Top 10 First Picks for Dark Ascension Draft (Tips & Strategy) January 24, 2012
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Dark Ascension can be drafted alone or with two booster packs of Innistrad. Keep in mind that Dark Ascension will be the first pack you draft, so it’s a good idea to know what you want to “shoot for” when you start drafting Dark Ascension with Innistrad. The cards in this list are the cards that I think are (a) powerful, (b) worth drafting early, and are (c) common or uncommon. Rares are often the first pick, but you should be more familiar with the commons and uncommons since you will see a lot of them. (more…)
Top 10 First Picks for Innistrad Draft (Tips & Strategy) September 29, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 19comments
When drafting it’s a good idea to look for the best cards in each pack to decide what colors you should play and what themes you should try to get. The rares are often the right choice, but you can’t count on getting any rares in particular. What you can count on is choosing between commons and uncommons, so I will list my 10 favorite common and uncommon cards from Innistrad for draft: (more…)
Magic 2012 Draft: Top 20 Common & Uncommon First Picks (Tips & Strategy) July 20, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, limited, draft , 5comments
When you draft, knowing which cards are best can be quite helpful. You should know if your rare is worth taking. Difficult choices generally concern the commons and uncommons. My 20 favorite commons and uncommons include the following: (more…)
Top 10 New Phyrexia First Picks for Draft (Tips & Strategy) May 2, 2011
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The following are the my favorite common and uncommon cards from New Phyrexia that I will take a look out for while drafting New Phyrexia: (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 4: 5 More Cards Good in Metalcraft (Strategy & Tips) March 26, 2011
Posted by James in : all, strategy, limited, draft , 8comments 
Update (4/24/11): I added Ichor Wellspring to the list.
I have already discussed my 10 favorite common & uncommon cards to draft from Mirrodin Besieged and 5 other common and uncommon cards good in both metalcraft and infect. I will now discuss five more common and uncommon cards that I would want if I wanted to try to commit to making a metalcraft deck. (Actually, a few of these cards are actually decent in any non-infect deck anyway.) (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 3: 5 More Cards Good in Infect (Strategy & Tips) March 4, 2011
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I have already mentioned various great cards drafting Mirrodin Besieged. Many of these are good in Infect. Viridian Corrupter, Go for the Throat, Plague Myr, Flayer Husk, Spread the Sickness, Sphere of the Suns, and Signal Pest are all my favorite non-rare cards to use when drafting Mirrodin Besieged and I discuss these cards here and here. The point of the first two articles was to make it clear what cards you should take before you know if you are going to play a certain theme. The point of this piece is to discuss what cards Infect players should be taking almost exclusively based on the fact that they are committed to the infect theme. My top 5 cards include the following: (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 2: 5 Cards Good in Infect & Metalcraft (Strategy & Tips) February 25, 2011
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Welcome to my second post about Mirrodin Besieged draft strategy & tips. Part 1 was “Top 10 Commons & Uncommons” and was meant to help you decide what colors to play. In today’s installment I will discuss more cards worth taking early on that don’t commit you to any theme in particular. These cards are good in just about any deck (as long as you are playing the right colors). It’s a good idea to stay flexible and to take cards that will be useful no matter what deck you end up playing. If you don’t see any cards from my top 10 list, then one of these cards should do fine. (more…)
Drafting Mirrodin Besieged Part 1: Top 10 Commons & Uncommons (Strategy & Tips) February 7, 2011
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 14commentsAlthough great rares can help determine what colors you want to play, commons and uncommons are much more reliable and are likely to play an even greater role for that reason. Additionally, the first cards you take are likely to tell you what colors you should play and what colors other people aren’t playing — and they aren’t likely to be rares. The cards on this top 10 list are the cards you hope to take and they will help you choose what colors to play.
