Drafting Thundersong

By Peter V on November 22nd, 2005 (Article of the Month November 2005) | Filed in Limited | 33 Comments

Drafting Thundersong

Introduction: Thunderstruck


It all began with one horrible draft. I was drafting Boros, but after two packs I simply had none of the staple cards of the deck. No Skyknights, no Arcs, no Fangtails, and only a single Thundersong Trumpeter. And definitely nothing as crazy as a good uncommon. What I had was bunch of filler cards: Sell-Sword Brutes, Goblin Spelunkers, Sparkmage Apprentices, War-Torch Goblins, Rally the Righteous,... Not bad cards, but simply nothing game-winning. Luckily, the third pack provided at least something nice with a couple more Trumpeters, but still I felt the draft hadn't gone good at all.

The deck overperformed. It showed an odd tendency to win games on turn five or six.

I started analyzing why this deck had done so well, while it seemed for the most part made up of very mediocre cards (which is not meant insulting to fans of Viashino Slasher). It turned out the strength of the deck was the combination of loads of cheap creatures (as I hadn't found removal all draft), Thundersong Trumpeter and Rally the Righteous. And so I started willingly drafting this strange archetype.


Some of you are probably thinking: Strange archetype? Isn't that just a normal Boros deck? After all, it has the same goal: win very quickly. The answer is no. Of course the fact that it uses Red and White cards means it'll overlap with a typical Boros deck. But the pick order is totally different. The most notable difference is that you draft Thundersong Trumpeter over anything. And I mean anything.

The deck: Thundersong


Always pick this.
Before I move on to an example draft, let me summarize what the "Thundersong" deck looks like.
1) As many Thundersong Trumpeters as come to you in the draft. The nice thing is they can come around quite late, as there's typically only one other Boros drafter at the table, and even then there are some cards he will take over it.
2) At least two, and up to four(!) Rally the Righteous. You don't really need to pick them too high as they tend to table.
3) Aside from the Rallys you only want about three spells. Also, in this deck you play only 16 lands (and - I hope this didn't really need to be said - never play a Signet or other such nonsense). The spells should preferably be really good (Galvanic Arc or Lightning Helix good). A single Boros Fury-Shield is usually nice too but I personally don't like to run more than one. I also don't want Fiery Conclusion in the deck - every creature counts.
4) This obviously makes a lot of room for creatures. The bulk of your deck should be two-mana creatures. Veteran Armorer is clearly the best (after our herald, of course), next is Sell-Sword Brute, Sparkmage Apprentice, Courier Hawk and Viashino Slasher. The last two I prefer to leave out unless I'm desperate for 2-drops.
5) Try to get a few one-mana creatures too, but not too many. Three or four will do. The best one-drop is by far the uncommon Frenzied Goblin cause he's like an extra Trumpeter. Next is War-Torch Goblin, and if nothing better comes around, even Boros Recruit will do as a good target for Rally the Righteous.
6) You want only a few three- and four-mana creatures, and nothing that costs more than that really. Skyknight Legionnaire, Nightguard Patrol and Viashino Fangtail will always make the deck, the rest can act as filler.

Let's get to a draft and see what all this means in practice!

The draft

I'm using the same "spoiler tag" format bateleur used earlier cause it's more fun to read drafts that way, in my opinion. If you don't want to make your own picks, that's fine too. I won't check it. Promise.

Pack 1 (RA):

Pick 1:
Sisters of Stone Death
Golgari Thug
Seed Spark
Carrion Howler
Seeds of Strength
Convolute
Wojek Siren
Woodwraith Strangler
Muddle the Mixture
War-Torch Goblin
Sparkmage Apprentice
Galvanic Arc
Transluminant
Rally the Righteous
Fiery Conclusion
Spoiler:
I don't like to take Sisters of Stone Death here because 1) I don't like to draft green in Ravnica, 2) Golgari seems often overdrafted and 3) I don't like 8-mana cards, even huge bombs like this one. Galvanic Arc is my easy first pick here. I also notice the Rally which will hopefully table... meaning I'm all set to draft my new favourite deck. (Of course I'm going to draft that... otherwise I wouldn't have picked this draft to show in this article, right?)


