Catching Up On Magic - Part 5

Drafting Alara Block

In the spirit of this series, I will assume that you already know basic Limited theory, and move straight to the specifics of this block. In Alara Block, there are too many good multi-colored cards, including the 100% multi-color Alara Reborn, to go two colors. In Alara Block, you want to pick a shard.

There are two schools of thought on the first few picks: one says you should pick a shard by picking a three-color bomb, and stick with it, the other thinks you should avoid committing to a shard for awhile. In my opinion, feel free to take a three-color bomb first pick, but no card is worth a draft, so if you can't get the cards you need, go ahead and switch shards.

My personal preference is to draft Esper, since most people don't draft Esper. The best shards objectively are Jund and Naya, but a lot of people will try to draft them. Choose what you will.

Manafixing should be picked fairly highly, especially tri-lands. If you can get good manafixing in packs 1 and 2, you can splash a fourth color in Alara Reborn if you have to.

In Shards or Shards / Conflux, two colors was fine, but now multicolor is king. You MUST draft a shard. End of story.

Drafting Magic 2010

Magic 2010, as a core set, is fairly classic draft: W/U fliers, U/B control, B/R removal, R/G aggro, G/W midrange are the main archetypes. Instead of telling you how to draft this format, I'll tell you the subtleties of it:

Magic 2010 is a slow format. Evasion is king, since it's very easy for the ground to get gummed up in a sea of 1/4's and 3/5's.

What do all these four cards have in common? They all end creature stalls, and they're all potential first picks.

If you can break a creature stall and they can't, you have the advantage. Make sure you don't get caught on the wrong end of that equation.

M10 is also a bomb driven format, with Sleep, Overrun, Fireball, Howl of the Night Pack and Mind Control all at uncommon, and plenty more at rare. Playing your bombs and stopping your opponent playing his are generally excellent strategies for any M10 draft.

The most important thing to remember in Draft is to keep your mind open as you play so you can learn. A couple of M10 and Alara drafts will teach you more than I can possibly teach you: much of drafting theory is learnt while drafting, hence the short article. I could go in depth into pick orders and that kind of stuff: but that's not what this series is about.

To be continued...