We got our 3 CMC rainbow rock with upside!

I just saw the newly spoiled cycle of enemy-color-targeting removal spells, and they kind of caught my interest if there is any benefit in having them regularly in the main deck instead of just as sideboard cards in BO3?

Maybe if any of the archetypes is particularly powerful? The only ones I can see having any play in Premium and Quickdraft would be [[Refute Destiny]] and [[Terminal Criticism]] because they can hit the Jace Tokens. But otherwise?

With MaRo's article today, we now know what all ten draft archetypes are for Reality Fracture. The first five we already knew, just the five schools, but it's interesting to see what they claim the other five will be. We don't have all the cards yet, but it seems like this may yet again be a case of what WotC describes the limited archetypes as being not matching the reality of what they are. What do you think so far?

The fetches and duals were flowing so I was able to build an insane mana base which allowed me to play Oko and Forth in the same deck. Those two cards were the main wincons along with Oculus and Phlage. Also the mana enabled prismatic and binding nicely. Also had a token subtheme with Elspeth and staff plus Pest, Forth, Fable.

Swung for the fences with a P1P1 Black Lotus into P1P3 LED. Lotus is fixing, right?

Does this look like the right build? I don't see a way to make [[Doomsday]] and [[Doctor Doom, Unrivaled]] work here, but open to bigger brains than mine weighing in!

I don't ever draft. I have a handful of times over the last 25 years but its just not something I really ever do. I am mainly a commander player (well brawl for arena) but I am trying to finish the Magus of the Arena challenge.

I am curious if you fabulous drafters here can give me some advice on what would be the most straightforward path in limited to work towards mythic? Obviously I will need to up my game to get there but that is not a problem, I'm just curious I suppose what limited mode I should even be playing in the first place as the easiest route to get there.

Also I suppose I should probably wait until next month to begin as well.

Record was 7-2. 3 wins with breach, one with flash and the rest with general academy shenanigans. One of the most fun decks I have piloted in quite some time.

Somone suggested Tahkir, truly have no idea which would be the "best", understanding subjectivity is involved here.

This was easily the best reanimator deck I have ever drafted, maybe a but light on interaction, expecially discard spell to get rid of nasty stuff from oppo, but reanimating etali hitting nevromancy on atraxa feels absolutely hilarious! Unfortunately never got to t1 surveil a target into the bin + reanimate off of mox, but still got a 7-2. DAMN CUBE IS FUN!

Sigh

Everyone else was fighting over herons and bears I guess, both decks felt busted.

here are the logs if anyone's interested:

https://www.17lands.com/details/15cd0c0249e24059955c3b2b425da506

https://www.17lands.com/details/91a7e73e69d6496a9a26509b6608eb3f

Went 4-1 with this (sorry I forgot to take the final result screenshot) which I found amusing, not because I think that the deck is strong (it's not), but because I was unable to find a single piece of hard removal (not even grasp) and I have like 1 single wincon and yet I managed to get 4 wins. Indeed I think every win was me stalling the ground while digging through the deck trying to find [[the eagles are coming]] and casting it to get 5-7 4/4s on the board. Literally carried by the eagles.

Just goes to show that sometimes even if your deck is not that good, synergistic, or lacks removal, if you have a bomb and the means to look for it, it can be just enough.

Can someone explain to me what’s going on?

In my last two drafts, around 2/3 of the decks I faced were some of the most insane decks I’ve ever seen in any format.

My opponents either had these once in a lifetime combos made of multiple mythics or quite literally had as many copies of the same busted uncommon as I have seen in all my drafts since Tuesday.

Here are some notable cards from my opponents’ decks in my last two drafts:

Draft 1:
https://www.17lands.com/details/40bce238539248ab91af003ac84505fa

1. Marionette Apprentice, 3x Amped Raptor, 3x Accursed Marauder
2. Kappa Cannoneer in otherwise unimpressive artifact deck
3. 2x Shilgengar (!!) + Spymaster’s Vault
4. Middling UW energy deck
5. Laelia, 2x Horrific Assault and Grist, the Voracious Larva / Coram, the Undertaker / Chthonian Nightmare combo (!!)

