Today, we will draft with Ixalan cards!
I simulate the 8 first pick of a draft and asked to 4 Hareruya Pros Players what they would pick.
Here are the 4 gentlemen who accepted to participate in this experience:
You can see their profiles, more in details, here: Hareruya Pros
It will be interesting to see if they will do the same choices or not.
PICK 1
Kenji Tsumura
On the first pick, we want a card that can be used in a wide range so if it’s not vampires, dinosaurs, or pirates, it’s a removal that can go with everything.
Tomoharu Saito
Difficult to choose since we have a huge sized《Bonded Horncrest》but if I am in a situation to choose, I will pick white because I want to play that color. We can use this in a white deck for sure and also, we can use this when we splash white. Green for certain, blue and black have treasure tokens so it is easy to splash the third color in this format.
Riku Kumagai
This is a tough pack, there are enough card that will go around the table that are not great but good. 《Jace, Cunning Castaway》, 《Bonded Horncrest》, 《Bishop's Soldier》, 《One With the Wind》are the one to think of picking. Though I want a card that will lead me to win in the first pick, so I pick 《One With the Wind》.
Sebastian Pozzo
This is a very hard pack. Many options, but 《One With the Wind》 is my choice. 《Pious Interdiction》 would be my second choice but I think 《One With the Wind》 leads to many free wins and it’s an effect hard to replace. I also like blue in combination with any other colour.
Player’s choice:
PICK 2
Kenji Tsumura
It is a very strong pack so it was very hard to choose, but I decided to take the most powerful card.
Tomoharu Saito
There is nothing interesting in this pack, so we will pick this card so we can head on to the strongest color combination which is black and white.
Riku Kumagai
Leaving 《Firecannon Blast》 and 《Tishana's Wayfinder》 is sad but 《Raging Swordtooth》has the same power level as the first pick, so I pick this. If it turns out to be a green deck, splashing another color isn’t a big deal.
Sebastian Pozzo
Another hard pick for us. I could see arguments for taking 《Shaper Apprentice》to stay in colour. But 《Skulduggery》 it’s just amazing, you almost always 1×1 for just 1 mana, and sometimes it leads to blowouts. Furthermore, UB it’s probably my favourite combination, since in this set it’s really easy to trainwreck and I’ve found UB to be the most consistent combination.
Player’s choice:
PICK 3
Kenji Tsumura
I just like this card. Also, I am guessing on the ninth pick, 《Sunrise Seeker》will come around to pick.
Tomoharu Saito
Picking this in the third pick is a little sad, but in the first and second pick, there were no cards that could make us decide the colors we want, so we are going to pick 《Skyblade of the Legion》 to go for white.
Riku Kumagai
I was wanting to play green and at the perfect time we got 《Wildgrowth Walker》. The other cards aren’t cards to argue with.
Sebastian Pozzo
I know, I don’t have creatures yet, and I’m taking 2nd aura, and also have one trick. I don’t have much experience with 《Admiral Beckett Brass》, it doesn’t seem very powerful to me to splash it. 《Mark of the Vampire》, in combination with flyers (《One With the Wind》 maybe) it’s great as long as you can protect your creature. So now I’m putting 《Dive Down》 and Flyers a bit higher in my pick order.
Player’s choice:
PICK 4
Kenji Tsumura
It’s a 2 mana drop that works with《Wildgrowth Walker》.
Tomoharu Saito
When we are able to make a BW deck, 《Anointed Deacon》 will shine like a uncommon. We are not going to stop by anything, we are just heading to the strongest color combination.
Riku Kumagai
The green seems good to go, as I wish that 《Ixalli's Diviner》 comes around the table, lets pick 《Ranging Raptors》.
Sebastian Pozzo
I’m not sure about this pick, the truth is we didn’t get anything super exciting blue, and 《Anointed Deacon》 is the key to have a good vampire deck. We would only be losing our first pick if we ended BW vampires. Even though we’ve passed many white and black good cards they are not only vampire cards, and usually the 《Deacon》 is what makes you jump into vampires. However, if we don’t make it to the BW deck, we are only giving up a mediocre pirate, but I like being a little more open in this pick, the reward could be big.
Player’s choice:
PICK 5
Kenji Tsumura
Tough choice between 《Pounce》. It seems to me if you’re on green, the more《Grazing Whiptail》 you have, the more wins come along.
Tomoharu Saito
Going BW. This card plays well with lifelink vampires tokens.
Riku Kumagai
《Pounce》 this early in the pick. So, we go with the good common in the green.
Sebastian Pozzo
Nothing I’m really excited about. I could see arguments for the other 2 black cards, but they go better with cutlass, not with the auras I have so far. So, I’d go with the black pirate which also is ok if we end up BW vampires, since you can throw your little lifelinkers to your opponent with no problem.
Player’s choice:
PICK 6
Kenji Tsumura
I don’t want to decide my second color yet so I pick the green card.
Tomoharu Saito
This pack has barely nothing so I am thankful that I at least have this pick. It seems like not a lot of players are running white so let’s decide the colors now. BW is good for vampires and also good stuff too. In this format, I have drafted in to BW 14 times and my win percentage is 74.19% which is very high.
Riku Kumagai
2 drops are cards you will want to pick early.
Sebastian Pozzo
I’m super happy to see a good black 2 drop here.
Player’s choice:
PICK 7
Kenji Tsumura
If we can go into the RG dinosaurs, I will be very happy to have this.
Tomoharu Saito
We don’t know if this will be in our deck but taking the white is what counts. Going after red from now may end up with racing someone for the same 2 colors so I will give you the red dinosaur.
Riku Kumagai
It could be《Thrash of Raptors》, but I pick 《New Horizons》since I want to be certain to have the fixing for an additional color.
Sebastian Pozzo
This might seem a bit confusing since I have other acceptable choices in form of《Depths of Desire》 and 《Dire Fleet Interloper》. However, it’s a premium 2 drop and it’s something to consider in this format. Also, with《Fathom Fleet Cutthroat》 we have a better BR than UB (but the mark of the vampire goes worse). I’m not a big fan of the bounce spells since I want my non-creature spells to be tricks, auras/equipment or removal if possible.
Player’s choice:
PICK 8
Kenji Tsumura
It’s not a happy card to pick but the it is a precious 2 drop. Looking at the flow of the draft, it seems like 《New Horizons》 can be picked at any time, so thought that I can lower my priority to pick it.
Tomoharu Saito
Same as above. We did not have great commons to pick from all packs. We will take the strong color and hope we get a bomb in our next packs.
Riku Kumagai
《New Horizons》 came around again. I don’t mind to have multiples of this card so let’s pick it. It will be very interesting to see what rares we will encounter in the future.
Sebastian Pozzo
Well, nothing special, but 2 drops are necessary and it’s good not to be desperate about them in the last pack. Also, if we end up playing the 《Anointed Deacon》 we have an upside there, maybe we can take a 《Skymarch Bloodletter》 later on and have them doing some work even out of BW. Watching pack one again, makes me think that maybe 《Skittering Heartstopper》 comes back. If it doesn’t maybe 《Storm Fleet Pyromancer》 does. That pirate would be a sign we might want to go RB. I think that in the dark the best 7 cards other than the one we took are the 5 on the first line, the 《Jade Guardian》 and 《Pious Interdiction》. So, both could come and I’d be happy with any of them.
Player’s choice:
The 8 Picks together
Kenji Tsumura
Tomoharu Saito
Riku Kumagai
Sebastian Pozzo
Conclusion
Pick one, players had the choice between 2 commons that are 《Pious Interdiction》and 《One With the Wind》.
These two cards are great and it is definitely more about the deck they will end with than the card itself who decide this pick.
After 2 months of Ixalan practice, the game style and the experience become more important that the powerlevel of the card.
I hope you like the article and learn about Ixalan draft.
Thank you for reading,
Jeremy Dezani
