Draft to Build

One of the best ways for new Magic players to start building a collection is drafting.  They get to learn all the rules of the game, while grabbing new cards.  Eventually, they can get enough cards from drafting and trading the cards they draft to build constructed decks. 

After being out of commission for a week, due to being sick, I was able to play in a draft this last Sunday.  This wasn’t your standard Scars and Besieged Draft. It was an Urza’s block draft.  I started playing Magic at the end of Shadowmoor. Consequently, I had never drafted from Urza’s block and I was unaware of most of the cards I would be drafting. 

In situations where I am drafting a set that I am uninformed about, I go straight to the BREAD method. (Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Aggressive, Dregs).  For my biggest bomb, I ended up getting passed a Shivan Hellkite.  I got it pack 1 pick 5, which is insane.  I would have picked this card over nearly every other card I saw in this format.  It is a bomb that can be used for removal and has evasion in the form of flying.  I ended up playing a primarily blue Grixis deck.  Blue had powerhouse cards like Palinchron, Rewind, Miscalculation, Thornwind Faeries and Thieving Magpie.  Black had some amazing removal. I grabbed multiple Bone Shredders, Befoul and multiple Sick and Tireds.  This draft format was so slow, that I wasn’t hurt by having 3 colors and no mana fixers.

Round 1 – Mono Green Stompy

Game one - He dropped some huge creatures down onto the board.  I ended up casting Bone Shredder three times thanks to bounce spells, and countered some of his bigger threats.  Eventually, I resolved a Palinchron, and that was more than he could handle. 

Game two – He stalled out on land, while I hit 7 land drops in a row with the help of a Thieving Magpie.  Turn seven was huge.  I resolve both Palinchron and Shivan Hellkite on the same turn.  Faced with such a large air assault, he scooped up his land.

1-0

Round 2 – Black/Red Fast

Game one – His deck was based on the idea that he would play a lot of little creatures and burn.  He tried to end the game as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately for him, I drew both of my Sick and Tireds the first game and resolved Thornwind Faeries.  His little creatures couldn’t stand up to that level of removal so the board was clear for my fliers like Palinchron to bash through.

Game two – The second game played out nearly identically to the first game.  Once again, the card advantage created by Thieving Magpie, paired with spells like Snap and Rewind, were too much for a straight aggro deck to handle.  After Shivan Hellkite hit the board, he scooped up his cards.

 2-0

Round 3 – UG Elves and Wizards

In an unusual turn of events, 2 people ended up going to time and tying for a round.  This meant that I was actually paired down for the last round and played someone with one win and one tie.  I had seen this Elf deck playing earlier and I had to give him some credit for trying to get the tribal theme to work.  Ironically, I had drafted Engineered Plague which would keep about half of his deck off the field.

Game 1 – He wins the toss.  I keep a very control heavy hand while he mulligans to five cards.  I play a turn 3 Thornwind Faeries.  This locks down almost every creature in his deck, while allowing me to slowly chip away at his life total.  I find that he is running a lot of library manipulation, such as Frantic Search.  His only big play I see all game is a Whirlwind.  He plays the Whirlwind, but I still have a grip full of creatures.  Shivan Hellkite proves to be too much to handle.  At the end of this game he promises to hold onto the whirlwind next time.

Game 2 – I go on the aggressive with my fliers, while keeping the ground clear with Sick and Tired.  I hold onto the Hellkite until I have 9 lands available.  When I finally play the Hellkite, he has the Whirlwind in hand to kill it.  Fortunately, I was planning for this and a timely Miscalculation keeps the Hellkite alive to win the game.

3-0

You may be wondering why I would write about an obsolete draft format in a Commander themed blog.  At this particular store, we draft the rares after an event is over.  On the day of this draft, only one good rare was opened.  That rare was Time Spiral.  If you look at the list for Karona, Time Spiral is one of the more expensive cards on the list.  By winning the draft, I was able to pick up one of the most expensive cards on the list without trading or buying any singles.

I recommend drafting to everyone who plays magic.  I try and find stores that draft the Rares afterwards.  It gives a little more control to player over which cards they get and gives additional incentives to draft well instead of rare drafting.  It also makes sure that each player leaves with at least 3 rares or foils.  This fosters a steady growth in players trade binders.

I was given a foil proxy Timetwister by a friend recently.  With Timetwister and Time Spiral taken care of, the rest of these cards fell together rapidly.  I have spent 247.94 out of the $309 maximum for the deck, and there are only six cards remaining to get in foil.

• Mana Reflection
• Mirari’s Wake
• Forbidden Orchard
• Grand Coliseum
• Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• Reliquary Tower

The total value of these foils on SCG is aprx 50 dollars.  That would put me just under the maximum spending for the deck.  If anyone has any ideas for new a new collecting challenge, please let me know.  I would be happy to attempt to try something outrageous like “pack to commander” or something along those lines.

Thank you for reading!

Doran Revisited

Last week, I went over my formula for building a Commander deck from your personal collection.  This week I am going to go over what kind of cards you should be on the look for when you are looking to improve your Commander deck. I have been playing the Doran deck for about a week now.  The deck has been performing very well.  Even so, I felt like it was lacking the epic feel that most commander decks bring to the table.

As luck would have it, the local card store made a large purchase of a player’s personal collection.  I was able to strike while the iron was hot and pick up a ton of cards for the Doran deck to help illustrate what I look for when I am upgrading a commander deck.  