Pick 2:
Hunted Dragon
Belltower Sphinx
Wojek Embermage
Congregation at Dawn
Gate Hound
Compulsive Research
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Dogpile
Conclave's Blessing
Selesnya Signet
Scatter the Seeds
Boros Signet
Elves of Deep Shadow
Barbarian Riftcutter
Spoiler:
The on-color cards are Hunted Dragon, Wojek Embermage, Dogpile, Boros Signet and Barbarian Riftcutter. (Not counting the two crappy white cards, of course). And actually, none of those is particularly good for this deck. I'll go with the most obvious pick though - the Dragon can win games by itself. Remember I said you shouldn't play anything that costs more than four mana? Well, at five mana for a 6/6 hasty flier this might just be one of the only exceptions.


Pick 3:
Flash Conscription
Devouring Light
Lurking Informant
Seismic Spike
Consult the Necrosages
Civic Wayfinder
Benevolent Ancestor
Rally the Righteous
Transluminant
Coalhauler Swine
Shred Memory
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Terraformer
Spoiler:
This might be a kick in the nuts to a lot of people, but I'm passing the Devouring Light. I have several reasons for that. First, the double white is really hard for this deck. You play 16 lands, and usually the focus of the deck will be red, dividing the lands 9/7 in favor of the Mountains. You usually don't have many white creatures either. Tapping a Trumpeter to pay for it is pointless too, since you could just tap it to prevent that creature from blocking. The other important reason is that Devouring Light just isn't that great on offense. Long story short, I pick one of the signature cards of this deck, Rally the Righteous, also because, looking at the several weak cards in the pack, it looks like it might not table.


Pick 4:
Bloodletter Quill
Frenzied Goblin
Reroute
Stoneshaker Shaman
Benevolent Ancestor
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Thundersong Trumpeter
Screeching Griffin
Nightguard Patrol
Quickchange
Rain of Embers
Golgari Signet
Spoiler:
Trumpeter. I hope I needn't explain more.


Pick 5:
Bloodbond March
Psychic Drain
Spectral Searchlight
Incite Hysteria
Grayscaled Gharial
Viashino Slasher
Barbarian Riftcutter
Surge of Zeal
Leave No Trace
Consult the Necrosages
Muddle the Mixture
Spoiler:
The last pack had two other cards I wanted to take. Obviously, that had to mean this pack has nothing. I take the only cards that might make it in the deck, and pray it won't be necessary. Viashino Slasher.


Pick 6:
Boros Swiftblade
Terraformer
Quickchange
Perplex
Incite Hysteria
Surveilling Sprite
Veteran Armorer
Fiery Conclusion
Strands of Undeath
Mortipede
Spoiler:
Here's an uncommon I value very high for this deck. Boros Swiftblade would be a great creature for this deck already without his interaction with Rally the Righteous. The fact that he gets the bonus twice makes him spectacular.


Pick 7:
Grozoth
Ethereal Usher
Convolute
Incite Hysteria
Coalhauler Swine
Thundersong Trumpeter
Woodwraith Strangler
Surveilling Sprite
Gaze of the Gorgon
Spoiler:
I'm not telling you.


Pick 8:
Selesnya Sagittars
Root-Kin Ally
Dark Heart of the Wood
Necromantic Thirst
Convolute
Clinging Darkness
Fists of Ironwood
Strands of Undeath
Spoiler:
Nothing for me, so I semi-hate-draft Fists of Ironwood.


Pick 9:
Seed Spark
Wojek Siren
Woodwraith Strangler
Muddle the Mixture
Sparkmage Apprentice
Rally the Righteous
Fiery Conclusion
Spoiler:
Yep, the Rally tabled. What's really nice to see is two other decent Red cards lapping the table.


Pick 10:
Gate Hound
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Dogpile
Conclave's Blessing
Selesnya Signet
Barbarian Riftcutter
Spoiler:
Dogpile, though I don't want to have to play it.


Pick 11:
Flash Conscription
Seismic Spike
Coalhauler Swine
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Terraformer
Spoiler:
Flash Conscription, same as above.


Pick 12:
Frenzied Goblin
Stoneshaker Shaman
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Quickchange
Spoiler:
An awesome twelfth pick Frenzied Goblin. As I said, these can act as extra Trumpeters.


