Welcome back to part two of my article detailing Mirrodin draft archetypes. If you missed part one, you can find it here. Today, we wrap things up with the other three green combinations, as well as red/black and red/blue.

Green/Blue
Of the green archetypes, this one is definitely my favorite. The idea here is to have a very solid ground defense with pro-artifact guys and regenerators, while also having a good offensive and defensive strategy in the air with fliers and Tel-Jilad Archers. Equipment is less important in this deck than usual, as you want to overload on the Archers and also Tel-Jilad Chosen. Of course, Loxodon Warhammer, Fireshrieker, and Bonesplitter are still bombs. Leonin Scimitar becomes very bad, since you don't need toughness. Lightning Greaves isn't nearly as good as you'd like it to be either. Mask of Memory, however, becomes amazing with your control/tempo strategy.

You need to pick artifact removal quite high in this deck, since you have no creature removal to speak of. Likewise, Regress and Aether Spellbomb can be taken highly to supplement creature superiority and time advantage. Your deck should basically consist of those two elements and creatures.

Ideally, you'll end up with about sixteen creatures with a mana Myr or maybe two, and at least a couple of artifact destruction spells (Turn to Dust is fine for this purpose) and three bounce spells. Seventeen land will probably be best. I like land more than the Myrs here, unless you have a splash (see below), or a ton of Somber Hoverguards/Thoughtcasts. There's less equipment to put on them, plus color dependency for various blue activation costs like Wizard Replica and Aether Spellbomb... I just find them shaky.

I don't see any reason to splash white in this deck except perhaps for two Arrests, since White tends to defeat the overall strategy of the deck with any other card. Black for Terror or Betrayal of Flesh makes a fine splash, red for Electrostatic Bolt or Shrapnel Blast is also fine. Spikeshot Goblin is okay, I suppose, if you've got Bonesplitters or other similar things - but I don't like Battlegrowth much and I don't like Leonin Scimitar in this deck, so that makes your options shallower. Not to mention the red activation cost is tough to run without Journey of Discovery.

The unique thing about this archetype is that it tends to play the same against every other archetype. You'll end up casting the same, attacking the same, blocking the same in general. That said, the worst matchup is probably a bigger green deck - especially green/red with Spikeshot Goblin. Since they're taking the Battlegrowths and equipment cards that you may not be, Spikeshot can prove to be quite a problem.

I actually feel redundant for saying this in so many of my synopses, but it's true - Spikeshot Goblin is broken.

Green/Red
And now a different world entirely. Green/red is a fine combination if you get what you need - namely, removal. This is probably the deck where Spikeshot Goblin shines most due to pump effects like Battlegrowth and Predator's Strike. Also, you should be loaded with artifact removal. On the other hand, fliers give you trouble, and this means Tel-Jilad Archers should be taken over most anything except Spikeshot.

The other main weakness of this deck is that you won't be attacking much. Without evasion, you really have to make sure to grab Fangren Hunters and other large men quickly. Neurok Hoversail is also pure gold here, and most any type of power-enhancing equipment which will work with your Spikeshot Goblins and other creatures to force damage through in short spurts. Vulshok Gauntlets, while not a synergistic card, will also be great for you since it accomplishes this goal of attacking infrequently while still attacking meaningfully.

You don't need many creatures - thirteen will do. Most of your deck will end up consisting of burn, artifact removal, and pump effects (the number of which should depend on how many Spikeshot Goblins and Slith Firewalkers you have). It's difficult to give a correct estimate on how this should be balanced, but I'd say the burn is usually most important. Don't be afraid to cut creatures for some extra reactive effects. Seventeen land is usually necessary here as well, with a lot of cumbersome green creatures and instants that you want to keep mana open for.

