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Limited : Bombs vs Consistancy

This article is something a little different for me. Rather than discussing a rogue deck I'm looking more at strategies that are employed in drafts. Whether I've articulated my arguments well remains to be seen - I thought this would be interesting to bring up and may get people thinking. Here it goes...

In draft there has been much debate regarding this - Is a consistant deck better than one with bombs?

It works like this. A consistant deck will run as many solid cards with as many copies as possible within 1-2 colours. Consistancy will mean a more stable mana base and a more predictable draw. This strategy works best for a tempo based beatdown style of play or a dedicated mill deck in Ravnica. A bomb deck will play 3 or more colours and rely on bombs/splashes to swing games in its favour or win them outright. This is often a more controlling strategy but not always. A bomb deck could be the result of a consistancy strategy gone wrong or a consistant strategy could evolve from bomb splashes being too weak. Ravnica is a great set to draft with either strategy in mind..

The big issue regarding Ravnica draft is the guilds. These tend to put people into colour pairs of red/white, blue/black, green/white and black/green. As you can see white, green and black are involved in 2 guilds while red and blue are only involved in 1. How does this relate to bombs vs consistancy?

Drafting a consistant deck of either heavy red with some white or heavy blue with some black looks to be the easiest option. As long as your neighbours stay out of your main colour and you can pick up a few strong cards in your secondary colour the draft should go pretty well.

The problem is people don't necessarily pick up on signals as easily as they might have in Kamigawa. Say you are drafting Red White and you pull a first pick Faith's Fetters but leave a Galvanic Arc in pack 2. Your neighbour may have been shipping excess red your way and assume that you aren't drafting it so they take the Galvanic Arc. They may not be looking at the fact that they passed good red/white cards like Thundersong Trumpeter if they pulled something like Viashino Fangtail or Galvanic Arc over it before passing the pack to you.

Say they decide to go the bomb strategy. They draft black/green and splash red for 2-3 Galvanic Arcs. The fact they have pulled the Galvanic Arc and you have passed one of them may weaken your picks later on. You will need to draft more consistancy over the bomb removal spells to counteract this. This means solid creatures and combat tricks to counteract your lack of removal. It may even mean running a weak removal card like Cyclopean Snare if you are caught really short.

Of course you could just adopt a bomb strategy in retaliation but look how this will effect the drafting table. If everyone adopts a bomb draft strategy then all drafters will be weakened in their main colours. If you are playing amongst yourselves in an 8 player pod this could work out fine but if you are playing in a 24 player event and the other tables drafted more cooperatively, they will end up with stronger, more consistant decks.

One thing i've started doing more recently is trying to build more consistant decks over bomb ones. Switching colours to follow the tide of signals can still be done using this strategy but if you switch you need to stick with it. Reverting back and forth will only make your job that much harder after the draft when building your deck. If you plan on going 3 colours the consistancy strategy won't work.

One thing that hinders the consistancy strategy is hate drafters as well as bomb drafters. Some people will simply move into your colours (because they can) just to hate you out. You may or may not do the same in return. I resist the urge to retaliate to hate drafters because it will end up making a mess of your deck and consistancy is thrown out the window.

I prefer not to revert to a bomb strategy unless I'm forced into it. My preferred style of draft deck is to pick removal over anything, evasion over fat, fat over utility/combat tricks then make sure I have a few weenies for the early game. The combat tricks often come back around later because most people are drafting removal and playable fat anyway. This strategy suits the consistancy strategy well even if it means taking some cards earlier than most people usually would. If it means I need to go into a third colour for some bomb removal then I weigh up the options of whether the removal is worth sacrificing consistancy. Of course if you are going the dedicated mill route you will pick utility and removal over anything else.

Snapping Drake and Viashino Fangtail are examples of some great creatures that are often underrated because they are in colours that only support 1 guild. When I go for Snapping Drakes/Blue I usually end up with 2-3 of them because I make a strong signal that i'm in blue. I also tend to pick Surveilling sprites earlier because they support my strategy. The same often works regarding Viashino Fangtails and Torpid Moloch. Is this good for consistancy - you bet it is! This is also doable for other colours but to make explanations easier I'm sticking to red and blue as they are usually underdrafted. Its great to beat someone with cards predominantly in a colour they have judged as 'weak'.

By the end of a draft I aim at having a good mix of creatures at 2-4 casting cost, a couple of cards at 5-6 and a few 1 drops if I can get them. A consistancy based deck usually runs on a tempo based mana curve and by the end of the draft I should have it.

How does consistancy fare vs a bomb strategy? The bomb player will be relying on certain cards to swing the game in their favour. As the consistancy player you don't want to give them that chance. Your aim is to make the bomb redundant. In other words, by the time they cast the bomb it won't save them anyway.

Lets say you are playing a bomb deck vs consistancy. What you need to do is figure out how much time you need for your bombs to impact the game and control as much as you can until then. Use your life total as a resource - if the bomb will put the game in your favour your low life total will be irrelevant when the time comes. If you are relying on an alpha strike (all in attack) to win then make sure you calculate your plans carefully. A single card in your opponent's hand could potentially undo everything and cost you the game - especially after sideboarding.

The big question is that consistancy can win games but will bombs win more? Ultimately the answer is up to you. Draft as much as you can and learn which style suits you better.

Joe Tobin (Aytakk2)

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