Standard? Working on it, but still feel slightly lost in terms of what to play. Will let you know after the GP how it works if I have any clue.

Legacy? Get back to you on that one, currently working on a few things.

Modern? I’ll wait till after the PT. That will actually define the format instead of everyone talking about pet decks and Zoo.

So… about Limited.

M12 is an interesting step forward in changing the face of Core Set drafts. For ages, these formats have been mostly about the pure fundamentals of Limited due to the lack of mechanics. You lost to bombs, took removal really early, and your evasive guys bashed in for easy wins. M11 pushed towards the card advantage side of the spectrum, with scry helping to mitigate the randomness of drawing bombs.

M12 is almost the exact opposite. Much like Zendikar before it, bombs are mitigated by the possibility of just dying before they resolve. Evasion creatures usually lose in straight races to their non-evasive counterparts, and you are often forced to trade removal for low-drops at even mana just to stay alive. The basic fundamentals remain the same, but the idea of tempo becomes that much more important. Drafting has an additional level of consideration when missing a drop has changed from putting you slightly behind to making you completely dead.

Before I begin talking about how to draft an aggressive format, anyone who hasn’t should read the following article by Gavin Verhey. It is more about being aggressive in non-aggressive formats, but the concept is still the same.

Given that, here are some lessons from M12 and Zendikar on how to shift from a synergy-based format like Scars where aggression is defined by undercosted guys to a format where everything is on more even footing.

Draft All the Two-Drops:

One of the biggest changes in M12 Limited is the almost complete lack of three-toughness creatures for under four mana. Without a bigger body to get in the way, two-drops can continue swinging longer without running into a brick wall. Suddenly two-drops that used to never be able to trade for a full card from your opponent at worse trade one-for-one on a regular basis.

So, in M12, play all the two-drops. And by two-drops, I mean creatures that fight. These aren’t your Goblin Tunnelers (though one of him is fine, two with Grenades). These are the Coral Merfolk and Goblin Pikers. They are the easiest route to quick wins. If your opponent misses a drop, it is very easy to not just get the free damage there but to use cheap removal and tricks to continue to hit them up the curve. Every Doom Blade turns into a Time Walk-Lava Axe hybrid. Take a look at a very reasonable curve where this happens.

Turn two Goblin Piker, turn three swing for two, play a Goblin Piker. Your opponent plays a Warpath Ghoul. You untap, attack, Wring Flesh on the block, and play a Manic Vandal.

You have played three 2/1 or 2/2 essentially vanilla guys. Your opponent is at 16, looking at going to ten if you have a removal spell for their next drop and probably six if they curve into a single guy on turn five.

So, if you want to attack, you need all the two-drops to just curve out with guys that attack. If you are on the defense, you need all the two-drops to just trade early. On defense, even the random one-power guys are reasonable, as they still trade for the Coral Merfolk. Even if I never planned on activating it, I would not be embarrassed to play a couple Merfolk Mesmerist or Alluring Siren if I was short on low-end creatures just so I didn’t get run over.

As a note, the one-drops are insane in this format. Goblin Fireslinger and Tormented Soul both obviously turn on bloodthirst, but given aggressive starts, they help you capitalize on lower early life totals. Elite Vanguard is even more unreal, letting you jump the curve by a full turn or drop two 2/1s on turn three instead of turn four. Phantasmal Bear leads to some of the easiest wins when backed by Frost Breath and Coral Merfolk. Some of these still go criminally late. Don’t pass them up.

Creatures Are King:

You could play that Titanic Growth in your big green deck. It might help out if they decide to triple block your Vastwood Gorger or let your Giant Spider block down some bomb.

But be real here; you aren’t trying to win a game by nickel and dime-ing them on cards off blocks or the four damage from the pump in this high-end green deck. Your Vastwood Gorger is going to bash them hard regardless and probably trade for three guys anyway.

You know what would help more? Another guy so you can swing while maintaining board parity for blocks.

The same goes for the offense. It’s no use having a two-drop if you are just going to put in a bunch of chip shots for two with random tricks. You need to curve that two-drop into more to hit a critical mass of power.

Almost all the time, a solid body is going to be better than a random trick in this format. I mean this in deckbuilding, and I surely mean this when taking cards from a pack. Obviously removal isn’t a random trick, as it trades for their guy regardless of situation, but staring down a hand of Divination, Unsummon, Frost Breath, Stave Off, and three lands means either a mulligan or a lost game.

I’ve had 20-creature decks and been completely happy with them. You are going to keep drawing and playing creatures. Your opponent will not. Eventually, you just come out ahead on board and start winning. I don’t think the all-in-on-guys plan necessarily works outside of green, where your creatures can often trade for two of theirs once you start being able to attack, but I would not be happy with some of the fourteen or thirteen creature decks I had in Scars draft in this format.

