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mtg-thornmallow · 11 years

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Dragon’s Maze/Gatecrash/Return to Ravnica Draft Archetypes

I’ve never drafted a triple set. The closest I’ve come was Dark Ascension-Innistrad-Innistrad, and I’m prepared to admit that I had no real clue what I was doing then. I don’t want to go into DGR draft with no plan, so my husband and I have worked together to come up with some “archetypes” that may play out well in this triple-set draft format.

This is not a guide to which cards you should pick first; I trust that you can spot a bomb and will take that first. This is intended to to provide some suggestions for what your picks should be for your not-first picks of DGM, and a loose guide to what you will be prioritizing in your GTC and RTR packs.

Red-based Aggro

This is a split archetype; Rakdos and Boros are both viable options here. Prior to the prerelease, I was skeptical whether a two-color aggro deck could still be pulled off, but having seen it have some pretty impressive success in prereleases, I think it can happen in drafts. These decks should ONLY be two colors; trying to go Rakdos/Boros hybrid will slow the deck down too much.

If you’ve started out with some Rakdos cards, some other key cards from DGM are: Spike Jester, Carnage Gladiator, Rakdos Drake, Rubblebelt Maaka, and Punish the Enemy. Toil//Trouble is a possibility. In GTC you will be picking up mostly red creatures (Firefist Striker, Ember Beast, Warmind Infantry, Viashino Shanktail, Skinbrand Goblin), some black creatures (Gutter Skulk, Deathcult Rogue), and a mixture of spells (Act of Treason, Mugging, Madcap Skills, Killing Glare, possibly Shadow Slice). In RTR you should... draft Rakdos.

If your DGM draft started with some sweet Boros cards, you will want to round out DGM by picking up Warleader’s Helix, Viashino Firstblade, Rubblebelt Maaka, and Punish the Enemy. Later in the pack you should keep an eye out for Haazda Snare Squad -- while this card is not all that impressive offensively, it is going to enable some attacks that would otherwise get too much of your team killed. In GTC, draft Boros, but I think it will be correct to prioritize creatures over removal (and especially over tricks) here, since many of the available creatures in RTR are not that impressive. In the RTR pack, poach as many red creatures as you can (Rakdos Cackler, Gore-house Chainwalker, Splatter Thug, Rakdos Shred-Freak, Blood-Fray Giant), but also keep an eye out for certain white creatures (Dryad Militant, Azorius Arrester, possibly Keening Apparition), and some non-creature spells (Swift Justice, Annihilating Fire, Traitorous Blood, Dynacharge).

RUG

I actually played straight Gruul in one of my prereleases this past weekend. I realized partway through that the way I was playing was very similar to how Izzet decks played in RTR -- get in some early damage, maybe a bit of sustained damage from a pinger, build up your board with sizeable guys, and then play some sort of breakthrough spell and kill your opponent from what seemed like a comfortable life total (say, 15 or 18!). The key component of this deck is the breakthrough cards, and you’ll want more than one. In this category I include Armed//Dangerous, Gruul Charm, Mark for Death, Golgari Decoy, Teleportal, and Blustersquall. Gruul War Chant plays somewhat of a similar role, and Act of Treason/Traitorous Blood can also help out in a pinch. Teleportal and Armed//Dangerous are probably the best of these, and Chemister’s Trick is the last-ditch, oh-no-there-wasn’t-a-Teleportal version you’ll grab if you absolutely must. I don’t think Awe for the Guilds makes it, even in desperation.

The cards you’ll want to pick up in the DGM pack are: Armed//Dangerous (NEVER pass this in this archetype), Gruul War Chant, Zhur-Taa Druid, Rubblebelt Maaka, Scab-Clan Giant, Thrashing Mossdog. Kraul Warrior is a fine late pickup, and I have no idea if Feral Animist is actually a trap or not. In GTC, pick up Gruul cards, especially those with bloodrush. Don’t pass any Gruul charms. In RTR, take any of the good breakthrough cards mentioned above, and also be on the lookout for Brushstriders, Cobblebrutes, Bloodfray Giants, Splatter Thugs, and burn spells.

This deck could also be run with a lot more blue mana, which opens up the possibility of taking cards like Beetleform Mage, Nivix Cyclops, and Fluxcharger in the DGM pack, as well as some good Simic cards (Drakewing Krasis, Elusive Krasis) in GTC.

