(Note: 02/07/2019 - The cube list is not updated on this site. To see the most up to date list go to http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/85579 )
Hey All,
I wanted to put together some basic information about drafting and our cube for everyone to take a look through. For anyone that is totally new to the idea(me a few months ago), a cube is a specifically selected set of at least 360 different cards. Many cubes contain upwards of 720 cards to provide more variety among drafts. Once the cube has been built, you can use it for any draft format.
What is a draft?
Players are seated randomly at the table. Once everyone has found their seats, each player opens his or her first booster pack, chooses one card from the pack, and puts it face-down on the table. Once you've done this, pass the rest of the pack to the player on your left. Once everyone has passed their packs, pick up the next pack (located on your right), pick the best card for your deck from that pack and put it in your pile, and again pass it to the neighbor on your left. This process continues until all the cards from the pack have been picked.
We'll take a minute to review what we've picked and then each player opens his or her next pack, picks a card, and passes the pack to the right (packs go left, right, left.). This continues as before until all cards from a pack have been chosen, and then you get another review period before starting the final pack.
Once you have 45 cards in your pile, it is time to build your deck. Booster Draft rules allow you to add as much basic land as you want to your deck, and require that the deck be at least 40 cards. The standard number of lands in a draft deck is 17-18. Any drafted cards not used in a player's Limited deck function as his or her sideboard.
Our cube is 390 cards and is a "Peasant Cube" meaning that it contains only cards that have been printed at common and uncommon. The one exception to this in our list is a cycle of dual painlands that are rare. They have been included because there are not any C/U dual lands that come in to play untapped which severely cripples low to the ground aggro decks that rely on hitting and using their first 2-3 land drops.
I have attached 2 sections of information to look over. The first section is an article that introduces drafting strategy and the second is the conclusion of a forum thread that members voted on the power level of cards available to peasant cube. Most of the cards listed in the power level thread are in our cube and I'll note which ones are not. I hope that having a basic idea of what is out there and knowing what some of the most powerful cards are will help speed up the first couple picks of each pack that can be somewhat difficult when trying to decide between 15 cards in front of you, especially pack 1 when you might not know what colors you are going yet.
The full cube list is below but I also have it posted on cubetutor.com. On CubeTutor you can view the full list of cards in a bit better organized fashion then here on tapped out. CubeTutor also has some additional features. One of the features under "Playtest" is the ability to draft vs AI which can be a good exercise to get used to the choices you will be making while drafting and once drafted gives you the ability to move the cards you have drafted onto a deck list that you can add basic lands to complete and then save for others to see. If you've got some extra time I suggest giving it a shot or even just clicking on the "Decks" section to see what others(just me at the moment) have drafted and how they have put together decks out of it!
(Note: 02/07/2019 - I deleted the cube on accident a few months ago so there are not very many decks under decks)
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/85579
The following article is an introduction into drafting that I have edited to reference our Peasant Cube. It is intended to be an intro to the ideas/strategy behind drafting and some of the key cards in the cube we will be playing. The original article can be found at http://www.gatheringmagic.com/melissadetora-041212-a-beginners-guide-to-drafting/
All credit to the Gathering Magic article "A Beginner's Guide to Drafting" by Melissa Detora.
A Beginner's Guide to Drafting
Know the Cards!
First, know your format! What booster packs are you going to be drafting? It’s a good idea to know what cards are in those sets. For example, if you attend a Booster Draft at FNM, you will probably be drafting one pack of Dark Ascension followed by two packs of Innistrad. It’s going to be beneficial for you to have some understanding of the cards you are going to be playing with and against. The common themes are Werewolves, blue and white flying Spirits, flashback cards, and milling your (or your opponent’s) library.
What if you were drafting something like Scars of Mirrodin block? The types of decks in that block were heavily artifact-based decks and infect. You should either probably be looking for a lot of artifacts or ways to kill them or creatures with infect and cards with proliferate.
Obviously, it’s difficult to know every theme from every set, especially for new players. At the PAX East convention last weekend, one of the popular Draft formats was Twisted Draft. In Twisted Draft, players were given three booster packs at random. They actually picked their boosters out of a paper bag. They drafted sets such as Invasion, Ravnica: City of Guilds, Mirrodin, and Eighth Edition. In Twisted Draft, it was a lot more difficult to develop a strategy—you never knew what was coming.
