I'm taking up the game again, after having missed both Core Set 2019 and Guilds of Ravnica. Therefore, I bought a couple of booster boxes per missed set. Let's open and play these as Sealed Decks with my brother, simultaneously bringing my singles collection up to date.
Ravnica Allegiance looks very nice. I decided upfront to play a different guild during each of the 4 prerelease events on 2019-01-19 and 2019-01-20. Unfortunately, because of the mediocre Addendum mechanic, Azorius was not one of them. In fact, more than half the opposing decks were Azorius, mostly splashing Black, and in retrospect I know why. I got beaten a lot, but had big fun nevertheless !
Mediocre Simic pool, no splash. Results: 0-2 and 1-2 losses against Azorius (each with 2 planeswalkers), respectively, and then an easy 2-1 win against a Rakdos beginning player.
Another mediocre pool: Rakdos. This pool was the worst. I had to play Green as a 3rd color (5 cards), eventually swapping for a White splash right before the 3rd round. Same story: 1-2 and 0-2 losses against Azorius splash Black, and then an easy 2-0 win against a Gruul splash Black beginning player.
Yet another mediocre pool: Orzhov. I simply couldn't splash Red, with only 2 relevant guildgates/taplands in total. After a 1-1 draw against Azorius (which I eventually would have lost), I lost 0-2 against a stronger deck in the mirror match, and I also lost 1-2 against Gruul splash Black.
Finally, a very decent Gruul pool ! I had good hopes, starting with a tight 2-1 win against Orzhov splash Red. Unfortunately, the (un)luck of the draw, i.e. mulligans and mana issues, made me lose 0-2 against Azorius, and also 0-2 against Rakdos.
My 2019-01-25 Ravnica Allegiance release draft didn't go so well, perhaps because of having lost the drafting habit during the preceding 6 months. I ended up with a meagre WB splah U deck, going 0-2 against Gruul, 1-2 against Simic splash W, and 2-0 against Gruul splash UB. Nevertheless, this format is quite interesting and fun to play, mainly due to its highly interactive nature !
The 2019-01-26 Sealed Deck tourney went better for me: I won all 3 rounds ! Strangely enough, there were only 4 contestants, so everybody played everybody. I had a Gruul deck splash B for 1 extra removal spell (partly because of my usual paranoia, and partly because on a sound mana base it's good practice in the Sealed Deck format, anyway). I won both first mirror matches 2-0 (my 1st round opponent being a beginner, so I helped him to significantly improve his deck after the match), and then I won 2-1 against a slower Simic deck. Needless to say: I'm quite fond of the excellently named Savage Smash card ...
My first 2019-01-27 draft of the day resulted in a reasonable Gruul splash B deck, albeit only including 5 2-drop creatures. Unfortunately, I lost 0-2 to a very consistent Simic deck with just about everything in it, then I won 2-1 against Azorius, and finally I lost 1-2 to the Gruul mirror (same splash) after an extremly tight third game.
My second 2019-01-27 draft of the day was kind of a trainwreck: a low-curve weak Rakdos deck trying to utilize its 3 Goblin Gathering. Apart from lots of removal, my creatures were very weak. I managed to win only 1 game with my evenly underwhelming (2 copies of) Burn Bright: a 1-2 loss against Azorius, a 0-2 loss against Rakdos, and a bye. Let's simply forget this. Next Saturday, the quarterly crazy 'Super Sealed Deck' tourney will be held, i.e. using an entire booster box as one's sealed pool ...
I played a bad Gruul splash B deck on 2019-02-01, after having switched from Rakdos at the pack 2 pick 1 Gruul planeswalker. That was not the brightest idea, because my right hand side neighbour clearly was cutting Green, and I had already passed some good Gruul cards myself. The resulting trainwreck (all commons plus the mythic planeswalker), again, resulted in a 0-2 loss against Gruul, a 0-2 loss against Azorius, and a 2-0 win against some weak Orzhov. It's remarkable that my initial 4 drafts all ended in 1-2-0. Hence, it's about time for some serious improvements, in the hopes of regaining 'old glory' ...