Pick 13:
Grayscaled Gharial
Barbarian Riftcutter
Surge of Zeal
Pick 14:
Quickchange
Perplex
Pick 15:
Grozoth
Spoiler:
Riftcutter, Quickchange and Grozoth keep the bench warm.


Pack 2 (RA):

Pick 1:
Bloodbond March
Voyager Staff
Clutch of the Undercity
Watchwolf
Surge of Zeal
Veteran Armorer
Sell-Sword Brute
Necromantic Thirst
Dryad's Caress
Caregiver
Clinging Darkness
Thundersong Trumpeter
Perplex
Gaze of the Gorgon
Compulsive Research


Pick 2:
Searing Meditation
Suppression Field
Darkblast
Pollenbright Wings
Seeds of Strength
Barbarian Riftcutter
Golgari Rot Farm
Compulsive Research
Drift of Phantasms
Courier Hawk
Torpid Moloch
Roofstalker Wight
Rally the Righteous
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Spoiler:
When you already had two Rally the Righteous from the first pack, it's not necessary to take one from the second pick of the second pack. Unfortunately, when there's nothing else worth taking over it, you don't have much choice.


Pick 3:
Twilight Drover
Vindictive Mob
Lightning Helix
Boros Recruit
Selesnya Signet
Dizzy Spell
Gaze of the Gorgon
Perplex
Thundersong Trumpeter
Seismic Spike
Ordruun Commando
Thoughtpicker Witch
Centaur Safeguard
Spoiler:
And when I said take it over anything, I meant anything. I don't think there's a better example possible. When I was taking the Trumpeter I actually wasn't sure if passing a Lightning Helix could ever be correct - but the games reminded me that for this deck, the correct pick was indeed the Trumpeter. The Helix is of course still a great card to have for this deck - but the Trumpeter is crucial. He makes the deck work.


Pick 4:
Mnemonic Nexus
Selesnya Sagittars
Divebomber Griffin
Incite Hysteria
Smash
Vedalken Dismisser
Sundering Vitae
Bramble Elemental
Quickchange
Leave No Trace
Induce Paranoia
Roofstalker Wight
Spoiler:
Nothing useful in this pack. Divebomber Griffin is one of the more powerful cards, and he's on color. I take it, but unless things go very wrong from now on he doesn't go in my deck (remember what I said about five mana, and about double-White).


Pick 5:
Sisters of Stone Death
Ivy Dancer
Golgari Signet
Conclave's Blessing
Roofstalker Wight
Brainspoil
Votary of the Conclave
Fiery Conclusion
Drift of Phantasms
Quickchange
Shred Memory
Spoiler:
Again, I take a pretty good on-color card that I don't want to end up playing, Fiery Conclusion this time.


Pick 6:
Master Warcraft
Flow of Ideas
Dimir Machinations
Wojek Apothecary
Rally the Righteous
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Transluminant
Perplex
Convolute
Elvish Skysweeper
Spoiler:
This one is tricky. Master Warcraft or a fourth Rally the Righteous? I think, despite being the fourth one already, the Rally is still the better card for the deck. The basis of the deck is the Trumpeter/Rally combo, and Master Warcraft simply doesn't work well with the Trumpeter. Being able to cast Rally and Warcraft in one turn is highly unlikely too. Therefore I go with another Rally.

Some Boros drafter further down the table has gotta be happy. Helix and Master Warcraft going late... but I told you this wasn't traditional Boros.


Pick 7:
Infuriate
Rolling Spoil
Goblin Spelunkers
Transluminant
Scatter the Seeds
Leave No Trace
Golgari Brownscale
Centaur Safeguard
Strands of Undeath
Spoiler:
I took the 3/1 over the 2/2. I'm actually not sure which of these is better.



Pick 8:
Warp World
Frenzied Goblin
Flame-kin Zealot
Woodwraith Strangler
Viashino Slasher
Sell-Sword Brute
Dizzy Spell
Smash
Spoiler:
I don't have anything on four mana yet, so I'll take the Zealot. He does a lot of damage, and the haste offsets the extra mana. Looking back now though, the correct pick was probably Frenzied Goblin. I already said this guy acts as extra Trumpeters, but still I was underestimating him. This guy IS an extra Trumpeter, and therefore should probably be taken just as high. As in, over anything except Trumpeter itself.


