Drafting the Best Deck in Kamigawa Block

Introduction

Somewhere between doing nothing, staying in a house with about nine other Magic players for a week doing nothing but testing Block, Type Two, and Extended all day under the supervision of Frank “The Tank” Karsten (who would punish us if we weren’t able to finish our 40 test games each day (with an average of 10 players staying in the house each day, that’s a total of 200 games per day, excluding the all-night-testing Frank did against himself)), and doing nothing again, I decided to start writing more frequently than once every three months. It may have been the difference between being busy all day (Frank’s testing colony), and doing nothing but watching TV and scrubbing out in the second round of MODO’s 8-4’s that inspired me to pick up writing again. Either that or the memory of Frank threatening to shut me out of the testing program because I stopped around 4 AM after finishing my 37th game – there’s a reason why Frank calls himself the Testing Monster. Regardless the plan is to write more consistently than I ever have before, which will hopefully benefit my readers and fans.

Colors from CCB to CBS

Now that I finished the introduction, it’s time to talk about the best color combination in CBS draft: Red/Green! At Pro Tour: London, I was Red/Green four out of five times. Obviously this isn’t a very convincing argument to prove that Red/Green is the best archetype, since I didn’t even manage to finish in the money at that Pro Tour, but my failure in London was a result of simply not having played enough preparing for the event. All but one of my draft decks were good, but I just made a lot of sloppy mistakes like people do in prereleases because they don’t know the cards and card interactions well enough, and that contributed to my suboptimal finish.

Before the draft format completed (CCB became CBS), Green was generally considered the worst color and White was among the best colors. Now in CBS, it’s the other way around. Green is now the best color, and White is the worst, or close to it. To explain this radical change, I’ll have a look at what was lost and gained in the common and uncommon slots for each of the two colors with the completion of the format:

Off course, I don’t expect you to agree with everything I listed above, and it’s certainly not an inflexible pick list. It’s just an indication of the quality of the cards that each color lost and gained, and I think it’s pretty clear that White lost a lot while gaining little, and it’s the other way around for Green.

Drafting R/G: What you should be looking for

In my experience, the Red/Green archetype is best when you have a lot of Spirit/Arcane synergy. Nothing beats playing Child of Thorns, and triggering Cunning Bandit, Kami of the Hunt and Blademane Baku in the process. Every good color combination in draft has some form of synergy between the cards to make the most out of them. An example of a good color combination with obvious synergy is Blue/White. Both colors have fast flying creatures, Blue gives the deck a lot of good Defenders, and White provides the deck with tricks to keep the flyers alive. With Red/Green, the best synergy between the cards is Spirit/Arcane. Therefore, the cards that provide the core of the deck are cards like:

Cunning Bandit

Budoka Pupil

Burr Grafter

Kami of Fire’s Roar

Elder Pine of Jukai

The focus on Spirit/Arcane requires an adjustment in card evaluation. Obviously you have to rate all Spirits and Arcane spells a bit higher than what you’re used to. The worst thing that can happen is that you get stuck with a Budoka Pupil that doesn’t flip often enough when you draw it.

Drafting R/G: Champions

As I mentioned earlier, a good Red/Green deck is based on Spirit/Arcane synergy, so you would have to alter some card evaluation. I’m going to sum up all of the Red/Green cards in a general pick order, and talk a bit more about why certain cards should be rated higher or lower than usual. Remember again that this is not an actual pick list which you should always follow; the cards you already drafted are always of great influence to each new draft pick.

Strength of Cedars

Glacial Ray – Normally, I would pick Yamabushi’s Flame over this, but Glacial Ray obviously becomes a lot better with all the Arcane-triggers and other Arcane spells to splice it on to.

Yamabushi’s Flame

Kodama’s Might – This card is exactly what you want in the deck. It’s a cheap, effective trick, allowing you to save one of your guys and build a new one, since Might only costs one mana, and it’s also another Arcane trigger.

Hanabi Blast

Blind with Anger

Pain Kami

Rootrunner – The reason I think this is better than Sosuke now is because there is a lack of good Snakes in the Saviors pack. Sosuke just became a lot less powerful, because you also lose a lot of good Snakes in a Champions pack.

Sosuke, Son of Seshiro

Honden of Infinite Rage

Kami of Fire’s Roar

Sakura-Tribe Elder

Earthshaker

Serpent Skin – Before Saviors, this card was a lot worse because there weren’t enough real good targets for it. Saviors brought Shinen of Life’s Roar; combined with a Serpent Skin, it’s almost game right there against a lot of decks.

Kashi-Tribe Reaver

Blood Rites

Burr Grafter – In a Red/Green Spirit deck you will most likely have a lot of targets to shift souls with, but it’s also really good with Shinen of Life’s Roar. This is the kind of card that forms the core of a good Red/Green deck; it’s almost as powerful as Scuttling Death sometimes.

Feral Deceiver

Moss Kami

Order of the Sacred Bell

Ronin Houndmaster

Frostwielder – You probably think that I’ve put this guy surprisingly low on the list, since he is really good against most Blue/White decks, but I’ve played him in R/G a bunch of times and he just doesn’t really fit in your game flow. He is clearly most effective on turn 4, to take out the smaller guys that were summoned before it, but on turn four you’re still busy trying to flip your Cunning Bandit or Budoka Pupil, or just play one of the many great Green four-drops.

