I find it absurd that I have to pay the kinds of prices I'm paying for Ravnica boxes. Not that I buy a ton of cards in real life, but every new block I give in to my baser instincts and run out and get me some cards. This time I bought exactly one box, because it was priced at what I normally would expect to buy two boxes for. Seems Wizards thought maybe nobody would buy Ravnica, or something. Anyhoo. [Hopefully I'm not stepping over an NDA here, but without going into details any shortages are not the fault of Wizards but are instead the fault of the distributors. - Knut, hopefully stopping misinformation before it starts]

I got two Temple Gardens and a very pretty Bird. And I got to touch the cards that will ruin my life (and even further blast my rating) on Magic Online. After doing an extensive (and only occasionally stupid) review of the set for my clanmates, I felt like I was in a position to lay the hurt on some sealed deck pools, as well as draft with confidence, knowing what was good, what was not as good, and what was really really bad. Today I'd like to say that my homework paid off, but not before I failed to 5-0 any of my release leagues. I lost to every kind of deck imaginable in my release leagues, including really bad ones. Everyone else seemed to have a leg up on the synergies, or else they just drew the cards that played well together, and sometimes I simply failed to read or remember the things that cards could do. While this is always a problem with a new set, I had thought I had put that behind me by poring over the spoiler.

Best league moment: Some 1800 + rating in one of my leagues watched me lay a Signet, said "Signets are awesome," and proceeded to drop four (yes, four) of them onto the virtual table before playing Chorus of the Conclave and crushing me handily with suddenly-super-enhanced creatures. That was instructive, as were many other horrible and deeply unpleasant events in my Magic life over the past week.

I gave up on RAV sealed, continued to rack up games in my last MDF and CBS leagues, and meandered over to the draft tables.

My first two drafts resulted in two Boros decks that had two significantly different results. The first deck scrubbed out in the first round. It started with a raredraft, was hobbled with bad choices and a steadfast refusal to pay attention to signals from my upstream buddy, and generally sucked. This is the story of that draft. If you want to avoid a lot of headshaking and yelling at the screen, you should stop now. On the other hand, if you enjoy reading about steadfast idiots, this is for you. Also, if you don't yet know how to draft Ravnica, you will at least know not to do it this way.

The second made it to finals where it lost to what looked to be a pretty good Dimir/Golgari mill deck. I don't pretend that the second table was of the same caliber as the first, and indeed at the second table it was clear that the nearest other Boros drafter was several seats away, and may not have existed. But my hope is to point out what the first deck lacked, why my decision to stick it out with Boros was really, really bad, and what could have been done to salvage. The second draft wasn't really a result of any lesson learned on my part. What happened instead was this: I read the signals correctly. Because I stuck with R/W, I got the cards that make Boros a nightmare to play against in Limited. I'm going to write that one up as soon as possible, although I'm off to Napa in two days and so it might be a while. So, to business: Anatomy of a failed force.

Pack One

101: Razia, Boros Archangel; Conclave Phalanx; Nullmage Shepherd; Reroute; Golgari Signet; Snapping Drake; Faith's Fetters; Shred Memory; Grayscaled Gharial; Dimir Infiltrator; Stinkweed Imp; Tidewater Minion; Roofstalker Wight; Stasis Cell; Selsnya Sanctuary

My Pick: Razia.

This is really the first mistake of the draft, although there seems to be some division as to this card. Obviously I just drafted a ticket or two if all else fails (and it did). But I sent one of the best white commons to my left, as well as a good blue flyer that can even be splashed. Taking one of those two would also have sent a clearer signal downstream, as Stasis Cell doesn't really say "Go into Blue," and the Fetters is really the only White card in the pack. But...she flies! And she's rare! And I'm a scrub! C'mon!

102: Vigor Mortis; Golgari Germination; Wojek Apothecary; Transluminant; Shambling Shell; Gate Hound; Golgari Brownscale; Surge of Zeal; Stinkweed Imp; Muddle the Mixture; Nightguard Patrol; Goblin Spelunkers; Dimir Aqueduct; Convolute

My Pick: Goblin Spelunkers.