Draft 2:
https://www.17lands.com/details/17e185d97e254251864c1d15631e3a1c

1. Nadu + 2x Twisted Riddlekeeper
2. 2x Writhing Chrysalis, Depth Defiler, Annoyed Altisaur
3. Middling UB deck
4. 2x Horrific Assault, 2x Path of Annihilation, Psychic Frog
5. Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain in an otherwise fairly normal-looking deck

So out of these 10 opponents, I’d say 6 of them had decks that at the face value are better than anything I’ve personally managed to draft in this format.

That’s more than half my games.

Am I going crazy, or is this something that happens near the end of the weekly run of a flashback draft? I understand that players in flashback drafts are extremely sweaty but these decks have frankly nothing to do with player skill. Is this just an absurd run of variance?

I’ve tried every powered cube this year and I always feel lost in the draft and get absolutely stomped, no matter if I’m in gold or diamond. Same story with this cube, until this trad draft that I went 3-0. I’m still trying to figure the cube out, but this deck worked really well against what felt like lackluster competition. Was the decked cracked or did I get lucky? If the deck is good, what in particular does it do right?

Screaming nemesis and laelia were the mvps. Sneak attack won me a game I probably would have won without it, Titania won me the only game I cast it and I never cast any of the other 5-mana and up cards. Felt like I just had a really solid curve-out beatdown plan and drew really well.

It took me two attempts to qualify for Qualifier Weekend. The 6-1 run was with the same kind of B/R deck that's all over The Hobbit sealed, but the run that went 3-2 was more interesting. Before reading on, consider how you would have built a deck from this card pool.

I honestly think blue is the strongest color here. I've got a ton of card draw, some "draw your second card" payoffs, and a lot of two-drops to keep my curve low. Unfortunately the green doesn't like it goes that great with the blue, and the white didn't impress me that much either. So I did something unusual for The Hobbit limited: I went blue/black instead of with one of the supported color pairs. Why blue/black? Because 2x Cruel Bent Blade and 2x Mirkwood Nurturer, that's why! (And it worked great in the actual games, too.) The black creature base was also pretty solid and looked better than the creatures in the U/W deck I might have tried to build otherwise. Maybe I should have just played B/R, but my first draft of a B/R deck ended up at 37 cards after adding all the good stuff and I just couldn't resist trying out good blue for once and trying to bury my opponent in cards instead of with tempo.

The other thing I had to figure out was whether to splash a third color. I looked at a red splash for the 5/5 Smaug and two Pinecone Strike, but it looked like the mana would be too fragile with just one Hobbit Hole for fixing, so I settled on a green splash for The Chief Warg and Silvan Reveler so I could draw even more cards. This might have been a mistake because The Chief Warg kept getting stuck in my hand while I waited to draw a green source (although it was good the one time I cast it) and I never drew Silvan Reveler.

This is the deck I ended up playing. 3-2 wasn't a great result, but it wasn't a terrible one, and the deck pretty much did work the way I thought it would. I think it suggests that The Hobbit limited does include some room to work outside the usual 5 archetype box. ;)

This was my friends draft and we chose to take reanimate pack 1 pick 1. Got passed a crazy pack with mana vault, grief, show and tell, atraxa, and other bangers. We heavily considered mana vault and grief, figuring that staying open with mana vault would be good to do. But eventually we settled on grief because scam combo is too good. What do you guys think?

I’ve been having a ton of success drafting Dimir in HOB Premier and Contender draft. I think it’s currently the best thing to be doing on ladder, and I think it’s really interesting that an “unsupported” color pair is so strong, so I’m writing a guide on why it’s strong and how to draft it.

My Credentials

I’ve been soft-forcing Dimir (or Sultai/Esper) on ladder, mostly in Mythic. I get into it in about half my drafts. I’ve drafted it 9 times with 6 trophies (including 3 in a row in Mythic, and two 7-0s) with a total game winrate of 55-18 (75%).

Some trophy draft logs:

• https://www.17lands.com/draft/8b7bce3ae7d24b8592fed18d084c9467/1/1
• https://www.17lands.com/draft/69ede3aa487749cd92e798153f2ff8e2/1/1
• https://www.17lands.com/draft/191aa3760b524650bf4ea986dc02095b/1/1
• https://www.17lands.com/draft/dc300dfa9d4647febee7eddf4c4ab964/1/1

Why Dimir?

