To conclude this article, I have twenty quick ideas about combos in Theros Limited and the draft format as a whole.ġ) In a format with bestow, lifelink and double strike become more important. Take that one out, and I’ll take Voyage’s End. Take out the heroic creature, and I’d pick Keepsake Gorgon. To illustrate, the idea is that if my first pack of the draft would contain Fabled Hero, Keepsake Gorgon, Voyage’s End, and Leafcrown Dryad, then I would pick Fabled Hero. I introduced separate categories to make the entire list easier to read and remember, but you can think of it as one whole list. Okay, now on to my pick order list that ranks cards from high to low. Even though it is difficult to assign an abstract ranking to those cards, I gave it my best shot. By the time you may wish to take, say, Chosen by Heliod, you know whether you are going heroic or not and how important that enchantment is to your strategy. While I can rank cards like Lightning Strike and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for the first-pick-first-pack decision, the ranking becomes more fluid the lower we go in the pick order list. However, if I do receive a string of premium black commons, then I’ll move in and be happy with my Gray Merchant. If I don’t see black flowing, then I’ll abandon ship and switch to another color. I then forget about it while simply drafting the best card in the booster for the next few picks. So, my approach (which is in line with Ben Stark’s approach) is to take Gray Merchant early-that’s why it’s high in my pick order list-as a speculative pick. The problem is that once you’ve passed a Gray Merchant, then it will be difficult to move in later when black appears to be open. If more than two people try to go that route, then their decks will usually turn out horrible. And a draft can generally only support one or two black devotion drafters. It is one of the most powerful commons in the set, but only if you’re heavy black.
I don’t mind drafting it-in fact, I’m fine with drafting every color or two-color combination-but if the decision is close, then I prefer a non-red card as my first pick.Īnother card that is difficult to put in a list is Gray Merchant of Asphodel. But because red is the worst color, Lightning Strike is placed a bit lower. On sheer power alone, Lightning Strike may be the best common. Because my list aims to be accurate for the first-pick-first-pack decision, I have red cards such as Lightning Strike slightly lower than they would be in other formats. I should note that this color ranking has a small influence on my pick orders. In Theros Limited, I have the colors ranked as follows: Pick Order for Single-Colored Cardsīefore ranking individual cards, let me rank the colors. That’s why I like it, and I hope you find it useful, too. Moreover, it can give a general idea of how powerful each card is, and it may spawn discussion. Nevertheless, a ranking can aid the first-pick-first-pack decisions. Synergies, mana curve considerations, and colors drafted thus far play an important role in making your draft picks. That would be silly, as card valuations change continually as you pick more cards. I do not advocate mindlessly following the list and picking the highest-ranked card for the entire duration of the draft.
The main aim of such a list is to structure my thoughts into a coherent ordering. I always find it useful to look at all the cards and rank them from high to low. To make things concrete, I have distilled my views into a list. Today, I will to share my ideas on Theros Limited. We did three drafts per day, had a good time, and learned a lot.
#QUICK DRAFT THEROS BEYOND DEATH PRO#
Indeed, to prepare for the Limited portion of Pro Tour Theros, I spent five days in Prague to draft with Martin Juza, Stanislav Cifka, Lukas Jaklovsky, Ivan Floch, and several other top players. Especially since most of those drafts featured tough opposition: I continually had Platinum-level pros and Pro Tour winners at my table. So, I feel like I have a good grasp of the current draft format. My current record in Theros drafts is 44-19, including a 6-0 spike at Pro Tour Theros.