Updated 3/21/2011: Added Mortarpod to the list. (more…)
Drafting Scars of Mirrodin Part 5: Proliferate November 14, 2010
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Scars of Mirrodin is one of the most difficult sets to draft because there are only two obvious decks to shoot for — Metalcraft and Infect. However there are also two other decks that most people either don’t know about or are unwilling to try to make — Sacrifice and Proliferate. I already talked about the sacrifice theme, and I only found out about the proliferate deck recently. (more…)
Drafting Scars of Mirrodin Part 4: Infect & Poison November 5, 2010
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, limited, draft , add a comment The infect strategy can be a bit competitive and you have to get exactly the right cards (lots of infect stuff) or it won’t be very good. Of course, it can be a very powerful deck when it works. You will want to play green/black and ignore most green black cards that don’t have infect. This is a strategy that could require you to skip some removal in favor of more infect creatures. The following commons and uncommons are worth playing in an infect deck that I already mentioned. (more…)
Drafting Scars of Mirrodin Part 3: Metalcraft Decks October 28, 2010
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , add a commentIt is likely that you will draft a lot of artifacts, but you can try to really go for the artifact theme big time. If you want to go for the artifact theme, metalcraft is the main thing to look for. When making an metalcraft deck, you need to get the right cards to warrant playing an artifact deck, but you also need to choose your colors because many of the best metalcraft cards are non-artifacts. Any color combination can make a decent metalcraft deck, but some colors are better than others. In particular, I am not impressed by the green metalcraft cards. Here are the top 15 common and uncommon cards I look for when I want to play metalcraft: (more…)
Drafting Scars of Mirrodin Part 2: The Sacrifice Theme October 21, 2010
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 3commentsThe fact that Scars of Mirrodin has an artifact and poison theme is obvious — but there’s also a sacrifice theme that can be worth drafting. Not to mention that most people steer clear of this strategy, so it’s not too hard to draft it. Red is the only color that is essential to the sacrifice theme, but black also has some helpful cards. Here is a list of the best cards for the sacrifice theme: (more…)
Drafting Scars of Mirrodin Part 1: Top 20 Commons & Uncommons September 23, 2010
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 8commentsThe most relevant cards to a draft strategy are the commons and uncommons because they are much more predictable than rares. These are the cards you usually build a deck around. My favorite Scars of Mirrodin commons and uncommons are the following: (more…)
Drafting 2011 Part 6: Green August 3, 2010
Posted by James in : all, strategy, tips, draft , 6comments
Green doesn’t have the mind blowing power of the other colors, but it does have big creatures and mana fixing. The main idea of green is that you can play a couple other colors of your choice without worrying a lot about having mana problems. My top 10 favorite green common and uncommon cards are the following: (more…)
Drafting Magic 2011 Part 5: Red July 28, 2010
Posted by James in : all, reviews, strategy, limited, draft , 5comments
Red is by far my favorite color to draft in Magic 2011, but the problem is that everyone else seems to feel the same way and they often take all the best red cards before I have a chance. Here are my top 10 red common and uncommon cards for Magic 2011: (more…)
Drafting Magic 2011 Part 4: Black July 23, 2010
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These are my favorite 10 black commons and uncommons when drafting Magic 2011: (more…)
Drafting Magic 2011 Part 3: Blue July 16, 2010
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This is a list of the top 10 blue uncommon and common cards that I would want to get in draft. (more…)
Drafting Magic 2011 Part 2: White July 14, 2010
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 3commentsHere are my favorite top 10 white common and uncommon white cards in Magic 2011. These are the cards I would want most if I was playing white. (more…)
Drafting Magic 2011: Top 10 First Picks July 9, 2010
Posted by James in : all, reviews, previews, strategy, tips, limited, draft , 12commentsWhen drafting, the first few picks we take will often determine what colors we should play, so knowing the very best cards of a draft is essential. If you get a powerful card after a couple cards have already been taken in a pack, then you should probably play that color because it looks like you don’t have a lot of competition. The most powerful cards are what I often call “first picks.” I will discuss my current favorite top 10 commons and uncommon first picks for draft. (Keep in mind that this was written before Magic 2011 was released, so this is somewhat speculative.) (more…)
Drafting Rise of Eldrazi Part 5: Red/Black Control May 27, 2010
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One of the most powerful decks you can make while drafting Rise of Eldrazi is a red/black deck jam packed with removal. This is much like the red/blue instant/sorcery themed deck I discussed earlier, but it makes use out of black removal. Two of the most important cards to get other than creature removal are the following: (more…)