I’d really like to be writing about Ravnica right now.
I’ve been reading the rumor mills and spoilers and the new set looks to be extremely interesting. Sadly, since most of it is still only rumored, I’ll have to talk about CBS for a couple more weeks. I also may do a piece on Ninth Edition if you guys are interested, though I’m not sure exactly what I’d want to cover. Any input through email or the forums would be helpful if you’d like to see something on the Core set.
This week I was debating between doing a draft walkthrough or just talking about some things I’ve been thinking about lately in terms of the format as a whole. Since Andy Clautice did a walkthrough last week though, I figured I’d put mine off for another week and just talk some general draft strategy for now.
Play or Draw?
I can honestly say that this is the first draft format in a long time where it is actually a valid option in many cases to choose to draw first. Normally choosing to draw is reserved for control on control or matchups involving attrition (something like a B/R mirror), but in this format you can actually plan on choosing to draw ahead of time.
My overall feeling in CBS is that you should still be choosing to play most of the time, but drawing isn’t too far behind. What’s interesting is that you can actually draft in a way that makes you want to draw first and in turn increases the power level of your deck. Should you employ this strategy, it comes with the benefit that if everyone else is choosing to play, you are essentially getting the best of it every time. What I mean by this is that you will get to draw when you choose and also draw when they get the choice, which is pretty sweet if you’re prepared for it.
If you end up drafting a normal deck, the only reason you’d really want to draw in my opinion is if the matchup is attrition oriented or a battle of control decks like I said earlier. Some people have begun choosing to draw every time regardless and I think this is a clear mistake. The nice thing is that now at least you have an option and it gives other people the chance to screw up by choosing to draw when they should play or vice versa. The flip side of this is that you now have another decision to make and if you’re always choosing to play or always choosing to draw then you are clearly making a mistake somewhere and you need to rethink your strategy if you want to gain an advantage. For now, let’s instead take a look at how you can draft to make drawing first correct.
The first thing to keep in mind is that you need to have a reason that you want to be drawing.
Akki Underling
This card is a very good reason.
While this guy is especially good in U/R, if you get multiple copies he is reason alone to choose to draw first since he is very hard to beat when powered up on turn three and attacking. Unlike other things, he gets better in multiples since you can just keep casting him and not play a land if you have enough copies. While he’s usually a middle pick, you can pick him higher if your deck is leaning at all towards being controllish or is lacking in early plays. Just remember, the more of these guys you get, the better in most cases.
Be aware that knowledgeable opponents will probably choose to draw if you bash them with multiple copies of this guy, so it may be wise to sideboard them out for game two if you have something better to bring in. Even then, he’s still a 2/1 for two, which isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Minamo Scrollkeeper
I realize this isn’t the best defender of all time, but he gets the job done.
Cards that are similar would be River Kaijin, Inner-Chamber Guard, Kami of the Vanishing Touch, and you get the idea. Since this block tends to feature a lot of 2/1s for two mana, drawing first and playing this guy on turn two should give you plenty of time to get set up as well as usually nullifying whatever early play your opponent had. The advantage you generate by doing this is just huge and warrants playing multiple copies if you get to draw first.
Orochi Sustainer, Sakura-Tribe Elder
These guys can pretty much go either way.
I think you’ll usually end up playing if you are the Green mage, but sometimes you can use these as an excuse to draw, since they allow you to catch up on mana quickly. Again, this is dependent on the matchup and the rest of the cards in your deck.
Other reasons to draw are matchup based. Control, attrition, and someone running too many colors without enough manafixing are all good reasons to choose to draw.
Some reasons to choose to play first would be something like Kodama’s Reach, Elder Pine of Jukai, or Split-Tail Miko. These cards want to get online as quickly as possible and therefore drawing first is probably a bad idea. Also if your opponent has a quick and aggressive deck, particularly something featuring Raving Oni-Slave, then it’s probably a good time to play first and sideboard your deck accordingly if you can.
Finally, should you face someone running three or more colors, it’s possible that boarding in Stone Rain on the play could be a good move, since it will sometimes just shut them out of a color long enough for you to win.
What you should take away from this segment is that if you’re looking to draw first, you need to draft the defensive cards higher and also draft for mid-late game power. Having early creatures doesn’t hurt as they can be used to make defensive trades early and serve the same purpose as something like the Scrollkeeper. When you look at your deck you should be able to tell whether you want to play or draw and then adjust your game plan later according to what matchup you’re playing against. A good rule of thumb is that if you’ve drafted a “regular” deck and you’re not sure whether to play or draw in game one when you don’t know what the matchup is, you should just choose to play first.
If you’re able to draft enough early defense to warrant drawing first, it can give you a big edge against other decks that aren’t set up to deal with this plan and are stuck casting 2/1s into your walls.
Checking Your Priorities
I know I’ve hinted at this idea in the past, but it’s really come full circle in this block and worth taking a better look at.
Saviors really shook up the draft format and some people still don’t have their priorities straight in terms of what they should be doing in the first two packs in preparation for Saviors. You need to know what you can reasonably expect to get in the last pack in order to make better picks early on. While this may sound incredibly obvious, you’d be surprised at how many people do not follow it.
