Finally got some time in to do a couple of M11 drafts - hopefully I'll have more M11 walk throughs for you soon!  This one was in a Swiss Draft.

  Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick: Jace's Ingenuity
 
 

Chandra's Outrage is good removal, though it puts you in the worst color and isn't splashable like Lightning Bolt.  Juggernaut and Augury Owl are pretty good cards.  I've heard differing opinions on the Leyline, and it's not a big money rare.  Anyway there's not a ton of opportunities for card advantage in M11, so Jace's Ingenuity is very good, and the pros say Blue is the best color.  Though it's a shame to pass 3 decent blue cards.

  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick: Fireball
 
 

Wow, what an awesome pack!  Blinding Mage and Doom Blade are both first-pickable.  But Fireball is the second best uncommon in the set after Mind Control, and easily splashable if red doesn't end up a main color.  Never Pass Fireball!

  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick: Water Servant
 
 

Spined Wurm is a little tempting, but no need to branch into a 3rd color here.  Shiv's Embrace can be a game winner - but it can also be card disadvantage, and it means making an early commitment to whether red is a main color or a splash.  We already have a stronger commitment to blue from pick 1, and the Water Servant is both powerful and versatile.

  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick: Azure Drake
 
 

Assassinate and Assault Griffin are quite juicy, but we have two decent picks in blue.  The pros really like Scroll Thief, pairing him with enough bounce and removal to get a couple extra cards out of him where they can.  He can also go with a Goblin Tunneler if you end up in blue/red.  The Azure Drake doesn't need any help to be good though, he can block most other flyers and a lot of ground guys, or he can get in for evasive damage.  A fine card.

  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick: Awakener Druid
 
 

Nothing in blue or red that excites me, so it's time to consider what my second color would be if I keep red to a splash.  Manic Vandal can be decent if you're in red for sure, but there's better cards here.  Mind Rot is more card advantage.  But Awakener Druid is like a 4/5 with haste any time from turn 4 onwards, which is really good even with the drawbacks (ties up a land, dies to bounce or 1 point of damage to the druid).

  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick: Phantom Beast
 
 

You could make a case for the Stone Golem here instead.  But blue is no stretch at this point, there's an extra point of toughness, and more importantly it can come out a turn sooner to help with a green aggro strategy (or a red one).  There's not a ton of targeting abilities in M11, so he survives a fair amount of the time. Also the Golem dies to the Manic Vandal we just passed, and to Naturalize.  Negate could be ok here, but I like the mana-efficient beater here much better.
 

Pack 1 pick 7:

My Pick: Garruk's Companion

 

The Sorcerer's Strongbox is card advantage, though it's unpredictable, slow, and expensive.  Already having the Jace's Ingenuity I don't need it quite as much.  The quick 2 mana trampler can help me curve out to present a difficult to race series of threats, so I decide to keep moving in on green.  He's even more efficient than my last pick - power HIGHER than mana cost, plus a bonus ability rather than a drawback.  Very solid card for green decks.

Pack 1 pick 8:

My Pick: Alluring Siren

 

The evaluation for this card depends a lot on what type of deck you're drafting.  It's probably at its strongest in blue/green, plus we already have four guys at 4-5 toughness to make enemy creatures crash into.  Armored Cancrix is playable but unexciting, and probably at its worst in blue/green where you can get much better green monsters clogging up the ground for 5 mana, or even getting in for serious damage.
 

Pack 1 pick 9:

My Pick: Giant Growth

 

This pack is almost all combat tricks!  That's good, I always want some combat tricks in my decks so I can try to outplay my opponent.  The top two in my colors are this and the Unsummon, I pick the one that makes creatures die over the one that makes them go away for a turn and come back.  It can also be 3 extra damage, sometimes.
 

