Welcome to another Limited Edition, the article series where I walk you through a draft pick by pick, showing you the thought process behind every choice I made.

Let's get straight into it!

THE DRAFT

Pack 1 pick 1:



My Pick:



So this is a fairly weak pack overall and not one I'm very happy with as a first pick. Firebrand Archer is good in the blue/red decks, and Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs is good with a lot of Deserts. However, I'm not looking to first pick either of those. Torment of Venom is an okay but not great removal spell, and Aerial Guide is a decent enough blue creature that can allow your beefy ground creatures to attack unimpeded. It came down to these two in the end; I decided to take the removal spell and see what happens.



Pack 1 pick 2:



My Pick:



This pack is a little better than the first one, with a few solid choices. Khenra Scrapper is a good, aggressive red creature that is hard to block; Dauntless Aven is very useful with exert creatures; Merciless Eternal is another good black card and again, good when aggressive; Gideon's Defeat is a powerful sideboard card against white; and the two Deserts are always good choices. I was originally going to take Merciless Eternal but decided on Dauntless Aven in the end, as I have had success with it.



Pack 1 pick 3:



My Pick:



Aerial Guide , Sunscourge Champion and Doomfall were the three cards I looked at in this pack. I haven't really had a chance to play with Sunscourge Champion yet, and it seems quite good, being able to gain 6 life across the course of the game. I decided to give it a try.



Pack 1 pick 4:



My Pick:



Yet another Aerial Guide ! It was either this or Chandra's Defeat here, as these are the two most powerful cards in the pack. I went with Aerial Guide this time.



Pack 1 pick 5:



My Pick:



I hadn't picked up any Deserts yet, so I decided to pass the Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs here. Instead, I decided to stick with white, and took Aven of Enduring Hope . This gives me a minor lifegain theme, allowing me to stay alive and in the game. I could also have taken Khenra Eternal to get into black and to go with my first pick, or Aven Reedstalker to move into a blue/white deck. But I stuck with white to keep my options open.



Pack 1 pick 6:



My Pick:



Another weak pack. I could have taken Disposal Mummy , but most of the time it is just a 2/3 for three mana, which is mediocre at best. So I decided to again stay open by taking what I deemed to be the best card here, which is Frontline Devastator . I will need to keep my eyes open for signals now to see which colours I am going to play.



Pack 1 pick 7:



My Pick:



Here I decided to take Desert of the True . The Deserts are powerful with Desert-matters cards, and I'm always happy to have a few in my deck. As I had taken more white cards than anything else so far, I took the white one over the black.



Pack 1 pick 8:



My Pick:



Traveler's Amulet is a good card, allowing you to splash, but I'm not sure I'll be doing much of that (generally, I have found that happens mostly in green). That left Wretched Camel and Gilded Cerodon . They are both of similar power levels, so I took the cheaper one.



Pack 1 pick 9:



My Pick:



I did think about taking Sinuous Striker here. It's more powerful than Ruin Rat , but it would mean splitting my colours again. Ruin Rat is fine, though not great, but it is a good defensive creature.



Pack 1 pick 10:



My Pick:



This time I took Gideon's Defeat . I'm looking like I'll be white, so this is good against other white decks.



Pack 1 pick 11:



My Pick:



It's still possible I'll be blue, and Striped Riverwinder is a playable blue creature (and better than anything else in the pack).



Pack 1 pick 12:



My Pick:



Steadfast Sentinel is average, though not great. It might make the cut, but it is a little underwhelming.



Pack 1 pick 13:



My Pick:



Seeing Khenra Eternal this late is interesting. It's a playable 2-drop Zombie. It might me a sign black/white Zombies is open.



Pack 1 pick 14:



My Pick:



Might be okay if I end up in Zombies, but will probably just come out of he sideboard against Eternalize or Aftermath cards.



Pack 1 pick 15:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 1:



My Pick:



We have a lot of good cards to choose from here: Open Fire and Puncturing Blow are premium removal in red, whilst Tenacious Hunter is a very decent four-drop with great stats and abilities for the mana cost in green. There is nothing in white, but there is a great card in black, with Banewhip Punisher .



Pack 2 pick 2:



My Pick:



This is another good pack; Chaos Maw is a bomb, though I am not really in red or looking to go there, nor have I picked up any ramp to help get to seven mana. There is also another Tenacious Hunter and an Oasis Ritualist for green. However, I'm happy to take Oketra's Avenger to stay in white; this is a great two-drop and difficult to deal with in combat, and often hits for a lot of damage if played on turn two.



Pack 2 pick 3:



My Pick:



If people to my left are in green, they are getting hooked up, with an Ambuscade in this pack. For me, I'm looking at Lethal Sting , Desert of the Glorified or Mummy Paramount . Right now, I don't have a big Zombie synergy, despite being in white-black, nor do I have a good Desert synergy. I ended up taking Lethal Sting for more removal.



Pack 2 pick 4:



My Pick:



For me, this pack is bad. There is a Wall, but I'm not looking to be in that deck. I already have a Steadfast Sentinel , and I don't like Lurching Rotbeast . If my suspicions about me being an aggressive white/black deck are right, Djeru's Renunciation is the best choice, but likely won't make the cut.



