In preparation for the upcoming Philippine Nationals 2017 this September in which Booster Draft is one of the formats, the team has been practicing in the past two weeks and so far has learned a lot of the strategies and deck builds in this format. I have personally enjoyed drafting Amonkhet & Hour of Devastation maybe because of the theme and mechanics that the decks are built around.

My first draft was built on White and Green as my first pick on Pack 1 was Angel of Condemnation. That is my main draft strategy but I do not know if that is correct. I then picked a few Red cards but noticed that Green is open in the later picks. Samut, Voice of Dissent was a really late pass in Pack 3 so I had to work on splashing her with the ritualist and a single Mountain. Here below is a deck preview.

My record of the deck was 2-1, winning against Blue Black and Red Green and losing to Oliver’s Red White aggro deck. It was a three-game match but his creature curve was much better and supported by efficient Red removals. My bigger creatures didn’t stand a chance.

The second booster draft last August 21 held at Rei’s place saw me following Oliver’s draft colors. I opened an Earthshaker Khenra and worked my way on Red and White card picks. I got White removals in Sand Blast and Desert’s Hold and followed that up with Red’s Electrify and Deem Worthy. Here below is my drafted deck:

This time, my matchup record was 3-0 even when the deck somewhat underperformed with a few mulligans and mana flood. The removals worked explicitly well as they can deal with most of the big threats at a cheap cost. My winning move was against Mark T’s Black Green wherein I was able to go all the way with Earthshaker Khenra backed up by Pathmaker Initiate’s unblockable ability.

Overall I can still say that aggro is my forte in booster drafts given that I can identify the signals well that the colors are open. It will be difficult but that would need more readings on draft articles and card familiarizations and I needed to do that more often with only three weeks left until the main event.

That is a wrap. Until the next post.