This weekend, several local players - some new, some old - got together for a day of in-house Altered drafts. We ended up doing three drafts, two Beyond the Gates and one Trial by Frost.
Draft 1
This was a six-person Beyond the Gates draft. The deck went 3-0.
The draft
I started with Bravos rares for P1p1 and P1p3. P1p2 was Coppélia (F) as a strong 2-drop that’s especially powerful for Treyst or Rin.
I took Treyst in middle of P1 over other below-average choices and started to draft with Axiom reserve synergies in mind.
Bravos dried up really quickly, but I continued to see powerful Lyra cards including my first Anansi (C) and The Hatter (C), which conveniently worked nicely with Treyst.
I settled into Axiom-Lyra-Muna by P2. I continued taking Bravos cards when they were the strongest cards in the pack but abandoned the faction once it looked closed off in the other direction as well. Muna looked reasonable open at the table and my early Coppélia (F) let me feel comfortable being one of the people to dive in.
Above all else, I prioritized powerful support abilities, taking The Hatter (C), Muna Druid (C), and Muna Caregiver (R) very highly.
Fen & Crowbar showed up at P4p2, and it wasn’t hard to pivot over to the stronger hero due to overlapping reserve synergies. Only a couple of cards were clearly better suited for Treyst, such as Harvest (C) and Ouroboros Croupier.
The deck
This deck felt very powerful. The two Anansi (C)s reliably won their expeditions when they came down, and I was often able to set it up so that I could anchor them with a support ability.
The Sandman (C) was an incredible finisher and stole several progressions over the three games.
I didn’t go too deep on Muna in the end, but Kodama (C) and Daughter of Yggdrasil (C) were incredible when they flipped with Fen’s resupply.
The most memorable moment from the draft was resupplying into a support ability to enable a Hydracaena (C) one day early, only to immediately lose it to my opponent’s Anubis (C).
Draft 2
This was a four-person Beyond the Gates draft. The deck went 3-0.
The draft
Even more so than usual, I tried to stay open during this draft. I took a Foundry Mechanic (F) for P1p1, then an Ordis Spy (C) for P1p2, both the strongest cards in their packs. Unfortunately, Ordis dried up abruptly, and I quickly moved off of it. I was glad to have taken a P1p3 Alice (F) over an average Ordis common.
Bravos looked the next most open, and I picked up a Haven Bouncer (C) and Chiron (C) mid-pack, both excellent commons. Lyra felt pretty closed off, but I took Asmodeus (R) as the strongest card in the pack, figuring I might get more Lyra cards from the opposite direction.
By the end of P1, I had a smattering of cards from each faction: I was most certain that I would be Bravos, and I had the fewest Muna playables.
For P2p1, I took a unique 4-mana Atlas (U) that looked very solid in limited for its stats alone, solidifying me in Bravos. As I hoped, I did see more Lyra from this direction, and I was happy to take two Tanuki (C)s.
Muna seemed to be quite open, and a mid-pack Dracaena (C) and almost-free Spindle Harvesters (C) had me speculating on Teija & Nauraa for boost synergies that would incidentally play well with my Atlas (U).
I took Kojo & Booda at the beginning of P3 to guarantee myself a strong hero. Strangely, I saw a ton of strong heroes in P4, likely because everyone had grabbed one they were happy with. I took Teija & Nauraa, only to pick up another copy of each of my heroes later in the pack. As it turned out, everyone else already had either Sigismar & Wingspan, Kojo & Booda, or Teija & Nauraa.
It wasn’t clear that Teija & Nauraa were an upgrade over Kojo, but the second Dracaena (C) in P4 pushed me over the edge.
Because I spent so long figuring out my factions, I barely made playables. I would have preferred not to play Loki (C) and All In! (F).
Uniques
Atlas: 3/7
The sabotage from reserve won’t be relevant outside of niche/late-game scenarios due to costing a mana orb, but this provides a respectable 16 stats spread across both expeditions. It won’t be easy for your opponent to do better than 1-1 against this on D2 without directly removing it.
The deck
I ended up with a solid Teija deck. I got lucky in the games and ended up with one of Spindle Harvesters (C) or Dracaena (C) in my opening hand each game, which made my starts much stronger.
Helping Hand (C) felt very strong when targeting a Spindle Harvesters (C) played from reserve. The start where I had a D1 Dracaena (C) into D2 Dracaena (C) felt near-unbeatable.
Atlas (U) on D2 was worth moving to Teija for. 3/3/5 on both sides on D2 earned me a double progression.
I was very glad to have as much sabotage as I did. After my opponent spent a ton of resources to stave off my anchored threats, Tanuki (C) hit their mana-sink Haven Bouncer (U) and left them unable to spend their mana.
Haven, Bravos Bastion (C) felt very average here. I put it into mana in two games. When there was a free window to drop it in one game, though, it certainly paid for itself with boosts onto anchored characters.
Draft 3
This was a five-person Trial by Frost draft. The deck went 3-0.
The draft
Unlike the previous draft, this one was very straightforward. I started with strong Bravos commons and continued in Bravos while picking up a Demeter (C) and branching into Muna. I received a late Rin & Orchid near the end of P1, so I knew I’d at least have a playable hero if I ended up in Muna.
The only Yzmir card I had taken in P1 was a speculative Moth Larva (R), but I was eager to hard-pivot into the faction when I saw a P2p1 The Nilam, Withered Tree (C). I suspected (correctly) that my neighbor to the left was in Yzmir after what I had passed in P1, but a rare or two slipped through from the left, and I picked up the rest of my Yzmir cards in P3.
For the remainder of the draft, I just picked generically strong cards in Bravos-Muna-Yzmir, prioritizing exhaust synergies whenever possible. I took cards like Saskia, Sly Naturalist (R) in hopes of picking up Kojo & Booda, but I also looked for reserve synergies like Sow (R) and Walrus Scout (F) in case I wasn’t able to upgrade from Rin.
Since I had two Demeter (C)s by P3, I also took removal more highly than I usually would since I didn’t want it falling into my opponents’ hands when I tapped out for my eternal 6-drop.
The deck
Two of the strongest things you can do in Trial by Frost draft are Demeter (C) + Eat Me Energy Bars (C) and a The Nilam, Withered Tree (C) build-around for constant value. This deck does both!
A gigantic Demeter and a D2 The Nilam each singlehandedly won a game.
I would have loved to have seen Kojo & Booda, but Rin & Orchid performed surprisingly well despite minimal forest/reserve synergy. It turns out drawing to your best cards faster is good enough.
Muna turned out to be a surprisingly good faction to pair with The Nilam thanks to Jack Frost (C) at common.
Fire Rabbit (C) continues to be one of the best commons in Trial by Frost due to how many stats it can commit at the end of an afternoon to flip a critical expedition.