Pack one was sending me many quality white cards like Assault Griffins, Court Street Denizens, Aerial Maneuvers, and the like, so I was primarily white after pack one and tried to keep myself open to both Boros and Orzhov to see what pack 2 brought me. Pack two brought me very little black and some awesome Boros cards, including a pick one Truefire Paladin, so I committed right then. I decided that if anyone to my right had tried going red in pack one, I was going to try to scare them out of it. By the end of pack two I had a pretty sweet Boros deck and was able to flush it out in pack three.

Round one put me up against a Gruul deck that my opponent was pretty confident in. He felt like he had everything he needed: a good curve, a couple bombs, plenty of removal, etc. I had forgotten my sleeves today so I couldn't mash shuffle like I usually do which I think is a big reason why I lost game one. My opening hand was 7 lands. Mulliganed to 5 lands and Martial Glory. After extensively shuffling again, I got a hand with 3 Mountains, an Assault Griffin, and a Martial Glory. I wasn't able to pull a plains and was only able to play a couple of spells before succumbing. Game two went much better on my end, but my opponent wasn't able to find a Mountain to save his life. Literally. Game three was a slug-fest because both of our decks were operating well. I managed to get a Madcap Skills on a Skyknight Legionaire while at 17 life and him at 10 life due to a slow start on his end. He attacked with a Zhur-Taa Swine which I should have blocked with my Court Street Denizen, but decided to let through. He Bloodrushed it with another Zhur-Taa Swine to hit me for 10 and bring me down to 7. I top decked a Scorchwalker and bloodrushed it onto my Legionaire to hit him in the air with 10 and win.

Game two put me against a Dimir deck that seemed to center around Gateway Shade. I lost game one because I kept getting forced to block the pumped up shade while drowning in lands. Game two went much more smoothly and I was able to outrace him for the win. Game three was rough because he managed to resolve an Undercity Plague that hit me twice in one turn and on the next turn he casted a Lord of the Void. Being forced to chose get hit with the Undercity Plague or get hit with the Lord was tough, but I had plenty of life at that point and couldn't afford to sacrifice a creature. He took a Scorchwalker off of the Lord hit that I traded for a Warmind Infantry his next attack, and I lost the next turn with no blockers.

The star of this draft for me was actually Syndic of Tithes. Both times I have had him in my Boros decks, he has done a ton of work with Extort. I was very careful with my decisions this time and there weren't any major changes I would make if I could play it again. Even though I didn't win the $12.00, I feel pretty good about this deck and how I played it.