This weekend, people will have had their first chance to rip open some brand-new Magic 2012 boosters to play in prerelease events. I hope you had the chance to attend one. In my opinion, prereleases are one of the most fun Magic events—there is no pressure to do well, and you can try out all the new cards. For some reason, I always do terribly at prerelease events. I expect to give out all my hard-earned rating points at my local event. The truth is, I cannot open bombs in sealed pools. Anyway, that aside, I normally get to sign up for a draft after the sealed event, and I nearly always win it. So today, I’m going to take the opportunity to look through the new set and talk about which cards I think are going to make a splash in Draft so that if, like me, you don’t get good sealed pools, you can at least kick ass in drafts. As I can’t seem to open bomb rares or mythics, I’m going to focus on what we want to be taking out of the rest of the pack.

There are a number of cards that really stand out in the uncommon slot. First, things I will pick in a blink of an eye, all returning favorites if you drafted M11 or M10: Fireball, Mind Control, and Overrun. Overrun was absent in M11, but from what I’ve heard it, was basically a snap pick in M10 and can just completely destroy your opponent. If the swing doesn’t kill him, it will be because all his guys threw themselves bravely in the path of your marauding creatures and died—he will be dead next turn unless he has something very special up his sleeve. If you pick an Overrun, you want to focus on picking creature cards that give you a chance to curve out nicely. By curving out, I mean a 2-drop, then a 3-drop, and so on, such that when you cast Overrun on turn six, you have four creatures to go crush your opponent with. That’s not to say you should ignore sweet removal spells; just be careful you don’t draft lots of high-casting-cost fatties.

Fireball is a game-winning, easily splashable card that will want a home in any deck. If it is the only Red card you pick, just run three Mountains and you will see that it is well worth it. Mind Control is also returning. Blue is looking slightly less dominating in M12 than in M11 draft with the loss of Foresee, but Mind Control is still a premium card and well worth committing to Blue early in the draft.

You’ve got to love removal. I used to be really bad at drafting removal. To convince myself of its worth, I entered a draft with the express purpose of drafting every piece I saw that was on-color. It was a RoE draft, and I ended up with fifteen pieces of burn ranging from Staggershock to, I think, three Heat Rays. My eight creatures were, um, 2/2’s. But it didn’t matter because I just had so much removal that I killed all my opponents’ pretty levelers, bashed them to death with weenies, and finished the job with some of the excess burn I had in hand. It was a very valuable lesson. Obviously this draft was extreme; you rarely get handed so much removal, which makes it especially important to take the good stuff when you see it. Often, this will mean first-picking it.

So, what removal spells are we getting in M12? The most notable card is the return of Oblivion Ring—in a core set. I hope this is not a one-of guest appearance; this card is great both in Limited and Constructed. In Limited, if you see this card, you’re going to want to pick it if you are in the right colors. If it’s near the start of the draft, I will just take it and either move into White, as this is a pretty good signal that White is open, or splash White for this—it’s worth it, as it will answer that ridiculous rare your opponent opened. Planeswalkers are the nuts in Limited, so having an easy way to stop your opponent from having an unfair advantage is to run Oblivion Ring. Be aware that after sideboarding, your opponent may bring in enchantment removal; both Green and White have answers. If you don’t need to show him your Oblivion Ring Game 1, don’t—he won’t know to board against it.

Doom Blade is back. The value of Doom Blade is that it kills everything non-Black regardless of size, something Red burn spells cannot manage. Its obvious drawback is its inability to deal with Black creatures like Grave Titan, but the removal is permanent barring graveyard recursion, unlike Oblivion Ring, which could come back to bite you. Both are good cards to draft; just keep in mind their individual limitations.

Coming in just below our excellent premium removal spells are Incinerate, Shock, and Chandra’s Outrage, all Red burn spells. Incinerate and Shock are both worth considering splashing for. Incinerate is particularly nice, as it answers Cudgel Troll, who I found to be most annoying in M11 Draft. Chandra’s Outrage is not splashable at , but it’s a really nice spell to have if you are already in the color.

Beyond the burn spells, we have the combat tricks. New to M12 is Titanic Growth. It’s like an upgraded Giant Growth, although the casting cost of as opposed to makes leaving the mana up for it slightly more annoying. Still, it’s a nice spell I will not object to picking up for my Overrun beatdown deck.

I want to quickly share with you a list of my favorite creatures to draft in NPH–MBS–SOM Draft: Pith Driller, Skinrender, Tormenter Exarch, Blisterstick Shaman, Acid Web Spider, Viridian Corrupter, Leonin Relic-Warder, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage. Basically, I love creatures that give me value for money. This is of real value to you when you are drafting. Everyone’s actions are limited by the amount of mana and the number of cards they have. If you can make your spells give you an edge in how much you achieve each turn, you will end up ahead. Therefore, we should look at which creatures in M12 will give us this extra value. White is getting Arbalest Elite, an excellent body with a huge ability to slay many creatures. Make sure your deck has an answer for cards like this or, alternatively, just draft all of them yourself. It will completely stop an opponent from casting creatures with less than 3 toughness until he has an answer to it.

