Many of you probably recognize my
name from the card in Avacyn Restored. Or maybe you have ignored me on
cockatrice because I am very narrow minded. I do intend to give advice in this
forum so allow me to explain myself. First and foremost, I did not steal my
name from mtg. During my years in middle and high school I acquired a nickname
of being "The revenant" unlike most people I am loner by choice. My
actions, my way of thinking in life, my problem solving methods. I do things my
own way. I am not sucked into technological stuff like most. I prefer my phone
to only make phone calls, not even text. I own 2 phones. One for calling people
and one for texting. Neither phone has internet access. I own a psp that I use
to play psp games on and I also own a Mp3 player for music. Yes I know that you
can play mp3 files off a psp but I chose to not do this. I believe in one
device one purpose ideal. My ps2 is not a dvd player. I have a dvd player for
that. This style of thinking got my friend to call me a Revenant, I was a relic
in their eyes. Still am. During Zendikar and Worldwake everyone got really
hyped up on Jace TMS. Everyone except me. Mind you I love being blue and I love
playing control. I am a drafter first. I never drafted a JTMS. I never lost to
a JTMS in draft. The times it was drafted against me it literally just added
time to the game. My opponents never won because of it. At this time I played
some standard and I normally did very well at FNMs. At the FNMs I did not run
JTMS I ran a home brew deck. Allot of people at my store Ran JTMS. Most of the
top 8 every week had 4 in their decks. In our top eight we had a Maximum of 28
JTMS because I was always among them and I never ran the card. You may not
believe this but that’s up to you. One of my friends said " You must be
the Lone revenant of mtg, you are the only person who does not run JTMS and
will not run it". The name stuck, and as far as I am concerned the day I
do run JTMS is the day that I lose the name. It also fits cause I have a very
weird draft style. Example. Here is a Draft pack of M14 (actually opened this)
Nightmare, Sengir Vampire,Air servant,Volcanic Geyser, Chandra's outrage,Shock,
Master of diversion, Pacifism, Coral Merfolk, Rumbling Baloth, Deadly recluse,
Liturgy of Blood, Blood Bairn. Look at the pack, what would you first pick from
that pack? This is a 8 man keeper draft at a Local store. I bet you had to
think for a while cause of the sheer powerful cards in the pack. I would pick a
card in a second without much thinking. I would pick Air servant. This is why.
The only other blue card in the pack is the Coral merfolk. I'll table it no
problem. The player on my right (who I feed) will probably dive into black,
then the guy next to him into red or black, maybe white. the next guy same dilemma,
the next guy same dilemma. No one is going into blue from this pack. There may
be another blue drafter near me but he is at least 2-3 seats away unless he
opened a huge blue bomb. Look at m14 how many blue Bombs can you not play and
be ok with yourself? Most of them you can walk away from. So in pack 2 there is
a very high probability that I will have the bomb blue passed to me. In fact as
long as that rare is not a blue card, then I am still probably taking Air
servant. He’ll change liturgy to a Doom Blade, still taking Air Servant. Based
largely on my reasoning. Air Servant is not the best card in the pack, maybe
3-4th at best but Blue is going to be wide open, most likely. Ok, enough about
me and my name.
Time for some draft advice. Warning I am narrow minded so you
have permission to tell me to take my advice and shove it. I will list each
color and my personal views on why you should or should not draft it. This is
strictly from a Uncommon and common perspective. Rares and mythics I leave for
you to figure out. M14 is a slow format, but very unforgiving. I have yet to
see anyone get behind on board position and win. If you miss a mana and your
opponent develops their board with a 2nd or 3rd guy even you are lost. They
have to stumble several turns in a row just for you to fight, and then your
board is improving while theirs is not. Mulligans are very hard here and I have
won many games on the draw. The games will most likely go long, and that 8th
card helps allot.
White: Personally I avoid white, mainly because the
creature base is very weak. If a white based plan is not halted, and you are
able to progress your board fine turn by turn then you can win with no problem,
thing is if you cannot. White has the hardest time clogging the board so that
you can try to catch up. Look at white's 2-4 area. That’s the area that I find
very important. Your best guy at 2 is the 2/2 sliver. Sliver, that’s an archetype
so people are going to be stealing him to splash in sliverish decks. After him
what do you have at 2? Next best cards are flare and pacifism. Pacifism is not
removal, it is partial removal. The creature is still there and can be sacked
for many reasons. and they can disperse the pacifism in response to attacks to
make awkward blocks. Also naturalize in sideboards can handle it. Flare is fine
it is adequate removal. It can be played around effectively. Capashen knight,
is a mana dump. I personally never like mana dumps. I never like Beetleform mage
from DGR. It's a good guy mind you just there are times when you cannot swing
mainly because you want to develop your board. So instead of swinging your 2/2
into their 2/1 where they may not block you have to just cast a guy and pass. I
have won games by blocking just to make my opponent pump, and they get time
walked basically because on my next turn i kill the dump and then they drop the
guy they should have dropped and I drop 2 guys and now my board is much better than
theirs. There are reasons to enter white. Serra’s Accord, pacifism, flare, both
slivers, master of diversion. So go there knowing that your base will be weak.
