You’ll have to pardon my lack of articles over the past couple of weeks. I’ve had an exceptionally successful run with online poker tournaments recently and I’ve been focusing most of my energy towards that game. Don’t worry though – I’ve still been playing plenty of Magic. Unfortunately, I’ve been getting destroyed on Magic Online and have lost the last five 8/4 Ravnica drafts I’ve played in! I guess my lack of articles is also due to the fact that I’ve been annoyed about my losing streak on Magic Online. I haven’t wanted to get any Magic-related writing done, and for that I apologize.
My original idea for this article was to cover the last important draft archetype in the block that I hadn’t gone over yet — the Green/White Selesnya guild. I wanted to use a different format from my previous three articles on StarCityGames.com, which covered the Dimir, Boros and Golgari guilds. In the end, I chose to go with a draft walkthrough instead of just my usual drafting guide. I augmented the following draft with several thoughts and tips about where the draft went right and where it went wrong. I had several aborted attempts at finding a suitable G/W deck to use for this article. What follows isn’t even a normal G/W deck, but it’s a much more useful example of a draft that went wrong.
The Draft: Ravnica/Ravnica/Ravnica
First Pack
Pack 1
Terraformer, Convolute, Fists of Ironwood, Screeching Griffin, War-Torch Goblin, Drake Familiar, Leave No Trace, Sell-Sword Brute, Siege Wurm, Devouring Light, Flame Fusillade
Where should I begin? This pack does not have any bombs, but it does contain several cards that are certainly of first pick quality. White has two great cards – Screeching Griffin and Devouring Light — though in this case the creature is nowhere near as powerful as the removal spell. I narrowed down my pick to a choice between Flame Fusillade and Devouring Light. I think many people would prefer the Devouring Light since it is cheaper to cast and more consistently usable.
While Flame Fusillade is cumbersome and expensive, it’s essentially a four-mana Rolling Thunder that can function as either a one-sided Wrath of God or Fireball. It’s definitely served me well the times I’ve drafted it.
Even if your intent is to go G/W here, I think taking the Fusillade is still the correct choice. It is easily splashed, and all of the tokens that G/W can create can be used for pinging your opponent to death should the ground get stalled.
My Pick: Flame Fusillade
Pack 2
Barbarian Riftcutter, Greater Mossdog, Courier Hawk, Sparkmage Apprentice, Fists of the Ironwood, Centaur Safeguard, Fiery Conclusion, Root-Kin Ally, Recollect, Sins of the Past
This pack is atrocious for a second pick, and my options are limited to Greater Mossdog, Courier Hawk, Fiery Conclusion, or Root-Kin Ally. Since I first picked a Red card, I still have a perfectly good chance to start a R/W Boros deck. I’m also not a fan of Greater Mossdog at all. I feel that it isn’t an efficient creature in this format with the proliferation of all the walls, token generation effects, and evasion creatures in Ravnica draft. Many people may disagree with this assessment, but I really don’t like playing this vanilla 3/3 man in most of my decks.
I think you’d be crazy to take anything here other than the Fiery Conclusion. It’s slightly better than Courier Hawk, and definitely better than anything Green has to offer in this pack.
My Pick: Fiery Conclusion
Pack 3
Mortipede, Torpid Moloch, Terrarion, Surveilling Sprite, Dimir House Guard, Sewerdreg, Conclave Equenaut, Compulsive Research, Brainspoil, Golgari Thug, Pariah’s Shield
This pack is slightly better than the last, and gives you the option of getting into U/R thanks to Compulsive Research. The problem with going U/R this early is that Flame Fusillade and Fiery Conclusion are not the best two cards to begin drafting a U/R deck. Besides, there’s a much better option in the pack: Conclave Equenaut.
The Equenaut goes better with my first two picks, and also keeps open my option of splashing Green in this deck. I could even end up going G/W with a splash of Red, since both of my Red spells are easily splashable into a Selesnya deck.
My Pick: Conclave Equenaut
Pack 4
Convolute, Golgari Rot Farm, Dogpile, Incite Hysteria, Scatter the Seeds, Benevolent Ancestor, Perplex, Reroute, Conclave Phalanx
As I said in the last pack, I still hope to get into G/W/r. I’ve been doing well with that deck type at CMU recently.
This pack doesn’t offer a whole lot to the aggressive R/W archetype. I’m not too happy with either the Benevolent Ancestor or the Conclave Phalanx for my deck, so I decide to make somewhat of an aggressive (and risky) pick here and take Scatter the Seeds.
