I’ve been drafting TPF quite a lot lately, even though I’m thoroughly bored with the format. Usually when I get tired of a draft format, I start drafting wacky decks and screwing around, but this year I’ve decided to instead focus my energy on looking for difficult situations to write about. Since the majority of decisions a good player makes are nearly automatic, I feel that doing detailed analysis on these tougher spots is one of the best things I can do for you guys.
Another Tough Pick
My intention is to only cover the really tricky draft decisions in these articles, because all other picks are covered regularly in walkthroughs. The pick I want to talk about now happened last week on Magic Online in an 8-4. My deck looked like this when the pick came up.
Gemhide Sliver
Search for Tomorrow
Phantom Wurm
Primal Forcemage
Havenwood Wurm
Amrou Scout
Temporal Isolation
Zhalfirin Commander
Jedit’s Dragoons
Saltfield Recluse
Whitemane Lion
Some things you should know at this point in the draft are the following.
I first picked Sudden Death over Void in pack one and then didn’t see too much Black after that.
1) The Planar Chaos pack I opened was terrible and Treacherous Urge was the best option I could conceivably take. The only other good cards in the pack were Magus of the Arena, Erratic Mutation, and Cradle to Grave. Nothing good in Green or White.
2) I passed a Mire Boa when I took Saltfield Recluse second.
3) White seemed very open in Time Spiral, and I wasn’t sure about Green.
At this point in the draft I felt I was Green/White, and could possibly splash Black since I already had Gemhide, Prismatic Lens, and Search, and there are more options in the last two sets such as Evolution Charm or Edge of Autumn. Hopefully this information paints a clear enough picture to assist you in making the following pick. For my fourth pick in Planar Chaos I was passed the following booster.
Dawn Charm, Blightspeaker, Mire Boa, Battering Sliver, Aven Riftwatcher, Deadly Grub, Citanul Woodreaders, Seal of Primordium, Sinew Sliver, Ghost Tactician, Kor Dirge, Temporal Extortion
After removing the cards I couldn’t possibly pick from this pack I’m left with the following:
I didn’t list Dawn Charm because it is outclassed by all of the other cards and I can easily get one later.
Take a minute to look back over the card pool I’d already drafted before you settle on which card you’d take from this pack.
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That should be ample thinking time.
I remember looking at this pack during the draft and having absolutely no idea where to start breaking it down in order to make the pick easier. All of the cards seemed justifiable on their own, and there weren’t any obvious color or archetype preferences that were apparent right away. Let’s take it one step at a time.
Kor Dirge / Blightspeaker
As the deck stands now, I look to be in G/W with a possible splash. I didn’t eliminate Blightspeaker right away because I do have Amrou Scout and Saltfield Recluse, which are both awesome, and there are opportunities to get more rebels. Blightspeaker isn’t a terrible splash option, but it’s not an amazing one either.
Kor Dirge, on the other hand, is an amazing splash option, and after a little bit of thinking I eliminated the Blightspeaker and left the Dirge as the only possible Black pick. The nice thing about Dirge is that I can take it with the intention of moving into W/B or with the intention of splashing, and either is reasonable.
Mire Boa / Citanul Woodreaders
Popular opinion suggests that the Boa is the better of these two cards in most cases. Each card certainly has its benefits, but if you take a closer look you will see that I’m in a more controlling version of G/W. Both cards are fine in that profile as well, but I believe the Woodreaders has a bit of an edge in this deck simply because it allows me to gas back up once I’ve got the board under control.
Aven Riftwatcher
Lets see… it’s a Rebel, has good synergy with Whitemane Lion, and is good in G/W control. It’s slightly less powerful than the other options, but it is virtually guaranteed to make my deck since the draft has led me to believe that White is very open.
So now what?
It would seem I’ve narrowed the pick to Kor Dirge, Woodreaders, or possibly Riftwatcher for those of us scared to make a leap that just want a solid playable.
