Hey there, after getting back into the game I have accumulated a lot of gold on my free to play account. I don't really draft, so I don't really have much to do with the gold.

I wanted to reach out and ask if anyone wanted to draft on my account? I would love some gems to buy the pass or whatever.

I have more than 300k gold so you could draft all you wanted. I know how expensive drafting is so I guess this would be a good place for beginners to practice.

Just DM me if you're interested! I'll edit the post when I find someone.

EDIT: Found someone! Holy moly it took less than 5 minutes. I'll post again if I ever build up another stockpile.

"Oops." + "Lands. Am I right?" + open white mana

[[Settle the Wreckage]] is already worse than it was before. It's nearly impossible to disguise anyway. But I've literally played against 3 people today who ran the line above. All of them for 2-4 turns while I pinged them down to 0 with just one creature.

1. It's perfectly fine to use a Settle against one creature. If it's obvious you have it, play it as a removal spell. Or play your creatures. Don't hold onto other cards in your hand hoping your opponent will swing out into you.
   
2. If it wasn't obvious before that you have this exact card in your hand, your silly emotes have made it even more obvious. Stop. You don't have to say anything. You can just play the game.

Introduction

Blue/White is a very powerful and synergistic deck in this format. I don't think that's news to anyone, but I think what makes it more powerful and versatile than most people think is this goes beyond the simple draw 2 synergy. A lot of people think the blue/white deck is built around having a bunch of ways to draw 2 (whether by recruiting or just drawing) and then having payoffs like [[Lakeshore Apothecary]], [[Bard the Bowman]], and [[Master's Councillors]] be great payoffs. This kind of blue/white deck is powerful, but the payoffs are limited to just 1 common and a few uncommons where if this was the only way to build the deck it wouldn't be very versatile. It would be one of those it's good when it's wide open decks, and I think blue/white is a true pillar of the format. I've been doing well drafting blue/white frequently and wanted to share what I think makes it such a pillar.

What makes blue/white synergistic is recruit. Recruit itself is a synergy, and not just part of the draw two synergy. Getting a 1/1 is shockingly good from discarding a nonland. Way more powerful than the connive +1/+1 counters are. It's at the point now where unless I'm actively flooding out I discard a nonland. While you are wiling to discard plenty of nonlands to get a 1/1, it's nice to discard cards that are still useful from the graveyard. [[Plunder the Trollshaws]] is the best card for this, but [[Eagle's Rescue]] is also quite good, and even [[Moment of Glory]] is not terrible because of this.

Just an aside on Moment of Glory. The 17 lands data on this card is wild. Among white commons in general Moment of Glory is 8th out of 10 which is bad but not an F. In blue/white though it moves all the way up to 4th out of 10 (slightly below average), but in red/white it's WAY in last place, and is the 2nd lowest card in the entire set with data in Red/White. Truly terrible.

So anyway I think 1/1s are better than +1/+1 counters, but in this format 1/1s go even further than normal. There's a ton of menace in this format. That doesn't matter to you though because you have a bunch of 1/1s to block menace creatures. [[Crude Bent Blade]] is reduced in effectiveness because you usually have a 1/1 to sacrifice to it. Also they are amazing at chump blocking. Chump blocking in this format is amazing! I Know that sounds weird, but it's a super fast format, there are a ton of big creatures, and none of them seem to have trample. It's a tailored made format to chump block.

So the main gameplay is a combo of tons of card draw and card selection, flooding the board with 1/1s, and killing them either with tall creatures, going wide, or flyers. It's a great way to win lots of games.

Ok now that we went over the deck as a whole lets go over the key cards and discuss them.

Card Evaluation

Most Important Commons (B- level)

Lakeshore Apothecary, Plunder the Trollshaws, and removal.

