Hey everyone! You all know what time it is. No, it’s not the middle of another week (yet). It’s time for the next set release so I am here to go over all of the limited archetypes with you along with providing archetype skeletons for each of them. I know it can be a bit confusing whenever they convince me to knock the cobwebs off and write an article that’s not about Midweek Magic.
For those of you unfamiliar with archetype skeletons, they are solid versions of each archetype built under specific restrictions. Think of them as decks that could trophy, but are far from guaranteed to do so. It wouldn’t do you much good to look at busted versions because those decks build and play themselves when they pop up. This type of exercise is focused more on maximizing your return while sitting in an average draft seat.
We will be using the limitations of two rares (no mythics), five uncommons (no duplicates), and not more than two of any common.
The mana bases will remain static for simplicities sake. They will be one of the appropriate dual land with eight of each basic land. I am aware that the math for number of sources might be incorrect on some of these, but that is beyond what is necessary for this exercise. Please don’t be that person who messages me to complain about this.
They didn’t break the mold when they designed the Avatar Azorius archetype. It’s the classic flyers deck. Play some flappy beats with enough ways to disrupt their ground attacks to get the win in the air.
Do you want Aristocrats? Because this is how you get Aristocrats. I know it is shocking to you all, but Orzhov is going to be the sacrifice deck. It’s almost as unexpected as Boros being an aggro deck.
This archetype loves to sacrifice your minions for fun and profit. Continue to enjoy living the good life while your poor peasants suffer.
Boros is following the exact plan that you would expect Boros to be Borosing. Go wide and beatdown. It’s not exciting, but why fix it if it ain’t broke.
I’ve always thought that drawing extra cards has been gas. (My favorite card being Ancestral Recall) That means I immediately take a hard turn towards any archetype who wants to grip extra cards and that’s exactly what Dimir is all about by providing triggers for drawing your second card in a turn.
Izzet a spells deck again? (Am I going to write an original joke for this one, probably not when this one so easily presents itself every set). This time it is a combat lessons archetype based around casting noncreature spells. Wait a minute…that’s just a fancy way of saying that it’s a spells deck again.
Per usual, Simic doesn’t really have a theme other than play some ramp and big dudes. It is what it is. It does have a bit of a lesson subtheme you can play into.
Rakdos is designed around Fire Nation Aggro which means that it gives you mana that can only be spent during combat. That’s a great way to pop off some clues or pay for activated abilities.
Golgarbage is about that +1+1 counters life style. I know you were expecting some midrange Golgarbage pile focused on the graveyard, but we get a little surprise this time.
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.
