Channeling my inner Warrior at the Zendikar Rising Release Draft

After a fun pre-release experience I was looking forward to trying out Zendikar Rising as a draft, the original Zendikar block had in my opinion some of the best draft formats so I was interested in seeing if Zendikar Rising could match up (or would instead be just average like the 2nd Zendikar block).

In order to keep my impressions fresh I avoided casual drafts and MTG Arena drafts before the Release draft. My original plan was to go for a blue-green kicker strategy or a blue-black mill strategy if possible because both of those looked strong and fit into my preferred play styles, however as always with draft I would try to follow the signs I was given and obviously wouldn't turn down a 1st pick Bomb in a different strategy in order to try and force my preferred archetype/s.

Thanks to Harley (one of the always fantastic Card House Crew of my LGS) I was able to get photos taken of my packs.

Pack 1 - I went with the obvious value card and Bomb-ish mythic, Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients cementing me in Boros with an intention to draft Boros Equipment Warriors. There honestly wasn't anything close to Nahiri in the pack but the foil Fearless Fledgeling or the dual sided Fling effect of Kazuul's Fury were both notable (and notably in the same Boros colors as Nahiri).

These were my picks for the 1st set of packs (left to right, top to bottom), nothing amazing but I did manage to pick up some solid warriors, removal and a piece of equipment.

Pack 2 - this pack was pretty mediocre for my deck, I ended up 1st picking Emeria Captain (at the time I thought I would end up with a party sub-theme). If this was my 1st pack I would have windmill slammed the Roost of Drakes as a 1st pick, it's an incredibly strong card for the UG kicker archetype.

The 2nd set of packs was much less deep for Boros (lots of good black floating around though) but I did manage to pick up several more warriors, a 2nd piece of equipment and a Kor Blademaster (one of the key uncommons for my strategy).

Pack 3 - Not much to evaluate here, like with pack 1 I went for the obvious on color strong mythic, Emeria's Call. Other notables include Murasa Rootgrazer (very strong for a Selesnya landfall archetype) and Irredescent Hornbeetle (a power uncommon for a +1/+1 counter Golgari archetype). But even if this had been Pack 1 Emeria's Call still feels like the obvious 1st pick.

The 3rd set of packs was much deeper for my colors, I managed to pick up another piece of equipment, another decent removal spell and a bunch of solid warriors including a fantastic 2nd pick of Kargan Warleader (one of the power uncommons for the archetype).

This was the final deck, 9 mountains, 7 plains, and a super aggressive warrior curve backed up by a few removal spells and a couple of top end dual faced land/spells. The only thing I regret about the deck is that it ended up with just 3 pieces of equipment, I was taking equipment very high but there were a few other pieces in the draft that I passed over for cards like Kargan Warleader and none of them tabled (came back around to me), optimally I would have liked at least 1-2 more pieces of equipment. That said it was still a great deck that I had high hopes for.

Round 1 - 2-0 Win vs Boros (mainly landfall)

Game 1 I won the roll and chose to start 1st, my opponent had to mulligan once and I simple curved out beautifully with a 3rd turn Warleader making all my creatures bigger and making 1 for 1 trades very difficult allowing me to simply beatdown each turn for the win.

Game 2 we both mulligan'd once but while she ended up fairly mana flooded and although she did get out Felidar Retreat (a great rare landfall enchantment) it was not enough to deal with doublestrike from Kor Blademaster + Scavenged Blade.

Round 2 - 1-2 Loss vs Mardu Party

Game 1 I won the roll chose too start 1st and had my deck's god curve of 2 drop warrior, 3 drop Warleader, 4 drop Nahiri which quickly won the game.

Game 2 with the opponent on the play I ended up with mana flood problems (drew 4 lands in a row) and the few creatures I did get out weren't enough to deal with a solid curve, a bit of removal and the menace evasion from Ravager's Mace.

Game 3 I was on the play and we both curved out well, it felt like a pretty even race, he double Malakir Bloodpriest'd me down to low health, I came back with an Emeria's Call which I though was enough to stabilize and hopefully win on the next turn but it was not enough to protect me from being drained out by a Zof Consumption.

Round 3 - 2-0 Win vs Orzhov good stuff with Orah

Game 1 I lost the roll but my opponent chose to draw, I curved out super well with Kor Blademaster, Nahiri and Akoum Warrior. He did slow me down with life gain from Orah lifelink and a timely Disenchant on my Scavenged Blade but it wasn't enough.

Game 2 opponent chose to draw again, I simply curved out well with my common warriors, his Kor Celebrant put in work slowing down my smaller creatures and gaining him life but curving a 5th turn Scourge Rider, 6th turn kicked hasty Scourge Rider was too much to deal with.

Overall 2-1 and 2nd place (my game 2 opponent was the 3-0 victor of the draft). I had a lot of fun with this draft, Boros Warriors wasn't my 1st choice but with the right cards it can definitely be a powerhouse. I did have strange luck with opponents never seeing any decks with blue or green though so i'm not sure exactly how well it would go in those matchups (being outmatched by huge green creatures seems like it could be a real problem for the archetype). I don't know if the format quite lives up to the hype that was the original Zendikar block but it does feel a lot of fun (and similar to 3x Rise of the Eldrazi there's a lot of different viable archetypes to choose from), and at the very least it's better than Zendikar 2.0 and one of the better draft formats i've seen in the last couple of years.

Good luck to everyone else drafting the set, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Bonus - what would you have 1st picked for each of my packs, do you agree with my picks or do you have a completely different take? I'm interested to know.