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Power Drafting is a specific type of Booster Drafting. Ideally, you would be awesome at drafting every possible archetype and color combination. This is especially true if you are an expert at reading and sending signals for all of them. Unfortunately, this isn't realistically the best option for most players, including pros. Power Drafting is designed to make you an expert at a small number of high-powered draft possibilities that are the most likely to work on a consistent basis.
It's time to start looking at specific color combinations in Scars of Mirrodin Draft. I'm going to start with the power colors: Red/White. This is how I rank the colors for power drafting Scars:
- White
- Red
- Blue
- Green
- Black
As long as you have enough artifacts, I like just about any color pairing in Scars draft, as long as it includes Red or White. Red and White both have tons of cards with powerful synergy with artifacts, lots of removal and plenty of cards that are good for an aggressive strategy. My favorite commons when drafting Red/White are:
- Galvanic Blast
- Glint Hawk Idol
- Arrest
- Auriok Sunchaser
- Revoke Existance
- Shatter
- Glint Hawk
- Ghalma's Warden
- Snapsail Glider
- Chrome Steed
- Origin Spellbomb
- Tumble Magnet
- Sylvok Lifestaff
- Perilous Myr
- Kemba's Skyguard
Rada and I recently did a Scars draft online where we forced Red/White from the first pick. Given the power level of these colors and the low need/desire for colored cards in your deck, it's almost always going to be fine to force these colors, regardless of what signals you're getting.
Pack 1 pick 1:
--> Precursor Golem
This was an easy pick, the Golem is a major bomb in a metalcraft deck and nothing else in the pack is even a little bit exciting for R/W.
Pack 1 pick 2:
--> Galvanic Blast
I would have been happy if I could've used all of my remaining picks for pack one on this pack. Hard to go wrong with Galvanic Blast though.
Pack 1 pick 3:
--> Copper Myr
One of the big Scars draft decisions: Myr or Spellbomb? I would always take Origin Spellbomb here, but unless I have more than two Myr already, I like Myr over Panic Spellbomb.
Pack 1 pick 4:
--> Sylvok Lifestaff
Solid one mana artifacts are extremely valuable in aggressive metalcraft decks.
Pack 1 pick 5:
--> Leaden Myr
Easy pick. Off color Myr are solid playables, off color spellbombs are not.
Pack 1 pick 6:
--> Iron Myr
Happy with a third Myr here. Hopefully cards like Instill Infection, Volition Reins and Cystbearer will help get the players behind us into colors besides Red and White.
Pack 1 pick 7:
--> Leaden Myr
I'm happy to have four Myr in our deck, but hopefully we're done with Myr and can fill out the rest of the deck now.
Pack 1 pick 8:
I doubt we would use any of these cards, but Rada likes Trigon of Infestation as a potential defensive measure, since we're not playing on winning with poison or playing Green.
Pack 1 pick 9:
Melt Terrain
--> Golem Foundry
Once again, none of these cards are exciting for a non-infect player, but I keep thinking maybe someday I'll end up with a deck with around 20 artifacts and I'll try out Golem Foundry.
Pack 1 pick 10:
--> Auriok Sunchaser
Not surprisingly this pack still has an exciting pick for our deck. We're super happy to get a 3/3 flyer this late. Unfortunately, the rest of pack one was dead for us.
Pack 2 pick 1:
--> Shatter
Another easy pick, Sylvok Lifestaff is a distant second.
Pack 2 pick 2:
--> Spikeshot Elder
Looks like the player to our left probably isn't in Red, which is good for us. Spikeshot Elder is an awesome second pick.
Pack 2 pick 3:
--> Ghalma's Warden
This was a really tough pick. It came down to Trigon of Rage or Ghalma's Warden. Fortunately, Rada broke through my indecision, because she loves the Warden.
Pack 2 pick 4:
It's annoying to see such a weak fourth pick for us in this direction, but overall I'm reasonably happy with how our draft is going. The Wall isn't great for such an aggressive archetype, but it helps get you to metalcraft and provides a good blocker to team with White's flyers.
Pack 2 pick 5:
--> Turn to Slag
Not an exciting fifth pick, but it's pretty common for one Turn to Slag to make the cut in a R/W deck.
