AuthorNick Eisel

Just as Ravnica Beta e-mails are showing up in Magic Online inboxes, Nick gets nostalgic takes the world of Kamigawa for one last spin around the block before she retires to second-tier status.

It’s only a month now until Kamigawa Block draft fades away leaving Ravnica in its place, but the format will still be present on Magic Online for considerably longer than that. I figured today would be a perfect time to give you my final thoughts on playing or drawing in the format, and adjust some minor pick orders in the earlier sets to correspond with what Saviors has done to the format.

In the past Nick Eisel has produced some of the most creative and interesting Limited articles around as part of his Snapping Thragg series. That series is back today, as Nick takes a chance to examine one particular matchup in full block Limited at a very detailed level to see which archetype is clearly superior.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a drafting guide for the 5-Color Green archetype in Champions/Betrayers/Saviors. This week, I want to provide you with an actual Walkthrough, along with plenty of commentary that should help anyone trying to learn how to draft the deck better…. because there’s an important lesson in today’s draft on not compromising your mana base.

I’ve always been of the opinion that many otherwise solid drafters don’t take the necessary time to re-evaluate the older cards whenever a new set enters the format. Just because something was great in CCB doesn’t mean it’s still going to be amazing in CBS. Fortunately, I’m very interested in the subject and ready to help those of you that feel like slacking off.

It seems like at least once a block, Five-Color Green turns into not only a decent strategy, but a dominant one. Today Nick provides the details on how to draft the latest rendition of what can be a very powerful archetype.

Last time, I took an early look of some Saviors cards that I thought would prove to be influential in the new format. I want to pick up where I left off and also talk about a favorite archetype of mine, while discussing some Champions and Betrayers cards to keep an eye on.

Nick’s been drafting the new set a lot since the prerelease and has compiled a solid list of cards that are either falling well short of the hype, or that are absolutely dominating some drafts. Which ones are which? Now that would be cheating… Regardless, this article should give a nice boost to your Saviors Limited learning curve.

Sometimes you can find that pivotal moment in a draft where one choice – usually a choice that goes with conventional wisdom – leads you to drafting a deck slightly worse than if you had chosen a different path. In a strong article today, Nick highlights one such moment in a recent draft and furthers the debate on the “Best Card vs. Best Pick” dilemma.

Champions/Betrayers draft is fully mature now and Nick has reevaluated some of the cards he has written about previously, particularly from Champions. What cards does he feel are over and underrated at the draft tables? The details are inside.

In this article, Nick covers all of the best archetypes in Betrayers Limited, detailing the cards that make the decks tick and then pointing out some over and underrated cards in each archetype that you might not be playing right now.

With his set review now complete, Nick steps directly into a draft walkthrough that contains a few interesting twists and turns along the way. Where did Nick go wrong and what would you have done differently? Enquiring minds want to know!

What does Nick have to say about the best card in the set and why does he compare it to Skullclamp? What Champions cards have made a big jump in playability since the introduction of Betrayers? What clever pictures has Yawgatog worked up this week? The answers to all these questions and more are just a click away!

A lot of people have said that Green is the deepest color in Betrayers Limited and noted pundits like Tim Aten put Matsu-Tribe Sniper at the top of the commons heap. Nick respectfully disagrees with both sentiments today, but to find out what the best common, uncommon, and rares are in Green, you’ll have to check inside.