If you’ve read any of Nick’s articles recently, you know that unlike most pros, he hates Black. Well Betrayers of Kamigawa is out now, but were there enough good commons and uncommons to change Nick’s mind, or is Black still so bad that even the totally sweet power of rat ninjas isn’t enough to sway his opinion?
Usually when a new set comes out it’s pretty clear which color came out on top with all of the new goodies. This time it didn’t seem so clear at first, but after playing a bit, I think I have the answer to the question: Which color got the biggest boost from Betrayers?
My vote goes to Red, and this week I’ll tell you why.
I can’t remember a time when Blue wasn’t my favorite color in Magic. I’ve heard a number of top-notch players say it is one of the worst colors in triple Champions draft, and while I believe they have some good arguments to back this statement, I simply cannot agree with it. It could be a matter of personal preference, my extreme dislike for Black, or a number of other things, but I still draft Blue quite often in CCC (on MTGO) and believe it to be one of the top colors in the format. With that in mind, it’s time to look at the impact that Betrayers will have on my beloved color.
I’m going to separate by rarities instead of just doing one big list, since I don’t think there’s a huge amount of value in ranking the rares among each other, though I will specify if an uncommon is generally better than the rest of the commons in the color. I also want to include decklists, pick orders, and tough picks when possible to show where a certain card will be valuable, though this won’t happen until the later colors when I have more experience with the set. My point is that I don’t want this to be a usual boring series of set reviews – I plan to spice it up as much as possible.
Nick weighs in with his initial thoughts on drafting with Betrayers of Kamigawa, then shares some of the ideas that have already been popping up at CMU!
With Betrayers coming out soon, I think this week is a good time to take a look back at some of the initial reviews of CoK Limited and see what we can learn from the mistakes that were made in initial evaluation of the new cards as well as how the format turned out as a whole. I do realize that this format will still be legal on MTGO for some time, but I think it’s still worth analyzing what has changed over the past few months of drafting in comparison to the initial insights on the set.
Everybody and their brother wants to draft Dampen.dec these days because… well, because it’s both powerful and stylish. But what happens when you don’t get the Dampen Thoughts that make the deck work? Is there a way to draft this type of deck and still win without the namesake card? Nick shares his thoughts today on how to keep winning even when you are a hopeless Dampen.dec addict like he is.
Today Nick throws down his thoughts about Jabberwocky, Mystic Restraints (overplayed), Reverse the Sands (a potential bomb), and a particularly tough pack he faced recently. He also muses about a potential new draft archetype he stumbled upon recently while drafting a bad Dampen.dec.
Nick drafts a four-color pile of awfulness in his latest Champions of Kamigawa Draft Walkthrough. Think I’m kidding or wondering how he ended up with the deck? See for yourself.
The continuation of Nick’s outstanding article investingating the ins and outs of a two-on-two team draft with Champions of Kamigawa.
Nick Eisel has done it again. He’s the only Limited writer on the planet willing to construct his own experiments, find subjects to test them on, and then write thirty-page articles on the entire process, complete with analysis of all the hard picks, commentary on draft mistakes, and coverage of every match from the draft. In short, this article is awesome.
I’ve got a piece of “Limited Information” for you guys to analyze from one of our regular drafts at CMU. I ended up arriving a little bit late this week since I had to give my best friend Jeremy Darling a ride down to CMU. We got there just as the first draft was starting as a result of his sluggishness, and I decided that it would be better to help Dr. Martel draft than to just sit around and do nothing until another draft started up. In doing so, a very interesting pick came up and I’d like to get input from you guys on it, since Martel and I didn’t agree initially.
This is probably my favorite subject to write on, since I love talking about over and underrated cards and helping people figure out the format. What cards are you overlooking, and which ones should you be drafting higher? The Eisel knows…
When I first read that one of the new mechanics in Champions was the addition of the Arcane subtype to a select group of Instants and Sorceries, I was pretty sure the impact was going to be minimal. Boy, was I wrong.
Nick goes over some of his first impressions of the new format after a week-and-a-half of drafting it and gives you insight on some hidden gems that you may not have noticed when you played at the prerelease. If you think Devouring Greed is unplayable or Mystic Restraint is the best Blue common, then you might want to see what Nick has to say before you play this weekend…
