Dominaria Draft.
Opponent has Seal Away (exiling my Cloudreader Sphinx) as well as an assortment of soldier tokens and various white 2 power derps.
I have Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar and Tatyova out. Waiting in my hand: Naru Meha and a Broken Bond, with some lands. I decide to hang on to the Bond, as my board can definitely handle my opponent's. While I'd love to get the Sphinx back and scry a bit, my opponent might just present me with another Disenchant target ...
I get rewarded on my opponent's next turn, as he drops In Bolas's Clutches on Multani. Value in 3-2-1-
On my turn, throw Broken Bond at the Clutches and flash in the Master Wizard for a second Bonds.
Break the Seal Away.
Drop a land from the copied Bond, draw 1 gain 1.
Sphinx returns. Scry into more goodies.
Break the Clutches.
Drop another land with Bond, draw 1 gain 1.
End my turn with 20 extra power on my board and still a decently full grip.
Apart from the obvious rares and bombs (Regisaur Alpha is just plain old brutal), cards that worked out really well for me were the River Heralds' Boon (the 'put both counters on the same merfolk' mode came in handy more than just once!) and the Whiptails. Apparently, Dinosaur Spiders get an extra power, which allows them to snack on practically every flier in Ixalan.
Also, Vance's Blasting Cannons is absurd, both unflipped and flipped. I was spell-slingy enough to be able to flip it a couple times (love the Opt reprint, btw). Once the Bolts started flying, games tended to end quickly in my favour.
I walked home with a booty of prize boosters, netting me T-shirt Jace and Admiral Beckett Brass for all my Commander needs. Really looking forward to drafting this set and seeing all those tribal synergies even more in action.
So far, I have run Wastes-based ramp (Ruin in their Wake as pseudo Rampant Growth), but Hour of Promise makes me want to transition into ramping with Deserts (which, unfortunately, aren't Wastes and vice versa) for the extra line of defense the zombie tokens provide, as well as being able to dig up any land (Sea Gate Wreckage anyone?). I'll try and make some adjustments to the deck and hope to come up with something that feels satisfying and powerful.
You're currently mixing up two different uses of 'if' in Magic.
There's the if associated with replacement effects, which usually shows up at the beginning of the sentence. Usually formatted 'If an event would happen, do something different instead' (example: Parallel Lives)
Then, there's the intervening if that shows up on conditional triggers, which is formatted like this:
'When an event happens, if condition is true, do the following' (example: Renegade Rallier)
Exert is not a triggered ability, so it can't use the intervening if templating. That's probably why they decided to go for the 'when'.
MM3 is great! 4 colour durdle control appears to be my archetype of choice. Won today's draft with this deck. People kept passing me great removal, so I had to cram all of them into the deck.
My pool was crazy good and I got to pull off some really busted stuff. Baral's Expertise, free Shipwreck Moray, give it haste with Spontaneous Artist, smash opponent. Decommission seems easily maindeckable and always found a target. Improvise felt good, I usually got the spells at a discount of 1-2 mana. With only a single Revolt spell in the deck, I never got to Revolt.
Among the commanders I run, definitely Mishra, Artificer Prodigy. Brother's War nostalgia! To give him a fitting home, I run somecards referencing him, as well as a couple of Phyrexia-flavouredartifacts.
I also pack a bunch of unblockable/protection equipments to bypass opponents' defenses, so Mishra can vent all his frustration on opposing planeswalkers. If his brother gets printed in a future Commander edition (or something along those lines), he may finally get his chance to exact his revenge.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels resonate so well with me, I haven't yet found anything that compares to them. I have some fond teenage-age memories of devouring any Wolfgang Hohlbein book I could get my hands on, but I somehow don't dare to re-read then to avoid getting disappointed.
Run a lot of tokens. Can't return those from the graveyard. They also often come in swarms and respond well to pump effects. Jeskai Ascendancy worth a consideration? Allows you to both boost your tokens and profit off your token-generator spells by dumping excess land.
Then, there's Skywise Teachings. Partner with red (kill your guy, get a djinn, kill another guy, get a djinn ...) or white for the 2-mana rebound spells.
4) What's the most underappreciated card? Sibsig Muckdraggers. Sure expensive, but a 6 toughness Gravedigger is a thing.
5) What's the worst common that people still play? Lightning Shrieker. Probably because dragon.
6) What was your favorite archetype?
Anything heavy in Morphs/Manifests. Most fun deck was 5-colour Goblinslide splash Timewalk, though. By a huge margin.
7) Which archetype wasn't as good as you'd expected?
Most white-based decks turned out subpar because of getting into a fight over the colour with the draft neighbours.
8) Which colors were the best and worst?
White in both cases. Super strong cards, but often overdrafted.
9) Thoughts on the format as a whole?