So, how do you know what cards to pick in your Draft? There is a simple acronym that is commonly used as a guideline for pick orders. That acronym is BREAD. You want to make your picks in the following order:
B - Bombs!
Bombs are super-powerful cards that are hard to deal with. Usually, if you play a bomb, unless your opponent answers it quickly, you will win the game.
Here are some examples of what bombs are in our cube:
White - Battle Screech - Calciderm - Cloudgoat Ranger - Relief Captain - Patron of the Valiant - Serra Angel - Feudkiller's Verdict - Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
Blue - Control Magic - Mind Control - Mulldrifter - Jetting Glasskite - Mahamoti Djinn - Sapphire Drake - Wretched Gryff - Dominate
Black - Hymn to Tourach - Curse of Shallow Graves - Rescue from the Underworld - Shriekmaw - Dark Hatchling - Enslave - Stir the Sands - Barter in Blood - Incremental Blight
Red - Shrine of Burning Rage - Charging Monstrosaur - Flametongue Kavu - Smoldering Werewolf
Flip - Scrapper Champion - Shower of Coals - Slice and Dice - Rolling Thunder
Green - Curse of Predation - Temur Sabertooth - Phantom Centaur - Grizzly Fate - Great Oak Guardian - Skysnare Spider - Pelakka Wurm - Plated Crusher - Mockery of Nature
Multi-Colored - Ascended Lawmage - Murderous Redcap - Bloodbraid Elf - Trostani's Summoner - Maw of the Obzedat - Baloth Null
Colorless - Grafted Wargear - Isochron Scepter - Untethered Express - Artisan of Kozilek
If you are unsure of what a bomb is when evaluating a pack, ask yourself these questions:
- Is this card a big creature that is difficult to remove and hard to block? Any big creature with abilities that can swing the game in your favor is a bomb. Plated Crusher is a good example of this. It is a huge trampling creature that can’t be targeted by spells or abilities.
- Does this card have some sort of mass effect that provides card advantage? Does it kill creatures, make your opponent discard cards, or make your opponent lose a huge chunk of life? Mind Control effects steal your opponents best creature and puts it back to work on your side of the board. Great Oak Guardian can flash in and pump your creatures to win the combat step by blocking for value or finishing off the opponent. Wretched Gryff is a big flyer that draws a card to replace itself. These are all examples of bombs.
- Does this card provide a huge, game-breaking effect? Mass removal like Shower of Coals / Incremental Blight, constant pump or token creatures from the Curse of Predation / Curse of Shallow Graves, and mass card advantage like Crystal Shard
+
Mulldrifter
are all examples of this.
Bomb cards should be picked immediately if you see them - they are the most efficient ways to win games!
R - Removal!
The next cards you want to be looking for are cards that remove creatures or other problem cards. This can include burn, destroy effects, or creature enchantments such as Journey to Nowhere or Banishing Light. Removal is very important in Draft decks, and usually, the more removal you have, the better your deck will perform.
Not all removal is permanent removal. Some spells, such as bounce effects, only remove the creature for a short period of time. Although not permanent, that turn in which the creature is in your opponent’s hand will allow you to put significant pressure on him or her. Your opponent then has to spend all of his mana to recast that creature.
Some removal doesn’t actually kill a creature directly, but it does so in combat. Blossoming Defense, Feat of Resistance, and Undying Evil are some examples of this. These cards are commonly referred to as combat tricks.
Finally, some removal doesn’t look like removal at all—it’s just a creature with flash. If your opponent attacks with a 2/2, and before blockers, you cast Fleatfeather Cockatrice and then block the 2/2, you just used your creature as a removal spell. Flash creatures are also considered combat tricks.
Here are some examples of what removal to look for in our cube.
White - Path to Exile - Swords to Plowshares - Faith's Fetters
Blue - Into the Roil - Psionic Blast - Clutch of Currents - Crystal Shard
Black - Darkblast - Go for the Throat - Murderous Cut - Ashes to Ashes
Red - Magma Jet - Staggershock - Arc Trail - Pyroclasm
Green - Blossoming Defense - Hunger of the Howlpack - Nature's Way
Remember that some removal can be attached to a creature. Any creature that can also kill another creature is an excellent Draft card. If you have a creature that can trade in combat and also kill another creature, you will gain card advantage, which will help you win games. Some good examples are Banisher Priest, Riftwing Cloudskate, Ravenous Chupacabra, Flametongue Kavu, Briarhorn.
