Hello and welcome to another Daily Arena! I’m back again with another Primer for the next Quick Draft format.

From 3 PM (UTC) on Friday, May 11 through 5 PM (UTC) on Monday, May 14, Dominaria Quick Draft will be available. In this format you will draft three boosters of Dominaria. To help people prepare, I thought I’d take a look at what the supported two-color archetypes are for this draft format, as well as cards that are significant to have at the front of your mind (for one reason or another) while drafting it.

First, the Archetypes:

White/Blue Historic Tempo

This deck leverages the Historic mechanic for good tempo value. Artifacts are quite strong for this color pair, and part of your focus should be on picking up cheap artifacts to synergize with the other cards in this color that want you to cast Historic spells.

Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage is a good example of an uncommon that can pull you into this deck. Being able to get Historic triggers at Instant speed can allow you to set up threats of activation that your opponent will have a hard time playing around.

Besides Historic triggers, there are plenty of other cards in this color pair that care about artifacts, specifically, and that can reward you along that axis. Sage of Lat-Name is a good example of a card that can get extra value out of your cheap artifacts after you use them to trigger Historic, and can help east the pain of picking up artifacts that might otherwise not have a lot of utility for your deck.

In addition to cards that care about Historic and Artifacts, you have plenty of creatures with Flash and Flying (Pegasus Courser, Academy Drake, Cloudreader Sphinx) to put pressure on your opponent, as well as Bounce spells and combat tricks to help give those creatures an additional aggressive edge. Probably the best mode for this archetype is to apply early pressure through evasive creatures and tempo advantage, and then get extra value off your Historic/Artifact synergies while they are trying to recover and come back to parity.

If you find yourself with a lot of cheap creatures, Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle will work really well with your Historic spells to help get extra value from them.

Once you have 2 or more Legendary creatures, Blackblade Reforged becomes awesome, so keep that in mind.

Once you have 6 or more Historic cards, Urza’s Tome becomes great, and it’s not very good otherwise, so if there’s one to be had, an no-one else heavily drafting Historic, you should be able to get it.

Don’t forget about straight-up tempo cards like Blink of an Eye, which can be great in this deck.

Blue/Black Historic Control

In this format, Blue/Black is set up to draw a game out and finally winning via raw card advantage. The Black/Blue combo gets a set of Sagas that can provide incremental advantage over time, and both of these colors have one more Saga than the other colors got, hinting that this is the color pair that really wants to use them.

You need to plan your use of Sagas, as they take three turns to resolve completely, and telegraph your plan, but when used correctly, you’re going to be able to combine the incremental value they provide with efficient removal in such a way that your opponent will not be ready for your late-game threats and win conditions.

Black has an insane removal package in this format (Eviscerate), and the Blue/Black pair is flush with Historic spells that keep your opponent’s options and resources limited, along with threats and graveyard interactions (like Rona, Disciple of Gix) that will help enable you to close out the game. Keep an eye out for Cabal Paladin and Lingering Phantom if you are in these colors, as they are going to allow you to get extra value off of your Historic spells and play really well in the slow, control-style deck.

If you have 4+ Legendary creatures, Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering is amazing, but I wouldn’t prioritize it otherwise.

It only takes 2+ Legendary creatures to make Blackblade Reforged awesome, so keep that in mind during the draft.

Don’t forget about cards that are just good at controlling the board to get you to the late game, like Deep Freeze.

Black/Red Reckless Aggro

In this format, the Black/Red archetype is all about violence. You want to play creatures, attack, and kill anything that gets in your way.

This deck wants a lot of 2- and 3-drops (Deathbloom Thallid), and you’re going to be best served playing creatures that shine when on the offensive. Specifically, you want 2/1s for 2 mana and creatures with aggressive mechanics like first strike, haste and menace. Don’t bother with cards like Ghitu Chronicler, which are going to durdle around while you’re not winning the game. Cards like Keldon Raider and Rampaging Cyclops should be at the top of your curve.

