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When I booster draft Magic 2011, I typically try to draft Blue/Black, Blue/White or Black/Red. Sometimes this strategy ends up with me playing Blue/Red or a mono-color deck (lots of mono-white recently.) Generally, this means my early picks have their power level adjusted a little by what color they are. I favor the colors in this order:
- Blue
- Black
- Red
- White
- Green
There is only a small gap between Black and Red, while there is a pretty big one between White and Green. This favoritism is definitely reflected in this week's M11 power rankings. These rankings are meant to reflect what order I would favor commons and uncommons first pick overall. To that end, I've added artifacts to the list.
M11 Power Rankings
- Crystal Ball- A bomb that still leaves me open to draft any color combination that is being passed to me. Not only do I rarely lose with this on the table, it has led me to several impressive comebacks.
- Fireball – Flexible game winner.
- Mind Control – Removes their biggest threat and gives you one. Seems good!
- Air Servant- A huge evasion threat that allows you total control of the air, an all important area in M11.
- Serra Angel- A huge evasion threat that can both serve and protect.
- Lightning Bolt- One of the best constructed cards of all time. Kills almost everything for one mana at instant speed and can also be used to finish your opponent.
- Doom Blade-Cheap, instant removal and it's Black.
- Blinding Mage- Kind of like steadily upgrading removal (as mentioned by a reader).
- Foresee- A turbo-shot of gas in the mid to late game.
- Cudgel Troll- A bomb that drops many spots because it's Green.
- Chandra's Outrage- Instant removal for most creatures that has a cool bonus.
- Aether Adept- Strong tempo against their creatures and also good with yours for resetting other 187 creatures or helping against Mind Control, Pacifism, etc.
- Water Servant- Can dominate the ground while the rest of your Blue wins in the air.
- Prodigal Pyromancer- Eliminates many of their guys singlehandedly and helps kill others in combat or in combination with burn. When that's done, he goes to the dome. He pretty much does it all, too bad he's one toughness.
- Pacifism- Cheap removal for everything. Not higher because it doesn't stop abilities and the creatures can later be rescued.
- Quag Sickness- Strong removal (and a good answer to Cudgel Troll!) Hurt by requiring so many swamps to be powerful.
- Azure Drake- Evasive creature that stops pretty much everything four mana or cheaper.
- Assassinate- Good removal.
- Garruk Packleader- Big threat that can draw cards. Too bad it's Green.
- Augury Owl- Scry three on a two mana flyer is great, but helps that it's Blue.
- Jace's Ingenuity- Love my card advantage. Like that it's Blue, hate that it's five mana.
- Cloud Elemental- Wins the air war with all flyers three or cheaper and good against four drop flyers too.
- Juggernaut- I like to take powerful artifacts with my first pick.
- Stormfront Pegasus- Two mana for a two power flyer, what a deal!
- Ember Hauler- Would be much higher if not for the double Red mana requirement.
Despite the fact that Black has few entries on this list, Blue/Black is my favorite archetype. I've already discussed in previous weeks how I draft Red/Black and Blue/White, so it's time to discuss Blue/Black! Like most draft archetypes, I like to draft U/B to be an aggressive deck. Despite this, the two color's control elements are the keys to its strengths and my fondness for it.
Child of Night, Cloud Elemental, Barony Vampire, Nether Horror, Augury Owl, Howling Banshee, Black Knight and Water Servant are all good to start putting pressure on your opponent. Things like Aether Adept, Doom Blade, Diminish and Quag Sickness can deal with blockers or stymie counter attacks. If they don't succumb to the pressure, then card drawing, scrying and other forms of card advantage combined with big flyers should be enough to eventually overwhelm them: Foresee, Preordain, Air Servant, Grave Digger, Liliana's Specter, Azure Drake, Nightwing Shade and Jace's Ingenuity.
My favorite commons when drafting Blue/Black are:
- Doom Blade
- Foresee
- Aether Adept
- Quag Sickness
- Assassinate
- Azure Drake
- Augury Owl
- Cloud Elemental
- Liliana's Specter
- Preordain
I feel like it's hard to have too many Preordains or Augury Owls in a deck, but sometimes I don't have enough removal and marquee creatures and I spend all my time scrying into mediocre cards and I lose to a bomb and a couple top decks. This is the biggest problem with just forcing Blue/Black. Herein lies the beauty of power drafting. If I see an early bomb in Red or White I just go Blue/White, Black/Red or Blue/Red.