In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t made this pick. I should have stayed with just two colors. The main reason this pick had merit at the time was that neither of the White cards available are very good in most R/W decks. If I had to go back and redo this pick, I’d prefer the Ancestor for a R/W deck. I’d want the Phalanx in a G/R/w build, but it would have been nice to see this pick later in the draft when I was already sure about my colors.
My Pick: Scatter the Seeds
Pack 5
Convolute, Golgari Rot Farm, Sparkmage Apprentice, Nightguard Patrol, Dromad Purebred, Ordruun Commando, Seeds of Strength, Grifter’s Blade, Bathe in Light
While the pick from this pack may not look difficult, it turned out to be troubling because I still hadn’t decided where I was going with my colors. I like both Bathe in Light and Seeds of Strength, but both are good in completely different situations.
I’m not sure which card is better overall – but since I picked the Scatter the Seeds from the last pack. I want to try to isolate G/W and hopefully get some goods like Selesnya Evangel in the second pack. In order to have a chance at G/W later, I have to take the Seeds of Strength here since some people overvalue it, and may view it as a reason to get into G/W, cutting me off later.
My Pick: Seeds of Strength
Pack 6
Selesnya Sanctuary, Muddle the Mixture, Sadistic Augermage, Perplex, Peel from Reality, Wizened Snitches, Peregrine Mask
I guess that if I thought Booster Number Two was bad, I was mistaken – this one is even worse. I really have no good pick here and have to take the Selesnya Sanctuary simply because there are no better options.
My Pick: Selesnya Sanctuary
Pack 7
Boros Garrison, Tattered Drake, Surveilling Sprite, Clinging Darkness, Smash, Rally the Righteous, Compulsive Research, Telling Time, Frenzied Goblin
This pick is also slightly influenced by my refusal to give up the chance to draft G/W. I could’ve gone another way and gone back into straight R/W at this point, but I still wanted to relegate Red to a splash.
The question I face is whether Rally the Righteous or Frenzied Goblin is the better card. I’m willing to bet that the Goblin is better in a straight R/W deck – unless you have multiples of Thundersong Trumpeter or Viashino Fangtail to abuse the untap ability of the Rally. At any rate, I went with the Rally here since it still gives me the option of going G/W/r and is an excellent spell to splash in G/W. With all the tokens that G/W can generate, Rally the Righteous can be a potent finisher. I’m still not 100% sure on this pick, so I’d like to see your comments in the forums.
My Pick: Rally the Righteous
Pack 8
Selesnya Sanctuary, Stasis Cell, Rootwater Wight, Dizzy Spell, Fiery Conclusion, Remand, Thoughtpicker Witch
Just great – another pack and still no good picks. The funny thing is that it doesn’t even look like I could realistically be in any other colors at this point since there haven’t been any good U/B cards either. I’ll take another Conclusion since I’m really given no other choice.
My Pick: Fiery Conclusion
The lap brings a Sell-Sword Brute, Sparkmage Apprentice, Terrarion, Dogpile, and Dromad Purebred. I have plenty of guys for an aggressive R/W plan, but not so much in the way of G/W/r cards. I’ll need a lot of help over the next two packs.
Second Pack
Pack 1
Gaze of the Gorgon, Coalhauler Swine, Civic Wayfinder, Vedalken Dismisser, Dimir House Guard, Rain of Embers, Veteran Armorer, Dimir Signet, Brainspoil, Ribbons of Night, Pollenbright Wings, Boros Guildmage, Privileged Position
This is quite a good pack…but not for me. The decision here is between Civic Wayfinder, Veteran Armorer, and Boros Guildmage. This is a tough pick for a number of reasons: The Wayfinder is a great card if I end up going G/W/r since it will help to enable a turn 4 Scatter the Seeds and will help to fix my mana. Veteran Armorer has good synergy with token creatures. Boros Guildmage is probably the best card overall in terms of power level. Being able to give First Strike is very relevant to a creature-based strategy.
I decide right away that I can’t possibly take the Armorer here, since it just doesn’t do enough for my deck in comparison to the other two cards. The question revolves entirely around whether or not I want to try to force Green into my deck, since I still have the option of going aggro R/W. I review my card pool and decide that I’m probably not going to get enough Green at this point, so I should focus on R/W.
My Pick: Boros Guildmage
Pack 2
Coalhauler Swine, Courier Hawk, Dimir Aqueduct, Thundersong Trumpeter, Rain of Embers, Faith’s Fetters, Snapping Drake, Golgari Signet, Lore Broker, Spectral Searchlight, Sunhome Enforcer, Phytohydra
Sunhome Enforcer looks pretty good until I look further into the pack and realize there is a Faith’s Fetters for the taking. Fetters is just amazing, so this isn’t a tough pick.
