Coindrafting Strategy and Tips
This page lists hints and tips for drafting and playing a vintage cube.
Archetypes
Vintage cube drafting is hard. One of the first things to note is the size of each booster relative to the number of players. With 6/11 (six in the draft, 11 per booster), you get picks 1,6,11 from your first booster. Note the amount of "chaff" in each booster: check where the chaff is in after and the one that remains 11th (or several if ) 12,13,14 . While this may not be significant in itself, you might want to analyse the archetypes that other players are moving towards.Mill
There are a small quantity of mill-specific cards. They tend to go late, so watch whether these don't wheel and be mindful. They also play nicely in dredge and reanimation decks.- Archive Trap
- Glimpse the Unthinkable
- Nemesis of Reason
- Hedron Crab
- Grindstone
Reanimation
This is somewhat broader category: cheating into play big creatures. This is more popular and easier to achieve than many archetypesReanimation Cards
- False Defeat
- Reanimate
- Recurring Nightmare
- Exhume
- Dread Return
- Goblin Welder
- Polymorph
- Oath of Druids
- Natural Selection
- Pattern of Rebirth
- Tooth and Nail
- Tinker
- Empyrial Angel
- Hellkite Overlord
- Karthus, Tyrant of Jund
- Darksteel Colossus
- Inkwell Leviathan
- Triskelion
Red Burn
There are a heap of burn spells and near-mono red is a viable strategy. The plethora of single-R costed spells means that it often gets splashed. Top cards for red are (in a vague order)- Firemaw Kavu
- Blast from the Past (yes, this is remarkable)
- Char
- Imperial Recruiter
U (+w, +b, +g, +r) Control
Blue is the strongest card in Vintage. It is very common to have blue splashes in cube draft decks to accommodate super-powerful blue spells. It is important to note that there are few counterspells, even fewer mass creature removal and almost no Armageddon- style mass land destruction. Thus, if you are wanting to dip heavily into blue (and access the "heavy" blue cards below), remember that almost always, people will be pinching your "light" spells.Top cards for a splash of blue are ("light" blue):
- Ancestral Recall
- Time Walk
- Gifts Ungiven
- Fact or Fiction
- Mystical Tutor
- Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
Top cards for a high blue commitment ("heavy" blue):
- Cryptic Command
- Future Sight
- Dream Halls
- Teferi, Mage of Zelfir
- Arcanis the Omnipotent
- Mind Over Matter
Single Card strategies
- Biorhythm
- Natural Order
- Oath of Druids
White / Black Weenie
White weenie has always been a popular MTG archetype. White always had the highest quality sub-four-mana creatures. What has quietly occurred in parallel is the printing of quality black creatures every few blocks. Thus, in a cube, both white and black (and a hybrid of the two) are viable weenie decks.Top cards for white weenie:
- Knight of Meadowgrain
- White Knight
- Isamaru, Hound of Konda
- Hand of Honour
Top cards for black weenie:
- Black Knight
- Stromgald Crusader
- Hand of Cruelty
Cards that are better or worse than we thought
Reading stories of cube-drafts, it is interesting to note similar patterns with regards to perceived power of cards. What might seem a "windmill slam" at first glance may not be. This is a short list of cards that performed memorably different to expectations.Much better
- Time Vault - Sure we thought this was good with Voltaic Key (and is is) but turns out it is awesome on its own.
- Mystical/Enlightened Tutors - Being 1 mana instants is insanely flexible.
- Bitterblossom - This is a top-notch tutor target.
- Sword of Fire and Ice - We all thought this would be good. Turns out it might actually be better than Skullclamp and Umezawa'a Jitte.
Slightly better
- Moxen - These are expensive for a reason.
- Karakas - A lot of the powerful creatures, and in particular powerful blue creatures, are subject to this land.
- Morph guys - Being greedy, we end up new too few creatures in 4 colour control monstrosities. Somedays all you need is a grey ogre.
Slightly worse
- Lotus Vale - There are only a few land-destruction cards. And they can all hit this guy.
- Mana Drain - Decks that can leave UU open at the right time seem to have mana quality rather than quantity issues.
- Darksteel Colossus/Progenitus - Can't use Tinker/Oath AND reanimate strategies (but can with Inkwell Leviathan).
Much worse
- Mind's Desire - Oops. This can be explained by the fact that you need fast mana sources and everyone takes the fast mana anyway!
- Tendrils of Agony - See above.
- Tooth and Nail - No-one has pulled this off yet.