Pack 2 pick 5:



My Pick:



Again, not a great pack. I'll take a second Aven of Enduring Hope .



Pack 2 pick 6:



My Pick:



A second Desert of the True is fine here.



Pack 2 pick 7:



My Pick:



I could have taken the third Desert here, but decided against it. I took Ruin Rat .



Pack 2 pick 8:



My Pick:



Steadfast Sentinel is better than Dutiful Servants , so I took it.



Pack 2 pick 9:



My Pick:



Another Khenra Eternal . If I do pick up some Zombies-matters cards this will come in handy.



Pack 2 pick 10:



My Pick:



As will Carrion Screecher .



Pack 2 pick 11:



My Pick:



And here is one. It's not the best, but it is a Zombie itself, and if I can pick up some Binding Mummy or a Lord of the Accursed in the next pack I will be happy.



Pack 2 pick 12:



My Pick:



Like I stated earlier, I don't like Lurching Rotbeast , but it is a Zombie, so we will see. The rest of pack two was:



Pack 2 pick 13:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 14:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 15:



My Pick:





Pack 3 pick 1:



My Pick:



On to Amonkhet. The two cards that jumped out at me were Bone Picker , which is just a good card, and Cartouche of Solidarity which admittedly got a little worse in this format but is still solid. I took Bone Picker.



Pack 3 pick 2:



My Pick:



There are three cards here I really want: Tah-Crop Elite , Compulsory Rest and Baleful Ammit . In the end, I took the removal. I was pretty light on it at the moment and felt I needed more.



Pack 3 pick 3:



My Pick:



Of course, I then get a second one. That's fine though, I now have some decent removal spells and am happy.



Pack 3 pick 4:



My Pick:



I really wanted to pick Binding Mummy here. It synergises with the Zombies I had taken and would be a perfect fit. However, it was hard to go past Glory-Bound Initiate . I mean, it's a 4/4 with lifelink for two mana, what's not to like?



Pack 3 pick 5:



My Pick:



Fan Bearer is an easy pick here. It's removal, and a Zombie. Perfect.



Pack 3 pick 6:



My Pick:



Impeccable Timing is not bad as a removal spell, but considering I now had four decent removal spells, I felt I didn't need it. Instead, I went for Unwavering Initiate , which is good stats for the cost and comes back as a Zombie as well. I just really need a Binding Mummy or something to make this worth it.



Pack 3 pick 7:



My Pick:



I decided to take Cartouche of Solidarity here over another Unwavering Initiate or any of the black cards.



Pack 3 pick 8:



My Pick:



Sparring Mummy is mediocre, but it was either this or Horror of the Broken Lands . Maybe Horror was the correct pick, as it can be cycled away.



Pack 3 pick 9:



My Pick:



My deck was looking like it was going to have a lot of creatures and be pretty aggressive, so I am happy to take another Cartouche.



Pack 3 pick 10:



My Pick:



I'm a little surprised Tah-Crop Elite came back, but I'll take it. It says to me not many other people are aggressive white.





Pack 3 pick 11:



My Pick:



Anointer Priest is not likely to make the cut.



Pack 3 pick 12:



My Pick:



Wow, I am very happy to pick up Binding Mummy here. This pick rounds the deck off nicely!



Pack 3 pick 13:



My Pick:



Again, it's not likely to make the cut.



Pack 3 pick 14:



My Pick:



And Impeccable Timing now is not too shabby either.



Pack 3 pick 15:



My Pick:





THE DECK

Overall, I'm pretty happy how this deck has ended up. Whilst there are no absolute bombs, there are some excellent cards: Fan Bearer , Glory-Bound Initiate , Dauntless Aven , Banewhip Punisher , Tah-Crop Elite and Bone Picker are all solid. On top of that, I picked up four pieces of removal, some flyers, value cards with Eternalize and Embalm and ways to break through blockers with Fan Bearer and the Zombie synergies with Binding Mummy . Here's hoping it works out!

THE MATCHES

I went 2-1 in matches (5-3 in games) with this deck. Round one I faced a red/white Desert control deck that played a ton of Wall of Forgotten Pharoahs , which I won 2-0; round 2 I faced streamer and all-round cool dude Melvin the Muppet, beating his five-colour deck 2-1 (you can actually watch the match here, as I found out Melvin was streaming after our match). In round three I faced an Esper deck and lost 1-2, with my last game having me stuck with no black mana. The deck was strong, performing as I thought it would. I managed to cast Binding Mummy a lot, which certainly helped, and the flyers were able to break ground-stalls. I was hoping to have both Glory-Bound Initiative and Dauntless Aven in play and combo'ing together but, alas, it was not to be. The deck could easily have been improved by another Binding Mummy or a Lord of the Accursed and was not the strongest version of a black/white deck in the format, but it played well and I enjoyed the games (except the last one).

See you all again next week!

WHAT'S THE PICK?

Here is a pack I opened from Magic Online. What would you pick if this was your first pick, pack one? Let me know in the comments!