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Ahoy hoy! My name is Dylan Pratt and I’m here to share. Knowledge! That is, whatever Limited knowledge I’ve managed to scrape together over the last few years. The plan is to give the people what they want(draft walkthroughs) and throw in some theory once in a while. For today, my first article for PureMTGO, I want to break down the Rise of the Eldrazi draft format and share my views on it. First a little background so you can cop a feel of me as a person, writer and player.

 

 

I’m from Vancouver, BC, Canada eh and just recently graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Mathematics. Being a recent graduate and unemployed, I’m in that great state of mind where the world is potentially my oyster, but I’m too lazy to actually do with that oyster whatever one does with oysters. So I draft. I love to draft, and whatever I love to do I do a lot, therefore I draft a lot. Sound logic amiright? I also love to write, which is why I thought “hey why not write some magic articles” and here I am (actually I have written a few articles in the past for MTGCast, definitely check those out if you like what you see here). Anyway at this point you are probably like “wtf why do I care who is this guy I’m hungry”. So let’s talk credentials, or lack thereof.

 

 

 

 

I’m obviously not a Pro, and I don’t plan on ever attempting to climb that mountain, mostly because I don’t play Constructed and have no strong desire to. However, I consider myself a proficient drafter (my rating hangs between 1850 and 1900) and am confident enough to draft exclusively in 8-4 queues. I also don’t like to spend money on drafting online (I’m unemployed remember?), so I wouldn’t play unless I broke even or made money, which I do. Not much, but I generally cash in around three hundred tickets a year solely from drafting (I average about 5 drafts a week). Hopefully my articles will help you do the same!

 

 

Henyway back to the topic at hand: drafting the best format ever, Rise of the Eldrazi! Lu-lu-lu, I  got some draft, lu-lu-lu, you got some too. That basically sums up my feelings on the new format. I’m a control player at heart, and man does this set deliver to us control freaks. Aggro is tough but viable, which is definitely key to having a healthy format. There are so many viable archetypes that it really feels a lot like Cube, in that everyone is trying to draft a broken, synergistic deck and is often succeeding. This means that early on in a draft it is better to pick up important centerpieces rather than abstractly better cards. For example, Boar Umbra may be a good card but it’s not nearly as crucial as Emrakul’s Hatcher to the respective decks each would end up in. The single most important thing to remember while drafting this format is that your deck needs a plan and every card in it should work towards that plan.

 

 

Compare this to Zendikar, where every deck’s plan was the same: reduce the opponent’s life total to zero as fast as possible. In a format like that, synergy wasn’t nearly as important as mana curve and tempo. We all know there is a huge difference in speed between the two formats, but what exactly does this entail?  Well for starters you don’t care nearly as much about curve, so you don’t want to be running filler, vanilla creatures. For instance in Zen I played Mindless Null in over half my black aggro decks just to have another cheap beater, but in Rise a much better card, Gloomhunter, is usually left in the ‘board.

 

 

 

 

So what should our cards be doing if not filling out our curve? Longer games equals more cards drawn equals more powerful cards. This means we want every card to have as much impact on the game as possible while maintaining a reasonable curve. That is partly why white is so bad in this format; a lot of white cards are bears or removal for small creatures, neither of which have much impact late in the game (the other reason is that the only consistently-strong archetype white fits into is UW levelers). Some of the best cards in Rise are the ones that fill out the curve early and become relevant in the late game, such as levelers and invokers. Both of these types of cards have more than proven their worth in this format, whereas in Zendikar they would have been mediocre at best.

 

 

On choosing to play or draw: I think they are each correct almost an even amount of the time, with a slight preference towards drawing first. It is obviously very match-up dependent, but in general levelers and aggressive decks want to play first, while decks packing tons of removal want to draw first. Ramp can be tough, but unless there’s a good reason to want to get an Eldrazi out a turn early (like in the mirror, where whoever annihilates first doesn’t allow their opponent to play their own fatties) choosing to draw is generally correct.

 

 

Another advantage of a slow format is the ability to splash easily. Prophetic Prism and Evolving Wilds allow any deck to splash, and all of the common removal spells have single-colored mana costs. Removal is more important than ever in a format as threat-light as this one, so take it highly and splash for it!

