The 2 Best Decks to Draft in Shards/Shards/Conflux
February 13, 2009 | Posted by Dee
This is just a theory since I haven’t drafted Shards of Alara and Conflux a lot. Magic The Gathering’s newest set changes the format. MTG players will have to reconsider their strategy.
With Conflux’s arrival, I think there will be two top archetypes.
1. Five color control
Five color control was already pretty good before Conflux came out. Now it gets really good because Conflux brings domain and a whole slew of good mana fixers.
Domain: Cards like Drag Down, Matca Rioters, and Voices from the Void are really strong if you’re playing five colors.
Mana fixers: If you look at just the common slot, you’ll find Rupture Spire, Armillary Sphere, and each color gets a cheap basic landcycler (Absorb Vis, Fiery Fall, Gleam of Resistance, Sylvan Bounty, and Traumatic Visions). If you didn’t find enough fixers in the Shards packs, you’ll probably find the fixers you need in the Conflux boosters.
2. Two color aggro with a small splash
If you think many people will draft five color, you can draft a two color aggro decklist to counter. Five color control is pretty slow so if you have a fast deck, you can win before they setup their powerful but expensive spells.
Note that the aggro decklists in this archetype will not be strictly two color. They’ll splash 3-5 cards since it’s really hard to find enough playables in just two colors.
Still, by sticking with just two main colors, you can have a strong early game. While other decks are using the early turns to play Armillary Sphere or crack a Panorama, you’re summoning creatures to bring the beats.
There are many Conflux cards that work better to a two color decklist. A couple examples:
Sedraxis Alchemist
Parasitic Strix
Ember Weaver
Dark Temper
Zombie Outlander
Also, two color decklists have a good chance of avoiding removal like Ignite Disorder and Controlled Instincts.
Testing My Theory
Time will tell if I’m right about this theory. But for now, I’ll be drafting these archetypes and seeing how they do. Five color control is especially fun to play because you can almost pick every good card you see. You just have to make sure to take mana fixing very highly.
4 Responses to “The 2 Best Decks to Draft in Shards/Shards/Conflux”
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I think I would defo think of moving into 5 colour if I opened a Cruel Ultimatum/ Kish of the Amesha…
I rarely saw anyone play 5 color control in triple shards and never saw a deck undefeated like that. I’m not convinced that Conflux has enough mana fixing or removal to play a “true 5 color control deck,” but certainly 5 color green, naya, jund, or bant might work.
I’ve drafting Conflux packs with almost no removal or mana fixing, so I don’t think its dependable.
You have a good point about some cards being made for 2 color decks. I liked 2 color decks before Conflux’s arrival and you don’t always have to splash a third color. Green-white and red-black are pretty easy to make.
Actually, my best decklists in triple Shards were five color control decks. Still, they were rare in that format.
However, Conflux brings a lot of fixers even for the non-green shards. Armillary Sphere, Kaleidostone, and Rupture Spire are common. And then, you’ve got Unstable Frontier in the uncommon slot.
Check out LSV’s videos on drafting five color here and here. He doesn’t advocate forcing it but if you open two great cards that span all five colors, he says to consider drafting it.
That said, it is a tough archetype to draft because you have a lot of things to consider like mana curve, mana fixing, and figuring out your main colors. But when it comes together, it’s pretty powerful.
I found 5 color control to be very dominating over a 2 or 3 color deck.
While drafting one day I got the guy who costs 2 of each color to play has protection from everything. The deck worked really well and it still holds up to any of the other drafts we made and played with. Main colors where based on White Black and Blue though. The other two colors had about 2-3 cards each within my deck along with a few cards that costed all 5 colors and plenty of land searching.
I used a 5 color control deck through the last block and I still have not had anyone bring a challenge to it. I have seen a few postings of the deck recently now on different sites and disappointed I didn’t get this deck into any big tournaments last year.
I am working on 2 new decks through the alara block, although I see a potential for 3 different decks I don’t have enough of the cards yet.
working on finishing touches on my blue/white/black and already have half of my white/red/green set. I think these will be dominate colors UWB set for Control and WRG set for destruction with free costing blockers and attackers. Land Destruction might be a big onset to keeping multi colored decks under control.
The artifact sphere I think is one of the better cards to use when mana fixing early game along with the new common search lands like Esper Panorama. 5 Colors though I would still use the old Terramorphic Expanse though. Interesting set, can’t wait to get my new decks into play testing stage.