***Author’s Note: Thanks to everyone who had such kind things to say about the last article. It was a long time coming. This week things will be a touch less serious, as everyone will probably gather very quickly***
Welcome my friends to a brand new year. 2006 holla! A year of promise and bounty. The bounty of tix and pax, and the promise to suck less at drafting. In that vein, I present an entire week dedicated to the only pure form of Magic left.
Today, Tuesday, and Wednesday I explain how to draft everything. Everything. Can’t look to the future without examining the past. Thursday is the succinct formula for drafting anything churned out of Carta Mundi, or Bogota, or wherever crack is made these days. And Friday gives us the sequel to one of the most popular draft formats ever. I think you know what I’m talking about.
Now before we get into the lengthy discourse of every draftable set, I need to give a couple of points of interest. One, raredrafting is for sissies trying to feed their families. There’s still no “my kid has cancer” in team. If you’re some greedy capitalist bastard that opens packs just for the glint of gold, I’m done with you. I hate you. You always sit next to my opponents and they draft insane concoctions, rare free.
Portal? Starter?? Beatdown??? Maybe it’s been drafted, but like, who cares. Mystic Denial can be played like it was a real card, great. If you want to play Magic, play with the real thing.
Finally, some trivia at the end of each article. If you think you’ve got the answers, post it on the forums. I’ll reveal the solutions the next day. On with the show.
Drafting Alpha/Beta/Unlimited:
Color balance was not a factor so early on in the game’s development. Red gets an astonishing two X spells in the common slot, excellent uncommon fatties, and overall strong cost efficient creatures. Lightning Bolt, playable. Blue has a little heat with Timmy and a host of countering spell type cards, but not too much punch. Water Elemental and Air Elemental complement Red’s versions nicely, in that they’re mad beaters.
Green, as usual, gets the shaft of the ages. Infinite 1/1s that don’t do anything complements life gain and mana accel. While Craw Wurm is a legitimate threat, each color can do it just as well in the uncommon slot, along with having cards that can rail anything Green can throw. Green has Stream of Life. I’m afraid my recommendation has to be avoid picking up Green while drafting Beta.
Pestilence! The choice between the enchantment or Fireball would be a tough one, simply for their insane influence of the game. I’d have to learn towards Fireball to keep my options open, but nothing dominates a game like Pestilence. In other removal news, Terror is great and Paralyze is nigh-unplayable. They’ll have the time to pay the four, trust me. Sengir and Hippie take the reins of the uncommon slot, with the latter easily playable on turn 1. Actually Dark Ritual isn’t even that bad in ABU, with Frozen Shade and Drain Life and the Red X’s worthy sinks. And Mind Twist. Play Mind Twist.
White is the wild card, with Serrated Angel and Swords to Plowshares amazing in the uncommon. White also has the COPs, which have some merit, seeing as how two colors outright can’t deal with them. The Wards are a horrible cycle, and the Hero still can’t ride the Pegasus.
ABU was the original Mirrodin, with lots of artifacts at the higher commonalities. Icy is quite the gem, but you may get fortunate and open a Chaos Orb, Nevy Disk, or The Hive. There’s also crazy awfuls like the six lucky charms, or Dingus Egg, or Conservator? Blech. Though there are some bombs, you don’t have to maindeck the Shatter just yet.
Your ideal deck will definitely have lots of Red cards in it, followed by either Black or Blue (incidentally, this is a trend that will continue for seven or so years). Red has the best spells and almost the best creatures. Their only flaw is their ease of splashability. Unfortunately, since ABU has a lot of dreg, people will be splashing and scrambling for anything playable. That means opens count more than signals, but what can you do? To be frank, ABU is not the ideal drafting experience.
Revised
Not a whole lot’s changed, except of course the art looking like there’s Vaseline over everything. The unholy red duet continues unabated, as well as lots of life gain, damage prevention, and creature enchantments. Burrowing, your time has not come yet.
Green loses Camouflage because it’s a “mystifier.” It does gain Desert Twister, which is a nice answer to, umm, permanents. Arabians and Antiquities did not shake up the precarious format much. El-Hajij? Slap a Holy and Unholy on him, woot!
4th Edition
Things actually get a little more interesting with this release. Black gets some strong removal, a 3/3 flier for three, and still has you-know-what to fall back on. Sadly, Black also gets the worst drawn card by the worst artist Magic has ever seen, Drew Tucker’s hauntingly abysmal Murk Dwellers. “Oops, I dropped my canvas in the mud. Wait a minute…”
Blue finds itself staring at two of the dumbest commons ever, Erosion and Energy Tap. You can’t make 15th picks like that anymore people. Chimney Imp looks like The Last Supper compared to a card that costs UUU and has no text. On a positive note, Flood makes its core set debut, continuing the line of broken enchantments that are impossible to deal with. Color intensive yes, but Flood + P makes a sick combination. 4th Edition Tranquility luckily destroys these crazy cards. Revised merely made you discard them from play, a fool’s errand if the cards in play weren’t also in your hand, or something.
