Welcome back to Very Limited, GatheringMagic.com’s exclusive Limited column. There’s a lot of new information available with a week of Vintage Masters prerelease Drafts in the books. Today, we’ll be talking about big-picture drafting strategy in Vintage Masters.

When we open our first pack in a Vintage Masters Draft, we’re really hoping to open an expensive card from days of yore. We’ll obviously be taking any piece of Power we happen to open. From there, we’re looking for powerhouse mythics such as Sol Ring and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. From there, we’re looking for super-high-quality cards such as Flametongue Kavu. Then, we’re looking for cards we can build our deck around.

What cards are high enough quality to warrant taking over build-around cards?

Some cards aren’t great for Limited, but we’ll be wanting to grab them because of their worth. These cards are Timetwister and Lion's Eye Diamond. Here’s a list of the best and/or most-sought-after cards in the set. We should be taking these over everything.

Here’s the list, in no particular order:

• Armageddon
• Balance
• Decree of Justice
• Parallax Wave
• Winds of Rath
• Ancestral Recall
• Control Magic
• Force of Will
• Future Sight
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Mana Drain
• Time Walk
• Timetwister
• Upheaval
• Living Death
• Flametongue Kavu
• Kaervek's Torch
• Deranged Hermit
• Grizzly Fate

• Oath of Druids
• Survival of the Fittest
• Black Lotus
• Cursed Scroll
• Lion's Eye Diamond
• Mana Vault
• Mana Crypt
• Memory Jar
• Mox Sapphire

• Mox Pearl
• Mox Ruby
• Mox Jet
• Mox Emerald
• Sol Ring
• Skullclamp
• Library of Alexandria
• Mishra's Workshop
• Bazaar of Baghdad

Let’s say, for example, we open a pack with Spiritmonger and Lightning Rift. Spiritmonger is an obvious bomb as a 6/6 regenerator for 5 mana with nothing but upside. However, Lightning Rift gives us an opportunity to build our deck around the card. Given the choice of those two cards, Lightning Rift feels like a much better pick to me.

Let’s discuss the cards that we can build around:

Recurring Nightmare

With a Recurring Nightmare in our pile, we can value creatures with 187 (enters-the-battlefield-removal) abilities, such as Predatory Nightstalker, Flametongue Kavu, Man-o'-War, and Dark Hatchling, much higher. Similarly, we can take creatures with effects on death such as Brindle Shoat, Death's-Head Buzzard, and Yavimaya Elder much higher. We can use inexpensive creatures with big cyclers such as Noble Templar and Elvish Aberration to apply huge pressure very early in the game. We’ll want to take cards such as Wild Mongrel, Animate Dead, Breath of Life, and Reanimate if we’re going this route. Making our deck redundant if important in Vintage Masters.

Lightning Rift

This might be the best uncommon in the set. I would be wary of taking Astral Slide early, as it requires quite a bit to go right if we want our Draft deck to abuse it well. Lightning Rift, on the other hand, has the ability to saw through our opponent’s board and finish him or her off when we’re winning. The huge amount of card advantage Lightning Rift can generate in a deck with a lot of cycling is nothing short of amazing. Lightning Rift is probably the winningest archetype in Vintage Masters Drafts.

Goblin Warchief

Goblins are really good. Warchief is the most important Goblin of all. It would make more sense if Goblin General were in charge, but the Warchief is certainly where it’s at. I’ve found that the most successful Goblins decks have come when I’ve been all-in right from the get go. We don’t want to be moving in on the archetype over something lackluster, but Goblin Warchief is a green light to put up our blinders and pick every Goblin or burn spell we see. It’s definitely possible to draft a deck that’s well-positioned against Goblins, but the deck’s sheer speed and ability to flood the board make it among the best Draft strategies in Vintage Masters. The deck is a risky proposition though—if there happens to be another Goblins drafter at the table, both players’ decks are likely to end up very poor.

Wild Mongrel

Wild Mongrel is a beautiful first-pick in Vintage Masters. The card combos nicely with all of the madness cards, Roar of the Wurm, Breath of Life, Animate Dead, and Reanimate, and it also happens to be an absurd card on its own. These are being passed around again now that a lot of people are having trouble winning without Lightning Rifts or Goblin Generals. Punish them!

Brain Freeze and Mind's Desire

Storm is a bit of a gamble. There are a lot of cards we want that seem to be in high demand all over the place. For example, Frantic Search is heinously overdrafted right now. People take it over cards like Solar Blast in the dark a lot of the time. That being said, the most powerful deck I’ve had in Vintage Masters was a storm deck with three copies of Brain Freeze. I found myself winning pretty consistently on the fifth or sixth turn. With forty-cards decks, the Brain Freeze plan is a very real strategy. One of the major problems with storm is the lack of escape hatch. It’s okay to take a Brain Freeze early with high expectations, but don’t follow the rabbit down the hole unless you’re picking up real cards to go with it. Choking Tethers is a fine twenty-fourth in this deck, but it’s not a second-pick because we took Brain Freeze first.

What to Do Once We Have a Plan

It’s good to look for incidental interactions when drafting. For example, the cycle deck can usually cycle one of its 6-drop creatures before the fourth turn, allowing the cycle player to cast a very powerful Mistmoon Griffin that will become a much larger and more impressive body if the opponent decides to tangle with it.

Commons

Let’s discuss some commons that have overperformed in Vintage Masters. I underestimated a lot of the cards in this format.

Mistmoon Griffin combos nicely with the expensive cycling creatures and generally makes things very difficult for the most controlling decks. This wasn’t a card I was expecting to be taking highly, but it ended up being strong in a lot of different decks.

Animate Dead and Reanimate were cards that I assumed would be narrow when I first looked at the set. I was very wrong, though, because the reanimation spells are super-strong in Vintage Masters, and they give us a plan and a level of synergy that’s difficult to contend with, especially for the nonblue decks.

Solar Blast is a first-pick-worthy card in Vintage Masters. It keeps rising higher and higher in my pick order. There’re a lot of 1-toughness creatures in the format, and instant-speed targeted removal is of very high value in a set with cards like Elephant Guide.

Grizzly Fate was a bomb back in the day, but something made me think it wouldn’t be the best in a format like Vintage Masters. As it turns out, Grizzly Fate is still absurd and worthy of a first pick. It’s especially good in a deck with a lot of cycling. My easiest 3–0 was with a R/G Lightning Rift deck that featured two copies of Grizzly Fate.

Vintage Masters is still a new format. I strongly recommend getting in on the action of Vintage Masters on Magic Online if you haven’t already. This is among the most exciting formats I’ve ever played. In fact, I’ve done about twenty-five Drafts already at the time I’m writing this, and the set has only been out for five days. Next week, we’ll take another look at Vintage Masters. Until then, take the Lightning Rift, and watch the whole world burn.