From: tkehoe@bbs.mpcs.com Subject: Re: Best MI/VI/WL Draft Cards? analysis of Mirage, long, and all that Date: 5 Jul 1997 03:41:31 GMT In article <33BD88DA.4594@earthlink.net>, nbarn@earthlink.net says... >christina lane wrote: >> Hi. Wanted to see what people think are the best >> Mirage/Visions/Weatherlight Booster Draft and/or Sealed Deck cards? >> Post your thoughts here. Okay, I've seen it said too many times that direct damage "wins" Sealed and/or booster draft. I believe this is more true in sealed deck, and hardly at all true in a booster draft, which is what I'm going to concern myself with, set by set, (i guess.) It's really fairly misleading to consider there to be a handful of cards in a given set that can 'destroy' any given opposition from the same pool of draft cards. What I consider far more important when looking at the 15 cards in your opening pack, is having a complete knowledge of the set, of knowing what sort of cards you are going to be getting, 7 or 12 cards down the road, knowing the uses of the 'unwanted' cards of the set, the commons that will filter through. I can give an example to try and make this clear. I was drafting 1 Visions and 2 WLight recently, in said order, and faced the tough choice of Dragon Mask, Nekrataal, Zhalfirin Crusader, Crypt Rat (we generally consider the Mask to be the strongest single card to draft in Visions.) But in this case, I knew my set of opponents sort of undervalued the WL card Angelic Renewal, and that it was just everywhere in WL packs. So I took the Nek instead, and wound up getting 5 Renewals, a Mistmoon Griffin, a Miraculous Recovery, and, perhaps most importantly, a couple impulses and a little other blue library-searching, to get the damned Nekrataal. Which, i proceeded to use, on average, 4 or 5 times, *per game*. It was a harsh, beautiful sort of thing. Which is not to say that I drafted 'weaker' cards (like the Renewals) right off the bat in the WL packs... I pulled strong white stuff from the moment go, because i had the nekrataal, and because i knew what I was going to be getting cheaply amongst the Wl packs. Is this making any sense? The point of all that is *not* to say that I think the way to win a booster draft is to find some "Combo" and go all out to jerry-rig a deck around it from the moment go. It's perfectly possible to win a draft with "nothin' but the beat" as a friend of mine would say. But when I find myself drafting along those lines, having chosen the road of nice thick creatures over flexibility, I will still be thinking along these lines in a draft. For example, almost all of the good drafters I know will, sometimes unconciously, be mana-curving their decks, *as they draft*... I can recall setting down a whole slew of red and black cards after a draft, I think it was 3 Mirage... anyhow, I had some really strong stuff, the Torch, the *fly* Phyrexian Purge... but I saw that I'd gotten a little sloppy and drafted, literally, about 20 3 CC red and black creatures. I mean, I had the bloody Spirit of the Night guys coming out my ears, and no Spirit (shucks) - and while all three (Breathstealer, Panther, Feral Shadow) are perfectly playable cards, I'd gone and drafted more than i would *ever* play with. If I'd been a better drafter back then, I'd have realized it and stopped picking up the 3CC's and grabbed some Sideboard stuff that, as it turns out, would have won me the tournament. God knows how many ebony charms I passed up. Now there's something to be said, too, for sucking up the mid-range creatures away from your opponents, *but* I know I got decimated by almighty Hammer in that draft, and a little precaution on my part, i think I should have been able to prevail in the 2nd/3rd games, *if i'd had those charms to side in.