I went 6-3 in Premiere Draft with a fairly average Silverquill.
- First loss was to Quandrix, I didn't notice he had 8 land to activate the Kelpie and got tapped out.
- Second loss was to Lorehold, he burst for 16 damage with two Magecraft dudes in one turn, his two cards in hand were both instants (Infuriate and
whatever it was fucking Show of Confidence). Oops, should have blocked.
- Final loss was a Silverquill mirror, but he had the Elder Dragon and I got choked on 3 land.
Not too unpleased, considering I opened 0 bombs (and none were passed to me either). I guess listening to LSV on youtube for 8 hours paid off.
Overall, I think Silverquill needs to pick removal heavily to succeed and manage mana well. Expels came to me pretty late in the draft.
Would rate the cards thus-
Inquisition of Kozilek - 7ish? Final game I opened with this and saw all his spells were > 3 cmc. At least I knew the Elder Dragon was coming.
Unwilling Ingredient - 5 Playable, gets in some damage, good chump blocker, mana sink.
Zephyr Boots - 6 Playable, flying and looting are ok, although you need some other card draw to make the looting good.
Study Break - 4 A pretty good lesson, you'll probably pick this up late and play it in Silverquill since it's one of the only common lessons and you'll want them to fetch Inkling summoning. Really puts Silverquill into aggro-tempo territory.
Arrogant Poet - 3. You can generally keep the ground clear, so the flying doesn't matter until mid to late game. Still pretty good as a removal magnet.
Flunk - 7ish. It's decent for Silverqull to hold 2 mana for this, although I typically cast it for -3/-3 or -4/-4 so it's not perfect. Good for sniping some legendaries like the deans or Mavina (which was one use for it).
Hunt for Specimens - 4 I think the Pests were pretty low impact, but they are alright as sacrifice protection (for example Umbral Juke).
Silverquill Apprentice - 4 He was mostly just a bear, his ability is probably worth about 2-3 damage. Good synergy with life link creatures.
Silverquill Silencer - 5. His ability never really activated, mostly just a chump blocker, maybe get in for 3 if you get him down early.
Vanishing Verse - 6. Kind of bad as a lot of the creatures and all the tokens are multicolor. I used it to get rid of the Fencing Lesson enchantment in the final match. Instant speed is decent.
Expel - 7. A little hard to hold up 3 mana, but you could also cast it on your turn so you don't necessarily need to hold up mana for it. Can kill that dumb Quandrix Kelp tapper.
Promising Duskmage - 1. Pretty terrible, would not take this unless it was like last 3 cards in a pack, but sometimes Silverquill lacks bodies.
Umbral Juke - 4. It's a 3 mana sacrifice effect, most. Unfortunately there's too many random mooks and tokens for this to be useful for that.
Silverquill Pledgemage - 6. One of the only good Silverquill creatures, the lifelink is ofcouse useful for racing and flying is fine too if you can't clear the ground.
Specter of the Fens - 5. I have to rate this one pretty low, I lost the Quandrix match because I kept this instead of Arrogant Poet
Mage Hunter's Onslaught - 6. Not premium removal but Silverquill will need every copy you draft.
Exhilarating Elocution - 4. It's mostly 2 +1/+1 counters and activating your Magecraft abilities.
Pillardrop Rescuer - 4. I wouldn't take this too early. You need one of your chumps to die and your chumps in Silverquill aren't exactly high value regrowth targets. I ended up pitching this to Zephyr boots most often.
Tenured Inkcaster - 5. You'll probably take this to activate the Silverqull +1/+1 counter theme. A fairly solid creature for Silverquill.
Owlin Shieldmage - 7. Probably the best creature in Silverquill, you have to take this pretty early since it gets drafted quite high. Probably wont wheel.
Summon Inkling - 6. Probably don't need more than 2 of these, I got passed this pretty late. Study Break or Gathering Specimens into this is pretty standard play for Silverquill. If you open one early, probably 50% it will wheel. Would rate this only behind Prismari's 4/4 elementals, and ahead of Lorehold's 3/2 spirit tokens.