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By: Gardevi, Lee McLeod
Jul 11 2011 1:51pm
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 Hey everyone! Apologies for my absence in the last few weeks of full-block Scars of Mirrodin draft. I simply haven't been drafting the set much myself, instead taking the role of teaching friends who are gaining interest in Limited how to draft. Progress hasn't been the quickest. While I can look over their shoulders and talk to them during the drafts on Magic Online, I'm forced to sit and watch quietly at every single FNM where massive fail happens and I'm powerless to stop it. One of my pupils doesn't understand the concept of receiving signals, once completely ignoring a Vedalken Anatomist fifth (!) pick because he conditions himself to only looking at cards of colors he has taken. The second pupil tries to draft every possible deck imaginable... Which would be fine if he did it at separate times. I still bring up the Bant infect/damage control/aggro monstrosity today to illustrate the need to draft with a plan in mind. 

Shriek RaptorVolition ReinsAlpha TyrranaxCopper Carapace
 
But today I'm not here to talk about Scars draft, which becomes a lame-duck format as of next week (the M12 paper release). M12 doesn't release online until the first week of August. However, I checked my calendar today and apparently the paper prerelease is this week, sneaking up on us with the bannings and the Commander decks and whatnot; New Phyrexia feels like it came out yesterday!  So I thought for today's article I'd look over M12 and see what exactly makes it different from M11. 

M11 draft was highlighted significantly by U/W fliers.  There were other archetypes, of course, but none was so dominant as the great curve outs of the UW Fliers deck. Turn 2 Stormfront Pegasus, turn 3 Cloud Elemental, turn 4 Azure Drake and the game was pretty much locked up, and you still had your choice of Serra Angel and Air Elemental/Air Servant for a five drop! Blue and white had both the best creatures in the format and the best removal in Pacifism and Mind Control. Now, technically, Lightning Bolt and Doom Blade were strong competitors for the "best common removal" category, but it became clear that Pacifism got the edge when you realized taking either card over Pacifism was risky, because even though both Bolt and Blade were splashable, you did not want to end up in black or red as a main color with their terrible creatures. Green's shining grace was Garruk's Packleader to provide considerable card advantage along with your creatures; a happy card for green since Overrun had been removed after its dominating run in M10. M11's "main" mechanic, though it was used near-exclusively in blue, was Scry. Scry did not make a HUGE splash in limited play - it mainly made blue decks more consistent with their Preordains and their Augury Owls. It did NOT have any cards like Judge Unworthy in Future Sight to branch the mechanic into the other four colors and make limited play more interesting. So, how does M12 change this? 

Enter Bloodthirst.

Bloodthirst is an aggressive mechanic that makes the games faster - either you are pushing in damage to activate Bloodthirst, or already have and have a bunch of giant Bloodthirst monsters that dwarf the competition. In the twitter argument over Overrun being in the set, Tom LaPille made this comment referencing Bloodthirst:

 

Yes, this mostly means that Overrun is back and still amazing. But it also means that Bloodthirst can give you a fighting chance to end the game before they can assemble a critical mass of creatures and/or GGG. As I was poring over the set, I noticed a TON of interaction with Bloodthirst, not all of it obvious. But first, let's meet the players.

Bloodthirst is on 10 creatures in the set - four in each of black and red, and a scarce two in green (an aside: why was Brindle Boar reprinted over (Gristleback? They do roughly the same thing, but Gristleback promotes the returning mechanic of the set and is far more playable). Most of these creatures are at or slightly below the curve for the average creature, but become massively undercosted if you manage to deal damage before playing them. 2BB 4/4 Lifelinker? 2R 3/3 First Strike? 1R 3/3 that can't be blocked except by two or more creatures? Don't mind if I do! 

Excluding the rares, here's a list of the Bloodthirst creatures individually, in the order of perceived best to worst.

Stormblood Berserker - 1R for a 1/1 that can't be blocked except by 2+ creatures that can become a 3/3!
Duskhunter Bat - A possible 2/2 flier for 1B that can turn on other Bloodthirsters just fine as a 1/1.
Blood Ogre - A first striking Grey Ogre for 2R that can become a 3/3 when it tastes blood.
Vampire Outcasts - A somewhat mediocre 2/2 lifelinker for 2BB that can become the dream 4/4 for four mana creature if you hit them.
Gorehorn Minotaurs - A 2RR Hill Giant that goes up to 5/5. Nothing special, but very solid.
Bloodrage Vampire - A Bloodscale Prowler colorshifted into black. Fragile even if you can trigger Bloodthirst, but shines in very aggressive or removal-heavy decks. Trades with Giant Spider!
Lurking Crocodile - Very solid 2G 2/2 Bloodthirst 1 creature that can turn on other Bloodthirsters with its Islandwalk. It is lowered in my estimation by its ability, which only comes up every now and again (but is great when it happens).
Carnage Wurm - Ringing in at 7 mana, I can't see this huge wurm getting a ton of play. Though it does have trample and ends the game a turn after you play it, casting it in the first place is probably going to be a problem in what I perceive to be an aggressive format (with Overrun in it!).


TURNING ON BLOODTHIRST

 
Now that we know the specs on all of our sanguinary friends, how do we make it so their potential can be realized, ie, deal damage before playing them? Well, there are a few cards in red and black that are clearly designed for turning on Bloodthirst, such as Goblin Fireslinger and Thirst for Blood (one of these is a little more obvious than the other). Most of these non-combat damage spells are not very good for activating Bloodthirst for a couple reasons. 
  • They just suck. Here's to you, Thirst for Blood.
  • You want to save the card for a bigger effect later in the game, such as Fireball or Consume Spirit
  • You want to use it to kill a creature like in Shock. Chandra's Outrage would usually be a sweet spot for Bloodthirst in this regard, but costs too much to use as such.
This amounts to pretty much only Goblin Fireslinger being a fine addition to your deck, with Scepter of Empires being more or less fringe playable. Notice that loss of life does not trigger Bloodthirst - only damage. This means that Smallpox and the like will not help you out on your quest for blood.

