Tragically, there seem to be very few decent articles ever written on signalling. In fact, doing a search for”signalling” in the StarCityGames article database yields no results whatsoever except for one link to Brainburst. Further searches with different keywords led to a series of articles by Arthur Pruyn written in 2001. That’s right; on the best Magic strategy site on the net, there has been nothing written on one of the most important facets of drafting in almost two years – and even those articles are not particularly relevant because they were written in light of Invasion Block, which had lots of gold cards and where playing three or more colors was the norm. In fact, everything that your average player knows about signalling is probably derived from the draft walkthroughs that various pros often do, where signalling is a topic that comes up at some point in the draft.
(Note: Since I wrote this introduction, Geordie Tait posted an article that did cover the rudimentary elements of signalling. It covered some of what I will be saying here although I think this article still adds value.)
As a result, there are lots of players around who are very confused about signalling. Probably the worst instance I have encountered was in a draft where I was passed a pack containing Ravenous Baloth with a common missing. In between rounds, I messaged the player to find out what he had taken over the Baloth and he replied that he had taken a Solar Blast. Confused at why he would pass me a bomb rare that basically told me to force G/R and leave him fighting for red, I questioned him further and he said that he had heard that taking the rare in the first pack was a bad signal. I didn’t question him further, although I doubt he even knew why it was a bad signal, let alone how he had misapplied the lesson.
Yes, there is no doubt about it; the whole subject of signalling has maintained a rather mystical quality. Most people have some idea of what it is, many have tried to do it at some point – but nearly everyone thinks they are bad at it. In fact I bet there are Pro Tour players out there who sit there gibbering in drafts when faced with the prospect of both Infest and Cruel Revival in their opening pack.
However, on the plus side, it’s one of those areas that you can claim to be bad and still sound good. Like a golfer who claims he needs to work on his backspin shots or a pool player who needs to control his swerve more, you are playing on the fact that you need to be pretty good in order to be bad at it. By acknowledging you are bad at signalling, you are basically saying:
“Okay, I suck – but at least I suck at something very cool and mysterious, while the rest of you are busy sucking at ordinary things.”
Never mind the fact you lost your last draft because you played a Zealous Inquisitor face-down; instead, just claim that you”Misread the signals in the draft” and you will instantly look cool to all your pals. Therefore, it is with a certain amount of pride that I say:
“Dear Diary, I think I might be bad at signalling….’
The reason I am writing this article is to hopefully unravel signalling a little bit for the average player. What I plan to do is to walk you through the early stages of a few drafts – but rather than just list my picks along with a few notes, I will discuss each pick in detail, including what signals I appear to be receiving and what signals I am sending. After five picks in each draft, I will try to summarize the draft so far and make some predictions about what my neighbors could be playing and then check to see if I am right. This should show me both how well I read the signals coming from the right as well, as how well I signalled to the guy on my left. If we’re lucky, we may all learn something.
All drafts were carried out on Magic Online – and as a result, the quality of my opponents was a bit variable. I made a rule that I wouldn’t use the draft for this article unless both my neighbors were rated over 1650. This ensures that inept players are not feeding me false signals and my own signals have a reasonable chance of being picked up. I must confess that sometimes (especially before I got used to it) I made some bad picks because I spent too much time trying to record the booster contents and not enough actually thinking about my pick. Eventually, I got used to it and stopped making so many errors but I will try to indicate what I think were bad picks in retrospect.
Just for the record, I will be using the words”daddy” and”bitch” to indicate the drafters on my right and left respectively in the draft, for no other reason other than it’s quicker.
Draft 1
Wirewood Pride
Disciple of Malice
Demystify
Naturalize
Haunted Cadaver
Foothill Guide
Anurid Murkdiver
Glory Seeker
Lay Waste
Swat
PACIFISM
Mistform Mutant
Aphetto Alchemist
Kamahl’s Summons
Harsh Mercy
The decent cards in this pack were Glory Seeker, Swat, Pacifism, and Harsh Mercy; in other words, three white cards and a black card. To truly send the best signal, picking Swat would be the way forward; however, the difference in power level between Pacifism and the other three is just too great, so I took that. Even early on, I realize that this may cause me to be fighting for white with my left-hand neighbor but I think it’s a sacrifice worth making for the better card.