Something I haven’t had the time to test, but has been brought up, is the possibility of just playing sixteen lands to play more guys. Hitting all your land drops is less important, as your curve is going to be much lower in this format. Instead, most of your guys are going to be able to trade for theirs straight up, and games can sometimes grind down to just drawing more dorks than your opponent does so that you can keep attacking. By shorting yourself a land, you give yourself a slight edge in this battle.

This could easily be worth it in some of the non-green decks I’ve seen and probably most of the blue decks that can make up for the land with Looters, Ponders, and Divinations (yes, I did just hate on those same cards, but the one mana for Ponder is close enough to free that it can shift right into a creature, and Divination is still a two-for-one).

Understand the Difference Between One, Two, and Three:

By this, I mean toughness.

One means your guy is going to be brick walled by a Griffin Sentinel. If your deck is loaded up on one-toughness guys, it presumably means they are all Goblin Pikers, and temporary removal like Frost Breath gets a lot better, as do Titanic Growths, as you are just trying to bash your guys in there for maximum damage before they become obsolete.

Two toughness means your guy trades down for most two-drops. Warpath Ghoul is serving up about as good beats in aggro mirrors as a Child of Night, only you probably lose a mana on every exchange he makes.

Three toughness is the critical point where blocking becomes very difficult for your opponent. Benalish Veteran is the poster child here. People originally called it just a Warpath Ghoul, but they could not be more wrong. In the world of 2/1s, a 3/3 is going to kill two things on the attack. Obviously he sucks at blocking, but that’s just the old landfall problem. On defense, three toughness means your guy is going to halt a team of early drops.

Griffin Sentinel has many times held back multiple Goblin Pikers. If your opponent is going to bash through, a three-toughness guy is likely to pull a removal spell or trick.

Reaching for Victory:

To be fair, the above is probably slightly overly critical of non-creature spells. There definitely is a sweet spot on tricks and reach; it is just something I’ve seen many people including myself overestimate.

My current assumption is the average deck wants 16-17 guys and can expect around three actual removal, leaving 3-4 slots to fill with tricks, reach, and other spells. In most aggressive decks, you just want all reach and tricks here (and Auras, but those are often very similar to more haste creatures in how they progress your board state).

So, what are the best cards for this slot?

Lava Axe is one. There isn’t a great way to put this other than to say five is a lot of life.

As others have pointed out, Stave Off is awesome. It is by far one of the least situational tricks. It can help you gain tempo on attacks and blocks, turning a trade on a two or more mana guy into a trade for a one-mana card. It can counter a removal spell, often after the fact given the fact Arachnus Web, Pacifism, and Ice Cage all are solid choices. It can kill a monster your opponent has built with Auras by making them fall off mid-combat. It’s even easy to cash it in for three damage in the end game if needed.

On the subject of Aura-based removal, Fling is probably upgraded from last time. While there aren’t quite as many high power guys being thrown around and the whole Bloodthrone Vampire–Act of Treason–Fling deck doesn’t show up as much as before—as the cards are now what everyone wants—there are more on-board dead guys that make Fling do a really good Shock impression. I’m not happy to have a deck flooded with Flings, but it is far more likely to be reasonable this time around as opposed to the one-for-two it almost always was last time.

Frost Breath is the other one that really stands out. People are prone to call every spell that does this kind of thing a Blinding Beam. This card actually is. For the majority of you who probably never experienced that reference, this card is just a common Sleep. With all the trading, the odds of them having an army of guys around is significantly lower, and this often locks their board down for two turns. It doesn’t hurt that blue has a bunch of fliers that can capitalize on this removing their one Giant Spider that was supposed to hold the fort. Frost Breath gets both worse and better in multiples, as it means you have fewer guys to bash with into an empty board but also means you can freeze larger boards or lock down their only relevant guys for what will easily be the rest of the game.

Unsummon is good. It costs one, which is basically zero. You get to play almost your entire normal turn and the card negates their last one.

Titanic Growth, on the other hand, is disappointing. Giant Growth was always awesome, as you could trade your one mana for a bunch of theirs. Trading two mana for their monster is okay, but the problem is most of the trades in this format are two-drop on two-drop, and Titanic Growth-ing just puts you at parity. Slaughter Cry suffers a similar fate, albeit being slightly better as the burn spell effect is better in red just because you unsurprisingly have a bunch of other reach.

Titanic Growth is awesome in red decks, with the caveat being G/R is not a common color combo, as the curves don’t really complement each other well. Red, as always, is very aggressive, and green is high on monsters/dinosaurs and low on early removal to clear a path.

Tectonic Rift is the one uncommon I’ll briefly discuss, but the short version is hold this one. It isn’t usually worth killing the land unless they miss a creature drop and you get to set them back to the turn they did nothing on top of crunching in, which should net you 6-10 damage. Let them think they stabilized, clog the board, and turn the card into a more than Lava Axe.

