Before we proceed with the Shards of Alara Limited analysis, I want to post the links to the old articles, as several people in the forums asked for them.
Discussing Draft 1
Discussing Draft 2
Discussing Draft 3
Discussing Draft 4
Discussing Draft 5
Discussing Draft 6
Oli: Hello everyone! Today, I’m with Manuel Bucher, and we’re here to analyse the Alara Block draft format. This week, we’re commenting on the Shards and Conflux cards that have changed in value since the introduction of Alara Reborn. After discussing the Shards in an earlier article, we’ll now discuss Five-Color Control and the two-color archetypes. How are you doing today, Manu?
Manu: Hello (and good luck)! I’m feeling excellent, what about you?
Oli: My left knee hurts a little, and I’m starving, but there are more important issues now…
Manu: … like the Up and Downs of Five-Color Control?
Oli: Precisely! Shall we proceed?
Manu: Yep!
5cc
Manu
Up
Tri Lands
Magma Spray
Wild Nacatl
Ignite Disorder
Jund Charm / Infest (even more important now)
Ember Weaver
Macta Rioters
Suicidal Charge
Down
Executioner’s Capsule
Armillary Sphere
Obelisks (not Obelisk of Alara)
Bant Charm
Resounding Silence
Bloodpyre Elemental
Oli
Up
Branching Bolt
Infest
Jund Charm
Volcanic Fallout
Blister Beetle
Magma Spray
Wretched Banquet
Sprouting Thrinax, and any big and cheap blocker (Rhox War Monk, Ember Weaver…)
Ignite Disorder
Down
Resounding spells
Sanctum Gargoyle
Courier’s Capsule
Obelisks
Oli: The archetype definitely got weaker as the format was becoming faster. It makes mass removal not only important, but almost necessary. Not only do you need to be able to deal with aggro starts, but mass removal will hurt your opponents even more, as most of Reborn’s good creatures die to it.
Manu: I agree. That’s why I rate the big cheap blockers much higher. I think Wild Nacatl is a very fine card in Five-Color Control now, and Macta Rioters is a card I don’t want to pass.
Oli: Yeah, those cards are both the cards you want to face the least, and a great way to stop fast draws. Every cheap removal spell in general gets better. This is the story of Magma Spray, but also of Wretched Banquet and Ignite Disorder, which now is maindeckable.
Manu: But I have to admit, I end up running Five-Color Control when something goes terribly wrong in the draft. I just don’t think the archetype is strong enough. But yeah, cheap removal is very important now.
Oli: Same here. Last time I went five-colors was when I opened Empyrial Archangel and got passed Jund Charm, and even then the deck had very strong cards and a solid mana, but it was too slow. The historical card advantage engine of the deck (Sanctum Gargoyle / Courier’s Capsule, Resounding Silence) doesn’t work anymore, as the format is too fast to spend eight mana on a removal spell. You usually won’t be able to afford to wait for the eighth land, and the Gargoyle-based combos are not reliable with only 8 Shards boosters.
Manu: I still like Sanctum Gargoyle a lot in the deck – and Courier’s Capsule as well. You need some sort of Card Advantage for the deck to work, don’t you?
Oli: Of course you do, but Sanctum Gargoyle won’t return great cards anymore, and Courier’s Capsule usually takes you two turns to get a card advantage of +1. If I have it I’ll play it, but it just seems too slow to be a pick 3 to 5 as it was before… it’s more a 6 to 8 to me.
Manu: Well, Sanctum Gargoyle still returns cards like Parasitic Strix and Esper Cormorants. Obviously it’s not great if you are not Esper-based, but if you are, it is still an MVP for me.
Oli: It’s very good in those situations, but if I can draft a solid Esper base, it is very unlikely I try and go Five-Color anyway.
Manu: Well, you try and go Five-Color when something goes wrong, right?
Oli: Something has to go very wrong, but yes.
Manu: Should we just leave something we both see as a failure, and move to something we call success? Like UW?
Oli: I’d just like to add something to conclude. I find it very interesting that you have Armillary Sphere in your Downs. Just like Courier’s Capsule, you don’t really want to waste your turns 2 and 3 to get be able to start playing from turn 4, but I still think it’s a key card in the deck. The deck has become a lot worse, and the Sphere being in your Downs despite still being important is a perfect illustration of that.
