Welcome back to Very Limited. Born of the Gods release events are happening all over the world this weekend. We’ll need to learn more than our opponents and hone our card-power-level identification skills if we want to maximize our chances at victory this weekend. We should also revisit my Limited strategy guide before the event. Today, we’ll be discussing the strategy behind drafting G/U decks with Born of the Gods thrown into the mix.

We’ll be taking a look at the best cards for the archetype. Remember that we need our deck to have a good curve. Following a strict pick order when we move in on an archetype is fine in the first pack—and even at the start of the second pack—but as a Draft winds down, we’ll need to make sure we have a good number of 2- and 3-mana creatures if we want the deck to function properly.

We usually want to be playing eighteen lands in our G/U deck, especially if we’re packing multiple creatures with monstrosity. The G/U archetype encourages us to take cards that function as mana dumps in the mid-to-late periods of a game. The number of lands we play can easily fall to seventeen if we have more than one Voyaging Satyr or Kiora's Follower or a deck without monstrous creatures.

Let’s start by taking a look at the new rares in Born of the Gods that might encourage us to move in on this particular archetype.

Arbiter of the Ideal is a dragon that lets us put cards into play off the top of our library. This is an obvious bomb, and while it may not be as insane as something like Consecrated Sphinx, it’s still a flying 6-drop that forces the opponent to have a very good removal spell if he or she doesn’t want it to take over the game.

Courser of Kruphix is really unfair. We can use this card to play lands off the top of our deck, thus accruing card advantage while increasing the quality of each draw step. Gaining life passively for putting lands into play allows us to have an edge against the decks that want to be racing us. We should be very happy to first-pick this card when the option is available.

Fated Intervention can swing the tides of a game very quickly. The ability to throw two surprise 3/3s onto the battlefield will usually accrue some amount of card advantage, and scrying 2 when we draw this off the top in the later stages of the game should set us up for victory in most spots.

Hunter's Prowess draws us an actual ton of cards in most spots in which we aren’t already losing. We should think of this card as a slightly worse Sea God's Revenge because it’s almost unbeatable when we’re winning, but it’s often unexciting when we’re falling behind.

Whelming Wave can pull us out of a problem situation pretty well. I like that we can recast things the turn we play our Whelming Wave, and I also enjoy that fact that we can value sea monsters a little bit higher once we’ve drafted this. The game will usually become a race when we pull the trigger on Whelming Wave. We can use it as an “EMERGENCY” red button, but that’s often like throwing a card away. The card becomes absolutely absurd if we can replay a threat and follow it up with something like Griptide.

Let’s move on to the most powerful uncommons we should be looking for when drafting the G/U deck.

Archetype of Imagination is absolutely ridiculous in the G/U deck. All of our giant monsters will be thrown up in the winds of awesomeness and shred our opponent’s life total to pieces. It’s not rocket science—I’ve been a fan of Levitation effects in G/U decks for the last decade or so. Attaching that and an anti-Levitation for the opponent onto a 3-power flyer is extremely impressive.

Kiora's Follower is very good in Limited, essentially giving our best creature vigilance in a pinch, triggering inspired, or ramping us into our 4- and 5-drops as a Voyaging Satyr would, all while offering up a 2/2 body for 2 mana.

Let’s take a look at the best commons in Born of the Gods for the G/U deck.

Green offers up a power common in Born of the Gods in Setessan Starbreaker. Setessan Starbreaker gives us pure card advantage, carries Ordeals well, and makes for a great bestow target.

Nyxborn Triton may not be as good as Nimbus Naiad, but filling our 5-mana slot with bestow creatures, Nessian Asp, Raised by Wolves, Centaur Battlemaster, and rares is what we want to be doing when playing the G/U deck. The other available 5-mana creatures are fine, but it’s really not worth using them as early picks.

Pheres-Band Tromper is great in the G/U deck. It carries—and curves into—a bestowed Nimbus Naiad better than any other common in either set. We can value pump spells and tricks slightly higher when we have Pheres-Band Tromper in our deck because our opponent will always be looking to trade with it before it starts growing huge.

Let’s examine our pick orders for Theros and Born of the Gods when drafting the G/U deck. We should be trying to make a strong curve, but the bestow creatures let us fill multiple spots on our curve at the same time and allow us to be less rigid with our picks. As an aside, many readers were surprised that I ranked Sea God's Revenge below Thassa's Emissary two weeks ago. I stand firmly by this assessment and believe the blue Emissary to be the best uncommon in either set that isn’t Keepsake Gorgon.

Our pick orders for Born of the Gods (in descending order of power level):

Uncommons: Archetype of Imagination, Raised by Wolves, Kiora's Follower, Aerie Worshippers, Flitterstep Eidolon, Graverobber Spider, Unravel the Aether, Pheres-Band Raiders, Noble Quarry, Eternity Snare, Oracle's Insight

Commons: Chorus of the Tides, Nyxborn Triton, Setessan Starbreaker, Pheres-Band Tromper, Nyxborn Wolf, Stratus Walk, Retraction Helix, Mortal's Resolve, Swordwise Centaur, Snake of the Golden Grove

Our pick orders for Theros (in descending order of power level):

Uncommons: Thassa's Emissary, Sea God's Revenge, Triton Tactics, Nylea's Emissary, Horizon Chimera, Nemesis of Mortals, Horizon Scholar, Karametra's Acolyte, Artisan's Sorrow, Dissolve

Commons: Nessian Asp, Voyaging Satyr, Griptide, Voyage's End, Nimbus Naiad, Leafcrown Dryad, Time to Feed, Nessian Courser, Prescient Chimera, Sedge Scorpion, Nylea's Disciple, Agent of Horizons, Aqueous Form, Omenspeaker, Vulpine Goliath, Pheres-Band Centaurs, Fade into Antiquity, Savage Surge

G/U is among the most powerful Draft archetypes in the new Draft format. Our early knowledge of the archetype gives us a big advantage going into the release weekend’s Draft events. Play tight, and pick smart; the crashing wave will deliver.