Ok, first let me preface this with, I hate GTC-GTC-GTC drafting. Its horrible. The pack runs suck, the cards suck, and aggro only formats suck. Its a suck circle that only sucks more suck while it's sucking on it's own suck. Read my previous blog entries for more. GTC sucks.
However... Dragon's Maze turns the format into pure awesome sauce. Allow me to explain. I've done aprox 30 drafts so far. 7 Paper, and 23 online. While it's not a lot by any means, it's enough to gain a decent grasp on the format. Thus far I've been drafting one strategy. It's what I like to call, "Not X color". For example, "Not Blue", or "Not Red". All 4 other colors are fair game. While this works now, once people figure out the format it will be less good, however it's been doing very well for me.
During Shards of Alara block draft, I developed a 5 color draft strategy. Pack 1, take bombs then mana fixing (most rares, Tower Gargoyle, and the like). Pack 2, take bombs then fixing. Pack 3 go wild. Bloodbraid Elf into Adrent Plea into a hate bear? Yes please. Since Return to Ravnica is similar, I decided to try this approach to the full block.
Pack 1 is the key pack. You'll be fighting for gates, cluestones, bombs and the power commons. Do you take the gate over a bomb? Will you see another gate? Is the guy on your right going to switch to gates next? Can you risk losing a moderate gate for a moderate 5 drop? So far I haven't cemented my pick order. However I will almost always err on the side of caution and take the gate over everything else.
If you pick right, you could easily end up with 9-11 gates and just play everything.
Take this pack for example:
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| DGM Example - Pack 1 |
My eye went straight to 3 cards.
- Trostani's Summoner
- Sunspire Gatekeepers
- Gruul Guildgate
Since this is P1P1, I would take my first choice. Trostani's Summoner. This thing is a beast. 10 power for 7 mana is HUGE. The format has slowed down so much that dropping 7 drops is just something you can do without worry. I have never lost a game when I resolved a "Cone of Dudes on a Dude".
If the summoner wasn't in the pack, I would most likely take the Gate first. Sunspire Gatekeepers is the best of the Pillarfield Oxen, making a 2/2 is huge as a bonus, but they typically come back around.
Notion Thief is interesting, but it just ends up being reading: Target Opponent discards a card, you draw a card". The Snare Squad is pretty good, but it puts you in an aggro White based deck, similar to boros. While that is a strategy and I've seen it do good work, that's not what I'm talking about today.
Pack one should just be Gates, Bombs and Gatekeepers. Keep an eye out for the white, black and red gatekeepers. They're the strongest overall. Making a 2/2 to slow down your opponent or make something to populate with is huge. Killing their early drops with the black one, or a post combat trick is pretty good. And the red's act of treason effect can just straight up win games.
The Green Gatekeeper's 7 life effect is pretty huge. If you're going up against a boros/white based aggro deck its a godsend, however against another slow bomb heavy deck that effect is pretty worthless. Pick him up if the gate is missing or you really don't want a cluestone.
Blue's gatekeeper is by far the weakest. Keep in mind I say this as a control player. Drawing a card is great, but not really what you want to be doing with your 4 drop in this format. You really want value out of your gatekeepers.
Pack 2 is pretty fun for you. This is where you pick up some invaluable cards for your deck. The filling if you will. Pick up value cards like good extort creatures, or solid Gruul bloodrushers. Take Prophetic prism's to 'speed up' your deck and fix your mana. Evolve creatures like Cloudfin Raptor become huge in a 5+ drop deck since everything will evolve them. Also the best utility creatures like Greenside Watcher automatically make the cut. You can also pick up some defenders if you feel your deck will be glacially slow since there are quite a few no one else will touch.
Pack 3 is your bread and butter. There are so many great midrange creatures and big fatties. I would focus on the black removal, token makers and fatties. Lots of fatties. Grab midrange creatures like Centaur's Healer and Voidwielder. Ogre Gatecrasher is an autopick if you get the gates pack 1. I typically end up with at least 9 gates by the end of pack 2, so Ogre Gatecrasher is just a 4/4 for 4 mana. Great in any set.
So that's it. Its pretty simple. Pack 1 take fixing and gatekeepers. Pack 2 take utility and fixing, Pack 3 go wild. With this strategy you can build fun decks like this:
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| DGM - Example Deck "Not really White" |
Sure it may not look like much. But it has defense to last until the late game, removal to kill off early aggression and 6 and 7 drops to crush the late game
Go go army of indestructible 3/3s!
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