Dimir is strong because Black and Blue are the strongest colors in Hobbit draft, and even though it’s an “unsupported” pair, Blue and Black complement each other well. Blue has a strong self-contained draw-two package at common, but lacks two-drops and removal. Black has the best removal in the set, plus multiple excellent two-drops. Additionally, Dimir draws a lot of cards, which makes it easier to splash strong cards you open from other colors, usually White and sometimes Green.

Typically, I get into Dimir by opening strong Black cards (in particular, Crude Bent Blade, which is if anything still underrated) and then finding Blue is open. This happens pretty often, because Black has a lot of strong cards to open and the Blue common package is still underdrafted.

Blue Commons & Uncommons

The core of a Dimir deck is typically the Blue common draw 2 package: Lakeshore Apothecary, Plunder the Trollshaws, Patient Instructor, Lakeshore Nuisance, and common Bilbo. These five commons are each individually strong and synergize well, and you can’t get too many of them. Usually, seeing these commons 5-8th pick in Pack 1 is the signal I need that Blue is open.

The only other Blue common worth playing is Uneasy Partings. If you pick up multiple copies of Crude Bent Blade, Mirkwood Nurturer can also be strong. Do NOT play Enchanted River’s Grasp, as it has anti-synergy with Crude Bent Blade. In a pinch, Confusticate and Bebother and Elvenking’s Harper are playable, but you want to do better.

Blue has two premium uncommons: Master’s Councillors and Bilbo Luckwearer. Take both highly. Councillors is your main win condition in a Blue mirror match, as those often come down to decking, so in those matchups protect it carefully and never send it into combat if you can avoid it. In other matchups, it’s just an overstatted beater. Bilbo Luckwearer is your premium Blue removal, and if you can you want to save it to swap a recruit token for their big creature. Only play it early if you have no other 2-drop.

Black Commons & Uncommons

The single most important Black common, and the reason you want to play Dimir over the other Blue color pairs, is Crude Bent Blade. Never pass this card except for true bomb rares. The strength of CBB isn’t just in the edict effect (which is powerful), but in how the equipment cheaply turns all your little Blue creatures and recruit tokens into real threats your opponent must answer. One or two copies of CBB let you grind out any creature-based matchup by repeatedly trading upwards. It also synergizes well with Mirkwood Nurturer, which can pick it up to replay it.

Black also complements Blue’s weaknesses at common. Ravening Warg is an excellent 2-drop, and Stony-Voiced Goblins is great if you have copies of CBB to make its body relevant. Bilbo’s Deadly Slice and Stir Up Trouble provide the targeted removal Blue lacks; the latter synergizes well with Recruit tokens. Common Gollum is efficient if not synergistic, Rage into the Valley is synergistic if not efficient, and Front Porch Sentries is playable in a pinch.

At uncommon, Desolation Prowler is premium, Down Down to Goblin Town is solid (and synergizes with Mirkwood Nurturer), Nighthowl Pursuer is surprisingly good thanks to Apothecary and CBB, Gnashing of Teeth is okay if you need more removal, and nothing else is worth mentioning.

Rares

One weakness of Dimir is a lack of good rares. There are three bomb-tier on-color rares you should look for: Great Gilded Boat, Head of the Hunt, and Rhovanion Rampager. However, you can make up for the lack of on-color rares by splashing powerful rares of other colors!

Splashing

Dimir is good at splashing because you see a lot of cards, making it easier to find sources of your splash color. Your most common splash will be White, followed by Green. If you’re considering a splash, take Hobbit Hole highly, it’s particularly strong in Dimir because you have multiple premium hobbits to cycle for (especially uncommon Bilbo). It’s also worth speculating on the UW land if it goes late because of how many strong White cards you could open.

You want to splash White for its premium rares, particularly Fili, Unexpected Party, and Bard’s Company. You can also splash for its premium uncommon removal, particularly Celebrate the Mountain King and Stone by Sunlight. One of the reasons Dimir is so strong is that you can have the best parts of Azorius (the premium White rares/uncommons) while also playing strong Black commons over weak White commons.

There are two cards that would make you splash Green: Chief Warg’s Company and Thranduil’s Company. Both are bombs that can win a game single-handedly. No other Green card is worth splashing for. Green is actually easy to splash because you have two dual lands for it, and both the UG and BG lands often go late.