The full booster box Sealed Deck on 2019-02-02 was non-trivial fun as usual. Combining most of my bombs, I played Gruul splash Blue. In retrospect, perhaps I should have stuck to Gruul without the splash (for consistency reasons). Considering the agressive Gruul nature, it was not so easy to decide on the exact number of taplands. I was quite happy to beat Rakdos 2-1 in the first round. Unfortunately, I lost 1-2 to Orzhov (yes: Ethereal Absolution plus a couple of Glass of the Guildpact). I fact, Gruul has very reasonable defense: Cindervines, potentially enabling Spectacle for Skewer the Critics, even Sunder Shaman, and the excellent (main board) multifunctional Collision // Colossus. I lost the 3rd round 0-2 to some annoying Azorius splash G shenanigans, a.o. getting 4 Lawmage's Binding in a row. I'm sure I might have improved my deck in between rounds, but the giant card pool provides quite a challenge. For sideboarding, I mainly stuck to increasing the number of Scorchmark, thereby lowering the curve. All in all: an informative experience ! As opposed to prior sets, I don't seem to fully grasp the current metagame, yet. This means there's significant depth with lots of options, just the way it should always (have) be(en).
My 'pod of 6' booster draft on 2019-02-08 didn't go well at all. I speculatively took a Rakdos card pack 1 pick 1, instead of making a choice between 2 Gruul cards. The rest is now past history as well. My Rakdos splash White deck got defeated 0-2 all 3 times (against Azorius, Gruul, and Gruul again, respectively). Even though I was in the correct colors (my righthand side neighbour drafting Azorius), I often didn't even see any cards in my colors. One thing's for sure: playing lots of removal appears to be insufficient in this format ...
2019-02-15: finally, some modest success again. This time, I tried out a bit of a different approach: simply taking the best cards (mostly Black and Red Removal) in the entire first pack, and just taking gates in case of nothing special. Early 2nd pack, I got hypnotized by the amazing Gatebreaker Ram and the like, so I happily switched to a Gruul deck with 'free' Black splash. Very unfortunately, I got mana screwed on my main Red color twice in the first round (i.e. 0-2 loss, against WUG splash R), but after that, I won 2-0 twice in a row, against Esper and a hole in my memory, respectively (since I'm writing this too late after the fact, and apparently having forgotten to take some decent notes). Anyway, I'm breaking the negative trend ...
On 2019-02-17, I played a 'special' booster draft, in the sense that every player was dealt 4 booster packs instead of 3. I found the experience extremely difficult, ending up in an Azorius tempo-ish deck, but my righthand side opponent (= my 2nd round opponent) also happened to be Azorius (unfortunately the strong High Alert version), and another player as well (= my 3rd round opponent). I first lost 0-2 against an 'unbeatable' Ethereal Absolution Orzhov deck. After that I lost 0-2 and drew 1-1 against the above mentioned Azorius varieties (with an unmaterialized clear win after at most 2 turns beyond the 5 'called time' turns against this last opponent). The good thing is I'm learning all the time, but I really can't say I'm sufficiently grasping the current format, in sharp contrast to most prior limited formats. I do think it makes sense to hate draft 'enchantment bombs', because they're particularly hard to remove from the battlefield. There's a lot more drafts coming up until the end of April ('War of the Spark'), so let's not give up hope ...
2019-02-22: Good WU splash B draft from the beginning, with multiple choices on several pick occasions. However, I first lost 1-2 to Gruul in a tight match, then I lost 1-2 against Orzhov in another tight match, and finally I had a relatively easy 2-0 win against BRG Jund splash U. Historically not being a Blue player myself, I did learn a couple of things, though. It was unfortunate that my pack 1 pick 2 High Alert was not very useful, and I missed my 4th Lawmage's Binding, due to hate picking a Biogenic Ooze (against which I wouldn't have had very much defense).
