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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.
While it's definitely possible to draft a good metalcraft deck using Green or Black as one of your colors, it's easier and usually better to use some combination of Red, White and Blue. When power drafting Scars of Mirrodin, I ignore Black and Green and I draft the best combination of Red, White and Blue. I've discussed my approach to drafting White/Red and White/Blue in the past couple weeks and now it's time to talk about Blue/Red.
I prefer to draft White, because it has the best creature base for metalcraft, the best spellbomb, good flying and good removal. I also have an almost irrational love for Glint Hawk Idol. White is usually pretty easy to get for the serious metalcrafter, because cards like Auriok Sunchaser and Ghalma's Warden usually go pretty late and frankly, White is just really deep. However, I've learned that even in Scars it's good to have a backup plan.
I recently watched the first pack Rada drafted at an FNM tournament. The player in front of her was cutting every good playable White card. Rada, a power drafting lover of White in Scars, dutifully took good artifacts and Red cards early in the pack. When she got a Vedalken Certarch with two cards left in the pack, she accepted that White just wasn't going to come and she went Blue/Red. I was playing Standard so I didn't get to see the rest of her draft, but she ended up with an awesome deck and 3-0ed her table.
White uses metalcraft for awesome creatures like Sunchaser and Warden. Blue and Red use it best for control, such as: Galvanic Blast, Vedalken Certarch and Lumengrid Drake. Like White metalcraft creatures, Certarch and the Drake go pretty late. Unfortunately, Blast is so good even without metalcraft, that it gets first picked by Red players that aren't dedicated to metalcraft.
While I still believe U/R should be drafted as an aggressive deck, it does need to be more controlling since it lacks White's creatures. It also means good artifact creatures like Snapsail Glider and Chrome Steed are even more important. My favorite commons when drafting Blue/Red are:
- Galvanic Blast
- Shatter
- Snapsail Glider
- Chrome Steed
- Tumble Magnet
- Trinket Mage
- Lumengrid Drake
- Vedalken Certarch
- Sylvok Lifestaff
- Neurok Replica
- Sky-Eel School
- Perilous Myr
- Flight Spellbomb
- Vulshok Replica
- Glint Hawk Idol
Rada and I did a draft online to demonstrate how strong power drafting U/R could be:
Pack 1 - Pick 1
--> Tumble Magnet
This was a pretty weak opening pack. Perilous Myr was the only other card in the pack that we were interested in.
Pack 1 - Pick 2
--> Gold Myr
Another weak pack. If we were drafting White, we would take the Warden. I like Panic Spellbomb and Memnite, especially when I'm drafting Blue and might get a Trinket Mage. However every deck needs at least a couple mana myr, so we start working on that.
Pack 1 - Pick 3
--> Lumengrid Drake
A solid third pick. I'm a little concerned that we haven't seen anything particularly exciting yet and that we haven't seen any Red cards worth playing. We have seen Warden and now Edgewright, so it does seem like White's available. Hopefully the fact that we've passed Corpse Cur, Blackcleave Goblin and now Cystbearer, means the player to our left will be Black/Green Infect.
Pack 1 - Pick 4
--> Snapsail Glider
Bloodshot Trainee is a little tempting. When it's good, it's really good. As usual though, when there is really solid artifact like Snapsail Glider, we're taking it.
Pack 1 - Pick 5
Melt Terrain
--> Auriok Sunchaser
After five packs without an exciting Red card and a third good White metalcraft creature, it seems like we might just be sabotaging ourselves if we keep planning on drafting Red instead of White. There isn't an exciting artifact, Red or Blue card, so we're at least not hurting ourselves with this pick. In fact, we're helping ourselves. This way, the exciting "signal" card the player to our left sees is an Infect card, Blackcleave Goblin, not a powerful metalcraft card that will encourage them to take artifacts from us.
Pack 1 -Pick 6
Whitesun's Passage
--> Vulshok Replica
If we're definitely switching to White, Clone Shell is probably the pick, but one pick doesn't necessarily lock us into anything. In Red/Blue, the Replica is very solid.
Pack 1 - Pick 7
This pack is loaded with goodies. Certarch is the pick, but Pinions and Replica are cool too. If it was third pack and I was a little low on artifacts, I would probably take the Replica. Some nice pump spells for our Infect friends. The fact that Forger and Might are still here suggests we could have had a decent Green/White metalcraft deck in this seat.
Pack 1 - Pick 8
--> Vector Asp
Golem's Heart might make a decent sideboard card, but Vector Asp might make it into the main deck.
Pack 1 - Pick 9
--> Halt Order
A card Rada's been dying to play with more, it might make it into a more controlling R/U deck, but probably not in an aggressive tempo U/W deck.
