With Guildpact finally upon us, a whole new world of Draft has been opened up. No longer are you constrained to play one of four or five possible archetypes in a Limited format, as was the case in triple Ravnica. If you can’t already tell, I’m excited.
This past Tuesday was my first experience with the new format. I managed to get four Drafts in, and I learnt a fair bit in the process. What I want to do today is share what I learnt during those Drafts as well as some general observations of the format as a whole.
Structure
Since we are now again forced to actually use our brains during a draft and plan ahead starting with pack one, there are a number of things that come into play. Sorry to all of you who enjoyed the auto-pilot style of drafting that was necessary to do well in triple Ravnica, but that time has now passed. Let’s take a look at what you should be thinking about while you’re cracking that first Ravnica booster.
Playing three colors is essential.
In all of the drafts that happened at CMU on Tuesday, I only saw two decks that were drafted that played only two colors and were successful. Those were an aggressive G/R deck, and a controlling U/R variant. The only reason these two succeeded was because you can draft enough decent cards in Ravnica — despite the lack of gold cards in these colors — to reap rewards in Guildpact. The attraction that playing two colors is better in the mana department, and therefore more consistent, than the decks you’ll be playing against.
Besides these two exceptions, you should go into the Draft planning to play a three color deck. The reasons for this should be pretty obvious, since you want to be able to draft strong cards in the two Ravnica boosters and yet still take advantage of Guildpact. This is the only way to accomplish that.
Every pick matters in the end.
I know what you’re thinking, “No duh, Nick.” Fortunately, there’s much more to it than that. When I say that every single pick will matter in the end, I’m not joking. The Draft format has become very delicate, and you have to be thinking ahead with every pick you make. Let me prove my point with an example.
Say it’s the first pack of the draft and you open a pack containing Vedalken Entrancer, Skyknight Legionnaire, Dimir House-Guard, and Selesnya Evangel.
If this was triple Ravnica, you’d quickly take either the Entrancer or the Evangel, depending on where your color preferences lie. Now that Guildpact is in the mix, I think it’s a mistake to take either of those cards here! Sure, both are still good cards, but I think you can solidify a better future in this draft by taking either the House-Guard or the Legionnaire.
Let’s first look at the House-Guard to see why I’m making this argument. Say for instance you were hoping to go U/B in this Draft, and then combine with either Izzet or Orzhov in Guildpact for your third color. Taking the Entrancer here is fine for that goal, but if you take the House-Guard (who is very close in quality now that you can’t draft a complete mill deck with one less pack of Ravnica) you can also get into G/B/W, R/W/B, and any number of other combinations.
It may seem like I’m rambling here, but my point is that Entrancer and House-Guard are very close in value in a U/B/W or U/B/R deck in this format. You will tend to win through evasion now, and while the Entrancer is an alternate win condition on its own, taking the House-Guard keeps all of your options open in terms of what colors you choose. By taking House-Guard you can still get into that U/B/W or U/B/R deck you were hoping for, but you may also get shipped a Drooling Groodion next pick and instead get into G/B/R or G/B/W. Since you planned ahead and took the House-Guard here you’ll be able to take advantage of a wider range of cards that could be passed to you. Like I said, every pick is a very delicate matter.
Now that we’ve finished with House-Guard, we can move on to what I think may be the best overall pick from this pack, the Skyknight Legionnaire. The Skyknight is attractive because it belongs to a few strong archetypes in the post-Guildpact world, such as GRW and URW, but also because of a “rule” that is in existence. The idea behind this rule is that if you draft Boros in the first two packs, you can pick up any of the three guilds in Guildpact. Boros is the only guild that can support any of the three from the second pack, and therefore is unique. How important this little tidbit will be remains to be seen, but I’ve had some success already by drafting U/R/W, which can be either aggressive or controlling.
The point here is options. You want to draft in such a way that you are taking a strong card, but also maximizing your options by doing so. It only makes sense that you should not only get the most out of the current pick you are making, but also gain by being open to more possible picks later in the Draft.
“Karoo” lands and Signets are important.