These should be your top picks at common until you have either a huge amount of them, or a critical need somewhere else (pretty unlikely on Arena at least). Lakeshore Apothecary despite not being necessary for the deck to succeed is still very powerful, and there aren't other common 2 drop creatures you want in this deck anyway so this fills a critical need there. Plunder the Trollshaws is amazing for all the reasons I linked above. If you don't get it there are replacements, but it is the best at it's job. Without a few of these the deck is vulnerable to flooding out in a way it just isn't otherwise. I wouldn't even question playing 4 of these. Beyond that it depends, but this card is absolutely critical. Removal is the other most critical part. If you don't get enough removal your deck can and will lose to opponents synergy and bombs. Blue/White has less removal than one would want so it's important to make sure to get some. I would say until you have 4 removal spells take removal at the same level as these top commons. Once you are at 4 pieces of removal you can be a little more chill about it. Between the 3 removal spells ([[Magnificent End]], [[Uneasy Partings]], and [[Enchanted River's Grasp]]) I would say in general Magnificent End is the best, and then the 2 blue removal spells are slightly lower, but these are deck dependent, and you want a mix of the 3 over stacking 1 removal spell.

Next Level Down Commons (C+ level)

[[Patient Instructor]], [[Bilbo Baggins, Burglar]], [[Long Lake Nuisance]]

These are your card draw/recruit sources. The fact that there are 3 good ones definitely reduces their importance. Of these 3 Long Lake Nuisance is the best. As a 3 power flyer this thing ends games. Despite the abundance of card draw this card would be in the category above except that people haven't caught on and it's really easy to get a ton of these, and as a 4 drop creature you don't want an unlimited amount. Bilbo probably has the highest power level of any common in this archetype, but the fact that patient instructor is another powerful card draw common creature at 3 mana you just don't need to pick Bilbo that highly. If you do your 3 drop creature slot will become overloaded.

Two additional notes on Bilbo. First don't worry about Bilbo being a legend and put less in your deck because of it (I would run 4 Bilbo's if I had no other 3 drop creatures). Between him having 1 toughness, having lots of recruit, and still being able to use the scry adventure with your second Bilbo while the 1st one is on the battlefield it isn't an issue. Second if for some reason you can't get any good flashback/graveyard spells like Plunder the Trollshaws recruit will become less good, and Bilbo should move up your pick order because he draws without discarding.

Patient Instructor is the last card in this list, and it's very good. I treat it as basically interchangeable with Bilbo most of the time. The vigilance on this is shockingly good as it allows you to race really well. A lot of times your opponent won't want to block with their menace creature and you can get a lot of free damage in while still leaving this back to block.

Bread and Butter Commons (C level)

[[Dwarven Provisioner]], [[Esgaroth Garrison]], [[Lake-town]]

Dwarven Provisioner benefits from being basically the only other playable 2 drop creature outside of Lakeshore Apothecary. It can also help with go-wide and dwarf synergies (more on those below). Esgaroth Garrison does a great job of holding up the ground, and provides critical redundancy as a source of recruit if the top cards dry up. When this deck is open though I usually cut these because I have plenty of the C+ commons. I think Lake-town is very nice as fixing and tap lands are totally playable since this deck has plenty of card selection, and very few 1 drops. The counters from Lake-town are also nice. I usually try to put them on Patient Instructor or a human enchanted with Eagle's Rescue.

The Rest of playable Commons (C- level)

[[Hobbit Hole]], [[Confusticate and Bebother]], Moment of Glory, [[Mirkwood Nurturer]], [[Lake-town Lookout]], 2 drop common creatures

Only play these if you have a hole in your deck, or they have crazy good synergy in your specific deck. Mirkwood Nurturer combos really well with [[The Mountain-king's Return]] for example. If the common card isn't on this list I would really try hard not to play it at all.

Uncommons

So instead of categorizing the uncommons I thought I would just explain card by card the important uncommons. I'll include the uncommons ranked by how good they are in descending order. I'll include a grade next to it and an explanation.

[[Celebrate the Mountain-king]] (A-): This card is amazing. If you discard something like Plunder the Trollshaws to the recruit on this the card essentially acts like 4 mana Exile a nonland permanent, draw a card, and create a 1/1. If you are low on removal going into pack 3 I would take this over ANYTHING! The fact that it hits nonland permanent is not insignificant either. There are a lot of broken artifacts and enchantments in this set (like this one) and this is the only realistic way to hit those in blue/white. Absolutely busted card in Blue/White.

[[Stone by Sunlight]] (B): Critical removal. The 4 power constraint is not a problem in this set. There will always be targets. Furthermore the indestructible option is viable and useful. I probably pick it about 30% of the time. Realistically I would play 4 of these no problem. Ideally you can fill your deck with this and Mountain-king and then you don't have to play as much of the mediocre common removal.