Pick 9:
Bloodbond March
Voyager Staff
Clutch of the Undercity
Surge of Zeal
Necromantic Thirst
Dryad's Caress
Perplex
Pick 10:
Searing Meditation
Suppression Field
Golgari Rot Farm
Drift of Phantasms
Torpid Moloch
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Pick 11:
Boros Recruit
Dizzy Spell
Gaze of the Gorgon
Perplex
Ordruun Commando
Pick 12:
Mnemonic Nexus
Incite Hysteria
Smash
Quickchange
Pick 13:
Conclave's Blessing
Quickchange
Shred Memory
Pick 14:
Flow of Ideas
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Pick 15:
Rolling Spoil
Spoiler:
Nothing good in the late picks this round. Note that Ordruun Commando is too expensive for this deck, I take the Boros Recruit over it.


Pack 3 (RA):

Pick 1:
Dimir Doppelganger
Devouring Light
Remand
Golgari Thug
Fists of Ironwood
Muddle the Mixture
Vedalken Dismisser
Skyknight Legionnaire
Votary of the Conclave
Boros Garrison
Woodwraith Strangler
Rain of Embers
Tattered Drake
Goblin Spelunkers
Shambling Shell
Spoiler:
As stated before, Devouring Light isn't great in this deck. The double-White hurts, and you aim for a kill by turn five or six. You want to spend your time casting creatures for a huge Rally. And in this pack there is of course one quality creature. The Skyknight is especially nice considering this deck would even gladly play Goblin Chariot.


Pick 2:
Selesnya Sagittars
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Frenzied Goblin
Boros Fury-Shield
Smash
Veteran Armorer
Dromad Purebred
Woodwraith Strangler
Farseek
Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi
Consult the Necrosages
Tattered Drake
Lurking Informant
Zephyr Spirit
Spoiler:
I consider Sunhome nearly broken in Ravnica Limited. But I hope by now it's clear that the land has no place in this deck. It's too slow, requires you to run more lands, etc. If you play all creatures with 1 or 2 power, giving one creature double strike somewhere in the late game isn't impressive (as opposed to giving all of them +2/+0 on turn five). I'm however very happy to get a Veteran Armorer; he's the next best two-drop.


Pick 3:
Excruciator
Indentured Oaf
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Mortipede
Fists of Ironwood
Dimir Aqueduct
Selesnya Signet
Stinkweed Imp
Dimir Infiltrator
Seismic Spike
Drake Familiar
Courier Hawk
Surge of Zeal
Spoiler:
A single Indentured Oaf is, while not really needed, good enough for the deck. He's only my second four-mana card. I'd rather have a Viashino Fangtail, but since none seem to come today I'll take the 4/3 instead.


Pick 4:
Hunted Horror
Overwhelm
Congregation at Dawn
Gaze of the Gorgon
Terrarion
Caregiver
Dizzy Spell
Infectious Host
Lurking Informant
Sewerdreg
Surge of Zeal
Clinging Darkness
Spoiler:
Nothing in this pack. I took Caregiver, but I should've hated the Clinging Darkness in fact.


Pick 5:
Eye of the Storm
Undercity Shade
Cleansing Beam
Boros Fury-Shield
Leave No Trace
Screeching Griffin
Dimir House Guard
Dogpile
Shambling Shell
Dimir Signet
Dimir Infiltrator
Spoiler:
Cleansing Beam will never make this deck. Screeching Griffin and Dogpile are also too slow. I do like a single Boros Fury-Shield for this deck though; it has a lot of uses. It's about equally useful as Dogpile for me, but costs one mana less.


Pick 6:
Dimir Machinations
Twisted Justice
Boros Garrison
Sell-Sword Brute
Greater Mossdog
Caregiver
Roofstalker Wight
War-Torch Goblin
Goblin Spelunkers
Boros Fury-Shield
Spoiler:
Two-drops are the core of this deck, and Grizzly Bears that bite you when they die are just fine.


Pick 7:
Golgari Germination
Wojek Embermage
Screeching Griffin
Smash
Roofstalker Wight
Sadistic Augermage
Golgari Rot Farm
Zephyr Spirit
Thoughtpicker Witch
Spoiler:
I took Wojek Embermage as a sideboard card.


