999 Draft Discussion

[AJFirst]

what archetypes are you looking at?? what cards are you looking forward to picking up?

i'm going to a bunch of 999 drafts coming up, but i don't know what do look for. what do you guys think?

what are the first picks you'd love to see, and archtypes you'd love to play along with what cards you'd like in those colors?

[?¿?]

hmmmmm well I think B/U is the best you can go in most cases unless a bomb is passed to like Patron of teh Kitsune or kumano or something but uhhhhhh theres always this mono red pass i saw taken and it had ok results (He equiped O-naginata to genju of the spires ouch).

[AJFirst]

no not kamigawa block, ninth edition.

CBS is kamigawa draft standing for champions, betrayers, and saviors.

999 is base set draft standing for three packs of ninth edition.

it seems white's pretty stacked in ninth, with angels, anthem, wayfarer, and all.

red also seems quite strong with lots of burn, goblin houses, the dragons, and all.

red/white looks pretty good with all of the removal and beaters.

what do you guys think?

[BalancedChaos]

Well, alot of people will start drafting Black, just because people are like that.. And will most likely pick up green as a second colour. Mind you, this will only happen for maybe the first few drafts they enter. White is amazing in 999, as is Red. So in theory, W/R is the way to go, but it also depends on what you pull.. I managed in win a FNM drafting W/U. You seem like you're a very good drafter, someone above my own skill, so I would just say "Let the cards come to you".

[Welding_Jar]

I've never drafted the Core Set before. That includes 8th and 7th, both within my Magic time. I think that WB looks good, as does WR. Here is my pathetic attempt at pick orders.

White

1. Pacifism
2. Pegasus Charger
3. Crossbow Infantry
4. Glory Seeker
5. Suntail Hawk

Blue

1. Wind Drake
2. Dehydration
3. Horned Turtle
4. Aven Fisher
5. Boomerang/Sift

Coral Eel wouldn't be bad, but it's not going to appear in boosters.

Black

1. Dark Banishing
2. Enfeeblement (depends on mana situation)
3. Razortooth Rats
4. Serpent Warrior
5. Festering Goblin

Red

1. Volcanic Hammer
2. Shock
3. Anaba Shaman
4. Lava Axe
5. Balduvian Barbarians/Goblin Piker/Sandstone Warrior

Green

1. Trained Armadon
2. Order of the Sacred Bell
3. Llanowar Elves
4. Kavu Climber/Spined Wurm
5. Grizzly Bears/Zodiac Monkey

Uncommon artifacts (no particular order): Rod of Ruin, Phrexian Hulk, Icy Manipulator, Bottle Gnomes, Vulshok Morningstar

[Sibtiger]

Welding_jar, you're definitely forgetting Aven Windreader at the top of your blue picks. 3/3 flyers for 3UU are never unwelcome, especially when you can get some important information from them.

And I would put Sandstone Warrior up there, maybe even above Anaba Shaman. Swinging heavy red is easier than usual and he's really strong.

[Welding_Jar]

Oh, yeah, I thought Windreader was 2/2. Definitely, it's at the same level at Wind Drake, or higher. I've never played with Sandstone Warrior, but it seems good. Okay, it's at the same level as Anaba Shaman, and above Lava Axe.

[AJFirst]

well i drafted three times in a row and have learned some things about the set:

1. white is ridiculously overpowered
2. white is ridiculously overdrafted
3. red is underrated and underdrafted
4. so is blue
5. removal is essential (durrr)

here are some good picks, most underrated:

rootwalla - not much to say, he's a decent guy that threatens to buff up
boomerang - although tough on the mana, it really can hit home sometimes
dark banishing - removal.hot
enfeeblement - even better, but you usually won't see too many, and if you do then odds are you don't have the mana base to support it.
sleight of hand - awsome draw and really cheap. just as good as sift
shock - you'd be amazed at how many of these go around
orcish artillery - really helps deal with threats you need help with.
anaba shaman - recurring removal, even if for a little.
suntail hawk - you'd be amazed at how many of these fellas you'll see as well
angelic blessing - decent win condition
mind rot - hooray for card advantage
seething song - if you don't mind the all red, two mana accel can be crucial to a game
festering goblin - gotta love a 1/1 for one mana that trades with 2/2s
crossbow infantry - holds oponents back just a little which can be key to the game
master decoy - hooray for white removal!! he's like a cheap mystic restraints with upkeep of W that can switch around freely.
elvish beserker - another 1/1 for one that trades with 2/2s. not at all a high pick, but look for them late, as they are quite good.
glory seeker - probably the only good white you'll see since it is eaten up so badly in this draft. solid card though. grizzly bears, but in a color that's better in the set.
wind drake - hooray for decently sized, but well-costed fliers!
pegasus charger - ditto!!
air elemental - ONE MORE TIME!!!
holy day - alpha strike king. stalls if you need him too, and can be a hidden win condition as you can't do anything with their 9/9 beast of burden when you're creatures are all tapped out, then BAM!! alpha for 6
dehydration - blue removal anyone?
aven fisher - flying body who dies for a card.


cards that didn't quite live up to my standards:

lava axe
volcanic hammer
order of the sacred bell
horned turtle
treasure trove

there were plenty others to name in both lists, but that's all i can think of right now. it's late, i'm tired, and after hanging out with my friends tomorow, i'm drafting ALL DAY sunday. five or six in a row most likely, and all 999 most likely, so i'll have PLENTY to report after then. as for now i'll leave it at this, and tomorow maybe but up some archetypes and descriptions of how they did that i played. here's a sneak peak:

UW - fliers
UGb - agro
GW - weenie-agro

[BalancedChaos]

I just got back from FNM, drafting 999.

While W/R is good, any kind of control hoses it. I was amazed to see no one playing black though, I was the only one. Nightmare first pick is alot of fun.

Mono Black is very, very viable. Weenie beats mono black was simply amazing. Easy as pie to draft, and it won me the draft, barely taking any damage the whole way through. Green isn't as good as it could be. Blue is fricking amazing, as it red.

[?¿?]

Rootbreaker Wurm is the shiznite.

[Rhino408]

Yeah jus did a 9-9-9 yesterday, i'll do the commons

white:
pacifism
master decoy
aven cloudchaser + various flying birdy friends

red:
volcanic hammer
shock
sandstone warrior
anaba shaman
goblin chariot

black:
dark banishing
emfeeblement
razortooth rats
giant cock.............roach

green:
giant growth
llanny elves
kavu climber
trained armadon
taco bell

blue:
3/3 flier for 3UU
aven fisher guy
horned turtle
sift
boomerang
wind drake

[AJFirst]

i still stand tall saying sleight of hand is better than sift as it is so much cheaper.

but i agree with chaos, MB in 999 draft is very viable. nobody expects it, and black is very underdrafted. now for my breakdown of my draft(s)

UW - fliers
pagusus chargers were the MVP as i picked them up picks 5 and 7 and were well worth it. cloudchasers were good against pacifism, and fishers are just good. windreader laid some beats, and let me see some counterable spells that i saved my counterspells for. sleight of hand was solid draw when i needed it, and that 5cc blue spell draw four cards also hit the table (edit: tidings).

i lost to black green round two as it had too much removal for me to deal with.

second draft i ran UGb

in green i had two rootwallas and lots of accel. in black i had recursion (two raise dead and one zombify), and in blue i had fatties and draw. i diddn't have a lot of creatures, and so my only real win conditions were djinn (5/6 flier for 6) and some other dude (6/6 unblockable for 7). what i built my deck around was accelling to enough mana to play them while using removal to help stall and get rid of threats then lay down a fattie and win. if they killed it i would recurr it with raise dead and hardcast, or zombify and contine to lay the beats.

this is where i found sift to be slower than wanted and sleight to be nice and quick, sweet and slick. find my answers and cheaply too. i also found raise dead to be underrated. it really helps get fatties back and can really help your creature-base stay consistant for you.

i lost round two to mono-red. three shocks, two hammers, two shaman, two lots of pikeman and barbarian beaters, two seething song, two sandstone warriors, 2 orcish artillerys, and one of those X2RRcc spells that everything gets +X/-X until EOT....it was a good deck.

my third and final deck of the night was GW weenie

lots of rootwallas was what made this deck run, along with a marblestone titan. GR8 synergy with those two, because you can swing for more than 3 consistantly, which you can't do with anything else while marblestone's in play. serra's blessing was the main finisher alone with that spell that gives all of your guys +1/+1 (edit :: warrior's honor). i also cracked a paladin envec, which came in handy round 2 against a mono black deck. elvish berserker is HOTT as a bushido fattie. gotta love 1/1s that trade with 2/2s.