This is flat-out unforgivable. My thought process, to the extent I remember it, was that red had some splashy burn spells and my little Spelunkers could walk right on through for two if someone played a mountain. I'm not kidding. I might still have been reeling from the bad beats in leagues, but holy cow was this a horrible pick. Clearly I've already emotionally committed to R/W, as this pick makes no sense in the face of a perfectly shimmery selection of Green spells. The Nightguard Patrol is better anyway, despite the tiny fanny. Let this be a lesson to other scrubby morons. Worst. Pick. Ever.

103: Remand; Divebomber Griffin; Perilous Forays; Seeds of Strength; Peel from Reality; Skyknight Legionnaire; Rally the Righteous; Infectious Host; Dizzy Spell; Ordruun Commando; Convolute; Courier Hawk; Dimir Aqueduct

My Pick: Skyknight Legionnaire

All right, no one's going to argue with this. Hasty, flying, I like it. I'm not a fan of the Divebomber Griffin - whenever a card compares unfavorably to Airdrop Condor, I get a little nervous about playing it. On the other hand, it does deal three or kill an attacker, and I suppose a case can be made. I like the idea of a Boros Swarm, though, so I take the Legionnaire.

104: Eye of the Storm; Glass Golem; Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion; Transluminant; Lurking Informant; Zephyr Spirit; Gate Hound; Dimir House Guard; Vedalken Dismisser; Boros Fury-Shield; Selesnya Sanctuary; Goblin Spelunkers

My Pick: Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion

Hey look, a Spelunkers. Know why? Because No One Picks It Second.

The Fortress is a vital piece of the puzzle, in my mind. I think Boros Fury-Shield is great, but it's no Shoal, and the Fortress can't be countered. Note the Lurking Informant and the House Guard sitting there. I think that this was my first opportunity to notice that possibly Dimir and certainly Blue was not getting much love. There was still time to keep my options open and take the Informant. Indeed, I should probably have done just that, as we'll see...

105: Rolling Spoil; Disembowel; Flight of Fancy; Boros Signet; Quickchange; Boros Recruit; Elvish Skysweeper; Incite Hysteria; Terrarion; Barbarian Riftcutter; Strands of Undeath

My Pick: Boros Signet

Um, gosh, Disembowel isn't great but it's removal (which I have none of) and it's Black (which appears to be underdrafted - there's a Strands in there as well)... hmm. And is that a Flight of Fancy? My my my. Time to shake Razia off like a bad date and jump on the Dimir gravy train, but I didn't. I'm dumb like that sometimes.

I don't even think I made the right pick for my own deck, and here's why: You need a Boros Recruit or two. The one-drop options in a Boros deck are few and far between, but you want to be swinging early and often, maintaining tempo advantage, and all that. It's also another R/W guy for Radiance purposes, when you're going for the win with a Siren or Rally. You don't want the Boros Signet (well, I did because I had an eight-mana creature with heavy color requirements) in a Boros deck, most of the time. You want it for your Lightning Helix splash in a Selesnya deck, or something like that. You want two-drop dorks and the aforementioned Helix, maybe Fiery Conclusion, in a Boros deck.

106: Drooling Groodion; Flight of Fancy; Veteran Armorer; Dryad's Caress; Perplex; Necromantic Thirst; War-Torch Goblin; Mortipede; Tattered Drake; Boros Garrison

My Pick: Veteran Armorer

An important guy to have but see above about the need for one-drops, and in this case the War-Torch is pretty useful. More useful than the Armorer? Don't know. Probably, if confronted with this choice again, I'd take the Armorer.

Who am I kidding, I'd take the Flight of Fancy because clearly the table hates Blue, and I would probably have a just fine little Blue/Black deck. It's a fun game to see what kind of deck I could have drafted had I jumped into a Dimir role, but I couldn't play it out to the end because I couldn't see through the tears.