Brightstone Ritual
Crown of Ascension
Elvish Guidance
Wretched Anurid
Lavamancer’s Skill
Riptide Biologist
SOLAR BLAST
Lonely Sandbar
Backslide
Wirewood Elf
Crown of Suspicion
Thrashing Mudspawn
Nova Cleric
Tribal Unity
First of all, when I receive a pack I look what is missing – and I am disappointed to notice that it’s the rare. Given the number of bomb rares in Onslaught, it is impossible to tell anything from this pack, as there are many rares better than any of the other cards in this pack in their respective color.
Now looking at the pack, the best cards are Wretched Anurid, Lavamancer’s Skill, Solar Blast, Wirewood Elf, and Thrashing Mudspawn. Firstly, I note there is no good white card in the pack – which is a shame, as it means I have to make early forays into another color. Like the last pack, there is clearly a”best card” in Solar Blast, so I take this not wanting to commit to R/U by taking the Skill (and weakening my Pacifism).
In terms of a signal, this is interesting. He may consider the third-pick Skill as a good reason to go R/U – especially if he has picked up either of those two colors with his first two picks. Alternatively, he may take the Wirewood Elf – which is, strictly speaking, the best card left in the booster – especially if he is already in Green. Then again, he may not try to read my signal at all and just pick the best card in his colors. If he picked the Swat out of the last booster he may go with the Mudspawn or even the Anurid if he plans on going B/R. There are too many variables yet to make a definite call.
Skirk Prospector
Spy Network
Elvish Pathcutter
Slipstream Eel
Treespring Lorian
Anurid Murkdiver
Sandskin
Nosy Goblin
Tranquil Thicket
Barren Moor
DEATH PULSE
Aphetto Alchemist
Overwhelming Instinct
Missing here is a rare and common – but most importantly, I notice that Death Pulse is still in the pack. This gives me a strong signal that my daddy is almost certainly not playing black. Again there is an absence of anything playable in white, leaving a fair chance he is actually playing this color. There are no rares in black that would get passed on that are better than Pulse, so in the last pack it is fair to assume he took a non-black card with his second pick and hence his first pick was probably not black either (otherwise, leaving the Death Pulse in the pack would be foolish). The only possibility is that he took a bomb rare in pack 1 and then a Revival or Husk with the second pick, though this seems statistically unlikely. I take the Pulse and hope for a clear run on black.
Other than the pulse, the only other semi-decent card in the booster is the Lorian. Shipping this on will probably do one of two things: If my bitch took the Wirewood Elf in the last pack, he will almost certainly take the Lorian. If he took the Skill, on the other hand, he will take the Alchemist, which can be great in R/U but is poor in most other archetypes.
Dirge of Dread
Daru Cavalier
Battering Craghorn
Mistform Wall
Break Open
Information Dealer
Mistform Mask
Symbiotic Elf
Mistform Dreamer
SNARLING UNDORAK
Dawning Purist
Thoughtbound Primoc
This was my first bonehead pick. In contrast to the previous few packs, this one had a wealth of decent cards. Dirge, Craghorn, Dreamer, Undorak and Primoc are all more than worthy of a fourth pick (although again I note, no good white cards). The correct pick was almost certainly either Dirge or Primoc. With the lack of anything good coming through in White, I had (correctly) all but given up on my Pacifism. Instead, I took the strong Green card hoping to cut the color and pair it probably with black.
My plan for signalling was to ship on the Dreamer and Wall and hope that my bitch had taken the bait and decided to go R/U. Given that my best guess for my daddy’s colors was probably R/W at this stage, this would make B/G a very nice combination to be in. However, despite this really slick sounding justification, I still say this was a bad pick. Needlessly picking your fourth color in as many picks means you are inevitably wasting valuable early picks….
Fever Charm
Screaming Seahawk
Crown of Vigor
Elvish Pathcutter
Syphon Mind
Disciple of Grace
SPITTING GOURNA
Barren Moor
Daru Healer
Everglove Courier
Trade Secrets
…However, like so many bad picks it seemed to pay off, as I was passed a fifth-pick Gourna. Note the first playable white card I have seen since pack one in Daru Healer; however, it is too random to go back to white now. I take the Gourna, passing nothing of value – although if my bitch is in Green they could probably get some value out of the Everglove Courier.
At this point, I will end the pick-by-pick analysis and start looking at what we can predict from what we have seen so far. Let’s start with my daddy.
Given the complete lack of white cards that have come my way, I imagine that he’s playing white in some capacity. In terms of a second color, there are no clear candidates. My best guess is that he is cutting white aggressively and hasn’t yet got another color (a very viable strategy in OLS).