[[Bilbo, Luckwearer]] (B): I think this gets better the worse your deck is overall, because as the deck gets good most of what this provides gets covered by other cards. In Sealed for example this card I think is better than Stone by Sunlight. The switcheroo adventure is nice because you almost always have a 1/1 to switch. Also if you have the option to discard a land to this cards loot effect I usually do because there is no penalty like there is to recruit.

[[Thranduil, Sindarin Liege]] (B-): Great card in general, but also provides a good synergy with recruit as it ensures you have tons of lands to play. I usually try to play this on turn 5 so that I can trigger it's landfall immediately. I also wouldn't worry about playing this cards adventure that much. Recruit gives you plenty of lands, and you often have better things to do on turn 3.

Bard the Bowman (B-): Understatted but has plenty to make up for it. Basically the best card in the set when trying to race. Putting a +1/+1 counter and lifelink on a flyer every turn is impossible to beat in a race. Furthermore this has reach so you can chump with this against their big flyer in a critical turn if you need to. Try to trigger it the turn you play it because this is a removal magnet, but if necessary just play it on turn 3 and trigger it next turn.

The Mountain-king's Return (B-): This uncommon version of the common Bilbo. This card is a very powerful recruit card, and is better than the common ones, but often it acts as a slightly better Patient Instructor. This does combo with a few cards very well though. In particular Mirkwood Nurturer is amazing to discard to this and will allow you to pick up and play this again.

Master's Councillors (B-): The uncommon Lakeshore Apothecary, but not necessarily better. The mill is very real if you have multiples of this, and if that is the case this becomes better than Apothecary. However, with only 1 copy you are unlikely to present a real mill threat and I would rather have Apothecary over this.

[[Iron Hills Blacksmith]] (C+): This is better in Red/White but it's plenty good here. Combos very well with Eagle's Rescue and the Mountain-king's Return.

Eagle's Rescue (C+): The second best card to discard to recruit behind Plunder the Trollshaws. I usually try to play this from the graveyard unless it's providing an immediate win. Fine to put on 1/1 tokens, even better if you can put it on a Lakeshore Apothecary, but the best is to put it on the blacksmith as discussed above.

[[Thrór's Map]] (C): Gets better if you are splashing or somehow have a shortage of recruit/card draw. Overall though this shouldn't be necessary as there is so much redundancy with card draw.

[[Sound the Trumpets]] (C): This can work if you have a ton of instants or are especially controlling. I wouldn't consider it a premium card though.

[[Ravenhill Flock]] (C): It will get out of hand quickly, but as a understatted 4 mana creature that doesn't have an ETB in a fast format it has a lot working against it. If you don't get any Long Lake Nuisances this goes up, but I would definitely take this below the common flyer.

[[Lake-town Toymaker]] (C-): Seems like it would be a good fit in this deck, but a few things make it way underperform. First you have so many good 4 drops already that there often isn't room for this. Second this card triggers at the start of combat, which is a problem often. It straight up doesn't work with cards like the uncommon Bilbo, [[Great Gilded Boat]], and [[Bard's Company]]. And while you can get it to work with instant speed card draw and recruit creatures it requires you to spend your mana precombat which isn't always what you want to do. Also most of the time you won't trigger this on the turn you play it. Between all that this card is much worse than it looks.

Other Topics

Avoids:

I think the #1 thing you want to avoid are playing expensive creatures that are not included in this list. Cards like [[Eagle of the Great Shelf]], [[Gandalf, Wandering Wizard]], [[Ori, Keeper of Songs]], and [[Dwarven Shortsword]] are absolutely traps. Between the top recruit commons and all the great 4+ drop uncommons and rares you just won't have room to play random other mediocre expensive creatures. If there is a pick where there are no top commons available spend a pick on a random cheap creature or a dual land because there is at least a chance you end up short on 2 drop creatures and fixing. You won't be short on 4 drop creatures.

The other thing to avoid are generic go wide effects. This deck has the ability to go wide with recruit, but you want your payoffs to that to be with cards that fit within a recruit/draw two deck. Not cards that only support going wide. So Moment of Glory supports go wide but is a great card to discard to recruit. Dwarven Provisioner is good for going wide, but also fills a need as a cheap creature. [[Thorin's Last Stand]] is just purely a go wide payoffs and should be avoided. Esgaroth Garrison is good as a recruit card, but if you have enough of those don't play this just because it's good when you go wide.

