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Welcome back to Very Limited. Magic 2015 is proving itself to be a great Draft format. A lot of people think core-set Limited formats offer little in the way of interaction. Supposedly, drafting is “pure,” unhindered by narrow archetypes that force us to draft specific cards based on what we’ve taken thus far. This is mostly true, but there’s a glaring exception in Magic 2015. The blue-based artifact deck may be difficult to put together at times, but the rewards are great enough to justify the risks associated with the deck. Today, we’ll be discussing one of the most powerful and volatile archetypes in Magic 2015.
What Have We Learned about Drafting Magic 2015 in Our First Week of Drafting?
Control decks can also be quite good, but cards such as Encrust and Flesh to Dust are best in the most aggressive decks. The control deck wants inexpensive, instant-speed removal like Lightning Strike and Ulcerate. It’s easy to play a creature that trumps an army of 2/x creatures on the other side of the table, but it’s also easy to lose to our opponent’s tempo advantage if he or she is able to deal with our 5-drop when he or she casts Titanic Growth on a 2/2. Ulcerate and Lightning Strike let us pick up easy two-for-ones against the most aggressive decks. Aggressive strategies will be quick to attack with a pump spell at the ready to remain the aggro when playing against a deck with a presumably higher average converted mana cost.
The artifact deck is very strong, but Ensoul Artifact is susceptible to cards such as Encrust and Flesh to Dust. As a result, it’s nice to play a lot of copies of Divination or Sign in Blood if we’re planning on going that route in our Draft. We’ll be two-for-one’d regularly; we need to accept it, but we also need to overcome it.
Why Should We Be Drafting the Blue Artifact Deck?
Aeronaut Tinkerer is very well-positioned in Magic 2015, even if we’re unable to find our artifact in a reasonable time frame. This format is full of 2/2s and 2/1s for 2 mana. As a result, a 2/3 body for 3 mana is perfectly positioned to dominate a lot of board states.
There are a lot of free wins to be had on the back of Ensoul Artifact.
When Should We Be Drafting the Blue Artifact Deck?
What Should Our Second Color Be?
available on the key turn, we may be given an opportunity to trade 3 mana and two cards for two cards and much more mana from the opponent.
It’s fine to play a different color alongside our Ensoul Artifacts. Sometimes, we might even be lucky enough to draft the mono-blue deck. Generally speaking, though, our blue-based artifact strategy is best accompanied by red cards.
In What Order Should We Be Picking Our Cards?
The following is the pick order I would use for the playable nonmythics when drafting the U/R artifact deck. This should be followed once we already have Ensoul Artifact in our deck. We may need to take artifacts higher or lower depending on how many we have thus far and how deep we are in the Draft. Generally, this should be a decent guide to the pick order for the archetype.
- Aetherspouts
- Polymorphist's Jest
- Master of Predicaments
- Hoarding Dragon
- Scuttling Doom Engine
- Cone of Flame
- Burning Anger
- Perilous Vault
- Siege Dragon
- Ensoul Artifact
- Lightning Strike
- Stoke the Flames
- Chasm Skulker
- Haunted Plate Mail
- Encrust
- Inferno Fist
- Borderland Marauder
- Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient
- Goblin Rabblemaster
- Welkin Tern
- Frost Lynx
- Juggernaut
- Aeronaut Tinkerer
- Turn to Frog
- Heat Ray
- Darksteel Citadel
- Scrapyard Mongrel
- Stormtide Leviathan
- Meteorite
- Shrapnel Blast
- Forge Devil
- Ornithopter
- Illusory Angel (This can be a lot higher if we’re playing three or more Ornithopters.)
- Hot Soup
- Chief Engineer
- Paragon of Gathering Mists
- Jace's Ingenuity
- Divination
- Glacial Crasher
- Rummaging Goblin
- Miner's Bane
- Wall of Frost
- Into the Void
- Gargoyle Sentinel
- Nimbus of the Isles
- Coral Barrier
- Phyrexian Revoker
- Bronze Sable
- Crowd's Favor
- Blastfire Bolt
- Chronostutter
- Void Snare
- Peel from Reality
- Brawler's Plate
- Altac Bloodseeker
- Generator Servant
- Avarice Amulet
- Thundering Giant
- Paragon of Fierce Defiance
- Goblin Kaboomist
- Research Assistant
- Quickling
- Krenko's Enforcer
- Frenzied Goblin
- Torch Fiend
- Goblin Roughrider
- Kapsho Kitefins
- Will-Forged Golem
- Mercurial Pretender
- Amphin Pathmage
- Dissipate
- Rogue's Gloves
- Negate
- Shield of the Avatar
- Tyrant's Machine
- Statute of Denial
- Sacred Armory
The artifact deck in Magic 2015 offers up the most raw power of any archetype available in the Limited format. This deck will probably become weaker as more players learn that it’s an option when drafting, but those people will push each other out of the competitive landscape and may give us an opportunity to come in and catch the format off-guard. Right now, this is the perfect way to attack the presumed metagame of Magic 2015 Limited. Be sure to join me next week when I continue to explore the ins and outs of Magic 2015 Drafts!