107: Reroute; Boros Signet; Stone-Seeder Heirophant; Seismic Spike; Clinging Darkness; Vedalken Dismisser; Mortipede; Induce Paranoia; Foil Mountain

My Pick: Reroute

I have yet to play this card in a game but I feel deep in my brain that it has a purpose. Of course, I've been wrong about everything else, so I don't know why I would be right about this.

108: Mnemonic Nexus; Fiery Conclusion; Smash; Boros Recruit; Zephyr Spirit; Benevolent Ancestor; Stasis Cell; Courier Hawk

My Pick: Fiery Conclusion

It kills most of the creatures in the set, and in particular cards like Drift of Phantasms and Hot Tree Girl that can hold off weenies all day. [Is that like One Tree Hill? That has cute girls, right? - Knut, ruining the amusing Carven Caryatid reference]

109: Golgari Signet; Shred Memory; Grayscaled Gharial; Dimir Infiltrator; Tidewater Minion; Stasis Cell; Selsnya Sanctuary

My Pick: Tidewater Minion

I was "hate drafting" this card, again trying to avoid late game ground stalls, rather than "dumping my pile of crap" and starting over with Blue. Should have started over with blue about four picks ago, but oh well.

110: Wojek Apothecary; Gate Hound; Surge of Zeal; Muddle the Mixture; Dimir Aqueduct; Convolute

My Pick: Wojek Apothecary

I've yet to activate this card but feel that it's probably pretty good so long as you don't share colors. Assuming it doesn't get instantly Darkblasted, that is...

111: Peel from Reality; Infectious Host; Dizzy Spell; Convolute; Dimir Aqueduct

My Pick: Peel from Reality

Um, yeah. Not too late for Blue, clearly.

112: Selesnya Sanctuary; Gate Hound; Zephyr Spirit; Lurking Informant

My Pick: Lurking Informant

OMFG. The fact that I did not at this very moment in the draft determine that I was in Blue and possibly Black is the reason I lost. Even if I had to scrape to get 23 together, it would have been better than the underpowered pile of jank that I actually took in to round one.

113: Quickchange; Incite Hysteria; Terrarion

My Pick: Incite Hysteria

Still in Boros, apparently. What a maroon.

114: Tattered Drake; Perplex

My Pick: Tattered Drake

115: Foil Mountain

No comment, the Drake again a huge signal to go Blue. It's not so bad as to be 14^th, unless there's only one other guy in Blue. The problem is that one guy is likely to be a downstream neighbor, meaning pack two would be a fight. But who cares? Better than the Razia plan.

Pack Two

201: Excruciator; Ethereal Usher; Devouring Light; Pollenbright Wings; Last Gasp; Compulsive Research; Faith's Fetters; Perplex; Goblin Fire Fiend; Necromantic Thirst; Nightguard Patrol; Sabertooth Alley Cat; Gaze of the Gorgon; Terraformer; Votary of the Conclave

My Pick: Devouring Light

Not bad. This was a lucky open for me and helped me feel a little better about the deck. Sadly, it also kept my head in Boros despite having a decent little pile of blue from the end of the first pack...

202: Mindmoil; Telling Time; Flame-kin Zealot; Siege Wurm; Fiery Conclusion; Seismic Spike; Thoughtpicker Witch; Dizzy Spell; Golgari Rotwurm; Vedalken Entrancer; Screeching Griffin; Tattered Drake; Consult the Necrosages; Golgari Rot Farm

My Pick: Screeching Griffin

Again, it looks like I'm being "rewarded" for my savvy drafting of horrible cards in pack one. I like the Griffin just fine and the ability is relevant for my color combination.

203: Twisted Justice; Overwhelm; Disembowel; Golgari Signet; Conclave Equenaut; Quickchange; Conclave's Blessing; Golgari Brownscale; Sparkmage Apprentice; Gather Courage; Farseek; Viashino Slasher; Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi

My Pick: Conclave Equenaut

And again. Benevolent Ancestor moved up in my head as I started to think in terms of a fly-over-while-stalling sort of deck. Sadly, there's Green, and I don't know that this option is terribly viable when you're trying to "stall" a Golgari Rotwurm.