Not sure if I want the switch to allied colour pairs with the incoming. I kinda enjoy my 5c shenanigans. Now to find the right amount of Evolving Wilds for the 5c deck ...
Opponent has Seal Away (exiling my Cloudreader Sphinx) as well as an assortment of soldier tokens and various white 2 power derps.
I have Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar and Tatyova out. Waiting in my hand: Naru Meha and a Broken Bond, with some lands. I decide to hang on to the Bond, as my board can definitely handle my opponent's. While I'd love to get the Sphinx back and scry a bit, my opponent might just present me with another Disenchant target ...
I get rewarded on my opponent's next turn, as he drops In Bolas's Clutches on Multani. Value in 3-2-1-
On my turn, throw Broken Bond at the Clutches and flash in the Master Wizard for a second Bonds.
Break the Seal Away.
Drop a land from the copied Bond, draw 1 gain 1.
Sphinx returns. Scry into more goodies.
Break the Clutches.
Drop another land with Bond, draw 1 gain 1.
End my turn with 20 extra power on my board and still a decently full grip.
Opponent draws, stares at the board and scoops.
This is what I played:
1 Ixalli's Keeper
1 Deeproot Warrior
1 Shaper Apprentice
1 Watertrap Weaver
1 Vineshaper Mystic
1 Jade Guardian
2 Grazing Whiptail
1 Prosperous Pirates
1 Regisaur Alpha
1 Wind Strider
1 Verdant Sun's Avatar
1 Thundering Spineback
1 Tishana, Voice of Thunder
1 Perilous Voyage
1 River Heralds' Boon
1 New Horizons
1 Depths of Desire
1 Cancel
1 Run Aground
1 Vance's Blasting Cannons
2 Mountain
7 Forest
7 Island
Apart from the obvious rares and bombs (Regisaur Alpha is just plain old brutal), cards that worked out really well for me were the River Heralds' Boon (the 'put both counters on the same merfolk' mode came in handy more than just once!) and the Whiptails. Apparently, Dinosaur Spiders get an extra power, which allows them to snack on practically every flier in Ixalan.
Also, Vance's Blasting Cannons is absurd, both unflipped and flipped. I was spell-slingy enough to be able to flip it a couple times (love the Opt reprint, btw). Once the Bolts started flying, games tended to end quickly in my favour.
I walked home with a booty of prize boosters, netting me T-shirt Jace and Admiral Beckett Brass for all my Commander needs. Really looking forward to drafting this set and seeing all those tribal synergies even more in action.
The Duress reprint makes me one happy Magic player.
I'd also like to see Land Tax reprinted in the near future.
There's the if associated with replacement effects, which usually shows up at the beginning of the sentence. Usually formatted 'If an event would happen, do something different instead' (example: Parallel Lives)
Then, there's the intervening if that shows up on conditional triggers, which is formatted like this:
'When an event happens, if condition is true, do the following' (example: Renegade Rallier)
Exert is not a triggered ability, so it can't use the intervening if templating. That's probably why they decided to go for the 'when'.
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Penumbra Spider
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Spire Monitor
2 Dinrova Horror
1 Broodmate Dragon
1 Magma Jet
1 Ground Assault
1 Putrefy
1 Auger Spree
1 Grisly Spectacle
2 Soul Ransom
1 Rewind
1 Urban Evolution
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Dimir Guildgate
3 Simic Guildgate
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Savage Lands
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Swamp
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
I also pack a bunch of unblockable/protection equipments to bypass opponents' defenses, so Mishra can vent all his frustration on opposing planeswalkers. If his brother gets printed in a future Commander edition (or something along those lines), he may finally get his chance to exact his revenge.
Then, there's Skywise Teachings. Partner with red (kill your guy, get a djinn, kill another guy, get a djinn ...) or white for the 2-mana rebound spells.
About once per week at FNM. A 2HG draft.
2) Which common was better than you expected?
Fierce Invocation. Was expecting it to do okay-ish, but the 4/4 came in handy quite often.
3) Which common was worse than you expected?
Alesha's Vanguard.
4) What's the most underappreciated card?
Sibsig Muckdraggers. Sure expensive, but a 6 toughness Gravedigger is a thing.
5) What's the worst common that people still play?
Lightning Shrieker. Probably because dragon.
6) What was your favorite archetype?
Anything heavy in Morphs/Manifests. Most fun deck was 5-colour Goblinslide splash Timewalk, though. By a huge margin.
7) Which archetype wasn't as good as you'd expected?
Most white-based decks turned out subpar because of getting into a fight over the colour with the draft neighbours.
8) Which colors were the best and worst?
White in both cases. Super strong cards, but often overdrafted.
9) Thoughts on the format as a whole?
Not sure if I want the switch to allied colour pairs with the incoming. I kinda enjoy my 5c shenanigans. Now to find the right amount of Evolving Wilds for the 5c deck ...