"Dragons of Tarkir Release Report" - 28 March, 2015

Hey everyone!

I'm fresh back from my first Dragons Dragons Fate draft, and I think I can safely say that red white aggro is a thing. My record ended up being 2-1, and that was better than I deserved, considering the pile that I drafted. Take a look!

I won my first two rounds fairly handily and then lost the finals to another red white deck which was just a little bit faster. I had pretty good luck with my draws, and I almost never had mana issues, even though I misbuilt my mana base. The deck as it was had a couple of spells costing double red, but more of my deck was white than red, and having double white would have allowed me to cast two spells per turn more reliably.

I ran 7/9 with an evolving wilds, and I should have been running straight 8/8.

There are a few cards I want to talk about specifically.

Volcanic Rush is a strictly better Trumpet Blast. I know it costs two more to cast, but as you usually want to use it as a finisher, the extra two mana doesn't matter all that much. It may not be as good for a rush deck, but anything closer to the midrange will be happy to have the trample on top.

Enduring Victory is a perfectly reasonable removal spell. I had it at the prerelease and it was good, but seeing it do work in draft was gratifying. There was only once that I got value off of the bolster 1, but spending five mana to kill Kolaghan felt just fine.

Gleam of Authority came to me fairly late in pack one and I decided to try it. I'm sure that it could work in some constructed format, but in limited I don't think it's worth running.

I had Gleam of Authority in my opening hand four times. I played it on turn two three times, and each time it was mediocre. I would have preferred to have a piker in my hand.

Maybe if there's a white control deck in the format, this could fit into it, but I wouldn't recommend drafting this over any efficient creature.

Volcanic Vision was my pack one pick one. I hadn't intended on running it even when I picked it up. Seven mana is just too much to spend on anything other than a finisher. I was skeptical when I put it in my deck. I dreaded having it in my opening hand, and I was glad that I never drew it before I had at least five lands down.

I cast it once to win a game, though a lava axe would have done as well.

I cast it once and lost because my opponent top decked a burn spell to finish me off. All in all with this too, I'd have preferred another creature.








The other strange thing about DDF was that the one pack of Fate Reforged comes at the end of the draft. Usually when you're drafting a mixed set, you start with the odd pack. Having it come at the end feels strange, but that will probably sort itself out as the format develops.

That's all for now. Prerelease starts on MTGO next Friday, so you'll all be able to learn how to draft Dragons of Tarkir right along with us. Until then.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.