I had a nice draft on 2019-03-01: Simic gates, splashing Red for Domri, Chaos Bringer (pack 1 pick 1) and White for 2 Lawmage's Binding + the Archway Angel gate payoff. Of course, I also played a Gate Colossus (pack 1 pick 2) and a Gatebreaker Ram (early pack 2 pick). Blue remained the most open color both ways, so I ended up with a reasonable curve as well. After some unfortunate mana screw/flood issues (which will probably eternally remain Magic's Achilles heel), I lost 0-2 against Rakdos, but after that I won 2-0 against Gruul, and 2-1 against a removal-heavy Orzhov deck. Picking gates instead of mediocre playables during the draft was quite nice. I now have played all 6 archetypes (except for variations within the color pairs), but I still don't see any clear favorites (apart from the usual skewing through insane bombs like Ethereal Absolution). My Ravnica Allegiance singles collection has just been completed, but I'll gladly keep drafting this elusive set, anyway ...
On 2019-03-08, I drafted a solid Gruul deck splashing Black, completing my 9 hard removal spells in addition to my 14 creatures, i.e. just the way I have always liked it, historically speaking. I forecasted 2 wins, and I was right: my deck was slightly heavy at the top, and I was slightly short on trample to consistently overrun those dreaded afterlife creatures. I never had to mulligan, and only once got slightly mana screwed. My 7 gates (tap lands) supporting my very solid 3-color mana base (playing a Gate Colossus, and in my sideboard also a Gates Ablaze) sometimes cost me some tempo. I often boarded out my Scorchmark in favor of an interactive power/toughness boosting trick. Results summary: I obtained a 2-1 win against UWrg (my opponent only playing 7 lands for each of his main colors), a close 1-2 loss against Orzhov splash Blue, and a 2-0 win against Simic. This time during the draft portion, Red being very open and Black removal coming my way, I kept it less extreme, in the sense that I reasonably paid attention to the signals until the end of pack 1, instead of always picking the very best card. As my pack 2 pick 1, I actually hate picked a Ethereal Absolution. It didn't end up in my deck (as a 4th color mini-splash), despite both my Orzhov Guildgate. I don't know whether I should have sacrificed some consistency in favor of this powerhouse. In case of doubt, and more specifically in context of an already very solid deck, I tend to take the 'conservative' lower variance route, i.e. prefering no sacrifices at all ...
2019-03-15: Gruul splashing Black again for the extra removal ... My best decision no doubt was playiny 18 lands, because of my stretched curve (only 3 creatures in the 2 CMC and 3 CMC slots each). With no fast decks amongst my opponents, I managed to get 2 wins out of the 3 rounds: a 1-2 loss against a better curved Gruul deck, a 2-0 win against Rakdos splash White, and a 2-0 win against Gruul splash Blue.
I drafted a pure Orzhov deck on 2019-03-22, based on my pack 1 pick 1 Ethereal Absolution. Later on, I also got a Kaya's Wrath and a Spawn of Mayhem. Playing 18 lands because of my midrange/control approach, supported by 4 low-CMC deathtouch creatures to help reaching the late game, I still got mana screwed a couple of times. Nevertheless, the result remained as I predicted: 2 wins, more precisely a 2-1 win against Azorius splash Black, a 2-1 win against Simic, and a 0-2 loss against Rakdos (playing Cavalcade of Calamity).
I drafted an inferiorly curved Esper deck on 2019-03-29, having started via 5-drop flying creatures during the first couple of picks. I first tried Blue as the splash color (playing 18 lands plus a locket), but that resulted in a 0-2 loss against Rackdos (after my unfortunate two mulligans). After that, I entirely rebuilt my deck, 'more freely' splashing White (making full use of my Orzhov and Azorius gates), which got me to a 1-0 win against the Esper semi-mirror (i.e. opponent's Black splash), almost decking myself during the 1st game (after having forced a breakthrough via Cry of the Carnarium, which I played mainboard, due to otherwise lack of playables); I also was well ahead during the 2nd unfinished game, mainly because of my Blue midrangy adapt creatures. Unfortunately, I ran into a significantly stronger Simic splash Red deck in the 3rd round, losing 1-2. All in all, as always (despite having missed a weekly draft event early January during my half-year break from Magic), I ended (5th) in the quarterly ranking's top-8, despite my historical 2nd to last worst draft format result (44%), not even having won any single event. As they say, consistency pays. Having performed a very last card trade, I have completed my singles collection for this set. Hence, I tried my luck with Dominaria booster packs as prize money (still hunting for both Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Karn, Scion of Urza Dominaria planeswalkers, which I'd happily trade against my spare MM2 Tarmogoyf, and shock lands and other goodies, respectively). Alas, no cigar ... Due to an upcoming shoulder operation with some uncomfortable consequences concerning my mobility, I'll probably best skip all further Ravnica Allegiance drafts (happily mentioning I thoroughly did enjoy this format), until the anticipated end of April strange new planeswalkers set release/madness.