My Pick: Faith’s Fetters
Pack 3
Wojek Siren, Consult the Necrosages, Muddle the Mixture, Stinkweed Imp, Caregiver, Drake Familiar, Selesnya Signet, Snapping Drake, Dimir Signet, Halcyon Glaze, Razia; Boros Archangel
This pack just makes me wish I had taken the Benevolent Ancestor over the Scatter the Seeds earlier in the draft. Razia, Boros Archangel is a fine card in her own right, but having a good wall like the Ancestor to stall the game until Razia can come out is a very nice luxury I’ve missed out on. I could possibly take the Selesnya Signet in this pack, but I have an easy time passing it up in favor of the legendary bomb.
My Pick: Razia, Boros Archangel
Pack 4
Farseek, Boros Garrison, Scatter the Seeds, War-Torch Goblin, Boros Fury-Shield, Smash, Golgari Brownscale, Sell-Sword Brute, Leashling, Chorus of the Conclave
Pay attention – this is where my entire draft goes wrong. There just has to be another Scatter the Seeds in this pack to throw me off course, doesn’t there? I should make the safe pick and take the Boros Fury-Shield…But do you think I do? Of course not! I have to make life difficult for myself and take the Green token generator. This turns my mana base into an awful mess — Double White, Red and Green all over the place. If I could go back and do it over I’d certainly take the Fury-Shield and shore up a R/W deck. You can call a brain fart or just plain stubbornness in sticking to G/W/r. This pick is definitely a mistake.
My Pick: Scatter the Seeds
Pack 5
Gaze of the Gorgon, Goblin Spelunkers, Incite Hysteria, Centaur Safeguard, Screeching Griffin, Boros Swiftblade, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree, Suppression Field, Mindleech Mass
Now that I’ve decided to slide back into Green, this pack has presented me with an interesting choice. Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree is a very strong card in G/W, but I’m low on evasion creatures and there’s a Screeching Griffin present in this pack. I take the flyer because I figure my mana base was already going to be bad enough without adding a colorless land to the deck. Even if I count the City-Tree as a spell instead of a land, my deck is already slow and I’d rather have a way to win instead of a mana-intensive stall mechanism.
My Pick: Screeching Griffin
Pack 6
Induce Paranoia, Roofstalker Wight, Incite Hysteria, Benevolent Ancestor, Lurking Informant, Sewerdreg, Flame-Kin Zealot, Brightflame
This is an unexpected gift. I’d rather just have a Civic Wayfinder than any card right now to help out my mana base, but I’m not going to pass away a sixth-pick Brightflame. I’m getting worried about the deck becoming too slow but there are still plenty of picks left. Hopefully I can grab Signets or Elves of Deep Shadow later to help power out my bigger spells.
My Pick: Brightflame
Pack 7
Coalhauler Swine, Dimir Aqueduct, Dimir Infiltrator, Golgari Signet, Seeds of Strength, Blockbuster, Vindictive Mob
I’d much rather have a Selesnya Signet or Boros Signet for my deck, but the Golgari Signet will help power out my Scatters. Off-color Signets aren’t the worst things you can play in your deck, since they are still solid mana acceleration.
My Pick: Golgari Signet
Pack 8
Goblin Spelunker, Ordruun Commando, Nightguard Patrol, Sundering Vitae, Caregiver, Voyager Staff, Perilous Forays
The Patrol has synergy with Convoke and is a nice addition to my deck. It can hold off the early attackers until I can set up my more powerful spells.
My Pick: Nightguard Patrol
On the lap, I hate-draft a Vedalken Dismisser and pick up Courier Hawk, Wojek Siren, War-Torch Goblin, and Goblin Spelunker. None of these cards particularly excite me, though I am happy to grab the late Courier Hawk.
THIRD PACK
Pack 1
Civic Wayfinder, Terraformer, Surveilling Sprite, Clinging Darkness, Dimir House Guard, Lurking Informant, Last Gasp, Galvanic Arc, Elves of Deep Shadow, Belltower Sphinx, Dimir Guildmage, Hour of Reckoning
Hour of Reckoning is definitely one of the better rares I could open for this train wreck of a draft deck. It gives me some hope. I’d rather have opened Glare of Subdual, of course, but the token-free Wrath of God will give me some chance of winning games. There are a lot of notable cards in this pack, including the Sphinx, Guildmage, Arc, Last Gasp, House Guard, and Wayfinder. Hopefully something playable will table for me, but I’m not holding my breath.