Pack 1 pick 10:

My Pick: Tome Scour


A lot of Goblin Tunnelers going around!  That guy can be good with the Scroll Thief I didn't pick up early on.  He doesn't have as much to combo with here as he did in RoE, where he was positively dangerous.  But he still has roles to play in some M11 decks.  I take the Tome Scour out of a weak pack, since I am in blue.  You can take these and Jace's Erasure late if you see them, and see if you get enough to build the mill deck.  Then you should avoid building the mill deck anyway, from what I hear.  Seriously.

Pack 1 pick 11:

My Pick: Dryad's Favor

 

Might be sideboardable in one match, maybe?  Wouldn't automatically bring this in against green, but maybe in stall-prone matchups against green.
 

Pack 1 pick 12:

My Pick: Maritime Guard

 

I'm never letting a weak enchantment take up TWO slots after boarding. This is at least a two drop, and it blocks bears. I have the deckbox and sleeves with this art, it's really beautiful work when you see it at a larger size.
 

Pack 1 pick 13:

My Pick: Bloodcrazed Goblin

 

If I'm desperate for playables, this at least trades on defense with a grizzly bear or garruk's companion.  The so-called "lava ox" might just trade for some random 1/1!
 

Pack 1 pick 14:

My Pick: Pyretic Ritual

 

Just taking this for my collection for the day when Dragonstorm comes back, any year now!

  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick: Chandra's Outrage
 
 

This is a tricky pick. I only passed the outrage last round because draw 3 spells are so good.  Only Armored Ascension competes here in raw card quality, but I can't take that now with zero white cards from pack 1.  Assault Griffin rocks too, by the way.  Aether Adept is a very solid and safe choice here in my main color - better than risking two Phantom Beast in the same deck and running into a Blinding Mage or something.  Garruk's Companion is committing to sticking with my earlier idea of keeping red a splash, and making an aggressive blue/green deck.  I don't think it's as strong a pick as the adept though, it can be a beating on tempo.  My pick of the Outrage says I'm now throwing my green plan into question, and might hop into blue/red if the red flows better in this pack.  That's still a "maybe", but it does up my removal count & I might get enough green color fixing to splash a double-red spell if I'm lucky.

  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick: Cultivate

Nice black and white here.  My choices are the Cultivate or the Warlord's Axe. I like me some equipment, even some of the clunky ones, but the Cultivate is just the better card for my deck.  Even if I just splash Fireball it's good for that, it's good for accelerating into earlier green fatties, it can even get some extra islands to make Water Servant. Plus it's technically a two for one, and it thins your deck to a higher threat density.  Don't get me wrong though, the Axe can do stuff too.  It, um, hits things.

  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick: Warlord's Axe
 
 

See?  I get to have the Cultivate and an axe too! I think I was too excited by that, passing up a lovely mana elf.  Also I didn't appreciate Greater Basilisk and Scroll Thief as much when I did this draft as I do now.  Though green doesn't have ways to help get the thief through, like all the other colors do.  The basilisk is good on offense and defense both, and particularly nice with the Alluring Siren I picked up earlier.

  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick: Prodigal Pyromancer

I want the Spined Wurm.  I love me some Spined Wurm.  His stock may have gone down slightly with an increased number of things that block and trade with him, and the big 6 and 7 drops green can now follow him up with.  But he's still danged good, mana-efficient, and a brutal beater.  But hey, Pyromancer.  I guess the value of the Pyromancer is down a little if red's a splash.  And M11 is lighter on important 1 toughness targets than RoE and other formats.  But it's also reach & a slow clock, lets you get more "trade up" situations in combat, etc. etc.  I love this guy.
 

  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick: Sacred Wolf
 
 

I still don't need a Cancrix, even though I've been passing every Wurm and Basilisk I've seen.  The wolf's "troll shroud" goes a long way towards making up for his 1 toughness.  Playable, though not amazing.  Great creature to put auras on.