 

 

 

 

“Threat-light? But...but...huge fat Eldrazi! Fully-leveled bombs at common! 8/2 unblockable Kiln Fiends!” you may be crying. Now before you go assuming I’ve indulged in my province’s biggest industry (hint: it’s not lumber) let me explain. Over three quarters of the games I’ve played in this format are won by single cards. I’m not talking about bombs single-handedly taking over a game, every format has that, but commons that, until dealt with, are the only way their controller plans on winning. I call this the “Kobe-hypothesis” because like Kobe, every game has its one all-star that has to out-shine the rest of the dudes in play and tends to win all on its own.

 

 

In other words, players are putting all their proverbial eggs into the same hypothetical basket. Instead of incremental damage, there is usually a single dominating creature that needs to be dealt with. Let’s look at the popular archetypes in this light:

 

 

   -Gx Ramp: ramps into one or two Eldrazi

 

 

   -Ux Levelers: focuses on one leveler at a time while keeping the rest at base level

 

 

   -RB Tokens: the deck with the biggest threat diversity, but it still often relies on a handful of creatures to do the real dirty work (Bloodthrone Vampire, Lavaflame Invoker)

 

 

   -UR Kiln Fiend: the name of the deck says it all

 

 

   -GW Aura Gnarlid: see above

 

 

   -RWG Walls: relies almost solely on Vent Sentinels as a win condition

 

 

 

What this does is put a huge premium on not only removal, but any answers. That’s why Regress is so good. Also, normally terrible cards like Lay Bare and Perish the Thought become great sideboard options and serviceable maindecks. Guard Duty is a criminally underdrafted card, and I’m happy to splash for it as it answers Kobe for a single mana (as long as your deck plans on winning through a large defender anyway).

 

 

 

 

You also want to make sure that you’re drafting the *right* answers, which is why I find red’s removal slightly lackluster (but still good, don’t get me wrong). Staggershock and Flame Slash are great for dealing with levelers while time-walking an over-committed opponent, but they fall short when trying to answer Eldrazi and aura-enhanced jerkbags.

 

 

This should also change the way you play in this format. More than ever it is crucial to hold onto removal as long as possible to wait for your opponent’s real threats. Rely on your creatures and average cards to deal with your opponents early creatures, while saving that Deprive or Vendetta for Kobe.

 

In terms of relying on your own Kobe, this is a fine game plan as long as you realize the implications. In these types of decks incremental damage is unimportant, so you don’t want any early beaters. Longer games mean more time to draw into your game-winners, so as long as you can answer your opponents’ threats you don’t need more than a few win conditions. As long as you can protect them with umbra’s, have counter back-up or recur your Kobe he should be able to win the game on his own just fine. I’ve won countless games with an umbra’d Dawnglare Invoker, Keening Stone or singleton Vent Sentinel as my only win condition. Just make sure you can either protect your Kobe or offer up a few replacements if the first is dealt with.

If you do want to go aggro in this format your options are somewhat limited. There are so many high-toughness creatures clogging up the board that you really want your early creatures to be evasive in order to keep doing their dirty work. Distortion Strike, Aura Gnarlid and even Goblin Tunneler all fill this role which is why they are cornerstones of the popular aggro decks. Another tempo-based deck I’ve been having success with lately is a green-based mid-range deck that splashes for removal. The plan is to pump out decent sized monsters such as Aura Gnarlid, Wildheart Invoker and Stomper Cub while backing them up with pump spells or auras. Might of Masses on Stomper Cub is possibly the most underrated “combo” in the format.

Quick recap on my view of the format:

   -take synergistic cards highly in order to draft a deck with a focused game plan

   -try not to play cards that are only relevant in the early game; you want high-impact cards

   -splashing is easy and removal is more crucial than ever, therefore splash removal!

   -have a plan for answering your opponent’s game winners, and make sure your own plan to win is resilient

   -if you do aggro, make sure you have ways to punch through a cluttered board

 

 

 

Well that about wraps it up for my break-down of Rise draft, hopefully you found it entertaining and/or useful. Next week I plan on a ROE draft walk-through so you can see first-hand how I implement this article’s strategy in my drafting. Criticism of any kind is much appreciated so let me know your thoughts!

 

 

 

Till next time,

 

 

 

Dylan Pratt

Jester123 on MODO

 

 

 

Artist/Film/Book of the Week: RJD2 / Memento / A Brief History of Time