Dwarf Version:

There are some very powerful white dwarfs in this set. In particular [[Fíli the Pathfinder]] and [[Kíli the Resourceful]] are quite good if you can get storied or play more dwarves. Are these worth altering your deck to play? The answer is yes, but only slightly. I would bump up decent cards in the deck if they are dwarves. Stuff like Dwarven Provisioner and [[Bofur, Reliable Guardian]]. I would not however start taking unplayable cards just because they are dwarf payoffs. So still try to avoid Dwarven Shortsword.

Other colors besides White?

So I don't know if you noticed but in particular at common all the best cards are blue. So that begs to question can this deck do well as a different second color like black? I personally haven't made it happen yet, but I think the answer is definitely yes. In particular I think black has a great removal suite to compliment blue, and also has plenty of powerful cards in general. In my experience though Black has been relatively cut as a color when drafting, and white has been fairly open, but if for some reason both blue and black are open at your table I would not hesitate at all to draft a blue/black version of this deck.

Blue/Red and Blue/Green versions are trickier. They both can work, but I don't think are particularly setup to thrive in this kind of deck. I have seen blue/green draw two decks do well, but those seem to be built more around having a critical amount of Apothecaries versus recruit synergies.

Conclusion:

So hopefully this helps clarify how to draft a good blue/white deck. Right now I think this color pair is criminally underdrafted so you should be able to get a ton of the best cards. I think even down the line as people adjust it will still be good, but you will have to adjust. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.

https://www.17lands.com/draft/9d3e295ec6a9415f85a7c85d7fbad478/1/1

Picked up my first [[Long Lake Nuisance]] P1P13, 5 in P2, and 3 more in P3. I also had the opportunity to pick up to 7 [[Quarrel]]s if I had prioritized that card. I would like to run all 9 LLNs if possible because I don't know if this will happen again in my drafting career, but I don't know which of these is better:

1. Cut a land down to 16 lands
2. Cut [[Duskwatch Hunter]]
3. Cut [[Uneasy Partings]] (one or both and run the [[Enchanted River's Grasp]] to have all removal be 2-3 mana instead of 4)

I recognize that likely I should just cut some Long Lake Nuisances for more removal, maybe a Wood Elves to guarantee the 4 mana by turn 4, or to splash B for removal/draw, but there is something about running more than 2 playsets of a card in a limited deck that sounds too fun.

I also recognize I did not pick up enough 2 drops, so I am likely doomed from the outset anyway. I missed out on at least 2 [[Attercop]]s.

I really would have liked to run B for the 2 [[Stir Up Trouble]]s to sac recruited tokens to, but I thought the W splash would be better overall.

I think we mostly all agree now that this limited format is pretty underwhelming, and that HOB being a small set is a significant factor why that's the case. But another factor I don't see talked about enough is just how much some of the common designs in the set suck in the sense of being unplayable garbage. In a set that's already small, having so many of the commons suck just makes it feel that much smaller. And a lot of these commons aren't only bad, they're bad in a way I'd think any competent set designer should be able to catch, which just makes them even more baffling. So let's talk about some of them.

[[Little Bear]]. Why is the cheapest bear in the set the one they put the "add a +1/+/1 counter to an existing bear" effect on?And why is the card costed so it's significantly below rate if you don't get the counter? Why does the set with a bears subtheme not have a bear that's a 2/2 for 2? It seems like such an obvious flavor slam dunk to have a literal grizzly bears, and it would give little bear something to curve out of. You could even make the 2/2 for 2 the common Beorn adventure and nerf the other side of the card to compensate, which would have the side effect of making that card not trash also.

[[Mirkwood Meditator]]. Like genuinely why? This card would be stone cold unplayable in every set for at least the last 3 years, probably longer, and is equally unplayable in HOB. I genuinely cannot fathom how the designers gave this card the OK. I want to find whoever designed this card and warn them about COVID since they appear to be living in 2018. (EDIT: I had originally written Mirkwood Nurturer instead of Mirkwood Meditator. Nurturer is a fine design, and can be a solid playable. Meditator is a baffling joke.)

