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Therefore you probably won't see anything in my articles in relation to constructed deck theory. Or if you do, it will undoubtedly be on a deck that is either poor or stolen. The corollary here, though, is that I may have some small merit talking about limited formats as I spend way too much time participating in them.

What I wanted to have a look at today is the evolution of Mirrodin draft. Believe me, this was a hard nut to crack. I had a look at the last 40 drafts I did of OLS block and it was something like 22 3-0's, 17 2-1's and 1 1-2. My rating was reflected accordingly... then Mirrodin hit and confused the hell out of everyone. Still stuck in OLS mode and using those theories got you nowhere with Mirrodin, and again, my rating reflected this accordingly - after GP Sydney weekend my limited rating was nearly 300 points off my previous high. I obviously didn't understand the format.

I think that is changing now, albeit much too slowly for my tastes. It seems there were a number of assumptions made at the start of Mirrodin drafting that no longer hold true today. I'd like to take a look at a couple of these now.

1) Mirrodin block is slow.

Absolutely not. This was true a few months ago when people were running 17 lands and first picking cards like Cobalt Golem - it isn't anymore. The format has turned a corner and draft orders have changed as a result. For a while there in the Cobalt Golem/Thoughtcast run it was always the man, now it's the spell. As a general rule, 4cc is where you want to find your "bombs" these days - not your utility spells. Nim Shriekers, Skyhunter Patrol, Irradiate, sometimes Hematite Golem or Vulshok Berserker. These are now becoming the most expensive cards in a good MMM or MMD deck. If something costs 5 it better be very good, and barring a few notables like Looming Hoverguard and Betrayal of Flesh, the 6cc slot is always empty. I've even taken to shipping Mirror Golem in favour of cards like Neurok Spy, any R/B removal, etc. Opening cards like Clockwork Dragon or Bosh is not nearly as exciting as it used to be. I have passed Bosh frequently in favour of a more efficient common or uncommon - same with the Dragon, Platinum Angel, Soul Foundry and others. These are quality cards, to be sure, and may still be first picks, but they are slow and the format is no longer amenable to that.

Coupled with this new found efficiency, we are now finding that land count is dropping severely, and the necessity of even off colour Myrs is growing. I want at least 3 Myr/Talisman in my decks because I really want to be playing 14 or 15 lands. I have found that I have lost more games to mana flood than to having to mulligan one-land hands. If you have drafted an efficient deck, you can still recover from the mulligan - something that was much harder in OLS.

Cheaper efficient creatures are now seeing play. Off colour Elf and Nim Replicas. Alpha Myrs. Nim Lasher! I was actually quite disappointed to see the article on StarCityGames by Geordie Tait as Mono Black and B/r decks have been my favourite for a while now - nowadays on Magic Online you rarely see a Lasher past 5th pick or so, when previously you could take something over it 3rd pick and almost assuredly get it back on the 11th. On more than one occasion I have been serving up a 6/1 or an 7/1 Lasher swinging on turn four, having just irradiated the blocker. I have recently won a draft with a deck featuring triple Alpha Myr, triple Elf Replica. Bash, bash, bash. Last week during Thursday night drafts I beat Scott Smith with the two cards in his hands being unplayable Duplicant and Clockwork Dragon. Big bombs are somewhat less good when you die before you can cast them. Or more importantly, when you newly cast Clockwork Dragon has to sit back on defence.

With the inclusion of Darksteel into the mix, we have another realm of efficient speed possibilities - Vedalken Engineer is obviously insane, and the land affinity golems are very often turn 3 plays. The format has definitely increased in speed.

2) Mirrodin does not have the bombs that OLS did

This may be true at an individual card level, but when you look at decks as a whole, Mirrodin definitely has more bomb decks than OLS produced. Towards the end of OLS block, we saw a few things like U/G threshold in draft - or R/W aggro. These were good decks that made use of what were generally considered to be "bad" cards to very good effect. R/U was also fantastic, but the cards were just more powerful.

In Mirrodin/Darksteel we have quite a number of archetypes that, when done effectively, are very hard to beat. They use cards that are not necessarily high picks to devastating effect. Examples of this are Vulshok Gauntlets with Den Guards and Yotian Soldiers. Nims and Slagwurm Armor combined with spot removal. Turn 3 Myr Enforcers. In fact in one (very lucky) game, I had the opportunity to go:

Turn 1 - Artifact Land, Spellbomb
Turn 2 - Artifact Land, Myr
Turn 3 - Artifact Land, Talisman, Myr Enforcer, Myr Enforcer, Somber Hoverguard

One in a million, to be sure, but certainly a lot of fun. Especially when your opponent has two forests in play as their only permanents

So yes, Mirrodin does not have Sparksmith or Pit Fighters or Vengeance or any number of OLS bombs, but I am sure that any good MMM or MMD deck could hold its own against the good OLS decks

It takes a while to figure out any draft format - some more than others. I remember not long ago getting 14th pick Nim Lashers, 10th pick Viridian Longbows, and other cards that right now I would be blown away by if I got them that late. Invariably I am currently getting 13th pick X, with some massive undiscovered potential - and that's really the beauty of draft. You can do it a hundred or a thousand times and there is always something more to learn!

So make sure your deck isn't sluggish, make sure you draft Myrs early if need be (3rd pick Myr is sometimes fine!), make sure you keep track of your creature count, make sure when you draft that 5 or 6 casting cost spell that it is a very good one, and most of all make sure you draft a deck with synergy, and not just a random assortment of cards.

Then you will find that the wins come a bit more easily.

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