The real problem for me with this pick was color aspect. While it certainly looks like I’m in G/W, Havenwood Wurm is no superstar and I have no interactions with Primal Forcemage as of yet. That leaves only Gemhide, Search, and Phantom Wurm as my “good” Green cards. Both of the Black cards I have are strong, so really the color issue is closer than it appears, even if I do technically have more playables in Green. Using this logic, one would assume that Kor Dirge would be the best pick since it has the highest power level, and also the potential to be splashed or played on-color if I switched into B/W.
Unfortunately, during the actual draft I took Mire Boa, and afterwards was left wondering why I’d made such an error. I came to the following conclusions. First of all, I felt that I was stuck into G/W because I was looking at my deck laid out by color and saw that I had almost as many Green cards as White ones. What I didn’t see was that Primal Forcemage currently did almost nothing, and Havenwood Wurm is not that great.
A second reason I believe that my mind went into auto-pilot on this pick was that Mire Boa is the generally accepted better Green card. Even though I gave some consideration to the fact that Woodreaders might well be better in this type of deck, I made a subconscious or automatic decision and went with the consensus better card rather than trusting my gut. So not only did I take a Green card when I should’ve taken Kor Dirge here, but in my opinion I didn’t even take the right Green card for this deck!
The more I thought about what had happened here, the more I realized that this happens all of the time, and most of us don’t even acknowledge it. Had I simply looked closer at what I’d already drafted, I would’ve seen that Black was just as good an option and the Dirge is splashable.
Magic is a game that requires intense focus and thought to play expertly, and even though some of you may say that taking Mire Boa here is not that bad of a pick, it’s also not the correct one and that makes it a mistake.
An Interesting Build
My next intriguing situation comes from the same draft as the pick made above. I had a relatively tough time deciding how to actually build the deck, which doesn’t happen too often. The sign of an expert drafter is someone who knows almost exactly how their deck will be built as the draft is going on.
While I like to think that I usually have a strong idea how I’ll be building with the exception of the last couple cards, I went into deck building in this draft with a few possible options to explore. Here’s the final card pool that I drafted.
Creatures (26)
- 1 Zhalfirin Commander
- 1 Amrou Scout
- 1 Gemhide Sliver
- 1 Havenwood Wurm
- 1 Jedit's Dragoons
- 1 Phantom Wurm
- 1 Primal Forcemage
- 1 Skulking Knight
- 1 Citanul Woodreaders
- 1 Ghost Tactician
- 1 Giant Dustwasp
- 1 Mire Boa
- 1 Saltfield Recluse
- 1 Teneb, the Harvester
- 1 Uktabi Drake
- 1 Vitaspore Thallid
- 1 Whitemane Lion
- 1 Augur il-Vec
- 1 Aven Mindcensor
- 1 Bloodshot Trainee
- 2 Llanowar Empath
- 1 Nacatl War-Pride
- 1 Samite Censer-Bearer
- 2 Sporoloth Ancient
Spells (19)
As you should be able to notice, my initial assumptions about White being wide open turned out to be wrong, and I ended up base Green with options in both Black and White. I also received a lucky fifth pick Teneb in the second booster. I also picked up a Woodreaders anyway, which was a very good thing. After removing all of the junk I was left with thirty possible options for my maindeck.
I’d like to ask you to again take some time and grab a pen and paper and see how you would build this deck. I know it seems like a lot of effort, but I’ve found the only way to really benefit from articles like this one are to actually do the exercises yourself and then compare with what I did and see what you can learn from it. You just may find an even better build than I did and be able to back it up with sound reasoning.
Zhalfirin Commander
Amrou Scout
Aven Mindcensor
Citanul Woodreaders
Edge of Autumn
Even the Odds
Evolution Charm
Gemhide Sliver
Ghost Tactician
Giant Dustwasp
Havenwood Wurm
Jedit’s Dragoons
2 Llanowar Empath
Mire Boa
Nacatl War-Pride
Phantom Wurm
Primal Forcemage
Prismatic Lens
Saltfield Recluse
Search for Tomorrow
Slaughter Pact
2 Sporoloth Ancient
Sudden Death
Temporal Isolation
Teneb, the Harvester
Treacherous Urge
Uktabi Drake
Whitemane Lion
If you do some counting you’ll notice that the Green cards alone come to 16, and most of them are certain to make the maindeck. The first thing I built was G/W splashing for Slaughter Pact and Teneb only.
