Ixalan Draft #2

Wife took the baby to go get some grandma time in New Jersey. MASH THAT DRAFT BUTTON

http://draftsignals.com/draft/-Kvly_yoTu0EGs_Vc4Ai

Pack 1

Pick 1

  



Hmmm, interesting. No outright bombs. The Fell Flagship is basically Crew 2 in a pirate deck which is alright, though the mini-anthem effect is pretty solid. While I like Raging Swordtooth, it's not a bomb, which is my threshold for taking gold cards P1p1.

Pick 2

 

Oooookay, I guess I get a second try at the Raging Swordtooth. Though, truthfully, I'm still not in love with it. I want to be in pirates with my first pick. I think the choice here is pretty close in terms of power-level of the card, so I go with the pure red card.

Pick 3

   

Hm, surprising number of artifacts. I'm not in love with the mana-rock unless I'm already ramping to dinos. The Sleek Schooner is the fixed Renegade Freighter and I don't think there are enough 1-power creatures to make it worth it. So I take the pirate sword as it impressed me greatly last game. I'm a little worried about going all in on pirate-boosters without any actual pirates.

Pick 4
  

Pretty easy Firecannon Blast. That being available at pick 4 makes me feel confident that red is open in this seat.

Pick 5

   

Hooray! Pirates! This was a tough call. I like the 5-drop pirates but I don't really love 5-drops and I'm worried about my curve. The Arsonist is very powerful but I'd imagine that 99% of the time the opponent is just going to sack a land. I take the flier.

I finish pack one with great red cards and a handful of mediocre blue cards. But truthfully, I think getting mediocre blue cards in pick 10 is a 'sign'.

Pack 2

Pick 1

 

Woof! Now this is a hard choice! How good is repeating barrage? 8 mana to recast it is expensive but obviously sweet inevitability. I chicken out and take the sure thing in Lightning Strike. I'm feeling more tempo-y anyway.

Pick 2

Definitely

Pick 3

Can you have too much burn? I say no.

Pick 5

Hey now! This bodes well for blue coming this direction as this is a great card.

Pack 3

Pick 1

 

Hmmm. Treasure Map/Cove is nice but is really looking for a grindy/value deck (UB pirates) that has a bunch of incidental treasure. Not this burn/tempo UR monster I'm making. I'm feeling pretty good about my curve right now and I want to stay low to the ground. I take One with the Wind to help keep raid going and to race to the finish. If I didn't already have two Lightning Strikes and two Firecannon Blasts, I probably would have taken the Unfriendly Fire.

The rest of the deck sorts itself out and I have a pretty cutting UR pirate aggro deck.

Nice and low to the ground! I cut the 5-drops to make me feel more comfortable with 16 land.

Results

So I finish 2-1 with this deck. I lost to a very good BR fast pirate deck whose removal really punished my One with the Wind enchantments and I couldn't really catch up. Also that first-striking goblin is really really rough against my deck. Felt like 3-0 was within my grasp but ultimately not for me.

Learnings

So I do like Storm Sculptor in a raid deck. Re-enabling raid on the dinky 2/1 looter is a very sweet feeling. The Fell Flagship only saw play twice and it was... fine. I think it's a reasonable first pick with reasonable upside though as a 3/3 it doesn't really bash through very much that they would have available to block (and they are very incentivized to block). Totally missing in action was the Tempest Caller and the Pirate's Cutlass, didn't see em at all.