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After drafting this format a lot I have come to the conclusion there are several strong archetypes, a few underrated archetypes and a couple that are very hard to win with. Generally speaking, it is good practice to draft a red or black removal spell first to make your claim in one of these colours as it is quite hard to go 3-0 without any black or red in your deck. If you open up a power rare outside of these colours your neighbour may well be getting a mixed signal so be careful not to pass too many quality red/black spells to your left - unless you are thinking of drafting U/W!

Before discussing the main deck types I would like to say something about the tribal mechanic. There are many creatures that rely on tribal effects, such as Sparksmith and Wellwisher, and their power will fluctuate depending upon the creatures in play, making them a little unreliable at times. When drafting these cards you have to make sure your deck is consistent, and will often have to take tribal cards over better cards in the same colour. For example if you have already drafted a Sparksmith you may want to take a Goblin Sledder over another more efficient creature for your deck.

While decks based around tribal cards are very strong it is still possible to do well with good old-fashioned beatdown. Beatdown decks will often have tribal elements in them but most of the time you will want the most efficient creatures at a particular casting cost. Green and white in particular have very solid creature bases with an impressive curve that will suit any colour combination.

So lets take a look at the main deck types, how they work and the key cards used. You don't need to draft all of the key cards but you probably will need at least half of them for the deck to work properly. I have only listed the commons as there are so many broken rares (and uncommons) in Onslaught which are pretty obvious first picks. I may well go into some of the tougher rares/uncommons in a future article as I hope my analysis gives you an idea of how the different decks function.

Red/White

This archetype is popular amongst the "pro" players and for a very good reason - it wins. Goblins and soldiers form a strong creature base backed up with a full compliment of red removal and white's combat tricks. A solid deck with an impressive curve, R/W relies on a few key tribal cards and efficient creatures.

Key cards - Crown of Fury, Daru Lancer, Goblin Sledder, Gustcloak Harrier, Pacifism, Piety Charm, Pointpoint Avalanche, Shock, Skirk Commando, Solar Blast and Sparksmith.

Red/Blue

If you already have some quality red picks and white has been cut off, then you may want to look at this archetype. R/U can be powerful if you draft the right cards because if you don't, this deck is fairly average. The deck relies on Lavamancer's Skill and Mistform Wall to dominate the board backed up with evasive creatures and burn. Riptide Biologist is great for holding off the ground and Disruptive Pitmage/Imagecrafter are excellent disruptive creatures. Finally, Sage Aven is good in this build as it helps search for the combo parts and counts as a wizard itself.

Key cards - Ascending Aven, Goblin Sledder, Lavamancer's Skill, Mistform Wall, Pinpoint Avalanche, Sage Aven, Shock, Skirk Commando, Solar Blast and Sparksmith.

Red/Green

The most powerful of the allied colour combinations, R/G has a lot of tribal synergy and an impressive array of morph creatures. It's strategy is simple, play out big creatures quickly and turn them sideways. Mana acceleration works wonders in this deck and Wirewood Savage is downright ridiculous.
R/G can also be played as an Elf/Goblin deck that swarms your opponent quickly using burn spells and game breakers like Wave of Indifference as a finisher. I'm not sure which version is better but I personally prefer the beast variant, as the creatures are more solid. Naturally you can play a hybrid of these variations but you will lose the power of tribal effects.

Key cards - Crown of Fury, Elvish Warrior, Krosan Tusker, Pinpoint Avalanche, Shock, Skirk Commando, Snarling Undorak, Solar Blast, Sparksmith, Spitting Gourna, Wave of Indifferenceand Wirewood Savage.

Black/Green

Red has a tendency to be overdrafted in Onslaught as it has a lot of depth and works well with every other colour. So chances are if you can't get any red cards you will be playing black. B/G can be a very aggressive archetype that is great for beating the tar out of your opponent and can often be quicker than R/G thanks to cards like Wretched Anurid and Nantuko Husk. Screeching Buzzard and Severed Legion give this archetype some evasive options and Dirge of Dread is a good finisher. Overall a solid deck.

Key cards - Elvish Warrior, Crown of Suspicion, Cruel Revival, Dirge of Dread, Nantuko Husk, Krosan Tusker, Screeching Buzzard, Snarling Undorak, Spitting Gourna, Swat, Wirewood Savage and Wretched Anurid.

Red/Black

This is the second strongest allied colour combination in my opinion and can be difficult to draft, as everyone wants a piece of the removal pie. Efficient, aggressive creatures work well in this archetype making Festering Goblin, Wretched Anurid, Haunted Cadaver and Charging Slateback all good candidates. Removal should always be drafted over creatures here so don't expect many Skirk Commandos and Nantuko Husks, as they will not go around the table. Also be sure to counterdraft the odd Crown of Awe here and there as R/B cannot deal with it.

Key cards - Crown of Fury, Crown of Suspicion, Cruel Revival, Festering Goblin, Haunted Cadaver, Pinpoint Avalanche, Shock, Solar Blast, Sparksmith, Swat and Wretched Anurid.

