[Discussion] Unlimited Rochester draft

[Samcat]

Imagine yourself in an 8-man tourney.  The tournament format is an entire Unlimited set.  Power 9 and all.  The Black Lotus is the prize for winning the whole thing.  By the setup, each person is gauranteed at least one of the remaining 8 power cards.

Aside from the Moxes, etc. there are other bombs that exist in the format.  Wrath of God, Fireball, Shivan Dragon all are potential bombs.  Even shatter, fissure, or Stp would be amazing due to the relatively light removal available.

The question is, what are the best cards for a draft deck?  Do you force a certain archetype?  What is the draft order of the remaining Power 8?

Our asssumption for power 8 draft is:
Ancestral
Time Walk
Mox Sapphire/Pearl (Pearl for extra white removal support)
Mox Pearl/Sapphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet (Black seems kinda weak for this format)

I wanted to throw this out there since I have these discussions with my play group that mainly do limited drafts.  I would the input from a Type 1 crowd that may have better insight.

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Samcat (Newb looking to make an impact....eventually)

[Zherbus]

Moved to the proper forum.

I would suspect the best cards in the limited environment would be things like:

Fireball
Lightning Bolt
Disintegrate
Shivan Dragon
Terror
Drain Life
Swords to Plowshares
Serra Angel
Wrath of God
Nevinyrral's Disk

[LoA]

Ancestral and Time Walk will probably go 1-2, but the Moxes, while nice, are outclassed by other cards in limited.  Hell, I'd rather have a Sol Ring in most limited decks out there.

Balance, Mind Twist, Wrath of God, Fireball/Disintegrate, Timetwister, Armageddon, Choas Orb (legal?), Earthquake, Nevinyrral's Disk, and Icy Manipulator should all be taken before people start looking at the Moxen.

EDIT: Looks like Steve beat me to the punch.

[Jacob Orlove]

Are you assuming you keep the cards you draft?

If so, Illusionary Mask, Time Vault, Berserk, etc would all go right away, since $$$ > one pick towards winning a lotus. The blue duals might also get picked immediately.

[Matt]

For purposes of winning the game, Balance is probably the number one pick. Maybe Disk. No creatures are worth a first pick, and Ancestral, while good, isn't as amazing as a reset.

I might force Disk/Demonic/regenerators (Sedge Troll?), or WW.

[LoA]

If this is a keeper draft with only the P9 getting split, then I'd revise my picks.  Assuming you don't, go for bombs over broken power.  I'd probably try for a Nev's Disk/Earthquake and some regenerating critters like Sedge and Uthden Trolls, Drudge Skeletons, etc. since r/b allows for a decent amount of removal.

[Samcat]

This draft would be for keeps.  Any cards you draft you put into your pockets at the end of the day.

I still think that the moxen would go before anything else.  $$$ speaks volumes.  Besides, would Balance without all the mox acceleration still be that good?  At most, you can only have one mox and not much acceleration.  Balance would not have the same affect as it does in constructed.  I could see mind twist and disk being a house since it would be easier to break the symmetry.

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Samcat

[serialjester]

This draft would be for keeps.  Any cards you draft you put into your pockets at the end of the day.

I still think that the moxen would go before anything else.  $$$ speaks volumes.  Besides, would Balance without all the mox acceleration still be that good?  At most, you can only have one mox and not much acceleration.  Balance would not have the same affect as it does in constructed.  I could see mind twist and disk being a house since it would be easier to break the symmetry.

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Samcat

You're either Brandon, or are going to do the draft with Brandon at Pandemonium, since he's been talking about this for awhile. The Moxes will go first, definitely. All the cards mentioned are gold, but watch out for stuff like Pestilence, Drain Life, Control Magic. Vesuvan even, especially Pestilence. Getting that, Will o the Wisp, and Drain Life would be some good.

[everythingitouchdies]

I have been thinking heavily on this subject. There are some cards that will be considerably devastating, once the power is out of the way. You figure your first 2-5 picks are going to be money picks, but after that you can start looking at what is going to win.

To do this, I have been thinking about all the bad decks I used to play before the dark came out. BLACK VISE is a bomb. Icy manipulator will be extremely effective.

I have a pretty good idea what non creature stuff to pick, but creatures are another story. Imagine Veteran bodyguard with holy armor on him. Or force of nature with regeneration. Cyclopean Tomb and Gaea's Leige to rob your opponent of precious colored mana. the Devastation of facing a demonic hordes and not being the guy who drafted wrath or STP...

EITD.

[Matt]

Force of Nature+Hurricane+CoP:Green!

