When Ravnica came out, I hated it immediately.
You had the choice between only four combinations of guilds, and this didn’t interest me. I felt that going for R/W or B/U was a total gamble, and going Green/x was the safest choice. Overall, Ravnica introduced a limited Draft environment. I tried many time to break this context, drafting out of the guild range… often ending in failure. Before Worlds, I tried a lot of color combinations or wacky draft strategies. Most were useless. One, however, was interesting…
At the Big Show, I gave it a shot at my second table:
Creatures (9)
Lands (17)
Spells (14)
Yes, that’s right… a Drake Familiar deck.
The concept: Take advantage of the Auras/Drake Familiar engine. Fists of Ironwood gives you tokens, while you’re waiting for your Galvanic Arc to sweep the board or assign lethal damage. You can also Transmute your Perplex to fetch the Galvanic Arc, which is nice. I went 2-1 with this deck, losing to Johan Sadeghpour and his Sunforger.
But this is just the introduction.
I drafted this deck countless times, and finally ended up with a new and extremely reliable Draft archetype.
Those decks below, are all 3-0 decks from Magic Online 8-4 draft queue:
Creatures (8)
Lands (16)
Spells (15)
Creatures (10)
- 1 Snapping Drake
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Dimir Guildmage
- 2 Drake Familiar
- 1 Golgari Rotwurm
- 1 Sandsower
- 1 Scion of the Wild
- 1 Shambling Shell
- 1 Siege Wurm
Lands (15)
Spells (15)
Creatures (7)
Lands (16)
Spells (17)
I can imagine your reactions:
“Anything can win on Magic Online…”
“What kind of crap decks are these?”
I’ve been insulted countless times on Magic Online, by bitter opponents losing to a five-color deck featuring only crap commons. When you don’t know about the deck, it sure looks terrible. At the end of this article, I’m sure you’ll want to give it a try.
So… how does it work? Why is the deck so good?
First of all, take a good look at the decks above. Check what they have in common. Give yourself a minute, so you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Have you noticed anything special?
I would like to point that those are only some of the 3-0 decks I’ve had. All the Drake Decks I drafted looked very much the same.
Let’s start with the concept.
You draft a deck, not just the cards. Keep in mind that the mana won’t be an issue — you’ll have access to all colors. All your cards must:
Have a real impact on the game.
Be a way to fix your mana.
Provide card advantage.
Be one-for-one removal.
The mana curve is difference from regular Draft decks. You’re not looking for cheap creatures to smooth your curve, to race your opponent or buy you some time. Your spells are huge, and as soon as you can cast them — or “go off” — you’ll generate so much card advantage that any damage you’ve suffered will often be irrelevant.
By the way, have you noticed anything about the creatures?
Yup, you don’t play many. A maximum of ten…
Cards to Draft
When you draft “Drake”, you’ll obviously want Drake Familiars. How many times have you passed a Drake Familiar very late in a Draft? Everyone does it, and you’re there to collect as many as possible.
For your other guys, you’ll want them to:
Have an impact on the game
Provide mana fixing abilities
Provide card advantage
Yes, you got that right: the same as all your spells!
For card advantage creatures, think Drake Familiar, Civic Wayfinder, Shambling Shell, Bramble Elemental, Sparkmage Apprentice, Surveilling Sprite, Vedalken Dismisser, Transluminant… to name but a few.
For mana-fixing and mana-producing creatures, think Elves of Deep Shadow, Civic Wayfinder, Terraformer, Tidewater Elemental.
Other creatures may include Siege Wurm, Golgari Rotwurm, and Snapping Drake. Anything that makes an impact on the game.
The same goes for your non-creature spells:
Mana fixers and producers? Signets, Farseek, and all dual and Karoo lands.
Card advantage providers? Galvanic Arc, Flight of Fancy, Strands of Undeath, Faith’s Fetters, Fist of Ironwood, Consult the Necrosages, Peel From Reality, Scatter the Seeds. The Auras with “comes into play” effects are very tasty indeed.
Removal? Disembowel, Brainspoil, Last Gasp. The stuff that everyone wants.
Reliability
I listed above some of the cards you’ll want for your deck. None of them are bad, and you’re always happy to see them. Of the commons in Ravnica, there are thirty-four (out of 118) that will make the cut every time. I’m not even counting the fillers. Compared to the ten commons you’ll be happy to have when you draft Boros, that’s a lot of new options. Except for Black removal, Galvanic Arc, and Faith fetters, you don’t have to first-pick those cards. At some point during the Draft, you’ll get to see what you want.