My bitch, on the other hand, will almost certainly be playing either R/U or G/x depending on what they took from the earlier packs I shipped. In fact it is almost entirely dependent on whether they took the Skill for their third pick. If they didn’t, then the sensible plan would be to ship all the R/U goodies along the line rather than fighting for blue with your left (which you never want to do, as Legions blue is important).
So I’ve put myself on the line and made my predictions. Let’s see if I was right.
Well my prediction for my daddy was way off, as he ended up playing B/R. I found this rather confusing as, if anything, these colors had been passed to me in greater depth than others although given both of these colors are deep in Onslaught it is not that unreasonable. As for the complete lack of White, I can only assume that it was cut heavily from guy #2 upstream and also was in very thin supply to start with.
I did slightly better with the predictions for my bitch, although the result was a little surprising: He ended up as B/G which I can only assume was as a result of picking a black card first and then taking the Swat I shipped along first pack and cementing himself in the color. Obviously, this is very bad for me as I was getting completely cut all through Legions, as well as meaning there were an unenviable three black drafters in a row – and I was in the middle.
Somewhere along the line, I completely messed this draft up. I would like to say that it was that fourth-pick Undorak where I should have taken the Primoc – but this is only easy to say with hindsight. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear about it on the forums.
In case you want to know, I continued to draft a very average B/G deck and ended up getting eliminated in the first round.
Overall Grade: D
Draft 2
Crown of Vigor
Dirge of Dread
Daru Cavalier
Ixidor’s Will
Leery Fogbeast
Misery Charm
Imagecrafter
Krosan Tusker
Cruel Revival
Charging Slateback
Choking Tethers
Dwarven Blastminer
Nameless One
SLICE AND DICE
Weird Harvest
A tricky first pick between Slice and Dice and Cruel Revival. The Slice is probably the better card but on the other hand I would rather draft black than red. Eventually I take the Slice, because red actually seems quite under-drafted on Magic Online these days, with a lot of people choosing to try and force black. A lot of people may disagree with this pick – although given the same choice I would probably do the same again. The ability to perform a board sweep (and sometimes make it one-sided) is just too good an ability to pass up. I make a mental note that my bitch will almost certainly go into black.
Treespring Lorian
Severed Legion
Renewed Faith
Fever Charm
Ixidor’s Will
Wellwisher
Elvish Warrior
Festering Goblin
Gustcloak Harrier
SKIRK COMMANDO
Mistform Dreamer
Symbiotic Beast
Starlit Sanctum
Withering Hex
Again, no real signal coming from the right as the rare is the first card taken. The rest of the pack is filled with solid commons and uncommons though with Wellwisher, Elvish Warrior, Festering Goblin, Gustcloak Harrier, Skirk Commando, Mistform Dreamer, and Symbiotic Beast all providing some value at second pick. The strange situation is that not only is there a playable card in each color, but they are also approximately equal in power. Because of this, I follow my first pick and take another red card. This has the added advantage that it completely cuts red maybe giving me a clear run at the (albeit unspectacular) red in Legions.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to predict what my bitch will pick. Given they almost certainly picked Revival last pack, they may go with the Goblin or if they took a Green, White or Blue card from their first pack they may take one of the other five playable cards. As three of these are Green, they may even take this as a signal that they have breathing space to their right in Green and take one of these.
Crown of Awe
Snarling Undorak
Sea’s Claim
Vitality Charm
Spined Basher
Daunting Defender
GLORY SEEKER
Lay Waste
Backslide
Snarling Undorak
Misery Charm
Frightshroud Courier
Explosive Vegetation
A rare and an uncommon are missing from this pack, which means there is still not a lot of evidence to derive signals from. The best cards in the pack are two Undoraks (one was foil, in case you were wondering), Vitality Charm, Daunting Defender, Glory Seeker, and Explosive Vegetation. In other words, three green cards and two white cards and with no good red whatsoever, I was going to be forced to make a choice. Although Undorak is the best card in the pack, I realize that there is a good chance my bitch is in green – and even if he isn’t, passing him the other Undorak as a fourth pick might entice him to go into Green anyway, especially with the Vegetation and Vitality Charm also in the pack. Either way, the Undorak isn’t looking very attractive given that you really need Legions Green to make G/R work. Instead, I take the Glory Seeker, which is a great card in R/W if this is what I end up in.
