2015 Core Set

Yep - all credit for the assist to you

The thing with Congregate is that I always looked at it as it passed me by in drafts and thought "I really fancy that but I don't know if I'll have enough creatures" so I'd let it go by. Then I'd lose to someone who pulled it out when we had a dozen or so creatures on a board. Usually the ******* had a board wipe available as well for the next turn.

At the pre-release I didn't actually get any but to be honest I probably would have done exactly the same thing and not run it. In fact, as I think back, someone did cast it against me in the pre-release this time round as well. How annoying.

It's not a bad card - really it isn't - it's just one of those cards I always look at and think "It's good but THIS one is better" and so it becomes a sideboard card at best.

I ought to be running this in my EDH deck though - Trostani tokens - and I'm not so thanks for the assist... again.

True - but it's another excellent reason to gang tackle anyone playing EDH with a sliver deck. Normally I feel about about 5/1 odds but if the opponent is playing slivers its not just ok - it's the law.

Yes, I'd agree - the 'colors matter' starts to come on theme in the Khan's block.

It's not bad - a 2/1 for 2 isn't the best in the world but as it has potential to be a 3/2 for 2 I guess that's ok. The ability is perhaps more relevant in draft or limited but could work out well in some types of deck.

I don't see this getting too much play in constructed as it is at the moment but you never know - something could come in and change that. In fact as I type this I'm wondering if this could fit in any way into a W/B heroic deck...

You are absolutely right, it is a very interesting surprise to attack someone with no open mana and suddenly lose your Tiny Leader general to a convoke spell you didn't see coming.

...not that it's happened to me or anything 

Yeah - I hate this one with a passion, mainly from being on the wrong end of it too many times.

As a spell it's interesting. 3 mana for a conditional exile seems to be too much if not for the convoke aspect which doubles not only as a way of paying for it but also as a trap to get people to attack into you with no mana up and then declare favorable blockers before tapping them to pay for this. As a result I'm not sure how to evaluate it fully - it's conditional sure but it also represents a good way of getting rid of a major threat mid to late game and potentially even getting your opponent to over-commit to an attack.

I think it is relevant in standard but less so once it rotates out as even 1 mana up in white could represent a Path or Swords to plowshires and so people will hesitate a bit more before attacking anyway.It is actually reasonably hard to use ALL your mana in some formats to set up the surprise exile aspect.

I think it's a mini-bomb in draft as long as you have enough creatures to play with and you are sticking reasonably to a drafting policy such as BREAD.

It's an acronym used to evaluate cards quickly in drafting. There are several versions (most notably the 'E' tends to change depending on who you ask) but the one I use is essentially the following:

B - Bombs. Any card that has the potential to turn the game around on it's own. Aurelia the Warleader was a bomb in Gatecrash, Stormtide Leviathan would be a bomb if you pulled it in draft. These are cards that you might consider building around or splashing colors for.

R - Removal. It's what it says on the tin. Useful and workable removal in a format where creatures are limited by what is in the packs is very high value. Accordingly should be picked high to prevent you being on the wrong end of it and letting you fill your non-creature slots with relevant stuff instead of 4 x Divine Favor.

E - Efficient Cards (sometimes also Evasion) - Cards which are good value for their mana. In some formats this might be an enchantment (Jeskai Ascendency is an example of an efficient card in Standard at the moment). Creature based examples would include flying, vigilance etc - things that make them just that little bit more valuable on your side for getting damage through or for staying alive (hence the evasion). Can be summed up as "Anything in the draft format that is worth more than the mana cost and that you wouldn't want to pass to the next player unless you had a bomb or a kill spell to chose before it".

A - Aggressive Creatures - Draft is a creature based format so you want aggressive creatures. The 15 mana big green turtle may look excellent as a 20/20 but you'll never be able to cast it in Draft so leave it alone in favor of the Red 2/2 Double Strike with Haste... or even the 4/1 red cat for 3 mana. This is basically things that will let you do damage in your combat phase.

D - Durdle - This is 'everything else' We've been talking a bit about 'filler cards' - not bad cards per se but not necessarily good ones. This is where your vanilla 2/2 for 2 goes. These are the cards you will put in your deck to fill gaps if you need more creatures or if you've run out of creatures and need 'something' to fit. Ideally you should hope to never need to use anything from this category in your deck as your picks across 3 packs should let you fill your 23 'useable' cards in a draft deck with Aggressive, efficient creatures, removal and bombs.

That's the philosophy I use. Googling it might result in some better explanations online but really it's a guide to the order in which you should be looking to pick things up as they go round. There will be changes per set as to what is considered efficient or aggressive or 'Good' removal.

Hope this helped.