Easily my favorite part about playing Magic is beating people with a deck of my own design. Now, this usually applies to Constructed, but doing it in Limited can be similarly satisfying. Nothing beats drafting a fringe archetype and having it work out. Choosing to draft a fringe archetype that takes the whole table by surprise is both an incredibly fun and a potentially powerful move.

By flipping a draft format around and drafting an archetype that nobody else is, you open yourself up to getting late picks that are as good as bombs in your deck. Cards that tie your deck together can sometimes be thirteenth picks to others. If a person in an M11 draft isn't drafting a mill deck, that Tome Scour is useless. They'll take pretty much any card in their color over it. That leaves you to snap up the leavings and draft a deck that attacks in a completely new direction.

This kind of drafting usually comes with some risk. You tend to be drafting a very synergistic deck, which comes with two problems: One, you're very reliant on what cards come to you. If you draft your whole deck around an uncommon and only get one, you're going to have a tough time. God help you if it gets destroyed. The second main issue is that synergistic decks tend to have lower card quality over all. Cards that get better in multiples tend to be worse on their own, and if they aren't, other drafters are taking them anyway.

With these points in mind, I'd like to write articles exploring the different fringe archetypes of any given format. Most draft walkthroughs discuss pick orders only in the context of the deck that is being drafted, but what happens when you see a ninth pick Tome Scour in a weak pack? Or a Furnace Celebration eighth? When is the right time to jump on the bandwagon? These questions never get addressed in other draft walkthroughs, because they rarely stray from the proven, beaten path. Fringe decks are too risky for normal draft walkthroughs to do with any regularity, but thats what this and future articles are all about: Exploring these fringe decks can save a draft that might be going poorly, or allow you to jump on a train to a powerhouse nobody else is on. You never know if you don't try!

Furnace Celebration: The Love Child of Lightning Rift and Mortician Beetle.... Wait. Never Mind. That's Gross.

We'll start our journey with Scars of Mirrodin Draft. Furnace Celebration is a clear plant by WotC to build around in limited, so why not indulge? They've been pretty good to us lately. Clearly it wants to go in decks with tons of cards that sacrifice themselves and other cards. We're also going to want plenty of mana, because Furnace Celebration costs two mana to activate every time.

This deck will be base red, as the whole strategy is based around a double red enchantment. I'll go over the notable cards that fit in all R/x builds of the Furnace Celebration deck. Keep in mind that this analysis is based off of several drafts I've done on MTGO.

Red and Colorless:

Sacrifice outlets: Red has an abundance of these. Most notable is Barrage Ogre, which turns all your artifacts into double Shocks with a Furnace in play. Ferrovore is a common that isn't too hard to pick up. It also leans your deck towards an 'all in'-style deck. Ferrovore also gets really scary with Panic Spellbomb. Don't rule out Kuldotha Rebirth, either. You can pick these up pretty late, and they're excellent with the Spellbombs. Having cheap ways to sacrifice artifacts is important when every Furnace trigger costs an additional two mana. This is why Oxidda Daredevil makes it in the deck, although I wouldn't play him unless I had a huge number of Spellbombs.

The Spellbombs: These are your bread and butter. You need cards that you want to sacrifice, and these come in neat little packages with a cantrip attached. The Panic Spellbomb is on color and effective with Ferrovore, as well as being one of the cheapest to cast and sac. Flight Spellbomb is similarly great, even if you can't always get the use out of the cantrip. Horizon Spellbomb is great in every deck, so you'll have to take it higher, but keep in mind it costs five to fetch a land, draw a card, and Shock something. Its a powerful play, but it does take your whole turn. It ends up being more like a land search spell with benefits. Nihil Spellbomb is the only one I feel bad playing. It gets better if you're playing black, though.

Replicas: The only good ones are the ones on color. Those are pretty good, though.

Others: Any artifact that comes with charge counters, ie the Trigons and Tumble Magnet. In other decks that can't charge them, they sit awkwardly after they're used. The Furnace deck has an use for these useless pieces of scrap. Another key card to watch out for is Culling Dias.

Other Colors:

White: There isn't much to get out of White. If you open a white bomb play white, get use out of the Spellbomb and Replica and your awesome common removal. Salvage Scouts is also playable as a card that sacs itself and it can recycle a Spellbomb or other artifact.

