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After doing ten or eleven drafts this week, I feel like I've figured out some things about the format. That being said, it still seems very wide open to me, and that only makes me want to draft more to try and find the best archetype available. I'm guessing it'll still take a couple of weeks. For now, I have some more cards to talk about in particular, as well as some thoughts on how a few of the archetypes adapted to the addition of the new set.

One thing that has become evident so far is that the format is more about control and card advantage now. Aggressive strategies haven't been as successful so far, and abusing comes into play effects or generating card advantage through Rebels has been coming out on top draft after draft. For now, I'd suggest leaning towards control.

Reality Acid
I have to cover this one first, because someone mentioned it in the forums last week. At the time, I said it was completely unplayable… but I had read it wrong. On its own, this card is trash. The forum poster pointed out that it was good in combination with Tolarian Sentinel or Dream Stalker, and he is 100% correct there. I would only play this if I had multiple ways to bounce it freely. Something like Riftwing Cloudskate or Wipe Away doesn't really count, because then you are still stuck with this Acid that has to Vanish three times afterwards, and the Wipe Away or Cloudskate are good on their own. My recommendation is that you have at least three Dream Stalker / Sentinels to run this, or you have no removal at all.

Treacherous Urge
This is my new pet card. I absolutely love it, and it's been awesome for me so far.

On the surface, it seems like all you'd do with this is take their best guy and attack them with it. This is sometimes true, and I've attacked multiple people with their own dragons. What isn't obvious at first is that this card can also function like a quirky Ray of Command after your opponent has attacked. Combining this with Snapback is now my favorite thing to do to completely blow out my opponent's board position when he thinks he has the game well in hand. The other day, for instance, my opponent had Phantom Wurm and Durkwood Baloth to my unmorphed Fathom Seer. After he attacked, I Snapped the Wurm back… and then took it with Urge and killed both of his guys. He didn't win that game.

Threaten was always a great card in Limited, especially if you could combine it with a sacrifice outlet, and Treacherous Urge comes with one built in. I'm sure people will criticize it by saying that sometimes you just have to run it in the dark and hope they have something good in hand, but trust me, you're rarely disappointed. You can build around it with bounce spells or Psychotic Episode to make it absolutely nuts, but honestly I'd play it on its own and have been happy with the results. They should've Timeshifted Peek or Telekinetic Spies, and we'd be all set.

Thick-Skinned Goblin
Overcosted Echo you say? This guy was rarely spectacular in TTT, but I think he's gone up a good deal in quality with Stingscourger, Uktabi Drake, and even some rares like Volcano Hellion or Timbermare. I only mention him because I forgot to put him into my article last week.

Primal Forcemage
Wow, did this guy ever get better with the addition of Planar Chaos. Not only is Giant Dustwasp huge with it, but there is an even better combo available. Let me introduce you to Uktabi Drake. I drafted a deck on Tuesday that included two Forcemages, four Drakes, and a pair of Nantuko Shamans as well for nostalgia's sake. 5/4 flying, haste for one Green mana is some good I hear.

Flowstone Channeler
This card was already plenty good on it's own in TTT, though it was never spectacular. Planar Chaos brought a bunch of X/1 utility creatures into the environment though, including a Red Prodigal Sorcerer. This guy wins that battle and is also good at killing Rebels, so I believe he deserves a promotion on the pick order. I used to take Goblin Skycutter over him depending on my mana curve, but I now think this guy is far better.

Green/Red
I know it's still early in the new environment, but I've already drafted this deck about five times and had mixed results. I'm not sure whether my decks just aren't as good as they look when they're laid out, or if it's just that I've been getting bad draws or losing to bombs, but my success rate definitely hasn't been what I'd guess it would be given the decks I've had. I've had multiple Empty the Warrens builds that looked insane, and yet they went 1-2 and left me scratching my head. I'm not giving up on this archetype yet, but it's definitely something I'm going to avoid for a while until I have a better handle on things overall.

The archetype really does gain a lot from Planar Chaos. Red gives an excellent spell in Dead / Gone, as well as Prodigal Pyromancer and Stingscourger. Green has such hits as Uktabi Drake, Giant Dustwasp, and Mire Boa. Both Drake and Dead / Gone are perfect fits for the Empty archetype, and the other cards are just good on their own. Here's a sample listing to give you an idea.