Golgari-Orzhov (Junk)

This deck is built to have good stuff all around. Good removal, big brutes thanks to Golgari, and inevitability from extort and scavenge. Black will be the central color of this deck, with green secondary and white tertiary.

In DGM, look to pick up Putrefy, Tithe Drinker, Korozda Gorgon, Ubul-Sar Gatekeepers, and Thrashing Mossdogs. Kraul Warriors are a fine late-pack pickup as well. In the GTC pack, focus on getting removal (Killing Glare, Grisly Spectacle, perhaps even Death’s Approach) and extort, especially on black creatures (draft ALL the Basilica Screechers!). Some green creatures are also fine to pick up (Crowned Ceratok, Crocanura, Rust Scarab). In the RTR pack, look for removal (Ultimate Price, Stab Wound), and good creatures. Ogre Jailbreaker should be a great pick in this pack, and you may even luck into a Centaur Healer later than you should if the people who are GW are panicking and scrabbling for token-generators.

Naya

Think: What would Brian Kibler play? This is a deck with ramp, incidental lifegain, and creatures that are bigger and better than what others have. Basically, take any creature that has good stats for its casting cost -- especially if it is reasonable both on offense and defense.

Important DGM picks are Zhur-Taa Druid, Bronzebeak Moa, Unflinching Courage, Scab-Clan Giant (if you accelerate into him, he’s quite likely to squish whatever he fights), and Rubblebelt Maaka. Armored Wolf-Rider is a solid later pick, as are Thrashing Mossdog and Kraul Warrior. In GTC, grab Wojek Halberdiers, Zhur-Taa Swine, Ember Beast, and Pit Fights -- and don’t turn down Greenside Watchers and Verdant Havens for ramp if you can get them. Ruination Wurm, Towering Thunderfist, and Nav-Squad Commandos will work out fine as later picks here. In RTR, take Centaur Healer, Knightly Valor, Golgari Longlegs, and tricks/removal like Avenging Arrow, Giant Growth, and Swift Justice.

U/B/x

This is where you’re heading if you picked up Mirko Vosk, Warped Physique, or Far//Away first. This deck is going to focus on removal, card advantage, and countermagic. It will poach extort when it can, but I expect that mechanic to be highly contested. If there is a mill deck, it will be this one -- late DGM-pack Murmuring Phantasms will turn into fuel for Doorkeepers -- but there’s no guarantee there will be Doorkeepers to pick up.

The “x” color will offer different advantages -- red brings burn and more removal (Blast of Genius, Turn//Burn), green brings some good removal (Putrefy) and some good defensive creatures like Korozda Gorgon, Trestle Troll, and even Sluiceway Scorpion. White (AKA Esper) feels to me like a different deck, with black or blue more likely to be the tertiary color, depending on relative density of fliers and removal, and with extort playing as much of a role as possible.

In DGM, pick up Warped Physique, Far//Away, Haunter of Nightveil (this guy was a nightmare to play against as an aggro deck), and Ubul Sar Gatekeepers very highly. Opal Lake Gatekeepers, Pilfered Plans, and Runner’s Bane are good mid-pack pickups, and Murmuring Phantasms will be fine to pick up late, possibly Hired Torturer, too. In GTC, snag black removal, Psychic Strikes, and any black extort creatures you can afford to take. Pilfered Plans and Psychic Strike should help you turn on Death’s Approach, so keep an eye out for it. If you’re hedging towards a Doorkeeper plan, Corpse Blockade will be a pick here. In RTR, pick up removal, countermagic, and if you did get some mill synergies/other defenders, get those Doorkeepers (also: Ogre Jailbreaker).

I know there are decks I didn’t touch on here, but hopefully this roadmap will help ease your transition into the chaos of DGR! Feel free to tweet at me (@thornmallow) with any other archetypes you think are viable!

#MtG #magic: the gathering #dragon's maze #mtgdgm #FNM

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christulach · 11 years

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Dragon's Maze Employee Prerelease

I figured this would be a good place to share a little bit on my Dragon's Maze prerelease experience. So here goes.

Our employee prerelease at Wizards was last Thursday. I've been anticipating the release of the last set in the Return to Ravnica block for quite a while. It always seems like forever for the 3rd set in a block to pop up. It had been a while since we had a set that really rewarded playing 3+ colors (I think the last was the Shards of Alara block), so I was quite intrigued after months of (mostly) guild-oriented play.