elvish berserker and pegasus chargers were the MVP creatures in this deck, followed by rootwallas and the rares (marblestone and paladin). grizzly bears were great too, and giant growth was hott as always. trained armodon, glory seeker, and suntail hawk were solid vanillas also.

creeping mold showed to be half-decent, as did norwood ranger. not essential, but they get their jobs done. and of course you have to love decks with master decoys and pacifism in the white removal slot.

my brother ran mono-black in his draft and cracked a royal assasin. HOTT. he ran demon's horn, an a bunch of weenies and beaters with plenty of removal. three contaminated bonds worked well also. black was underdrafted (as it usually is) and mono black was extremely viable for him. he lost round two because of multiple play mistakes

[?¿?]

My god AJ you seem to get all the luck from what i've seen I just drafted yesterday and it went horrible I did get some really good picks I just got the worst match-ups I cracked serra Angel Might of oaks and was passed a rootbreaker wurm and lots of mana bringers but i went up against experts and was slaughtered :(.However I did get A jester's cap in the end.

[AJFirst]

haha, i guess i'm a lucky guy. i do crack some good cards sometimes.

match-ups can be tough, but angle and might of oaks is hott. did you run GW beats?? along with a fatty worm and lots of accel seems like you could've done pretty well..

[?¿?]

I did of course do w/g beats however I got paired with the worst match-ups and never got the double white for sserra angel most of the time.

[AJFirst]

what did your mana base look like? and what accel did you run?

[whosagiggawa]

pegasus charger is the best common in my opinion

[CassiusClay]

razortooth rats > pegasus charger, as far as creatures go.

best common is easily dark banishing/pacifism

[?¿?]

i ran a Llanwar elf wood elves nd two of those enchantlands that GG to your mana pool.

[AJFirst]

i ran a Llanwar elf wood elves nd two of those enchantlands that GG to your mana pool.

and how much land

[?¿?]

17 lands 10 forest 7 plains

[BalancedChaos]

Unless your deck was really green intensive (aka 4+ XGG cc), I would have run 9 Forest, 8 Plains.

[AJFirst]

what balanced chaos said, because you can't make white with your accel.

if your accel was rampant growth, utopia tree, or whatever, then your mana base would would work, but if your accel is all green and just gives you more green, then 9/8 would be the better choice.

i also would rather you run 18 lands with this deck since it's so good, you'd hate to have it lose to mana shortage. if you did then 9/9 would work, and then you'd definitly have no problem with the angel.

[dvdira]

So we need to build with 17-18 lands in 999 (just like in CHK), huh? How about the removal base --- around 3-4 removals, a couple of combat tricks and around 16-17 critters --- does this sound just about right?

I haven't drafted 999, mainly because I play on MTGO mostly, and it isn't there yet. Can't wait to get my hands on them painlands though. :D

[AJFirst]

haha, yeah painlands are hott. the other day i drafted one (pack three, and it was llanlwar wastes and i was running BG...weird, eh?) then got second, and in my two prize packs i opened two more (caves of koilos and shivan reef). it was awsome.

anywho, that seems about right for the build. the curve is quite different than in kami block because it's a core set, thus the set curve is a little lower than blocks, so 17 usually works. i only said 18 for the other guy because the deck seemed good and it's one of those 'just to be safe' things i do sometimes.

also, removal's somewhat underdrafted and in most colors, so you should be ok there, and 4-5 seems like a fine number. white's overloaded, and black's got some good stuff too. red's interesting as it doesn't have too much spot removal or burn, but it has orcish artillery and anaba shaman which are two neatly packaged recurring removal spells with bodies.

but as i've said before, white's ridiculously overdrafted, so be careful with it. a few notables are pacifism and master decoy. as for white battele tricks, warriars honor and holy day are both a barrel of laughs.

[Welding_Jar]

Don't set a number on removal. Get as much as possible. If you pick up 2 Dark Banishings, Volcanic Hammer and Enfeeblement in pack 1, don't pass up Orcish Artillery or Shock just because you already have four removal spells. Six is better than five, which is better than four, which is better than three, etc. Well, stop about eight. After that, just draft creatures and there's no way you can lose. Having too much creature removal is a problem I'd LOVE to have in any draft.