  Pack 2 pick 6:

  My Pick: Call to Mind
 
 

I don't know if I'll get enough instants and sorceries to run this.  But the other cards all suck.  Playing the same fireball twice would be awesome!  Anyway it's a good speculative pick just in case the deck gets enough spells to run this.

  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick: Fiery Hellhound
 
 

And suddenly I'm preparing for blue/red again, as nothing else is much good.  The grizzly bear could be filler, but I'd hope not to have to run it.

  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick: Plummet
 
 

Plummet and Combust are both fine sideboard cards, that you can gamble on maindecking to fill out your last slots if need be.  I'm still leaning towards green/blue splash red, so I take the green spell here.
 

  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick: Negate
 
 

Only on-color pick.  Passing it earlier was no problem, you can usually find one of these later if you want one.  Haven't seen any Mana Leak yet, though I've seen Cancel go by.  There's probably at least two other blue drafters out there, if not more, haven't seen any really strong blue cards after the early picks.

  Pack 2 pick 10:

  My Pick: Volcanic Strength
 
 

Going back and forth between red and green so much makes me a little nervous, especially with only 1 fixer so far.  This would be awfully sweet on that Wolf though...

  Pack 2 pick 11:

  My Pick: Llanowar Elves
 
 

Wow, the elf tabled!  Admittedly this pack had a bunch of goodies in it.  Still, a nice gift to pick up some mana acceleration this late.
 

  Pack 2 pick 12:

  My Pick: Bloodcrazed Goblin
 
 

Ok, now we're out of good cards.

  Pack 2 pick 13:

  My Pick: Demolish
 
 

While Lava Axe has its role in some decks, especially for whoever got that Fire Servant we passed, it's not great for this one.  But Demolish is worth having in sideboard for anyone who has a bomby artifact or just multiple artifact creatures.

  Pack 2 pick 14:

  My Pick: Lava Axe
 
 

So, I get one anyway.

  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick: Spined Wurm
 
 

There's my Spined Wurm at last!  Not gonna take Mana Leak over him, as a green deck should have some actual fatties in it.  The unicorn's better if you actually already have some fatties for him to help out.

  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick: Sylvan Ranger
 
 

Pacifism still rocks, but we're not double-splashing.  All the blue spells here are decent, and Diminish is pseudo-removal, but getting more mana fixing for our splash is more valuable here.

  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick: Llanowar Elves
 
 

Nice Pegasus and Sign in Blood.  Cancel is a decent spell, but this is an aggressive deck looking to curve out and spend all its mana. Having one more accelerant will be quite decent if I can get another nice fattie or two out of pack 3.

  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick: Aether Adept
 
 

Preordain is nice, but I'd rather focus on curving out on creatures and tempo.  This guy really helps force through damage and set the other guy behind on racing.

  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick: Scroll Thief
 
 

The adept last pick & my Giant Growth could help this guy out.  Also double Llanowar means chances of dropping him turn 2.  Drawing extra cards is good, m'kay?  Some games he'll just make them hold back a 3+ power guy that would otherwise attack, so they don't let your thief through for the card.  That's useful too.

  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick: Awakener Druid
 
 

Nice to have two of these!  Also good with the double elf.

  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick: Spined Wurm
 
 

Cloud Elemental is nice, but what did I say about accelerating into fatties?  YOINK!

  Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick: Naturalize
 
 

Generally a better sideboard option that the Demolish I took earlier.  In a real emergency I could run both.

  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick: Sorcerer's Strongbox
 
 

I passed some of these before, but this one isn't up against stronger cards.  Nice to have a second way to draw some extra cards in the deck.

  Pack 3 pick 10:

  My Pick: Diminish
 
 

Another nice table, with big green guys this will often succeed in being removal.
 

  Pack 3 pick 11:

  My Pick: Primal Cocoon
 
 

Generally seems like a poor card, but I take it to potentially experiment with, rather than draft the rare I won't play.  Could have just taken it for my collection, but I'm curious whether this card's semi-playable.