Tokens are also a great resource for this deck. Sacrificing Goblin tokens to Goblin Barrage can end the game just as your opponent is stabilizing and card disadvantage becomes a serious liability. Black also has some decent graveyard recursion in this set, so you can re-use your sacrifice fodder in a pinch, and Garna, the Bloodflame can turn a Goblin Barrage that didn’t quite get there into a straight-up massacre.

Also, watch out for cheap removal that works well in this deck, like Vicious Offering.

Red/Green Kicker

Red/Green has some of the best kicker card in Dominaria, and also contains “Kicker Matters” cards such as Hallar, the Firefletcher that care about when your other cards are kicked.

This is an aggressive archetype, and you’re going to want to curve out and not worry about actually kicking things before it really matters. For example, if you have an Untamed Kavu in your hand on turn 2, and nothing else to do that will affect the battlefield, by all means, play it. If you wait until you can kick it, you’re just increasing the likelihood that you’re going to lose with it in your hand. Similar logic holds for cards like Baloth Gorger.

Having said that, if you have a lot of kicker cards, make sure your running enough lands that you can start kicking those cards once you get to the point that it will make a big difference to the game. In a 40-card deck your probability of hitting 5 land drops by turn 5 (perfect for Untamed Kavu or Shivan Fire) goes up with the number of lands in your 40-card deck like this: 16 lands – 47%, 17 lands – 55%, 18 lands – 62%, so if you want to play a kicked Untamed Kavu on turn 5 with any reliability, you need at least 17 lands.

Also, don’t forget that you’re going to need to fill out your deck with other good beaters like Keldon Raider and Rampaging Cyclops.

Green/White Tokens

The Green/White combination in Dominaria features a token-based go-wide strategy, with cards like Call the Cavalry and Sergeant-at-Arms. When you can flood the board with creatures, you don’t have to worry so much about how to get damage through…your opponent is not going to be able to block enough of the creatures to stop as much damage as they need to.

You beef up your small creature via equipment and combat tricks to allow them to tussle with your opponent’s larger creatures. Tricks that pump your entire team, like Charge and Wild Onslaught shine especially brightly in this type of deck…they can allow you to push through that last bits of damage you need to after gumming up the board in the meantime. Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy can take advantage of all the tokens, growing larger and larger to the point that your opponent won’t be able to block it effectively, and Song of Freyalise will turn your tokens into ramp, allowing you to accelerate your game plan, and then smash in for extra damage.

There’s enough flexibility in Green/White to build a quite aggressive deck, or a deck that stays on the defense until it can bring out a win condition to smash through with at the end. You’ll want to choose one of these strategies and stick with it, though, otherwise you’re going to end up with an incoherent plan, likely doomed to failure.

White/Black Legendary Creatures



White and Black are packed with Legendary permanents and spells in Dominaria. They each have three Legends at Uncommon, two at Rare and a Mythic. There is also one more multicolored White/Black Legend than the other color combinations get, and White has On Serra’s Wings, which makes any creature Legendary. It doesn’t just have a lot of Legends, it has payoffs for playing a Legend-heavy deck, most notably Arvad the Cursed at Uncommon.

White and Black both have good removal in this set (Blessed Light, Gideon’s Reproach, Eviscerate), which combined with the relatively high costs of the powerful Legendary creatures means this deck will skew toward midrange or control, rather than being truly aggressive.

The cards at common you’re going to want to pick up are the ones with Historic bonuses, since you’re not going to find your actual Legends there, and one common that’s really going to be great if you get your density of Legendary creatures up is Benalish Honor Guard.

White/Black also has a Knight subtheme, and if you pick up an early Aryel, Knight of Windgrace or History of Benalia (both of which you should take early if you see them), you should feel comfortable going all-in on the Knights plan. If you go this way, prioritize Call the Cavalry.