Pack 2 pick 6:
--> Ghalma's Warden
That's more like it. We're really happy to get a 6th pick Warden and Trigon of Thought would have been okay otherwise.
Pack 2 pick 7:
--> Barrage Ogre
Not sure if he'll make the cut. Depends on how many artifacts we get and how good our mana curve ends up. It also gets better if we get cards like Perilous Myr that we're happy to sacrifice.
Pack 2 pick 8:
I used to love this card (the first time I saw it, I also didn't realize the bonus was only on the first turn it was in play!) I've been down on this card recently, because there are just too many random chump blockers in this format and then it's just a non-artifact 3/3 that you spent four mana on. Still, it's the one card in the pack we might use.
Pack 2 pick 9:
--> Goblin Gaveleer
I don't really like any of these cards for our deck, but if we get a bunch of equipment it might be worth running the Gaveleer.
Pack 2 pick 10:
--> Oxidda Daredevil
Probably another dead pick. It might be playable if we get Furnace of Celebration.
Pack 2 pick 11:
--> Panic Spellbomb
Not bad for an 11th pick, it will definitely make the cut. Sadly, the rest of pack two had nothing to offer.
Pack 3 pick 1:
This is another example of a pack that I would be happy to use all of a packs picks on. In the end, we narrowed it down to Myrsmith and Oxidda Scrapmelter. When in doubt I usually go with removal, especially if it has a creature attached to it!
Pack 3 pick 2:
--> Glint Hawk Idol
Tough choice since I love Dispense Justice and Shatter, but I consider Glint Hawk Idol to be the best common creature for R/W Metalcraft decks.
Pack 3 pick 3:
--> Bladed Pinions
With the number of big four drops we have, the Pinions is pretty exciting.
Pack 3 pick 4:
--> Vulshok Replica
Given the number of 1/1's in the format, I've been surprisingly happy with Vulshok Replica in aggressive Red decks. Even just the threat of doing six damage in one turn can have a big affect on a game.
Pack 3 pick 5:
--> Clone Shell
I haven't played with Clone Shell much yet, but Rada assures me it's good even for a five drop. (Note: we drew it once and it was excellent.)
Pack 3 pick 6:
--> Snapsail Glider
A happy 6th pick. R/W likes cheap creatures, cheap artifacts and flyers.
Pack 3 pick 7:
--> Bladed Pinions
Our deck still needs more cheap artifacts and more flying doesn't hurt either.
Pack 3 pick 8:
--> Golem Foundry
It doesn't look like this will be my first Foundry deck, but we probably wouldn't run the Wayfarer either.
Pack 3 pick 9:
--> Ghalma's Warden
Nice, it's seems like the Warden isn't very appreciated at this table, but we're really happy with him at 9th pick.
Pack 3 pick 10:
--> Saberclaw Golem
Rarely makes the cut, but we need artifacts, so it might this time.
Pack 3 pick 11:
--> Untamed Might
The fewer of these we have to play around the better. There weren't any more playables in the draft, but we were happy with our pool. This is what Rada played:
[cardlist]
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Saberclaw Golem
3 Ghalma's Warden
2 Bladed Pinions
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Clone Shell
1 Vulshok Replica
1 Glint Hawk Idol
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
1 Panic Spellbomb
1 Precursor Golem
1 Turn to Slag
1 Wall of Tanglecord
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Shatter
1 Copper Myr
2 Leaden Myr
2 Iron Myr
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Auriok Sunchaser
9 Mountain
8 Plains
[/cardlist]
I usually like to play 16 land when I'm playing this many Myr, but the curve was high enough to justify 41 cards with 17 land. Usually the only time I'll play 41 cards is in an effort to get my mana ratio just right. We ran 15 artifacts to support the five metalcraft cards in the deck. Rada won her first two rounds easily, 2-0. She intentionally drew in the finals, but we had enough information to know that this was a successful draft. Lots of flying, aggressive creatures and some removal, a formula for success with Red/White in Scars draft. I recommend trying out forcing Red/White artifact in Scars draft. You should have plenty of playables and instead of spending your time figuring out what archetype to draft, you can concentrate on your mana curve and making sure to get enough artifacts, creatures, removal etc.