John Grant runs awesome prereleases at work. There's a HUGE line of WotC folks that come down and queue up even before the first packs are given out at 4 pm. He's always got his jams going, Game Support folks helping, and endless pizza. It's the mark of an awesome organizer that everything just sort of melts in the background while you're enjoying your game, completely losing track of time and space. Yeah. He's that good.

So, anyhoo, I had a tough decision to make. What guild to play? I'm much more of a story and theme guy than a mechanics guy, which is a testament to my RPG heart. Thankfully, the guilds are oozing with flavory goodness. I took Izzet at the RTR prerelease. I loved the guild, but struggled finding a good deck, managing a paltry 1-3 record. At the GTC prerelease, I grabbed Simic, figured it out quick, and finished 3-1. This time, I decided to go with my instincts and just grab my favorite guild to play. Which meant Simic, again. (Evolve is sweet.)

My "secret ally" guild was Selesnya. This was solidly "OK" with me. I would've preferred Golgari, as I figured getting two guilds that had +1/+1 counters as a guild mechanic would've been very strong. But, along with Azorius, I felt that Selesnya was still a good pairing for me. I didn't want Izzet, as I really wanted to focus on creatures and build a nice midrange deck.

I sat down next to Jennifer Meyen (AKA Tifa). She also picked Simic, and was really hoping for my pairing but wound up with Izzet as her secret ally. We decided to build together and talk a little about our decks. We each sort of critiqued the other's choices once we got down to a close-to-complete deck.

I can't tell if Tifa's snarling, or getting ready to take a bite out of her cards, but she scares me.

I opened some sweet cards in my packs, including three "maze runners" (legendary creatures representing champions of Ravnica's ten guilds) - a foil Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts; Melek, Izzet Paragon; and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. No mythics, but my guild packs had Loxodon Smiter and Diluvian Primordial. Those seemed playable too.

So, I was clearly playing 3 colors - white, blue, and green (AKA Bant). Sadly, my other rares weren't on-color for those three colors, but I will say, I did pull ALL creatures for rares, which is always a good place to be in sealed. (The other two not mentioned above were Notion Thief and Pontiff of Blight.) So I had options.

Mana fixing was all there. I had 7 cluestones, one keyrune, and 6 guildgates. I could go five color if I really wanted, but I really just started off three first and see where that would lead. Also, I'm not Bill Stark. (I'm sure someone reading this will understand that.)

My Bant core was pretty solid. I didn't really have a lot of guild keyword cards flying around (a couple each of populate and evolve), so I pretty much just jammed good midrange cards along with a few tricks. My removal was basically nonexistant, so I kept the creature count solid at 16 and ran a few combat tricks and buffs. I was confident that my creature quality was high, and I'd be able to get there either with big dudes or evasiveness.

Looking at my pool, I decided to splash for red, but didn't grab Melek. I wanted a big finisher, and I gave that job to Ruric Thar. Diluvian Primoridal got set aside for my other red(ish) card, Zur-Taa Druid.

My deck is ready to do battle... First up, mirror match. D'oh!

Tifa gave me a bit of a jibing on my inclusion of the Saruli Gatekeepers. "Lifegain? Ewww!" or something to that effect. I told her "Eh, seems good. I got 5 guildgates, and this here Gatecreeper Vine to find 'em." Her indignant comments toward my "Pillarfield Oxen with Benefits" would later be tearfully retracted. (Well, in my mind, I imagined it as such.)

So, here's the list, in case the individual cards in the pic are too small or you've decided to consume this blog entry via audio. You know, 'cause it's cool to be read to and such.

Spire Tracer

Zur-Taa Druid

Gatecreeper Vine

Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage

Deputy of Acquittals

Shambleshark

Loxodon Smiter

Wind Drake

Phytoburst

Agoraphobia

Loxodon Smiter

Wind Drake

Bred for the Hunt (swapped out for Druid's Deliverance later)

Common Bond

Unflinching Courage

Izzet Cluestone

Gruul Cluestone

Saruli Gatekeepers (2)

Nimbus Swimmer

Ascended Lawmage

Adaptive Snapjaw

Steeple Roc

Species Gorger

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Azorius Guildgate

Izzet Guildgate

Selesnya Guildgate

Simic Guildgate (2)

Forest (4)