Kami of the Hunt

Orochi Sustainer

Kodama’s Reach

Brutal Deceiver

Ember-Fist Zubera

Devouring Rage

Hearth Kami

Dripping-Tongue Zubera

Soilshaper – You would expect that in a deck with not a lot but Spirits and Arcanes to trigger it, this one would be great. I’ve played him a bunch of times in the deck, and early on when you want to use it, you just don’t have enough lands to play with. Your draw needs to fill out the curve and keep a land open for this to be effective, but usually you just have one drop equal to the number of lands you have available each turn.

Venerable Kumo

Hana Kami

Humble Budoka

Matsu-Tribe Decoy

Akki Coalflinger

Initiate of Blood

Orochi Ranger

Orbweaver Kumo

Soul of Magma

Brothers Yamazaki

No-Dachi

Uncontrollable Anger

Sokenzan Bruiser

Yamabushi’s Storm

Lava Spike

Unearthly Blizzard

Honden of Life’s Web

Budoka Pupil – When this guy flips, and he always does in a good R/G deck, he’s unstoppable. You can see it as a 4/3 attacker with two or more free Kabuto Moth activations. You’ll be turning most of your men sideways each turn as long as this one is in play.

Torrent of Stone

Gnarled Mass – If you look at all the three-drops available for Red/Green in the common slot, this is the best Spirit you can get apart from Elder Pine of Jukai. He’s a great beater that also trades with most four-drops and some five-drops, but you can also Soulshift it a lot of times. A problem with a lot of R/G decks I drafted was that they didn’t have enough good Spirit three-drops.

Unchecked Growth

Cunning Bandit

Forked-Branch Garami – He’s one of three very good five-drops for R/G (the other ones are Sokenzan Spellblade and Okina Nightwatch from Saviors), but the only one that is a Spirit and Soulshifts.

Ogre Recluse

Ronin Cliffrider

Genju of the Cedars

Lifespinner

Frostling

First Volley

Ronin Warclub

Matsu-Tribe Sniper – I usually like to pick this card a lot higher because of the problems that Green decks tend to have with flying creatures, but with a Red/Green deck you can simply be faster than they are. It’s still a great creature that wins a lot of games single-handedly, but he doesn’t have any synergy with most of the cards that are in your deck.

Loam Dweller

Blademane Baku

Sakura-Tribe Springcaller

Genju of the Spires

Child of Thorns

Roar of Jukai

Scaled Hulk

Frost Ogre

Petalmane Baku

Goblin Cohort

Blinding Powder

Akki Raider

Traproot Kami

Shinka Gatekeeper

Ashen Monstrosity

Sosuke’s Summons

Shuriken

Harbinger of Spring – I’d like to give an honorable mention to the Harbinger, or rather “The Hamburger”. Off course he’s not usually a good man, but it’s great to have him in the sideboard. This little monster sometimes holds off an entire board of creatures, so pay attention to the creatures your opponent plays in the first game and don’t be afraid to bring in the Harbinger.

Ghost-Lit Raider

Elder Pine of Jukai

Shinen of Life’s Roar – I can’t stress enough how good this guy is. Apart from its obvious game-ending capability, it has great synergy with a lot of cards. Some examples: it turns every combat trick into a removal spell in the early game. A Serpent Skin with this kills a lot of your opponent’s men for the cost of one Green Mana.

Spiraling Embers

Briarknit Kami

Kami of the Tended Garden

Ghost-Lit Nourisher

Haru-Onna

Molting Skin

Barrel Down Sokenzan

Sokenzan Spellblade

Manriki-Gusari – This doesn’t concern Red/Green decks in particular, since this piece of equipment is great in any deck. In a format without too many equipment, a cheap, effective equipment like Manriki-Gusari really shines.

Burning-Eye Zubera

Okina Nightwatch

Inner Calm, Outer Strength

Captive Flame

Stampeding Serow

Akki Underling

Nightsoil Kami

Oni of Wild Places

Shinen of Fury’s Fire

Yuki-Onna

Kashi-Tribe Elite

Akki Drillmaster

Ronin Cavekeeper

Descendant of Masumaro

Fiddlehead Kami

Path of Anger’s Flame – You might want to play this sometimes if you have two or more Shinen of Life’s Roar. It’s pretty horrible without the Shinen, but if you do have a Shinen in play, your opponent is dead before he knows it.

Sakura-Tribe Scout

Feral Lightning

Promised Kannushi

Seek the Horizon

Sokenzan Renegade

Soratami Cloud Chariot

With the coming of Saviors and the going of a Champions pack, R/G suddenly became the best deck. It lost a little in Champions, but gained a lot in Saviors, including two of the set’s best commons: Shinen of Life’s Roar and Elder Pine of Jukai. The thing you should focus on most is good Spirit/Arcane synergy; this is what makes the deck good.

I hope this article encouraged you to try and draft R/G, it’s been a great deck for me most of the time I drafted it. Also, I’d like to read your comments so I can improve whatever must be improved, and I’m also always having a hard time finding good subjects, so if you have any good suggestions I’ll be happy to look into it.

-Julien