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The Draft Comes to Middle-EarthBy Daniel Rezendes on October 10th, 2007 · Filed in Limited · 15 CommentsAnother set, another limited format, ey? Always an exciting time, and as always, those who have a lot of experience drafting have an advantage over beginners (so much is obvious). However, those of us who were drafting, oh, five years ago had a particular advantage this time around, because, you see, Tribal sets draft differently than normal ones, and if you were already familiar with the style from Onslaught block, you had a leg up on the competition at the prerelease. Unsummon is serviceable at 1U... Time Ebb is a wonderful bonus! Kithkin: This was the tribe I was most interested in before the spoilers started. I mean, I loved Future Sight’s Kithkin fellas, and they seemed a good choice for a new iconic white race. As they started to filter in, it was apparent they would be a small, attack-oriented tribe. Attacking with efficient creatures is an age old strategy, so the concept is valid… however, I’m not sure these critters are efficient enough to cut it. It has several generally solid creatures at both common and uncommon, but few standouts. The most potent Kithkin card has to be Cenn’s Heir—and luckily, like many of the key tribal cards, it is so poor in any other deck that it goes very late. Kithkin Skirmisher is a bear with an occasionally useful ability, and Kithkin Greatheart can be quite strong with some changeling backup or perhaps some Hillcomber Giants. Goldmeadow Harrier is certainly good for holding down opposing fatties – or opening a hole in enemy defenses—while Kinsbaile Balloonist is surprisingly good at helping your Cenn’s Heirs simply get over them. Finally, Plover Knights is a very potent creature filling the otherwise empty top slots in a Kithkin mana curve – though it is strong enough that other white players (whoever they are) might leech some off of you. Surge of Thoughtweft, finally, is a potentially powerful army-pumper, which can particularly devastate weaker players who aren’t expecting it; as a cantrip, it’s very good (at worst, it cycles if you control any Kithkin), but it goes late and you don’t want more than one or two in your deck anyway. All of that said, I’m just generally not very impressed with the li’l white folks. For all the talk of ‘thoughtweft’, the Kithkin have very little tribal synergy, which is where much of the power in a tribal set needs to come. I mean, when there aren’t any common or uncommon Kithkins I’d be excited to find with a Kithkin Harbinger, that says a lot. Kithkin’s secondary color, green, provides very little for the tribe itself, save perhaps a W/g Kithkin/Treefolk deck; the Kithkin taking the lower end of the curve, with the Treefolk picking up later game. However, given the crappiness of white Treefolk, and the subtle prodding of a few Kithkin Greathearts (or, if you’re lucky, a Cloudgoat Ranger, I’d lean more toward a Kithkin/Giants build. Kithkin definitely need SOMETHING to do at over 3 mana, because they really only have the Plover Knights and the Balloonist. If you do draft Kithkin, you need to emphasize removal even MORE than normal, grabbing every Crib Swap and Neck Snap you see—‘luckily’, your good Kithkin cards are likely to table. The tribe does have some very potent rares to draw you into it, and is also the only real reason for a mainly white deck, so it shouldn’t be uncommon for a Kithkin drafter to be the ONLY white player at a table, save perhaps a few splashes for the aforementioned white removal (particularly by Merfolk decks), and being alone in a color is usually a good place to be. A final sub-strategy to note: if you get enough Springjack Knights (or other good Clash cards) to compliment it, Entangling Trap can be a very good way to get your li’l army through opposing defenses, and it benefits you even if you lose the clashes. I wouldn’t pick it too high, but it tends to go quite late so far anyway. Merfolk: Merfolk have basically two strategies in Lorwyn limited: Islandwalk and The Great Machine. Islandwalk is unusually workable, with three common enablers (Streambed Aquitects, also a creature and creature pumper; Tideshaper Mystic, also a mana fixer; and Aquitect’s Will, which cantrips). An Inkfathom Divers or even Deeptread Merrow can whittle away at your opponent while Silvergill Dousers and Stonybrook Anglers keep you defended. The other strategy—taking advantage of the numerous merfolk tap effects—is considerably more powerful, but difficult to pull off, and the key cards are uncommons which don’t even always show up in a draft pool. However, if you can get a copy or two of Drowner of Secrets or stupid-powerful Summon the School, then this strategy becomes very tempting, particularly if you get a Merrow Harbinger for added consistency. In fact, Summon the School is so powerful, any red deck should have a Hurly Burly or two in its sideboard, and blue decks might consider Faerie Tauntings. The one innocuous-looking card that both of these strategies thrive on is Judge of Currents: worth splashing for, even as your only white card. With either Drowner of Secrets or Summon the School, this wee white merrow easily can gain you 3-5 life a turn; add the defensive merfolk like the Douser and the Angler, and you suddenly become VERY hard to kill. He might even be stronger than Fallowsage with enough enablers—not that I wouldn’t play the sage as well! Also, like Cenn’s Heir with Kithkin, the Judge is so lousy in any other deck, he goes really late (barring other merfolk decks). Failing the