To give you a better picture, take a look at the very common choice between Orochi Sustainer and Moss Kami. Moss Kami is clearly the best of the six drop Green men in the entire block simply because it has trample and combos well with Inner Calm, Outer Strength, Strength of Cedars, and especially Serpent Skin. If you look at the two cards, I think you’ll agree with me that they are both good at what they do and probably pretty close in power level in terms of how many games they will help you win. So how do you decide?
The observant reader already knows what I’m going to say, and that is that there are many six-drop Green boys to choose from in packs two and three, but there are absolutely zero ways to get a card like Orochi Sustainer if you don’t take it in the Champions pack.
This alone makes Orochi Sustainer far better than Moss Kami! While you’re reading this right now, you’re probably nodding your head and agreeing with my logic, and at the same time there is someone on Magic Online in a draft that is taking Moss Kami over Sustainer as we speak.
Okay, well maybe not this very second, but a baby is being born somewhere right now and that has to count for something, right?
Right.
Getting back to the topic, recently at Pro Tour: London, Tsuyoshi Fujita exemplified this idea of prioritizing by picking a Soratami Mirror-Guard over Yamabushi’s Flame first pick, first pack. There is more going on with this decision than what I’m talking about here, such as color preference and maybe card preference, but I have no doubt that Fujita realized that Mirror-Guard is a one of a kind creature while Flame can be replicated by the likes of Spiraling Embers, Torrent of Stone, or Barrel-Down Sokenzan in the later packs.
By taking the Mirror-Guard he gets into Blue which is a more preferable color in my opinion, as well as picking up a card that he will only have a chance at getting in this booster. There are similar Red removal cards in Betrayers and Saviors, but there aren’t any Soratami Mirror-Guards. Remember too that picking Mirror-Guard now can help out the Ninja of Deep Hours, Mistblade Shinobis, or Sokenzan Spellblades that you may pick up, but picking Flame doesn’t do anything for future cards that may be added to your deck.
Some people criticized Fujita’s pick here, but I think we can all learn from it, as it really is a more versatile and better overall pick for the reasons I’ve talked about above. The only thing you could really say in favor of the Flame is that you’d rather be splashing it than Mirror-Guard, but I think that’s a risk I’m willing to take with my first pick and Mirror-Guard is going to give you a lot more opportunities to improve your deck with later picks while Flame is just going to be a removal spell.
Another example is that I recently watched someone take Soratami Cloudskater over Consuming Vortex. Not only is this a blatantly wrong pick, but it doesn’t follow the idea of priority either. Sure, Cloudskater’s ability is much better than Floodbringer or Oboro Breezecaller. If you think back to most of your games though, just having a two mana 1/1 or 1/2 flier is the main purpose of the Cloudskater so that you can get an early Ninja going or just get some damage in. There isn’t a card like Consuming Vortex in the other sets and there are close cousins to the Cloudskater so even if this were a pick that was debatable, the Vortex would win out by a mile just because of what is offered in the other sets.
This concept isn’t something that should completely guide your draft, but it’s pretty important in this block and I think you should have it on your mind every time you’re drafting. It only makes sense that if you are picking cards that combine well with a lot of cards in the later sets (i.e. Mirror-Guard) over cards that are similar in power level but dull in terms of helping your later picks, your deck will have a much higher expectation of becoming strong. If nothing else, this should get you thinking about what you can expect to get from Betrayers and Saviors while you are drafting Champions and that alone will help you tremendously.
The Real “Best Deck”
A few people have emailed me in the past couple weeks inquiring as to what I thought was the best draft archetype in the block.
A number of people have been touting G/R as the clear best deck, but I really don’t agree with that assessment and I’ll tell you why. I do want to say that I like G/R in this block a lot, but it can’t hold a candle to U/G in my opinion.
For starters, if you’re the G/R mage and you’re playing against a deck with a strong air force, sometimes you are just plain dead if you don’t draw your Sniper. This isn’t a position I’d like to put myself in. While you can argue that Red has plenty of removal (and it does), I still would rather be casting my own fliers than having to worry about killing every one that enters play.
Secondly, let’s face it, the Blue cards are just better than the Red ones. While this is strictly opinionated, there are a lot of strong arguments for choosing Blue as a second color if you have the option of going G/R or U/G. Shinen of Flight’s Wings and Shimmering Glasskite are much more flexible cards than Torrent of Stone and Spiraling Embers in my opinion. Sure, Torrent may be a better overall card, but it can’t do half of the things that Glasskite can. Plenty of times I’ve cast a Glasskite and my opponent’s entire team was unable to attack into it, and he was also unable to remove it.
Opponent got a Sniper? No problem, shields up.
My point is that by playing Blue you can have a good air force for yourself and also be able to deal with opposing fliers. Blue and Green have always meshed well together and this format is no exception. Another argument for choosing Blue is the Saviors commons. Okina Nightwatch and Inner-Calm are both much more at home in a U/G deck than a G/R one since they can be powered up at any time and they are that much more effective.
I could go on for days about why I prefer U/G to G/R, and there are also plenty of counter arguments in favor of G/R. This is just something that’s been on my mind lately and I figured I’d give you guys my two cents on the matter as I really feel that U/G is a lot stronger than G/R and you should try to draft it if possible.
If you haven’t figured it out by this point, U/G gets my vote for best archetype in the format (though I’m still partial to 5cG).
Next week I’ll have a draft walkthrough ready for you guys and until then I’ll be counting down the weeks until Ravnica. I can’t wait.
Nick Eisel
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Soooooo on MODO