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The beauty of limited Magic is that archetypes evolve over time. I'll make a few calls in this article - I am sure I'll look back on in three months and shudder at my ineptitude - the first one being this - stay away from Green.

I spent a bit of time looking over the GP reports from the latest limited GP's, and it would seem that the writers there are quite keen on Green being the strongest color and Blue being the weakest. I would be inclined to disagree with that statement on both counts, and I would imagine that as the format evolves, the general consensus would agree.

Onslaught is quite different from OTJ as a drafting format (sometimes obvious statements ARE required). Without getting into excruciating details, suffice it to say that removal is weaker/lighter, fliers are fewer, and game breaking bombs are more numerous. Feel free to have a look through Dan Turner's card-by-card for a complete analysis. For my purposes though, I will summarize:

Green - gets a plethora of medium to large creatures - some great, like Barkhide Mauler and Snarling Undorak and some abysmal, such as the oft-loved Treespring Lorian. The elves are fairly random for limited play, with Wellwisher and the Wirewood Savage among the best. The biggest issue with Green, however, and why I dislike drafting it, is there is a distinct lack of good early to mid-game plays. There is no Springing Tiger, no Krosan Avenger and no Krosan Archer. No Mongrel will hit play on turn 2, and you have to be reasonably lucky to drop an Elven Warrior on that turn with GG casting cost. You can certainly drop some of your fat guys as morph, but the limited removal in the set is still pretty good at dealing with 2/2 guys. Additionally, the Green player is reticent to block with their newly morphed Treespring Lorian, as they want to keep it for late game. All this adds up to the Green player getting pummelled by a fast Red/White deck. Building a deck with lots of elves means you may have 3 guys out on turn 3 and multiple Wellwisher insanity, but your late game suffers. Turn that around and no elves means you don't do much 'til turn 3+ and you may be dead to tempo. A mixture means you can't take advantage of the best cards in the color like Wirewood Savage and Wellwisher. Then of course we have the issue on the number of Green drafters on a table. In Rochester, it would seem Green is fairly good as a color as you can expect only 3 people to be actively drafting it, and no one hate-drafts too heavily. In Booster draft, the problem is that generally 4 or MORE people will be going Green, which means you will be scrounging for cards by pick 6. So, bottom line, when you open up that Centaur Glade or Kamahl the Fist, ship it and slam down that Sparksmith or Gustcloak Harrier. If you HAVE to draft green, please be sure to grab as many Krosan Tuskers and Wirewood Savages as you can.

Blue - Since this is supposedly the worst color in the set, I'll talk about it next. Blue has a range of excellent commons in Mistform Wall, Mistform Dreamer, Ascending Aven, Imagecrafter and Riptide Biologist. Given that this set has a distinct lack of non-rare fliers, a pair of dreamers can often go the distance. R/U makes a comeback as well, as I have seen more than one deck completely shutdown by a Mistform Wall with Lavamancer's Skill enchanting it. If your green deck is relying on a 3rd and 4th turn morph creature to curve its way up, then you will have a lot of problems dealing with something like this. I do concur that Blue is probably the weakest color in Booster draft, but this is somewhat nullified given that you may only end up with 2 Blue drafters at your table. If you are getting 5th or 6th pick Ascending Avens, there is a good chance that your Blue deck will be obscene. Finally, we can say good-bye to the favorite U/W decks. Case in point - in my first Onslaught draft, I built what I believed at the time to be a very insane U/W deck - no less than 10 3cc fliers, 3 Ascending Avens, a couple of 2/3 Gustcloaks, and an Aven Fateshaper. 2 Pacifism and a Sandskin to help my 4/5 wall stall the ground, a (very broken) Future Sight, and an Airborne Aid to draw cards (14 potential birds in the deck), not to mention an Arcanus. All in all, an insane deck. Round 1, my opponent drops first turn goblin, second turn Sparksmith, effectively disallowing me to play all of my creatures save 2 or 3. Round 2, and my opponent has 4 Wellwishers in his deck... by mid game I was attacking for 35-40 a turn in the air, but he was already on 200+ life and gaining 30 per turn. So, if you are forced into U/W make sure you pick up either a few lavamancer's skills (if possible) or a couple of Crown of Suspicions (more likely), as these 2 common creatures will be your bane.