So if non-combat Bloodthirst triggering isn't the way to go, that leaves combat. So, what's the easiest way to trigger Bloodthirst in combat? The answer, quite obviously, is creatures with evasion. Now, this isn't exactly groundbreaking information conveyed directly from me to you so you can crush FNMs and (in a month) the online queues. A better use of this information is what it means for the colors of your deck. Thus far, I've really only talked about red and black, the main colors of Bloodthirst. But you will not always be able to draft the super RB aggro Bloodthirst deck with plenty of removal. What does each other color add to the Bloodthirst colors? 

COLORS

 
White lends to us a smattering of fliers, including the still-powerful Stormfront Pegasus. The removal in white for keeping opposing creatures off the battlefield is sparse in only Pacifism and Oblivion Ring; but both of those cards are insane. Mighty Leap, Gideon's Lawkeeper, and Spirit Mantle - the new Unquestioned Authority - help you jump over or walk through creatures to bloody your opponents. On the other side, white has some of the best defenses against Bloodthirst creatures because of their high-toughness fliers and combat-oriented abilities like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Arbalest Elite, and Stonehorn Dignitary. 
 

Blue has fliers as well to trigger Bloodthirst, but the undercosted Illusion creatures - Phantasmal Bear and Phantasmal Dragon - are a bit more remarkable for building an aggro deck that gets better creatures the more damage you can push in. Phantasmal Bears in particular, as a common, can be drafted and come down early and attack through most of the early creatures in the set, leading to some awkward situations - do I chump block this bear or do I let it through and let him play a Stormblood Berserker? Other than that, blue has Frost Breath to let you get in for those last points of damage at a cost more reasonable than Sleep, as well as evasion-granting cards like Chasm Drake, Levitation, and Flight. Blue also has counterspells like Mana Leak and Cancel to keep your opponents off of both early plays so you can push in more damage, as well as just countering their bombs that would otherwise just wreck you. Also be on the lookout for the tempo blowout Aether Adept, which lets you push in some damage when you bounce their blocker, but also allows you to reset your opponent's own Bloodthirst creatures. Blue pairs very well with the Bloodthirst colors; probably the color I'll be looking to the most while I'm looking to draft a Bloodthirst aggro deck.

 
Black has one of the best ways to activate Bloodthirst in Tormented Soul - a 1-drop that is unblockable, allowing you to get in that damage to activate Bloodthirst whenever you want. Black actually has a few more evasive creatures than usual at the lower rarities - Drifting Shade, Duskhunter Bat, Devouring Swarm, and the bomb flier of Sengir Vampire, now at uncommon to join the ranks of Serra Angel. Black also has removal like Doom Blade and Sorin's Thirst to get rid of blockers. You can even get tricky with Onyx Mage by threatening to give your guys deathtouch, putting your opponent in a "Do I block and lose my creature, or take damage and hope he doesn't have Vampire Outcasts?" Beyond that, however, you'll have to rely on your other colors for get in for damage, as black doesn't have a whole lot of options beyond combat (life loss like Smallpox not triggering Bloodthirst).

 
Red has the most ways to deal non-combat damage, but as mentioned before, you're going to want to save most of them for removing opposing creatures - though I expect Shock and Incinerate into a Bloodthirst guy will not be an unheard-of play. I predict Goblin Fireslinger to make every red deck - it's a good card to just grind out wins with the auxiliary function of turning on all of your Bloodthirst creatures without fail. Red itself has only two non-rare creatures with evasion - one is Stormblood Berserker and the other is Volcanic Dragon. Stormblood can be played to activate other Bloodthirsters, but by the time Volcanic Dragon gets out, it seems like you won't have many bloodthirsters left in your hand before your opponent dies from 4 damage per turn.

 
Green has a bunch of very large creatures, and none with evasion. It's main plan to activate Bloodthirst is to attack with giant creatures until they either have no creatures left or take it to preserve their creatures. The only thing it has to remove (small) creatures is Arachnus Web. As such, green is not an entirely reliable color to activate Bloodthirst with. It instead offers your other color some much-needed defense with giant butts like Giant Spider and Greater Basilisk to bog down your opponent's attacks while you attack with your Duskhunter Bats. The main reason to go into green after being solidly in either red or black with multiple Bloodthirst creatures is either Jade Mage - which takes over games on its own - or Overrun - which wins them. Otherwise, you'll be leaning into a more general red/green or black/green midrange strategy.

 
Artifacts have two notable ways to make Bloodthirst happen - Swiftfoot Boots (the new Lightning Greaves) and Scepter of Empires. Unlike Goblin Fireslinger, Scepter costs 3 mana, so I'm not sure how playable it is, though it does activate Bloodthirst. Swiftsole Boots, on the other hand, is just a card I guarantee I'll be impressed with when I play it. If it's not the haste forcing your opponents to leave back creatures, then it's the hexproof that protects my creatures from hexes harm. I'm undecided on how good Crumbling Colossus is right now. On one hand, it almost assuredly gets in for damage and/or gets rid of a creature, and has super synergy with Fling. On the other hand, letting your opponent get it Act of Treason sucks a whole bunch, and I expect Act of Treason will be very playable in this aggressive format. 



Well, that's just a little over two thousand words on the mechanic that changes the face of the entire core set format for 2012. By next time, I will have drafted some M12 in paper and will share some of my discoveries. If you see something I may have overlooked or gotten wrong, feel free to post in the comments to bring attention to it. 

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