Manu: Well, it’s in the Downs because now I would pick Ember Weaver or Macta Rioters over it (if I am Green-based), for example. I couldn’t have imagined that in AAC.
Oli: I fear I must agree. UW?
Manu: Yep.
UW
Manu
Up
Vedalken Outlander
Esperzoa
Deft Duellist
Welkin Guide
Excommunicate
Unsummon
Down
Sludge Strider
Esper Cormorants
Angelic Benediction
Courier’s Capsule
Resounding Wave
Lapse of Certainty
Kiss of the Amesha
Oli
Up
Deft Duellist
Vedalken Outlander
Parasitic Strix
Unsummon
Gleam of Resistance
Down
Kiss of the Amesha
Lapse of Certainty
Any splash card
Manu: I have to admit, UW was my favorite archetype for a very long time when Alara Reborn was released. The power of the deck is just amazing.
Oli: The deck was fine before, but it was more of a variance of Esper. Now the deck is a true archetype, and maybe the strongest in the format. It has enough playables now to stick to two colors, which is a great advantage in terms of stability. This is why Sludge Strider and the other Black (and more rarely Green) cards we could often splash before Conflux are not advised anymore.
Manu: Most card advantage cards got a lot worse because every other archetype is tempo-oriented now. This is also why I rate Lapse lower while I rate Unsummon and Excommunicate higher. Shutting down a single blocker with Angelic Benediction ain’t that good anymore, because your opponent won’t keep a hand where he plays a Mosstodon turn 5 as his first spell.
Oli: I love Excommunicate. The only reason it is not in my Ups is because I think the card was already very strong before. I put Strix in the Ups because you can now play Black permanents without even playing Black (Esper Stormblade, Thopter Foundry, and possibly Arsenal Thresher and Mistvein Borderpost).
Manu: True. He is not in my Ups though, because I now pick Vedalken Outlander over it – where it was Esper Cormorants before. Court Homunculus got a bit stronger as well, but I don’t think it’s worth putting him in the Ups.
Oli: Outlander is now great. Not only is the curve more important, you also face cheap and/or Red creatures much more often.
Manu: And he is a multicolored permanent to power up your Blades!
Oli: I almost forgot he does that too!
Manu: The deck usually doesn’t have too many multicolored permanents – the only really good ones you find in the first two packs are Deft Duellist and Vedalken Outlander. One more thing… If you are UW, do you pick Sanctum Gargoyle or Oblivion Ring? I know it’s very early in the pack, but let’s assume you know you are UW.
Oli: It’s super close, but I think the 2/3 takes it by a short head. Having many flyers make removal less important. How about you?
Manu: I picked the Sanctum Gargoyle yesterday. But I didn’t know which pick is right… This is why I asked!
WG
Manu
Up
Valeron Outlander
Rhox Meditant
Rhox Bodyguard
Excommunicate
Sighted-Caste Sorcerer (and other 1/1’s)
Down
Might of Alara
Resounding Roar
Lapse of Certainty
Oli
Up
Court Archers
Sigil Blessing
Gleam of Resistance
Wild Leotau
Valeron Outlander
Down
Lapse of Certainty
Oli: I know my list is pretty short, but I don’t think the archetype has changed much. I’ve always loved every exalted creature in it, and now I only put Court Archers a little higher as it is now a better blocker than in AAC. Also, I’ve Leotau in my Ups because, as you face fewer Cavern Thoctars or Jungle Weavers, the 5/4 is the biggest creature you’ll face in most of the games in the format. And it costs only four mana!
Manu: Yeah, there is not a lot of changes. Rhox Meditant actually blocks a fair amount of creatures, while I rate combat tricks (not Sigil Blessing) lower because you can let the two-drops just trade.
Oli: I agree that Resounding Roar and Might of Alara aren’t that good anymore, but that doesn’t apply to the generic pump spells (Blessing, Gleam). Their strength essentially depends on how many exalted guys you have. They usually race better than trade, and therefore stay on the board (don’t expect me to say on the battlefield!), leaving the opportunity to play a strong pump spells in the end. In a deck that doesn’t have many exalted guys, trades are common and these cards aren’t very good, I agree, but exalted spells are usually the reason why I want to go WG.
Manu: GW pretty much stayed the same. Single creature pump spells got a bit worse, but aside from that it’s hard to find a difference.