E - Evasion!
The next cards you want to draft are creatures with evasion - creatures that are hard to block. Usually in Limited games, players have a lot of random ground guys in play, and no player can attack beneficially. The game will then go to time and end up in a draw. This is where you need creatures with evasion. Anything with flying, fear, or that are unblockable are considered creatures with evasion.
A - Aggro!
Next step in drafting your deck is picking up creatures that round out the deck and fill up your mana curve. You want to be able to cast a creature every turn if possible. Therefore, it’s important to have guys that have different mana costs. A good rule of thumb is to have between thirteen and seventeen creatures in your Draft deck. Take a look at this deck that I recently drafted:
(Note: this is a sample from an innistrad block draft and not our cube. The following couple examples are all of Innistrad draft but the ideas behind them still apply.)
As you can see, I have fifteen creatures that I can cast on every turn of the game, and the bulk of my creatures cost 2, 3, and 4 mana. It’s very important to use your mana every turn, and ideally, you want to play a 2-drop on turn two, a 3-drop on turn three, and so on. Missing on your creature drops will cause you to fall behind your opponent and lose tempo (the speed at which the game is played). Keep your mana curve and creature count in mind when drafting, and you will have an advantage in your games.
D - Duds!
The last types of cards you will be drafting are the bad ones. These are the cards that you will be picking up toward the end of the pack and usually don‘t want in your deck. Cards such as Altar of the Lost, Favor of the Woods, and Wreath of Geists are all cards that you shouldn’t be playing.
(Note: There aren't really any BAD cards in this cube. What duds will generally be is forced picks at the end of the pack that either are just not on your colors or don't fit your deck)
These last five or so picks in each pack are the picks where you should keep your sideboard in mind. Yes, you do have a sideboard in Draft. Any card you don’t end up playing becomes your sideboard, and you can sideboard any number of cards in between games. It doesn’t even have to be a one-for-one swap.
The situational cards that aren’t good enough for your maindeck but can be great in certain matchups are the types of cards you should by picking up for your sideboard. Obviously, Urgent Exorcism is good against enchantments and Spirits, and Ancient Grudge is good against artifacts, but there are some subtle sideboard cards that you should be aware of.
For example, if you’re playing a R/G mirror match, and you need some way of pushing your guys through for damage, you might want to bring in Nightbird's Clutches or Cobbled Wings. If you are playing against a green deck with no removal, Spectral Flight might be a good choice. I lost a match once in which I was playing a slow control deck with a lot of removal. My opponent sided in two Curse of the Pierced Heart and a Curse of Thirst, and my amazing U/B deck just couldn’t deal with those enchantments.
Okay, so now that you know what cards to look for in Draft, the next step knowing what colors to play. Basically, you have two options: forcing and signaling.
Forcing!
Forcing a color is when you choose what color you want to draft before the Draft actually starts, and you take cards of that color no matter what. This mostly occurs in a format in which one color is significantly better than the rest or there is a gimmick archetype that people like to draft—such as Burning Vengeance or self-mill. Back in Scars block Draft, I used to like to force the Furnace Celebration deck. Often enough, people just force their favorite colors for no reason.
Usually, if someone opens a bomb rare, he will then begin to force that rare’s color. If I open Olivia Voldaren, I am going to force B/R no matter what I’m passed.
Forcing a color or archetype can backfire. Sometimes, you will find no cards of that color and end up with a bad deck; or, you will fight with your neighbors over a color combination, and you will all end up with bad decks while the person who is drafting the deck that you should be drafting will receive an amazing deck and win the Draft easily.
I rarely force colors or archetypes unless I am drafting with friends or testing for a new Draft format and want to explore certain strategies. Forcing is a bad idea at high-level events, and I don’t recommend it.
Signaling!
Signaling in Draft is exactly how it sounds. If you are passed a lot of white cards, you should probably be in white. If you are passing a lot of cards of one color, you should expect your neighbor to be in that color.
Take a look at this first pack:
Our options of what to first-pick are Wrack with Madness, Immerwolf, Strangleroot Geist, and Griptide. The strongest card in the pack is probably the Immerwolf. If we take the Immerwolf, our neighbor will probably take the Wrack with Madness or the Strangleroot Geist next, which means he will be in the same color as we are. That is not sending a good signal!
