Hey everyone! We’re in the end game now. I mean that in the sense that I’m almost done with my prerelease MOM coverage. No, it has nothing whatsoever to do with any similarities between this storyline and a certain well-known movie. Today I’m going to be discussing the draft archetypes of MOM and providing you with an archetype skeleton of each.
This is a version of the article released during the initial set coverage. For the most up to date guide, click below:
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of archetype skeletons, they are a wonderful tool to see what an average, but unspectacular version of a draft deck should look like. There are specific limits set on deck building because let’s be honest, it doesn’t do much good to build a nuts deck that might happen one draft out of the entire format.
In this case, I am going with one rare from the base set, one multiverse legend (rare or uncommon, but no mythics), and four uncommons (not including the bonus sheet one). There also can’t be more than two of any common.
For the purpose of keeping this exercise simple, I am going to be keeping the mana bases static with 1 of each dual land along with an eight and eight split of the basic lands.
You might be asking why I only included one battle. This deck wants to send wave after wave of creatures at the opponent until they die, it’s not overly concerned with accumulating other value. On top of that, with deck building restrictions, there are just better cards for this archetype available in those slots.
As much as I wanted to put Progenitor Exarch in here, I felt obligated to choose Grafted Butcher for the rare because a recurring lord that gives menace is a pretty disgusting magic card. Teysa Karlovwas an easy choice from the bonus because you have so many tokens that would love to have vigilance and lifelink.
Per usual, Boros wants to attack the face. The intended theme is backup, but in this case I built an equipment theme with Kor Halberd, Beamtown Beatstick and Ramosian Greatsword to ensure that your team is well armed when it rushes at your opponent. You still have some backup cards, but they aren’t the main focus.
The most annoying part about building within limits popped up here as both Valduk, Keeper of the Flame and Reyav, Master Smith are great in this archetype and basically only good in this specific version of Boros so you should get both if they are opened. Rules are rules though.
Selesnya is based around +1+1 counters on creatures. The most obvious source of that is backup so we’ll be running a lot of those out. You even get counters from your protection spells with Angelic Intervention which can lead to some blowouts by simultaneously pumping Botanical Brawler.
Dimir is allegedly based around graveyard synergies with having eight cards in your opponent’s graveyard. That just seems awful and I didn’t want to be playing a bunch of janky cards hoping that it got there. Instead, I built this Dimir good stuff deck based around burying the opponent in card advantage.
It was a tough choice between Rona, Herald of Invasion versus Hidetsugu and Kairi, but this deck would love either one of them. I eventually went with the big flying threat over the ground bound one.
Izzet a spells deck again? Nope, apparently they called the audible on us this time because it’s actually a convoke deck instead. Sure, there are still spells floating around and they do work great with Aegar, the Freezing Flame or the back half of Khenra Spellspear, but it’s not the main focus of the deck. Instead you pump out a pile of creature with Ral's Reinforcements or Preening Champion to play convoke spells at a discount.
There really wasn’t much debate on the rare here. Zephyr Singer is a powerful on-theme card that can hit the table for free while making four of your creatures take to the skies.
The Simic theme is based around having a bunch of transform creatures. That’s achieved through either Phyrexian Incubators or double-faced flip cards. The Mutagen Connoisseur can be fairly key as an impassable wall that eventually cracks in for a very large amount of damage. It seems like this deck will durdle for a bit before taking over with some serious chonkers.
Speaking of chonkers, Glistening Dawn will slide perfectly into here to drop two threats size extra-large.
Rakdos has once again taken up the reins of sacrificing their minions for fun and profit. Those reins would be a little hotter if Furnace Reins wasn’t an uncommon, but there are still plenty of sacrifice synergies floating around to take advantage of.
Hot off the bonus sheet, Judith, the Scourge Diva wreaks crazy havoc on the battlefield especially with the queen of sacrifice Ayara, Widow of the Realmbacking her up. Good luck figuring out combat math opponent.
Golgari is its usual adventure into living that midrange life. The sub theme is around incubator tokens so I made sure I covered that here. I also put generic value cards such as Blightreaper Thallidand Overgrown Pest in there to keep the gas flowing.
I went with Glissa, Herald of Predation as the rare because OMG it is absurd. Oh, it also does everything you want with dropping off little Phyrexians or giving them all first strike and deathtouch.
The Gruul decks are ready to battle. They aren’t too picky about whether that means flipping them or smashing into the opponent’s face. They get some pretty great tools for the job in War Historian and War-Trained Slasher.
I went with Invasion of Ikoria as the rare because it grabs one of those tools and then turns into a massive monster that lets you end the game with one swing of your pile of (mostly) non-humans.
We have finally reached the end of a very long march as the set is about to launch on Arena. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be leaving you yet. Check back in a few days for my in-depth Draft Guide for March of the Machine. Until then, stay classy people!
I’m always open to feedback, let me know what you loved, what you hated, or just send dog pics. You can contact at:
Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