Auras Are Awesome:

There aren’t a lot of monsters in this format nor the time to cast them, but building your own is very solid. Putting an Aura on a guy is basically like playing a haste creature. I’ve seen far too many games ended by a Goblin War Painted or Dark Favored evasive guy to dismiss Auras in this format.

For the same haste reason, the Lords are also much better.

Top Uncommons:

Speaking of uncommons, they are better than the rares (but not mythics) in this format. While these lists aren’t usually that informative, I’ll try my best to be as I rally off the top ten uncommons in the format.

1. Mind Control- It is only better than about one-third of the mythics this time around as opposed to half from last Core Set… Words really don’t quite describe how hard it is to beat this card. Not only does it snap-two-for-one you, but the guy they take is probably also good enough to be a two-for-one on its own and probably costs enough that they lose minimal mana compared to having just a copy of that creature from their hand.
2. Volcanic Dragon- People might be surprised to see this card over some of the older bombs. The key here is that this card ends the game without any other help. They can be at twenty, and this guy gets there. He only does one less than a six-mana Fireball on the first swing and far too often gets in again and again. He is bigger than all the commons that could attempt to fight him.
3. Stingerfling Spider- When Luis called this Flametongue Spider, he wasn’t kidding. Green most commonly loses to fliers. This beats all of them. Can’t block it with a 2/5? Just going to Shriekmaw it. It doesn’t hurt that every non-green ground guy bar Gorehorn Minotaur is at most a 4/4 and that four power is right where the non-Dark Favor Auras put two-drops.
4. Fireball– It is usually worse than Lava Axe on the burn side, but more often I’ve seen it just be a blowout as a four-mana Forked Bolt. More so in this set than in others, the utility of Fireball is what makes it good. It kills them, kills big guys, kills multiple little guys; it does everything. Much more interesting than M11, where it often was just a 6-12 point burn spell.
5. Vampire Outcasts- 4/4 bigger than the rest of the format? Check. Best ability in the format in lifelink? Double check. There is no reasonable non-removal way to fight this guy. Every trade usually ends with the opponent down two normal guys or one very good guy and you up a bunch of life.
6. Oblivion Ring- Unconditional removal for everything is obviously good. Being able to have a chance to beat a planeswalker is also nice (all the of non-Chandra ones are basically unbeatable, and Chandra is just very good).
7. Timely Reinforcements– Played this in Standard? Imagine a format of all x/1 attackers where the beats are very mediocre. How do people ever beat this card?
8. Alabaster Mage- This and the one above it should swap, but Timely isn’t getting the respect it deserves, and the emphasis on that card is necessary. As for this guy, lifelink just puts games out of reach with minimal investment. This card is almost impossible to race. It is also a Goblin Piker for when you just have to beat down.
9. Crown of Empires- Often when playing aggressive decks it is that last guy that is bigger than your team that turns the tide against you. This not only kills that last guy but can stop two of them at once if you tap on their turn and again on yours. It would be much higher if it wasn’t so much mana to invest, but just being able to handle five-drops is usually enough.
10. Jade Mage– First of all, green is short on Goblin Pikers for what it wants to do (trade a bunch and go late). Second of all, this guy is a Goblin Piker that is a good draw late. In any sort of stall he provides a definite inevitability.

Notable Exclusions from this List:

Phantasmal Dragon– Easily eleventh. A bit fragile as it lets Shocks upgrade to killing four-drops, but still a monster and beats all the other fliers in fights.

Belltower Sphinx, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire– Not bad by any means, but five is a lot more than it has ever been. It is far too easy to tap five for one of these guys and just get Time Walked by removal, bounce, or a tap effect.

Overrun– Much worse than it has ever been. Games are either blowouts, races, or all about early trades. Overrun is usually either a win more, a win where a Titanic Growth was enough, or requires a bunch of turns of stalemate in order for it to get online, as the board is repeatedly cleared.

Cudgel Troll– Five is a lot and is a clogged slot on green’s curve. There not only is Incinerate in this format, but there rarely is time to lay this guy with green open. Again, still good, just not the insane card it once was.

One final note:

None of my decks can ever beat a Gideon’s Lawkeeper. That guy is unreal. It’s probably just the fact everything is so cheap that one mana is easy to spend, and it trades for whatever the best guy at the time is. And on top of that, it also drops on one, which is usually a dead turn. And there is a shortage on utility guy removal in this format compared to others due to the lack of pinging effects. And white also has a bunch of the more fragile fliers that really like the boost of any x/4 fliers being on lockdown.

I’m still a bunch of drafts short of where I want to be in this format, but I’m getting there. With the next two weeks before the Pro Tour probably being one hundred percent Modern testing, I’ll see how things go. If you have any questions about archetypes, color combinations, random rares, or anything else, I’ll be around in the forums or at @armlx on Twitter.