204: Peregrine Mask; Suppression Field; Selesnya Signet; Boros Signet; Stone-Seeder Heirophant; Seismic Spike; Sewerdreg; Clinging Darkness; Vedalken Dismisser; Mortipede; Induce Paranoia; Boros Garrison

My Pick: Suppression Field

I'm not even bothering to mention the lovely Blue and Black going by because by now it's just sad. The Field is good against pingers, millers, and activators of all types. Too bad I'm looking to get some of those myself.

Anyone noticed that I haven't seen a single Viashino Fangtail yet? Shoulda been another warning sign, dontcha think? Yeah, me too. Now...

205: Golgari Thug; Festival of the Guildpact; Seeds of Strength; Grayscaled Gharial; Rally the Righteous; Sadistic Augermage; Tidewater Minion; Centaur Safeguard; Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi; Torpid Moloch; Roofstalker Wight

My Pick: Rally the Righteous

Flappy flap overhead, Rally, deal 12. Good times. Totally unsupported by the results, but good times. I overlooked Centaur Safeguard until I had actually selected the Rally, b/c I'm still occasionally confusing Guild mana with gold cards. He's better than Rally, and I should have taken him.

206: Voyager Staff; Sell-Sword Brute; Dromad Purebred; Dryad's Caress; Goblin Fire Fiend; Sadistic Augermage; Muddle the Mixture; Coalhauler Swine; Strands of Undeath; Drift of Phantasms

My Pick: Voyager Staff

Not much for me in the pack, I take the "save my random guy or remove the key blocker" card. Had I swapped to Dimir or U/x I would be happily scooping up the Drift or the Strands...

207: Recollect; Stoneshaker Shaman; Compulsive Research; Leave No Trace; Ordruun Commando; Bramble Elemental; Wojek Siren; Civic Wayfinder; Coalhauler Swine

My Pick: Ordruun Commando

Bad pick. Either the Siren or (dare I say it) the Shaman would have been better choices. Get out my pitiful little dorks, burn the fields, and swing until opponent is dead. The Commando does block big Green things, but it also shows up late in packs.

208: Ivy Dancer; Peel from Reality; Sundering Vitae; Goblin Fire Fiend; Sabertooth Alley Cat; Barbarian Riftcutter; Consult the Necrosages; Terraformer

My Pick: Barbarian Riftcutter

Hold me closer, Ivy Dancer! Walk me 'long that Sylvan highway! Lead me on into the red zone!

Um, sorry. I think I have a mental block about the Alley Cat, but he's actually pretty good. Unless they have Hot Tree Girl. Or a Minion. Then, you know, he's really bad. I figure I can aim the Riftcutter at a Svogthos or something if push comes to shove.

209: Compulsive Research; Perplex; Goblin Fire Fiend; Necromantic Thirst; Sabertooth Alley Cat; Terraformer; Votary of the Conclave

My Pick: Sabertooth Alley Cat

Meh.

210: Mindmoil; Seismic Spike; Thoughtpicker Witch; Dizzy Spell; Tattered Drake; Golgari Rot Farm

My Pick: Seismic Spike

Someone will probably come up with Belching Moil or some nonsense, but until they do that there is a $0.33 rare. The Spike is another way to kill an annoying land.

211: Overwhelm; Quickchange; Sparkmage Apprentice; Gather Courage; Viashino Slasher;

My Pick: Sparkmage Apprentice

This guy probably should have made the deck. I'm growing to appreciate him quite a bit more over time. I'm not sad when I never see him, though.

212: Stone-Seeder Heirophant; Seismic Spike; Induce Paranoia; Boros Garrison

My Pick: Boros Garrison

This is the kind of acceleration you want to pick up for a Boros deck. You can play a dork, lay this down, and keep on trucking.