Speaking of bizarre wordings, Regeneration looks kind of silly. They tried some crazy stuff back then; check out Blessing for another example. Mirage got Regeneration perfectly, with one smooth line of rules text, amusing art and amusing flavor. The 9th version didn’t have room for any poignant poetry as out modern Regen has an astonishing 7 lines of rules text!? How does 1997 crush 2k5?
Green gets an X that blocks and flies in Killer Bees. Green also gets the exceptionally annoying Carnivorous Plant. It’s like Ehrnam except it doesn’t bestow Forestwalk. Also it can’t attack. What it does give you is the cheapest biggest creature on the board, as a splashable common. If only there were cards that could let you damage your opponent, directly if possible…
Red, if possible, got even stronger in 4th. Fireball, Disentegrate, those are givens. What if they added Immolation and Brothers of Fire to the common slot? More…? Okay, let’s throw in Pyrotechnics as another easy to splash bomb Red uncommon. Alas, another set where you’d better hope you have a Mountain somewhere to access.
White is soooo bad in this set it’s not even funny. Yeah you could mise out a couple Serras and STPs, maybe even a Wrath or Balance if you can swing it. After that you’ve got to contend with Amrou Kithkin, Fortified Area, Morale, and if Healing Salve isn’t enough, add an Alabaster Potion. What a joke. Xs for everyone!
Still infinite artifacts in the base set, the most poignant new addition being Clay Statue as a common. It dies a muddy death to Pestilence, but remains kind of annoying on a flat battlefield. The Laces are still around, fighting for awful rare state with the Mana Batteries, Living Artifact, and any other cards that don’t do a thing. Just open a Fireball already.
5th
White loses Swords and gets Serra Bestiary. Seraph for Serra Angel. Aysen Beauracrats are mildly interesting and you get banding for one more base set. You can still do better.
In an amusing development, Necropotence made its core set debut. Yeah, good read on that one, Wizards. In relevant news, Carrion Ants are nuts, Pestilence is still around, poison is an option and you can Ritual out a turn 2 Abyssal Specter. Obviously the powers that be realized overwhelming cards like Hypnotic Specter should not be available for public consumption.
X + X are still around of course, and now Red gets the flavorful Pyroblast to protect them. I know REB was everywhere, but the art is way better on the Ice Age versions. Actually that fire ninja is kinda cool. Draft Red.
When drafting Green, you must ask yourself, will you take the All Aurochs Challenge™? It’s a damn good thing they’re not legendary. Good design there. Venom + Lure = crap, and and and…it’s Green. It’s got a wall that regenerates. “Yar them brambles be sharp!”
Blue still retains the very strong Phantom Monster, Phantasmal Forces, and the less exciting Phorget. Dark Maze becomes the new pain in the yoo-hoo, but Flood, ironically, still likes it when you are.
6th
Things do get a bit interesting now. 6th‘s famous cards include Wrath of God, for some reason. I’ll confess something here: 6th Edition had a card in the list that I had to actually look up. It’s Daraja Griffin, and I’m ashamed. Good card though.
Could it be they’ve finally taken out winsome twinsome? Is true, and even Lightning Bolt for good measure! Instead, we’re forced to scrape together some kind of deck with Shock, Lightning Blast, Blaze, Volcanic Geyser, Pyrotechnics, Earthquake, Orcish Artillery, Inferno, Spitting Earth, and Hammer. Of Bogardan. Yeah…
In brighter news, Green starts to get good! Panther Warriors and Redwood Treefolk have good stats, River Boa is a beating, and Gorilla Chieftain is a serious beating. Trained Armodon is always rock solid, and Praedish Gypsies never got the respect they deserve. Green now becomes the backbone of a solid draft.
Wizards learns from their mistakes and takes Pestilence out…of the common slot. Now you must choose: Pestilence or Strands of Night! Pick wisely! Oh yeah, you get Perish now too. Green, back in trouble.
Blue is total garbage in 6th, by far the worst of the colors. On the plus side, it has two of my favorite cards: Fog Elemental and Library of Lat-Nam. Pointless information from me to you, which is a microcosm anyway.
We honestly thought Classic was going to be entertaining to draft. We were wrong.