The first set of cards I look for when upgrading, are lands.  I want lands that can tap for multiple colors, lands that can tap for a ridiculous amount of mana, or land that have strong abilities.  Dual lands from the original sets as well as the onslaught dual combine well with fetch lands.  If a land taps for colorless, it should carry a useful ability.  Good examples are; Academy Ruins, Hall of the Bandit Lord, and Wasteland.  From the cards the shop had available, I picked up the following;

•          Volrath’s Stronghold – Graveyard Recursion
•          Horizon Canopy – Taps for multi and can draw cards
•         Thawing Glaciers – Mana fixes + guarantees you have mana drops
•          Strip Mine – Land Destruction
•          Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – See next card
•          Cabal Coffers – Taps for a ridiculous amount of mana
•          Flagstones of Trokair –When this goes to graveyard, get a dual land
•          Marsh Flats – Fetches are always good, they can get duals as well as basics
•          Verdant Catacombs – See above
•          Windswept Heath – See above
•          Godless Shrine – Dual lands make land specific searches better
•          Temple Garden – See above
•          Savannah – See above
•          Bayou – See above
•          Murmuring Bosk – Works like a dual land for most purposes

 In the last article, I encouraged you to go grab whatever mana fixers you could find.  As you go along, you will find that a certain style of mana fixing and accelerating better matches your color identity.  Blue decks like to run heavy artifact acceleration. Red decks may use Gauntlet of Power. Mono colored decks like to use cards like Gauntlet of Power and Extraplanar Lens.  In green decks, I look for green spells over artifact accelerants.  In general, more people have answers to artifacts than lands.  In addition, if you play a lot of green land tutor spells, you thin your deck so that you can draw into more effective spells.  These are the mana fixers and accelerants that I was able to get a hold of; 

•          Sol Ring – Always good
•          Deep Reconnaissance – Not the best, but you can flash it back
•          Seedborn Muse – This card is nuts in multiplayer
•          Sakura-Tribe Elder – A blocker with an upside
•          Seedguide Ash – This card is insane, when it dies you get 3 dual lands
•          Mirari’s Wake – Doubling your mana production is never a bad thing
•          Crucible of Worlds – Recurring fetch lands will keep you running
•          Land Tax – This is just an amazing card early on
•          Krosan Tusker – Cycle for land or play for beats
•          Search for Tomorrow – A good turn 1 play
•          Primeval Titan – Go get Cabal Coffers and Urborg
•          Journey of Discovery – Good even without the entwine
•          Kodama’s Reach – Cultivate #2
•          Far Wanderings – Threshold is so easy to achieve.  I always get 3
•          Solemn Simulacrum – Get this guy if you can, he can go in every deck
•          Nature’s Lore – Brings in a Dual land untapped

One of the differences between a good Commander deck and a great Commander deck is the way the deck draws cards and searches for answers.  The more you draw and the better your tutor, the more consistent your deck will be.  Deck consistency is difficult to achieve in a singleton format.  Any cards that can help you get around this problem will make your deck better. I found the following cards to throw into this Doran deck;

•  Survival of the Fittest – This card got banned from legacy for a reason.  Its power level is off the charts.
• Sensei’s Divining Top – It is rare that a Commander deck would not benefit
• Phyrexian Arena – When your life total is 2x normal but your hand stays the same size.  Paying life for drawing cards gets a lot better
• Chord of Calling – Instant speed creature tutoring and playing is a beautiful thing
•  Eldamari’s Call – Just tutoring at instant speed isn’t bad either
• Tooth and Nail – Do you know a better way to cast Ulamog and It That Betrays?
•  Demonic Tutor – One of the best tutors ever printed

The removal cards that were in the original deck were mostly subpar. When I am looking to upgrade my removal suite, I look for efficiently costed cards that go above and beyond your normal removal.  This general means removing cards from the game, acting at split second, or effecting multiple targets.  Here are the new removal cards I grabbed for Doran;

• Krosan Grip – This is a must have for Green.  It stops combos and kills tops
• Return to Dust – Your answer to indestructible artifacts and enchantments.
• Damnation – Any wrath effect that costs 4-5 mana can be included in a Commander list
• Woodfall Primus – Kills a planeswalker, and then kills another the first time it dies.
• Austere Command – This is one of my favorite wrath effects.  By choosing the right modes you can make the wrath one sided.
• Duplicant – This is a great way to kill an indestructible creature with a large upside.

In the original article, I only had a few categories of cards I was looking for.  When I expand a deck, I also expand the types of cards I find useful.  There are utility cards that I like to put into decks to help push through the big finishers in the deck.  At this point I am looking for cards that protect my creatures and recur spells and creatures from the graveyard.

•          Genesis – What’s better than Terrastadon? Cast him twice!
•          Eternal Witness – If you play green, play this card
•          Lightning Greaves – When you play big powerful creatures, you want to start hitting with them as soon as possible.  This is useful in almost every Commander deck

After putting in these new cards, I was able to play a few games with the new and improved deck.  The upgrades made for some impressive plays that I was unable to achieve with the previous build.  I am very happy with the way the deck has been improved.  I hope you can use this guide to improve upon a Commander deck that you own.

With these purchases, I am forced to slow down for a few weeks on getting the last few cards for the Arcum deck.  Next week, I am going to go over tactics about dealing with facing multiple opponents who are working against you.

Thanks for Reading!