Make no mistake, Blue is the consensus worst color in Wilds of Eldraine draft.

While Limited Magic design has been experiencing somewhat of a renaissance in the last few years, unfortunately the last few sets have experienced a good amount of both color imbalance as well as an all-out archetype failure.

Trying to draft scry or food in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth were both just massive traps, making the drafter believe it is possible thanks to signpost uncommons and heavily thematic cards only to have them get crushed because of how poor the cards and support are.

In Wilds of Eldraine, the biggest trap decks are tap, 5-cost-matters, faeries, and enchantment sacrifice, with the biggest thread being that Blue is by far the weakest color in the set. Aside from the huge payoffs, the tap cards just never really work out, filling your deck with 5-drops just isn't well supported, and there are so few actual faeries in the set that it's very difficult to field a competitive faerie deck.

The reason for this mostly is that Blue's commons are just so bad compared to the other colors.

While colors like Red, Black, and Green are extremely deep, with super high common card quality like Torch the Tower, Candy Grapple, and Hamlet Glutton, there isn't a single Blue common you would be happy to first pick, let along thrilled to have in your deck. They are all fundamentally weak on rate, while many of them like Diminisher Witch or Johann's Stopgap are also difficult to use.

However, while avoiding Blue is an excellent strategy, draft is a notoriously self-correcting format. If nobody is drafting Blue, all of the sudden you're not looking at commons any more, but high power rares and uncommons going around the table while everyone tries to stay away. Now what?

This is the point in your drafts where you need to be able to be the one to step into Blue, take all the high rarity cards being passed your way, and put it all together.

And today I'm here to tell you just how to do that!

Blue/Red

Probably my favorite Blue archetype in Wilds of Eldraine is spells.

This is your sort of classic Limited control deck, with lots of removal and card draw that's looking to go deep into games. There are number of excellent uncommons for the deck that go late like Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer and Gadwick's First Duel, as well as just generally excellent uncommons like Hearth Elemental, Frolicking Familiar, and the great Red removal.

Usually you end up in by taking a few Red cards like Torch the Tower or Witchstalker Frenzy early, but not really being able to move into any other color and noticing that Blue is open. When these premium uncommons and rares start going around late, you can move in and start to look for the key commons you will get late.

Frantic Firebolt is your ace in the hole, a card that most other decks won't really want but an easy to cast Murder for you. It plays super well with recursion like Aquatic Alchemist and Tenacious Tombseeker, as well as the aforementioned Gadwick's First Duel, and is the number one reason to want to be . More controlling cards like Flick a Coin and Into the Fae Court are also great in this archetype.

Remember, you're a control deck. You want to kill things, stay alive, and play a longer game to let your card advantage and bigger cards like Archive Dragon or your splashed bombs time to play.

Blue/Red Example Decklist | WOE Draft | Jim Davis

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Archive Dragon
• 1 Beluna's Gatekeeper
• 1 Frolicking Familiar
• 1 Icewrought Sentry
• 1 Imodane's Recruiter
• 1 Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer
• 1 Ratcatcher Trainee
• 1 Skewer Slinger
• 1 Splashy Spellcaster
• 1 Threadbind Clique
• 2 Grabby Giant
• 2 Tenacious Tomeseeker

• Instants (4)
• 1 Frantic Firebolt
• 1 Quick Study
• 2 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Cut In
• 1 Johann's Stopgap
• 1 Sleight of Hand

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Bitter Chill
• 1 Gadwick's First Duel
• 1 Hatching Plans

• Lands (16)
• 8 Island
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Crystal Grotto

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Blue/Black

Next up in effectiveness is , although it would be tough to call it a pure faeries deck.

Yes, there are a few good faerie cards, but the problem is that they are very infrequent and hard to get a critical mass of, as well as the fact that pretty much any Blue deck is going to be about the spells, not the creatures. Having some sort of 18 creature, aggressive faerie deck just isn't really possible in this format, which means that you're pretty much locked in to being controlling.

This means using Black's depth at common to fill out with your Blue cards and try to prolong the game and hopefully win with your bombs or big uncommons.

This is a huge spot for one of the most winning Blue cards in the entire format, Hatching Plans. There are a number of good bargain enablers and payoffs in Blue and Black, helping to get you to a two mana draw three. Cards like Hopeless Nightmare also help to enable this plan, but it does require you to find the right mix of enablers as well as bargain payoffs. While sacrificing Hatching Plans to Candy Grapple is the dream, sometimes you're going to need to get in the mud with Johann's Stopgap or Diminisher Witch.

Note that the Hatching Plans plan can work in any color of Blue deck with the right support, but it is perhaps at its best here. Otherwise, you're just looking for big Blue and Black finishers in the uncommons and hopefully rares.

Blue/Black Example Decklist | WOE Draft | 17Lands

• (11)
• 1 Aquatic Alchemist
• 1 Archive Dragon
• 1 Barrow Naughty
• 1 Conceited Witch
• 1 Cruel Somnophage
• 1 High Fae Negotiator
• 1 Twining Twins
• 2 Diminisher Witch
• 2 Obyra, Dreaming Duelist

• Instants (4)
• 1 Rat Out
• 1 Spell Stutter
• 2 Ice Out

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Back for Seconds
• 1 Into the Fae Court
• 2 Johann's Stopgap

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Hatching Plans
• 1 The Witch's Vanity
• 2 Hopeless Nightmare

• Lands (17)
• 8 Island
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Crystal Grotto

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Blue/White

Ah yes, the biggest trap of the format.