Red - The most powerful limited color. My second call for Onslaught is that every deck NEEDS to have either red or black in it in order to succeed. Red has been blessed with some amazingly good commons like the aforementioned Sparksmith, Lavamancer's Skill, Goblin Sledder, Skirk Commando, Shock, Solar Blast... the list goes on, meaning that Red depth will make for 4 reasonable Red drafters on your table. Red is also good with any other color in Onslaught (even green!). Personal favorite is White. R/W is an archetype that really came up at the end of OTJ, and even more so at PT Boston Teams. Zvi has commented that he doesn't see how R/W can win, but it does. With Onslaught this is still the case. The theory basically goes: look at the pack, grab something (nearly anything) that is Red or White and costs 3 or less, stick it in a deck and hope to go first. I have won more than a few times with turn 1 Sledder, turn 2 Glory Seeker, turn 3 Morph, Turn 4 Solar blast your only guy, Turn 5 pacify your guy, play another 3 drop... Green decks be damned. The key cards in this deck are pingers and pacifism, with Unified Stike and Piety Charm also up there. This deck has the tools to win most Onslaught match-ups.

Black - The second most powerful limited color. Black has a lot of utility AND game breaking commons, making it immensely powerful in Draft. Nantuko Husk is arguably the best common 3-drop in the set. Severed Legion presents a threat that you will find many decks simply cannot deal with (U/W for example), and of course Black is the only color other than red that has removal, even if it is considerably worse than its Odyssey counterparts - Crown is no Afflict, Swat is no Patriarch's Desire, and Cruel Revival, while occasionally more useful, is no Ghastly Demise. That being said, the options are fewer in Onslaught, and if you can score an uncommon Infest or Death Pulse, Black can be especially strong. I have successfully drafter B/R and B/W. I am a bit hesitant with B/U in this set, as I have not drafted nor seen too many people playing it yet. B/G is in my opinion decidedly bad, dying horribly to most decks with R or W, but I have seen it win a few drafts, so I could be mistaken on that front.

White - Some of the White common creatures are amazingly good - Glory Seeker is BETTER in Onslaught draft than Patrol Hound was in Odyssey, Daru Cavalier, given a few of his brothers, offers some of the card economy that White has been lacking. Daru Lancer and Daunting Defender are both reasonably priced for their abilities, and the Gustcloak men bring a tear to my eye with their efficiency and usefulness. That being said, a mid-range white deck seems to be pretty bad at this stage. If you are going to draft white, you will have to take advantage of its speed. Please don't draft Grassland Crusader. 2/4 for 6 is just so bad. Draft a Sandskin, but only play it if you have a reason to. Pacifism is broken in Onslaught Limited, period. White is excellent with Red and Black. I would avoid it coupled with Blue unless a 3rd splash color is possible, and don't even think about W/G. It was crap in Od block and it still is now.

As archetypes go, my 4 favorite color combinations are - R/W, W/B, R/U and R/B - probably in that order.

When Judgement first came out I picked 5 cards I liked for limited play - including Guided Strike, Elephant Guide, Phantom Flock, and Unquestionable Authority. Of course I also liked Anurid Swarmsnapper, but never mind that. Picking 5 cards from Onslaught is tough - limited to commons, I would say:

1) Sparksmith - As mentioned, this guy can win games all by himself. If you take 15 damage from your own Sparksmith, it has to have been a good game for you
2) Lavamancer's Skill - always a first pick. The set is so removal light that permanent removal is premium. A first pick Skill will lead me into U/R for sure
3) Nantuko Husk - this guy causes infinite problems for so many decks, and combos so well with so many cards
4) Mistform Wall - 4 toughness means this guy can reliably block your opponents morph creatures for quite some time (infinitely if your opponent is not playing Green), its ability to change and go on offense when required can't be overlooked, and it is an incredible target for the Skill. Combos well with Sparksmith and Sheperd of Rot, or any number of tribal cards. A very strong utility creature
5) Pacifism - 2 mana to deal with any creature on the board is insane in Onslaught. It was a debate between Cruel Revival or Pacifism for this slot, but the Pacifism is more key to the kind of decks you want to build when your are playing White, so it won out.

Of course, I couldn't end there without at least ONE Magic story. Now this is a bit common, as most of the people I play with have heard it - but in any case. I was at a Rockdale tournament some 4 or 5 months ago, and playing Jimmy Xing. Now Jimmy is here from China to study and as I understand, is about 17 years old. I was playing Jimmy, or, as I remember, beating Jimmy, when someone asked me how old I was. I have always looked a bit old for my age. I've had a beard or goatee or some such since I was about sixteen, so most people thought I was 25-30 when I was only 20. This has never really bothered me, and was actually quite useful on more than one occasion. I remember going to my first "real job" interview when I first came to Australia. The interviewer made a comment that he wanted to make sure that this time they didn't hire any of those 24-25 year olds as they tried that before and they were too immature. I was 23 at the time, and managed to get the job. In any case, I'm 28 now, so I tell whoever it was that was asking, and turn back to Jimmy to be greeted with an open mouth stare.

"What?" I ask.
"You are 28?" he says.
"Yeah - why, how old did you think I was?"
Well, now he looks a bit embarrassed, as he opens his mouth and says "Fifty"

So it goes.

Scott Hunstad

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