Aether Revolt Draft Report 1

Hey guys,

 Due to unfortunate cat related problems, I was unable to make it to the release night for Aether Revolt, so after a very long wait, I was excited to finally get to draft it last Friday. There's a whole big colour pie out there, and so far I'd only really experienced the green side, with a little cameo from white and black. Though I still think blue looks fairly weak as a main colour, there were plenty of decks I'd be excited to try drafting, and I knew I wanted to try blue red, if I got the chance. All that in mind, what should I open?

Sram's Expertise

Of course. Well, plenty of room to try red white shenanigans, or black white, or whatever. Don't marry your first pick, right? Well, out of the next few packs, the pickings were fairly mediocre. I did pick up a Caught in the Brights, and then a Bastion Enforcers just to stay open, but it soon became clear that someone was passing me green. I took a late Lifecraft Cavalry, and an Unbridled Growth to hedge in that direction. I can't say I wasn't unhappy, as I really do enjoy green white, but I was a little worried that I was just playing favourites, and that there was something in the packs I was missing.

Pack two shifted my perspective. Not only did I open a Rishkar, Peema Renegade (my third in as many paper tournaments), but someone on my left passed me a Greenwheel Liberator. If that's not a clear sign and signal, I don't know what is.
 
I had taken a Renegade Rallier at some point, so with three revolt creatures in my pile, I started looking for ways to enable them. The way I see it, playing a mechanic like Revolt is like splashing a colour in that you want to have more ways to enable the ability than you have cards with the ability, and as common wisdom teaches us not to play bad cards to enable good cards, I knew I was looking for effects I'd want to play anyway. I was able to pick up enough that I felt confident in my ability to get revolt, at least on the Cavalry, and I was only playing one card I wasn't sure I liked, but it was also the most reliable enabler, so I took the trade off.

 The real question was, could I splash? I'd picked up a Scrapper Champion almost on the wheel, and I had an Outland Boar from pack one. I'd have been more comfortable with the splash if I'd been able to pick up a Prism or an Attune in the last pack, but with four sources, and judging the power and versatility of the splashed cards, I decided to go for it. If I'd been more cautious and played the Bastion Enforcer and an Acrobatic Maneuver, the deck would have been slightly more consistent, but nowhere near as explosive.
 

The final deck felt reasonably aggressive with a tempo element, which is another way to say it was singularly midrange, which is just the way I like it.

In Round 1 I faced off against a Blue Green deck, full of fliers. I was happy to see Highspire Artisan, especially when, after making a servo with her, I was able to drop Rishkar, and then play Lifecrafter's Gift. It made for a very impressive board, and when my removal showed up, I managed to make a few good swings.

In game two, I didn't have quite as much going on, and his fliers whittled me down before I could stablize.

Game three was swingy, and a lot of fun. It turns out my deck had a pretty good combo, which I

didn't plan, but helped me all the same. I cast Sram's Expertise, and then got to cast Rishkar for free. Alas, I was not the only player at the table with expertise, and my opponent quite devastatingly bounced most of my board to myhand. As I was stuck on four mana, and having put the counters from Rishkar on the servoes, I had no way to compete with his hoard of drakes, and I quickly lost.

Round 2 was interesting, as I played against Tams. I was still riding the energy of three fairly tremendous games in the first round, but Tams and I really don't like playing against each other in tournaments, if only because it means one of us is going to lose, and that means less potential to win prizes, overall.

If you want to read the breakdown of Tams' deck, she's also posting an article here. Suffice it to say, I got all of my removal in both of our games, and it's very difficult to compete against a strong board if you can't keep blockers in place.

Round 3 is always stressful when you're 1-1. I like playing good games, but I tend to get competitive when there are prizes on the line. To my good fortune, my opponent was someone who responds well to healthy competition. We had a good time battling it out, and though the first game was close, I managed to, once again, cast Rishkar off of Sram's Expertise, and follow it up with Lifecrafter's Gift, which thoroughly impressed us both.

In game two, I played Architect of the Untamed for the first time, and though she was promptly

killed, I was glad my opponent didn't then have a removal spell against Scrapper Champion. With Conviction on her, she almost finished the game by herself, as she was threatening 8 damage or more on each swing.

I ended the day at 2-1, which put me in fourth place, and got me one pack, plus a shiny promo! It was a whole lot of fun, but I'm looking forward to discovering what the other parts of the colour pie hold. This weekend is our opening tournament for our Sealed League, so look forward to reading about that come Sunday! For now, you should check out our Sealed deck on MTGO. It's full of good stuff.







Thanks for reading,


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