Pack 1 - Pick 10
--> Throne of Geth
At least we can send the player to our left another reason to stay faithful to Infect, too bad the rest of Pack one was dead for us.
Pack 2 - Pick 1
--> Razor Hippogriff
This pick was the turning point of the draft. It's pretty clear we can expect better White than Red in pack three. Both Arrest and the Hipppogriff are as exciting as the Embersmith. The Sunchaser we already have serves as the tiebreaker. I lean toward Arrest because U/W needs removal so badly, but Hippogriff can be a gamebreaker and Rada feels pretty strongly about this pick. Too bad we didn't see any packs like this in the first set of packs.
Pack 2 - Pick 2
--> Glint Hawk Idol
Our new commitment to White is immediately rewarded with an exciting second pick. I like Darkslick Drake in Red/Blue, but given our dearth of artifacts I might have taken the Galvanizer.
Pack 2 - Pick 3
--> Snapsail Glider
I like to have as many flyers as possible in U/W and if they're artifacts, so much the better!
Pack 2 - Pick 4
--> Myrsmith
Wow, so glad we switched to White. Where were awesome packs like this in pack one? Tough choice, but not only is Myrsmith a potential bomb in our deck, but it can help us get metalcraft.
Pack 2 - Pick 5
--> Revoke Existence
Exciting to get good removal at pick five.
Pack 2 - Pick 6
--> Stoic Rebuttal
Upsetting to miss on a sixth pick. With the Trigon here, perhaps the player to our left isn't in Infect.
Pack 2 - Pick 7
--> Lumengrid Drake
We're much happier to get this card as a seventh pick than as a third pick.
Pack 2 - Pick 8
Strider Harness
--> Glint Hawk
Another tough/exciting pick. We really like flyers and it's nice to have a way to reset our Magnet. Sad that we don't have much in the way of zero or one mana artifacts yet.
Pack 2 - Pick 9
A solid pick amongst a bunch of cards we don't care about. I'm always surprised how late we can get this card.
Pack 2 - Pick 10
Not a super exciting card in a U/W deck, but we need cheap artifacts so it might make the cut.
Pack 2 - Pick 11
If we really need removal, it might get sideboarded in.
Pack 2 - Pick 12
--> Auriok Sunchaser
Our last good pick in pack two is a really good one! Also further evidence that the player to our left isn't in Infect.
Pack 3 - Pick 1
--> Gold Myr
Another pack off to a disappointing start. A much better pack for Infect players.
Pack 3 - Pick 2
--> Origin Spellbomb
While we both really like the Warden, we really need cheap artifacts and this is a really good one. In pack three, your pick order really needs to be adjusted based on your deck's needs.
Pack 3 - Pick 3
--> Glint Hawk Idol
Great third pick, we're definitely in a good White seat. I'm in Glint Hawk heaven!
Pack 3 - Pick 4
--> Rusted Relic
The Magnet is a little tempting given how little removal we have, but it's a 5/5 for four!
Pack 3 - Pick 5
--> Origin Spellbomb
With the addition of another terrific one mana artifact, our deck is really starting to come together.
Pack 3 - Pick 6
--> Memnite
Glint Hawk and Myrsmith are happy with this pick, not to mention our Sunchasers.
Pack 3 - Pick 7
While it would be great to have a third Sunchaser, a quick look at our total number of playable artifacts determines this pick.
Pack 3 - Pick 8
--> Blight Mamba
Island (FOIL)
Counter-drafting is fine in pack three.
Pack 3 - Pick 9
--> Vector Asp
We probably won't play two of them, but it's not out the question. If we had two Magnets, the Thrummingbird might be tempting. Pack three held nothing else of interest for us.
This is the deck we built:
[cardlist]
1 Tumble Magnet
2 Gold Myr
2 Lumengrid Drake
2 Auriok Sunchaser
1 Vulshok Replica
2 Vedalken Certarch
1 Vector Asp
1 Razor Hippogriff
2 Glint Hawk Idol
2 Snapsail Glider
1 Myrsmith
1 Revoke Existence
1 Glint Hawk
2 Origin Spellbomb
1 Rusted Relic
1 Memnite
1 Accorder's Shield
8 Island
8 Plains
[/cardlist]
Rada would have run her beloved Halt Order over the Asp, but I'm pretty firm on having 14 artifacts for a deck with this much dependence on artifacts. While I was really happy with the way the deck turned out, Rada unfortunately lost a really close three game match in round one to a pretty solid Red/Black metalcraft deck.
This draft is a good example of three important things. First, even in Scars draft it's possible to have a color cut off. Second, the beauty of power drafting with three colors as options is you always have a backup plan. In this case, we were able to substitute White for Red and get a much better deck. Finally, in pack three it's important to adjust your pick preference to account for what your deck needs.