Black/White

The interesting thing about this archetype is that it can be built in two completely different ways. The soldier/zombie variant is a clunkier version of R/W and has a very similar strategy. The cleric/zombie deck is much more powerful as B/W has access to a wide variety of clerics (including the deadly Cabal Archon). Battlefield Medic and Shepard of Rot are solid 2 drops in this build and Daunting Defender really shuts out any red removal. Profane Prayers is a card that will often come around late in the draft and is invaluable as it can generate massive life total swings. The only drawback with this deck is that if there are 2 players on the table with this strategy there may not be enough decent clerics to support both decks.

Key cards - Battlefield Medic, Crown of Suspicion, Cruel Revival, Daunting Defender, Misery Charm, Profane Prayers, Shepard of Rot, and Swat.

Black/Blue

This build tends to be underdrafted as it can be quite fragile if it does not have the right cards. The key to drafting this archetype is balancing the evasive creatures (Ascending Aven, Mistform Dreamer, Screeching Buzzard and Severed Legion) with removal and defensive creatures (Riptide Biologist, Mistform Wall etc). B/U has a hard time dealing with fast decks that churn out big creatures so this is definitely one of the weaker archetypes at the moment. Another point worth mentioning is the mistform creatures and tribes. If you get enough Mistforms/Imagecrafters you can disrupt your opponent's tribal spells (Cruel Revival, Sparksmith, Profane Prayers) and enhance your own. This can be risky as straight beatdown decks will give you fits so I would advise some practice with this archetype before drafting it in a big tournament.

Key cards - Ascending Aven, Choking Tethers, Crown of Suspicion, Cruel Revival, Imagecrafter, Mistform Dreamer, Mistform Wall, Riptide Biologist, Screeching Buzzard and Swat.

Blue/White

OK, if you somehow happen to draft U/W try to draft lots of fliers and as many Piety Charms as possible. This deck can work when your immediate neighbours are not drafting these colours (usually there will be 1 player next to you dipping into white) and it is possible to get many a first pick as the packs go around the table.
This archetype can sometimes be an uphill battle as Sparksmith and Wellwisher will give you major headaches. However it is not impossible to win with U/W but you do need to know what cards work in this deck. I have personally found Choking Tethers to be really good and would try to draft at least 2 of these in addition to a battalion of Ascending Avens and Gustcloak Harriers with Daru Lancers and Biologists to lock up the ground and Piety Charms for utility. This will be an underdrafted build and may be worth considering if there are not many white drafters on the table. Also you may want to dip into red or black for some removal so you have some way of dealing with annoying Sparksmiths and Wellwishers. Crown of Suspicion is the best splash but Solar Blast and Shock are both good candidates.

Key cards - Ascending Aven, Choking Tethers, Daru Lancer, Dive Bomber, Gravel Slinger, Gustcloak Harrier, Pacifism, Piety Charm and Riptide Biologist.

Blue/Green

Unfortunately this build is one of the worst and actually requires some good bombs for it to be successful. The main plan of attack is to draft as many beasts and flyers as possible, tap creatures with Choking Tethers and/or enchant your bigger creatures with Crown of Ascension. It is not as fast as U/W so your opponent will be able to scramble a defence quite quickly and Riptide Biologists can be a real nightmare (not to mention Wellwishers and Sparksmiths). The alternate route is to draft lots of elves, multiple Wirewood Prides and some evasion but I have not seen this variant do too well.

Key cards - Ascending Aven, Choking Tethers, Crown of Ascension, Elvish Warrior, Krosan Tusker, Snarling Undorak, Spitting Gourna, Taunting Elf and Wirewood Savage.

White/Green

I haven't actually drafted this build so I am unsure if it is better than U/G but you may have to trust me on this one. G/W has access to a lot of good quality creatures so things can't be that bad, or can they? Lack of removal is a big problem again and there are not many evasive creatures in these colours either making G/W a dud. The only way I can think of getting through is with bombs (such as Centaur Glade and Kamahl) or Taunting Elf. How hard is it to kill a 0/1 creature though? Chances are this guy won't even see an untap phase. By all means try this one out but you won't be going 3-0 with this.

Key cards - Elvish Warrior, Daru Lancer, Gravel Slinger, Gustcloak Harrier, Krosan Tusker, Pacifism, Piety Charm, Snarling Undorak, Spitting Gourna, Taunting Elf, Wirewood Pride, Wirewood Savage.

So there you have it, 10 different decks, 3 of which have no removal (U/W, U/G, G/W), 2 heavy tribal/combo decks (R/U, B/W), 2 that can be hard to draft (B/U, R/B) and 3 aggressive beatdown decks (R/W, B/G, R/G). It is worth experimenting with all of these archetypes, as you will find different versions within the ones I have mentioned and possibly some new cards that haven't been exploited to their fullest potential. Limited formats take a long time to crack, so keep an open mind and try not to fall into the same pattern when you are drafting. As I stated earlier I will be looking at some of the trickier rares and uncommons in my next article and the decks they are best suited to.

See you next time.

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