Throne of Eldraine is shaping up to be one of my favorite formats to draft. I don’t know if it’ll go down as one of the best of all time just because I haven’t found the gameplay to be that involved. It’s still solid, but not the cream of the crop. But wow is the drafting portion deep. Discerning whether to navigate towards a monocolored deck versus a guild is a fascinating tension. This draft is a perfect example. Starting with really powerful black cards is great, but what do you do when specifically Mono-Red is wide open? Do you play Rakdos so you can play your black cards and don’t lean too far into adamant? Or do you put them on the sidelines?
Pack 1, Pick 3
The Picks So Far:
The Pack:
The Pick:
I think this pick is between Mad Ratter and Searing Barrage. While I like keeping my options towards monocolored decks when possible in this format, I think Spinning Wheel and Jousting Dummy are enough behind the red cards here that I can’t justify taking them.
Searing Barrage is playable in every red deck, and Mad Ratter is only good alongside a density of cards that enable it. Mad Ratter will be one of the best cards in Izzet, and it can be one of the strongest cards in other red decks alongside enough velocity. And with Thrill of Possibility, Golden Egg, and Merchant of the Vale at common, this isn’t difficult.
Normally I think this pick would be close, but it’s actually not given the cards I have so far. Mad Ratter is pretty absurd with both Piper of the Swarm and Syr Konrad. And hence I believe it’s correct to lean in that direction. Black isn’t the color you think to pair with Mad Ratter, so it’s easy to miss the synergies. This format has a lot of subtlety, so don’t let it pass you by.
Pack 1, Pick 10
The Picks So Far:
The Pack:
The Pick:
So black hasn’t been flowing, and red really has. However this doesn’t mean that I can’t draft a black deck. For a Mono-Red deck, the best option here is Seven Dwarves. Three copies of the card would be quite good, and more than that, it turns the little guys into a premium two-drop. This early in the draft I think it’s reasonable to get enough more Seven Dwarves that it’s arguably the best card to take here, and certainly it’s the best card if Mono-Red. I mostly want to point out this pick to try to evaluate how close the pick is between Jousting Dummy and Seven Dwarves.
Jousting Dummy leaves the door open to be Rakdos. It’s very likely to be worse than Seven Dwarves in Mono-Red, but how much worse? And it’s likely to be better than Seven Dwarves in Rakdos, but by how much? Overall, I believe when Jousting Dummy is better than Seven Dwarves, it’s by a small margin, and when Seven Dwarves is better than Jousting Dummy, it can be by a large margin.
Pack 2, Pick 4
The Picks So Far:
At this point it’s still unclear whether or not I’m Mono-Red or Rakdos. The late Embereth Paladin and Searing Barrage lean towards red; however, Revenge of Ravens and my other black cards are all better than my red cards. This pack has reasonable red and black options. Most cards range from mediocre filler to above par depending on the construction of the deck. So which is the best pick?
The Pack:
The Pick:
Festive Funeral is the only card that I cannot fathom taking out of this pack. If you haven’t played with it yet, let me save you the trouble: don’t. Five-mana removal that is conditional belongs in the trash. I don’t want to have to work for my removal unless it’s cheap. No thank you.
Merchant of the Vale, Golden Egg, and Wicked Guardian all help trigger Mad Ratter attached to reasonably good cards. Out of these three, I think Merchant of the Vale makes the most sense given the pool. I’ve found Merchant of the Vale to be important flood protection for decks lacking either card advantage or mana sinks. Mono-Red can struggle in this department, and hence I think it’s a fine pick-up here. In fact, it’s what I took!
Both Rimrock Knight and Smitten Swordmaster are strong cards should I move from this position into an aggressive Knights deck. However, even though I’m Mono-Red, I’m not inherently aggressive. This is unintuitive thanks to the stigma around the Mono-Red concept; however, this deck is actually geared towards the late-game. Take a look at the deck below. It isn’t likely to curve out the opponent, but rather interact with all of their creatures and guarantee the game ends via the density of burn spells. Searing Barrage as a Searing Blaze variant does a great job of assisting in this plan.
This deck went 3-0, and there wasn’t much competition. There were even games where I drew twelve lands in my top twenty cards and it didn’t matter because I had so many ways to filter them into action. Remember, archetypes can be built differently. Mono-Red doesn’t actually have to be aggressive!
Also, as an exercise, think about how you would build the manabase for the deck below. Note that you have access to a third copy of Dwarven Mine. A crucial part of Throne of Eldraine Limited is constructing manabases. If you aren’t thinking about your mana during the draft and as you construct your deck, try to. It’s an important shift that will help you greatly in this format.
If you’re curious, here’s the full draft log.