Disciple of Grace
Spined Basher
Spy Network
Wirewood Pride
Aphetto Dredging
Secluded Steppe
Birchlore Rangers
Profane Prayers
Grassland Crusader
Skittish Valesk
Reminisce
AVEN SOULGAZER
A fairly unexciting pack with a rare and two commons missing. The presence of the Soulgazer is an indication that my daddy is not white – although to be honest, it wouldn’t have exactly been a steal at third pick, so it may be that there was a better white card in the pack, or a better card from his second color (if he has one yet).
This left me a decision between the Soulgazer and the Valesk (Grassland Crusader, while playable in R/W, is probably strictly inferior). 3/3 flyers for five are always good, even if the attached ability is mediocre – especially in R/W, where you normally hope to take to the skies to finish the job. Although I am more of a fan of the Valesk than most (I once had it in play with Aven Farseer, which is fun) it is certainly not worth taking over the Soulgazer. I am not too worried about passing the Valesk because Legions red isn’t too exciting – and if, as I suspect, my bitch is in Green, Birchlore Rangers might be a better pick anyway.
Daru Cavalier
Slipstream Eel
Syphon Mind
Demystify
Break Open
Imagecrafter
Barren Moor
GOBLIN SLEDDER
Sea’s Claim
Commando Raid
Goblin Pyromancer
A big steaming pile, rescued by the fact that Goblin Sledder is very playable in R/W, where you are very much playing the tempo game. There is very little signalling to be done with this pack, as I have neither received nor passed anything good here. Sometimes in this situation, I am tempted to take the Daru Cavalier in the hope that I find a second or possibly even a third one in the rest of the packs; however, I would much rather have a sure thing that I can put in the deck like the Sledder.
So now it’s time for the prediction. As for my daddy, I’m pretty sure he is playing neither White nor Green given the depth of cards I have been passed in those colors. I have been passed no Black whatsoever, and will predict that he is playing that (and he has aggressively cut it) and has either Blue or Red as his second color.
I imagine my bitch has been lapping up all the green I passed. Five picks in, I think that he’s still hoping for some black to go with the Revival I shipped him and has been disappointed that it hasn’t yet come. I predict he is in B/G. If I am right, this leaves my R/W as a very strong color choice that should get nicely fed in both Legions and Scourge.
Anyway, I number of PM’s later, I found out the truth. My daddy is actually playing U/R and not black. Either this was being cut hard upstream, or the quality of black in the packs was simply low. He was instead playing the other two colors I predicted. My bitch turned out to be playing B/W.
Looking back on the draft, I think I worked out what happened here. I passed him the Revival, which he naturally took. He then ignored the Green in the following pack, electing to send a good signal himself by taking either the Goblin or the Harrier (which was, strictly speaking, probably the best card in the booster). When I passed him Double D in the following pack, he then decided to solidify into B/W Clerics by taking one of the cornerstones of the deck.
Incidentally, my deck ended up as a pretty degenerate R/W deck with Slice, Goblin Goon, Eternal Dragon, double-Daru Stinger and about ten soldiers (B/W has little use for soldiers on the whole, especially Stingers). I absolutely walked this draft despite the amount of amazing Green that someone downstream of me must have found in their lap.
Looking back, I think the defining moment of the draft for me was picking the Glory Seeker over the Undorak. I’m not sure this achieved the desired result (I was supposed to force my neighbor into Green), but it worked in so far as I ended up in the color which, judging by the rest of the draft, was very underdrafted. Who knows, ironically taking one Undorak out of the pack may have even encouraged my neighbor to go Green more as this would have meant he would not have to pass the second Undorak. Either way, I am happy with my choices and reasonably happy with my signal reading.
Overall Grade: B
Draft 3
Disciple of Grace
Spurred Wolverine
Spy Network
Imagecrafter
Fever Charm
Mistform Wall
Backslide
Wirewood Elf
Crown of Suspicion
Barkhide Mauler
Swat
PROWLING PANGOLIN
Nova Cleric
Skittish Valesk
Oblation
A lot of quality in this pack. Barkhide Mauler, Oblation, and Swat would have all been acceptable (if unspectacular) first picks with Mistform Wall, Wirewood Elf, Crown of Suspicion and Skittish Valesk also present. Although not perfect signalling wise when the next best card may also be Black, Prowling Pangolin is just a much better card than anything else in the booster. A 6/5 beatstick for five mana is great value, and its drawback is rarely significant as sacrificing two creatures is not normally an option – especially in the early game. Also, this gives me the possibility of the Crown of Suspicion coming back to me in ninth pick.