Summon the School or Drowner of Secrets—the two biggest reasons to play merfolk—Judge of Currents also pairs well with another late pick, Springleaf Drum. I always love it when jank+jank=good, and the Drum provides an easy (and useful) method of safely tapping your mefolk. Merfolk play best with Faeries, as they share a color and enjoy the added evasion (not to mention, Faeries help your Silvergill Dousers). There is also some suggestion toward Kithkin, but I really don’t think the two strategies mesh well; I’d stick to the white merfolk and removal in my merfolk decks, whether the Great Machine style or the Islandwalk style. Faeries: Faeries look kinda stupid, if annoying, and their tribal effects are hard to pull off. However, they all fly. Let me repeat that: all the faeries fly. In fact, almost ALL the flying creatures in Lorwyn are faeries. The creatures are more expensive than other tribes, meaning faeries would need to put some extra effort into ground defenses (such as Skeletal Changeling Not normally good... but if it can tap for a mana or pump some goblins... In fact, that’s the big problem with Faeries overall—as they are the flying tribe, a thing which all other tribes lack, they will often be drawn into merfolk or goblin or elf decks to shore up weaknesses in those tribes. Faeries DO have some play, particularly in the long game. They don’t have a lot of power, but they have a lot of tricksiness, particularly of the flash variety. If you are playing AGAINST blue or black, and your opponent has mana untapped, be wary of something like Pesterminte or Sentinels of Glen Elendra. In fact, a couple of faerie cards (Dreamspoiler Witch and Faerie Tauntings) reward them for being so tricksy. They are expensive and not terribly reliable—particularly considering the various flash faeries cost so much to cast—but can add up like Orzhov bleeder style effects did. The most interesting of these cards, though, has to be Glen Elendra Pranksters, which can give you free repeatable Rescue effects. Several faeries have useful comes-into-play abilities, and enough recursion of Spellstutter Sprite can shut the opponent out of the game… possibly. It looks good on paper, but getting the cards to cooperate is very tough, and you have to survive your opponent’s probably-faster deck. Goblins: The standout from the last tribal block, goblins are in a new color with a new theme: recursion. Recursion? Um, okay? I guess? Okay, here’s the lowdown: goblins plays mostly like any B/R limited deck. Small decent critters and a metric frakton of removal. Without faeries, what little evasion it has becomes even more critical—or you just add some faeries (if you can manage it, Marsh Flitter is keen). There is the subtheme of recursion, of course, which combines with the subtheme of sacrificing your own (generally sub-par) creatures. If this sounds lackluster, it is. Hornet Harasser and Mudbutton Torchrunner can hold down enemy attacks VERY well, however, and Lowland Oaf not only has fine stats but is immensely useful with those two cards. Warren Pilferers is really the card you want to see a lot of to make boggarts viable, to bring back your Hornet Harassers and Torchrunners and Tarfires; otherwise, you’re playing a bunch of goofy critters that may kamikaze well but have no real definitive strategy to win with. My theory is, as powerful as the Skirk were in days of old, and as strong as Goblins is in Extended and Legacy today, WotC made sure these guys wouldn’t be a repeat. Well, it worked, and Goblins is my least favorite tribe in the set. Unless you draft Wort, Boggart Auntie or something. Giants: Giants are actually my second favorite tribe in Lorwyn, all because of one common (goblin) card: Stinkdrinker Daredevil. This guy ONLY works with Giants, but he works VERY well—and because it’s so narrow, you can usually draft two or three. When your Axegrinder Giant suddenly comes out on turn four, you’ve got some hefty pressure going. Further, if you can cantrip it, Giant’s Ire gets a good chunk of your opponent’s life for   … much less  ! Also, I’m told a 2/2 flier for  doesn’t suck, either. The big problem with giants, though (get it!?) is that there simply aren’t enough of them. There are a total of FIVE common giants in the set, and only four uncommons, one of those being the obligatory Giant Harbinger. But there’s a LOT of power in those Giants, including some of the biggest creatures you’re likely to see, and the tremendous bomb that is Thundercloud Giant. With just two to four giants out, this is a one-sided Wrath of God. My favorite giants to make up that two to four? As I hinted in the last paragraph, Avian Changeling, both filling an early mana slot for the deck and taking things to the air where only faeries might oppose it. As giants are a R/W tribe, the real choices to support it (and supply early game play) are Kithkin (which is workable, particularly thanks to Kithkin Greatheart and Cloudgoat Ranger, goblins (you’ll already be playing some for acceleration), and my favorite tribe… Elementals: Best tribe in the set. Easily. I’m not the first person to bring this up, but for the love of Yawgmoth, Smokebraider is dumb. Just plain retarded dumb. Splash any of the off-color evoke elementals? Sure! 4th turn AEthersnipe in monored? Why not? Third turn Mulldrifter? Sounds like a plan! Hey, and another way to make Avian Changeling cost one mana! Oh, and don’t forget that Smokey can pay for abilities too. From regenerating your Skeletal Changeling to helping all your Flamekin Spitfires and Inner-Flame Igniters and other elementals. Elementals are the most