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Pretty close pick, as the Paladin is slightly better but fits fewer archetypes than Thunder. I go for the 2/2, which is better in the archetypes I like the most (basically any white aggro deck).

Qasali Ambusher suits the first pick better, but I rather like taking another excellent card. One of them will definitely go to waste, but at least I keep options open, and I’m sure my deck will feature a very good card anyway.

A pretty incredible number of possible picks here. Strix if I want to go with Infest, and any of the white cards or Topan Ascetic will do if I want to go white. As one white card is definitely wheeling, I pick the one I’ve the strongest chance to run and wait for the wheel.

Having picked Knight of the Skyward eye, there are better chances I'll go WG than WU, which is why I don’t pick Duelist even though I believe the 2/1 is a better card.

Even if I’m WG, I’m willing to play aggro so there is not a chance I would play Platoon.

I am now very likely to be UW, but I am still pretty unlikely to go Esper (no fixers, no artifacts yet), which is why the 2/2s are not real options.

The card I wanted to wheel.

UW is a good archetype, but it often lacks removal. Even though I’d love to first pick the Mechanist and probably wheel the Homonculus, I’ll go for the Purge.

Scepter of Insight is way too slow for an aggro deck, and it doesn’t fit a two color deck, so it’s hard to say, but the 0/1 is a pretty obvious pick.

A pretty good tempo spell if my deck can be a little more aggro (Homoculus then Ethercaste Knight and the Blades?) in the second half picks of the draft.

It’d be tempting to pick the Alchemist, as it would be just fantastic in the deck, but I don’t have any fixers nor other Black cards that would make me want to risk a splash.

Homonculus would be, in theory at least, excellent as far as tempo is concerned, with several 2 drops and double Lapse of Certainty, but I don’t have many artifacts yet. And when there are 5 or 6 artifacts in the deck, I’d rather have a flyer that makes me draw a card 50% of the time than a guy which will usually simply be a 1/1. Also, my 4 and higher curve stands pretty empty at the moment.

Not a card I’m willing to face. It really has gotten a lot better with Conflux.

Artifact, aggro and early drop: a better first pick that it may seem.

I don’t have enough artifact guys to consider picking the Shieldmage. I’ll the pick the removal and remember not to attack straight into the 2/2.

With now 2.5 removal spells, the deck nearly has everything it needs.

Pretty good in aggro decks you want to race.

I need good guys a lot more than a dual in my two color deck.

Hmm… what’s the best to counterdraft?

Actually a card I’m probably playing. I don’t have enough artifacts to make the Thresher playable.

8 Island
8 Plains
2 Ethercaste Knight
1 Sigiled Paladin
1 Deft Duelist
1 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
1 Vedalken Outlander
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Ethersworn Shieldmage
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Talon Trooper
2 Frontline Sage
1 Faerie Mechanist
2 Welkin Guide

1 Celestial Purge
1 Call to Heel
2 Crystallization
2 Lapse of Certainty
2 Offering to Asha

Sideboard
1 Scepter of Insight
1 Captured Sunlight
1 Infest
1 Arsenal Thresher
1 Stormcaller's Boon
1 Unsummon
1 Gather Specimens
1 Scornful Æther-Lich
2 Esper Sojourners
1 Cancel
1 Gleam of Resistance
1 Suicidal Charge
1 Steelclad Serpent
1 Coma Veil
1 Forest
1 Bone Saw
1 Spell Snip
1 Island
1 Infectious Horror
1 Brainbite
1 Plains

ROUND 1: RGWb

In the first game he makes a lot of bad decisions, as he decides to race with Nacatl Savage against Ethercaste Knight, trading blows in my advantage (2 for 3 after I played Frontline Sage, 2 for 3 again, and then 2 for 4). In this condition, the race is already pretty uneven, and it gets impossible for him when I play Offering to Asha on Bloodpyre Elemental.

1-0

In game 2 he keeps seven and opens with Forest and a pair of Swamps. He doesn’t see another land. Also, and despite knowing I’m running a counter, he lets me untap before playing the two removal spels he drawa, which I counter on my turn.

2-0

ROUND 2: Jund

The first game is a close race until he plays Breath of Malfegor when I’m on 5. As I’m holding Lapse of Certainty, I manage to win on the next turn.

1-0

In the second game I’m totally unable to deal with his Leech/Jund Blade/Goblin Outlander start, and in game 3, the same happens again as I find myself unable to draw blockers for Putrid Leech, nor flyers to attack above the 2/2 Pro white guy. I had simply been facing a deck that was able to stop my tempo for two games.

1-2

Until Monday...

Oli