You've had this happen to you.
You're playing good ole Magic. You open a hand with one land... and all of the highest casting cost cards in your deck.
Sigh. Mulligan to six. No lands this time? Wonderful, I'll throw it back again.
This time four lands out of five! Hooray for Magic overcompensation.
But the worst part? It comes when you play it out, and then your (possibly MTGO) opponent has the balls to sit there and ask,"So how many lands are you playing?" ...Did you really just ask that?
C'mon people. That's not cool. That's like beating up someone who is ten years younger than you. Unless you're eighty, in which case it's like beating up someone who is ten years older than you.
But when you smash their face the next game, you've gotta gloat.
Look, most people are going to tell you to play nice, watch your manners, don't cuss the person out when you lose, smile for the camera, stop hitting your brother, stand up straight, and stop crying when Mufasa dies during the Lion King. I'm gonna tell you to do the exact opposite. It feels good to win, and you've got to express it. If you're a competitive guy, trash talking is a large part of what makes Magic fun. Just like weeping during Disney movies. But please, don't take this to mean you should go trash talk the little kids at FNM. That's just pathetic.
Today we're going to talk about the most important part of draft. Most of the time, you'll open a pack, and you'll make the right choice with that first card - it's pretty obvious that Loxodon Warhammer is the Magic Equivalent of Heather Graham, so obviously you put that in your pile without a doubt. [A little trashy, overpriced, and it's career is on the decline, but it still looks nice and you're obviously taking it home. - Knut] You'll probably even pick the right card for the next few picks. But what separates the scrubs from the sharks is making the right choices at the margins. I can't tell you how many times I've seen players with decks that are wonderful with the exception of four or five cards - and those four or five cards are the ones that better players exploit to give themselves the edge and therefore the game.
Since Fifth Dawn is the relevant set at the moment, I'm going to be focusing on the cards that I feel are underdrafted, as well as giving a list of the cards that I feel are on the crappier side and that I would shed tears Mufasa's-death-style if they were in my pile. Lets go through the colors one by one.
Black:
Blind Creeper is fairly a no-brainer to be a high pick, but what amazes me time and time again is how late I get passed Fill With Fright. This card doesn't smash face, but it does generate massive card advantage for you by both knocking two cards out of their hand and also hooking you up with the two cards of Scry. For those of you who haven't had the chance to use it, the best way to play the card is definitely to play it as a later game card, so you'll need other things to support yourself while you ramp up the mana. Play your creatures first, and make sure you don't fall behind in tempo. If you see an opportunity where your opponent is down to two cards, drop good ole Fill on them and laugh all the way to the bank as their Fireballs and Bringers hit the graveyard.
Fill With Fright is especially dangerous in aggressive decks, where you're likely to have played the majority of your threats out early. This allows you to not sweat tempo loss when you drop the Fill on turn 4, and also sets up your next two draws to be more aggressive. Also, it's even decent as a splash card since you don't normally care if you cast it late in the game, and if you have sunburst to capitalize on, you may want to consider picking one of these up.
Another point - Fleshgrafter is awesome. This card shouldn't be considered a fringe card due to its playability, but due to the amount of times I've been gifted this card 10th pick or later, I'm going to have to include it. Fleshgrafter has received some attention from other people, so I'm not going to go into it, but please do note how good the card actually is. Surprise is everything in Magic, and he has"Happy Birthday" written all over him.
Cards I loathe: Desecration Elemental, Nim Grotesque, Plunge into Darkness, Vicious Betrayal, Beacon of Unrest, Dross Crocodile, Bringer of the Black Dawn.
Blue:
There have been books written about Trinket Mage and Thought Courier, but what I think most people don't realize is how awesome Serum Visions is. Serum Visions turn 1 (or any turn, really) can turn into Ancestral Recall, and this is especially true if you have a land-heavy or land-light hand. If you see one of these coming around after 4th-5th pick, it's definitely worth picking up.
Also, please stop passing Plasma Elemental. I know that one toughness creatures die to a variety of things, but the four power + unblockability has won me countless games. And no, I'm not just saying countless because I haven't bothered to count them; there have been at least ten. He should rarely go later than 5th pick. Advanced Hoverguard is rather obnoxious as well, especially when equipped.
Cards to pin up and play"Look At Me I'm The DCI" with: Eyes of the Watcher, Disruption Aura, Blinkmoth Infusion, Early Frost, Into Thin Air, Spectral Shift, Beacon of Tomorrow, Bringer of the Blue Dawn, Artificer's Intuition (unless I have multiple Leonin Bolas).
