Guildpact came out a few weeks ago and finally has a pack in sanctioned tournament Drafts. Some of you have been waiting for the follow up of my articles on “drafting drakes”. What I can say now is that the archetype has evolved, and is far from being buried.
If you haven’t read the previous articles about “Drake”, I invite you to do so in order to fully understand what I am talking about!
Ravnica Limited: Drafting Drakes
Drafting Drakes: A Strategy Guide
When I first saw Guildpact, I thought the “Drake” archetype wouldn’t survive. But I gave it a shot, putting my hopes into Magemarks and multicolor goodies. The archetype evolved in a different way to the one I expected. It’s no longer the five-color deck we used to draft in triple-Ravnica.
I’ve been reading articles about possible color combinations post-Guildpact, and no-one talks about this one: U/G/r. Maybe I just missed the articles about it…
… or maybe it’s because the archetype isn’t about the colors, but the cards you draft.
Why am I talking about that? Because “Drake” evolved into a combination of those three colors. Blue, Green, and Red.
First, I’ll correct the few things I said about “Drake” with Guildpact in the previous articles, as I know a lot more about it now:
The Magemarks
I thought you could actually do stuff with them… but no. They just don’t fit in the deck at all. The Blue one is pretty good, but nothing to be too excited about. Forget about the other ones. As from now on we’ll basically be playing three colors, the White and the Black Magemarks – which could have been interesting — are simply not worth the splash.
Orzhov in Drake
Blind Hunter and Pillory of the Sleepless, even though they are very powerful cards, won’t make it to your deck due to mana issues.
As I just said, the deck has considerably changed with the addition of Guildpact. It’s still very powerful, and following the same guideline as its predecessor: abuse Ravnica’s Auras, and play all the card advantage enablers we can get our hands on.
The main difference is in the manabase. You won’t really be able to “screw around” too much with the colors. The cards you’ll play require a more intensive colored mana base: more Blue, Red, and Green mana. It means that you will have to draft specific cards to help this.
So what’s the new plan, then?
The plan is quite simple: Draft U/G/r in the first pack. That way, you open your options for the third pack to Izzet and Gruul cards.
There are a number of commons that you’ll want to pick above everything:
In Blue: Flight of Fancy, Compulsive Research, Vedalken Dismisser, Peel from Reality, Drake Familiar.
In Green: Bramble Elemental, Fist of Ironwood, Civic Wayfinder, Farseek.
In Red: Galvanic Arc.
You can still pick cards like Faith’s Fetters, or off-color goodies such as Ribbons of Night, but make sure you can play them in the end. Don’t sacrifice one of the good picks I’ve outlined above for one of those, if you end up with the good stuff in the sideboard.
Strands of Undeath is still ok, but the fact that it’s not as easy to play makes it obviously less efficient.
The mana fixing strategy also changes. If you pick White and Black cards you’ll want to splash for, make sure you draft the right Signets/Karoo lands to be able to play them. You will also want the Farseeks and Civic Wayfinders. But you don’t really need to take the signets and duals in Ravnica, as you want to have the Izzet and Gruul ones in Guildpact.
The cards you’ll want from Guildpact:
Steamcore Weird; Repeal; Izzet Chronarch; Streetbreaker Wurm; Train of Thought; Ogre Savant; Silhana Starfletcher; Signets; and Karoo lands.
Don’t hesitate to take the mana fixers early, as you want them badly.
Just a reminder: I’m only talking about the commons. Of course you’ll want to pick Savage Twister, Electrolyze, and the other Izzet/Gruul power cards.
In your deck, in general, you’ll want to have:
16 lands (including Karoo lands)
2 or 3 Karoo lands
2 or 3 Signets/Farseek
2 or 3 late game plans, expensive spells, or card drawing spells (such as Compulsive Research or Train of Thought, to utilize your extra lands)
2 or 3 Fatties (any Fatty. Bramble Elemental, or “Bramby,” obviously being the best one. If you don’t have any decent fatty, you can pick Gruul Nodorogs. They are big enough for the job you want them to do.
4 to 6 Auras (Discounting the Magemarks)
The rest of the deck consists of any card that provides card advantage, and creature removal/bounce spells.
I’m not going to post pick orders, as it depends on what you already have in your pile at any given time. Just keep in mind that in the end, you’ll need to have all the necessary pieces listed above.
After the first pack, if you feel that the Draft isn’t exactly going the way you want it to go, you still have backup plans: you can either go for Aggro-Gruul or Izzet U/R later on, depending on the cards you’ve already drafted.
