Pack 1
Pick 1
Well that's not the rare you want to see but that IS the mythic uncommon you want to see! The Monstrosaur (not... not a great name R&D) is a pretty easily windmill slam. The Huntmaster is pretty good but you want to get those to power out your Monstrosaur.
Pick 2
The Rites makes for an interesting card that ramps into a Gaea's Cradle, but there's a pretty real tension between ramping out a big creature (i.e. fewer smaller cratures) and having four or more creatures to trigger it. The Territorial Hammerskull is a great 3-drop... but so is the Lightning Rig Crew and I'm already in red.
Pick 3
Two great red cards. A competitive three-drop that can attack really well (with menace) I think is better than a really good five-drop (a crowded slot) when I already have one of those. The Run Aground I think is the best card in the pack, but not so good to push me off red.
Pick 4
Interesting pack. I like Jade Guardian a lot and Tempest Caller (with sweet art to boot) is a great tempo finisher. I don't know what to make of Trove: I can see it doing some work in an aggro/tempo deck (forcing them to attack with creatures they'd rather block with) as well as some ramp. But right now I only want one of those, so I take the dull (but fine) 2-drop.
Pick 5
This pick was a bit of a wasteland. Red is completely empty. I think I should have picked the enchantment, being a very strong card. But I take a black 2-drop for... reasons? Not sure what I was thinking here. Maybe that BR aggro is stronger than RU tempo?
Pick 6
White remains totally and utterly cut. I'm not wild about the 6-drop in what is looking like a deck with very little treasure/ramp but a 5-drop 3/3 that is only good in Vampires is equally uninspiring.
Pick 7
Hmm, just how open is BW vampires here? Can't move in, there's no white to support it. I like Brazen Buccaneers, but in a dedicated aggressive deck explore loses a little bit of value because hitting a land is just so, so very bad. I take the March, looking for the sweet value action.
Pick 10
I think with a week or two, we're going to look back at a P1p10 Cutlass as absolutely comical. The 'pirate with a sword' deck (as I'm about to demonstrate) is very, very real.
Pack 2
Pick 1
I finish up pack 1 with some value 2-drops and feeling pretty good with my proto-curve. I'm feeling open on color, as I have no real allegiance to anything, though the early black 2-drops make me lean black. But I crack a mythic red so there's no real hard choice to make if I'm going to pivot and cut. Not terribly bomby, but a failcase 3/3 trample for 4 is a pretty decent floor. And winning the roulette wheel for a 5/5 trample for 4 mana is obviously beyond sweet. More on this card later.
Pick 2
Some interesting choices! the RU pirate is pretty sweet, but a 2-drop pirate that can swell up is too good to ignore. I think we're getting locked in here now.
Pick 4
Unconditional--if slow--removal? Yes please.
Pick 5
WOW. I think I'm reaping the benefit of a totally cut color (black) flowing to me in pack 2.
Pack 3
Pick 1
Dowsing Dagger is neat (turning into a Lotus Vale) but I think it's strictly worse than a Pirate's Cutlass (of which I already have two) in my deck, since creating blockers for them is bad bad bad. The 6-drop I think is still too big for this deck, so I take the dual shot for the sidboard. Pure power baby!
The rest of the pack was pretty straightforward. Interestingly the white really opened up in pack 3, making me wonder if someone jumped lanes.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Review
Awwww yeah! 3-0 without dropping a game! I had some good luck, I think my opponents had to mull three times. But the deck operated pretty well. Fast starts, vicious Cutlass-equipped attacks (the free equip is no joke), and some good removal to clear them out if they stabilized. The Dual Shot and 2-dmg sweeper did some good work against the two merfolk decks I faced and I overwhelmed my final opponent with the Monstrosaur. Some learnings:This card is the real deal. Any pirate deck (aggro BR, tempo UB, gimmicky RU) should snap these up. It feels a little bit like True Faith Censer from Shadows which always seemed to overperform. It makes sense: turning a 2/2 into a 4/3 demands a real answer pretty quick.
I was pleasantly surprised by this card. I got a trigger on it the first time I cast it, so that's a very real bias I'm sure. But relevant creature type, 3/3 trample for four mana with potential upside (best use is to keep some lands in hand if flooding and hope for the best!). Also would have had a sweet play with the double-pirate Raise Dead, though the graveyard shenanigans are minimal in XLNx3. Definitely not a bomb, but a pretty good card that should easily make any red deck.
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