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  Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick:

I don’t like Bant so I am probably going five colors with this pick. However, Bloodpyre and Benediction are one level below, if not two.

  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick:

Bant Panorama and Jessian Infiltrator would be fine, but once again, I don’t like Bant. At all.

  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick:

When playing five-color, Blue is always one of the main colors. Therefore, Capsule should help fixing as much as the Panorama, and it will give me card advantage as well.

  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick:

The fixer is tempting, and very important in five-color, but there is no point in playing this archetype if you don’t have strong removal.

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  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick:

Maybe the best common you can get in this archetype; Marauders is no match.

  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick:

Slightly better than Guide and Roar versus me.

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  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick:

Kresh or Warp? I have almost no guys, but most of my removal spells don’t even put creatures in the graveyard. Both picks seem okay, but I go for the removal.

  Pack 2 pick 2:

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  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick:

I’m almost tempted by the Panorama, but the removal is better and I’m short of playables.

  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Sprouting Thrinax may be a little stronger, but the Sedris combo makes this better. Also, it is good not to have only gold spells in the deck if I want to be able to play spells when my mana gives me trouble.

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  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick:

I don’t have enough Black permanents to pick Temper. Also, a few guys won’t hurt.

  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick:

I need a fixer, and Absorb Vis is a better card when cast than Gleam of Resistance. In my deck, that is.

  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick:

Once again, I need the fixers, and Yoke could wheel.

  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick:

A close pick, which I made at the last second. Aerie Mystics would have been a fine late game creature, while Kaleidostone could have helped the mana a little too.
  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Sylvan Bounty can’t be considered a fixer as it’s a splash. Faerie Mechanist may not be great in the deck, but it is probably the best card for me here, as I don’t see myself running a tricolor Hill Giant

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5 Island
3 Swamp
4 Plains
2 Mountain
2 Forest
Esper Panorama
Bant Panorama
Paragon of the Amesha
Aven Trailblazer
Matca Rioters
Faerie Mechanist
Bloodpyre Elemental
Sedris, the Traitor King
Executioner’s Capsule
Magma Spray
Kaleidostone
Agony Warp
Courier’s Capsule
Obelisk of Esper
Obelisk of Grixis
Bant Charm
Grixis Charm
Oblivion Ring
Resounding Silence
Spore Burst
Shard Convergence
2 Traumatic Visions
Kiss of the Amesha
Absorb Vis

With a bomb or Necrogenesis, the deck would be unreal good. Here, I have too few guys and I regret passing Kresh. The deck is probably 2-1 or worse, even though 1-2 wouldn’t be shocking.

Round 1: Five-color aggro (Limited rating: 1739)

His deck is half good and half awful. Good? Double Resounding Thunder, Branching Bolt, Noble Hierarch, Aven Trailblazer. Bad? Tukatongue Thalid, Thorn-Thrash Viashino, Kathari Screecher (as a splash), Jessian Infiltrator.

There is not much synergy, and his mana shouldn’t work for a whole match. In the first game, he has turn 1 Hierarch, then draws his five colors of mana with no fixer and finish me by cycling a pair of Resounding Thunders when I was pretty sure I had the game. In the second, it's the same scenario except that he is “stuck” on 7 lands long enough so he must play his removal before he can cycle them.

In the third game, though, what had to happen finally did, as he couldn’t find the right mana... he had to take three mulligans and lost the game. It may look like bad luck, but there is a reason why you must pick fixers, limit your colors, and make coherent decks. He didn’t, and that cost him the match.

Round 2: Five-color Esper(1698)

In game 1 he plays first and mulligans to 6. I kill his first guy, a Strix, which he tries to return with Sanctum Gargoyle. Unfortunately, I killed his 2/1 with Magma Spray. This card disadvantage, plus a good draw on my side, gives me game 1 pretty easily.

I then bring in Ignite Disorder and Naturalize. Once again, I kill nearly all his guys, but he ends up killing me on turn 11 with a pair of 2/2s. I'm a little sad, considering my hand was Spore Burst, Matca Rioters, Bant Charm, Naturalize, and Shard Convergence... with, unfortunately, no Forest.

I have trouble finding the right mana again in game three, as I am not able to get a Green mana before turn 6 nor a Red before turn 9. Fortunately, when I do, I almost have the game as it didn’t keep me from playing my removal, and he has played one spell that nearly doesn’t do a thing against me (Cumber Stone) when a one-mana 1/1 would have been lethal to me. That’s when he draws, straight: Cloudheath Drake (the only flyer on the board), Oblivion Ring (on my Ring to get Sculler back and remove my last removal spell in hand), Zombie Outlander (to stop my Rioters from attacking), Welkin Guide (to put me on 1 and force my now pumpable Paragon to stay back), and eventually, Parasitic Strix to deal me the last damage.

Until Wednesday...

Oli