This pack is an astonishing thirteen playables deep, meaning that I will wheel another good card and then a Savage Thallid. Sacred Mesa is an easy pick here, and the good news is that I will almost certainly be wheeling the Knight of the Holy Nimbus as Lightning Axe, Tromp the Domains, Tendrils of Corruption, Conflagrate, and Temporal Isolation are way too powerful to wheel. I predict the guy on my left to take the Tromp, although he could easily follow up his first pick with an in-colour Axe or Isolation, so I don't really know what colours to hook him in.

Pick: Sacred Mesa

This is a much weaker pack with very few options. Spiketail Drakeling is tempting as I love both blue and the white-blue combination, but Sudden Death is too powerful to pass up.

Pick: Sudden Death

This is that signal you always pray for when you open a bomb rare—the sign that the colour is open. It should be noted that there is a Voidmage Prodigy, so I'll remember to play around him during games as he is normally fairly obvious to spot as a morph.

Pick: Castle Raptors

White is still flowing strong and I am incredibly unlikely to deviate from it, but I'm having difficulty finding my other colour. There was a Trespasser il-Vec in the last pack and a Thallid Germinator in this one; neither are good enough signals. Red is being cut and white is open. However, here we are faced with a choice. I normally take the Cavalry Master here as he is a great card. I also want to take the Cloudchaser Kestrel to protect my Mesa, but I know that Knight of the Holy Nimbus will wheel, so I opt for the better card.

Pick: Cavalry Master

No reason for me to stray here. The Saltcrusted Steppe is tempting, but I'll stay on course with the Rebel.

Pick: Zealot il-Vec

It looks like green will be my accompanying colour, and black still has the potential to be open too. However, Benalish Cavalry is still the most powerful card in the pack, so I stay on track.

Pick: Benalish Cavalry

All three white cards wheeled as expected—except for Isolation, but that was never coming back.

Pick: Knight of the Holy Nimbus

Even though I have yet to take a single green card, it is still my best option for a second colour after black for the Sudden Death I have. This makes picking Saffi Eriksdotter a viable choice, but I am not sure I will end up green, especially as it is unlikely to be flowing in the next booster because of all the green I passed. I also prefer Fortify as a card, as it is a much-needed combat trick in a format where they tend to be regrettably absent. My decision is made even easier knowing that I already have two solid early drops and if it is green that I will be coupled with, then early creatures will flow with abundance.

Pick: Fortify

This is a very disappointing pack to open as there is nothing for me. I take the only good card, as I think that the colour will come during Future Sight even though it will be weak here in Planar Chaos.

Pick: Giant Dustwasp

Once more, no white cards, forcing me to make an awkward decision. Prodigal Pyromancer is tempting, especially given that I can definitely wheel the Cautery Sliver, but Red is being completely cut off on my right. I think that blue is also being denied to me, and Erratic Mutation isn't enough to make me delve into the colour. This brings it down to Cradle to the Grave versus Citanul Woodreaders. I think this is close, as I enjoy playing white-black, although I prefer to go into it with an Amrou Scout or Rathi Trapper. However, because I think that green is more open, even given that my Sudden Death is more powerful than my Dustwasp, I follow the signals.

Pick: Citanul Woodreaders

I'm a little surprised to see a Mire Boa here still, which might bode well for me, but I am relieved to see the Dust Elemental. I was beginning to think that the guy on my left had switched into white.

Pick: Dust Elemental

More black and green cards, but nothing good enough to tempt me away from the Shade of Trokair.

Pick: Shade of Trokair

I have a dilemma here. I can take the Poultice Sliver to go with my Watcher Sliver and pick up some Lymph Slivers in the next pack for the defensive package, or I can take one of the more powerful splash cards. Blightspeaker is the more powerful of the two, and I already have two rebels to search for, but I would rather play green. I love Uktabi Drake as a card, and it helps provide my already fairly aggressive deck with some needed evasion. I know that I do not want my splash colour to be very deep as I will have so much white (needing a lot of Plains with Shade and Knight in my pile), so I can afford to flit around indecisively, although I would rather not. In hindsight, I feel I might have made a marginal error in my pick here.

Pick: Blightspeaker

Although I am obviously never picking Hunting Wilds here, it saddens me a little that I went with black over green in my last pick.

Pick: Saltfield Recluse

After cracking open the Mesa, my first picks have gone dramatically downhill. In a scrabble to find a playable I once more go with a green card, further dividing me as to the nature of my second colour.

Pick: Kavu Primarch

This pack presents some very tricky options. There are two powerful on-colour cards in the form of Mistmeadow Skulk and Whip-Spine Drake; and there are two top cards in our two splash options—Ichor Slick or Sprout Swarm. Normally, I would always advocate taking a main colour spell here when your splash colour is unknown, if the card was strong enough and the splashed cards were not ridiculous. However, they're both really good here. I still think green is more open than black, so I would take the Swarm over the Slick, but I think that the Drake is powerful enough to take over both given my splash uncertainty. Somehow, amongst the madness of hastily scribbling down my pick options to bring this draft to you guys, I fail to notice the Drake in the pack, and ashamedly pick the Swarm. Oops.

Pick: Sprout Swarm

Here lies a veritable wealth of white cards. Ultimately, the decision comes down to the rare versus the uncommon. Sure, the removal is great, and that it can be searched for with Blightspeaker is quaint; but we are not sure if we are playing black. Besides, it just is not as powerful as the board-dominating rare. Luckily for me, I should also wheel something from this pack, too.

Pick: Oriss, Samite Guardian

Goldmeadow Lookout is a tricky card to evaluate. It looks awesome at first glance, seeming to produce enough power to win the game by itself. When you reflect deeper, though, you realise that this is a slow and resource-heavy ability that will tie down your white mana. I've played it several times now, and my first impression still holds. It is deceptively powerful. Death Rattle is the kind of splash card you would happily take over the Lookout, but I am still unsure as to my second colour.

Pick: Goldmeadow Lookout

Marshaling Cry is nice, but this pick is a no-brainer.

Pick: Lucent Liminid

Saltskitter is a card I keep wanting to play as I'm beginning to think it's not bad at all, but there's no way I can pick it here.

Pick: Blade of the Sixth Pride

I pick up the Street Wraith here, as black is probably going to be my splash given that I have more cards in that colour and it should prove a useful sideboard card.

Pick: Street Wraith

I have no idea what the Fetch is still doing here. Someone must have misclicked... There are several good cards for me here, but none of them come close in power to the Mistmeadow Skulk. This guy dominates the board in a really small way. Oxymoronic sentences like that might get me in trouble, but the Skulk frustrates combat and nibbles away at life totals.

Pick: Mistmeadow Skulk