But enough with theory! You want to see what an example deck looks like? I’ve listed below five Drake decks. All of them are different, but all follow the same guideline.
These are two decks I drafted personally. Both of them went 3-0 in a local tournament here in Gothenburg:
Creatures (9)
- 2 Snapping Drake
- 2 Bramble Elemental
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Dimir Guildmage
- 1 Terraformer
- 1 Vedalken Dismisser
- 1 Gruul Nodorog
Lands (16)
Spells (15)
Notes: This one doesn’t actually feature any Drake Familiars. It doesn’t even feature many Auras, but it does enough to make Bramble Elemental a huge threat. The mana is just perfect, and you can take almost full advantage of all the cards in your deck.
Creatures (13)
- 1 Dowsing Shaman
- 2 Drake Familiar
- 1 Stone-Seeder Hierophant
- 1 Surveilling Sprite
- 1 Tidewater Minion
- 1 Vedalken Dismisser
- 1 Gruul Nodorog
- 1 Izzet Chronarch
- 2 Skarrgan Skybreaker
- 2 Steamcore Weird
Lands (16)
Spells (11)
Notes: This deck features everything you possibly need. Lots of card drawing, removal, perfect mana, late game plans… and the card I would personally pick right after Glare of Subdual: Mark of Eviction.
The next three decks were drafted during Grand Prix Dortmund, by Amiel Tenenbaum, Olivier Ruel, and myself.
I’ll start with Olivier’s deck from the Top 8. I got to spend some time in Lille at Olivier’s place in December and improved the Drake archetype, drafting on Magic Online. Inspired by the decks I drafted back then, and the decks Amiel and I drafted earlier that day (decks listed below), Olivier gave it a shot in the Top 8:
Creatures (13)
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Drake Familiar
- 1 Terraformer
- 1 Viashino Fangtail
- 1 Dryad Sophisticate
- 1 Feral Animist
- 1 Silhana Starfletcher
- 2 Steamcore Weird
- 1 Tin Street Hooligan
- 1 Wee Dragonauts
- 1 Wild Cantor
Lands (15)
Spells (12)
While not the best Drake deck I’ve seen, Olivier’s deck definitely had a lot of potential. Three Galvanic Arcs along with Mark of Eviction and Drake Familiar is just insane. Add to the mix two Steamcore Weirds, Savage Twister, and two Fists of Ironwood, and you have a great deck. The only missing part is the lack of late game plans and fatties. With one or two Gruul Nudorogs (or affiliates) instead of Wee Dragonauts and Feral Animist, this deck would have been incredible.
The following decks are top quality ones… Masterpieces!
This is the deck I drafted in the first Draft of Day 2:
Creatures (10)
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Drake Familiar
- 1 Surveilling Sprite
- 1 Glint-Eye Nephilim
- 1 Gruul Nodorog
- 1 Izzet Chronarch
- 2 Steamcore Weird
- 1 Streetbreaker Wurm
- 1 Torch Drake
Lands (16)
Spells (14)
Notes: This deck is probably one of the best deck I drafted in the format. It has so much synergy, good removal, lifegain, efficient card drawing spells, perfect mana (even for a 5 color deck), and Cloudstone Curio – which has become one of the best cards to have in “Drake”. The Curio already had a lot of synergy with the Auras, but now with the addition of Steamcore Weird and Izzet Chronarch it became totally awesome. The mana base can easily support Faith Fetters, Ribbons, Strands, and the Nephilim (which was amazing in this deck along with Flight of Fancy).
The last deck is Amiel Tenenbaum’s second Draft in Dortmund. I told Amiel about the deck before the tournament, and he got very excited about drafting it. He so wanted to give it a try that he drew last round of Day 1 to make sure he would make the Drafts on Day 2. Here is what he came up with:
Creatures (11)
- 3 Bramble Elemental
- 1 Centaur Safeguard
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Drake Familiar
- 1 Gleancrawler
- 1 Greater Mossdog
- 2 Steamcore Weird
- 1 Streetbreaker Wurm
Lands (17)
Spells (12)
Notes: This deck is all about synergy. What’s amazing when you draft “Drake” is that some crap rares instantly become bomb rares. Look at how Cloudstone Curio – already mentioned above – and Doubling Season fare in this deck…
…
If you don’t believe in the potential of the archetype, or just want to have fun, build some of the decks listed above at home, and play against other Draft decks. Maybe then you’ll understand how powerful it is… And I’m not even mentioning how much fun it is to play!