I disagree with a lot of your green card assessments. Monitor is okay and I doubt I'd cut him from most green decks, Wild Beastmaster varies between being okay and amazing (more often amazing due to salvage in Golgari or the plethora of enchantments in GW, not to mention the 3 playable green pump spells). Axebane Stag and Archweaver are playable (and even good) in grindy Golgari decks (and LSV famously loves 7-drops in this format). While they're not always 'decent' I think it's wrong to call them trash. I also think that Rubbleback Rhino tends to be a lot better than Gobbling Ooze, which is in your 'playable' section.
I also agree with magicmerl about the rarity thing. Azorius looks awesome here, but fully 1/2 of its premium cards are rare or mythic. I also agree with all of his evaluations, although I really do love Knightly Valor.
Yeah, especially in that example it just sounds like he drafted correctly.
To me, drafting is about having fun and making enough money to draft again. To that end I'll usually grab a $3 Isolated Chapel over Efficient Beater #102. Is that beater going to win me, on average, $3 over the course of the tournament? Almost certainly not-- no one card will do that in an average tournament. Therefore, to my stated ends, it's correct to take the money card. Raredrafting is a very valid part of Magic, especially when you consider the foundation upon which the game was built-- collecting cards.
So, to go off we need to have in play 4 defenders and Galvanic Alchemist. We need to have in hand a way to use infinite mana. An easily-stopped 6-card combo that relies on maintaining a rigid board position, and each of the individual cards is weak enough that you can't ever do anything until you've assembled the entire combo. This strikes me as a weaker version of the Myr infinite mana combo, and even that was pretty janky.
I took Guildmage. I think Rakdos looks pretty good so I might've talked myself into Augur Spree if I'd taken more time. Stab Wound might be dramatically better than it looks, and I wouldn't be shocked if it turns out to be better than Augur Spree. The Guildmage is just extremely flexible and good at every stage of the game, so I think it keeps me more 'open,' even if it's 2 colors. Could very easily be wrong about this, but I'd be happy with any of these 3 cards.
The answer to this depends more on your opponent's deck than your own, I think. I'll keep a 2-land hand clogged with 3-CMC spells on the play if I know that my opponent is playing a deck that doesn't want to beat down, assuming I'm not playing a very aggressive deck either. Against a slow deck you often want to get manascrewed (as long as you don't have to discard) just because it means that when you eventually do draw a few lands you'll have all spells.
The way I build M13 decks, I'm most comfortable with 2-3 land in my opening hand. I try to keep the curve low, though.
I know you mentioned it, but I really don't think Unsummon deserves a mention here if you're ignoring the other instant-speed removal spells. It makes black and red look more helpless than they are, because ideally in those colors you're dealing with creature-based threats by killing them. Sometimes Murder, Spear, Public Execution, Geyser, Cower in Fear or Chandra's Fury won't get there. But sometimes Unsummon won't get there, either.
Also, as magicmerl mentioned, I think Fogbank and high-toughness creatures are some of the best answers to Rancor. Oh, put it on your 1/1 to get aggressive? I guess I'll take 1 per turn for a while.
People often talk about the low skill level of Swiss events, but I'm not so sure. I play both 8-4 and Swiss and I feel like I get the same number of free wins from bad players/bad decks in each. Perhaps it's skewed a bit, but not enough to warrant all of the discussion that people give it.
For people just drafting for fun, I think Swiss is usually the way to go simply because one bad draw won't end your night. If you're trying to go infinite, 8-4 is the way to go. Especially with low-value sets with M13, it's just not possible to do it with Swiss.
For me the order is: Invocation>Rancor>Searing Spear>Nighthawk>Staff>Murder>Doll
I think the invocation is very easily the best card there. I can see arguments between the rest of them, though Rancor and Spear have been very good to me. Murder has been surprisingly less-so in my experience, possibly because of the focus on hordes of small creatures. Staff is unquestionably very strong, but I prefer decks with a much lower curve. On the other hand, if you're already building your deck to be slow/grindy (again I think this is the wrong way to go in this format) the staff is absurd.
I might take the Staff if this were my draft, just because it seems like the most fun.
Stuffy Doll isn't terrible, but I think it's pretty far behind the rest of the cards.
I absolutely agree that red has an uncharacteristic abundance of extremely powerful tempo-based cards, but that's exactly why I think that Volcanic Geyser is a marginal card. It's true that it's unfair to say that Geyser is a 5-mana Searing Spear, because its flexibility does add to its power. But I also don't think it adds enough. The number of games in which I get to 7 mana seems to be very low, and the number of games where I'm staring at it in my otherwise-empty hand with 3 land on board is surprisingly high. It's a terrible card at 3 and 4 mana, a marginal card at 5 and 6 mana and a good card past there. But I really don't want to ever get to that point, which means that I'm playing a bad/marginal card the majority of the time.
Trumpet Blast requires a pretty selective group of cards (Attended Knights, Krenko's Command, Captain's Call, etc.) but is pretty savage when it comes together. Most pros streaming seem to recognize red-based beatdown as the place to be in this format, but white doesn't seem that optimal as a second color. Green or black provide the allied creatures (which are completely ridiculous in beatdown) in addition to some survivability against Cower and Fury. White's removal is also more marginal with Pacifism being the worst it's been as far back as I can remember. Regardless, I don't think that white is far enough behind the others that I'd shy away from it.
I guess my summary there is that I don't think RW is an archetype so much as red is unbelievably good and all of the colors can pair adequately with it.
I don't like Volcanic Geyser at all. Maybe it's because I've been watching Sam Black streams all day (I think he passed it 5th pick when he was already in red, for example) but it just seems actively bad. The average end-game landcount in this format seems to be somewhere between 5 and 7. At 5 mana it's a worse Searing Spear. At 7 it's probably hoping to go right to their face, at which point I'd rather have a Chandra's Fury (which is an amazing card, by the way). It's just clunky and slow in a format that rewards efficient, aggressive decks.
