Since I had qualified for Pro Tour-San Diego (M/M/D Booster Draft) back in March, I have been drafting Mirrodin/Mirrodin/Darksteel at a furious rate. On some weekends, I have managed to sneak as many as four drafts in a single day, while getting into about two a day on average. While I don't really want to talk about the particular plan that I've formulated for this format, opting instead to use that plan to my advantage at the Pro Tour, there are a lot of trends and misconceptions that I've seen in my extensive drafting that I'm more than happy to share with you folks at StarCityGames.com.

One of the most important aspects of mastering any Limited format is to have playable"bad" cards that you can essentially rely on seeing just about every draft, by virtue of the fact that other players at the table either ignore the card or think it is so terrible that there can't be any harm in passing it. Some cards from past draft formats that fit this bill include Spinal Graft, Servant of Volrath, Slow Motion, Rites of Initiation, and Skirk Prospector. Not all of these cards are strong enough to hold together a draft archetype on its own, but all fit nicely, in some way or another, into a winning archetype in their respective formats. After three weeks of non-stop drafting, I have my pick for the best"bad" common in the set, and by"bad," I mean you can consistently pick it up in picks ten through thirteen in your Mirrodin booster. This card is none other than the lowly Krark-Clan Shaman.

From what I've seen played against me in the past few weeks, the best way, or at least the currently most-used way, of integrating the Shaman into a winning draft is by virtue of the Red/Blue color combination. If you draft M/M/D at all, it shouldn't be hard to figure out how the Shaman can be effective in a Red/Blue deck... most of the common creatures in that archetype either fly, such as Neurok Prodigy/Somber Hoverguard/Spire Golem, or have a fat butt, like Hematite Golem, Myr Enforcer, and Quicksilver Behemoth, so the Shaman's ability will rarely send any of your guys to the bin until at least the third activation. What makes the Shaman even more enticing in a deck like this is the fact that Red/Blue already has tremendous incentives to draft Artifact lands higher than most, if not all, other archetypes, so you typically won't have to throw away a nice creature or piece of equipment to get your first few cranks out of the Shaman. So, hopefully, by now, I've at least sold you on the fact that you should keep an eye out for the Shaman if you're Red/Blue... but this pile of dung's applications don't stop there.

After I took a loss to a Shaman, out of a Red/Blue deck of course, in Game Three of Round Two of an online booster draft, I began to wonder if the Shaman could work in other M/M/D color archetypes. Red/Black is out of the question right off the bat - a lot of your best creatures for that deck are Nims, and they just don't get along with the Shaman very well. Krark-Clan Shaman yields you little-to-no advantage if you can't keep something large around after the fact. Red/Green would seem like an ideal fit for it, but in that case you run into the dilemma of having enough expendable artifacts to sacrifice to it.

Although I haven't tried it yet personally, since you can be pretty much assured of seeing at least one Shaman in the later draft rounds of one of the two Mirrodin packs, you can alter your Red/Green draft strategy slightly and be able to turn the Shaman into a nice fit. You simply need to prioritize Artifact lands, even off-color ones, significantly higher than you otherwise would. For instance, at pick 7 in pack 1, let's assume you've picked up a Myr, three solid creatures at the four and five mana slots, a Pyrite Spellbomb, and an Electrostatic Bolt. You're staring at Krark-Clan Grunt, which is a thoroughly mediocre addition to a Red/Green deck, and a seemingly unplayable Ancient Den. If you want to draft your deck in anticipation of seeing a Shaman, which is very likely, the Den is the pick... after all, by the time you get through with pack 3, that Krark-Clan Grunt probably wouldn't even make your main deck anyway. Off-color Spellbombs should also be given a harder look if you intend to try to make use of the Shaman in Red/Green or Red/White.

Another possibility that I've tested for the Shaman is as a splash. One of the decks I repeatedly try to draft, in order to understand how the deck should be built to function ideally, is Green/Blue. While this archetype can have issues with the early parts of its curve, if you can either open with a Myr or two, or otherwise survive to the mid- and late-game, the spell superiority of this color combination can't be denied. You have the best fliers in the format, and the stoutest, most efficient ground-pounders to complement them. This is an archetype that already aggressively hunts after the artifact lands in the earlier picks of a draft, already has the ideal creature base for Krark-Clan Shaman, and conveniently comes in the color combination most equipped to support a third color splash. I've personally tested this idea twice, with great results on both occasions. In fact, Krark-Clan Shaman singlehandedly won me Game 3 of the finals of my most recent booster draft, in which it hit the board and immediately destroyed a Soldier Replica, Tangle Golem, and Fangren Hunter, clearing the path for lethal damage from my Somber Hoverguard and Quicksilver Behemoth.

****Magic Online Bonus Info****
Just a quick note, for you Magic Online users out there... if you do decide to try out Krark-Clan Shaman on Magic Online, be sure to hold Ctrl while activating the Shaman if you intend on using it more than once. Magic Online otherwise will always assume that you don't have any responses to your own effects, and yield to the opponent. If the opponent then passes, your Shaman dies on resolution of its first activation before you can use it a second or third time!

