Magic the Gathering Online Drafting

-Bryan Dowse

I mixed it up last night and played a 4-3-2-2 online Shards of Alara draft last night. The first pack didn’t have anything too exciting so I took a Hissing Iguanar to leave me open for grixis, naya, and jund. A second pick Branching Bolt set me up for a nice naya or jund deck with a third pick Vithian Stinger solidifying the picks.

But it got interesting when I got a 4th pick Grixis Charm. When dealing with shards, the general rule of thumb is when you see a late pick charm, that’s a good signal that the shard is open. I pick up the charm, since my only green was a Branching Bolt. Pick five I get a second Hissing Iguanar and pick six I get a Magma Spray, very late for such a great card.

I was planning on building a red deck with a splash of grix and jund. It didn’t exactly turn out that way though.
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-Steve Bahnaman

Hindsight is 20/20, but I have made a concerted effort *not* to look at Bryan’s results in writing this commentary.  Starting only from the first pick without looking ahead, I’m going to redraft this myself.  To start with though, Bryan makes the good point that when you first-pick Jund Charm, you don’t exactly commit yourself as hard as some people think…in fact, you really still have three or four plans theoretically open because Naya Splash Black and, to a lesser extent, Grixis Splash Green, are options too.  Jund-based 5-color control and Jund-based control decks can both be quite strong.  So can Jund Aggro.  The 5-color control draft archetype often uses rather underdrafted Jund-based cards like Pestilent Kathari, to stall the opponent until it can start to play big beaters, and Black and Red have the most removal options in every set in the format.  Black-Red is a good base for 5-color control, and having green if Bryan does play all three of these colors heavily allows access to Druid of the Anima and Trace of Abundance.

But I wouldn’t have taken the Jund Charm.  This is a matter of preference, not a matter of power, but let me tell you why. (continue reading…)

-Bryan Dowse

Some people will say picking up a Jund Charm too early puts you into a color commitment early, but I see jund charm as one of the exceptions to the rule. Jund Charm lets me either go Jund, or 5 color control. 5 color likes mass removal, especially instant mass removal. The following picks put me into a strong red black deck, with 2 grix fixers.
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-Bryan Dowse

This pack went very well for me. A first pick Caldera Hellion followed by two Oblivion Ring set me up very well for a naya build. When I got the 4th pick Realm Razer I was very happy. Some people don’t like this guy, but throughout the draft he won me 2 games flat out. I used instant removal on their turn, played him on my turn, and that was that, GG. The 14th pick Dragon Fodder was a gift, although looking at the pack (pick 6) all those cards are playable on some deck, and if you aren’t in red, you may as well pick up the black goodness.
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