Blue has AEther Adept returning. She will continue to ruin your opponent’s tempo and give you a nice sturdy body to be throwing into battle. Or, she may allow you to move that blocker out of the way for the last few points of damage. Blue is also getting Azure Mage, who will be a solid addition to a controlling deck. If she survives for very long, she will allow you to bury your opponent in card advantage. If your opponent plays one, I’d recommend killing it. Master Thief also joins Blue. This card is apparently a watered-down version of Sower of Temptation. You will have to excuse my ignorance of old sets. Now, I can see that Sower of Temptation was amazing; however, Master Thief’s applications remain to be seen. They depend on how playable the artifacts of the set are.

Green has Acidic Slime returning. Acidic Slime is a good way of kicking an opponent when he is down. If he misses a land drop or finally hits his long-awaited second color, you should ensure his land goes into his graveyard. It also provides a main-deck answer to any pesky enchantments, like Oblivion Ring, and has Deathtouch, so it can happily trade up with his bigger creature. Stingerfling Spider is a new card for M12 and is right up my alley. I get a warm body and his annoying flyer hits the bin. Perfect.

After the creatures that provide us with instant card advantage are a number of other good-quality creatures that will help us win games. Gideon’s Lawkeeper is the Blinding Mage of M12. Blinding Mage was an excellent creature in M11 to allow you to control the board. Gideon’s Lawkeeper will fill that same slot and should certainly be picked highly. Also, with the number of Illusions in the set, he can even double as removal.

Stonehorn Dignitary is an interesting card. I can see control decks running him just as a tempo play. He has a good body for blocking. If your creatures have some sort of evasion and you are in a race, he can easily help you push ahead.

Volcanic Dragon is an uncommon I will be very happy to pick up in a draft. A hasty 4/4 flyer—yes, please! I love surprising opponents with hasty creatures; Strider Harness was a card I was very happy to run in SOM Block Draft, and you will probably see me running a copy of Crimson Mage in M12.

I want to take a moment here to talk about Bloodthirst, the “new” mechanic for M12. It’s not a new mechanic for Magic, but it is new to me. I highly expect bloodthirsty creatures to be overdrafted in the early M12 drafts; however, they must be drafted with care. If you don’t have an aggressive deck that can push through early damage, you may end up with a bunch of overcosted 1/1’s or 2/2’s. If you want to run a Bloodthirst-oriented deck, be sure to pick up some Goblin Tunnelers, flyers, or Taste of Blood to turn on your bloodthirsting. When I was looking through the spoilers, the bloodthirsty creatures in Black at the common/uncommon level underwhelmed me. Sure, I could draft a Duskhunter Bat, but I’d rather just take the honestly costed Stormfront Pegasus. Red, however, actually has some pretty nice-looking bloodthirsty creatures, and with some burn spells to turn it on, they could be very desirable picks. Blood Ogre and Stormblood Berserker particularly caught my eye. I’m sure we will see some strong Bloodthirst decks being drafted in the coming weeks, but do be careful. Oh, and Carnage Wurm is insanely good value!

Two cards that don’t fall into the previous categories are Ponder and Timely Reinforcements. Ponder allows you to arrange your draws to suit you. Need a removal spell for a creature now? No problem, Ponder to check if it’s in the top three. If it is, great! If not, try shuffling it to the top. I will happily run several copies of Ponder in a Blue deck should I get the opportunity to draft them.

Timely Reinforcements is brand-new for M12. Although the life gain doesn’t excite me, the potential of getting three dudes from one spell does. This card could easily change the way a game is going, and I look forward to trying this card out at the prereleases.

Before I finish, there are two cards that, while not high picks, caught my eye for their potentially strong but narrow application in Limited. First up is Devouring Swarm. If you played M11 Draft, you will have observed the interactions for Bloodthrone Vampire with Goblin Tunneler and Reassembling Skeleton. If you did not, take a moment to consider those cards. In short, you make Bloodthrone Vampire unblockable, then you make it huge by continually sacrificing and reanimating one Reassembling Skeleton. I was a particular fan of this combo. Devouring Swarm enables the same thing, but with flying, so you may not need the Goblin Tunneler to allow your creature to get through your opponent’s defenses. You can also sacrifice your Roc Egg to unleash your mighty 3/3 Bird token. Always good value.

The other card is Griffin Rider. With three different Griffins at common, you may be able to draft a dedicated White flyers deck with multiple Griffin Riders. Flying 4/4’s for will close out the game pretty quickly. Be careful not to be blown out during combat with a removal spell for your one Griffin so he can then block your Griffin Riders.

Phew. That was quite lengthy. I hope you have enjoyed that quick rundown of some of the new cards I think will be good in Limited. Next week, I will be reporting on how my prereleases went, which cards were hot and which were not (and how bad my pool was). ’Til next time!