Cards we are unsure about
- Biorhythm - No-one has pulled this off. Might be because it is too hard, too risky, or simply not strong enough.
- Tolarian Academy - "Fast" mana and 0-cost artifacts tend to go early. Yet to be seen if someone can get this to pull out turn 3-5 wins.
- Kiki-Jiki - There are several targets in the cube (including Pestermite) but a cost of 2RRR may preclude this from arising.
- Painter's Servant - This hasn't seen play (and I'm not sure why: there is an overabundance of protection from colour guys in the cube). There is a Grindstone too.
Baby Themes
Some themes are so minor, they do not meet the dizzy heights of being an "archetype". The mini-themes below represent small sub-sets of cards with good synergy, but that do not have the numbers to suit a comprehensive build. I have also counted here "build around me" cards, which, due to the fact vintage cubes have powerful tutor effects, means that if you pick up the key card early, you can build a satisfying combo deck. I have put key cards in italics.Rebels
- Linn Sivvi
- Amrou Scout
- Riftmark Knight
- Chameleon Colossus
- Knight of the Holy Nimbus
Low picks. Usually just a sub-set of white weenie.
Slivers
- Necrotic Sliver
- Gemhide Sliver
- Muscle Sliver
- Sinew Sliver
- Chameleon Colossus
- Sliver Queen
- Sliver Overlord
- Sliver Legion
The sliver legends are usually very low picks, and thus you can expect them to wheel almost always. Changelings always fit. Gemhides and Necrotics are key to success.
Snow
- Mouth of Ronom
- Into the North
- Crucible of Worlds
Very minor. Would almost never let this influence a pick. Mouth of Ronum is strong though in combination with the Crucible.
Top Cards By Colour
Red
- Flamemaw Kavu
- Ashling, the Pilgrim
- Firemaw Kavu
- Blast from the Past
- Imperial Recruiter
Red can be a difficult colour to due to an inability to win long, stalled games. There are several X spells (Disintegrate, Demonfire, Fireball, Blaze), and cheap burn (Incinerate, Lightning Bolt, Char, Urza's Rage) and these tend to not go early (when drafters take W/U/B tutors, hot artifacts and fast mana).
White
- Enlightened Tutor
- Wrath of God
- Day of Judgement
- Oblivion Ring
- Baneslayer Angel
- Path to Exile
- Swords to Plowshares
White oozes quality in its picks, but remains a poor cousin to blue and black in terms of a splash: top spells are either double-white or a single W. The wrath effects also don't play nicely with white-weenie strategies.
Black
- Contract from Below
- Mind Twist
- Dark Confident
- Demonic Tutor
- Vampiric Tutor
- Dark Ritual
- Damnation
- Bitterblossom
Mind Twist is by far the most devastating card to face. Most players would splash for these cards in any vintage draft deck. You will be very lucky indeed to see these after pick three. The Contract is still the most powerful card, although some still find the downside of potentially ante-ing the match-winner you are digging for too steep a price.
Blue
See the "U Control" section above". All the usual suspects.
Green
- Regrowth
- Wild Mongrel
- Sylvan Tutor
- Biorhythm
- Natural Order
- Oath of Druids
If you are drafting a mono deck, green is probably the weakest colour. It does have the benefit of having several strong "single card" strategies. There are slightly more green cards to choose from in the cube though, and we do plan on putting a few key cards from recent sets in (cough, cough.. Vengevine.. cough). Green is often a component in the strongest multi-coloured cards in the game (see below).
Multi
- Vindicate
- Putrefy
- Mortify
- Wrecking Ball
- Pernicious Deed
- Maelstrom Pulse
The Pulse loses value in a vintage cube: all the cards are singletons. Otherwise this list is pretty straightforward. The Ravnica "big three" removal spells vary in terms of pick order. While it is rare for them to wheel in early packs, they have been known to be very late in packs four and five.
Artifacts
- Black Lotus
- Moxen
- Sol Ring
- Sensei's Diving Top
- Mana Vault
- Grim Monolith
- Time Vault
- Aether Vial
- Memory Jar
- Sword of Fire and Ice
- Skullclamp
- Umezawa's Jitte
Point out the obvious: These are all really good. In my experience, the Sword is actually better than the other equipment. Time Vault / Voltaic Key is the strongest 2 card combination in Magic. Sensei's Top / Counterbalance is strong too (we have banned these are a result: with all the strong tutor effects, it was just too easy).