* instead, i had a bunch of Breathstealers, and i could always side in... a couple more Breathstealers. oh well. well, I guess I have been ranting about 'Strategy' as opposed to 'cards' which is what I am theoretically responding to... normally i'm just a lurker, but I consider myself a decent player, so I thought, just once, I would 'de-cloak' as it were... so, from Mirage... okay, the Torch is of indesputable worth. amongst Red, the Hammer is even better, and never stop wishing for that Volcanic Geyser :) but the real action is, as always, in the commons. Enkundu Cyclops is *rarely* a bad idea, nor is an incinerate, but these sorts of things get snapped up quickly. It's the slack stuff like the Pyric Salamanders that can just *frag* somebody, given the right backup. actually, red's commons in Mirage aren't really all that, but some uncommons are usually undervalued, apparently. Lightning Reflexes, for one, will change the flow of the game, almost every time, when used right. I'm also a fan of Flame Elemental, and the despised Crimson Roc as well. Blue: really very strong in Mirage, if you get past the presence of a lot of "undraftable" rares. Well, i guess the Ray of Command would have to head anyone's list, but it's become almost a cliche... a friend was remarking the other day that you can always tell when someone has a ray of command, even if its not in their hand, they pray to draw it, they look at your creatures more than their own, looking for the surefire two-for-one kill. "There's One in Every Draft! (tm)" I can't think of a single blue rare right now that is a rockcrusher...but the fliers, aigh, are just golden. Especially the 3/2 "Phasing Hammer" guy. Then, on down the road, you're bound to get a Jolt or two later on. It used to be said that if you can't kill something with a Jolt, you're not trying hard enough. I rethought that (rather optimistically) into "if you can't *WIN the game* with a Jolt, you havent held onto it long enough." I could write a Homeric paean to the card, but I'll shut up. Oh, and thirst is nice...What I like best about drafting blue in Mirage is the total lack of huge 'gotta-play-blue' cards that usually mean you'll be seeing fliers around the 5-8 picks, in many crowds. admittedly, nobody has really harnessed the Cloak of Invisibility to it's full potential yet (ugh)... on a side note - I'm not one of those people who draft and then play a lot of blue and expect stuff like mana-chains and Apathy etc. Just draft a Treefolk or something, for christs sake, and splash green. Wrong set, i know, o'well... White: well, White Weenie will always have it's devotees, and Mirage gives you the opportunity to draft that, always. By itself, i still say it sucks, but then with the presence of the miraculous Weatherlight white stuff... some Mirage white is good. Of course, the Sacred Mesa is really, really nice. it doesn't OWN the board once it hits, but it *can*... that's bad enough... beyond that, Mirage white is pretty slack. Good players will always be able to milk stuff like Sidar Jabari for all he's worth... nobody likes to get burned by a healing salve or Alarum, but there they are. One can make some noise with all the griffins, too, but, to me, the glaring thing is, every bloody thing in the mirage white that i'd want to play, is cc4. well, anybody can drop a Femeref Healer and harass you with it all game long, but he just can't win the war against guildmages, tim's, etc... and pacifism is nice, but never *that* nice...it's just there a lot. okay, Green. Mirage. Ugh. I can't help but mention that I have a mental block about playing green draft decks well. There are always going to be Stalking Tigers and Elephants to be had, but i think that if you beat someone by swarming them with these, you must have manascrewed them or something... I get tempted into green, by cards like Preferred Selection, and GiGi the Granger Guildmage, and the wonderful, wonderful Rampant Growth. If you are playing more than 33% green in a Mirage draft, you have *no* excuse for not sucking up one or two. Jungle Worms are cheap as all get out, but i've just seen too many green hordes held at bay by someone's mediocre other-color stuff, and the green deck has got his best stuff out on the table, and the other guy is sitting there, thinking, wait till I pull my *whatever* and slag him. Ah, sweet Black. As much as i dislike Green's Mirage, do I like Black. And there's no one card that stands out... Drains... well, they work well. and Gravebane Zombies, can overwhelm many many draft decks. Of course, anyone who has died, or just lost a couple precious draws in his/her own "Gravebane Lock" knows that sometimes you just have to hang onto them in-hand. The litany of good cards rolls on. Dark Banishing. Grave Servitude. Blighted Shaman (marvellous!) Shadow Guildmage, Sewer Rat. Most of the rares are at least worth a hard look... Purraj, Catacomb Dragon, etc... and the lack of flat out *bad* black cards in Mirage (well, okay, Binding Agony *is* a common...) make it, IMHO, the best color to draft. Oh, forgetting the creatures for a second, black has the best color hosers, I think. Watching a Reign of Terror rip someone up... is sad. If there is a weakness, it is that it *will* get filtered away by other players. Mono-black is *always* a luxury you can't really afford to consider. Skinny freaks with Prince-O-Darkness dreams at night and all that. lotta people don't *play* black well, but suck up the cards nonetheless. Hell, Wall of Corpses is creature kill... black rocks.... Gold... Hmm... I won't try to deny the power of the Savage Twister, but the real honey Gold cards in Mirage, are, well, okay, Why Not take an Energy Bolt? - but still, the cards I *love*, *AND* get passed around a ways, are the Phyrexian Purge (which, really, doesnt get passed *that* far) - and Circle of Despair... folks, it's not just for creature generator decks! Just about all i can say, is that it's *reallyREALLY* flexible. I can't sit here and lecture people on how to harness its might... either you see it, or you haven't yet, and need a wakeup call, or you never will... lets see... Shauku's Minion is a little badass, if you've got him, and are playing red/black (and who doesn't?) - well, it ain't a sideboard card. All i'm gonna say. Love that Frenetic, too. Artifacts: A weak lot. Amber Prison is about the only Stand-Up G card in the bunch... The Chariot of the Sun and Unerring Sling both have their uses, but suffer from an extreme case of looking exactly the same, or something, and I hate them both for it. Telim'Tor's Darts, hey, they work. In the right sort of deck. But don't build your deck around them. If that sounds like a contradiction, it is. Lands: no shame in drafting one of the sac-lands... more to the point, I know a lot of people who will see one in an 8 person draft, early, and let it influence their color selection, knowing it will come back around. no shame. Hell, I even got some play outta a Teferi's Isle once. tell nobody. since i am still fatalistically bored, I'm going to do an arbitrary little ranking of , well, youll see. not that i know what all im going to type yet... TOP 10 'influential' Mirage Rares, for *BOOSTER DRAFT* 1. Hammer of Bogarden (money in the bank.) 2. Sacred Mesa (maybe a little overrated, maybe a lot, maybe not.) 3. Energy Bolt (R/W, with Weatherlight, is strongest now, anyhow.) 4. Volcanic Dragon (the best dragon, bar none.) 5. Phyrexian Purge (someone's gonna die, soon.) 6. Amber Prison (kinda like a sadistic prison guard) 7. Sidar Jabari (has weaknesses, only a 2/2. all-out rocks.) 8. Preferred Selection (really nice, and hard to remove.) 9. Subterranean Spirit (forgot to mention earlier. very nice.) 10. Taniwha (vulnerable, yeah. but can't a guy have a fetish?) TOP 10 'influential' Mirage Uncommons and Commons, for *BOOSTER DRAFT* note, i think this will be really quite erratic. too many excellent ones to choose from, and all that... 1. Kaervek's Torch (uh huh) 2. Savage Twister (think, flavor text on Polar Kraken...) 3. Ray of Command (even when it's not there, it causes fear. and errors) 4. Volcanic Geyser (lucky bastard, always goes to someone with a torch too) 5. Gravebane Zombie (with reservations, but he's so thick...) 6. Shadow Guildmage (fiendish.) 7. Goblin Scouts (personal favorite. rah.) 8. Wildfire Emissary (after logging all those hours in constructed, he's 9. Barbed Foliage (nastiness) still "the Mack") 10. Noble Elephant (because he bands, dummy. dont you hate banding?) so, with apologies, i never thought i would spout off so much about just Mirage. yes, i am opinionated! hope you made it this far. if i embarassed myself somewhere along the way... chalk it up to Florida ennui. if i get some sort of nice feedback, i guess i will forge on to Visions and Weatherlight.) gotta go return some vids before midnight. 'Network' and 'Millers Crossing'. waves, Lee Hendricks, of Gainesville Florida (see below) "There is about this place a smell of rot, the smell of rot that ripe fruit makes. Nowhere, ever, have the hideous mechanics of birth and copulation and death - those monstrous upheavals of life that the Greeks call *miasma*, defilement - been so brutal, or painted up to look so pretty; have so many people put so much faith in lies and mutability and death death death." - The Secret History, Donna Tartt