Well, I guess it’s time to share my point of view. There have been a few recent articles talking about my weird draft strategies, and I am here to make sense of it all. Most of what they say is true – most people don’t draft like I do and I do enjoy playing with any card with soulshift and pretty much any creature that costs 5+ mana. I just have a different way of approaching draft then most.
In every single draft format since OLS, I have always drawn first no matter what deck I have. I do this for a couple reasons, the first one is that being on the draw lets you keep a few more hands than being on the play. Hands with five lands and two pretty good cards on the draw to me is an easy keep, where as on the play I would have to think about it, since I don’t have another card to work with. Also hands with two lands plus five good cards that cost three or more is a lot easier to keep when you have three chances to hit your land drop than with just two. The second reason is that I am prone to trading cards with my opponent in the early game, pretty much no matter what. I’ll trade pretty much any card I have to stall until I can play my higher casting cost creatures or something with soulshift to get them back. A play I don’t see people make often enough is trading something like a Moonwing Moth for your opponent’s Villainous Ogre, instead choosing to take three damage and racing three damage for two. This creates situations later in the game where you lose to Dance of Shadows or Devouring Greed that could have been avoided by simply blocking on turn 3.
So I am here to talk about the deck that suits the way I play the best, and which I think has become a contender with Red/Green and Black/White for one of the best archetype in the format: Blue/Black spirits. Blue/Black in CCC and CCB wasn’t really all that good where you usually had weak creatures and not enough spirits to make soulshift work. [Though the ninja version of U/B was pretty strong. The Japanese loved that archetype. – Knut] With Saviors, the deck gains a few key cards that help soulshift and make weak creatures actually good. Death Denied is a card that is pretty much prefect for this archetype, I am always looking to trade creatures and with Death Denied you can get them all back, often winning you the game. Dreamcatcher, while not that high of a pick for most decks, is very important to Black/Blue. It makes sure you always have something to soulshift, while helping you draw your more powerful cards as well.
Those are a few key cards in the last pack (and we’ll get to more in a bit) but here is how I draft Champions well looking for a Black/Blue spirits deck.
Teller of Tales
Scuttling Death
Soratami Mirror-Guard
Befoul
Rend Spirit
Rend Flesh
Devouring Greed
Mystic Restraints
Nezumi Cutthroat
Gibbering Kami
Consuming Vortex
Cruel Deceiver
Kami of The Waning Moon
Wicked Akuba
Floating Dream Zubera
Ashen Skin Zubera
Soratami Cloudskater
Pull Under
Kami Of Twisted Reflection
Callous Deceiver
Eye of Nowhere
Cursed Ronin
Distress
Villainous Ogre
Waking Nightmare
Soulless Revival
That’s how I pick the cards in Champions, I’ve gone as far as to take Teller over Moth, which I did at U.S. Nationals. I actually think that was an easy pick, not only because I am looking to draft Black/Blue if I can, but also because with Saviors White has become pretty bad. Nowadays I can’t really draft a White deck and win, where before Saviors White was actually my favorite color. I don’t know if it was losing the pack of Champions, or the fact that Saviors really doesn’t have any good White commons that did it, but I’ll pretty much never pick a white cards anymore. If you look at this list, it obviously isn’t written in stone and I probably wouldn’t recommend any cards under Callous Deceiver in the main.
You may notice that the arcane cards are pretty low, with Vortex far below Mystic Restraints. There are a couple good reasons for that. The first one is just that this isn’t an arcane deck at all – you should rarely have more than six or so spells to make the spirit deck because you need a lot of creatures for soulshift and to trade with your opponent’s creatures. The other reason is that by playing Black/Blue, you leave yourself pretty open to huge problem cards like Frostwielder and Matsu-Tribe Sniper, which if you don’t deal with, you will probably lose. There are a lot of uncommons that I am looking to draft in Black/Blue. There are no uncommons that I would pick over Teller, but I’d pick Thief of Hope, Swallowing Plague, Nezumi Graverobber over Scuttling Death, and Sire Of The Storm and Soratami Savant right after Mirror-Guard. Also later in the pack you can pick up a few uncommons that work great in this archetype. Most people wont be drafting Guardian of Solitude or Kami of Lunacy highly, but they both work towards what your trying to do. Kami of Lunacy is a big flier that even if dealt with can soulshift back Scuttling Death/Teller Of Tales and Guardian of Solitude works great with the ninjas that come in Betrayers. There are some rares in Champions that need to be talked about, not the absolute bombs like Meloku, Keiga, Kokusho, Kiku that should be taken over anything, but some cards that you may not be picking highly enough in Black/Blue. Azami, Lady Of Scrolls could almost be in the first category, but is a rare that sometimes you will get passed 3-4th, He Who Hungers works great in this deck as a 3/2 flier with soulshift.
In Betrayers, the real reason to draft Black/Blue actually comes out… Ninjas. They are not spirits, but ninjas are some of the most powerful cards that have hit Limited in some time. This probably isn’t that obvious, but they are quit powerful because they change the way your opponent has to play the game, either trading his creatures for yours which lets you win by soulshift or to just get hit by the ninja, which will usually give you a good advantage.