Zhalfirin Commander
Amrou Scout
Aven Mindcensor
Citanul Woodreaders
Edge of Autumn
Evolution Charm
Gemhide Sliver
Giant Dustwasp
2 Llanowar Empath
Mire Boa
Nacatl War-Pride
Phantom Wurm
Primal Forcemage
Prismatic Lens
Saltfield Recluse
Search for Tomorrow
Slaughter Pact
2 Sporoloth Ancient
Temporal Isolation
Teneb, the Harvester
Uktabi Drake
Whitemane Lion
9 Forest
6 Plains
2 Swamp
The last cut I made from this build was Amrou Scout because the mana was shaky already and he only had one friend to search up. Primal Forcemage is certainly good in this build, with Whitemane Lion, Aven Mindcensor, Giant Dustwasp, and Uktabi Drake all benefiting from his ability. Something still didn’t feel right though as I felt I was stretching my mana, and perhaps should just be base Green and use a double splash so that I could get Sudden Death and Treacherous Urge into my deck as well. Zhalfirin Commander is pretty bad in this build as well.
I wonder if most of you built the deck like this or something similar? Jedit’s Dragoons, Amrou Scout, and Havenwood Wurm are all cards that could also be included in this list but I felt were the best to cut.
After looking at this list for a minute I decided that something about it didn’t feel right, and I wanted to take a look at the double splash option. After laying it out I was more comfortable with it right away. This could be due to personal preference or because it is actually the best build, I’m biased on the issue since I tend to like double splash builds. I’ll let you guys give some feedback in the forums after looking at my final list.
Here’s the build that I went with.
Citanul Woodreaders
Edge of Autumn
Evolution Charm
Gemhide Sliver
Giant Dustwasp
2 Llanowar Empath
Mire Boa
Nacatl War-Pride
Phantom Wurm
Primal Forcemage
Prismatic Lens
Saltfield Recluse
Search for Tomorrow
Slaughter Pact
2 Sporoloth Ancient
Sudden Death
Temporal Isolation
Teneb, the Harvester
Treacherous Urge
Uktabi Drake
Whitemane Lion
9 Forest
4 Plains
4 Swamp
Despite being three colors instead of two with a splash, I believe the mana is actually more reliable in this deck than in the build I listed above. In addition, the card power level is much higher and consistency should be high thanks to all of the mana fixers.
Things to Think About
I’m going to end with a few smaller situations to think about and not go as far into detail as I have on the last two. The reason for this is that I want to create an open-ended discussion that can be continued in the forums.
These situations come from a draft last week at the local store. My friend Jason opened a pack that contained the following in a three-on-three team draft:
Desolation Giant
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Firemaw Kavu
Strangling Soot
Errant Ephemeron
What’s the pick here in a normal eight-man draft? What about a three-on-three?
As good as this pack is, I imagine most of you can narrow the pick down to Firemaw or Shapeshifter right off of the bat. Personally I think I would take Shapeshifter from this pack, but it’s very close.
The second situation is from my perspective, and I was seated two to the right of Jason and on his team. I opened Firemaw and Avatar of Woe, and took Firemaw. For my second pick I took Grapeshot over Tendrils, which could be debated I suppose, and then was passed Jason’s ridiculous pack. With the Firemaw and Shapeshifter missing, I was left to decide between Strangling Soot, Errant Ephemeron, and Desolation Giant.
After discussing this pick with a bunch of people last night, the answers I got were essentially split down the middle, with one more vote for Strangling Soot than anything else. My opinion is that it’s between the Soot and the Giant, with the Giant losing some power in a three-on-three when your opponents know you have it. The Giant is also more of a commitment, while the Soot is a guaranteed splash. Despite all of that, I can see taking the Ephemeron as well.
I ended up taking the Giant because our opponents weren’t exactly top notch, and I felt they might not always play around the Giant. I also think that having Giant and Firemaw is a good reason to get into W/R, since I can get Whitemane Lion to abuse either of them, or perhaps Stormfront Riders on a lesser note since it’s uncommon.
I’m interested to see what you guys think of these situations, and I’ll be in the forums to help move along the discussion.