Blue: Literally the only blue card that says sacrifice on it is Shape Anew. Its pretty bad. I'd pair this deck with blue only if I absolutely had to. It would have to involve a ton of fliers, blue bombs, and multiple Flight Spellbombs. There isn't even card draw that gains you card advantage!

Black: A little better. Flesh Allergy is playable normally, and if you're sacrificing multiple creature a turn, it can be an alright finisher. This deck really needs time to set up a Furnace and untap to really take control of the game. Black removal is pretty good for that, and you have a pretty good one drop in Fume Spitter that also happens to compliment your strategy.

Green: This is my favorite color to play with Furnace Celebration. The main gain here is Molder Beast. You're sacrificing tons of artifacts anyway, and it only takes a few artifacts and two swings to make the the guy lethal. Two Spellbombs help Molder Beast connect, and it kills scary fast. Withstand Death also helps it live for a second attack. It can't be chumped due to trample. AND, he doesn't really have a home in a deck currently. I've seen this guy go eleventh. He is the epitome of awesome in this deck.

Here's an example of a deck that I drafted to a finals appearance:

[cardlist]

[Lands]

12 Mountain

4 Forest

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

2 Ferrovore

2 Molder Beast

1 Vulshok Replica

1 Memnite

1 Leaden Myr

1 Iron Myr

2 Wall of Tanglecord

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Flight Spellbomb

1 Horizon Spellbomb

1 Origin Spellbomb

1 Prototype Portal

1 Ratchet Bomb

1 Sylvok Lifestaff

2 Tumble Magnet

2 Kuldotha Rebirth

1 Galvanic Blast

1 Withstand Death

2 Furnace Celebration

[/Spells]

[/cardlist]

Bonus Nugget: What I Learned While Taking Seventy Four Damage

One card I love in this format is Wall of Tanglecord, even if you can't give it reach. The format is just so fast and an 0/6 just stops everything. Reach is a bonus against white and blue metalcraft decks, although without it, its not useless. Its also not useless against the infect deck, as it chumps Blight Mamba better than anything else, sans first strike.

The Wheels on the Bus Fall Off and Off

There is quite a bit to be learned from failure, so I'll try not to shy away from posting draft lists that don't go as planned. This deck I managed while trying to force Furnace Celebration. It ended up without its namesake, but with a few good cards.

[cardlist]

[Lands]

5 Forest

11 Mountain

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

3 Ferrovore

1 Molder Beast

1 Snapsail Glider

1 Carapace Forger

2 Embersmith

1 Copper Myr

2 Iron Myr

1 Sylvok Replica

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Horizon Spellbomb

3 Panic Spellbomb

1 Tumble Magnet

1 Arc Trail

2 Kuldotha Rebirth

1 Turn to Slag

1 Galvanic Blast

1 Shatter

1 Slice in Twain

[/Spells]

[/cardlist]

This deck didn't make it past round 1, but this particular list is a very important teaching tool. First, keep in mind not all cards in your deck need to be dedicated to your strategy. The main benefit of drafting fringe decks is that you get solid cards way later than most other decks. This frees you up to take whatever first pick quality cards you want at the outset without worrying about getting enough meat picks 4-9.

Another thing this deck taught me is that, despite the fact that this deck wants a higher number of artifacts than normal, metalcraft cards are not great. If you don't have something to abuse the sacrificing of artifacts, chances are you're cycling your Spellbombs to find them. If you have the cards to abuse sacrificing most of your artifacts are going to the graveyard anyway. It can be restrictive to leave three of your artifacts in play.

Keep in mind that while the deck plays with Furnace Celebration, it isn't necessary to victory. Being able to cycle a Spellbomb and make three guys for two mana via Kuldotha Rebirth is still a powerful play. Putting sacrifice outlets next to Molder Beast is a scary clock to face down. Ferrovore plus Panic Spellbomb gets dangerous really quickly

The Sign Off: All the Fans be Screamin' for an Encore

I hope you enjoyed this first in a hopefully long series of articles. In the future, I'd like to do pick by pick draft walkthroughs and more in depth looks at archetypes. Scars of Mirrodin has tons of untapped potential that I want to explore, and I look forward to exploring it with you! Comment on what kind of things you'd like to see more of, things I got horribly wrong, what archetypes you want me to explore, whatever whatever. Tune in next time for a pick by pick draft walkthrough of the Furnace Celebration archetype!

Thanks for Reading!

Dan Emmons