Dark Ascension is finally fully integrated into our lives both online and off. This means that most of us are going to spend a good portion of our free time doing Magic Online drafts or at least dreaming of doing them. Today, I’m going to talk about the major changes that Dark Ascension had on Innistrad Draft and what archetypes you want to draft and stay away from. Let’s talk Limited!
No Durdling Zone
Decks that don’t try to win games through early pressure, removal, and combat tricks have gotten much worse since the addition of Dark Ascension. Self-Mill, Spider Spawning, and Burning Vengeance all took brutal losses. These decks used to be able to compete in triple-Innistrad draft, but losing a pack of their namesake cards is a big blow.
The fewer core pieces that these decks have, the more defensive creatures and removal spells they need to replace them. The problem with this is almost every piece of removal in this block is situational. Controlling the board becomes a gamble. Do you have the right removal spell in your hand for their creatures?
Defensive creatures are also poor because of how many combat tricks are in the format. Combat tricks play a very important role in the world of Innistrad. Because there are a lot of creatures with higher toughness than power, the player with the combat trick or removal tends to gain an advantage in combat. Combat tricks can be more reliable in these situations than removal spells!
While I’m not going to say that these decks should be avoided like the plague, the ability to draft them has decreased. You can no longer force Spiders. Rather, the best place to be now is picking two- and three-drops with tricks to back them up.
It’s very difficult to come from behind in this format if your opponent has a pump spell. This’s why it is important to value cheaper creatures over the flashier, more expensive ones. Creating a board presence is the most important step in winning.
Wizards actually did an amazing job when they made this set. The format looks like you can get away with so many cool and flashy things, but it isn’t really much slower than Zendikar. Aggressive creature-based decks win a higher percentage of the time without doing anything special. You want to play a 2/2 for two followed by a three-drop (preferably with evasion) with a combat trick in the holster.
Relearning to Draft Green
Dark Ascension did some damage to most of the green decks in the format. We already talked about how Mulch strategies were impacted, but the real victim is green/white beatdown. Green/white was by far the strongest archetype in triple-Innistrad because of its early creatures and Travel Preparations.
Pack one is now bad for green decks. Instead of picking up Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Travel Preparations, and Villagers of Estwald, you have Kessig Recluse taking the title for best green common in Dark Ascension. The drop off in power level is huge after that.
Green’s loss is obviously a good thing for Limited, since G/W was a bit overpowered; something had to change. However, this means draft strategy has to change too.
I only end up in green/white if I’m trying to move into white and green becomes open next to me. White is by far the deepest color in this format and a common starting color. Even though green is low in quality in pack one, if you sense that you’re in a position to pick up Travel Preparations later, you should make the steal. It can also be important to make signaling picks by taking Scorned Villagers early. I’m not a fan of this card in green/white, but the information you give to opponents can help solidify you in the strategy. I would definitely take this guy over a Dawntreader Elk just for signaling purposes.
There is more than one green deck in this format. Green/red is much better now because of the powerful cards from Dark Ascension that others will not want. Wild Hunger is a very good card if you’re able to consistently flash it back. This is not your ordinary pump spell. This card not only deals some damage in the early game as you kill off a guy, but it threatens lethal after that. This is one of the key cards you want to have when drafting this archetype.
Scorned Villager is a card that I love in red decks. Green/red decks tend to have issues that the white versions don’t. One is not having enough good two-drops to play; another is not being able to control the game as easily. This means you will want to accelerate out more and get into positions where you are the aggressor. This is important because green/red does not have many ways to interact with fliers. To beat blue/white decks, you want to have tempo rather than control.
A great way to get into this archetype is by grabbing an early Immerwolf. Don’t be afraid to grab this guy if the coast is clear. Not only is this card the best standalone Lord, but he sets you up for some very busted draws. There are a decent amount of Wolves and Werewolves in the format. His ability to keep guys flipped is strong, but his anthem is much stronger than that of the other Lords. Like I said before, tempo is very important when playing red/green and the easiest way to gain it is by having the biggest guys on the board first.
Value good, cheap creatures over mediocre removal in this archetype. You never want to be playing the control role, and you never want to be waiting to cast a Wrack with Madness over just playing more dudes.
The King of the Jungle
White/blue has taken over as the most powerful deck in the format. This archetype has the deepest colors, the most tricks, and the best evasion. All of these things come together to make this the Deck to Force.
