Welcome to Limited Edition. If you are new to this article series, glad you can join me! I am Shane, and have been playing Magic since 1994, and am a massive fan of limited. I will take you through a draft of the format, step by step, without having to watch a video - read it at your leisure! I will show you which cards I considered and tell you why, and guide you through the draft as best I can.

This is my first draft of the format; you can see my early thoughts on the format here. I will point out my initial impressions of it being a slow format were wrong, I think; the format seems quite aggressive. I have played in two pre-releases; in the first I was able to build two decks, one white/red with Angel of Sanctions and Glorybringer , and the other a black/green deck with a lot of -1/-1 counter synergy. I didn't lose a game in that event. In the second, I built red/green with yet another Glorybringer, and went 3-1 with it, one of the highlights being playing the same Trial of Zeal three times in one game. The format seems fun, but I did see a lot of bombs running around, so it will be interesting to see if it turns out to be a bomb-reliant format.

On with the draft!

THE DRAFT

Pack 1 pick 1:



My Pick:



The all exciting pick 1 pack 1 of a new format! My eyes are immediately drawn to two cards - Magma Spray and Liliana's Mastery . These are easily the best two cards in the pack. The set has a lot of 2 toughness creatures floating around, so Magma Spray kills a lot of things, not to mention taking care of pesky embalm creatures. However, Liliana's Mastery is a bomb in a deck full of zombies. Even by itself, it provides you with two 3/3s, which is not the end of the world, and also buffs any other random zombies you might have (including embalmed creatures). I'm going to take it here and see if I can build a tribal zombies deck.



Pack 1 pick 2:



My Pick:



The best card in the pack here is easily Electrify . It kills just about anything for 4 mana, and is a first pickable card. However, there is also Blighted Bat , which is a zombie.... I agonized over this pick. The correct pick was likely Electrify, but I am keen to test zombie tribal to see how it is, so decided to take the Bat.



Pack 1 pick 3:



My Pick:



No zombies here, so I decided to look further afield (note: In Oketra's Name works perfectly fine in a zombie tribal deck, but I don't want to third pick it. I will be able to get them later if I can pull the deck off). The cards I looked at were Cartouche of Ambition and Splendid Agony , two pretty good cards. Splendid Agony is probably better by itself, but if you can pick up one of the Trials, the Cartouches become so much better. In the end I went with the Cartouche.



Pack 1 pick 4:



My Pick:



I took another Blighted Bat here to stay on theme. I also looked at Tah-Crop Elite ; the zombie decks are white/black, so this would have been a fine card as well.



Pack 1 pick 5:



My Pick:



Miasmic Mummy is a zombie, but I don't particularly like the card. There was also another Splendid Agony, which I almost took. However, I took Sacred Cat and moved into white. According to people who have played with it, this card is better than it looks and it also synergizes with my zombies. I decided to move into white and try it.



Pack 1 pick 6:



My Pick:



I see a zombie in Binding Mummy , so I took it. It was better than Mighty Leap , which was the next best pick.



Pack 1 pick 7:



My Pick:



Here is where I am happy to take In Oketra's Name. No other deck really wants this so, if you are playing zombies, don't take it early. You will always get them late.



Pack 1 pick 8:



My Pick:



Supernatural Stamina and Cartouche of Solidarity are okay cards here, but Cradle of the Accursed might be better. If my deck isn't mana greedy, the fact I can create a zombie out of it later in the game is good value.



Pack 1 pick 9:



My Pick:



2/4 for 3 mana is fine stats, and Those Who Serve is a zombie, so pretty happy to take it here.



Pack 1 pick 10:



My Pick:



Djeru's Resolve is a mediocre combat trick, but it can be used to ambush an opponent. Cycling makes it a non-dead card, so it's an okay trick to have.



Pack 1 pick 11:



My Pick:





Pack 1 pick 12:



My Pick:





Pack 1 pick 13:



My Pick:





Pack 1 pick 14:



My Pick:





Pack 1 pick 15:



My Pick:



To recap the picks after pack one:

So far so good. I would like to pick up some number of Lord of the Accursed and/or Wayward Servant before I am truly happy.



Pack 2 pick 1:



My Pick:



Well, hello Angel of Sanctions . This is a bomb, is on colour, and I'm not passing it. The fact it also comes back from the dead as a zombie is pure gravy.



Pack 2 pick 2:



My Pick:



Splendid Agony, Fan Bearer and Baleful Ammit were all cards I was looking at here. All are decent cards, but Fan Bearer is the only zombie, so I snapped it up.



Pack 2 pick 3:



My Pick:



In hindsight, a second Cartouche here was probably correct. My thinking at the time was this comes back as a zombie should it die, but otherwise it is very mediocre.



Pack 2 pick 4:



My Pick:



I discovered at the pre-release that evasion is pretty important in the format, and something like a 3/3 flyer is very good. Oketra's Attendant fills that role, cycles in the early game, then comes back as a zombie in the late game. Perfect card for my deck.



Pack 2 pick 5:



My Pick:



This pick was never going to be anything other than Evolving Wilds . Unburden is actually okay due to the fact it has cycling; if you can hit them with only 2-3 cards in hand on turn 4-5 you often get their bombs, and if you can't, you cycle it. But I was taking the land.



Pack 2 pick 6:



My Pick:



Hey, a Wayward Servant ! It's a pity it's in the same pack as two other zombies, but I wasn't passing it.