Island (4) (swapped out one Island for a Mountain later)

Plains (4)

First up, Tifa in the Simic mirror match. Our decks were pretty similar and midrangey. We played to three games in our match; each one was close. I wound up having trouble dealing with her enchantments (in particular her Way of the Thief), and stumbled a little on my red mana. I sided in a Naturalize and out came Bred for the Hunt, never to return. In game 3, I used Species Gorger, Deputy of Acquittals, and Saruli Gatekeepers to pull out and keep the lifegain coming even as she was hitting me with 7 unblockable damage. They were excellent games; the best ones I had all night. Plus, Tifa's fun to play and a great sport. So, 1-0. Looking pretty good.

Tifa's deck. Those Mossdogs were trouble. And a Savageborn Hydra!

I made permanent change to get rid of Bred for the Hunt and put in Druid's Deliverance to help me against aggro decks. The pizza arrived, and Aaron from Tech Services was my next opponent. Aaron had eschewed the 3-color guideline and just built a Gruul rush n' burn deck. He had decent removal, and I had a tough early game in each match. I choked on mana in game 1, but outmaneuvered him and put bigger threats on the board in games 2 and 3 to take the match. 2-0, and feeling confident.

Caitlyn (also from Tech Services) called me out to a match. We hadn't played against each other since she first arrived over a year ago, but we both enjoyed our match last time, so it was nice to catch up a bit and sling some spells. She had built around a Boros base, and her deck was basically aggro. After an alarming early play in game 1 where she had battalion on the board and I had basically a Gatecreeper Vine, I managed to pull out of it and do the lilfegain trick again with Deputy of Acquittals and the Saruli Gatekeepers. In the second game, I used multiple bounces of the Gatecreeper Vine to fetch all my guildgates. That game, I hit hard with Ruric Thar for the win. 3-0, nice!

My last opponent of the night was... Justin, I think. I can't really remember his name, but he was relatively new to Wizards (about 3 months) and was piloting an Azorius-Boros deck. It was getting late, but our games ran SUPER long. I think we played 2 games for about an hour. In game one, he built up an impressive board of creatures, but my Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage got to token-making mana and I was able to keep up with his board. In game 2, I pulled out of a sticky situation at 6 life by gaining 14 life in one turn with end-of-his-turn Deputy of Acquittals bouncing Saruli Gatekeeper back and replaying it and my second one on my turn. The board got gummed up, and then I played Ruric Thar. He was pretty concerned. My next turn, I took 6 life, slapped an Unflinching Courage on the big Gruul ogre, and it was over. 8/8, trample, lifelink, vigilance, and reach is pretty much All The Things You Want.

So, I finished 4-0. My first undefeated prerelease! The only other time I got close was Innistrad, where I had an insane pool (Olivia Voldaren and Bloodline Keeper were highlights). Back then, we did 5 matches in an evening and I hit 4-0, then played Mark Rosewater in my last match, losing in a nail-biting game 3.

A few observations from my experience:

Players were either not packing enough removal, or didn't have it. Excepting Aaron, I really didn't have anyone picking off my creatures once they hit the board.

While aggro decks are possible in this Sealed format, I think midrange looks a lot better. Drafting will be different, I'm sure.

Without a substantial supplement of RTR or GTC cards, it seems like "just play your best cards" was the order of the day over synergy. Regular block sealed (2x RTR, 2x GTC, and 2x DGM) might be a little more consistent for guild keywords.

Four and five color decks are really easy to reach for in this specific Sealed environment. I watched out for double identical color mana symbols (avoiding those), and played 3 + red splash with problems only in one game. Anyone going straight 2 colors was definitely at a disadvantage.

Phytoburst got a lot of players (including me) the first time through... "Not an instant? Huh." So watch for that.

Species Gorger is an absolute house. I would first-pick him in many drafts.

None of the Gatekeepers are a joke. They're super solid. I would pick on-color ones pretty high in a draft (maybe around 3rd pack 1, and possibly 2nd in packs 2-3).

7 is a lot of life to gain. Especially when you can bounce and recast.

I had a great time with Dragon's Maze at our prerelease. I'm looking forward to doing a bunch of drafting with it, and our internal league starts up this Friday. If you're playing with the Magical Cards, I hope you had fun at your prerelease or are going to get an opportunity to play with the set soon!

Keep on keepin' on.

#mtgdgm

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