Blue/Red Wizard Spells



Blue/Red is the home of the Wizard tribe in Dominaria, and also the color pair that cares most about having a lot of instants and sorceries. There is a little bit of tension here between wanting a lot of Wizards while also wanting a lot of spells, but if you get the balance right it will really pay off. Adeliz, the Cinder Wind is the poster Uncommon for this archetype, and it is hungry for both Wizards and spells. Naban, Dean of Iteration does real work in a Wizard-heavy deck, and mediocre outside of it, so watch out for it.

In the early part of the draft, you’re probably going to want to prioritize good instants and sorceries (Blink of an Eye, Fiery Intervention, Shivan Fire), as well as cheap evasive creatures (flyers, like Academy Drake) and cheap Wizards when you can get them. Basically, act mostly like your building a standard Blue/Red spells deck and don’t go too hard in on the Wizard tribal theme. Keep an eye out especially, though, for good spells that improve with Wizards, like Wizard’s Lightning or Wizard’s Retort.

Once you have the building blocks of the basic Blue/Red spells deck, start picking up all the Wizard payoffs you can get, cards like Academy Journeymage.

Once you have 8+ instants or sorceries, Ghitu Chronicler becomes good. If you can get 10+ instants and sorceries, The Mirari Conjecture starts looking really good and Precognition Field starts looking playable.

An alternative Blue/Red strategy to consider if you see an early Sage of Lat-Nam and/or Orcish Vandal might be an artifacts-matter build. My instinct is that this is not as powerful as Wizard/Spells tribal, but it might be effective when it comes together.

Black/Green Saproling Sacrifice



In Dominaria, Green is good at making Saproling tokens (Saproling Migration, Yavimaya Sapherd), and Black is good at sacrificing them for value (Thallid Soothsayer, Torgaar, Famine Incarnate). Combine these two and you end up with an Aristorats-esque Saproling Sacrifice strategy in Black/Green.

Slimefoot, the Stowaway is the premier Uncommon for this deck, and if you get him early, prioritizing Saproling creators and Sacrifice effect cards is a good way to go. Vicious Offering and Thallid Omnivore are both great payoffs at Common for this strategy, and if you’re really able to flood the board with Saprolings, cards like Sporecrown Thallid and Wild Onslaught that can pump them for vicious attacks go way up in value.

Whisper, Blood Liturgist is good for this deck if you have a lot of creatures with good enter-the-battlefield effects, but otherwise, I’d stay away from it.

Also, keep an eye out for cards like Deathbloom Thallid and Fungal Infection, which do go work up front, and then fuel your sacrifice engine as a bonus.

If you reach a critical threshold of Thallids and Saprolings, then you’re going to want the Fungus Lord Sporecrown Thallid, if you can get it.

Red/White Auras & Equipment



Red/White in Dominaria is dense with Aura/Equipment payoffs at Uncommon, such as Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker, Danitha Capashen, Paragon, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame and Champion of the Flame. There are also decent Equipment at Common, as well as powerful Common Auras in the color pair, such as Dub.

The payoffs in this archetype really help to make up for the inherent card disadvantage associated with Auras, and if you can pair Champion of the Flame with Dub to attack on turn three with a 5/5 that has Trample and First strike, you’re going to feel pretty good about it.

One thing to keep in mind while drafting this deck is that you’re going to need creatures to attach all of your Equipment and Auras to, so don’t go crazy picking up good attachments and leave yourself with no good creatures to attach them to.

Green/Blue Ramp



Green/Blue really rewards you for ramping up to powerful spells, creatures and kickers while controlling the board in this format, and also gives you cards like Llanowar Elves to do it with. Tatyova, Benthic Druid is going to reward you in the late game by drawing you spells in the point of the game that you normally don’t want extra lands, but then other cards in this color pair are going to pay you off handsomely for having that extra mana. Win-win!

Green/Blue naturally has nice beefy commons like Cold-Water Snapper and Primordial Wurm for you to dump your mana into, and getting these out early is great. Beyond these, having the extra mana is going to get you kicker bonuses earlier than you would otherwise, and those bonuses are real…just look at cards like Academy Drake and Baloth Gorger.

