Drafting Ravnica

Hello everyone!

Just 3 days ago I went back home for the day from college to go back to toys and pick up 3 boxes for drafting on my floor. And now, here it is 3 days later and we're drafting in 45 minutes which will leave me with just 6 draft sets! As of right now I have done 4 drafts, so I may get my 5th one in soon. First things first: this draft format is awesome! All of the guilds seem very good assuming you get certain cards, although some seem easier to put together than others. Here's how I have done so far:

@ Toys: 4-1 (the structure for this draft was terrible.... 3 pods drafted, then we had a 5 round swiss as if it was a contructed FNM) drafted Golgari splashing 2 Augur Spree, and Chaos Imps. Rares: foil Vraska, Chaos Imps, Underworld Connections, Wild Beastmaster
@ Toys: 1-2 Drafted Izzet with minimal early game. Rares: Chaos Imps, Sphinx of the Chimes, Hypersonic Dragon
@ UML: 3-0 Drafted Selesnya infi dudes. Rares: Precinct Captain, Wayfaring Temple, Azor's Elocuters
@ UML: 3-0 Drafted Izzet splashing white just for an Arrest and Sphinx's Revelation. Rares: Sphinx's Revelation, Niv-Mizzet, Hypersonic Dragon

Every format has some special nuances about it, and one thing that has quickly come apparent to me is how important mana fixing is! In the most recent draft, my first 3 picks were: Hypersonic Dragon, Centaur's Accord, Izzet Guildgate. Then I forced Izzet and got rewarded with a pack 3 pick 4 Niv Mizzet! While yes, the Niv really shouldn't have made it all the way to me, I only ever cast it twice the whole draft, so the rest of the deck was still solid. Transguild Promenade especially is a very good card and I have been picking it higher and higher every time I draft! Traditionally I have always taught people that they should pick following the rules of BREAD:

B ombs
R emoval
E vasion
A bilities
D udes

However, now clearly mana fixing has to be on the list, and I would put it on par with removal! I started playing in Zendikar, so this is the first multicolored draft format I have ever had! If you were around for Lorwyn/Shadowmoor or Shards of Alara, then knowing mana fixing is essential doesn't really shock you, but for me this is still a new concept.

Overall, I have found this format to be very fun, diverse, and balanced. It doesn't rely too heavily on bombs or anything like that and all of the guilds are very playable. Here's my take on the guilds and some essential cards:

Azorious: Lots of fliers! To make the best use of detain, you want to have cheap threats and tempo the opponent out of the game. Voidweilder is another good addition. The Guildmage is simply insane, and can take over a game completely by itself!

Izzet: This feels like the weakest guild to me, but with heavy removal and large threats, this is the control deck of the draft format. I have seen aggressive Izzet decks, but those are very heavily red. There's not much for beatdown blue.

Rakdos: This seems like it would be the most powerful deck if it is built right. With a low curve and some removal, this can kill the fastest in the format. I think the best rakdos decks splash blue for Teleportal to get the final damage in

Golgari: This is an attrition deck that goes biggest in the format. Lots of black removal plus scavenge guys killing with some scavenged evasion has been very effective IMO.

Selesnya: I have found this deck is only as good as it's best token. Centaur's Accord seems to be one of the best cards in the set, and the guildmage is insane, but if your best token is a bird, then you're in for a bad time.

As I said, this format is very good and very diverse, and I think I will have fun drafting it for some time now! That's all I have for today, until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack