In fact, he says he would take Shock Pack 1, Pick 1 over Heated Debate. Given this, Alex isn’t even looking at Bury in Books or Mage Duel. And, given my preferences, I haven’t given myself the opportunity to branch out, and writing this article reviewing his draft is really showing me that. But, I’ll note, Alex has been winning more than I have.
Within these contexts, our picks make sense. I have a preference towards control, he has a preference towards aggro. I have a preference towards blue, Alex has a preference towards white. That doesn’t mean Alex made the wrong pick, but rather we currently have different approaches to the format. What’s interesting is, if I had gone my way this draft, I would very happily take this Bury in Books and lean into Dimir as I describe in my article earlier this week. This is a reminder that fluidity in pick order with respect to your current pool starts incredibly early in this format, and Alex is thinking about this balance in the beginning of Pack 1 - another adjustment I think I should probably be making. Many times I go into Pack 3 with too much learn and not enough Lessons, or vice versa. I think one of the more difficult parts of this format is balancing your learn cards and your Lessons. The pick may be close, but I didn’t think it was. The tiebreaker here for me is simply that I have two Lessons and no learn. P1P4: Voice VS Anatomy is always close for me. Given that Expanded Anatomy is best in aggressively slanted white decks, I figured this pick was a no-brainer. The vigilance throws off racing, and plopping it onto a flyer or lifelinker is game-ending. Basically every single deck I draft, even the slow ones, wants a copy. Just like I believe you should highly prioritize Environmental Sciences, I believe you should highly prioritize Expanded Anatomy. However, upon reflection, I think I need to re-evaluate my blue preference and start drafting differently in order to open up the avenues to drafting Silverquill and Lorehold more often. I’m not claiming to know what the correct pick is here, nor saying the data suggests it is Blade Historian. In fact, if I look at the data, Emeritus doesn’t even have that high of a win-rate. It’s easier to cast, but I don’t think that should be a night-and-day difference, especially given that Alex, the top Limited player on Arena, has a preference for white decks. It’s a four-mana play that poses a very similar question. I would take that Pack 1, Pick 1 over all the options in this pack.
A four-mana threat that says “remove this or I win” should be taken very highly. But that’s not because it failed to impacted the battlefield, and rather because it was removed. I have always beaten it, and I have never won with it. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s the correct pick, but given that I expected it to be lower, I think I should re-evaluate my priors on the card in light of my minimal experience with or against it.
#QUICK DRAFT STRIXHAVEN FULL#
The card has a better win-rate (assuming in opening hand or drawn) than all the other cards in this pack by at least a full percentage point. However, the data at suggests I’m underrating Blade Historian. I think blue is the best color, and Bury in Books is the best blue common by a good margin (especially since it’s the only clean answer Prismari and Quandrix get to large Fractal tokens), but pairing Rise with Inkling Summoning sounds like a great start to a draft. While they’re all cards I’m happy to start my draft with, given the start of Inkling Summoning, I think I would end up on Rise of Extus. Pack 1, Pick 1, my rankings of these cards are: For upcoming events see the Event Calendar.Alex says this pick is clearly a Blade Historian, because it’s just the best card in this pack. Cards drafted are added to the player's card collection (Keeper Draft). The current entry fee for Quick Draft is 5,000 Gold or 750 Gems. There is no limit to how many times a player can enter the event. The event ends with either seven wins or three losses, or the scheduled end of the event (roughly one week after the start).
The actual games are played versus real players - not the draft AI. The amount of basic lands is unlimited, they are provided to the player for free. Players then build 40-card-minimum decks. This continues until all cards have been picked. This means after picking one card the pack is passed on to the next player (during the closed beta other players are replaced with an AI). Players "draft" three Packs which contain 15 cards (10 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare or mythic rare, 1 basic or common land). Quick Draft follows the rules for the Draft format.