Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Daily Arena!

From 3 PM (UTC) on Friday, June 1 through 5 PM (UTC) on Monday, June 4, Dominaria Quick Draft will be available. In this format you will draft three Dominaria boosters. To help people prepare, I thought I’d supply some links to good resources for players new to the format, as well as some information condensed from some of those resources.

First, SEV8 has a good article discussing this format’s two-color draft archetypes:

The Limited Archetypes of Dominaria

Limited Resources is a great resource for limited players in general. Their Dominaria Draft Archetypes Plus Tips and Tricks Show contains an in-depth look at their five favorite archetypes in Dominaria and also offers a bunch of “tips, tricks, corner cases, obscure rules, and cool interactions for the format”.

Luis Scott-Vargas has a series of limited set reviews for each set, and these are an indispensable resource for card evaluation. I will provide links to the relevant reviews here, then add aggregated versions of some of the most salient information below.

Dominaria Limited Set Review: White

Dominaria Limited Set Review: Blue

Dominaria Limited Set Review: Black

Dominaria Limited Set Review: Red

Dominaria Limited Set Review: Green

Dominaria Limited Set Review: Gold, Artifacts, and Lands

Here are some highlights/takeaways from the resources linked above:

Top White Commons

Blessed Light

Call the Cavalry

Gideon’s Reproach

Pegasus Courser

Sergeant-at-Arms

Top Blue Commons

Academy Drake

Academy Journeymage

Blink of an Eye

Cloudreader Sphinx

Deep Freeze

Top Black Commons

Deathbloom Thallid

Eviscerate

Fungal Infection

Stronghold Confessor

Vicious Offering

Top Red Commons

Fiery Intervention

Ghitu Chronicler

Keldon Raider

Rampaging Cyclops

Shivan Fire

Top Green Commons

Ancient Animus

Baloth Gorger

Llanowar Elves

Saproling Migration

Yavimaya Sapherd

All Cards Sorted into Tiers, By Color

Note: Very situational cards show up twice with a red asterisk * .

Some notes on situational cards (marked by red asterisks * above) from LSV…



Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle

“Teshar can be a whiff if you’re short on cheap creatures and historic spells, but I bet she’s a potent build-around if you see her early enough. Casting 0-mana Resurrection is a big game, and she generates a ton of value when left unchecked. If you can, try to save her until you can play her and a cheap historic spell in the same turn.” – LSV



Urza’s Ruinous Blast

“In a deck without support, this is literally uncastable. That isn’t good. In a deck with 5+ legendary permanents, it can be awesome, though it does get ruined if the opponent has sick legends of their own. My guess is that this isn’t worth going after from pick one, but can provide a good angle of attack in a deck that already has a few legends by the time you see this.” – LSV



Cold-Water Snapper

“This at least doesn’t have flying, but one Arcane Flight later and that is no longer true. I would snap this up if I had two to three Auras to put on it, but avoid it otherwise. It’s too expensive to be goo unless you’re buffing it.” – LSV



The Mirari Conjecture

“In a spell-heavy deck, this can be an awesome finisher. Imagine a deck with 10-14 spells, where you curve removal into removal into this. All of a sudden you get two spells back and then get to copy them, putting the opponent into a huge hole. If you can afford to spend 5 mana and not affect the board, my theory is that this is awesome, though it’ll be a blank card unless you really do the work to make it good.” – LSV



Naban, Dean of Iteration

“The range is a little narrower on Naban, with a 2/1 for 2 being fine even without text and double-triggering all your Wizards being less impressive than copying all your spells. Most Wizard decks will want this, but it’s not a strong enough build-around that I’m looking to slam it early.” – LSV



Precognition Field

“I may not be able to see the future, but I sure can predict losing with this in play. This one is a bit expensive for my tastes, as spending 4 mana to start with is a tough sell. At least The Mirari Conjecture gets you your mana back on the turn it copies spells, while this just asks you to dump more mana into it. I’m a sucker for build-arounds, so I’ll try this, but I think it’s going to be bad.” – LSV



Thallid Soothsayer

“Thallid Soothsayer can be part of a very powerful engine, though it’s rather lackluster on its own. Unlike Thallid Omnivore, this is a true build-around, and in a deck that can generate a lot of tokens this can bury the opponent in card advantage.” – LSV



Torgaar, Famine Incarnate

“Torgaar is a card you need to do a little work for, but isn’t out of the question even in a normal deck. If your opponent is light on removal/bounce, running this out on turn 4 or 5 sounds like a beating, and Torgaar will end the game quite quickly. Then again, if they do answer it, you probably lose, making it a bit of a feast or famine situation. Torgaar seems sick in Saproling decks, and is a very scary card to face down–a 7/6 that nugs you for 10 is not what you want to see early (or at any point, really). Plus, even sacrificing one creature makes this castable later, so it doesn’t even have to be completely all-in.” – LSV