  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick: Bloodcrazed Goblin
 
 

I'm thinking this guy belongs in a Blasting Station deck more than anyplace else.  Actually against a quick ground-weenie-rush deck it's plausible to throw a bunch of these guys in the way.

  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick: Combust
 
 

Thunder Strike has its uses, but given that both of these would sit in my sideboard, the Combust is more powerful against the decks it would come in against.

  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick: Ajani's Mantra
 
 

One card closer to building a really bad constructed life gain deck!  Even Soul Sisters doesn't run this.

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 Well, we're over 23 playables.  Actually I'm trying to move towards running 18 lands instead of 17 in core set constructed again.  The 9th edition League I took first place in (our of 256 players), I was running 18 land, I think the smaller number of mana-screws and mulligans is worth it even when you're not in the "land matters" block.  Though there's definitely low-curve decks that should run 17 or even occasionally 16 land.  Let's take a look at what I built.

Not So Ingenious

 

Creatures 1 Sylvan Ranger 1 Garruk's Companion 1 Azure Drake 2 Llanowar Elves 1 Prodigal Pyromancer 1 Phantom Beast 2 Awakener Druid 1 Water Servant 2 Spined Wurm 1 Scroll Thief 1 Alluring Siren 14 cards Other Spells 1 Diminish 1 Negate 1 Warlord's Axe 1 Æther Adept 1 Giant Growth 1 Fireball 1 Sorcerer's Strongbox 1 Cultivate 1 Primal Cocoon 8 cards

Lands 2 Mountain 7 Island 8 Forest 17 cards Sideboard 1 Plummet 1 Lava Axe 1 Naturalize 1 Sacred Wolf 1 Call to Mind 1 Volcanic Strength 1 Jace's Ingenuity 1 Dryad's Favor 1 Combust 1 Maritime Guard 3 Bloodcrazed Goblin 1 Chandra's Outrage 1 Demolish 1 Fiery Hellhound 16 cards

I'm embarrassed to admit, I thought I had dragged down the Jace's Ingenuity, one of the best cards here, and it had just slipped below the visible area in the deckbuilder.  Even though I scrolled down some and didn't see it, I didn't look around in the top pane to see if it had snapped back there (it had I guess).  So I submitted a deck without it, even with the clearly inferior Sorcerer's Strongbox included!  I promise you, I sided it in for ever game 2 and 3.

I also had the dubious Primal Cocoon in there.  Your earliest drafts in a format are the time to learn about this kind of card I guess, and I had some fun with it.  The Sacred Wolf could have gone in that slot instead, or even the Plummet.

There were several interesting choices to make here.  Chandra's Outrage didn't make the cut, as I thought only two green fixers plus two mountains made it too unreliable.  Three fixers might have seen me running it.  Call to Mind could have been run with 5 instants and sorceries.  But only the Fireball is really exciting to return.  The Negate, Diminish, and Giant Growth all lose value the second time around, as they can only be a surprise against the most inattentive opponents.  Anyone decent will know to play around it once you return it to your hand with Call to Mind.  The Chandra's Outrage would make it more playable.  Or if I had properly maindecked the Jace's Ingenuity, I think actually Ingenuity + Fireball is enough justification to run the Call to Mind and I missed out on some possible value there.

Also note that I ran 17 lands, I felt with two Llanowar Elves plus Cultivate plus Sylvan Ranger, 17 was plenty.  One could argue for 16 if you count each accelerant as "half a land", but with an early double-green spell, two double-blue, and a red splash, I was fine with 17 lands.  I think the Negate, Strongbox, and Cocoon could come out of this build for spells like the Jace's Ingenuity, Sacred Wolf, Call to Mind, or even Chandra's Outrage or Plummet.  With no Giant Spider and one Azure Drake, holding more game 1s against quick flyer decks is worth a little.  But I have an ok build other than the Ingenuity being missing, and plenty of good sideboarding options.