Green is probably my second or third favorite color in this format (after Red and maybe Black). I think Primadox is pretty overrated and the plan rarely comes together. The 'secret' to Green in my experience is that Sentinel Spider is really, really good. It's one of my favorite commons in the set and can be a massive asset against most of the decks in the format. Giant Spider was always an all-star, but adding 1 mana for 2 power and Vigilance is a pretty great deal.
I don't think there's too much beyond that. Arbor Elf is as great as it's always been. Huntbeast is excellent with rings or auras. There are a lot of very good auras in this format, with Rancor, Tricks and Mark of the Vampire being the most notable. Prey Upon is almost always less awkward than it looks simply because Green creatures are huge, and so it's often a 1-mana (sorcery-speed) Murder. Rancor, Packleader and the others barely even need discussion because they're so amazing.
I don't think it's too bad against red or white decks out of the board, provided you're playing a deck that wants to race and can make the lifeloss actually important. Obviously horrible against Exalted decks as well. Not something you love boarding in, but Captain's Call decks aren't all that uncommon. I've used it once or twice to good effect.
Also, sometimes a black Lava Axe does sound pretty good.
Cleaver Riot is a card I'm interested in. I've somehow managed to never draft Red in this format despite having done a dozen or so drafts. How highly do you take this card? Or, to frame it more to the topic of this thread-- if you see this P1P7 and you're already deep into a typical red somewhat-aggressive deck, do you take this over Arms Dealer? Bladetusk Boar? Battle Jester? Mogg Flunkies?
My first impression was that it doesn't seem that great, but LSV's set review seemed to look quite favorably on it.
I was wrong about Stitcher's Apprentice in ISD. I thought he'd be a pretty sweet little engine to enable Morbid, get some value out of your opponent's enchantment-based removal, trade up dorky little dudes... He does all of that, but the format was so fast that slow, incremental advantage isn't really what you want. He got better in DKA with Morbid, but I used to think of him as an archetype enabler-- rather than a mediocre dude.
I was also wrong on Silent Departure, which I thought was a mediocre/decent tempo spell. Now that spell has turned into an archetype enabler for me. It's not the most powerful card in the set (certainly not), but having it in my deck makes me a lot more comfortable about running a slower or odder deck.
Also, Grasp of Phantoms isn't nearly as good as I thought. It's still great, but when I thought the format would be a bit slower I thought it would be a free timewalk mixed with removal-- rather than a decent but slow tempo card.
Oh, this for me too. I thought villagers looked pretty good, but nowadays I consider it one of the best reasons to be in Green. Those dudes are way better than they appear.
I also agree with magicmerl about the rarity thing. Azorius looks awesome here, but fully 1/2 of its premium cards are rare or mythic. I also agree with all of his evaluations, although I really do love Knightly Valor.
To me, drafting is about having fun and making enough money to draft again. To that end I'll usually grab a $3 Isolated Chapel over Efficient Beater #102. Is that beater going to win me, on average, $3 over the course of the tournament? Almost certainly not-- no one card will do that in an average tournament. Therefore, to my stated ends, it's correct to take the money card. Raredrafting is a very valid part of Magic, especially when you consider the foundation upon which the game was built-- collecting cards.
The way I build M13 decks, I'm most comfortable with 2-3 land in my opening hand. I try to keep the curve low, though.
Also, as magicmerl mentioned, I think Fogbank and high-toughness creatures are some of the best answers to Rancor. Oh, put it on your 1/1 to get aggressive? I guess I'll take 1 per turn for a while.
For people just drafting for fun, I think Swiss is usually the way to go simply because one bad draw won't end your night. If you're trying to go infinite, 8-4 is the way to go. Especially with low-value sets with M13, it's just not possible to do it with Swiss.
I think the invocation is very easily the best card there. I can see arguments between the rest of them, though Rancor and Spear have been very good to me. Murder has been surprisingly less-so in my experience, possibly because of the focus on hordes of small creatures. Staff is unquestionably very strong, but I prefer decks with a much lower curve. On the other hand, if you're already building your deck to be slow/grindy (again I think this is the wrong way to go in this format) the staff is absurd.
I might take the Staff if this were my draft, just because it seems like the most fun.
Stuffy Doll isn't terrible, but I think it's pretty far behind the rest of the cards.
I guess my summary there is that I don't think RW is an archetype so much as red is unbelievably good and all of the colors can pair adequately with it.
I don't think there's too much beyond that. Arbor Elf is as great as it's always been. Huntbeast is excellent with rings or auras. There are a lot of very good auras in this format, with Rancor, Tricks and Mark of the Vampire being the most notable. Prey Upon is almost always less awkward than it looks simply because Green creatures are huge, and so it's often a 1-mana (sorcery-speed) Murder. Rancor, Packleader and the others barely even need discussion because they're so amazing.
Also, sometimes a black Lava Axe does sound pretty good.
My first impression was that it doesn't seem that great, but LSV's set review seemed to look quite favorably on it.
I was also wrong on Silent Departure, which I thought was a mediocre/decent tempo spell. Now that spell has turned into an archetype enabler for me. It's not the most powerful card in the set (certainly not), but having it in my deck makes me a lot more comfortable about running a slower or odder deck.
Also, Grasp of Phantoms isn't nearly as good as I thought. It's still great, but when I thought the format would be a bit slower I thought it would be a free timewalk mixed with removal-- rather than a decent but slow tempo card.
edit:
Oh, this for me too. I thought villagers looked pretty good, but nowadays I consider it one of the best reasons to be in Green. Those dudes are way better than they appear.