Of course, Krark-Clan Shaman was in the running with a few other"bad" commons from Mirrodin. Here are the three"honorable mention" bad cards that the Shaman beat out.

Wail of the Nim
You could make a really convincing argument that this is actually the best"bad" common. Few other commons in the history of Limited play can net the kind of board advantage that this card is capable of obtaining, if you set it up correctly. Although I've lost more games specifically to this card than I have to the Shaman, it is more situational in terms of the board position needed to make it effective, and the archetype you're matched up against.

Inertia Bubble
I had absolutely no respect for this card at all... until some guy boarded it in against my Soul Foundry (it had gotten his attention in the previous game by making Platinum Angel tokens for me starting on turn 6). Since that time, however, I've started boarding it in versus Affinity decks on a number of occasions. Have you ever wanted to pull your hair out after losing game 1 to a Crystal Shard versus your Blue/Black deck? Maybe it was a Goblin Charbelcher, or an Icy Manipulator, or an Isochron Scepter set to Shatter or Electrostatic Bolt. [Or a Wand of the Elements or... you get the idea. - Knut, already a minor fan] Even if you only end up nailing an early tapped Artifact land, that's the same mana advantage that you would get by leading with a Myr. Unlike the Wail or the Shaman, this one is probably best left to the sideboard, but you should be conscious of picking at least one up during the draft, especially in a color combination otherwise devoid of artifact removal.

Awe Strike
I think by now everyone's got an Awe Strike story. This is probably the single most frustrating card to take a loss to, for two reasons. First, it is a White card, and White is just terrible in Mirrodin block. Some people, when presented with this statement, point to Grand Prix-Top 8 wins by Mike Turian and Kai Budde, both with White/Red builds. I would also like to point out that both of these kids also had Grab the Reins in their decks, which probably had more of an impact on their respective top 8s than all of their White cards put together.

White is terrible because the creatures are awful without Equipment, and drafters are already fighting over any decent Equipment for their decks, regardless of their particular archetype. Back to Awe Strike though... the other reason that it's so frustrating to lose to the Strike is because it costs a single mana, and you will often be presented with a situation where it is the only card in the format that your opponent can have to survive, or to win. If you are playing White, your only chance of winning is most likely to race your opponent, and White racing cards such as Blinding Beam, as well as lesser-used tricks such as Awe Strike, are not only your best bet, but probably your only hope.

For the remainder of the article, I'm going to resort to a more abrupt approach; there are some things that I've learned, that are useful, but I just can't see writing more than a sentence or so about. Think Norm MacDonald imitating Larry King on Saturday Night Live.

White/Green is becoming a serious contender for"Best M/M/D draft archetype," or at the very least"Most Consistently Draftable."

Dross Golem is not nearly as bad as people make him out to be... he is especially good versus White/Green and Red/Green, which are both often lacking in artifact creatures that can block the Golem.

Is it possible for one of my White opponents who has 1W up to not have Test of Faith? Based on the frequency that this card has been cast on me, you'd think there's one in every pack.

Even good players can have a tough time versus a deck full of bad Arcbounds creatures and Clockwork Condors.

Why do people think that Tel-Jilad Exile is good? Can someone explain why the same people who ship me Malachite Golem at pick 13 somehow covet this pile of crap at pick 4?

Lightning Greaves or Looming Hoverguard in Affinity? They are next to each other in the uncommon run, so you will almost always see one with the other when you open a pack. I used to like the Hoverguard, but I've been more into the Lightning Greaves these past two weeks...

How can a Savage Beating lap an entire draft table? Is this card not totally outrageous? It is one of a very few cards that can turn a total stalemate into either a creature-combat bloodbath in your favor, or an outright win. I think I'd take it over Barbed Lightning, though I haven't been given the choice as of yet.

Jon Becker is the man, because he tipped me off to one of the sickest Rares That You Don't Draft Because You Haven't Seen It Used Before And Kinda Don't Really Even Know How It Works. This card is Panoptic Mirror. I was under the impression that you had to imprint it as it came into play, having never actually read the card. Needless to say, I was very wrong, and this card is even wronger. I've heard of Thirst for Knowledge, Betrayal of Flesh, Shatter, Electrostatic Bolt, and a number of other goodies imprinted on the Mirror causing immediate concessions. What's the worst I've done with it? Panoptic Mirror imprinted with... Grab the Reins. Just think about it for a second. Thanks again Becker.

That does it for this week's Draft Extravaganza. Hopefully you can use some of these cards and ideas to take home some packs at your next local or Magic Online booster draft. Maybe you can find your own garbage card that puts your favorite draft deck over the top!

Til Next Week, when I'll be doing my Regionals Primer, complete with decklists and matchup analysis!
Mike Krzywicki

Mkrzywicki and RonnieDobbs on Magic Online- Message me if you are buying or selling any cards! Always Buying Collections! Always Selling Tickets! Msg Me!

P.S. Thank you to all of the Magic Online people who messaged me after my last limited article! It was really cool to see that some of you were able to draft and use Synod Sanctum effectively, and win drafts with it! I might be away when you leave me a message, but I'll see pretty much everything that's messaged to me, and reading stuff like that makes me think that I'm actually helping some of you improve, which is really cool.