Round 1, Fight!

I can sum up this one pretty briefly.  My opponent played Squadron Hawk, Squadron Hawk, and Squadron Hawk.  That's it.  Not enough to survive against my aggressive draw, my plays were Garruk's Companion, Awakener Druid, Cultivate, and Spined Wurm.  His turn 2 hawk actually fetched enough to bring him to 8 cards and make him discard a plains.  I'm thinking he could have just fetched one hawk, and let the second one fetch the third, avoiding the discard.  He ended the game on 5 lands, so I don't know what other spells he was sitting on.

These guys aren't good enough.

The game ended turn 6, when he conceded down 19 life to 5, with an empty board against my 10 power of attackers.  There were still 3 significant decisions for me though, even in just 6 turns.

1) Turn 3 I held back Awakener Druid and made no play.  I had no 3 drop or 4 drop for next turn, so I figured I'd give him a narrower window of time to remove my 1/1 before I got a hasty 4/5 attack in.  I did top deck a Cultivate, which I could have played turn 4 while still swinging in with the 4/5 forest, if all went well.  But I don't regret the play.

2) Turn 5, he's held two Squadron Hawk back to block. Having Cultivate and Prodigal Pyromancer in hand, I'll eventually be able to kill those hawks "for free". Or I can send in my Garruk's Companion in again and give him the chance to trade his two hawks for it.  I decide this game is about tempo and go for it, given the Spined Wurm in my hand the Companion is less and less relevant, and if he double-blocks he's letting in my 4/5 and dropping to 10 life.  He did the trade.  Pyromancer isn't coming down before the Wurm so that's the slow approach that gives him more time to draw answers and stabilize.

3) Also turn 5, I could have held back the 4/5 forest from attacking to play out Spined Wurm a turn sooner. I decided more early pressure was good.

After losing that first game, my opponent conceded the match.  I guess he felt his deck was bad going in, and losing that quick made him decide to drop from the draft entirely.  I'd rather have gotten to play it out, but a win's a win! I used all the extra time to scout out all my opponent's decks.

Round 2, Fight!

This round and these games were as long as round 1 was short.  Happily, I had a friendly opponent, and it turned out he was a cat too!  I learned a new text-cat variant as well.  I'd seen =^.^= before (cat whiskers for the win), but he had =^.^=~~ with a double-tilde tail.  Brilliant!  I'll have to steal that move sometime.  I guess I just did.

He was playing green/blue/black, and unfortunately MTGO lost the replay for game 1.  I remember I got some of his guys to crash into their doom with the Alluring Siren, but he had Greater Basilisk to stall the board.  So I threw Primal Cocoon on one of my green guys and let it gradually swell up huge while we were board-stalled, until I could find a way to break through.  He was playing a little slower than me, and used up 10 minutes while I used up 8.  I left in the Cocoon because with both of us having a bunch of green dudes, it seemed like it could do ok again.

Game 2 I got the Primal Cocoon on my Scroll Thief, but he had Naturalize for it after I got just one counter.  I went through both Spined Wurms, getting some damage in and finally trading for creatures 1 on 1.  I thought I had him, down 20 to 7, but he recurred his Greater Basilisk twice with Gravedigger and then Rise from the Grave. Giant Growth helped me trade for it the 3rd time.  When he got Assassinate on my lone Llanowar Elves it came down to a topdecking war, with me drawing first.  But he got Disentomb into Gravedigger into the 4th return of Greater Basilisk, plus a couple other creatures while I got landflooded.  I drew two guys in time to chump-block a little, finally dying on turn 20.  Where's my Relic of Progenitus?  He was also down to 4 minutes on his clock at this point to my 13, so I didn't figure he'd survive the match without losing to his clock.