I wouldn't suggest splashing here at all. Your mana base is already color-intensive, especially if you've got Sliths, and no other color really brings anything to the table. You've got decent creatures, removal, and artifact kill all at your disposal. The only way I'd ever splash is if I had Journey of Discovery with some off-color Myrs and Talismans. I actually had this situation come up in one of my Sealed decks where I had Talisman of Dominance, and ended up playing black for Betrayal of Flesh and blue for Wizard Replica and two Cobalt Golems. Still, that's Sealed; most of your drafts should be more accommodating.

Black is fairly bad for you, with all the tools to remove your pro-artifact men, Spikeshot Goblins, and big creatures. Since you won't end up with many artifact creatures, Terror is better against your archetype than any other save white/green. Woebearer is similarly frustrating, and even Dross Prowler could come in from the sideboard. Slagwurm Armor is another nightmare card, and you'll have to spend a Shatter on it. Oh, did I mention Pewter Golem? Black has plenty of threats that you can't easily answer, and plenty of answers to yours, especially with your likely low creature count. Don't try this color combination in Rochester with a black mage sitting across from you.

Green/Black
Speaking of black, this is a combination very similar to the one above, with a few key differences. First of all, black in general is a weaker color (truth be told, it's the weakest color) compared to red (the strongest color), so it should be obvious that you won't usually get the same quality. There is no Spikeshot Goblin to abuse. On the other hand, creature removal is more important to green than artifact removal, and black supplements that nicely. The best green/black decks have a lot of good green creatures with a lot of good black removal. Black creatures will mostly end up sub-par for you, with Nims being awful, and Woebearer and Moriok Scavenger usually being poor cards as well unless you grab some Clockwork Condors. The Condors were made for this archetype; don't underestimate them.

Try to draft some quick creatures. Steel Wall is actually an acceptable 23^rd card; you don't want to be wasting removal on an early creature that you can't stop quite yet. I'm envisioning green/black on the draw staring down a Vulshok Berserker on the third or fourth turn, and having only a Tel-Jilad Elite to deal with it. Not good times. Also, since your deck is hopefully primary green, Consume Spirit won't be so great for you. It's still a good card, just remember it will usually be only two damage for four mana.

You will probably end up with precious few creatures, but hopefully you'll end up with fifteen, including as many Leaden Myrs as you can get your hands on. Play as many Deconstructs as you have, but leave Turn to Dust in the board. Then put in all of your removal - hopefully five cards minimum. After that, you'll have room for creature enhancements such as Predator's Strike and various equipment cards, as well as sixteen to seventeen lands depending on your Myr/Consume Spirit count.

Splashing in green/black follows basically the same rules as green/red. There's nothing you're particularly deficient in except creatures, but I think blue makes the best splash with Wizard Replicas and Cobalt Golems filling your flier slots perfectly - and maybe an Aether Spellbomb, too. The key is not to add anything which actually requires off-color mana to use.

White/blue is your nightmare matchup. With amazing speed and fliers, you will need good draws to keep them down. Turn to Dust can safely come in from the sideboard here, and against any white deck. Against black/blue or any other heavy-black deck with a lot of artifacts, you'll have a lot of trouble with Nim Shrieker. I think Mourner's Shield is a good choice here since they'll eventually use a black removal spell, at which point you drop the Shield and they have no artifact destruction to deal with it.

Red/Black
At first glance, one might think red/black is the best color combination in the set - after all, it's historically the case that red and black contain the most removal and therefore are always in control of the board, dealing with what they need to... Not to mention red is the strongest color in this set!

While these two colors do easily have the most removal, the problem here is equipment. Equipment can turn a measly Myr into a 5/1 trampling life-gaining monster. Unless you deal with the equipment (or every single creature in their deck), you'll often find your removal to be a mere annoyance to the opponent.

For this reason, Shatter and Goblin Replica go higher in your combination than any other. If you don't get them, I would advise going in another direction. The usual reason to go here is because of an early black bomb, followed by Spikeshot Goblin and Electrostatic Bolt. But again, there's no artifact removal here and no real indication that you'll get any, so I'd try to force green or white then see whether black or red is kinder to me in the following packs. White/black with a red splash doesn't seem so bad in this case.