The biggest potential problem here is if my bitch picks Swat. Fortunately, all the black I really want is in Scourge, so this won’t be a major concern.
Wirewood Pride
Syphon Mind
Demystify
Break Open
Wirewood Herald
Spined Basher
Dive Bomber
Grassland Crusader
Charging Slateback
Choking Tethers
Reminisce
Broodhatch Nantuko
Catapult Squad
MENACING OGRE
A pack containing many good cards, although Catapult Squad and Menacing Ogre stand out among the crowd. The fact a common is missing suggests either a Sparksmith or a Cruel Revival, as these are the only commons I could see being taken over a Menacing Ogre. This leaves my Pangolin pick as fairly precarious as now it is possible both my left and right neighbors are in black.
There are a few playable cards in here, including Tethers and the Broodhatch, but the two power cards in this booster are Catapult Squad and the Ogre. I debate taking the Squad, but I am reluctant to push myself into B/W, which is a dubious archetype as it tends to be biased towards clerics rather than soldiers – which severely weakens the Catapult Squad anyway. Also, my bitch may have taken the Oblation I just passed, leaving me fighting for white. Eventually I decide to take the Ogre and go with B/R for now, although I realize that I will have to do a lot of filling out at the lower end of my mana curve.
Aphetto Dredging
Daru Cavalier
ERRATIC EXPLOSION
Misery Charm
Gustcloak Runner
Crown of Fury
Krosan Tusker
Secluded Steppe
Mistform Mask
Symbiotic Elf
Run Wild
Dawning Purist
Flamestick Courier
A pretty uninspiring pack with no cards that indicate clearly that my daddy is not in a particular color. I notice that two of the best three cards in the pack (Explosion and Crown of Fury) are red. I take the Explosion, which is solid (if unspectacular) removal and hope that my bitch takes the Tusker and goes into Green – especially if he took the Barkhide Mauler second pick. I realize that if he didn’t pick the Mauler, he may have picked the Catapult Squad up in the last pack and gone white in which case he may now pick the Crown and go W/R aggro, hoping to pick up a Deftblade Elite or two in Legions. This is all fairly speculative, though.
Treespring Lorian
Piety Charm
Goblin Taskmaster
Unified Strike
Skirk Prospector
Battlefield Medic
PACIFISM
Forgotten Cave
Imagecrafter
Ghosthelm Courier
Elven Riders
Tribal Golem
This pack is a signaller’s gold mine. With the rare still in the booster, three people have passed on Pacifism and Elven Riders. Although the person picking first may have bagged a bomb common or uncommon, I can safely assume that my daddy is neither White nor Green, as there are few cards you would pick above Pacifism or Riders that wouldn’t have already gone in the first two picks. This would mean, therefore, that I am sharing at least one color with my daddy – and judging the way the cards have run so far, it’s probably black, which bodes badly for my Pangolin.
Therefore I am left with the unenviable task of ditching my current plan and taking the Pacifism. This means I may be sharing white with my bitch, which will mean no Stingers for me. However, even if this is the case I am quite happy to feed upon the quality white in Scourge. Hopefully, leaving a Green card as the best card left in the pack for the second pack running will convince my bitch to go into Green, providing he isn’t already White (and G/W is janky). I did contemplate taking the Tribal Golem and keeping my options open, but I realized that he only truly becomes truly great with Mistforms on the table – and I certainly had no intention of playing blue at this time. Hopefully, the good white will continue to flow and I will not regret this decision.
Crown of Awe
Crown of Fury
Information Dealer
Leery Fogbeast
Renewed Faith
Wave of Indifference
Daru Lancer
Grassland Crusader
Goblin Sledder
Airborne Aid
GUSTCLOAK SKIRMISHER
I can’t help but smile as this pack is passed to me. Lancer, and Skirmisher, two white cards are the best cards in the pack with Crusader and Renewed Faith not too far behind. It seems that white is indeed open. With no black at all and a couple of playable but unspectacular red cards in Wave and Crown, the only real choice I have is what white card to take. Both Skirmisher and Lancer are great cards. My eventual decision to take Skirmisher was mainly because I was pretty confident I would end up R/W, and Lancer is a little slow (although still playable) in this deck where what you really need is fast, preferably evasive beats.