Green/Red Featured by Nick Eisel on 2007-02-04 (Time Spiral Limited) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13601.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 1 Citanul Woodreaders 1 Coal Stoker 1 Durkwood Baloth 1 Essence Warden 1 Flowstone Channeler 1 Giant Dustwasp 1 Keldon Halberdier 1 Mire Boa 2 Nantuko Shaman 1 Penumbra Spider 1 Prodigal Pyromancer 1 Thallid Germinator 2 Uktabi Drake Instants 1 Evolution Charm 1 Strength in Numbers 1 Sudden Shock	Legendary Creatures 1 Radha, Heir to Keld Sorceries 2 Empty the Warrens 1 Grapeshot 1 Rift Bolt 1 Search for Tomorrow Basic Lands 9 Forest 7 Mountain Lands 1 Fungal Reaches	Stats: Average mana: 1.73 Average creature mana cost: 3.06 Average creature power: 2.38 Average creature toughness: 2.19 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 39.02% Creatures: 36.59% Instants: 7.32% Legendary Creatures: 2.44% Sorceries: 12.20% Lands: 2.44%
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

I don't really think Essence Warden is great on its own, but it's quite strong with Empty the Warrens. I somehow went 1-2 with this deck and was quite disappointed.

Slivers
This archetype really gained a lot of momentum. All of the new Slivers are awesome, and should you open something like Might Sliver or Pulmonic, it might be worth taking the dive to see what happens. If I went into the deck it'd be with the assumption that I'd be at least four colors normally, and willing to splash for some good Sliver abilities. The nice thing about the new guys is that they have big base power / toughness so that they are absolutely huge when aided by some of the Time Spiral brethren. Oh, and yeah, there's Sinew Sliver to look forward to as well.

Slivers Featured by Nick Eisel on 2007-02-04 (Time Spiral Limited) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13601.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 1 Prismatic Lens Creatures 3 Basal Sliver 1 Battering Sliver 1 Bonesplitter Sliver 2 Darkheart Sliver 1 Fury Sliver 1 Gemhide Sliver 1 Might Sliver 1 Penumbra Spider 1 Reflex Sliver 1 Sinew Sliver 1 Spinneret Sliver 2 Spitting Sliver 1 Telekinetic Sliver Instants 1 Erratic Mutation 1 Evolution Charm 1 Thrill of the Hunt	Legendary Creatures 1 Verdeloth the Ancient Sorceries 1 Damnation Basic Lands 7 Forest 2 Mountain 1 Plains 5 Swamp Lands 2 Dreadship Reef	Stats: Average mana: 2.00 Average creature mana cost: 3.78 Average creature power: 2.28 Average creature toughness: 2.56 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 37.50% Legendary Creatures: 2.50% Sorceries: 2.50% Instants: 7.50% Creatures: 42.50% Artifacts: 2.50% Lands: 5.00%
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

This deck was quite spicy due to a couple of bomb rares. Darkheart Sliver is also awesome, and makes it very hard to lose if you have the board at all stable. In a couple of games I unleashed the combo of Basal Sliver plus Damnation plus Verdeloth for a bunch of guys. My favorite Sliver of the new bunch is probably the Spitting Sliver, since it becomes almost impossible to block when your whole team has First Strike. Combine this with Spinneret, and I don't see any normal creatures attacking in the near future.

When drafting this deck you have to keep in mind that you should be picking Slivers over what seem to be better cards in the abstract. The goal is just to get a mass of Slivers and then let their abilities culminate to make them better than most things your opponent can throw at you. I'd still take removal over non-bomb Slivers (Might etc), but weaker Slivers are still usually better than better filler creatures. Quantity is important here.

Blue/Green
This archetype was quite mediocre in TTT, but I've been experimenting with it now and found it to have almost come full circle. The general idea here is to draft a control deck that either wins with fliers or abuses comes into play abilities. Bounce is key here, to control the tempo of the game.

Blue/Green Featured by Nick Eisel on 2007-02-04 (Time Spiral Limited) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13601.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 1 Brine Elemental 1 Coral Trickster 1 Deadwood Treefolk 2 Dream Stalker 1 Errant Ephemeron 1 Fathom Seer 1 Gemhide Sliver 1 Jedit's Dragoons 1 Mire Boa 1 Riftwing Cloudskate 1 Scryb Ranger 1 Thallid Germinator 2 Tolarian Sentinel 1 Yavimaya Dryad Enchantments 1 Reality Acid	Instants 1 Erratic Mutation 1 Evolution Charm 1 Snapback Sorceries 1 Harmonize 1 Search for Tomorrow 1 Temporal Eddy Basic Lands 8 Forest 8 Island 1 Plains	Stats: Average mana: 1.98 Average creature mana cost: 3.63 Average creature power: 1.94 Average creature toughness: 2.94 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 42.50% Instants: 7.50% Sorceries: 7.50% Creatures: 40.00% Enchantments: 2.50%
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

I 3-0ed with this deck in an eight-man draft, and was happy with all of the synergy Blue and Green have together. I'm going to try to draft this more in the coming week and see if I can decipher just how good the archetype is. I will say that it's better if you get your hands on a Shaper Parasite or two to combo with the Tolarian Sentinel. Oh, and I love a Jedit's Dragoons on the splash… if you couldn't already tell.

See you next week.

Nick Eisel
Soooooo on MTGO
Sun3urst@hotmail.com