Oli: The format is made to prioritize four- or five-color builds, but in the end, even three colors sometimes seem to be a little too much. As the format gets faster, mana screws are a lot more painful and it’s becoming more and more common to draft two-color decks.
Manu: Aside from GW and UW, UB and RB became excellent options for me.
Oli: You lose your access to three-color spells, but it reinforces your synergy and makes your mana a lot safer.
Manu: Also, Alara Reborn doesn’t feature too many three-color spells.
Oli: I agree. I’ve been trying RG, but it doesn’t seem good enough, as there is much less synergy between cards, and the curve is higher than in the other four archetypes you’ve just mentioned.
Manu: RG can be fine, but it just doesn’t happen enough.
Oli: As UB and RB are new archetypes, we won’t really do an Up and Down analysis. Instead, we’ll do a good old rating of our favorite commons and uncommons in these two decks. For both decks, we will give you a Top 15 in Shards of Alara and a Top 10 in Conflux.
RB
Manu
Shards of Alara
1 – Magma Spray
2 – Vithian Stinger
3 – Blood Cultist
4 – Skeletonize
5 – Resounding Thunder
6 – Executioner’s Capsule
7 – Goblin Deathraiders
8 – Blister Beetle
9 – Dregscape Zombie
10 – Hissing Iguanar
11 – Scourge Devil
12 – Blightning
13 – Viscera Dragger
14 – Scavenger Drake
15 — Bloodpyre Elemental
Conflux
1 – Shambling Remains
2 – Goblin Outlander
3 – Dark Temper
4 – Grixis Slavedriver
5 – Drag Down
6 – Ignite Disorder
7 – Viashino Slaughtermaster
8 – Sedraxis Alchemist
9 – Fiery Fall
10 – Suicidal Charge
Oli
Shards of Alara
1 – Magma Spray
2 – Vithian Stinger
3 – Skeletonize
4 – Executioner’s Capsule
5 – Resounding Thunder
6 – Blood Cultist
7 – Infest
8 – Goblin Deathraiders
9 – Hissing Iguanar
10 – Blister Beetle
11 – Blightning
12 – Viscera Dragger
13 – Bloodpyre Elemental
14 – Dregscape Zombie
15 – Scavenger Drake
Conflux
1 – Shambling Remains
2 – Goblin Outlander
3 – Grixis Slavedriver
4 – Dark Temper
5 – Volcanic Fallout
6 – Viashino Slaughtermaster
7 – Wretched Banquet
8 – Drag Down
9 – Fiery Fall
10 – Ignite Disorder
Oli: So, pretty similar ratings. I was wondering if I hadn’t put the Pingers a little too high, but you even have them higher!
Manu: Why do you have Vithian Stinger so much higher than Blood Cultist?
Oli: Well, it actually may look like I value it a lot more, but I don’t. I just think cards from second to sixth place are extremely close. This four-place difference is also the result of my indecision on the “Pinger or Removal” issue. Do you think Pingers are that much better then Skeletonize, Capsule, and Thunder?
Manu: Not that much. The biggest difference are the mass removal spells, Volcanic Fallout, and Infest. I try to build up pressure while taking out their key creatures with spot-removal. Mass removal doesn’t have the effect I would like in such a strategy.
Oli: This is obviously not their best archetype, but they are still cards that can win games on their own. Also, you should pick them early enough to be able to adjust your deck and pick cards such as Viscera Dragger or Canyon Minotaur which will survive them.
Manu: And another very interesting aspect, your Slavedriver is positioned higher than mine for once!
Oli: In the worst case scenario, if your deck is too aggressive and your guys are too small, you can still play the mass removal in the sideboard, which won’t be such a waste as it is still fantastic against half the decks at the table.
Manu: That’s a true point. I guess if you play against UW or GW, you are the control deck. You don’t like Sedraxis Alchemist at all?
Oli: Its’ fine, but I won’t pick it too high as you won’t know until pack 3 if you have Blue permanents. What are they by the way? Sewn-Eye Drake and Grixis Grimblade?
Manu: And the Borderpost.
Oli: That’s fine, but that’s not enough. I won’t play it with less than three Blue permanents, so there are many cards I’ll pick over it.
Manu: I would play it with one Blue permanent. If I have it, it is a very powerful effect, while otherwise the card can still trade with a Blade or an Outlander.