213: Torpid Moloch; Sadistic Augermage; Grayscaled Gharial

My Pick: Torpid Moloch

214: Sadistic Augermage; Sell-Sword Brute

My Pick: Sell-Sword Brute

Surprised to see this come this late. This is a perfectly fine guy for Boros shenanigans.

215: Coalhauler Swine

Utter. Crap. The truly sad thing is that he ended up in my deck. My take on him before the release was that there was a certain level of mutually assured destruction built into blocking a Swine, and so he could be a fine finisher in the right circumstances. Sadly, those circumstances assume that your early plays were capable of reducing your opponent's life total. That was not the case here, but my M.A.D. scenario was still in my head.

Pack three:

301: Glare of Subdual; Boros Guildmage; Ribbons of Night; Golgari Guildmage; Selesnya Evangel; Galvanic Arc; Foil Island; Conclave's Blessing; Elvish Skysweeper; Stinkweed Imp; Tidewater Minion; Golgari Rotwurm; Civic Wayfinder; Dogpile; Golgari Rot Farm

My Pick: Galvanic Arc

Whoa nelly, what a pack! Also, yeah, I'm that dumb. I was worried about how I was going to get a Green source of mana for the Glare, but I should have taken it in any event as it wins games simply by existing. I have no answer for it, so it could have just been as simple as hate-drafting it. Or I could have tried to drum up some green things to go with it. In any event, it's a much better stretch-to-play-this rare than Razia. Maybe even worth something. Bad choice. But I was so excited to see the Arc, and so sure that I wouldn't see another (this at least was correct) that I took it after long consideration.

302: Junktroller; Instill Furor; Dimir Machinations; Skyknight Legionnaire; Fiery Conclusion; Smash; Boros Recruit; Zephyr Spirit; Thundersong Trumpeter; Vedalken Entrancer; Benevolent Ancestor; Stasis Cell; Courier Hawk; Greater Mossdog

My Pick: Skyknight Legionnaire

I suspect most people will think Trumpeter is the correct choice here, and I agree. By now I had morphed into a "flood them with flyers" mentality, and figured the Trumpeter could conceivably table. Hardy har har.

303: Psychic Drain; Sandsower; Congregation at Dawn; Dimir Signet; Snapping Drake; Selesnya Signet; Caregiver; Sundering Vitae; Surge of Zeal; Fists of Ironwood; Viashino Slasher; Roofstalker Wight; Stasis Cell

My Pick: Sandsower

Yes, it's the only thing in the pack. Yes, I will sometimes be able to use its ability. No, I don't like it one bit. At this point I'm saying to myself "I passed a Glare. I have one good Red common. I've seen three Entrancers. I'm like the worst player in Magic history."

304: Boros Swiftblade; Nightmare Void; Golgari Signet; Conclave Equenaut; Quickchange; Conclave's Blessing; Golgari Brownscale; Sparkmage Apprentice; Gather Courage; Farseek; Viashino Slasher; Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi

My Pick: Boros Swiftblade

Another card that's good to see, especially with the combat tricks at Boros' disposal. I think the frustrating thing about this deck was that it was almost, but not quite, sorta good. Cards like this will do that for Boros.

305: Spectral Searchlight; Auratouched Mage; Thoughtpicker Witch; Drake Familiar; Caregiver; Dimir House Guard; Surveilling Sprite; Boros Fury-Shield; Wojek Siren; Selesnya Sanctuary; Dogpile

My Pick: Wojek Siren

Cheap, efficient, should have taken the Searchlight.

306: Brainspoil; Dimir Signet; Veteran Armorer; Shred Memory; Grayscaled Gharial; Dimir Infiltrator; Incite Hysteria; Woodwraith Strangler; Terrarion; Torpid Moloch

My Pick: Veteran Armorer

Two of them! My two spot is at least starting to look okay. By now I was definitely thinking that I could hold the ground and fly over.