Whisper, Blood Liturgist

“If you have token-makers and creatures with good ETB effects, this is more a shout than a whisper, but in the average deck it’s a bit costly. The reward is here, especially since you can do this in response to removal or after blocks, but I wouldn’t play this without doing some work to enable it.” – LSV



Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering

“Now this is a build-around. I’d play all sorts of mediocre legends to make this work, as you will win the vast majority of games when you cast this. It kills their best creature and gives you something awesome, and is well worth trying to set up. I’d want 4+ legends, and ideally they are on the cheaper side, but that seems doable.” – LSV



Ghitu Chronicler

“This is a slightly different kind of build-around–it asks you to have a lot of spells, but doesn’t care too much about them being specific kinds of spells. If you have 8+ spells, this becomes a great addition, and if you’re running less than that it is still passable. It’s also a Wizard, which could push it over the line in some decks with just a few targets. Plus, if the format is slow enough, I could see this edging toward a 3.5, though it would need to be really slow for it to hit that mark.” – LSV



Jaya’s Immolating Inferno

“This is similar to Yawgmoth’s Horrible Plan (or whatever the black one is called). Hard to enable, and uncastable in some decks, but beyond absurd when you do get to cast it. If you can pick up 4+ legendary creatures, this is an insane finisher, and one worth trying to get to work.” – LSV



Radiating Lightning

“This is a marginal main deck card and a decent sideboard one as it can wipe out armies of Saprolings. I would want one of these in my sideboard in most decks, but wouldn’t prioritize it very highly.” – LSV



Valduk, Keeper of the Flame

“Valduk is a build-around, and the best kind too–he has a low opportunity cost, being a 3/2 for 3, and a high upside when he works. This is worth working toward, and I wouldn’t mind snagging him early and seeing where it goes.” – LSV



Kamahl’s Druidic Vow

“This is hard to cast for multiple reasons, and even when you do cast it, you might end up with a mediocre assortment of monsters. It is a finisher, and it can be powerful, but you want to cast it for 7+ mana to really get going, and that makes it a very inflexible card.” – LSV



Song of Freyalise

“In a deck full of creatures, this will have some high points, and there’s definitely power here. It is situational, so don’t forget the times when you have two creatures out, you play this, and they kill one, making this an expensive +1/+1. It also wants you to have a mix of cheap and expensive creatures, which seems doable enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up a tick or two higher, even if it matches up poorly against removal. It does seem awesome in Saproling decks, as they are ready to sing you the song of their people.” – LSV



Sporecrown Thallid

“In the average green deck, this is a bear that works with a couple other cards, which isn’t bad. In a dedicated Fungus deck, it might be one of your best cards, and those two modes seem pretty win-win to me.” – LSV



Sylvan Awakening

“Sylvan Awakening is tricky. It can be pretty rude at 8+ mana, but is lackluster before then, putting it in massive finisher territory. Some decks are going to love this card, as it does get the opponent dead if you’ve done a good job ramping and getting to the late game. Other decks aren’t going to want it at all, because they are interested in curving out and playing efficient cards (fools). It does have some defensive applications too, but that seems pretty bad, as you are just throwing a card away at that point.” – LSV



Verdant Force

“Most decks can’t reliably cast 8-drops, but in a deck geared towards doing it, this is amazing. It floods the board very quickly and is monstrous itself, making it one of the better ways to close out the game.” – LSV



Rona, Disciple of Gix

“Rona’s power fluctuates wildly, and I can give you one guess as to what it’s based on. I will just say that today I had the pleasure of playing Rona and immediately exiling, plus playing Phyrexian Scriptures, which worked out quite nicely. In a deck full of historic cards, Rona is awesome, and you’ll often want to save her for 6+ mana so you can get value right away.” – LSV



Blackblade Reforged

“In decks with zero legendary creatures, this does still serve as a finisher. It gives a huge bonus, and can make any Saproling into a hero. Where it gets really dangerous is in a deck with a couple legends, as all of a sudden you are getting +5/+5 out of nowhere, as you can play and equip in the same turn. This card is strong enough to impact my pick order, and is a card I wouldn’t mind taking early.” – LSV



Gilded Lotus

“In a deck without any high end, this isn’t generally worth a slot. If your curve ends at 5 or 6, just cast a 5-drop creatures and move on with your life. In a deck with expensive kicker cards and some card draw, this can do a lot of work, and I like using this to overpower the opponent.” – LSV



Urza’s Tome

“In a deck with 6+ historic cards to exile, I like this will enough. It’s too expensive to play just as a looter, but if you’re reliably drawing cards it will be a good way to pull ahead.” – LSV



Cabal Stronghold

“It’s not worth playing a mono-black deck for Cabal Stronghold, but if you’re mono-black you would play this. Don’t play this with fewer than 14 Swamps in your deck, and unless you have two Dread Shades, I’m not sure how you get to that point.” – LSV

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.

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.