If you do decide to go this route, I'd suggest going very heavy black so that you can suck up Consume Spirits like crazy and use them as bombs. Suck up Golems and Replicas of both colors so that your black recursion is more powerful. Those cards are fairly good anyway, so it shouldn't be hard for you to incorporate them into your deck. Also, Vulshok Berserker is highly underrated, and Krark-Clan Grunt would not be so bad in this archetype with a decent amount of artifacts to sacrifice. It will often be just enough for your opponent to be unwilling to block, forcing through four to seven damage as necessary, or picking off an opposing four-toughness creature.

You're probably only going to have twelve to thirteen creatures, but try to stretch it. Bad creatures go above mediocre removal like Irradiate. As I said, you may be able to pick up three or four Consume Spirits if none of your neighbors are heavy black, and beyond that just try to stack with as much artifact destruction as possible, with the rest of the slots being filled by quality equipment or at least Vulshok Gauntlets for the reasons I outlined in the green/red synopsis. Sixteen land will be fine - usually ten swamps and six mountains.

A splash is ill-advised when going with the Consume Spirit strategy. Any of the colors may seem to make sense depending on what you're trying to splash, but I'd say only do it if you hit multiple Deconstructs and Turn to Dusts in green. If this is the case, though, you're probably green/black and not green/red anyway.

Your bad matchups range from anything to everything. Against white/green or green/red when they're lacking in artifact creatures, I would side in the sub-par Dross Prowler to assist in the damage race. Remember, if they do come up with something to block it, you may well want to use removal on it anyway, so use the removal and swing.

I know I promised not to address rares in the first part of this article, but I'd consider any of the four rare Towers playable in the sideboard against slow decks, or even in the maindeck, since you should be able to stall the game out. Collectively, they do show up more frequently than any single uncommon.

Red/Blue
We end the series with the worst of them all. Theoretically, it can be made to work, but the two colors share no synergy at all. I think the best option is to grab a lot of Spellbombs and burn to supplement evasive creatures and Vulshok Berserker. The main problem is you have enough tricks, and enough creatures, but not quite enough of either one to break through a bad situation. Play and draft this deck like a bad white/red deck. Initially, my opinion was that this might be a reactive deck like red/black, but I've since changed my mind.

I still think Override is good in this deck, because all of your common artifact options are good ones, and many of the uncommon artifacts like Isochron Scepter can work well in the deck; you want a lot of artifacts for your affinity spells anyway. Your curve won't be quite as tight as white/blue, since often your equipment will remain on the same creature continuously, so leaving three mana open for mid-game bombs doesn't seem so unrealistic. It should at least be a good sideboard option for things you can't otherwise deal with.

Your mix should be around fifteen creatures with two mana Myrs, four equipment cards, two artifact removal cards, four burn and bounce spells, and fifteen lands. I would hesitate to make it much more reactive than that. Fifteen land will be fine as long as you have a pair of Myrs; the archetype is pretty quick.

Splashing for white seems like a pretty good idea, if you're going the aggro route. Arrest fills a huge hole, and Soldier Replica combined with burn is pure quality. Of course like I said before, if you've got these quality white cards, you're probably playing white/x and not blue/red, but sometimes you get just a couple and in that case I think a splash is fine. Just make sure you up it to sixteen land and try to get some Gold Myrs.

Conclusion
I had promised to write up a chart or table of some sort to assist you in Rochester signaling; however, seeing as I'm rather late with this article as it is without having worked on said chart, I think I'll just sign off without it. But more importantly, I'm starting to believe Rochester with this set is a bit more dynamic than I originally theorized. There are only a few cards which really belong in certain archetypes and never others - cards like Slagwurm Armor, Override, Krark-Clan Grunt, and Awe Strike. So I'll see you next week, where I'll be writing about the power of your positive mindset and how those intangibles can mean the difference between winning and losing.