I love drafting. I practically drafted before I built my own deck, and that’s how I like it. Drafting provides an opportunity to see and use cards you’d never think about otherwise, and with Conspiracy: Take the Crown, you get a whole set of those cards!
For those of you who missed Conspiracy when it first came around in 2014, Conspiracy: Take the Crown follows up on the premise of multiplayer Draft matches. Conspiracy: Take the Crown is a supplementary expansion that, while not Standard- or Modern-legal, promises a unique drafting experience designed to test your multiplayer mettle, your diplomacy, and your ability to act and react effectively in complex situations. While a multiplayer-oriented format, this is considerably different from Commander; you’re on your own, and you alone can win the crown.
As others and I have said previously, drafting is brewing on steroids; you are still under the pressure to make a consistent, coherent deck, and you just don’t have the luxury of having your choice of card base. You get what you get. That’ll be the case as you play in Conspiracy: Take the Crown events over the coming weeks, but I want to do my best to provide a bit of a primer, both from the perspective as an avid drafter and self-proclaimed Timmy.
This is going to be a great set to draft, thanks in large part to the bevy of new mechanics that will not only make an impact in Limited, but in casual multiplayer and Commander, too.
The Monarch
I am in love with the monarch mechanic; the flavor, in-game impact, and the way that the game plays with both are wonderful. If I’d been in the design meeting, I’d have wanted the cardboard booster box to unfold into a paper crown that you could place on the head of the current monarch, maybe with a little spot for the central “jewel” to hold this token. It’d either be awesome, or it’d be like some hip-but-not-actually teenager ironically walking around with a Burger King crown on his mop.
Eh, I’ll go with awesome.
If you declare yourself the monarch, great! Draw a card. You take down the opposing monarch? Super! Draw a card! The fact that your table will, as a whole, be drawing more cards will mean that players will have more fuel for their hands and the game will be less likely to devolve into a topdeck war, too, so it’s a great mechanic for Draft that rewards good play and careful planning.
With the exception of a few corner cases and perhaps Stunt Double, you can’t lose the monarch the turn you play cards that grant you the crown, so all of these cards should be highly valued as they are effectively cantrips. Even those common creatures like Thorn of the Black Rose, Crown-Hunter Hireling, and Palace Sentinels get considerable value when they replace themselves. Sometimes it will be politically favorable to give up the crown, as it’ll put the target on the head of your neighbor; you might see that their battlefield state is dangerous, but others may not, and they’ll need a more obvious reason to take the heat off you.
It’s a Complete Melee!
This Naya-centered mechanic is really powerful, and Wings of the Guard is my pick for Draft common of the set. In the red zone alone, it’s a Wind Drake. Any more attackers make this highly undercosted, and it’s flying, meaning you can steal the crown at a whim.
Adriana, Captain of the Guard is the queen of casual brawling Commanders in her color, giving an Eternal format a bit of fun flair. In the right Draft deck, though, she will be backbreaking. One thing that’s important to remember is that aiming at a lot of people will likely make all of them angry. A favorite phrase comes to mind: “If you’re going to hit the king, you’d better kill the king.”
The Whole World Is Against Me!
Conspiracies break some of the conventions of normal cards because of what they mean while you’re drafting. The opportunity cost to draft a conspiracy is very low, because it only has a positive impact on your deck. You’ll never waste a draw step drawing a useless conspiracy; you start the game with them, so they only make your deck better. Consider that as you see a conspiracy get passed to you. Because of its unique role, taking up no space might be the best use of your draft pick.
The common cycle of conspiracies provides a lot of depth to any Draft deck. Although this information is hidden, you can tell a lot about what might be under there by your opponent’s in-game posturing. Making a risky attack with a Plains open? Bet that creature’s the named card for Adriana’s Valor. Seeing a lot of the same common creature in front of a mess of Swamps? They might have an undead army waiting with Assemble the Rank and Vile. Use what information is provided to get ahead.
I wish there were an easy way to integrate a variety of conspiracies into Commander, but these two blow the others out of the water. How many times would I love to start with my Kozilek, Butcher of Truth deck with Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Solemn Simulacrum? I don’t even cast that many spells in there. Or Sovereign’s Realm for my Horde of Notions? No mana problems for my five-color Commander and its activated ability! If you’ve got a good way to incorporate a balanced conspiracy variant into your Commander games, I want to hear it!
There’s a Draft in Here
The original Conspiracy had a handful of artifact creatures that cared about who was sitting beside you, what they were drafting, and several other fun factors. For example, Agent of Acquisitions is a perennial crowd-pleaser that currently holds a place of prominence in my Cube. This generation of cards makes the creatures a bit more of a signal, or a fake signal, perhaps, as they are colored. This adds a great layer of depth and, as was the case with revealing double-sided cards during Shadows over Innistrad, people will see that you take it.