Now, take a look at the Griptide. Griptide is a great card, and it’s the only blue card in the pack. If we take it, we are sending a signal that we are not drafting red or green. Our neighbor will probably take the Immerwolf next, and the person after that will take the Wrack with Madness or the Strangleroot Geist. As long as we continue to take blue cards, that will put us in a good position as the only blue drafter that we are passing to, and we will be rewarded in pack two(when the direction of passing switches) with all of the good blue cards.
Okay, so we took the Griptide. We then took a Tower Geist, a Stormbound Geist, and another Griptide. Our fourth pack looks like this:
We could now take the Headless Skaab and stick with taking blue, but there are a lot of good white cards in this pack. Remember that four other people saw this pack before we did, and they did not take these white cards, which means that there is a good chance that the players passing to us are not in white.
In addition, the people we are passing to are in red and green, thanks to our signaling, which means that they will most likely be passing up these white cards as well. Now would be a good chance to pick up white as our second color.
Signaling does not always work out the way we want it to. Remember that some players just force what they want, which means all of our attempts at signaling would be pointless. However, with enough practice, sending good signals and reading your neighbors’ signals will work out for you most of the time.
Now that you have the basics down, you are ready to draft at your local shop or on Magic Online! I hope that you’ve found this primer helpful. As always, thanks for reading! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @AllWeDoIsWinMTG.
Peasant Cube Power Level Rankings!
Unlinked cards are not in our cube.
White
- Swords to Plowshares
- Cloudgoat Ranger
- Mother of Runes
- Path to Exile
- Banishing Light
- Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
- Ghostly Prison
- Soltari Champion
- Spectral Procession
- Battle Screech
- Custodi Squire
- Journey to Nowhere
- Flickerwisp
- Shrine of Loyal Legions
- Palace Jailer
- Faith's Fetters
- Land Tax
- Timely Reinforcements
- Fairgrounds Warden
- Aerial Responder
Blue
- Control Magic
- Mana Drain (OVERPOWERED)
- Mulldrifter
- Fact or Fiction
- Whirler Rogue
- Crystal Shard
- Treasure Cruise
- Propaganda
- Man-o'-War
- Looter il-kor
- Serendib Efreet
- Mana Leak
- Counterspell
- Remand
- Tandem Lookout
- Clone
- Preordain
- Mind Control
- Psionic Blast
- Jetting Glasskite
Black
- Shriekmaw
- Hymn to Tourach
- Skinrender
- Curse of Shallow Graves
- Demonic TutorGC
- Vampire Nighthawk
- Nekrataal
- Go for the Throat
- Diabolic Servitude
- Ultimate Price
- Animate Dead
- Murderous Cut
- Snuff Out
- Reanimate
- Hypnotic Specter
- Blood Artist
- Doom Blade
- Necromancy
- Bone Shredder
- Falkenrath Noble
Red
- Flametongue Kavu
- Lightning Bolt
- Staggershock
- Shrine of Burning Rage
- Chain Lightning
- Flames of the Firebrand
- Fire Imp
- Young Pyromancer
- Arc Trail
- Goblin Heelcutter
- Lust for War
- Incinerate
- Magma Jet
- Goblin Bombardment
- Fireblast
- Pyroclasm
- Shower of Coals
- Firebolt
- Slice and Dice
- Brimstone Volley
Green
- Pelakka Wurm
- Curse of Predation
- Eternal Witness
- Rancor
- Joraga Treespeaker
- Briarhorn
- Llanowar Elves / Arbor Elf / Avacyn's Pilgrim
- Duskwatch Recruiter
Flip
- Acidic Slime
- Temur Sabertooth
- Great Oak Guardian
- Sylvan Library
- Utopia Sprawl
- Wall of Roots
- Regrowth
- Phantom Centaur
- Plated Crusher
- Blastoderm
- Cultivate
- Sakura-Tribe Elder
Colorless
- Sol Ring (OVERPOWERED)
- Skullclamp (OVERPOWERED)
- Grafted Wargear
- Loxodon Warhammer
- Dismember
- Porcelain Legionnaire
- Isochron Scepter
- Bonesplitter
- Mind Stone
- Epochrasite
Hope this wasn't too much to swallow! Look forward to seeing everyone in a couple weeks. Magic on!