What I’m saying is that you will always be able to draft such a deck… unless this article has a huge impact. I doubt it will.
I’m not even touching on the uncommons and rares, as the commons are strong enough to see you through. Of course, you’ll have access to all the good cards regardless of their colors: Ribbons of Night, Mark of Eviction, Auratouched Mage, Dowsing Shaman, and Spectral Searchlights are some of the best cards.
How to draft the deck
Your deck will be built around the card advantage provided by the combination of Auras and Drake Familiars. The absolute key cards are:
Drake Familiar
Galvanic Arc
Fist of Ironwood
Strands of Undeath
Flight of Fancy
Bramble Elemental.
You don’t need all of them, but those are the game winners. You will have to draft them early enough so you can build your deck properly. As a rule, between five and eight Auras seems to be a good number. The next step, when the packs run low on “good cards”, is to pick mana fixers such as Signets and Karoo Lands. Take them, as many as possible…
You may wonder how the mana can work in the deck… check the decks above, and do the math. The manabase is at least as reliable as that of a two-color deck. You’ll find at least fifteen or sixteen lands in each deck, with five or six mana fixers. During the games, you’ll make up for the room lost through overloading on mana sources with the card advantage you’ll gain from your efficient spells.
Don’t underestimate the mana fixing ability of Terraformer. He will, more often than not, make your manabase a lot more reliable.
You will also want to pick Black removal if you can. Then again, who doesn’t?
Another important thing: you don’t end up playing Drake. You must force it from the first pick. Decide you want to draft Drake, and you will end up with drake deck. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work. Simple, really.
How to play the deck
During games, make sure not to lose your Auras. They have to be either safe in play, or in your hand. Don’t play them on an opponent’s creature if he can sacrifice it in some way. Don’t take the risk to play them on a creature that is likely to die on your side. You’ll need them to start your engine. In a regular game, you use the first four or five turns to fix your mana and deal with early threats. Then, as you build up your engine, try to destroy your opponent’s hand with Consult the Necrosages or Strands of Undeath, so you can play your Drake Familiars, Fists of Ironwood, and Galvanic Arcs safely.
In the end, there are two distinct flavours of Drake: with or without Green. It depends on your ability to draft Galvanic Arc. If you manage to draft Galvanic Arcs early enough — let’s say, first pack — you can Draft a three-color deck, not as intensive on mana fixers, with only Blue and Black cards to supplement the Red. Check out the third Drake deck from Magic Online, pictured above.
I drafted one of the best U/r/b Drake deck last weekend, at Grand Prix: Hasselt…
Creatures (8)
- 2 Drake Familiar
- 1 Junktroller
- 1 Mindleech Mass
- 1 Sparkmage Apprentice
- 1 Surveilling Sprite
- 1 Tidewater Minion
- 1 Vedalken Dismisser
Lands (16)
Spells (16)
I posted a 2-1 record with it, losing to an excellent Selesnya Deck.
If you don’t get Galvanic Arcs, you’ll get Fists of Ironwood. But you’ll have to pick them high enough to be sure to have at least two. Don’t worry, the deck works fine without the Red direct damage Aura.
I won’t talk too much about the deck matchups, as archetypes vary from Draft to Drafts depending on how fast the Boros deck is, or how much removal Dimir plucked. Believe me, the deck performs well. Both Quentin Martin and Geoffrey Siron became addicted to the deck, and both use it a lot on Magic Online. They will probably tell you the same thing. For a deck that only relies on commons, it’s incredibly powerful, and that’s not even mentioning how fun it is to play!
The future of the deck
You still have a few weeks to play it on Magic Online before Guildpact hits the electric shelves. Try it out! If you manage to draft it and build it properly — use the decks above as a guide — you will certainly be amazed. I have to warn you though… it’s not easy in the beginning. If people would like, I’ll write the pick orders in a later article. Come tell me in the forums.
With Guildpact, thing’s change… yet stay the same. There’re a lot of great cards for the deck in the new set: basically, all Blue/Red cards. If your manabase is good enough, you can also pick from Orzhov. You get more mana fixers too — new Signets, new Karoo lands, and Silhana Starfletcher. However, one Guildpact booster means one less Ravnica booster… and fewer of the key cards that you need (Drake Familiar, Galvanic Arc, Fists of Ironwood). Sadly, the Magemarks don’t quite make up for these losses, but I’m interested in how the deck can evolve.
I’ll let you know about it as soon as I know myself!