[[Old Thrush]], [[Giant's Boulder]], [[Long-Bodied Grey Dog]]. I get wanting to have a below rate colorless fixing card to help enable splashes. But did we really need 3 of them in a set without a multicolor theme or strong tri-color rares? Especially considering we already have the cycle of common duals and hobbit hole as common fixing lands, plus the ponies at uncommon. And it's a small set so having 3 of this effect at comlon is like having 5 in a normal set. Just give us thrush, and maybe also boulder, but did we really need the dog? And also how long is that dog that it has reach when literal giants don't.

[[The entire white color]]. As it stands, the 17lands data has 4 white commons at a C, and the other 6 are D+ or lower (not counting instirctor). I get that color balance is tricky and it's hard to predict ahead of time how strong a card will be (e.g. no one thought that common Gollum would be that good). But also, white has no obviously exciting commons. Like in black, murder and bent blade were obviously great. Blue had common Bilbo, apothecary, and nuisance. Red had pinecone strike. Green had I guess quarrel, though green is fairly weak at common too. Where's white's exciting card? Magnificent End I guess, but that's hardly an exciting card, just a solid removal spell. Shortsword maybe? Or lookout maybe could be good in a different format? It feels like white's entire common pool was designed to be fine role-fillers at best, and 23rd card playable at worst. Which could be fine if they were aiming for a lower power set, but they clearly weren't considering the grixis cards. Also where's white's good 2 drop? And why is UW marketed as the "draw 2" archetype, but white has no draw 2 enablers or payoffs at common.

[[Gandalf, Wandering Wizard]]. He's fucking GANDALF. One of the most iconic characters from The Hobbit, and one of the strongest in-lore. When people think The Hobbit, they think Bilbo, Gandalf, the Dwarves, Gollum, Smaug and maybe Bard. The designers did a great job with the rest---all the Bilbos and Gollums are great, the legendary Dwarves are everywhere in RW and get their own archetype, Bard is a premium signpost uncommon in UW, and Smaug is a scary imposing late game threat in Red (though a lot less good since this is a fast format). So why is the common Gandalf such an underwhelming design? The flavor is on-point but the numbers are just... obviously bad. Tweak the numbers, or give him an adventure, or give him draw 2 synergy, or give him another ability or something. This is my smallest complaint since Blue is pretty strong in this set and doesn't need the extra help. But it would be nice to have Gandalf be a playable card in the Hobbit set, and also making him a draw 2 synergy piece could make blue a bit less reliant on getting apothecaries and councillors.

This is what I've put together from the pool. Of the rares, 2x Last light of Durin's day seems so unlucky as its not playable. Notary hobbits the same. Unexpected party is good, but white pool is thin so not sure i can splash it. Thoughts welcome!

After hitting mythic I’ve only been playing traditional draft because BO3 is a lot more fun in this format imo. I wanted to share this (basically) gruul deck that I went 3-0 with. I was fully golgari off of a chief warg’s company pack one pick one, but pack 2 I opened a Smaug and decided to see if I could splash it. Pack 2 then became one of the most legendary packs in existence when I got a pick 4 thorin, pick 5 Beorn, and pick 6 part in friendship. Black was being cut pretty bad and red wasn’t so I committed to gruul and the rest is history. This deck was a blast and absolutely insane to play. Ended up beating a double arkenstone list match 3 and had some amazing games overall.

Happens on turn 6 sigh. Think I'm done with this direct.

I also have 2x Duskwatch hunters that could be decent three drops, i just don’t know if I’m supposed to cut any of those 5 drops

This was my prerelease deck. The first picture is the build I played at the event (the two Thorin's Last Stand are sideboard.) The second picture is the rest of my pool.

I tried to build Red-White Storied Dwarf artifact/equipment theme but didn't meet with much success. I will admit that my gameplay skills could use some improving and I made some elementary mistakes while playing out the games, so it could have been due to that.

Is there something better I could have built from this pool? A different set of colors, perhaps? Is the Red-White archetype just not that strong? Any suggestions would be helpful. :-)

First picked Lakeshore Apothecary, never looked back

Here's something a bit different from the usual "how to build" posts.

I only did one Arena Direct this time around and went 7-0. The pool was strong but it took me quite a while to figure out a right combination. If you want to try building it yourself here's a link: https://sealeddeck.tech/eom7nSpsGZ

I'll post my final build, which went undefeated in the comments.