My Pick: Hour of Reckoning
Pack 2
Civic Wayfinder, Terraformer, Clinging Darkness, Rally the Righteous, Elvish Skysweeper, Veteran Armorer, Flight of Fancy, Carrion Howler, Nightmare Void, Mnemonic Nexus, Bottled Cloister
This pack makes me wish I’d taken the other Wayfinder over the Boros Guildmage as my first pick in the second pack. (Well, either that or just avoided Green entirely and went with the R/W plan via the Fury-Shield.)
I hate when I make contradictory picks and put myself in a tough position. I’m just thankful at this point that I got passed another Wayfinder to help fix my horrible mana situation.
My Pick: Civic Wayfinder
Pack 3
Stasis Cell, Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi, Viashino Slasher, Leave No Trace, Boros Recruit, Boros Signet, Flight of Fancy, Disembowel, Flash Conscription, Loxodon Gatekeeper
Here’s an interesting pick, and one that is worth discussing in more depth. Both Loxodon Gatekeeper and Flash Conscription are great cards, so which should I draft? I feel that the Gatekeeper is underrated in general. If you play him on turn 3 or 4 he is actually a bomb, since he sets your opponent back a turn on mana development and blocking. Conscription is a Ray of Command with a bonus feature, but it also screws up my mana base again. I’m firmly White at this point so I can take the Gatekeeper without feeling any guilt.
My Pick: Loxodon Gatekeeper
Pack 4
Viashino Slasher, Golgari Rot Farm, Sparkmage Apprentice, Fists of Ironwood, Centaur Safeguard, Elvish Skysweeper, Boros Recruit, Golgari Signet, Boros Guildmage, Pollenbright Wings, Devouring Light
I’m getting lots of excellent White cards much later than usual, which partly makes up for my scattered mana base. There’s no question that I want the powerful removal spell here.
My Pick: Devouring Light
Pack 5
Woodwraith Strangler, Screeching Griffin, Drift of Phantasms, Strands of Undeath, War-Torch Goblin, Dizzy Spell, Rally the Righteous, Snapping Drake, Junktroller, Overwhelm
Overwhelm is normally a first-pick in any G/W deck. It’s an absolute bomb when combined with quick token creature generation. If you’ve paying attention to my draft, you’ll see that token creatures really aren’t a huge element in my deck, aside from the two Scatter the Seeds. If I were drafting correctly, I probably wouldn’t have any Green in my deck at all. Because I can’t reasonably take Overwhelm here I am happy to add a second copy of Screeching Griffin to my deck.
My Pick: Screeching Griffin
Pack 6
Mortipede, Dogpile, Selesnya Sanctuary, Ordruun Commando, Perplex, Transluminant, Rolling Spoil, Breath of Fury
Transluminant will help me to pay the Convoke cost on my two Scatters. At this point, that’s good enough for me to run it. There’s little else I can pick from this pack to try to help salvage this draft.
My Pick: Transluminant
Pack 7
Woodwraith Strangler, Strands of Undeath, Sabertooth Alley-Cat, Benevolent Ancestor, Transluminant, Flickerform, Dimir Infiltrator
I have nothing to use in my deck conjunction with the powerful Flickerform aside from a single Civic Wayfinder and Faith’s Fetters. At least I get an Ancestor here. As I mentioned earlier, it will be of help to me since my deck is so slow and I can use all the early defense I can get.
My Pick: Benevolent Ancestor
Pack 8
Goblin Spelunkers, Shred Memory, Peel from Reality, Netherborn Phalanx, Spawnbroker, Congregation at Dawn
The last booster offers nothing for my deck, so I take the time to hate draft the Netherborn Phalanx.
My Pick: Netherborn Phalanx
On the lap I hate up a Clinging Darkness, and pick up a Sparkmage Apprentice. At this point my cards look pretty strong but the mana required for them is very shaky. I decide to build my deck as follows:
The Deck
Transluminant
Courier Hawk
Boros Guildmage
Nightguard Patrol
Civic Wayfinder
Benevolent Ancestor
2x Screeching Griffin
Loxodon Gatekeeper
2x Scatter the Seeds
Conclave Equenaut
Razia, Boros Archangel
Terrarion
2x Fiery Conclusion
Seeds of Strength
Golgari Signet
Devouring Light
Flame Fusillade
Faith’s Fetters
Hour of Reckoning
Brightflame
Selesnya Sanctuary
4x Forest
5x Mountain
7x Plains
Relevant Sideboard
Wojek Siren
Dromad Purebred
Rally the Righteous
2x Sparkmage Apprentice
Dogpile
Leave No Trace
The mana base wasn’t easy to build and I’m still not sure if it’s perfectly right. I’m not sure there was a right way to build the mana for this deck. I think my biggest mistake in this draft was taking the second copy of Scatter the Seeds. My deck could have been so much stronger if I just went for an aggressive R/W deck build. It would have been able to win quickly, or swing a late game thanks to Brightflame, Razia, Hour of Reckoning and Flame Fusillade. That would have enabled me to run Sell-Sword Brutes and other quick Red and White men instead of having to splash double-Green cards as a third color.