307: Sell-Sword Brute; Stone-Seeder Heirophant; Rain of Embers; Infectious Host; Clinging Darkness; Surveilling Sprite; Gaze of the Gorgon; Drift of Phantasms; Votary of the Conclave

My Pick: Rain of Embers

Lots of things have one toughness and not a lot of them are in my deck. In retrospect, though, the Brute was probably a better choice.

308: Leashling; Flash Conscription; Smash; Boros Garrison (foil); Lurking Informant; Sparkmage Apprentice; Induce Paranoia; Woodwraith Strangler

My Pick: Flash Conscription

This, at least, is a no-brainer. Anything that dramatically alters the math of the combat phase is worth a good look, and this one gains some life besides.

309: Foil Island; Conclave's Blessing; Elvish Skysweeper; Tidewater Minion; Golgari Rotwurm; Dogpile; Golgari Rot Farm

My Pick: Dogpile

This cards seems to always be around late and for Boros it can be really excellent, either as spot removal of a troublesome creature or a dome shot.

310: Fiery Conclusion; Smash; Boros Recruit; Zephyr Spirit; Benevolent Ancestor; Courier Hawk;

My Pick: Smash

I can see my thinking but it wasn't too late to grab a Recruit and help my curve a bit.

311: Caregiver; Sundering Vitae; Surge of Zeal; Roofstalker Wight; Stasis Cell

My Pick: Caregiver

For example, the Recruit is miles better than this, especially in multiples.

312: Quickchange; Conclave's Blessing; Sparkmage Apprentice; Viashino Slasher

My Pick: Sparkmage Apprentice

I'm also a bit wary of the Slasher being any good but I probably should have taken it over a second Apprentice.

313: Thoughtpicker Witch; Caregiver; Surveilling Sprite

My Pick: Surveilling Sprite

Totally irrelevant at this point but I would have loved to be Dimir and see the Witch come back around.

314: Grayscaled Gharial; Incite Hysteria

My Pick: Incite Hysteria

315: Stone-Seeder Heirophant

So there you have it. No Fangtails. No Helixes. No Sunhome Enforcers. No Trumpeter. No Guildmage. No Flame-Kin Zealot. No splash into Selesnya. I played perhaps the only drafter at the table who was in blue from the beginning. I lost in record time. For the sake of showing what a horrible pile I had drafted, here's what my addled brain came up with. It wasn't really until I started building that I realized just how underpowered the deck was. To top it all off, I made some fundamental mistakes in building the deck. Here's what I built:

One Mana:
Voyager Staff

Two Mana:
Boros Swiftblade
2 Veteran Armorer
Sell-Sword Brute
Fiery Conclusion
Reroute
Boros Signet

Three Mana:
Goblin Spelunkers
2 Skyknight Legionnaire
Devouring Light
Galvanic Arc
Rally the Righteous

Four Mana:
Ordruun Commando
Screeching Griffin
Wojek Apothecary
Dogpile

Five Mana:
Barbarian Riftcutter

Six Mana:
Coalhauler Swine
Conclave Equenaut
Flash Conscription

Eight Mana:
Razia, Boros Archangel

Land:
8 Mountain
7 Plains
Boros Garrison
Sunhome, Fortress of the Leagion

Coalhauler Swine has no place in any deck, ever. The Moloch or the Caregiver would have been better, and probably both of them somehow needed to be in the deck. The Signet, as I said, was there to help me get to Razia but in hindsight probably could have been omitted. Considering that the only activated abilities I'm likely to care about are the Apothecary and Razia herself, Suppression Field would have been better than Reroute, with that card coming in against particularly egregious activated abilities.

Conclave Equenaut is fine but so much better in Selesnya decks, where there always seem to be some Saprolings lollygagging around. Hindsight being what it is, I might not have included it or else included more creatures than standard.

Finally, the Siren is in the board for no good reason. It's arguably better than Rally, certainly better than Dogpile, and costs 1. I don't have many things that cost 1 and I needed some in my first match.

So, that in a nutshell is how not to draft Boros. Next time we'll examine another draft, that started with a different Angel, and took me into finals.