I just sat in with Rada to power draft using Magic Online. The plan was to ignore Green, try for Black/Blue, but be open to Blue/White or Red/Black. In order to do this we were hoping for a good Blue or Black first pick, but if there was a bomb in White or Red like Fireball or Serra Angel, we would take it.
Pack 1 - Pick 1
The best card in the pack is Pacifism, but Cloud Elemental is close enough to it in power level that we stick to the plan and take the Blue card. Additionally, the next most exciting card is probably Armored Ascension, so this pick cuts off Blue better than taking Pacifism would cut off White.
Pack 1 - Pick 2
The good news here is that two of the best cards in the pack are Green, which might nudge players to our left into Green. The bad news is that the best Black or Blue card is only a Barony Vampire. Rada suggests that the Ascension is the pick just based on power level, but I decide we should keep our options open by taking the Expanse. Among other things, if we end up in White or Black anyway, I won't terribly miss the Vampire or the Ascension.
Pack 1 - Pick 3
For somewhat similar reasons as I wanted the Expanse, Rada suggests the Axe. She also is more open to drafting equipment than I am. I decide on Silvercoat Lion, mainly because I place an extremely high value on decent two drops and I don't find the Axe attractive enough to use it as an excuse not to risk wasting a pick.
Pack 1 - Pick 4
This is an easy pick for both of us. This pack also continues the trend that White seems to be coming but, sadly, not Blue. The fact that Green is coming and that Blue isn't coming at least means encouraging things for Pack two.
Pack 1 - Pick 5
This pick is tougher since I value Excommunicate and Assault Griffin pretty closely. Rada feels that players to our left would be more excited about a late Griffon than a late Excommunicate, so we pick the Griffin. At this point, we are pretty much locked into White (unless something really unusual happens,) with a heavy leaning towards Blue/White, since that's my favorite archetype with White and we already have a solid Blue card.
Pack 1 - Pick 6
This pack is really hard. If I'm completely locked into Blue/White, I take Flashfreeze or Phantom Beast as a sideboard card. This is way earlier than I want to be picking sideboard cards however. The two best non-green maindeck cards are Black Knight and Fiery Hellhound. What it comes down to is I'm somewhat open to Red/White, but not Black/White. Rada would choose the Knight, because she has had some success with Black/White.
Pack 1 - Pick 7
This is another easy pick. Not only is Mighty Leap the best card in the pack, but we're keeping open the possibility of mono-white at this point.
Pack 1 - Pick 8
Since the jury is still out on the second color and neither the Chieftain nor the Cage is super compelling here, it comes down to Passage or Axe. I'm not super excited about either and Rada likes the Axe, so we go for the Axe.
Pack 1 - Pick 9
This helps lock us more into Blue/White. There isn't any more main-deck worthy cards in the first pack. The second pack locks us into our colors immediately:
Pack 2 - Pick 1
Mind Control is a bomb and it's in one of the colors we wanted to play anyway, so Blue/White it is. The deck ended up like this:
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
2 Cloud Elemental
1 Silvercoat Lion
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Assault Griffin
1 Maritime Guard
2 Elite Vanguard
1 Augury Owl
1 Siege Mastodon
1 Serra Angel
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Mighty Leap
1 Mind Control
1 Pacifism
1 Crystal Ball
1 Mana Leak
2 Unsummon
1 Excommunicate
1 Negate
1 Preordain
1 Warlord's Axe
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Terramorphic Expanse
8 Island
7 Plains
[/Lands]
[/cardlist]
It’s obviously not Blue/Black, but I’m almost as happy with Blue/White and clearly we were in a good seat for White. Furthermore, while I worked on this article, Rada piloted the deck to 3-0, winning the draft. Yay! Hopefully this draft helps demonstrate the strength of using the limited flexibility of power drafting to make a winning deck. Green was clearly coming to us in pack one, but even though we ignored it we ended up with a powerful, synergistic, winning deck with very few wasted picks.
