Well our time with M19 has come to an end. I did about a dozen drafts, which is a pretty high count for me. I know the core sets feel generic for people, but  find it a really good way to level up without being overwhelmed by complicated card interactions. Plus two trophies!

Bread & butter can win

It’s funny looking back at my two trophy decks because I distinctly recall feeling a little down about them as I drafted them. They felt kinda boring, just a pile of good cards. Well in M19, a pile of good cards can go a long way! The UBg deck was filled with high-end power: Skyrider Patrol, Djinn, Departed Deckhand. It also had a low floor, with C+s all the way down. The WG was even more generic but three Rabid Bites and some Win-Now cards (Declare Dominance, Goreclaw) got the job done. So I need to work on my private prejudice. I’m a Johnny, I want my deck to be artistic and have a plan and I feel great when that happens… but sometimes not overcommitting to a plan leads to a better deck.

Aggro needs a way to make its bears useful

A classic aggro deck dedicates a lot of cards to a quick start, fast hard-hitting 2-drops and 3-drops. You’re ahead on board, pressuring your opponent, then your ancient foe materializes.

CURSE YOU AND YOUR BIG BUTT. You need to have an answer for this. One answer is removal (or a combat trick, which tends to act like removal in aggro decks). But those also take up deck slots, require good timing. Or another solution:

These are cards that increase the value of your bricked 2/2s, and indeed, sort of relies on having them already in play. If you don’t have those pieces, then you don’t really have an aggro deck. It’s just another shade of midrange. The mistake I made with my GW deck is realizing that I didn’t have these aggro enables, so I should have gone more midrange-y.

Side note: Amonkhet and Ixalan were famously aggressive formats because the 2-drops didn’t need any help. They had evasion or exerting or something similar to power them through otherwise profitable blockers. That’s why blocking “was impossible”.

Control Decks at instant speed

At the other end of the equation, there is very real power to being able to interact at instant speed. Again, duh, instants are great. But there is additional power the more you’re able to reach a critical mass. Otherwise you end up jammed up between keeping mana up for a counterspell/trick or building out your board. Having multiple options at instant speed (say having both a counterspell and a Flash creature) is more than twice as powerful as just one of each. Combat tricks (especially those that can earn some card advantage like Abnormal Endurance), instant-speed removal (even expensive), activated abilities, creatures with Flash, and of course counterspells are all cards that get better the more of them you have together. Again—this is limited—so it’s unlikely you’ll ever put together a true “Draw, go” deck, but it can change the relative value of cards as you’re drafting.

 

Alright, here’s to the guilds! Time for another ‘complicated set’.