The deck ended up with some nice features in that it has a very strong late game with lots of powerful rares to abuse. It also negates the drawback of Fiery Conclusion by running the Scatter the Seeds as token generators.
Unfortunately, the draft itself didn’t go so well for me. I did win the first round on the back of Civic Wayfinder and Scatter the Seeds, getting them both out on turn 3 and 4 in both games, allowing me to stall long enough to win with Razia and Brightflame. In the next round, I played against a very strong R/W deck that had multiples of Skyknight Legionnaire, Thundersong Trumpeter, and Viashino Fangtail. His deck tore mine to shreds. I might have won game one if I didn’t run into expected mana issues – I couldn’t draw a third Plains or keep a White creature on the board to cast Hour of Reckoning. Game two was just blowout though, and I don’t think I could’ve won that game no matter what.
I think this draft was lost before the games even began by some bad decision making on my part. I should have gone with the flow of the draft and drafted R/W instead of trying to force Green. Hindsight is 20/20, but I feel like I learned some things from this draft and that’s the best you can do when you lose — learn.
Drafting Tips
I also want to give some general tips for drafting the G/W archetype. Even though I haven’t done well with the archetype online, I’ve had success with it at CMU.
Draft Creatures over Pump Spells
The G/W creatures in this set are absolutely amazing. Many people find a way to take Gather Courage and Seeds of Strength over creatures and end up with a bunch of good creature enhancers and bad creatures. This is just flat-out wrong. I’d almost always take a Veteran Armorer, Civic Wayfinder, Selesnya Evangel, or Conclave Equenaut over a pump spell. There are exceptions to this — mostly later in the draft – but my general advice is that the pump spells are valued too highly right now. You should be picking good creatures over good pump.
Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi is no Siege Wurm
A lot of players are enamored with the Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi…and I’m not sure why. It’s surely playable, but I’ve never been overly impressed by it, and I wonder why other people like it so much. It gets stopped by multiple commons in the set including Benevolent Ancestor and Drift of Phantasms. G/W usually has no trouble clogging up the ground, so the Vigilance ability doesn’t matter all that much. Siege Wurm has trample and can get past the good common walls in this set. You should be picking it very highly, since it’ll be one of your best attackers.
Selesnya Evangel, he’s your man
I’m serious. I remember when the set came out, several players at CMU were saying that Evangel wasn’t good, but that clearly isn’t the case. The Evangel is the backbone of the G/W archetype and most likely the best common in those colors. The Evangel is the key to beating the U/B Millstone deck. If they can’t kill the Evangel, the Evangel will provide a continually growing offense which will overwhelm Dimir based decks before Dimir-based decks can mill you out of the game.
Scatter the Seeds and Conclave Equenaut are very high picks
This advice is sort of obvious, but it’s worth pointing out as a reminder.
Overwhelm is a straight-up bomb in this archetype
Overwhelm is a first pick quality bomb that will win the game for you virtually every time you cast it with creatures in play. I’ve had decks with two copies of this card and the only fear I had of losing was Induce Paranoia. Otherwise, it turns all your token guys into 4/4s and makes for a easy win.
Elvish Skysweeper is probably the sleeper card of the Selesnya archetype
The great thing about having a lot of tokens is that you can control the ground and always have available chump blockers or counterattack material. Elvish Skysweeper allows you to control the skies as well. Skysweeper has been amazing for me both on offense and defense, and I really want multiples for my deck if I’m drafting this archetype. Trading your token creatures for their flyers is almost always going to work out in your favor.
The best splash colors for the G/W deck are Black or Red
Splashing for Black removal is always good. Rally the Righteous is a suitable finisher if you don’t grab an Overwhelm. Galvanic Arc and Fiery Conclusion don’t hurt either. Note that Civic Wayfinder’s value will go way up when you find a suitable splash for the G/W deck. Signets and tap lands should also be valued more highly as they facilitate the extra color of mana.
That’s all for this week’s article. Any questions you guys may have about the archetype or general picks from my draft can be directed to the forums, where I will be happy to give my thoughts and feedback.
Nick Eisel
[email protected]
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