5c Grixis (chromatic cube) (Cube)

p1p1 atraxa into etali into cyclonic rift. followed up with some lands, but mostly blue and red cards. i told myself multiple times while drafting i didn't have to play the atraxa if the mana didn't work, but the deck has enough treasures and fixing to make the mana pretty solid. i like this formula with a solid curve, enough interaction, and some true knockout punches at the top end (cyclonic rift, etali, atraxa, zacama).

a note - three steps ahead, just as cancel, has been great in this cube.

my first two opponents had lower power versions of my deck; they had some dorky creatures that just didn't make enough of an impact. opponent round 1 used their own ertai to stifle my midnight clock's timetwister, but then i ripped atraxa into time walk and sent them packing. round 2 opponent was mostly jund, and was happy to just jam cards into my counters and removal, and then lose to my high end. i countered the 6mana grenzo in both games, which was clutch because that card is INSANE. i also had a long game where darigaaz just started hatching dragons over and over again, which has to be pretty demoralizing to play against.

but match 3 vs mardu aggro was something else. g1 they started on dragonmaster outcast into the knight half of virtue of loyalty into lord skitter! i had an ornithopter on turn 2 that pumped out a prosper. if they had a kill spell for prosper i lost the game, but the opponent shifted into cautious mode, not wanting to throw away resources into prosper. they missed land 5, and they couldn't land their virtue, which let me use prosper's trasures to cast atraxa and draw a cyclonic rift off that the following turn. in g2 their curve was less impressive, and i had fires of invention and abrade to slow them down. this let me play etali, which was enough for them.