When initial set reviews were done, there was a good amount of excitement about the Blue/White tap archetype. After all, tappers have always been solid in Limited, so a theme built around them had to be great right?

Uh... not really.

Blue/White is actually so bad that my testing team for Worlds pretty much all agreed the last rare they would want to see pick one, pack one at Worlds was Hylda of the Icy Crown, which is an extremely powerful card but forces you into by far the worst archetype.

Cards like Rimefur Reindeer and Snaremaster Sprite just aren't good, leaving the deck in an awkward spot where there are these build-around enchantments like Solitary Sanctuary that also aren't that good, forcing you to play a bunch of bad support cards like Rimefur Reindeer and Frostbridge Guard, and even when it all comes together, you're still not doing that well.

This leaves you in a spot where you're better off just ignoring most of the tap stuff and doing the one thing Blue does decently well, play as a control deck.

We see more good bargain stuff happening here, with Kellan's Lightblades being another card that most decks aren't super interested in that plays awesome in this deck, letting you sacrifice cards like Hatching Plans or The Princess Takes Flight for major value to kill almost anything. Stockpiling Celebrant fills a similar role. You can even go as deep as Break the Spell on your own Hatching Plans if you're feeling frisky.

There's no example decklist for this one because it's quite difficult to make work. You can dip into the tap cards that are very powerful on their own like Sharae of Numbing Depths or Icewrought Sentry, but this is the only reasonable way to draft the color combo otherwise.

Blue/Green

Another trap archetype; I can't recall having seen a successful deck that was just Blue and Green based around the "mana value 5 or more" theme.

Up the Beanstalk is the only clear standout here, but frankly it's good in any Green deck almost no matter what you're doing. Cards like Troyan, Gutsy Explorer, Skybeast Tracker, and Tempest Hart just aren't there on rate, and also not worth forcing a bunch of 5-drops into your deck.

However, that doesn't mean you can't play Blue and Green successfully, they just won't be alone.

Blue/Multicolored

The last, and perhaps my favorite, way to draft Blue is to pair it with either Green or Red and just splash everything.

Because Blue is a naturally controlling color, plays longer games, and you often get a lot of high-powered Blue cards later in the draft, you can use the opportunity to just open up into whatever splashes your mana base can support. And with Prophetic Prism, Evolving Wilds, and Crystal Grotto all at common, this works out better than you might expect.

If you go the Green route, you've got the excellent Brave the Wilds and Rootrider Faun on your side, giving you value early and late, as well as ramp and fixing. Return from the Wilds isn't ideal, but perfectly serviceable in a pinch. Also nice is that these Green spells also keep your spell count high for Frantic Firebolt.

Down the Red path is treasure, with commons like Grabby Giant, Redcap Thief, and Flick a Coin all providing you with solid value and bargain fodder as well as fixing as needed. These are a little less reliable as mana sources, so you'll need to lean a little harder on cards like Prophetic Prism and Crystal Grotto, but the Red cards do defend very well.

Once you've got your two base colors, from there you can basically play whatever you open.

Make sure you can stabilize early, find your colors, and then just play your best cards. These decks often are an excellent plan B when you get cut out of a color or take a few rares or high-quality cards in different colors early in the draft and need to find a way to put it all together.

We've got two example decklists here, one for base Blue/Green, one for base Blue/Red.

Blue/Red Multicolored Example | WOE Draft | Jim Davis

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Frolicking Familiar
• 1 Grabby Giant
• 1 Hearth Elemental
• 1 Imodane's Recruiter
• 1 Merfolk Coralsmith
• 1 Mosswood Dreadknight
• 1 Unruly Catapult
• 1 Woodland Acolyte
• 2 Picklock Prankster
• 2 Redcap Thief

• Instants (6)
• 1 Rat Out
• 1 Torch the Tower
• 2 Feed the Cauldron
• 2 Flick a Coin

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Into the Fae Court

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Extraordinary Journey
• 1 Korvold and the Noble Thief
• 1 Spreading Seas

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Prophetic Prism

• Lands (16)
• 1 Forest
• 4 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Edgewall Inn
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 2 Crystal Grotto

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Blue/Green Multicolored Example | WOE Draft | Jim Davis

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Blossoming Tortoise
• 1 Galvanic Giant
• 1 Merfolk Coralsmith
• 1 Regal Bunnicorn
• 1 Syr Armont, the Redeemer
• 1 Territorial Witchstalker
• 1 The Goose Mother
• 1 Troublemaker Ouphe
• 1 Witchstalker Frenzy
• 1 Woodland Acolyte
• 2 Hollow Scavenger
• 2 Imodane's Recruiter

• Instants (1)
• 1 Misleading Motes

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Return from the Wilds
• 2 Brave the Wilds

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Cooped Up
• 1 Extraordinary Journey
• 1 Up the Beanstalk
• 1 Utopia Sprawl
• 1 Welcome to Sweettooth

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Candy Trail

• Lands (16)
• 8 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 3 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Crystal Grotto
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Restless Bivouac

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Don't Be Afraid

Going into a Wilds of Eldraine draft, you shouldn't be looking to draft any of these decks. However, sometimes they will come looking for you, and if Blue is extremely open you need to know how to take the reins and run with it.

You also need to not be afraid to pick an early Blue rare, as once you've established that Blue is open and locked yourself in, you can often get some very high quality and high rarity cards later in pack two and three than you'd expect just by virtue of being the one brave enough to draft Blue.

Godspeed you! Blue drafter.