During the 2019-04-27 and 2019-04-28 War of the Spark prerelease weekend, it became clear that this bombiest format of all (including an abundance of planeswalkers) would become quite a challenge to master. Hard to say which archetypes are the strongest, and whether difficult splashing would be worthwhile. Lots of new emerging patterns, but that's the way we like to learn ... This weekend, I apparently always played White plus mostly Green, which is not so unnatural considering my historical preference for these colors. Obviously, the card pool itself always dictates where to go, but still ...
My 1st card pool seemed a bit mediocre/underwhelming, and I accurately predicted a 1-2-0 outcome. Indeed, my RW deck won 2-1 against Abzan, but then lost 1-2 to another Abzan deck, and finally 0-2 against Rakdos.
My 2nd card pool led me to a stronger UG concoction, first losing 0-1 (+ unfinished business) against Abzan, but then winning 2-0 twice, against BUW and UGR, respectively.
During the first (2019-04-27 evening) draft, I ended up with a RG deck without a single planeswalker. I won 2-0 against a WUG deck, then I lost 1-2 against a GW deck (not finding my topdeck in the last game to burn his single last point of life), and finally I lost 1-2 against Rakdos in the most horrible way: remaining stuck on my 2 opening hand lands (accompanied by only 3-drops and higher) on the play, thereby consecutively discarding down to 7 cards. The sooner the London Mulligan rule will become implemented, the better ...
I started the 2nd prerelease day by brewing a GW mini-splash Black deck, which won 2-1 against WUB, but drew 1-1 against a grindy UB deck (after butchering a winning position in the 45 minutes long first game), and finally lost 0-2 against a clearly broken GWu card pool.
My last card pool of the weekend contained lots of bombs, which unfortunately were hard to combine into a single playable deck. I settled for a GW difficult Blue mini-splash deck (necessarily having given up on the black God and a couple of very strong removal spells). I first won 2-0 against WUb, then I lost 0-2 against an even bombier BG deck, and finally I triumphantly won 2-1 during called time against a very strong Abzan deck, piloted by my arch-nemesis (well, in fact the friendliest guy at any table, and we go way back ...). I exceptionally don't mind gloating about this, because the balance during our frequent encounters mostly has been tilting the other way : - ).
My 2019-05-03 release draft immediately went 3-0-0 at my 6 players draft pod, simply by drafting my preferred recipe (this time BW): a good curve, consisting of 9 hard removal spells (including 1 planeswalker) + 14 creatures (including tap and removal abilities at the low end, and flying at the high end). The last time I won a draft actually dated from December 2017 (for what it's worth: also keeping my 6 months 2018 break in mind). I won 2-0 against a mediocre RW deck (who in fact was my right-hand side neighbour, strangely passing many very decent White spells to me). After that, I won 2-0 due to my opponent forfeiting the match upfront because 'he didn't like playing against me'. This totally ridiculous behavior traces back to the prerelease, where this person completely lost his composure after our 1-1 draw (me losing instead of winning the very complex 45 minutes 1st game, after which I won the 2nd game in less than 5 minutes by means of the last turn during called time). I obviously reported this kind of behavior on both occasions (at 'regular' rules enforcement level, mind you ...). The fact that this person actually is a judge, and therefore should play an exemplary role, does not speak in his favor. Anyway, I also won the last round 2-0 against a GU deck, by tapping down his God-Eternal Rhonas ... Tomorrow: double draft, because 'draft weekend' is upon us !
