With this second pack, I see that it’s a tad Horde-heavy. Also, a common card is missing. I want to keep in mind that the person to my right might’ve taken a quest, Alliance ally, or high-quality generic card like Vanquish. However, it’s incredibly unlikely that he or she took a Horde ally with Karkas Deathhowl still in the pack. While there’s no way to be certain so early in the draft, one scenario I can guess is that the person feeding me is trying to set up me and the person to my left with Horde so that he can have two extra packs of Alliance in the second and fourth round of packs. If I think that the Horde here is too strong and I might want to open up into Alliance, Milo the Unmerciful just isn’t going to do it.

Given that, I also look for some cards that may complement my first-pick decision of Arcanite Reaper. Seeing none, I’m just going to take the best card in the pack and leave it at that. It comes down to Taz’dingo and Karkas Deathhowl. A few months ago I would have taken Taz’dingo, but these days I find him either feast or famine; he sometimes blows your opponent’s early game out of the water, but he often sits in hand looking for an opportune moment to hit play. Karkas is always good, so I’m going to take her. If I end up with a slower equipment-based deck and in Horde, I’ll need the tempo gain she offers, and there are plenty of 3-drops in Heroes of Azeroth I can take later.

Pick 2 – Karkas Deathhowl

I have to keep in mind that the best cards I’m passing are mostly Horde, so I won’t be surprised if the person to my left ends up in that faction.

Pack 1, Pick 3

Bestial Wrath, Counterattack!, Charge, Wazzuli Wildmender, Flash Heal, Anika Berlyn, Lafiel, Torek’s Assault, Maxum Ironbrew, Sarmoth, Hammer of Justice, Benethor Draigo

Now I see that an uncommon and common are missing in a very unexciting pack. Sometimes you can make assumptions on opponents’ faction or class choices based on the cards remaining in a pack. You can say to yourself, “Well, I don’t think they’re X class or faction because it wouldn’t make sense to pass Y.” As with any assumption, you must take it with a grain of salt, but it’s a very good way to start trying to see where the draft is going. This pack wouldn’t be one of those extreme cases, but I can see that Warlock is likely open due to Sarmoth still hanging out in the pack.

Since this pack has no immediate clear-cut choice, let’s sort out the best cards: Wazzuli Wildmender, Anika Berlyn, Torek’s Assault, Sarmoth, and Hammer of Justice.

Benethor is fine, but he’s not better in pure card quality than Wazzuli. Counterattack! is a strong Constructed card, but falling behind in allies to draw two cards is not something I want in Limited formats. Charge is fine, but certainly no reason to draw us into Warrior, even with the Reaper.

I don’t want to abandon Arcanite Reaper if it isn’t necessary, so Sarmoth is out. Anika Berlyn is going to put us into Alliance, so she’s out. That leaves us with Torek’s Assault, Wazzuli, and Hammer of Justice. I don’t want to take Hammer of Justice quite yet if I can support my second pick of Karkas Deathhowl with another Horde ally or quest, so I remove the ability from my collection of choices. That brings us down to Wazzuli Wildmender and Torek’s Assault, and I’m going to take that huge healing body over the quest in another very close decision. Torek’s Assault can be the nuts, but Wazzuli can single-handedly take over games with Kulan Earthguard or Guardian Steppestrider in play. With these three picks, I can start looking at assembling a quality Horde control deck if the rest of the packs lead us that way. However, I also need to be aware that these types of decks are quest-hungry, and I’ll have to start valuing quests a tad higher than I already do.