Oli: Yeah I guess you’re right, but with a Blade, I don’t want to miss playing anything on turn 3 if I’ve Alchemist and the Sewn-Eye Drake in hand. Do you like Drag Down that much? I mean, removal spells are always good, but three mana for a -2/-2 effect doesn’t seem so great.
Manu: I don’t like it very much – but I like everything else even less. While being able to deal with fliers seems very important for the deck.
Oli: Hehe, that makes sense. I’m a little surprised not to see Wretched Banquet in your Top 10 though; almost every deck has small early drops now.
Manu: That is true, but more often than not they have two power – and I often find myself with a one-power guy on the table. But it was very close when doing the ratings.
Oli: It’s true that it is not great following a turn 2 Slaughtermaster, but if you have another two-drop in hand you can just play it, and you’ll usually be able to play Banquet and the Lizard on the next turn. Otherwise, Slaughtermaster is likely to trade very quickly with the first guy your opponent will drop anyway. However, I’m not picking it any higher if I’ve drafted Vithian Stinger.
Manu: Or Blister Beetle, Dragon Fodder, and Kathari Bomber.
Oli: True, true…
Manu: UB?
Oli: Yes. As this is an archetype I’ve drafted only once, Manu will be the only one giving his rating here, and I’ll ask him questions about it.
UB
Manu
Shards of Alara
1 – Agony Warp
2 – Tidehollow Strix
3 – Esper Battlemage
4 – Executioner’s Capsule
5 – Tower Gargoyle
6 – Fatestitcher
7 – Kathari Screecher
8 – Blister Beetle
9 – Dregscape Zombie
10 – Viscera Dragger
11 – Infest
12 – Puppet Conjurer
13 – Fleshbag Marauder
14 – Scavenger Drake
15 – Spell Snip
Conflux
1 – Sedraxis Alchemist
2 – Zombie Outlander
3 – Parasitic Strix
4 – Grixis Slavedriver
5 – Faerie Mechanist
6 – Wretched Banquet
7 – Unsummon
8 – Countersquall
9 – Esperzoa
10 – Drag Down / Sludge Strider
Oli: So Manu, could you please introduce the archetype to us?
Manu: Well, it is a Blue/Black midrange deck that lives and dies with the tempo advantage of cards like Deny Reality, Sedraxis Alchemist, and Parasitic Strix. So after building up a board, and bouncing their key cards, you use countermagic like Countersquall, Soul Manipulation, or Cancel to disrupt their game plan.
Oli: It’s interesting to see that even though the deck is not very aggressive aggro, Infest isn’t very high in the rating. I guess it is because you won’t draft many guys that will survive it?
Manu: Excactly!
Oli: It makes sense, but how can Spell Snip be over Cancel? I know it’s super cool and humiliating, but in a two-color deck, casting Cancel shouldn’t be that hard.
Manu: If you are ahead on the board, a Force Spike can be as destructive as a Counterspell, but once you are behind – you will really appreciate the cycling effect. Make sure that you don’t run too many counterspells. One or two aside from Soul Manipulation should be the maximum, as you don’t want to reveal dead cards with Deny Reality. Soul Manipulation is still a Raise Dead, while Cancel, Spell Snip, and Countersquall don’t do anything.
Oli: Indeed, it seems like it’s the kind of deck that always have a small advantage in the game, because it’s focused on tempo, but which will have really hard time turning the tables once it is in a hard position.
Manu: It is. A well cascaded Deny Reality is one of the few outs if you are behind.
Oli: Tower Gargoyle is the only White card you mentioned. Does it mean you want to be UB and will not splash except for a bomb, not even for an Oblivion Ring?
Manu: I wouldn’t splash for an Oblivion Ring alone. I splash for it if I have something else that goes along with it, like Tower Gargoyle, or Sharuum the Hegemon. It is the same case for Sludge Strider. If I would add Oblivion Ring to the list, I might as well add Skeletonize, Magma Spray, and Resounding Thunder – which are cards I would splash if I already have a Sedris or Vein Drinker. A White splash is more usual, as you can easily include Glassdusk Hulk to such a splash – and it makes your Faerie Mechanist and Soul Manipulation stronger.
Oli: Okay, thank a lot for the enlightenment; I’ll try that strategy again! See you all next week for the Alara Reborn rankings by archetypes, and have a great weekend!
Manu: Goodbye everybody!
Oli and Manu