By the time things got started, he had 2 minutes, 51 seconds to try and take game 3.  I saw an opener with just 2 islands for lands, and went to click the mulligan button. But my brain went fuzzy, and I got confused about whether "Yes" or "No" was the button to mulligan, and clicked the wrong one.  I *never* do that!  Still, his threats consisted of a grand total of one Royal Assassin.  I drew my Llanowar Elves but the only lands I drew were Islands.  I had Negate, open, but when he cast Call to Mind targeting Cultivate, it didn't seem important to me.  When he cast Cultivate the second time, it didn't seem important either.

I finally got to 5 islands, so I could play my Jace's Ingenuity just to find a Forest and start playing some dudes out!  I discarded Plummet and Negate since I was at 9 cards now.  Then he untaps, and I see why I should have negated his Cultivate.  A card I hadn't seen in games 1 or 2, or in his first round - Stormtide Leviathan?!?  A quick clock I couldn't chump-block, the only thing that could win fast enough for him not to lose to the timer.

I actually had Fireball to hit his Assassin and Leviathan both, and then Diminish to wipe out the big guy.  So of course he had Cancel.  He won with 23 seconds on his clock - Aether Adept was my one remaining out, and I didn't topdeck it.  Could have won this match, but I didn't mind losing to him since he was such a nice guy.  (Not that I wouldn't still have preferred winning!)

This guy IS good enough!

Round 3, fight!

Again sadly Magic Online has lost the replay of game 1.  My opponent was blue/black, so I sided in Combust for games 2 and 3.    I managed to win game 1 even though he put a Mind Control on one of my guys - I brought the Naturalize in too so I could fight that .

Game 2 he had an opening hand Leyline of Anticipation to make things trickier for me.  In addition to all his creatures being flashed out on my turn, it made his Assassinate better.  I was a little light on mana this game, and unfortunately my first Awakener Druid let him assassinate one of my lands, so instead of being stalled on 4 I was stalled on 3, with a couple 4 drops stranded in hand.  I was hesitant to run the second one out there, but that forest survived.  I finally got the board mostly stabilized, but I was low enough on life I had to make a bad block to survive, when one more turn would have put me in good shape.  I died with my fireball in hand.  Not attacking with my 4/5 forest might not have pulled this one out, as he could have assassinated it just for tapping to make mana as well.  Though I'd have gotten Water Servant out before going back down to 3 land.  The only totally safe play to get around Assassinate would have been keeping the druid out of play until I'd played my 4 drops out.

Game 2 he had the turn 1 Duress for my opening hand's Warlord's Axe.  Deja vu, as my round 2 opponent had done that to me one of those games, as well!   He had Doom Blade for my Scroll Thief, and I took early beats from Augury Owl and Black Knight, trading Garruk's Companion for his Barony Vampire, and getting my Water Servant out to race.  I got in 6 point hits with it to knock him to 14, then to 8.  I used one island too many trying to knock him to 2, and he had Unsummon.  With only 1 island left untapped, I couldn't play it back out the same turn, missing a turn of beats - and letting him get in more damage as he didn't have to chump-block.  I combusted his owl, but he had Rise from the Grave to make it a zombie owl, and then Merfolk Spy.  With two evasive 1 drops, and me at 4 life, I was on a two turn clock.  He chumped my Water Servant with Black Knight, and had Mind Control for my Phantom Beast - its "drawback" actually making Mind Control a little worse, just functioning as removal.  But that was enough.  When he threw out Child of Night, that meant even if I'd played around unsummon and gotten an extra turn of beats, it wouldn't have been enough.  I was also sitting on a Diminish the last few turns, which ironically could do nothing to slow the beats from creatures that were already 1/1 anyway!

Embarassing to die to?  You bet!

So, the deck was pretty good, and I had opportunities to win the matches I lost, had my play been a little tighter.  The initial deck build could have been a bit better too.  I'm satisfied with most of the picks I made in the draft, and I learned a lot.  Though I would change pack 2, pick 1 to the Companion or Adept if I could do it over again.  Hope you enjoyed this walkthrough!