I'll be honest - I'm having a much more fun time playing Lorwyn Eclipsed Limited than any recent Limited format (at least, since Final Fantasy). While I've written a lot already about how repetitive the format is, which is still true, I at least am doing my fair share of winning, so it can't be all that bad, right? With two weeks down and four weeks to go in our Los Angeles Team Draft League's Lorwyn Eclipsed season, my team, &sons, is set on clinching our spot in the top four of our ten team league.

This actually reminds me, I haven't even explained the meaning behind the team name, &sons. My teammates Shaun and Walski used to team up with a guy named Frank who moved, and they had named their team after the famous Frank and Sons Collectible Show, a vendor show here in Los Angeles. Since I replaced Frank we just became..."&sons"...

This week we were paired up against the Boggart Brigade, the first of our out-of-division matches for the season. With the League having 10 teams, we're split off into two divisions of an "East" and 'West" based on our home team's general location. You play everyone in your division, plus two outside your division, for a total of 6 matches over the course of the season. The top two teams of each division advance to a single-elim top four.

With Walski unable to make our match this week, I had to call in the big guns - my friend Nick Johnson. For those of you who read my articles, you may remember Nick as the one who both convinced me to go to an RCQ last season, lent me cards, and scooped to me in the finals, clinching my invite. All around good player and nice guy Nick was the perfect substitute, and given his love for team draft and playing multicolored piles, he had my stamp of approval.

We played our match at the Boggart Brigade's "home base" coffee shop overall dope Magic hangout, And Destroy!

While I had steeled myself to not draft anything close to Izzet Elementals, my opening pack had the following cards in it...

I was kind of at a loss of what to take here, as this pack was stacked with so many Elementals/Vivid cards and a decent Blue rare. I opted to take the rare, it was both a card I didn't want to lose to, and with Nick's affinity for Vivid strategies I figured I would push him into Elementals and we could potentially share the archetype. Learning from my mistakes last week, I took two copies of Tweeze to ensure I didn't lose to any Timid Shieldbearers.

I did end up passing some good Elves cards during the Draft, which made me a little wary. I saw two copies of Morcant's Eyes, one in each direction, and passed on them to take Elementals cards. I think if I had a choice, I would want to be Elves every Draft of this set, granted I was the main player in the archetype. However, there are a few key reasons why I've been leaning toward Elementals in every Team Draft so far.

Overall, I've found that in Team Draft you get a totally "on theme" deck less frequent than your usual 8-person pod. This is just due to the fact that there are six less packs opened at the table, and in the era of 14-card play boosters every card matters. Instead, I've opted to play more multicolored piles that lean into individual card quality rather than plan around a whole theme.

Now this is harder to do in a set like Lorwyn Eclipsed that rewards you so heavily if you're in a typal archetype, especially if you are the sole player at the table in that seat. This is why I lean toward Elementals the most. With the amount of fixing you have in the archetype, with cards like Flamekin Gildweaver, Evolving Wilds, Noggle Robber, and Firdoch Core, Kulrath Zealot, and Stratosoarer, you can make the most out of a Draft.

These cards not only let you have consistent mana, but you can easily splash premium removal like Bogslither's Embrace, Pyrrhic Strike, Protective Response, and Nameless Inversion. You also get to splash value cards like Grave Sifter and Dundoolin Weaver. Most importantly, if you open a bomb like Kinbinding or Trystan's Command, you can usually splash these cards without issue, even if your base colors are Blue and Red.

Overall, Elves is probably the deck I'd always like to be in - and that I'm most scared of playing against. However, Elementals is probably the deck that leaves you open to more possibilities, and rewards you later on in the Draft when you open or get passed value cards.

Now, back to the story. The drafting portion of our match was a little strange. I didn't see many White cards (due to the fact that to my immediate right was a mono-White opponent and my teammate on Merfolk) and also didn't see many Goblins or Elves. It felt like one or both of the archetypes just didn't get opened in the Draft. I did see a few more Elves cards, but when a late Creakwood Safewright wheeled around the table, I felt better about passing those Morcant's Eyes earlier in the Draft.