On 2019-05-04 (before noon), I drafted a very reasonable GW deck (containing Nissa, Who Shakes the World), although being a bit low on 2-drops. I first won 2-0 against Esper, then I lost 0-2 against a fast BR deck (unfortunately getting severly flooded in the 1st game, i.e. keeping a 5-land opening hand on the play, and only drawing lands during the first 5 turns), to conclude with a 1-0 win against a UR beginner.
My 2019-05-04 afternoon draft was not so easy. There were 5 solid pack 1 pick 1 options, and I kept floating between Green, Red and White until late pack 2. I settled on a very midrangy GR big splash W deck (Red being the main color), which brought me 2-0 wins against UG and BUG, respectively (the last of which I had to play extremely carefully against a very experienced opponent), but I was chanceless against the last very aggressive low curve RW deck (which played mostly White for that matter). My combined prerelease plus release draft record ended up 8-4-0 (so exactly 2-1-0 on average, resulting in 4 booster packs as prizes), which is perfectly fine by me ... I'm now looking forward to especially the Super Sealed Deck event next Saturday (i.e. a full booster box as card pool), which promises to be a totally crazy experience considering this format's exceptional bomb orientation.
2019-05-10 (6-player pod): horrible draft, horrible result. After 2 booster packs: finally some indication to go for RW, barely scraping together 23 playables. All 0-2 losses (against GU, BUr, and mono-B, respectively). The end.
2019-05-11: the crazy (winner-take-all) full booster box sealed deck event ... As expected, the matches would all revolve about the bombs, hence the more one could cram those into a deck, the better. My bombs included God-Eternal Oketra, Gideon Blackblade, Ilharg, the Raze-Boar, Sarkhan the Masterless, and Nissa, Who Shakes the World. Therefore (and because of 3 Law-Rune Enforcer), I played RW. However, I overestimated my 4 Raging Kronch, which often cost me the necessary tempo to keep the pressure on. Also, in that respect, I played too many 3-drops instead of more (inferior quality) 2-drops. Because of the vast number of deck construction choices, this format remains the hardest of all, but it's always fun ... My results: 1-0 win against Abzan, 0-2 loss against a bombs-packed BG deck (containing both Gods + 2 Ugin, the Ineffable, etc.), and a 1-2 loss against a faster/wider mirror deck (well, in fact 1-1, but we played it out for fun). I'll keep participating in these events, because there's a lot to be learned, it really helps (trading for) my singles collection, and perhaps I might win the booster box sometime in the future.
On 2019-06-08, I tried a small 'inconsistency' experiment. I drafted a controlling WR deck, mini-splashing my pack 2 pick 1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World by means of 3 Mana Geode and a Gateway Plaza, without any Forest. This brought me a 1-2 loss against UBwg, a 1-1 draw against Esper, and a 2-1 win against BR. I hadn't played for 4 weeks, so it all had to come back to me ...
On 2019-06-14, I drafted my kind of deck again to win my 6 players draft pod: 9 hard removal + 14 creatures (in fact, no planeswalkers). My deck being BR (just containing 3 uncommons plus 14 commons, i.e. no rares), I had a reasonable number of amass related spells, just in case I had to slow down my opponent. Also, it contained 10 agressive and/or undercosted 3 CMC creatures (topping my curve at 4 CMC). I won 2-0 against UG, and 2-0 against WU. I won the last round 2-0 due to my opponent again not wanting to play against me, yes, this very same judge with obvious psychological issues, i.e. exactly the same 2019-05-03 scenario. I simply reported him again to the shop keeper. Each Friday, I'm actually driving through traffic jams to have some Magic fun and blow a stressful work week (and other stuff) out of my mind. I do not appreciate at all to get 'accused' of slow drafting, while this judge doesn't even respect the minimum 30 seconds review period (which I tend to fully utilize) in between drafting rounds, duh. I also do not appreciate at all to get 'accused' (after the fact instead of during play by simplying calling the acting judge) of playing too slowly, e.g. during the last prerelease when there was a gigantic board state with multiple planeswalkers (as a matter of fact against this judge, while somebody else was actually judging that prerelease). I do keep detailed records: in 2019 I had 2 draws out of 27 Sealed Deck matches and 1 draw out of 57 Booster Draft matches ... If his refusal to play would happen a 3rd time, I will push a bit harder to get this kind of cancerous behavior out of our otherwise very friendly play environment. Nobody else behaves like this towards me (irrespective of potential judge title), and I certainly would never even consider acting like that towards other players. Anyway, there's always YouTube to fill dead moments while others are playing the round (similar to a sporadic 'bye' situation), and I did get my 2 booster packs prize a bit easier than deserved, but that's obviously not why I'm into Magic.
