By Adam Styborski
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Stybs has played Magic the world over, writing and drafting as part of the event coverage team and slinging Commander everywhere his decks will fit.
War of the Spark is an all-new set. We don't mean in the "these cards are pretty new sense" but in the "these cards are so new that preview season wrapped last week and the Prerelease weekend for it is the very same weekend as this Mythic Championship" all-new set.
It's an adventure for everyone to catch up and play given the set was released on Magic Arena just the day before the action in London started. With the Mythic Championship here starting off of three rounds of Draft, a burning question on everyone's mind was "What did the world's best players draft in possibly their very first time ever with the set?"
Here's how it broke down across the 3-0 winning decks:
| Colors |
Total 3-0 Decks |
| Azorius |
1 |
| Dimir |
12 |
| Rakdos |
4 |
| Gruul |
3 |
| Selesnya |
6 |
| Orzhov |
3 |
| Golgari |
1 |
| Simic |
2 |
| Izzet |
9 |
| Boros |
2 |
| Esper |
1 |
| Grixis |
2 |
| Jund |
1 |
| Naya |
4 |
| Bant |
4 |
| Jeskai |
0 |
| Sultai |
3 |
| Mardu |
0 |
| Temur |
0 |
| Abzan |
2 |
| 4-Color |
1 |
| 5-Color |
3 |
Clearly there's something going on with blue-black and blue-red. MPL Player Reid Duke drafted a combination of both (as a Grixis deck) that shows you why:
Reid Duke's 3-0 Draft - Grixis
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"There's powerful payoffs in these colors," Duke explained. "Ral's Outburst, Spellgorger Weird, and Cyclops Electromancer are in my deck. These are slower to pay off of Planeswalkers and removal spells."
Reid Duke's methodical plan took advantage of all the ways he could generate extra advantages. The result was… advantageous for him.
Duke, wasn't alone in thinking the format was favorable to decks that take a little more time to get moving. Fellow MPL player Brian Braun-Duin's Dimir deck echoed the slower-to-play out plan.
Brian Braun-Duin's 3-0 Draft - Dimir
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"The format seems slower," Braun-Duin agreed. "Prioritizing removal and card advantage seems valuable."
Brian Braun-Duin cast a long shadow over his games, just like the Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage he played.
Braun-Duin shared that it was Narset, Parter of Veils that "generated some card advantage while denying my opponent draws."
With Dimir and Izzet together claiming 21 of the 64 3-0 victories (a not-too-shabby 33% across the board) it will be interesting to see if these decks hold out such a large percentage of the 3-0 Draft field on Saturday too.
It is, after all, only the second day of drafts ever for War of the Spark!