Make sure to keep in mind what your base color is—this is the one of the biggest mistakes you can make. There are a ton of spells that cost either two white or two blue mana, and these cards often conflict with each other, making for some very awkward opening hands. It’s not the end of the world if your deck has a Spectral Rider and a Stormbound Geist, but you want to avoid it if possible. More often, you’ll want to be base white because Loyal Cathar and Chapel Geist are generally stronger than Claustrophobia and Stormbound Geist.
This deck leans on tempo more than any other in the format. Cards like Feeling of Dread, Silent Departure, and Griptide are obviously very good in this department, but there are a few that will surprise you.
Gavony Ironwright is one of my favorite cards in this archetype. A 1/4 body is great at holding the ground while you assemble an army of evasive creatures. Most of the time, he will just be a good defensive creature. However, when you’re racing an opponent or behind on the board, the fateful hour ability is completely game-changing. It has come up for me way more than I initially thought it would.
It’s very common for U/W to have close races against other aggressive decks in the format. More times than not, an opponent won’t be able to attack you because putting you in the one-to-five life range would be fatal. This means they have to kill you from six or more life or remove Gavony Ironwright from the battlefield. While your opponent tries to figure that out, you can relax and continue to beat them from the air.
I always like having one Nephalia Seakite. This card goes very well with all of the instant speed spells already in these colors. The more instant speed cards you have in your deck, the better they all get. It’s very difficult to play around four open mana when you know your opponent has any combination of Nephalia Seakite, Rebuke, Village Bell-Ringer, Griptide, Midnight Haunting, Moment of Heroism, and Skillful Lunge in their deck.
Elgaud Inquisitor is not an exciting card in this deck but fulfills a very specific role. He is not in the deck to be aggressive. Three- and four-drops in this deck should either have evasion or help build a tempo advantage. This guys does both of these things. Lifelink is a very good ability in this format because of how aggressive it is, and getting two guys out of one spell is also very good.
Elgaud Inquisitor is also excellent against U/W when played in G/W. Most ground creatures can be ignored when you’re racing, but not this guy. It’s much better to grab this guy out of a weak pack than to play against him later in the draft.
Five-drops aren’t that exciting in the first pack. There are many opportunities to pick up a flying five-drop; you don’t want too many. Silverclaw Griffin is an above average card, but you’d rather have a Gallows Warden or Battleground Geist from Innistrad. Take the cheaper creatures first and build up your curve as the draft progresses.
I’m All In!
The most difficult lesson while drafting post-Dark Ascension is learning to move into a strategy almost immediately. This set is littered with cards that have heavy mana requirements, making it important to be based around a single color. There is also another category of spells that are only good in specific niche strategies. As a result, you’ll be abandoning picks much more often when changing colors and end up playing very mediocre spells.
One thing that I thought would help was to take the generic creatures higher in my pick order to help with mana base issues.
Rustic Wolf is a perfect example of this. At first I thought a Hill Giant would be the most generic spell in the game, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. While this card is very mediocre in a green/red or blue/red deck, it’s something I always want in my black/red decks. It fills a role; red/black lacks creatures that survive combat against the many 2/3s running around.
The most successful drafts that I’ve had so far have been when I forced starting on my first or second pick. It’s possible to sometimes end up on the wrong end of two people sharing colors, but those decks did surprisingly better than those where I had four different colors of cards by pick 6. Jockeying for the best colors to be in can take up most of pack one, leaving you without enough good cards for your main. You don’t want to be in this position, even if you get some better cards at your top end. Most of the non-bombs in the format are actually closer to the same power level than you’d think because of how fast this format is.
This set is also tribal themed, and I’m not just talking about the Captains. Synergy is very important and will improve your overall card quality. The more cards with shared synergy you have, the better your deck will be. Even if you’re taking below average playables, they’ll do better than expected if they’re cheap enough to impact the game early.
I’ve found the best way to fight the variance of drafting this set is to be as fast and aggressive as possible. Let the other guys durdle while you bash their face in with a great curve of mediocre two-drops.
To Quiver or Not to Quiver
I want to close with a question for you guys. There is one card in this set that I still do not know if I like or not. Wolfhunter’s Quiver is a card that I have gone back and forth on since my first draft. I’ve seen this card take over games; I’ve seen it go unused. Sometimes the controller of the Quiver blows out his opponent, and others get blown out by having it in play. I think this card’s best home is in green decks, but I don’t think it belongs in every deck with creatures. I won’t figure this out until I do infinite drafts next week. What do you guys think?
Next week I’ll finally be going home and spending all week drafting on Magic Online. I’ll be streaming most of it at twitch.tv/fffreakmtg. If you want to watch me draft all week, you should go and follow me on that page or at Twitter to get updates for when I’ll be streaming. See you guys next week!