So it’s prediction time. I am almost certain my daddy is not white, and pretty sure he is not green. I have been fed no blue or black whatsoever, and will go with this as my prediction. Red is also possible, especially given he may well have picked a Sparksmith with his first pick.
As for my bitch, I am going to go out on a real limb and put them in B/G. Given the amount of good white I passed, this is a bold prediction – but I think that by then their most likely main color was Green and they would have been reluctant to go G/W. Therefore, they may have just shipped all the white along.
After the usual diplomacy in finding out people’s decks, I learned that I was correct about my bitch, who was indeed playing B/G. My daddy it turned out was playing B/R (I assume the blue was just very thin, as Onslaught Blue can sometimes be).
I ended up drafting an almost mono-white deck that flowed beautifully through all three packs and ended up with two Stingers, two Dragon Scales, and thirteen soldiers. I splashed red for a few removal spells (Menacing Ogre stayed in the board) and Green for Forgotten Ancient (amazing how a W/r deck becomes a W/r/g deck when you open one of these babies). I won this draft at a canter. I remember at one point in the semifinals where I had a 7/7 Stinger and a 6/7 Gustcloak Skirmisher on the table with Babycakes looking on innocently in the background. Ironically the Catapult Squad I passed in the second pack actually came back to me and I ended up picking it tenth! This indicates there was only one other White drafter at the table, and I can only imagine what he picked out of that pack instead. Maybe there wasn’t another white drafter, and I was the luckiest Joe to ever sit at a draft table. I am happy about my switch into White and will be less reluctant to do so in the future.
Overall Grade: B+
Draft 4
Wretched Anurid
Defensive Maneuvers
Spurred Wolverine
Daunting Defender
Fever Charm
Screaming Seahawk
CRUEL REVIVAL
Daru Lancer
Sparksmith
Lay Waste
Mistform Mask
Nameless One
Wirewood Lodge
Aphetto Vulture
Tephraderm
You know it’s a special pack when Daru Lancer doesn’t even make it into the top 3 picks. Sparksmith, Cruel Revival, and Tephraderm all stick out as outstanding first picks. The problem is that the best signalling pick (Cruel Revival) is probably the weakest of the three cards. I took a lot of time over this pick before deciding that knowing my two downstream neighbors were in red would be far more useful than having the slightly higher card quality. I am also aware that people are wary of drafting R/B for fear of getting cut, and so playing black with two people downstream in Red could lead to some excellent black coming my way in Legions. Also, if push comes to shove, Revival is more splashable than Sparksmith.
Brightstone Ritual
Crown of Ascension
Elvish Guidance
Riptide Biologist
Vitality Charm
Spined Basher
Elvish Warrior
Festering Goblin
Battlefield Medic
Imagecrafter
Krosan Tusker
MISTFORM SHREIKER
Towering Baloth
Spitfire Handler
Naturally, here I was hoping for either a strong black card left in the pack or an unmistakable signal to go a different color. Unfortunately, things don’t always work that way in Magic – and what I was given was a rare missing resulting in choice between Festering Goblin as the best black pick or Battlefield Medic, Vitality Charm, Elvish Warrior, Krosan Tusker or Mistform Shrieker as the other decent cards. I considered taking the Goblin to keep my options open, and also taking the Medic to force Black/White clerics; however, I don’t like forcing an archetype as if your daddy does the same thing with the same (or a similar) archetype, you are left completely in limbo. I considered the high quality of Green in the pack noteworthy and thought it might encourage my two red neighbors to go G/R even if I took one of the Green cards (I would probably take the Warrior). Because of this, I eventually decided to take the Mistform Shrieker – which, by a stroke of luck, was probably the best card in the booster. Sometimes you can overanalyze these things.
Slipstream Eel
Treespring Lorian
Severed Legion
Renewed Faith
Elvish Guidance
Accursed Centaur
Charging Slateback
Mage’s Guile
SWAT
Embermage Goblin
Mistform Mutant
Annex
Supreme Inquisitor
A pretty unexciting booster with two commons missing. Swat is probably the best card left in the booster and also happens to be in my colors so I take it. I doubt there would have been two black commons in the pack better than Swat so it’s fair to say that both of my upstream neighbors are not (yet) in black.
I am quite happy with what I am shipping along, as the best cards left in the booster are Treespring Lorian and Embermage Goblin – which should please my neighbors if they are, as predicted, in G/R.