Here is how I draft Betrayers:
Okiba-Gang Shinobi
Horobi’s Whisper
Ninja Of The Deep Hours
Shimmering Glasskite
Mistblade Shinobi
Takunuma Bleeder
Phantom Wings
Skullmane Baku
Teardrop Kami
Crawling Filth
Quillmane Baku
Skullsnatcher
Floodbringer
Veil of Secrecy
Bile Urchin
Blessing of Leeches
There are some things there that may be controversial, but this is how I draft Black/Blue. Many people have been asking whether the better pick is Whisper or Okiba-Gang. Well to me, it hasn’t really been close since the middle of CCB. Getting hit with a Okiba-Gang is so devastating that it’s hard to recover and in this archetype you will almost never be splicing Whisper. Also Ninja of the Deep Hours over Shimmering Glasskite is so close that it may just be my personal preference. To be honest, they are both amazing cards that work great in Blue/Black. The Glasskite is not only a spirit, but pretty hard to deal with, but I take the ninja because its almost always at least a two-for-one and sometimes you can hit them with it more than once or get it turn 2.
BDM has talked about my unnatural affinity for Crawling Filth, and it’s probably true… I play it well over 75% of the time I have it and it always works for me. Once the Crawling Filth hits the board it really is fine, fear and soulshift are two very good abilities give it a try if you are ever short that 22nd card. Again with the uncommons and rares Throat Slitter, Jetting Glasskite, Higure, The Still Wind and Ink-Eyes are better than all the commons. Sickening Shoal should be picked over Whisper and Eradicate right after. Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker has gotten a lot better in Black/Blue since Saviors with Dreamcatcher to go with Betrayers’ Bile Urchin and Teardrop Kami. A lot of cards become better depending on the number of ninjas you already have. Minamo Sightbender and Blessing of Leeches go from pretty bad to good with a few ninjas. Pus Kami is a card I am happy to have in my deck – it gives you something to cast in the late game is removal and can really soulshift anything.
On to Saviors, which is where the deck has changed. A few cards that you can usually get as late picks are what make this deck work. I’ve already talked about Dreamcatcher and Death Denied, but there are a couple more. Kami of Empty Graves is a perfect card for this deck, it trades with about anything and has soulshift. Kuro’s Taken is almost impossible to block effectively, making it easy to get a ninja through.
Here is how I draft Saviors:
Kagemaro’s Clutch
Shinen of Flight’s Wings
Death Denied
Kami of Empty Graves
Kuro’s Taken
Moonbow Illusionist
Dreamcatcher
Deathmask Nezumi
Raving Oni-Slave
Deathknell Kami
Murmurs From Beyond
Descendant of Soramaro
Minamo Scrollkeeper
Sink Into Takenuma
There are a lot of playable rares and uncommons in Saviors. The bombs Black and Blue Kirin, Blue and Black Maro and Oboro Envoy are all easy first picks. Sakashima the Imposter, Tomb of Urami, Akuta, Born of Ash, Hand of Cruelty and Exile into Darkness should be picked right after Shinen of Flight’s Wings. You pick these cards over Death Denied because right now you can usually get a Death Denied around 3-7th pick, If you don’t think you will get one later, then I would pick Death Denied over any of these because it’s one of the most important cards to the deck. Both the Black and the Blue Onnas are very good and should be picked right after Death Denied with the Blue and Black Ghost-Lits also both being playable. The Ghost-Lit Warder isn’t really a good card, but it can be used as a early game trade with something like a Hearth Kami or on turn 4 as a Counterspell that can be soulshifted. Being okay at two different things makes it playable. You may have noticed Freed from the Real isn’t even on the list – that’s because it isn’t playable in this deck. It shouldn’t really be counted as removal because it ties up your mana every turn and usually hurts you as much as them because you don’t have Kabuto Moth or Frostwielder in this deck.
Here is my deck from Day 1 at U.S. Nationals as a sample of what a Black/Blue deck could look like. This draft went terribly wrong, but still shows some of the basic principles I talked about in this article.
10 Swamp
8 Island
1 Kiku, Night’s Flower
1 Kami of Empty Graves
1 Teller of Tales
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Kami of the Waning Moon
1 Takenuma Bleeder
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Hired Muscle
2 Quillmane Baku
1 Crawling Filth
1 Ghost-Lit Stalker
1 Deathmask Nezumi
1 Kuro’s Taken
1 Rend Spirit
1 Hisoka’s Defiance
1 No-Dachi
1 Phantom Wings
1 Kagemaro’s Clutch
1 Sink into Takenuma
In this draft, things went pretty bad, but the only card I wasn’t happy with was Sink into Takenuma. This deck has everything a Black/Blue decks need to win. I got lucky and got Kiku fourth pick after picking Teller of Tales, Graverobber and a Kami of Fire’s Roar that I couldn’t play. But this deck shows what I have been talking about, higher-end cards, ninjas and soulshift can make up for lower overall card quality. Note also that there are 18 lands. I feel that you should almost always play 18 lands as it’s kind of hard to cast Crawling Filths and Quillmane Bakus without them.
That wraps up this article on drafting Black/Blue. Comments good or bad would be great, as this is my first article. I am always open for discussion on MODO or here on these forums.
Adam Chambers
Matt Schmaltz, Hankyu, Kung Lao Cuts and a few more on MODO
Going to Be Chambers on the forums.