Limited Experiences (the mtg-drafting kind)

So it's been some time since everyone has experienced Rise of Eldrazi limited format and pretty much everyone has a lot to say. The consensus seems to be that Zendikar blew and it is a nice change to go back to a pretty normal format with deck/color synergies with multiple themes. Couple notable deck archetypes being talked about lately are the Green/x ramp, U/W levelers, B/R vamp aggro, and U/b/r control.

The ramp deck is just where you just try to play your big dudes in quick fashion while splashing 1-2 colors for removal. This is my favorite archetype and one of the more powerful ones to play. Drafting ramp decks obviously involves getting all the mana accel, so you have to take them very high. Cards like aura gnarlid aren't high picks when drafting ramp cause you want your bulk of creatures to generate mana or be a huge fatty. Your goal isn't to win in the early turns but you still need to draft defensive cards or removal to stay alive till the later turns where you can dominate. Overgrowth battlement is like the best card in ramp decks, it serves as defense or ramp depending on what you need and should def be a high pick if your deck is leaning towards it. Another thing I've read is that, some of the weaker defenders are worth playing cause they help your deck defend and help accel even more with overgrowth battlement. Battle rampart came up before cause a hasted crusher is way more deadly, but I'm not too sold on that yet. Another one is reinforced bulwark which can be useful in certain decks. Ramp decks get completely exposed by u/w and there evasive creatures, so if you don't have the 1/5 reach spider or removal to deal with them, your going to die before you even cast 1 fatty. So things like reinforced bulwarks prevention shield helps you last a little longer so you can stabilize. Obviously growth spasm, ondu giants are premium picks in ramp but make sure you don't forget to take them extra high if your splashing 1-2 colors for removal. A lot of times you will end up with heavy green, and like 2 red removal and 2 black ones. So to stay consistent, you gotta remember to pick up the rampant growth effects, although you can always fall back on prisms and evolving wilds. Typical fatty is the crusher but you wanna try to get your self the artisan or pelakka wurm (best fatty btw).

U/W is self explanatory by now as everyone has either drafted or died to it many times now. You wanna get your self lots of fliers, lvlers, etc. Be on the look out for teachers, time of heroes, training ground when you can. I always here the discussion of whether to take the support cards early if you see it, or take it only if your established. I'm sure a lot of people have a say and it probably just comes down to preference. But I'm the type who doesn't like wasted picks and only take support cards if I already got the goodies. Be on the look out for oust, wave watchers and totem hartbeest (if you got the auras) as they are both excellent cards that people overlook sometimes.

B/R vamps involve drafting the 1/1 vamp + bunch of eldrazi tokens to feed it. Cards like pawn of ulamog, essence feed, goblin arsonist, the threaten, along with a few others really shine in this deck. Your also b/r, so hopefully you can get a lot of good removal along with aggressive cards like lust for war. I don't have too much experience drafting this deck but you can get the rough idea.

U/b/r is a control deck involving drafting every removal in those colors you see and abusing mnenomic wall and surreal memoir. It runs a ton of spells and tries to pick up cheap cantrip/draw with stuff like see beyond, sea gate oracle to fuel the removal engine and returning it with the 2 named cards above. You run very minimal creatures (6-10) and they all have evasion of some sort so you can finish them easily after you destroy there threats. Cards like the zulaport enforcer is a prime example of creatures they like to run. They also like to run counterspells like deprive just in case they can't stop certain spells. The sphinx wand is also very good in this deck if you see one. This deck is rarely drafted because it requires getting a lot of cards (mainly removal) to make it work.

There are a few other themes I should mention : Kiln Fiend / Fireboar decks using tunnelers, wrap in flame, or using blue for distortion strike is drafted occasionally also. Also remember, you can also draft normal decks and not always force the mention things above. Just cause your green, you don't have to be a ramp deck. I've seen successful aggressive green decks with aura gnarlids and boar umbras, but I prefer ramp every time. I will however mention that white is pretty weak in this format overall and B/W & R/W color combo should be avoided at all costs.

I'm not always correct and make plenty of mistakes so please feel free to disagree with me.

Help from pros - I think it's very useful to read articles on limited written by pros as they have much more insight (there also way better than you lol) into the format. You don't have to agree and mimic their play style or anything, but you can learn a thing or two quite often from just one article.

Channel Fireball / CF Youtube channel (check it out, like 10+ ROE drafts)


I'll leave this off for Tuan with a OH!!!!