On 2019-06-21, I drafted a GR semi-proliferate deck (again containing no rares, and this time a bit higher on the curve without mana acceleration, and again exhibiting a crowded 3 CMC slot). I won 2-1 against WBR and 2-0 against WU, but lost against a low-curve UB deck (containing a turn 2 Dreadhorde Invasion, etc.).
My last War of the Spark draft on 2019-06-28 again put me in GR (without proliferate this time, but my deck containing no less than 3 rares). This brought me a 2-1 result, which happens to be exactly my best card set draft performance, i.e. 60%. I won 2-0 against WU and UR, but lost 1-2 against another UR deck, due to getting stuck on 3 lands during the last 2 games. All in all, I liked War of the Spark quite a bit (despite its high-variance 'king' format); M20 next week will require some adaptation ...
Because prereleases nowadays start at regular FNM hours instead of midnight, the M20 prerelease weekend stretched from 2019-07-05 to 2019-07-07. I didn't play the Saturday afternoon session because of other commitments, but that was perhaps for the better. Not many people seemed impressed by the M20 card pool quality (nor the promo cards), to put it mildly, and I definitely concurred. Apart from the Elemental (75%) and WU Flyer (15%) archetypes, only a minor 10% of other stuff seemed to make it into other people's decks. I apparently didn't take enough notes about my own decks, so that I barely remember what color combinations I played. I sincerely hope the upcoming Booster Draft metagame will be more interesting than the entire past Sealed Deck experience.
Let's be brief about the Friday 2019-07-05 session: bad pool + bad result. 1-2 losses against UGw and UGr Elementals, respectively, and a bye (= win) because of an uneven number of participants. I don't even remember what colors I played.
On Saturday 2019-07-06, I played WG, which went a lot better. Although I lost 0-2 in the mirror match, I won 2-0 against WR and WUb, respectively.
Sunday 2019-07-07 before noon, I played a UGwr deck, i.e. double splash, because of the good mana-fixing lands. I lost 0-2 Against GRu Elementals, I won 2-1 against UG Elementals, and I presumably won 2-1 against RG, you guessed it, Elementals (whereby 'presumably' means: we, i.e. me and my 9 years young opponent, both couldn't remember whether I had tied 1-1 during called time, or actually had won 2-1; hence, I simply gave my potentially undeserved extra prize booster to him, which he wasn't entitled too, anyway, but I should have kept score, and it will make me sleep better at night :-).
Sunday 2019-07-07 afternoon, I played a GWu deck containing 3 Inspiring Captain + some more 'overrun' effects. Alas, no cigar: I lost 1-2 against BG Elementals (due to getting color-screwed in the 3rd game after my dubious non-mulligan) and UG Elementals, respectively, but finally won 2-1 against WU Flyers.
The M20 release draft on 2019-07-12 was not so easy at a table of 10. In addition, I wasn't impressed about the draft packs quality. Hopefully, this will improve during the double draft on Sunday. Anyway, I ended up with a GWr mini-splash deck (Green being a very solid M20 color, a.o. Overcome). I won 2-0 against BR and 2-0 against BG, but I lost 0-2 against a very strong UB control deck.
Due to my prerelease(s) experience, I didn't have high expectations for the 2019-07-13 Sealed Deck event, but I managed to put a reasonable BG deck together, with considerable high-end. I won 2-0 against RGu, but I lost 0-2 against UG (actually missing a Wakeroot Elemental activation), due to its strong flyers. Luckily, I won the BG mirror 2-1.