Pick 8:
Bloodbond March
Suppression Field
Golgari Thug
Fiery Conclusion
Sell-Sword Brute
Goblin Spelunkers
Wojek Siren
Thoughtpicker Witch
Spoiler:
See pick 6.


Pick 9:
Remand
Golgari Thug
Muddle the Mixture
Boros Garrison
Woodwraith Strangler
Rain of Embers
Goblin Spelunkers
Spoiler:
Goblin Spelunkers: a good SB card at worst, a mediocre MD card at best.


Pick 10:
Frenzied Goblin
Boros Fury-Shield
Dromad Purebred
Woodwraith Strangler
Consult the Necrosages
Zephyr Spirit
Spoiler:
Frenzied Goblin; see above.


Pick 11:
Excruciator
Dimir Aqueduct
Seismic Spike
Courier Hawk
Surge of Zeal
Pick 12:
Hunted Horror
Dizzy Spell
Infectious Host
Surge of Zeal
Pick 13:
Eye of the Storm
Undercity Shade
Leave No Trace
Pick 14:
Goblin Spelunkers
Boros Fury-Shield
Pick 15:
Zephyr Spirit


The deck

Thundersong  
Creatures
2 Frenzied Goblin
1 Boros Recruit

4 Thundersong Trumpeter
2 Sell-Sword Brute
1 Boros Swiftblade
1 Veteran Armorer

2 Goblin Spelunkers
1 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Centaur Safeguard

1 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Indentured Oaf		1 Hunted Dragon

Other Spells
4 Rally the Righteous
1 Galvanic Arc
1 Boros Fury-Shield

Lands
9 Mountain
7 Plains

Conclusion: The Song of Thunder

The above list is a nice example of what a typical Thundersong decklist looks like. So, should you draft this? After quite a few drafts with this decktype I'd answer: the deck is quite good, in that it regularly kills on turn 5. That's nothing to sneeze at. It is, however, vulnerable in several ways. First, you might get "Thunder-screwed". This will severely weaken your deck. In that case you could still try to draft a more normal Boros deck though. The deck also doesn't like early removal against it. Especially mass removal is annoying. "Mass removal" in Ravnica, that's Rain of Embers and Rolling Spoil. (Yes, I've actually lost games to Rolling Spoil. Worst of all, the guy maindecked that crap.) There's also the recurring Darkblast which your Trumpeters don't like. All of these cards are reasons to make sure you still have enough 2-toughness creatures. And even then, they'll hurt, because your most important guys still die. On the upside, even if your opponent finds such pieces of hate to board in against your deck (or *maindecks* them), at least he doesn't get much time to draw into them. Hate versus a fast deck isn't as dangerous as hate versus a deck that takes forever to kill you. Also you can avoid this if you can draft enough Veteran Armorers - but that's not so easy of course, considering it's a very high pick.

I can't leave you without sharing my funniest victory ever with a Thundersong deck. My opponent, clearly a true fan of this deck idea, played a turn three Hunted Phantasm. Did he even realize those tokens are RED?? Needless to say, on my turn, I hit him for 28.

Sharing the Song


Finally, a disclaimer. I'm definitely not perfect at drafting this archetype (or at drafting at all). During the above draft, I already pointed out some mistakes, and I'm sure there are more. I've drafted a lot to be able to write this, but then again I can't force this deck every time, and besides, the play level where I draft is low. Luckily, Lesurgo managed to solve both problems by trying out this archetype at a higher level. I'll let him explain:

I go to a casual unsanctioned draft on Tuesdays with a lot of players that have done well at Nationals and other large events, and while the list is very long of their accomplishments, I'm sure that the fact that Alan Corner, the Hall of Fame inductee, plays there on a regular basis would probably grab your attention. Anyways, my goal was to draft this archtype, so I did. It looked like a pile and I bent your rules a little bit, but it worked out quite well, going 6-1. Obviously the number of some of the cards would lead to that conclusion (4 Viashino Fangtails are pretty good, I hear) but even without those the deck still seemed pretty crazy. I only ended up with 3 Trumpeters but I also had 3 Frenzied Goblins so it all worked out. Here is what I drafted:

Lesurgo's Draft  
Creatures:
3 Frenzied Goblin
1 War-Torch Goblin
1 Boros Recruit

3 Thundersong Trumpeter
2 S