7th
Ah ha, MODO time. In a severe reversal, Blue kicks freaking ass in 7th. Prodigal Sorcerer is the best Blue common by far, and one of the best commons period. Blue also gets a crazy Hill Giant Octopus and a silly Wall of Turtle. On the rare side, you have EQ, Mawcor, and the almighty Opposition. No one in the history of the world has ever lost a draft game after casting that card. Think Glare of Subdual y tu mama tambien.
White ups the decency as well, with the silly Heavy Ballista and the “return” of Serra Angel. You also get her absurdly good Serra Embrace. No One In The History Of The World Has Ev
Black I liked quite a bit in 7th. It doesn’t particularly go well with Blue and sometimes White, since both are a little slow and color intensive, but it’s a smooth combination with anything else. Pestilence is finally gone, finally. Crypt Rats are an amusing substitute, since apparently Wizards simply cannot stand not having mass Black kill in the core set for decade one. It’s still darn good, and Gravediggerable too. Corrupt, Dark Banishing, and Dakmoor Lancer round out removal nicely. Black killed (ha) in the rare department, which was why forcing it was so rewarding.
When you get passed Dregs of Sorrow, or Reventant, or a Paladin, or Stronghold Freakin’ Assassin, well then you know you’ve arrived.
Red finally drops a power level, down to merely top 3 (or higher). Less burn, worse creatures – we still have a long way to go.
Green is so fat! Sooo much fat. Fatty FatFatMcFatterstein. That’s ok. You get yourself up to four and you just start churning out the hits. Green/Blue is my favorite 7th combination, followed closely by Black/X. Tims and Fats or Rats come Back. The power is yours.
8th
One step forward, eight steps back. 8th Edition had to be the worst format since AALD (which is a real stinker, as y’all will see tomorrow). Check this noise: I load up my trusty Magic Online (hahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahaha…)
I crack myself up.
Anyway I load up Magic Online and join an 8th Edition primo mega release event, or some nonsense. Kicking booty, I find myself fighting for Top 8 in the third game. My worthy opponent has strong cards but lo, a plan! Some Unsummon here, a Banishing there, maybe a Slay or something, and all that my opponent will have left is a lowly lonely Emperor Crocodile. Croc will pull a lovebird and I get free reign to bash in.
Well, the spells and the die were cast. I was brewing some coffee, waiting for the delayed triggered cumulative state based effect window to pop up when, nothing. In an abomination unto nature, the damn alligator was actually on the field, by himself, smirking! Question: Did I lose because of a big reptile or a little bug?
8th sucks.
9th
Now we come to what is easily the best base set draft environment ever. Besides actually being kind of fun, the ten painlands do give a little extra incentive to crack. I’ve even written about this format before, but here’s a solid recap for you cheap Premium-free bastards. Just kidding. Fight the system!
White once again disappoints. In the entire spectrum, there are exactly two white creatures with power greater than two. That sucks. If you can win fast enough you can get away with it, but any kind of stumble/control draw and you’re in a world o’ trouble. That said, Glorious Anthem is amazing.
Green gets my vote as best and safest color to draft. The commons are incredibly deep, and the landwalking Hill Giants in the uncommon slot are excellent forerunners or splashes if the need arises. Make sure you pick up a Treetop Bracers at some point and Wood Elves + Kavu Climber is almost a victory condition. Green is rock solid and I’m happy to play it whenever a 9th draft comes together.
Black is a bit wild, but great if you can get reasonable cards. Dark Banishing is easily the best common in the set, but that’s easy pickings. More interesting is the bevy of 3power+ guys, and the Black intensive removal, like Consume Spirit and Enfeeblement. If you’re in the right spot, Black gets games.
Red, my poor Red, you hath fallen. Like Black, Red gets tasty if you’re in the spot to get passes, but the penalties for screwing up here are far worse. Game Wave is a treat for the senses to be sure, but damn if you first pick and get married to it. One Brigand is too many.
If Blue actually did have Giant Octopus, things would be interesting, but unfortunately it does not. I’m not a big fan of blue in 9th, just because you can get in weird glut situations (too much bounce, too much counter, too much card draw, whatever). Aven Windreader is flat out amazing, and Air Elemental is amazinger. Confiscate and Thieving Magpie also make the hit list. Tidings still says, “I win.” Blue is alright when it’s active, or better yet, throwing down insane uncommons, but it’s not a guarantee. Mana Leak is really an open book.
Finally, draft equipment. Both of them. The end.
Whew, I’ll bet it all seemed to run together in the end. Luckily, things get a little more creative with actual expert level sets! Tomorrow, how to draft packs that no longer exist.
Bonus Trivia:
1. What card in 6th Edition represents an overrated movie about an underrated show?
2. Which is a better first pick in Beta: Black Knight or White Knight?
3. Necropotence in 5th Edition? WTF???