My 2019-07-14 morning draft did not go well. I drafted a BGuw deck with a big Blue splash and a free White mini-splash. I lost 0-2 against BGw, then I had a bye/win due to the uneven number of pod players, and eventually I lost 1-2 against a WUr Flyers deck.
I expected a lot more from the 2019-07-14 afternoon draft. Just like during one of my Sealed Deck prerelease events, I drafted 3 Inspiring Captain + a couple of overrun effects for my GW deck. However, after barely having won 2-1 against my 1st round UGR Elementals opponent, I lost twice (0-2) to even more aggressive decks: WR and WB.
2019-08-02: I tried a BG (Green bombs) based 5-color deck, abandoning the Blue mini-splash during the 1st round for consistency purposes. Play was fun, but I nevertheless stranded at a 1-2 loss against WG, a 0-2 loss against RG, and a 2-0 win against the BG mirror.
2019-08-09: Long time ago, but I played Blue (actually WUbr Flyers, i.e. incorporating 2 mini-splashes, especially Rotting Regisaur). My 2-0 and 2-1 wins (against a UR beginner and a RGu deck) were relatively easy, but I lost 1-2 against mono-B (which successively Murdered all my good stuff).
2019-09-06: mediocre Gwb deck; disaster result: twice 0-2 loss against UB decks, and 0-2 loss against WG mirror; the end.
2019-09-20 = another short story: bad UB deck; twice 0-2 loss against Elementals (RG and UG, respectively), and 1-2 loss against WR; the very end. Unfortunately, for personal reasons, I'll need to skip all Throne of Eldraine prereleases. What a bummer ...
Not having played any Throne of Eldraine prereleases, straight to drafting ...
Drafted a non-mill UB deck at the 2019-10-04 release draft event. Lost 0-2 against WR aggro and the UB mirror, respectively, after which I drew 1-1 against GR. Not having played these cards before, drafting was really hard ...
Drafted a WU Flyers deck during the 1st knock-out draft on 2019-10-05. However, I lost a tight match (1-2) against BR, hence I was eliminated ...
Drafted a BG Food deck during the 2nd knock-out draft on 2019-10-05. After a first-round bye, I won 2-0 against UB, but I lost 0-2 against BR ...
Drafted a WR Aggro deck during the 3rd knock-out draft on 2019-10-06. Lost 1-2 against WG Adventures, hence eliminated ...
Drafted a UB Mill deck during the 4th knock-out draft on 2019-10-06. Lost 1-2 against WR Aggro ...
Hard as always, I created a WR Knights deck out of the full booster box on 2019-10-20. After a 1-1 draw against Gu card draw, I switched to BR Knights, unfortunately getting milled twice by a Ub deck. Horrible results up till now, but a very amusing card set !
Drafted an inferior UB Mill deck on 2019-11-15. Additionally, fatigue induced playing errors (and not having played for almost a month) led to 0-2 losses against BR Aggro in the 1ste and 3rd rounds, respectively, however keeping my 2nd round UBG opponent to a 1-1 draw.
Drafted a defensive BG Food deck on 2019-11-29, but it was too slow. After a 1st round bye, I barely kept my 2nd round WB Knights opponent to 1-1 (via un unfinished game, where I was way behind). I lost the 3rd round against the tourney winner: mono-R. This all means that I've won only 1 single match (non-bye) out of 21. I've never experienced such a horrible performance (actually lower than 20%), but it already started plummeting during M20, from the moment I could only play 1 FNM per 2 weekends, due to kids priorities. I have no clue, yet, on how I could be skyrocketing again ...
After having missed 2 booster draft events due to traffic jams, I attended the last one of the year (on 2019-12-27). My pack 1 pick 1 Lochmere Serpent monster immediately put me in the best colors, and I ended up with a very reasonable deck. I stranded at a 1-1 draw against a UG opponent, then managed to win 2-0 against WBR Knights, but lost 0-2 against an annoying low-curve BR 'ping' deck. At least, this meant a 2nd match win, but I didn't end up in the quarterly top-8 this time, due to not having played enough + the mostly horrible results. Despite all of this, Throne of Eldraine remains a fun set to draft/play !