Blue: Everyone and their mother says blue is the best color
in m14. I love blue, but I disagree. Blue is very deep mind you with great
cards. Both servants, Opportunity , divination, trained condor, Claustrophobia ,
the list goes on and on and on. Reasons not to blue are very slim, mainly
because no matter where you are sitting there is a huge fight over blue cards.
Blue fits into tempo, flyers, enchantment, control, and just plain goodstuff archetypes.
Blue cards will most likely be the first ones to leave the packs.
Black: I think black is the best color. Mainly because of
all the common based removal it has. Liturgy of blood is very good as it kills everything.
There are only three creatures in the entire set that this spell does not kill.
the 2 hexproof guys and fiendslayer paladin. So putting rares aside there is
only one guy that this card misses. And, and, and it gives you 3 mana back to
help you develop your board. that means 45% of time its a free kill spell and
your board improves. I do not care if you use 2 of that mana for a child of
night. you still did a 1 for 1.5 of a card here cause of the mana. Quag
sickness hits the same amount of people, granted a quag on a Siege mastadon may
not kill it on the spot, Quag normally kills its target on the spot. Festering
newt, (i know its a guy) this guy single handly kills most of the 1-3 drop guys
in the set. he either kills them cause of the low butt or he kills them with his
ability. Thats 1 guy killing lots of different dudes. With the uncommons black
gains even more kill with doomblade, corrupt, even shrivel can be extremely
powerful. dead guys means you live longer.
Red: I think red and blue are tied for the second best color
in the set, depending on your style. Reds creatures lack some punch that we are
used to but their burn makes up for it. shock, outrage, flames, geyser,
pitchburn. Thats allot of burn/removal not to mention the huge beating of
Maulhorn at common. Thats Juggernaut at a common level?! Yeah it must attack
every turn, its a 5/3 it will probably swing every turn happily. Use your burn
to clear his path and your opponents will be mud before long. the 4/1 cat is
the same thing basically except it can trade and make your opponents attacka
weird with some pump or even thunderstrike people will hate you.
Green: This is where the beef is at, literally. 3/3 on 2
4/4 on 4 and a perfectly placed 2/3 that pumps them both. Not to forget the
best green removal aside from prey upon. Enlarge is a huge beating that
normally just wins the game. Opponent drops a sengir vampire and all you got is
a brindle boar. Drop enlarge and that vampire has to chump block and dies to
the boar, and they take 5 damage. thats a huge upswing in your favor. at 5 mana
that card is amazing. You would think with enlarge that green would not get its
normal growth card but it got Giant growth also, Hell it even got the 3/3 thats
pumps a guy +2/+2.Thats three growth effects. all worth playing and all very good
in this format.
Artifacts: I know this is not a color. but i want to
mention two powerful artifacts. First is rod of ruin, this is a reprint
obviously, but it gets better here. Lots of early game guys are /1 butt even
some of the three drop guys die to rod. Factor in a festering newt or some
combat and there are just times where your opponents cannot effectively attack
or block without losing out on ground. When they can you just thump their skull
at EOT. I have yet to be saddened by a rod in my main 23 (17 lands). The second
card i want to mention is Bubbling Cauldron. A lot of people consider this a
black card. Wrong, it fits all archetypes. 4 life is allot in a slow sluggish
format. you can sac blockers to counteract life gain. you can sac things as
they are targeted by certain kill spells to make them fizzle, chandra's outrage
is a classic example here. During those sluggish turns you can just make
tokens, several ways and toss them in the cauldron to make matters worse. The
bad part about cauldron is once you have one, the second does next to nothing.
I hope my words helped you in some way. If I forgot any key
cards feel free to tell me. I know that i spent little time explaining blue,
there are too many reason to explain why blue is good here. It is not easy for
me to say that black is better, but thats mainly because blue is so easily
drafted that I rather not fight all day for cards. Until next time, "Draft
greedy and win".
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