Drafting Safra's!
P1p1 I'm staring at Cast Down and Shriekmaw, two premium removal spells, but come on, there's a Hangarback Walker, and everybody knows building thopters and fiddling around with +1/+1 counters is more fun than single target removal spells!
P1p2 has some excellent options, Lyra Dawnbringer, Mulldrifter, Knight of the Reliquary. I pass a juicy Gurmag Angler, so mental note that I'm not black. Who can resist card advantage, right? Lyra is just a big, dumb beater, I'll figure out how to beat her later.
P1p3 I have the choice to add some fantastic colorless cards. All is Dust and Lodestone Golem stand out. Or I could cement myself in blue, which might be more important. Chart the Course, Venser, Shaper Savant, and Icefall Regent are all adequate picks. You know, I already got two expensive spells, so let's go with the Swiss Army knife that counters and bounces with the best of them!
P1p4 comes around, and all I think is crap. I could have been a cool UB control deck by now. Hostage Taker looks like a mighty fine splash, honestly. Other than that, only Shelldock Isle, Terminus, and Life from the Loam are standing out. I'm not looking like a Loam deck so far, but wrath effects are sort of okay, even if they tuck? I don't want to tuck my Hangarback though. You know what, picking lands is always good! I'll go with the Isle then.
P1p5 looks interesting, with three solid options: Ral Zarek, Day of Judgment, and Academy Ruins. Hmm... Destroying a Hangarback is a lot better than tucking it, and having some way to clear big, dumb angels is appreciated. Oh right, I passed a white bomb. I've got no way to protect a planeswalker so far, so I don't know how good Ral is. Besides, the red artifact cards return Hangarback from the graveyard to the battlefield, which isn't much help. Ruins then? Nah, it's time for some mass removal!
P1p6 I pass the Arid Mesa in favor of a Paladium Golem, that's another answer! (It's a custom 5/7 for 7 that destroys a nonland permanent when it etb or dies.)
P1p7 I'm surprised to see Leyline Angler, a card I think I designed once? Cool! It's green though, and cares about enchantments, which I don't. I'm miffed to see a Noxious Gearhulk still in the pack, but I ignored black hard so far, so Filigree Familiar it is.
The rest of p1 gives me Perilous Myr, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Shardless Agent, All is Dust, Skaab Ruinator, Abandoned Pasture, Dryad Militant, Xathrid Necromancer.
So, after p1, it looks like I definitely should have been black, but oh well. I got some solid artifacts, two sweepers, and not a lot else. Let's go!
P2p1 Easy Flooded Strand.
P2p2 Look at that Trading Post! Ignoring Militia Bugler, which actually looks quite good, maybe it will wheel? Wait, isn't Trading Post more likely to wheel? Ok, I'm taking a gamble, pick up the Bugler. It can find me Mulldrifter, Hangarback, Venser, Perilous Myr, and Filigree Familiar already!
P2p3 Dragonlord Silumgar staring at me like: "Are you regretting your life's choices already?" Motherfucker. Unexpectedly Absent and Gifts Ungiven aren't doing much for me though, I don't have an Unburial Rites or some other nonsense to juice up that Gifts anyway, maybe I pick up that smug dragon and see if I can splash it.
P2p4 Oh shit, Unburial Rites. Of course. Also Keiga and Whirler Rogue. And Cataclysm, but I'm a bit too mana hungry for that shit. Ok, Whirler fits the team and is Bugler-compatible!
P2p5 You know what else is Bugler-compatible? Clones baby! Specifically, Stunt Double.
P2p6 Nice, Reflector Mage!
P2p7 gives me some options to choose a path. Forsake the Worldy is a nice answer that's never dead, but it's not remotely the most exciting option. Neither is Eternal Dragon, or Containment Priest. No, I can go more aggro by picking up a Champion of the Parish, to go with the nice amount of humans I already have, or I can go control, by picking up the Supreme Verdict. Yeah, it's gotta be Verdict, right?
The rest of p2 gives me Stinkweed Imp, Impulse, Trading Post (haha!), Unexpectedly Absent, Cataclysm (ignoring a Keiga, I have two Wraths now), Abandoned Clearing, Rancor, Apostates of the Forge.
Okay, okay, looking better now!
P3p1 has some lands, a Dissolve, a Compulsive Research... yeah, whatever. Brightling looks exceedingly good in a deck with two Wraths!
P3p2 has some cool Eldrazi, but my colorless fixing isn't that hot. Huh, fixing. What's good with Wrath effects? Celestial Colonnade is!
P3p3 So, Tundra is a great pick right, except... How are you going to finish a game after wrathing away everything? Perchance there's a solid planeswalker I could pick up? Something like... I don't know, Ugin?
P3p4 is a little bit less exciting. Seal Away is at odds with my mass removal, I'll speculate on a Thought-Knot Seer (wait, there's multiples of those in the cube?!)
P3p5 Has some options. Another Eldrazi, a Reveillark, a Spell Snare, a Pick the Wrong Fight, and a Spell Queller. I think the pick's between Reveillark and Spell Queller. As much as I would love the Queller, I think some recursion is better.
P3p6 has me picking an Aethersphere Harvester over Remand.
P3p7 greets me warmly with a Cleansing Nova
The rest of p3 gives me Valorous Stance, Dissolve, Temple of Enlightenment, Wall of Omens, Become Immense, Spell Queller (I'm like... What?), Remand (I'm like... Whaaaaaaaat!), Entomb.
Edit: Holy shit, pack 3 was incredibly generous to me! 12 cards ended up in my deck!
Will build deck later
Later....
The Spine of Ish Sah is Palladium Golem, the 5/7 artifact creature for 7 that destroys a nonland permanent on etb and dies.
The Shefet Dunes is Abandoned Pasture, a Plains That also taps for
and scries 1 on etb.
This honestly looks like a blast to play. The creatures are pretty anemic for the most part, but there's plenty of synergy in lots of subtle directions. Sticky creatures, light recursion, Stunt Double shenanigans. Love it!