Here's where I ended up -

I think overall I was kind of medium on where my deck ended up. I didn't really open or see any crazy bombs at the table, aside from the shocklands and alternate art Bloom Tender I opened (sad face). Nick was also in Elementals, unsurprisingly enough, with Shaun opting for Azorius Merfolk.

This was the third match in a row where my team had not ended up with any Forest cards in our deck, which left me a little worried due to some of the Elf cards I saw in the Draft. While neither of my teammates had a Morcant's Eyes, Nick did show me the Creakwood Safewright that got passed around the table in pack 3, so I felt better that our opponents weren't in a solidified Elf deck.

With the player to my direct right taking a Sygg, Wanderwine Wisdom p1p1, Shaun cut them hard from Merfolk, ending up with three copies of Wanderbrine Trapper and a Champions of the Shoal! Even though I draft more Midrange strategies I always appreciate Shaun's ability to build the open Aggro deck at the table. Any guesses now on his final record?

In Round One I faced off against opposing team captain Ben on an interesting take on Elves - well not exactly Elves. Ben opted to Draft a pretty grindy Midrange deck, and even though he had the common and uncommon Elf cards as a base, he also had cards like Goatnap, Feed the Flames, and Soul Immolation. This made him more of a, to quote him "Jund 'em Out" deck, and he was able to out-card me in the long games we played. Props to him, I always respect a good Jund deck when I see it.

Ben's teammates, however, were on another Elf-type deck, a bit more of Abzan Midrange, and a mainly White-based aggro deck. I think this is where players sharing archetypes can hurt in this Draft format. Nick and I definitely fought over Elementals/Vivid cards, but with Shaun cutting off the White player from Merfolk his deck wasn't as streamlined. I was happy that Devin, the other Elf player had the other Morcant's Eyes - I would rather there be two Elf decks sharing cards than have one opposing player have just the nuts Elf deck.

In Round two I was able to out-grind Devin's Elf deck, beating down with flyers alongside the added reach of Tweeze and Sting-Slinger. Sting-Slinger is a card that's definitely impressed me in Team Draft. A Nessian Courser with an added ability isn't the worst deal in the world, but when games stall in this format you can go over the top of your opponent with a small combo like removing counters from your Brambleback Brute and Sting-Slinger.

At the start of round three Shaun was 2-0, me 1-1, and Nick 0-2, meaning that the next two wins would clinch the match. Shaun's aggressive Merfolk were able to go under Ben's Jund deck pretty fast, and Nick was able to out-value the other Elves deck while I was still a few turns out from winning my match - and with that we are 3-0!

While I wish my other teammate had been able to attend our match I'm happy that Nick was able to win the closing match. Looking back over my deck I do think there are things I could be doing differently.

This is the third week in a row I've drafted Elementals/Vivid, and it always feels like something is missing from my decks. I feel like the Elementals deck has a strong base, but sometimes I lack the engines or ways to close out the game. I think more often I need to be taking removal or just other value cards in other colors.

With so many ways to splash in this archetype you can splash single-mana costed colored cards from a variety of colors. This makes me believe I should be picking up cards like Bogslither's Embrace, Blighted Blackthorn (tree daddy, as Shaun calls him), and Dundoolin Weaver more highly than I already do.

I kind of hope I don't have to play Elementals/Vivid a fourth match in a row, but now I believe I've identified how to correctly build the archetype in a team environment. I'm kind of excited to build a more 4-5 color Vivid deck, splashing more removal and value cards from other colors. With the league season being only 6 weeks long, we need just one more win to establish ourselves in the top two teams of our division, meaning we'd be qualified for the playoffs.

I'm aiming for the 3-0, 6-0 next week, so stay tuned!

-Roman Fusco