Since you should enter every Draft with the intention of finishing with a three-color deck, the common dual lands and Signets should be a high priority. Whenever there isn’t anything you need to take for your deck, you should be looking to take these guys so that you can support possible splash options later, or just to keep all of the roads open unless you open a bomb and need some mana-fixing for it. There’s no hard and fast rule to when you should start taking these cards, but I doubt you value them high enough now. They are a whole lot better now Guildpact has slowed the format. I’d recommend running two Karoo lands every Draft, and possibly even three if you have a few Signets, and you can get away with fifteen total lands by doing so.
Enchantments are now a big thing.
Some of you may have been maindecking Sundering Vitae or other enchantment/artifact kill before Guildpact, and it was usually unnecessary. With the addition of the new set, I’d actually recommend starting a Sundering Vitae in most cases, picking Seed Spark a little higher, and always playing it maindeck if you have access to Green mana.
The reason for this, of course, is the cycle of Magemark enchantments that combo very well with Galvanic Arc, Fists of Ironwood, Strands of Undeath, and the like from Ravnica. The Blue Magemark is simply nuts, and all of the others are very playable, so be ready to pack some enchantment kill to stop these things from ruining your plans. I’ve grown fond of a new card that has been nothing short of amazing for me every time I’ve cast it.
Absolver Thrull
This guy is a nice body even if he doesn’t have anything to kill, and he is simply awesome when you have a sacrifice outlet to use the Haunt ability against multiple targets. I’d always maindeck this guy, and I played two copies maindeck in one of my Drafts the other night. Just be careful you don’t blow up your own stuff, and a good rule of thumb is that you should just Haunt the guy with Faith’s Fetters on it if there are no opposing enchantments in play: that way, the Fetters will never get blown up.
Izzet in Action
As I was saying earlier, I had the chance to draft U/R/W a couple of times on Tuesday, in two completely different variations. Both decks went undefeated, and I learned quite a bit about the merging of Izzet and Boros. Take a look at the aggressive build first.
Drowned Rusalka
2 Boros Swiftblade
Viashino Slasher
Boros Guildmage
Centaur Safeguard
Skyknight Legionnaire
Benevolent Ancestor
Hunted Lammasu
Flame-Kin Zealot
Steamcore Weird
Stratozeppelid
Izzet Chronarch
Ogre Savant
Crystal Seer
Conclave Equenaut
Hammerfist Giant
Wojek Siren
Lightning Helix
Compulsive Research
Withstand
Schismotivate
Flash Conscription
This deck was by far the more aggressive of the two, mainly because of the Boros Swiftblades. You may look at it and think “wow, the mana is awful,” but it wasn’t that bad: I just had to mulligan more aggressively The problem was that this deck was from a two-on-two draft, and there simply weren’t any copies of Karoo lands or Signets that would help fix my mana!
The deck has a few nice combos. First of all, it’s pretty obvious the Schismotivate and Boros Swiftblade is nuts, and I did use that combo to win a game. I also think Schismotivate is a strong card in general if you plan on getting involved in creature combat, since it lets the smaller Blue guys take down a big Green monster and not die in the process — it can easily set up for a two-for-one trade. The deck also sported the combo of Hammerfist Giant plus Hunted Lammasu for a drawback free 5/5 flier, or Flash Conscription to burn someone out from eight by untapping the giant.
It’s worth mentioning that anything with Radiance has gone down significantly in value now, since it is more likely to help your opponent or damage your own creatures if we’re talking about Guildpact.
Now let’s take a look at the control version.
Izzet Guildmage
Sparkmage Apprentice
Thundersong Trumpeter
Benevolent Ancestor
Drift of Phantasms
Gelectrode
Wee Dragonauts
Viashino Fangtail
2 Steamcore Weird
Absolver Thrull
Torch Drake
Izzet Chronarch
2 Ogre Savant
Vedalken Dismisser
2 Peel From Reality
Boros Signet
Izzet Signet
Galvanic Arc
Compulsive Research
Vacuumelt
Brightflame
Boros Garrison
Izzet Boilerworks
5 Island
5 Mountain
4 Plains
This deck has a ton of synergy. This is probably better than the average U/R/W you’d draft, but I’m using it as an example of what you could hope to end up with. It just so happened that in this Draft I was being fed the goods and ended up with a monster deck. It’s worth noting too that if I have two Signets and two or three Karoo lands, I’ll almost always just run sixteen land, and possibly fifteen with three Karoos.
