Foundations Draft, Round 1 (WUBRG Drafting)

I made it to a Foundations draft at Intergalactic Plastic on Friday, my first one so far.  The set will be a part of standard for five years, so hopefully it won't be the last.  (I do expect people will get a bit tired of drafting it, but maybe it can cycle back through.)

I did not prepare at all, but when sitting down people told me about the gain land duals, and I grabbed a bunch of them.  There are some other great fixing support in the set.  Looking back, I should have paid better attention to what colors the duals I grabbed were covering.  Nevertheless, here's what I picked:

That's Empyrean Eagle hiding behind Perforating Artist.

There were so many cool cards that I wanted to cast.  I initially ran Genesis Wave and Ghalta, just hoping to make them happen.  The lands didn't really work with so many green pips (mana symbols), so I took them out over the first two rounds.  At the end of the three rounds, my deck looked like this:

There're still a lot of fun cards in there.  Unfortunately lots of foils too.

In the first round I was matched up against a Jeskai deck run by someone who often goes WUBRG.  This time they were running four copies of Think Twice!  I won game one because I got Extravagant Replication and was able to press on the gas with Perforating Artist.

 

Ragavan is a Perforating Artist copy.

The following two games were not as fruitful.  Genesis Wave and Ghalta got stuck in my hand and High Fae Trickster kept me always on the back foot while the Jeskai value engine did its thing.  0-1. 

In the second round, I was paired against a very aggressive Golgari deck.  In the first game I got pounded by a turn 5 Overrun.  I have lost many limited games to Overrun over the years, but they don't usually curve perfectly into turn 5.  

That 16 became a 1.

More often they happen on something like turn 7.  Which is what happened in game 2.  Oof!  I played well in both games, and I thought I could hold on in the second one, but they Exsanguinated me the next turn.  0-2.

In the third and final round, I was again facing a Golgari deck, this time against someone I don't think I've played before.  They got mana flooded in the first game, so I took that.  This was after taking a mulligan and using Evolving Wilds on turn 1.

 

My first time seeing this shortcut: bottom the land for the mulligan, but just keep it aside to fetch with the Evolving Wilds on turn 1 to avoid searching and reshuffling.

In the second game, they dropped a turn 3 Phyrexian Arena.  That really set the tone of the game.  I managed to draw enough removal (thanks, Incinerating Blast!) to stay in the game.  Perforating Artist, my MVP of the night, came in and I was ready to speed up the clock that Phyrexian Arena had put them on.

Late in game two.

Naturally, they sacrificed the Phyrexian Arena to the artist's raid trigger.  Oops!  Luckily, I drew into more removal and was able to win the game.  1-2.

Foundations draft takeaways:

• There are gain lands and plenty of other fixing support.  You can definitely go for WUBRG!  Do it!
  
• I shouldn't have tried to force Genesis Wave.  
• There are a lot of good fliers in this set.  

I feel like there's more I should have learned.  I really hope this format continues to be popular so I can get some more in.  I already heard some people say they were sick of it, so that may be wishful thinking.  

Happy Magicking!