draft

This is my first Trial by Frost draft deck. The draft itself was pretty messy, but I came away having learned a lot about the set for limited. The draft This is about on par with an average common, but I'll take any unique! I started the draft with a solid Ebenezer Scrooge (U), passing on Fen & Crowbar. I took it mainly because it was a unique, but I was also happy to bias towards Ordis with in hopes of picking up Sigismar & Wingspan as a hero. I took an early Mobile Armory (R) to go with it but didn’t see other strong Ordis cards for the rest of the pack. ...

Today I participated in a 6-player Beyond the Gates draft. I witnessed some pretty wild things, including a player who was virtually mono-Ordis, a Treyst with every from-reserve ability under the sun, and an honest-to-goodness Lyra Festival win. The draft I didn’t have flashy options for my P1p1, but I was happy to start with a Paper Herald (F) as a strong, cheap play that gets better out of Fen. The Sandman (R) was an easy choice as the strongest card in P1p2 that shared a faction with my P1p1. I continued taking the strongest card in P1p3, dipping into Yzmir with a Tooth Fairy (R). ...

The draft For P1p1, I considered A Cappella Training (C) and Teamwork Training (R) but landed on Inari (F) for its efficient stats. I snap-picked Flamel (R) as the strongest card in P1p2 since its tempo-neutral resource advantage has impressed me in previous drafts. A P1p3 Amelia Earheart (R) had me leaning towards Axiom while a Kraken’s Wrath (R) pushed me into Yzmir due to how much better it gets against Sigismar and Kojo. ...

This weekend, I got to be part of a four-player draft. I expected slightly less synergy than in a pod of eight due to seeing fewer cards overall. With fewer drafters, finding an open faction would have an even greater payoff. The draft P1p1 was a tough choice between Kojo & Booda and a Brassbug Hive (R). Kojo & Booda is probably the stronger pick, but I thought the Brassbug Hive (R) would be a more fun card to build around, and it can absolutely win the game on its own if it’s not answered. ...

I was very impressed when I took Arjun & Spike for a spin in constructed. Being aware of their key synergies made me more receptive to the idea of pivoting into a 3-drop-centric deck when I saw them late in P1. The end result far surpassed my expectations and has me wondering if they’re a stronger hero than Sigismar & Wingspan, albeit less generically powerful. The draft A P1p1 The Sandman (F) made it very easy to start in Ordis, and a P1p2 Baba Yaga (F) did nothing to change my course. I took a P1p3 Anubis (C) despite it not being the strongest card in the pack because I wanted to cut Ordis and build towards Sigismar & Wingspan. There wasn’t a compelling Ordis pick for P1p4, so I followed the rares with a Thoth (F) and continued into Yzmir with a Kadigiran Alchemist (C). Kuwat, the Dissenter (R) looked nice if I did end up in an Yzmir Sigismar, and another Thoth (C) had me considering whether I could go bureaucrats. ...

Since Altered’s release, every game I’ve lost has been to Sigismar & Wingspan, across draft, sealed, and constructed. I’ve internalized a lot of what makes the hero feel so powerful from the opposite side of the table and so went into the draft biasing pretty heavily towards Ordis. The draft Note: this draft was run with Kickstarter boosters. I started with a Bravos Bladedancer (F) as a cheap, on-rate play that would get a lot better if I ended up in a boost-heavy deck. I followed this up with an Ordis Cadets (R), a premium go-wide card that leaned towards Ordis. ...

After my first draft, I can confirm that even without any of its headline-grabbing innovations, Altered would still deserve to be a hit: the core gameplay is phenomenal. Where Altered exceeded my expectations was in just how tense some of the decisions were. I went into the tank on several occasions as to whether this was the target I needed to spend my one removal spell on. Do I need to advance this turn, or would I be better off saving my resources to make a push later? Deciding which cards to keep in your opening hand requires extra foresight due to the reserve system. ...