7.06d has been out for nine days now, so I thought it would be cool to do a draft dump, look at what we’ve been picking up in pubs and hopefully see if there are any patterns or trends forming.

Not going to analyze these matches very deeply, but happy to answer any questions. Here’s a link to all these matches on Dotabuff. There are two drafts on the list that I did not screen below, one of a 3-stack, the other just my buddy on the button. Is that why I skipped them? Or because we lost? Either way, let’s look at some drafts:

Sort of a meme-y draft by Dire, with both Disruption and Astral to set up for LSA and Torrent. Our approach was mostly to out-gank them, but Voidface does also add some impressive team fight control to combo with Chain Frost and Sniper.

A totally different look against the same team, the draft ends up an exercise in countering Riki / Clock. At time of draft I think captains are starting to realize how strong Rattletrap is, but Riki still flying under the radar (Clock just dominated the Summit 7 meta). Razor into Viper is a mistake I see too often; the match-up’s been Viper favored for a decade.

Starting to see some repeats – Clock, SB, Weaver. A now rare CM pick, whose latest nerfs have finally knocked her out tier 1. CM’s fall also means we’ll no longer spam our ES-Silencer response. Weaver fits the meta really well even if his damage seems lacking at times. Last pick isn’t always so juicy but tonight we Meepo’d some poor folks.

Another Viper flex match, used him mid again rather than pos 4, as the Slardar pick prompted us to take Lich. Feel like Jugg will always see play as a “safe” mid-draft carry selection, but I almost never pick this hero, to me it’s as situational as anything else. Razor into Viper once more (?).

We’re starting to try both Earthshaker and Monkey King out at a variety of positions. Nice weird draft here, love to see Pudge and Nature’s Prophet picked up even though I think they were bad choices in this draft. Also noticing a trend towards aggro lanes, wonder if that will continue. Pinktops doesn’t like it, but we win against them anyway.

Some more SB, Riki, Slardar. I discourage first pick Invoker, he had a really difficult game. They pressured Spectre hard, correctly. We considered pos 1 Slardar to give offlane an easier hero (Magnus?), which I think is correct in retrospect. Maybe they just lost because they have Oracle.

More Jugg and Clock. All out push-ball by Dire, weirdly counter-picked themselves hard into our Ancient Apparition. Pugna did a lot of work even with Clock on our side. I think Jakiro will be big in the meta due to nerfs to other top tier supports.

Overall as a team we’re certainly shifting away from certain heroes and towards others – not as much Earth Spirit, Venomancer, or Phantom Lancer as before. PL got a great buff, but as a situational hero the meta will always dictate how much we use him. Definitely feeling AA, Kunkka, and Spacecow lately and thinking about trying them more off-role. Our next Echo League opponent, Daft Gank, utilizes Admiral pretty well, so perhaps a hot contest in phase 1.

We’ll try to only next-level ourselves in unofficial matches… support Ember didn’t work for us, so we can scratch that one off. Next up, Radiance Phoenix?

-gg worst captain ever