Rock the Vote
In the previous Conspiracy, this is where you would distinguish yourself to your opponents; everyone votes, but if you vote against the owner of the spell or ability, chances are they’ll remember it. With Council’s Dilemma, only the owner wins; the rest of the group just basically determines how that owner wins. Because each vote is a benefit, the more players in the group, the more powerful these cards. Messenger Jays can help you dig deep or have an enormous flyer at common, or you can gain a bucket of life off Orchard Elemental or get a massive ground-pounder. A blend of each? All the better!
Get a Rise out of Me
While only represented on a few cards, goad is a neat spin on effects like the Standard-legal Act of Treason. Great design; not much else to say with so few cards, but bravo to the R&D team for this one.
I Remember This!
Monstrosity returns from Theros block and provides a great role-playing effect in the format. Late in the game, when you’ve got loads of mana hanging around, waiting for your opponents to blink, making a creature monstrous not only gives you a bigger threat, it levels up your battlefield presence. Remember how good Nessian Asp was in Limited?
In this format, lots of evergreen mechanics get a situational boost. Vigilance is way better now that you’ll need to keep that crown on your head; you’ll need to apply pressure and have a blocker. Trample lets you steal crowns through an army of defenders, as does flying. Speaking of trample…
Here Comes the Money
Who saw this coming?
To the untrained eye, this look like a situational Giant Growth with an ugly downside, but for one green mana, this can alter the course of the entire game. One opponent is blocking another opponent’s 6/6 with their 0/1? Nope, they’re taking eleven. It’s a fantastic political play, killing two birds with one stone, eliminating an opponent through combat damage and then having your nemesis lose their greatest threat.
For one green mana.
If you were to poll any given Commander pod what card they wish they had in their hand at that moment, it probably would be some kind of sweeper effect. This format is no different; sweepers put you completely in control, and Hallowed Burial gets rid of any pesky creatures that are resistant to normal removal. Hallowed Burial should be a first pick every time.
Well, almost every time.
Finally, a format where Show and Tell is a fair Magic card. Legacy uses Show and Tell as a way to put overpowered threats directly onto the battlefield, like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Here, though, it lets everybody have fun, putting the most powerful, exciting permanent from their hand into action. For Constructed purposes, I’m also really thankful a Legacy staple is getting a high-profile reprint. Sure, it doesn’t lower the cost of Underground Seas or Tropical Islands, but it’s still doing a good thing for the format.
Granting card draw to a group is a good way to keep yourself alive. If you’re lucky enough to pull or get passed one of these, keep that in mind while you build.
Take the Crown from Me (If You Can)
In the end, I believe the most fun scenarios created by Conspiracy: Take the Crown will be the ones I can’t think up. It’s pretty impossible to play this format and not have fun, so I hope you’ll give it a try. I know I’ll be drafting as much of it as I can.
Overall, it looks like white might be the best color; high-toughness creatures, effective blockers, lifegain, and damage deflection makes for an unappealing target. People want to take a bite out of a player, you know? They don’t want to attack a pillow fort with more pillows. My advice would be to get the best white spells you can and defend. Form the army you need to swing effectively and let the peons do the fighting. You’ll literally be in an ivory tower.
Blue has some good commons and plenty of evasion, along with plenty of cantrips to keep your hand loaded up while your opponents run out of gas trying to defend themselves. Blue loves being the monarch, and even if they don’t have the crown, they’ll still pretend like they do with their draw spells.
If blue is a pretender, then black is obsessive. Black has more cards than any other color dedicated to declaring you the monarch. They will steal the power any way they can. No combat, no fairness. Just “mine.” This is a great flavor win, but black loves to disrupt, too. Instead of going the cheap, hard-to-kill creature route this time, black spends its early turns killing things and closing the game with large, rare threats like Harvester of Souls and a menagerie of Vampires.
Black may be obsessed, but red barely cares. Seems right, doesn’t it? Red is about overturning law as it is, so what do they care about who sits in a throne on the other side of town? The queen isn’t watching them pilfer weapons or light a Garbage Fire, so why should I bother? I mean, really, red gets bonus points for attacking as many people as possible. Red isn’t just about fire; it’s about blood, too. Also, if you draft a deck that supports Guttersnipe, go ahead and get that bucket of paint out and slather a target on your chest.
For green, sharing is caring. Between spreading out wide and offering effects that help everyone through cards like the masterfully-crafted Borderland Explorer, green also likes to play the long game. No haste or aggressive enchantments this time. Just watch out for the heavy green mage: Overrun can kill a whole table.
One thing that I think is worth noting is the creatures aren’t very small. When you cast a creature, you’re doing something big, and that’s in line with most Draft formats, where one-drops and two-drops have to do something in the long run to be worth it, even for fairly aggressive decks. That also means being comfortable bumping up your land count to match.
Winning won’t be about pulling the best cards or even building the best deck; it’ll involve how you play the game and how you play your fellow heirs apparent.
What cards are you most excited to see in action from Conspiracy: Take the Crown? Maybe you’ve seen Eternal implications from powerful plants like Sanctum Prelate? How do you plan to take the crown?