explosive tribe—but there’s a caveat here. Pretty soon, everybody is gonna figure this out. Right now, you might be able to get three Smokebraiders without fighting much… but before long, they’ll start working their way up pick orders, possibly even above removal. Elementals are good enough that people will fight over them, and I’m not sure they’re strong enough to support two drafters at the same table. But until then… trust me, Smokebraider/Elemental decks are blazingly strong. Elves: Much like goblins, elves were strong back in Onslaught block, and while they also got a facelift, it isn’t quite so drastic. Elves are also black, now, but they’re still mostly just elves. The big focus for this tribe is making more elves, of the token variety, so they can make the biggest army (barring a working Summon the School engine). Elves also have quite a bit of play among their commons, between the forest-waking Elvish Branchbender, combat-surprise Gilt-Leaf Ambush, promiscuous Lys Alana Huntmaster, the most aggressive mana elf in Gilt-Leaf Seer, plus all-around solid cards like Moonglove Winnower and finisher/army-eater Nath’s Elite. Eyeblight’s Ending is, of course, amazing, but that’s a first-pick for any black tribe, elves or no (everybody, apparently, hates ugly people). That was all just commons, and there’s a few more playables as well, plus a bunchload of strong uncommons. Elves are the most straightforward, easily piloted tribe, hence a lot of early popularity—they get split among multiple players at each table. This will diminish as people figure out the other tribes. The only other real weakness in the tribe is lack of late-game play, but conveniently, the same colors also provide some larger creatures, in the form of… Ents: Sure? I guess? Decent, but make sure you have ways around the walls you make. Treefolk First of all, according to Doran, the Siege Tower, this is a BGW tribe. This is a lie. Treefolk are green. Don’t let those Oaken Brawler or Sentry Oak fool you, those are just there to give Kithkin mediocre on-color options for fat. Nobody is fooled by Black Poplar Shaman, though Thorntooth Witch ain’t half bad. However, and properly, Treefolk are just plain green. But, much like giants, they are a very small tribe; unlike giants, they don’t have a good accelerator to attract you to them. These are just the elves’ big brothers, and should be drafted as such (barring bombs). They have a lot of character, but they’re shallow and expensive. Oh, and for those who were wondering, Rootgrapple is still pretty darned bad even with the cantrip. Concluding notes: I focused mostly on drafting here, because in sealed, you’re limited to what you open; if you get a Summon the School but no playable merfolk, well, sadness for you. Look for what tribal synergy you can, because that’s where the real power is in this format. Because of that, this is probably a much more luck-based sealed format than most. Also, while I focused on one-tribe strategies, as was the favored style in Onslaught, cross-tribal decks are quite do-able with this set. Indeed, R&D made it quite clear which tribes should work together, Cloudreach Cavalry style. You CAN draft just, say, BG or RW, but try to at least stick with combinations where you can draft a tribe. There are, of course, non-tribal cards. Oblivion Ring is huge, a safe and splashable first pick. Nameless Inversion and [/card]Lash Out[/card] are both very solid, the former particularly for triggering all your tribal effects. As always, removal and efficient combat tricks are always playable, Wings of Velis Vel being a standout because it has changeling, and is just so unusual for blue. Moonglove Extract kills an awful lot for in any deck, and should be picked pretty high. In fact, outside of Treefolk and Giants, it kills just about everything… bears abound, and 3/3s are very very strong. There isn’t much with more than 3 power, so stuff like Turtleshell Changeling and most Treefolk are really good walls. And because of the prevalence of weenies and tokens, the rare sweeper effects are even more powerful than usual, even silly looking things like Final Revels. Similarly, card advantage isn’t as easy to get as it has been, so value anything that can two-for-one. Wanderer’s Twig is a good mana fixer, better than Shimmering Grotto but worse than an on-color Vivid land; however, as you should rarely be more than two colors, color fixing isn’t that big a deal. As I said at the beginning, tribal fixing is more important. Maybe not important enough to run Runed Stalactite, but there’s definitely worse things you could play. Artifacts are generally weak, and have sacrifice effects, so don’t worry about killing them, but there’s enough good enchantments (including Oblivion Ring) that having an anti-enchantment option in the ‘board isn’t a bad idea—Wispmare is a fine card, either acting as a Demystify or a nice 1/3 flier. In all, so far, I enjoy this limited format. It is much more straightforward than anything since triple Ravnica, and would be a great format to teach new players how to draft. It isn’t so good in sealed for many the same reasons as Coldsnap, in that many of its power-commons are designed to be ‘collectible’ (Kithkin would get along with Aurochs quite well), and that’s just not possible in sealed. I will enjoy watching the format develop as people figure out how to play elementals and merfolk, and look forward to seeing what Morningtide brings to the format next year. By Daniel Rezendes on October 10th, 2007 · Filed in Limited · 15 Comments |
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