Wellwisher
Syphon Soul
Defensive Maneuvers
Haunted Cadaver
Foothill Guide
Wirewood Elf
FESTERING GOBLIN
Daru Healer
Imagecrafter
Spitting Gourna
Fleeting Aven
Graxiplon
Looking at this pack, I notice once again an abundance of playable Green signalling breathing space in this color on my right hand side. Although the thought of switching out of blue crosses my mind, this would be suicide as I have meticulously fed my left-hand side with Green for the last couple of packs, and Legions Green is absolutely necessary for me to build a decent B/G deck. I am happy to take Festering Goblin as a solid fourth pick and keep shipping the green along.
Hopefully, I will get my rewards in Legions. Although I’m slightly concerned about the lack of blue, I realize that Blue is very shallow in Onslaught anyway and the important thing is that it picks up in Legions and Scourge.
I’m not a fan of Fleeting Aven, in case you are wondering.
Battering Craghorn
Naturalize
Crown of Awe
Goblin Sky Raider
Sea’s Claim
Sandskin
Nosy Goblin
Mage’s Guile
Secluded Steppe
THREATEN
Searing Flesh
Red keeps flowing but I am going to stick to my guns and try to ship all he Red and Green I see. I still have to make a pick, though – and apart from Mages’ Guile, which is not a very exciting fifth pick, there is nothing in my colors. So instead, I take Threaten as a possible splash card or maybe a sideboard option against slower decks with big bodies. I considered the Searing Flesh as a splash, also but if I end up playing B/U, the deck normally shines in the late game anyway due to its wealth of evasion, so Searing Flesh would probably be redundant.
Obviously, my prediction for my bitch is going to be R/G. They will certainly have taken a Red card in the first booster and since then I have given them a steady flow of Red and Green and not a lot else.
My daddy is a tougher prediction. I don’t think he is either Red or Green, and I am going to take an impulsive guess at U/W. This is one of the favored archetypes in Onslaught Block Limited, and neither color is flowing particularly well. B/W is also a possibility.
For the first time, I am actually right in both guesses. My bitch is indeed playing R/G, and my daddy ended up playing B/W. Obviously this meant I had restricted access to Scourge Black which was a shame. I found both Black and Blue flowed very well in Legions and I ended up with two Echo Tracers, an Aphetto Exterminator and a Skinthinner amongst other things. Although the black was not so strong, I picked up plenty of good blue in Scourge and I ended up with a good evasion deck.
Unfortunately, I met a bomb-laden G/R deck in the semifinals and lost in three close games. This was piloted by the guy two to my left in the draft, who was playing the exact same colors as his daddy and still managed to draft an excellent deck. Not a disaster by any means.
I think the mistake I made in this draft was paying too much heed to the signals I was sending and not enough to the ones I was receiving. I think there is a definite tradeoff between sending and receiving signals; you want to pass good cards of the colors you want your bitch to be in but at the same time you want to be taking the best cards possible in order to draft the best deck. In this case, I sacrificed two packs of godly Red and Green for the sake of a monster Legions hookup. This is not really good value. Unfortunately, I was put in this position by the nasty”Sparksmith + Red Bomb” problem in the first booster, which gave me a pretty much a”damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. I would be interested to hear in the forums what you think the correct course of picks was here.
Overall Grade: C+
Conclusion
Well, that just about wraps this article up. I hope it has got you thinking about the signals you are sending and receiving in drafts. I have learned plenty just by writing this article. By going over your drafts and looking again at your picks you see things you may have missed first time around and sometimes decisions that seemed good at the time seem dubious with hindsight. Here are just some of the things I have learned:
Don’t fall in love with your first pick. Although a first-pick Visara makes it worth fighting tooth and nail for black, a first pick Shock, Pacifism or other”good-but-not-bomby” should always be abandoned if you can get a better hookup in other colors.
Reading signals is more important than sending them, because your daddy will be feeding you for two packs and your bitch only one.
Some packs have very good or very bad cards of a particular color. Don’t switch into or out of a color on the basis of one very strong or weak pack. Consistent signals is what you are looking for.
Despite this, I realize I have only just scratched the surface of a very complex and interesting topic. As I said, very little has previously been written on the topic and hopefully, this may provoke more writers to post their own thoughts on signalling.
“Dear Diary, I think I might be bad at signalling. I am getting better, though.”
Until next time
Piemaster
“piemaster” on Magic Online