majestic Myriarch which was decently large, however Binding Mummy was able to simply tap it and I was able to cruise in for the win.

BONUS MATCH vs Tyler WB

Game 1 was back and forth for a bit, but I was able to kill off enough blockers to beat down with my creatures.

Game 2 I got stuck on only red mana and he capitalized on it. He played so many Wretched Camels and Khenra Eternals. I was removing stuff like crazy trying to buy time, but despite my efforts Tyler closed out the game fairly quickly. Even had the Final Reward for my desperation Gilded Cerodon.

Game 3 was looking interesting, we both created decent armies, but I was beginning to kill Tyler's stuff off one at a time. Unfortunately we ran out of time, but it did seem like the game was going in my favor. Tyler had some sweet things like Razaketh, the Foulblooded and Apocalypse Demon, but I didn't see either.

BONUS MATCH vs Marty in UR (2-1)

Game 1 was somewhat close. He got me down pretty low with Firebrand Archer triggers and Cartouche of Knowledge-assisted attacks. Magma Spray from me took care of it and a few of my small creatures did enough damage for me to start activating Ramunap Ruins, first sacrificing Desert of the True and then the Ruins itself to allow me to end the game with Open Fire to the face.

Game 2 was decently close. My opponent's Nimble-Blade Khenra with Cartouche of Knowledge did a lot of work for my opponent. It's toughness was out of range for my Open Fire and the flying helped it hit me a lot. I was smashing in with Earthshaker Khenra and Dauntless Aven, but I was wrecked by Blur of Blades and Brute Strength. I was able to land Neheb, the Eternal, but he couldn't do enough in time and I died about a turn before I might have been able to go for the win.

Game 3 was deceptively close and I nearly lost it from an almost unstoppable position. I was largely having my way, but was still getting my one toughness creatures like Dauntless Aven and Oketra's Avenger wrecked by Blur of Blades (I really should have boarded some of those out, especially since I had Vizier of Remedies and some other stuff in the sideboard). I killed about 4 of his creatures with my removal and then my opponent knocked me down to 12 life with a Frontline Devastator attack. I cracked back with Neheb, the Worthy and Mummy Paramount and with the mana from Neheb, I was able to cast khenra scapper and Mummy Paramount with ease. My opponent only had a couple of life by this point. I was in such a dominating position I felt pretty good. Then my opponent attacked again with Frontline Devastator, I just took the damage since I felt safe and like I had the win in hand already. Marty then pumped the frontline devastor twice and then Fling sent it at me for 5 more damage putting me to 2 life! I nearly lost the game in that position by being dumb enough to not block with something. It just goes to show that you need to be careful even when you're ahead. A couple more mana and he would have killed me. Great games.

THOUGHTS

I love this deck and I hope that I'll be able to draft more decks on this power level. It was a lot of fun drafting and playing.

Neheb, the Worthy was better than I thought. Afflict 3 is backbreaking, it's pretty much never convenient to block it. And the mana generation lets you snowball out of control.

Frontline Devastator is a sneakily good card. It's like Neheb, the Worthy Jr. It sucks to block it because of Afflict 2 and it sucks to not block it because of the pump ability. Great little card that I always want in red, especially aggressive red.

Trial of Zeal and Open Fire are great, both mostly killed creatures for me, but they each won games with direct damage. You have to be really careful in this format because there are a lot of ways to get direct burn damage to your face.

3x Puncturing Blow was what really helped the deck do well. The best scenario is to play two drop, two or three drop, and then Puncturing Blow to remove a blocker. If you remove enough blockers you only need two creatures out to close out the game quickly. These are nice for taking down big nasties such as Crested Sunmare and Tenacious Hunter. Amazing card, large part of the reason that I love red so much in this set.

2x Dauntless Aven is pretty good. Just being a flyer was nice and these often did most of the work of killing opponents. Things get filthy once they start untapping Khenra Scrapper, Vizier of the True, and Resolute Survivors, most of which I got to do.

Resolute Survivors is nice, the drain really helped close out games and can even help you win through blockers. Also, it's a huge creature on turn 3.

Adorned Pouncer is really powerful, but didn't shine as much for me today. Opponents are really reluctant to kill it because it is so gnarly when Eternalized. It did some some nice work for me, but I was never able to unleash the zombie kitty.

Khenra Scrapper is great and I think it's one of the best creatures at common. It's Exert ability has basically no downside and gets crazy with untap shenanigans.

I didn't get to really use Gilded Cerodon this time, but it's amazing. It usually just ends games when it attacks, providing that you've enabled it.

2x Oketra's Avenger is nice. This card really punishes opponents who stumble or are slow.

Earthshaker Khenra is great. Haste is nice and it can help blow by blockers. One thing I've not yet mastered is purposely killing off Earthshaker Khenra and Adorned Pouncer once you're close to being able to Eternalize them. You often really want them dead in the late game to get their insane zombie forms.

Magma Spray is so dang good. Killing off early blockers for one mana is great and can often just immediately put your opponent on their back foot.

Endless Sands seems decent, but definitely not at it's best in this deck. I did store some things under it and once cashed it in to get Resolute Survivors back (I guess they really do survive), but it was often most useful to me as desert fodder for Ramunap Ruins.

Ramunap Ruins is so dang good. I love this card. It's so amazing so have damage coming from your lands. I makes it possible to win games that would otherwise be over due to opponents stabilizing. This card just wins games.

Vizier of the True is nice. It gets crazy really fast and is very bad news for your opponent. I hope to one day get Vizier of the True and Ahn-Crop Crasher into play at the same time sometime...

Binding Mummy is insane. This is just an amazing card. It was great for me and I only had a slight zombie theme. You can basically set up unimpeded attacks each turn. This would be unreal in BW zombies.

3x Mummy Paramount is nice. Better in BW, but decent here as well. Often a 3/3 attacker which is exactly what this deck wants.

This is a really long write up, but it really was an insane draft and an insane deck.