Pack 2 pick 7:



My Pick:



Like I said earlier, I don't really like Miasmic Mummy, but there was really nothing else here.



Pack 2 pick 8:



My Pick:



I'm not sure how good Festering Mummy is; the fact the -1/-1 is permanent when it dies makes me think this is better than it looks, though to be clear, I still don't think it's great. Still, it is a zombie, so it got picked.

The rest of the picks are nothing I'm likely to play:



Pack 2 pick 9:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 10:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 11:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 12:



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Pack 2 pick 13:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 14:



My Pick:





Pack 2 pick 15:



My Pick:



Here are the playable cards heading into pack 3:

I'm very unlikely to play both In Oketra's Names, and may not even play one; we'll see how this pack goes.



Pack 3 pick 1:



My Pick:



I saw first-hand at the pre-release how good Glory-Bound Initiate is, especially on the play. It often got in for 3 damage, then when the opponent played a creature, it would get in for 4 lifelinking damage. Although it has no particular synergy with my deck, it's a good card, so I took it.



Pack 3 pick 2:



My Pick:



And now I am very happy. Lord of the Accursed is the perfect card; a zombie lord that makes all my zombies hard to block. This is a card my opponents must deal with or they will die soon after.



Pack 3 pick 3:



My Pick:



I didn't want a second Cradle of the Accursed, as I don't want to stretch my mana base. Devoted Crop-Mate is also fine, but has no synergy with my deck. Now that I have the 3 zombie build arounds, though, the pick was easy: another Blighted Bat.



Pack 3 pick 4:



My Pick:



Not a zombie, and slightly overcosted, Winged Shephard is still a 3/3 flyer, and can be cycled away in the early game for only 1 mana. I did also consider Painful Lesson here, but it was hard to go past an evasive creature that also draws a card.



Pack 3 pick 5:



My Pick:



This pick was out of Cursed Minotaur or another Binding Mummy. I went with the black one due to having menace; while this means it doesn't benefit from Lord of the Accursed as much, I won't always draw it, so an evasive creature is better than a non-evasive one.



Pack 3 pick 6:



My Pick:



Glad I took Cursed Minotaur last pack!



Pack 3 pick 7:



My Pick:



This is a fine aggressive creature, but not particularly what I'm looking for. Still, it would work in my deck.



Pack 3 pick 8:



My Pick:



Took a while, but finally picked one of these.



Pack 3 pick 9:



My Pick:





Pack 3 pick 10:



My Pick:





Pack 3 pick 11:



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Pack 3 pick 12:



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Pack 3 pick 13:



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Pack 3 pick 14:



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Pack 3 pick 15:



My Pick:





THE DECK

I'm pretty happy with how this went. I'm light on removal, with no good removal except Angel of Sanctions, so that is somewhat of a concern. Still, I am hopeful that this will turn out okay.

THE MATCHES

Match 1

Versus: Red/Green

Result: 2-0

I opened up with Sacred Cat, Fan Bearer and 2 Binding Mummies, while my opponent did nothing other than playing a Nef-Crop Entangler . Once I played Lord of the Accursed, my opponent conceded.

We both mulliganed to six in game 2, and I could not find anything other than a Swamp and a Plains for my land early, and was only able to play a Binding Mummy. My opponent meanwhile played Initiate's Companion , enchanting it with Cartouche of Strength and declining to fight my tapped Mummy. They attacked but I had Impeccable Timing in hand and 2-for-1'd them. My opponent must have either been drawing blank or tilted, for they conceded shortly after.

Match 2

Versus: Red/Green

Result: 2-0

I curved Fan Bearer into Glory-Bound Initiate and Blighted Bat game 1, while my opponent played Magma Spray to kill Fan Bearer, and Emberhorn Minotaur , which I used Impeccable Timing to kill. I followed up with Wayward Servant and a Festering Mummy, while my opponent played out some more ground beaters. They then attacked - which was a mistake on their behalf. I had a second Blighted Bat and enough mana to give it haste and, along with the drain from Wayward Servent, had exactly enough to kill them.

Game 2 I kept a decent hand but no black mana; I was confident that if I could find a Swamp I could win this game. Thankfully, that happened. My opponent played Pathmaker Initiate , Pouncing Cheetah , and Exemplar of Strength and Bitterblade Warrior . For me I played Blighted Bat, enchanted it with the black Cartouche (to kill Exemplar), and Splendid Agony to kill the Cheetah. The followed up with Colossapede which I took with Angel of Sanctions, following up the next turn with Festering Mummy and Oketra's Attendant. With In Oketra's Name in hand, I won the following turn.

Match 3

Versus: Blue/Green splashing White

Result: 2-1

Game 1 was a non-event, with me being unable to find white mana. Game 2 went the opposite way, with my opponent not getting past two land before conceding.

Game 3 was more interesting, though not particularly close. I was able to go Wayward Servant, Binding Mummy (Supernatural Strength on it to kill Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun , Blighted Bat, Liliana's Mastery. For my opponent, they had an Ornery Kudu which they enchanted with the green Cartouche to kill my Binding Mummy, as well as a Trueheart Duelist. But they were not on a very high life total, and when I drew and cast Angel of Sanctions to take the Kudu, they conceded.

CONCLUSION

Off to a good start in Amonkhet. The format seems quite aggressive, which is the opposite of what I thought it would be, and so it suits my play style. So far it has been quite enjoyable, and I plan on drafting a lot more of this format at this stage. Join me again next week!