02:47 30/01/2006
Peel From Reality
This card has finally filled its potential with the release of the new set, and I would recommend picking it much higher than you’re used to. With Steamcore Weird, Ogre Savant, Izzet Chronarch, Absolver Thrull, and many other 187 abilities in the new set, you end up getting massive amounts of card advantage from a single Peel since you can still also do damage on the stack tricks. Izzet Chronarch creates a virtual bounce lock with a single Peel, and can do much more besides. Of course, don’t forget our old friend the Vedalken Dismisser — he likes to be bounced too.
Sadly, the Izzet Guildmage has absolutely nothing to copy in this deck besides Peel, and copying Peel with four good targets in play is pretty difficult to accomplish. He’s basically a vanilla 2/2 for two.
Oh, if you haven’t figured it out by now, Mark of Eviction is even more potent than before with all of the new 187s effects. If you weren’t first-picking it in triple Ravnica, you better start doing so now.
One question that has come up so far: which is better in a typical Izzet deck, Steamcore Weird or Hypervolt Grasp? Right now, I’m on the side of the Steamcore simply because there are tons of bounce effects that let you abuse him, and the Grasp is slightly on the expensive side. Both cards are certainly high picks for anything that can support them, and if mana is an issue I’d go with the Hypervolt simply because it is still good even if you can’t use the Blue ability.
Repeal
I wanted to mention this card simply because you shouldn’t be taking it that highly. The reason for this is that nobody seems to be valuing it highly yet and you’ll get it late. My experience with it so far has been that it is rather clunky to use. Sure, it’s great on small stuff in the early game, and can bounce anything in the late game, but it’s nowhere near as good as Repulse ever was. That said, it’s a bounce spell that draws a card — you should be taking it if there’s not much else. I’d always take any of the 187 guys over it, and of course Hypervolt Grasp.
Overall, I really like the Izzet guild and suggest you try out drafting U/R/W or U/R/B when you get a chance to experiment. One card in particular that struck me as being potent in U/R/B was the Orzhov Euthanist. This guy, in combination with all of the pinging effects available in U/R, is essentially a double Nekrataal. He’s even better if you have Dimir House-Guard in play, and use something like Pyromantics.
Other Thoughts
One debate that was going on this past Tuesday during the Drafts was whether Blind Hunter was better than Ghost Warden in most situations. I sided with the Blind Hunter, but did take a Ghost Warden over it in one of the Drafts because I was already flooded in the four-drop slot. Blind Hunter has been awesome for me, but I also do remember back to Champions where everybody underrated Kabuto Moth for such a long time before eventually realizing how good it was. While I don’t think the same thing will happen with Ghost Warden, since it lacks flying and the extra toughness, I do think it’s a card to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
Three Dreams
Ben Peebles pointed out that this card is essentially a bomb, with the release of Guildpact and the Magemark cycle. You will almost always have at least four good Auras to search up with the Dreams, and you should probably even consider splashing it into some decks.
Ostiary Thrull
He’s no Master Decoy, that’s for sure. Despite the extra two mana in the casting cost, this guy has been strong every time I’ve seen him in play. I can only attribute it to the fact that the format has slowed down a lot. He’s a very high pick if you can support him, and he’s also deceptive because he looks like a pile of trash — he costs so much to cast. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking he’s too slow to be effective, because that’s not the case.
Silhana Starfletcher
Yes, it can block fliers. You don’t know how many people are unaware of this.
This card is awesome because it would be playable as simply a 1/3 Giant Spider, but also helps mana issues in this new three color format. In fact, if you’re Green I recommend even splashing the fourth and possibly fifth colors if you have access to Signets, Karoo lands, Farseek, Civic Wayfinder, or even just a couple of these guys. The mana will always look awful on paper, but it’ll usually be surprisingly consistent in practice.
I’m ecstatic that Guildpact is finally here and that we are again given the chance to express some creativity during a Draft. Those who think ahead are also rewarded; a good thing in my mind, as it involves more skill. After just one night of drafting I can say that this is shaping up to be one of the most interesting formats in some time and one with plenty of options. Enjoy the freedom.