If you have some Legendary permanents, and can reliably get to 7+ mana, then Kamahl’s Druidic Vow is worth looking into. I’d avoid it, otherwise.

Likewise, once you are reliably getting to 8+ lands, Sylvan Awakening becomes a real effective finisher, and if you can reliably produce 8+ mana through any means, Verdant Force becomes a real force to be reckoned with.

If you can reliably have 3+ creatures on the battlefield, then Song of Freyalise will really shine in this deck.

A couple of points to keep in mind while drafting this deck: Just because you’re ramping doesn’t mean you can ignore having smaller creatures to play out early. If you can control/clear the board through combat in the early part of the game, your big threats are going to be more effective. Even though you’re ramping, you are going to want to hit all of your land drops, so make sure to play at least 17-18 lands.

If you pick up some serious ramp like Gilded Lotus, look froward to kicking something huge like Slinn Voda for insane value, if not, I would moderate my enthusiasm a little and try to stick with things I know I’m going to be able to get the most value out of.

Other Good Commons

I just want to mention other good Common card that you are likely to see that play well in any deck of their colors, and that you should pick up if you get the chance.

Stronghold Confessor is a 3/3 Menace for 4, which is good for any black deck. It also has the upside that it can be played as a 1-mana chump blocker if you need one. Normally, though, this is one card you’re always going to want to kick when you play.

There are enough solid creatures around that Ancient Animus is going to be good for any green deck. The fact that it works like a Savage Stomp when you play it on one of your Legendary creatures is a nice bonus, as well.

Bombs

These are cards that can take over the game on their own and greatly increase your chances of winning any game in which you play them. Picking these cards is the correct decision 90+% of the time.

White Bombs: Lyra Dawnbringer, Shalai, Voice of Plenty

Blue Bombs: In Bolas’s Clutches

Red Bombs: Jaya’s Immolating Inferno (Only if you have 4+ Legendary creatures, though), Siege-Gang Commander, Verix Bladewing

Green Bomb: Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar, Territorial Allosaurus

Multicolored Bombs: Aryel, Knight of Windgrace, Darigaaz Reincarnated

Colorless/Artifact Bombs: Karn, Scion of Urza, Icy Manipulator

Rares/Mythics to Avoid

Often beginner drafters will snap-pick rares and mythics, but the game often has rares and mythics that are really bad in limited as they have no immediate effect on the battlefield or are too situational…these are usually cards that are more meant for constructed play. Sometimes these cards will give you spectacular wins in limited, but at the cost of reducing your average win rate significantly. Here’s a short list of rares and mythics in this draft format that you should probably avoid like the plague.

Blue: The Antiquities War

Black: Lich’s Mastery

Multicolored: Primevals’ Glorious Rebirth

Artifact: Thran Temporal Gateway

Land: Cabal Stronghold (Unless you’re in pack 3 and mono-Black with 2+ Dread Shades)

Situational Cards

Some cards are situational, meaning that they become drastically better depending on which cards you’ve already picked. I’ve mentioned some of the cards that are situational to each archetype above, but here are some others that haven’t been mentioned yet.

Urza’s Ruinous Blast is great in a deck with 5+ Legendary permanents, but otherwise is awful.

The First Eruption is best in a deck that satisfies to requirements: Your curve tops out high (like 7+ mana) and you have a lot of creatures with a Toughness of 4 or more.

Radiating Lightning is really only good as a sideboard card (against decks that produce a lot of Saproling tokens, for example). Since we are dealing with Best-of-One matches, I would never pick up more than one of these, since you’re going to have to maindeck it.

Hopefully this will be helpful to someone who is drafting this format for the first time this weekend. It was definitely helpful to me to put it together.

As always, feel free to send any questions, comments and criticisms to me here, on Reddit, on Twitter at @DailyArena or on Facebook via the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Peace.

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.