What I typically try to figure out when a new Limited format comes out is how fast it is. The speed of a format drastically affects your card evaluations. For example, take a card like Gutter Skulk. In triple-Gatecrash, because the format is fairly fast, it’s actually a decent card that almost always makes your deck. Now think about Glory Seeker in Rise of the Eldrazi. Color aside, it’s the exact same card, but in this format, it’s close to being unplayable.

So, where does that leave Dragon’s Maze–Gatecrash–Return to Ravnica Draft? My initial impression is that it’s a bit on the slow side, but not as slow as people are making it out to be. Aggressive decks can still work, usually in some combination of white, black, and red. The big constraint is the mana. I’ve gone on record saying that I hate playing Guildgates, but times are different now. When you have a two-color aggressive deck, having lands that enter the battlefield tapped can be a huge hindrance. When you go to three-color decks, they start becoming necessary. Not all three-color decks are created equally, however. The ideal place to be in my opinion is to be playing two colors and splashing a third rather than playing a hodge-podge of three colors. This makes your deck more consistent and less reliant on crappy mana-fixers such as Cluestones and Keyrunes. This is especially important for aggressive decks.

I’ve drafted both aggressive and control decks so far, and I feel that both are viable along with midrange, green-based creature decks. I’ve talked a lot about aggressive deck because I believe there is a lot of opportunity to prey upon these durdly multicolored decks with shaky mana that people seem to like drafting. I mean, I’m usually one of those people, but I’m definitely not allergic to drafting a bunch of bears and turning them sideways.

How good your deck ends up being depends on your ability to read when a particular guild is open in that first pack, so I’m going to go through what I feel are the top commons from the set. If you see any of these cards late, that’s typically a signal that the person feeding you isn’t in that color/guild.

Beetleform Mage

It’s a Human Insect; I can’t not call him Brundlefly. Rootwalla-esque creatures tend to be pretty good in Limited, even when their abilities are never activated. The threat of activating is usually enough to give your opponent a headache. A 4/4 flyer is a big deal in this format, as evasion becomes necessary in the late game with all the X/4 ground-pounders running around. 4/4 is big enough to punch through most other flyers, so this is definitely a card I would pick highly.

Punish the Enemy

Good old Barbed Lightning with forced entwine. This isn’t the flashiest of cards, but it definitely gets the job done. It’s at its best in aggressive decks, as it will often do more than 3 damage by getting rid of a blocker.

Rubblebelt Maaka

I’m not sure what a Maaka is supposed to be, but I am sure that it’s a high pick for any aggressive red deck. Slaughterhorn is a bit better on account of it being cheaper, but this serves as a good alternative for the nongreen decks.

Tithe Drinker

Child of Night was among my favorite commons in core-set Drafts, so it’s no surprise that I love Tithe Drinker. I’ve even lived the dream by playing it on turn two and following up with Civic Saber on turn three for the actual Baneslayer Angel hit. Of course, I don’t expect every game to play out like that, but the good thing about creatures with extort is that they continue to damage your opponent even when they can’t safely attack. Tithe Drinker is almost always awesome, so to me, picking up one late is a sign to move in on Orzhov for pack two.

Ubul Sar Gatekeepers

This is the only Gatekeeper I’ll go out of my way to play. As I’ve said before, I don’t like playing a lot of Guildgates, but I will if I can pick up a couple of these guys. Drafting any of the Gatekeepers can be really awkward if you don’t end up with enough Guildgates, which is exactly what happened to me in one of my Drafts. I drafted two Ubul Sar Gatekeepers but only one Guildgate to go with them, so they stayed in my sideboard. It wasn’t for lack of trying either; it just so happened that the person passing to me was five colors and took every Guildgate. I still think it’s a fairly high pick, though, and if you end up with more than one Gatekeeper (any of them really), you should be prepared to draft Guildgates higher than you normally would.

Viashino Firstblade

Cheap creatures with haste are pretty much exactly what Boros decks want. I can’t imagine anyone who intends to draft an aggressive deck with red and white in it ever taking another common over this card. If you see a pack with Viashino Firstblade in it and a common is missing, more often than not, you’re safe to move in on the aggressive deck. Depending on how the rest of the pack goes, you might be able to get away with drafting a two-color deck like I mentioned above.

The format is still very new to me, and I’ll definitely have more to say when it comes out on Magic Online and I have the opportunity to draft it a lot more. I hope you guys found my drunken rants somewhat useful, and I’ll see you again next week.

Until then, take care and happy drafting.

Nassim Ketita

arcticninja on Magic Online

http://www.youtube.com/nketita