Green:
I rarely draft Green because it's terrible, so I don't have much to offer you in the way of great insights here. I do, however, want to tell you which cards are unplayable. Surprisingly, most Green cards can probably be played, but 90% of them are sub-standard in terms of quality.
Cards with expected values equal to or less than Groffskithur: Almost all of them, but especially Tel-Jilad Lifebreather. Eternal Witness, you're okay.
Red:
It's no secret folks, Red is terrible in Fifth Dawn. The card at the margin that I love to get passed is the wonderful Rain of Rust. People grossly underestimate the importance of instants in this game. Yeah, yeah, Shatter costs less, and yes, I understand that your mother's pet Goblin Replica also smashes face, but there are boatloads of times where you'll be double blocked and clearing out one of the little artifacts or knocking some equipment off of a pesky Skyhunter Cub will net you a two-for-one.
Red has tons of jank: Krark-Clan Ogre, Spark Elemental, Magnetic Theft, Mana Geyser, Reversal of Fortune, Screaming Fury, Krark-Clan Engineers, Feedback Bolt.
I do want to interject a story here before we continue on; this has to be the most ridiculously hilarious steal of a game I've ever seen (mainly because it didn't happen to me). My friend Matt was playing in a draft, and he had lethal damage for his opponent via fliers the next turn. His opponent had seven lands in play; 3 Forests and 4 Mountains. He also has three cards in hand. Other than the lands, the board is clear on Matt's opponent's side.
Matt is at eleven. The guy taps 2 Forests and a Mountain, and casts Seething Song. He uses the five Red to plop out an Arc-Slogger. He then casts Screaming Fury on his Arc-Slogger leaving one mountain open and bashes Matt's face for nine, and then Slogs Matt for two with the one remaining Red mana.
It was most excellent. But please don't make the mistake of thinking that proves that either Seething Song or Screaming Fury is playable.
White:
The color of cowards has a few cards that I particularly enjoy that nobody else seems to. First of all, Leonin Squire deserves to be picked 6-8th. Regardless of whether or not you have cogs to recycle, this cat-man is a Grizzly Bears, and even in this wacky metal world, tempo is still important.
The real fine line cards I want to point out though are Steelshaper's Gift, Skyhunter Prowler, and Vanquish. Gift is an excellent card - generally, in White you'll be playing equipment to fuel your men, and you'll probably have some excellent (a la Cranial Plating or Bonesplitter or Viridian Longbow or Leonin Bola) stuff to go fetch with it. Don't get over-excited, but the card is a worthwhile later pick over most of the junk that's out there. Also, Skyhunter Prowler is great as it combos well with any type of equipment. Think of it as a Razor Golem on Red Bull.
Most people consider Vanquish better than borderline, but I definitely have a beef with that. Removal is wonderful, but Vanquish is like a crappy version of Soul Nova. It's extremely situational, and most of the time, you won't have the three mana just sitting around unused. White has two things; cheap creatures, and exceptionally costly ones (like Loxodon Mystic, Leonin Battlemage, Loxodon Anchorite, and a host of other guys) who sometimes require additional mana to make them really shine. Neither of these two situations screams out for you to be able to remove a blocker from an already blocked man.
The beauty and strength of the aggro tempo deck with weenies is that you can force your damage through by overwhelming them; if you have to waste your mana and your damage for the turn on Vanquish you're not accomplishing your strategy. Likewise, in the control deck, you can probably deal with their creatures through other means than attacking and praying to various gods that their Spikeshot Goblin decides to block you. There is precious little trample in this set, so the card often basically reads:"Waste your turn - trade Vanquish for a creature that your opponent will replace with something bigger next turn, costing you tempo."
Cards I use to prop up my coffee table: Bringer of the White Dawn, Circle of Protection: Artifacts, Abuna's Chant, Armed Response, Roar of Reclamation, Stand Firm. I don't care what you say about Stand Firm, it's junk.
I'm going to save artifacts for next week, and I'll also be giving you a test of comparative analysis between the colors, where I try to stack up all the commons against each other in terms of general power level.
Hope you all have a good time, and next time you beat your friend, throw down the rest of your hand, stand up, look him in the eyes, and say,"Woot."
Whoop some ace for me,
Nick Morley
hothalfjap on MTGO
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