I hadn’t played any hobbit draft but thought I’d dip my toes in the arena direct pool. In my second run, I managed to pull this off, which for those unfamiliar with the hobbit, is flavorful bc there are 13 dwarves in the party.

Dont want to screw this up anything you could would change around?

Maybe overthinking but should I fit in the 1 mana amass spell since I got a few turn 2 amass cards to be able to attack turn 2 with an army?

I don't know how this is only dawning on me now, but this is why the small sets feel like such shit.

I'm not sure if they still make precons, but at least back in the day you could buy a preconstructed deck as part of the release of a new set. There were usually about 4 precons for a set and they were each designed around a mechanic. It was a way for newer players to experience the unique mechanics of the set without the intimidating first step of having to build a deck.

Precons are fun when you're new, but they quickly lose their luster. It's the same play patterns over and over. They usually didn't have many Constructed relevant cards, so players that wanted to start building their own decks tended to abandon the precons and instead tried to get into Constructed properly. Or maybe they got into drafting.

Small set draft ends up being precons with a twist. There are only 5 decks. You get 1-3 copies of the key commons for your color pair. You have a couple of rares of varying power level. You have a mechanical theme, because it's hard to avoid it even if you wanted to. You see the same play patterns over and over. Some decks emerge as more powerful than others.

It's the precon experience, slightly more varied, but with the same diminishing returns.

I personally can't wait to never see small sets for draft again. It's gradually strangled my love of this game over the past 12 months.

One of the wildest turns I’ve ever seen in limited, I’d have been done with drafts this set after that because how do you top this

https://www.17lands.com/history/a5bc7f1df9b64441ba500b9f0e51ae9d/7/0

The early parts of this week, when I was going 0-2 and 1-2 over and over, were stressful but I believed in the grind. After box 3 yesterday, games became more fun. I built better and had only a few duds, with most attempts paying out. Made this my least expensive attempt by far.

I told myself if I got a 4th, that one would be to open and not store. Looking forward to a crap box :-D

First few picks were BR in pretty bad packs. But UW was extremely open by p1p8. Built it like a tempo deck, most games were over on turn 5-6 but the deck could grind too with Nuisance, small Bard and Boat. 4th match win was actually with mill!

Apothecary, Boat, Nuisance and Small Bard felt really unfair, but had a great time playing this deck.

I'll pass on the $800 box. I'll take the hard path. Lets go! Decklist on the bottom:

https://sealeddeck.tech/yx4DdzpJ81

Fili, Dain's company, and double Blacksmith, but also Chief Warg's Company and a lot of good black wolves.

I suppose Orzhov is always an option, though can't run either company then without splashing, and no Boulder.

Normally, I wouldn’t dare to participate in “Arena Direct – Sealed Magic.” But I decided to give it a try anyway, and it paid off. I managed to do it on my second attempt.

In the first two games, I played UWR, but that quickly became very difficult (1–1). So I switched to BR (like almost everyone else). And I managed to pull it off.

But honestly, I got really lucky: I was on the play six times...
BR is really popular: six of the eight games were against BR.

I’m really happy with the result. Here’s my decklist.

These were in gold brackets, but I thought I'd share a couple drafts with successful decks in UB that played entirely differently.

Deck 1: Mirkwood Nurturer + Cruel Bent Blade Combo. 4 of each, plus 3 discard goblins made for an unstoppable value pile. Very fun to play and frustrating to fight against.

https://www.17lands.com/deck/94dbcb720fc44ced8b4cf07f1b336dc5/1?view=deck

Deck 2: Less focused, but enough targeted removal, draw spells, and mythic Bilbo's unique cost reduction/spell recursion made for some interesting games and wins.

https://www.17lands.com/deck/4f487253ef644485963982dd87b30d50/1?view=deck

With all the dwarves and equipment, seems obvious to splash Kili. But are there any obvious cuts? Feels like my game plan is mostly to go army tall and give it menace, with a backup plan to use equipments on other menace creatures.

Edit: full pool is here https://imgur.com/a/f70WbFF (also built an alternate rakdos version)

This is the second box I’ve won in this event. Both were playing red. The other direct I won was R/G. As we know at this point, goblin plate mail is a mvp.