[Jacob Orlove]

Force of Nature+Hurricane+CoP:Green!

I remember back when Inquest had a "send in your own combos" section, and someone mentioned the power play of CoP Green + Channel.

[Samcat]

You're either Brandon, or are going to do the draft with Brandon at Pandemonium, since he's been talking about this for awhile. The Moxes will go first, definitely. All the cards mentioned are gold, but watch out for stuff like Pestilence, Drain Life, Control Magic. Vesuvan even, especially Pestilence. Getting that, Will o the Wisp, and Drain Life would be some good.

I had heard from a couple friends a long time ago that Pandemonium was thinking about it.  And like I said before, we had talked quite a bit about it when we were bored.  My curiosity was piqued after I started reading TMD and what other Type 1 players might think about it if it was available.

I did happen to talk to Brandon over the weekend and he said there may be an actual Unlimited draft.  The set is finished (which is in immaculate condition, absolutely beautiful) and he was deciding how to set up admission, by either running out-dated drafts (like weatherlight, Ice Age) for slots or setting up raffle drawings.  He said that most likely he will set up a single drawing for admission, only one entry per person and charge those people he drew a single price.

Aside from that,  would dual lands be critical to draft early?  Do you start with the removal (WoG, StP, Bolt, etc.) or trying to force picking up creatures?  If you have a deck chock full of creatures, opponents will be hard pressed to deal with them all without board sweepers.  (Which I can only think of five: WoG, Disk, Balance, Hurricane, Earthquake.  With only the first two or three being effective at getting all creatures.)

I would probably try to take the mass removal and leave the spot removal in favor of drafting some of the more powerful creatures.  Which still leaves the question on when do you start drafting duals?

[LoA]

I wouldn't jump on the duals too soon.  Assuming your going to play 2-3 colors, acceleration is more important than getting a dual in a lot of cases.  If you run green, it would be worth picking Birds, but green is pretty weak in this format.  But, since you get to keep the cards you draft, grabbing blue duals can't hurt.  Tundra and Volcanic Island would be my top choices since blue will give you access to decent fliers like Phantom Monster and red and white will give you decent removal.

[Frappie]

Green isnt as week as you may think. Wall of ice is the uber tech! stops almost everything. that and force of nature is a redic bomb. regeneration? giant growth? scryb sprites, bears, mammoths, giant spiders, elves, treefolk, and craw wurms. Combat tircks like fog, giant growth, berserk, camoflage? i think that green has the best shot where you could easily draft green while everybody is fighting for all the removal you can just as easily pick up a nutty deck. and green does have removal in the form of thicket/cockatrice. oh and the enchantments that are pretty good to are this regeneration, aspect of wolf (mono green +2/+3? neone?) instill energy for that ironroot treefolk. Bombs thatare redic? previously mentioned force of nature, gaea's leige, regrowth? come on green is the nuts.

[everythingitouchdies]

I would love to draft a clever combo, like birds + stasis + instill energy.

White is no laughing matter, nor is black. Drudge skeletons with unholy strength and a bad moon in play is extremely brutal. Will o the wisp, black knight, LIVING WALL, and other pieces of extremity are an excellent source of defense.

Channel could be used to an extreme benefit, to fuel x spells or cast a big creature, and sacrifice has great synergy with drain life. Forcefield is probably the best artifact outside the power, and would be a house agains stuff like lord of the pit and craw wurm.

Royal Assassin is amazing.

[Frappie]

ok guys after talking to andystok that has done an unlimited draft before he said that most of the cards that you open in the packs are lands. he said something like 3-4 lands per pack.

[Samcat]

A booster draft is a whole different monster.  We have been talking about a rotisserie draft.  The entire set is laid out before you and the eight players draft the set.

Stasis w/Birds and Instill energy is funny as hell.  But might be difficult to get the three card combo and it does not lock out someone completely (Especially against the guy who drafted the Serra Angel).  Better would be Instill Energy and force of nature.  Might be a little difficult to cast, but much harder to deal with.  8/8 trampler who doesn't tap to attack?  And both in one color.  Gravy....

How valuable are the biggest stompies of each color?  Lord of the Pit/Shivan Dragon/Serra Angel/Force of Nature/Maamoti Djinn would all be amazing beatdown.  Do you draft at least one, as many as you can (hard with multiple color for each),  or ignore assuming a more beatdown roll and try to kill before any come online?

How important is color hosers?  The COPs could be great against individual decks, but there is Northern Paladin, Life force, etc.  I suppose the stock of these types really go up if you draft something like Sleight of Mind.

[effang]

Post deleted. Keep this sort of thing to PM.[/color]