[AJFirst]

true. i have dreams of being removal flooded.

[8thjunkie]

speaking of removal flood...

Last draft I got the following for removal

2 shock
2 geurilla tactics (AMAZING)
2 Volcanic Hammer

then the pseudo removal:
1 Orcish Artillery
1 Master Decoy
1 Ballista Squad

yeah. I was a little flooded. Still won :)

A buddy of mine dropped a Blinding Angel turn 5... I was going "aw crap", since I knew I'd either have to use two pieces of removal on her 2/4 tail. What came next was hilarious. I draw Geurilla Tactics. I had already killed a Ravenous Rats so I had to wait on one of black's bigger and better commons: Gravedigger. Next turn he gravediggers and gets the rats back- plays them and finds his Angel in the graveyard!

Never underestimate Geurilla Tactics!

[8thjunkie]

I forgot to mention - 2 Anaba Shaman too! For the Win!

[SatrnOne]

Last 999 I drafted BW
First pack first pick - Royal Assassin
Second pack first pick - Grave Pact
Then I got passed a Nantuko Husk and I was extatic (I don't have a very good poker-face).
2x Master Decoy
3x Crossbow Infantry...
It was fun but not quite good enough... I went 1-0-2. :/

[AJFirst]

royal assasin + master decoy = visara with a :W: activation cost. pretty sweet

[8thjunkie]

thats a shame you didn't get your funny combo down :-(

I myself prefer Orcish Artillery + Spirit Link. Hahaha. Gain 2 life!

[AJFirst]

i did that with loxodon warhammer. it was hott stuff

[SatrnOne]

My favorite Spirit Link targets = Ballista Squad and Zealous Inquisitor (redirect and then gain life for it! :P)

[PhyrexianSurvivor]

Yeah, I doubt it's possible to have too much removal. I somehow managed to be the only black drafter in a chk-chk-chk draft once, and between the two befouls, three combined rened, 2 pull unders, swallowing Plague, and 4 Scuttling Deaths, I don't think my opponents kept anything bigger than 2/2 on the board all night. Which, of course, let my Cursed Ronins and Kami of Lunacy's swing unimpeded.

If you do happen to be black removal flooded in the first two packs of ninth, Looming Shade becomes an automatic first pick. In fact, if the people you're drafting with hate black, I'd make Looming Shade a first pick going into the draft.

[nafix]

Removal underdrafted?!? Whenever I draft, removal is snatched up very quickly. It seems like I never get more than 1 or 2 removal in one pack.
How did you lose with royal assasin, grave pact, 3 crossbow infantries, and 2 master decoy? What deck beat you? Having multiple infantries and decoys to back up some creatures seems like you'd be unstoppable especially with the assasin and grave pact.

[gravityzero]

i have just got back in to drafts after more then a year off last draft i did before this was MMD at some point in '04, but anyways, i played in the 999 drafts at the local fnm (done here on thursday but meh) anyways last week the deck i ended up with was fairly solid as i got first pick might of oaks so it kinda cemented me in green, after that it was blanchwood armor, and a couple of those 2/1 forestwalk dudes a scaled wurm and a couple random 1/1 flier blocking monkeys. pick 1 of second pack was WOG i splashed 4 plains for it and chose a fairly early rampant growth as it will almost never table around here. might not have been the best thing, but it worked out for me after drafting a reclaim. anyways green seems rather solid with blanchwood armor and those 2/1 forest walk dudes being insane.

will also throw in a mini report of last night as well, ended up going mono black. first picked hypnotic spectre, second pick was scaled wurm i think, the good picks came along though, as i ended up with 3 looming shades, enfeeblement, and sengir vampire, my lone non black creature was a bottle gnomes which won me the tournament against a turn 3 cop black in game 3 hehe, soul feast is nuts, so is highway robber, would have liked a consume spirit or two, but no need to be greedy when ya get a first pick hyppie lol. anyway, sorry i am rambling, but the best advice on this format i can give is to not draft white or red, as everyone thinks those are the best colors, and will take whatever card of those colors that come by, even at the expense of having a subpar deck.