I wanted to try something different this week. My plans for Modern Merfolk have been pushed to the side for right now, but that’s only because I have a small case of Vintage Madness! Vintage Masters is finally on Magic: the Gathering Online, and I spent the large part of last Friday drafting the set.

If you can afford it, and have the client, I recommend drafting Vintage Masters at least once. If you liked Modern Masters at all, you’ll love this set! It may be a bit larger, but the archetypes in the limited format are well thought out and robust. It’s like an all star list of past constructed heavyweights. In UG you have Madness. For RW you get to draft the ever popular Astral Slide deck. GW is a little kid creatures and aura deck. You pick up some fat creatures and put pants on them, stuff like Elephant Guide or Armadillo Cloak. While I was drafting the set, I got to thinking, what would my friends draft? If they were sitting here in front of the computer, what card would they take in my situation? Would we have similar draft styles? Would they value something higher than I do?

For this article I got a hold of three of my closest Magic playing friends. They range widely in experience and success with the game, and I’ll do a little introduction for all three of them.

Mike Gould: Former Pro Tour competitor, we both made our Pro Tour debuts at New Orleans, during Pro Tour: Tinker. Mike is also the current state champion of Kentucky. Well, he won the event that SunMesa puts on. There are just so many state championships now that it is hard to keep track. Mike qualified for the Pro Tour with Teen Girl Squad, a mono white control deck that was popular in Onslaught Block, and won states with Mono Green Devotion.

Andrew Nelms: Former State champion, back when Wizards of the Coast ran the event. Has made day two of a few recent Grand Prix. Played Mono Blue Devotion to a day two finish at Grand Prix: Louisville. Is a swiss round end boss as he has yet to make the top eight of a PTQ, which I guess may not be the right term I am looking to use. I’m trying to make a compliment here, I guess what I am trying to say is he does well in events, but cannot close to the cut. He never gets coffee. Won States with UR Magnivore.

Gage Downs: Writer for Legitmtg.com. Young player, brews a lot. Has dreams of playing on the tour one day, but a distinct lack of time keeps him away from events.

I shipped these players the contents of my pack ones from 4 recent drafts. One of the drafts I won, the other was a train wreck, the third was a fun multiplayer romp, and the other was Theros Block. I did not tell them what I picked, but I’ll tell you all what I picked.

Let’s go ahead and move on to the picks!

Mike: Ignition Team: I haven’t drafted this format yet, but from watching, you can want big dumb cards for the end game. This guy can be a big dumb guy who just wins the game and to be honest, the rest of the pack looked like poop.

Andy: Tragic Slip: I’m not a big fan of any creatures in the pack, and slip can be very good late game against big creatures.

Gage: I’d honestly take the Tragic Slip. Removal is important in limited, and [card]Tragic Slip[card] has the potential to get rid of anything smaller then a 13/13.

Joshua: I picked Worldknit and then tried my best to build around it. Worked well with stuff like Cogwork Grinder (had I seen one.) but when you are taking the best card in the pack each pick, and will not have mana issues no matter the size of the deck, Worldknit felt like the most powerful card for me to take. The game has to go long right? It’s a multiplayer format with tons of room for teamwork, politics and group hugs! The good guys took this draft down, and if you have not had the chance to draft Conspiracy, I hope that you are able to make time to do so!

Mike: Goblin General: I have not drafted this format yet, but I know Goblins are just dumb. Passing a Flametongue Kavu could be a bad signal, but if players are fighting over the red cards that are not Goblins, than I feel like I am in a good position to draft the tribe.

Andy: If I’m drafting to lessen the impact of the cost of the draft, I’m on Tundra. If I’m playing to draft and win, I’m on Flametongue Kavu all the way. Solid body and very good ability for 4 mana.

Gage: Money drafting I take the money. Tundra! Drafting to win, I take the Flametongue Kavu as it serves as both a body and a way to deal with an opponent’s creature.

Joshua: I’d like to say that I was not drafting with money on my mind in this draft. I had just spent twenty five tickets to sign up for this draft queue, and was happy to find Tundra staring back at me. I took the land, and ended up drafting a rather solid UG Madness deck that took me to the finals. I actually even if money was not an issue during this draft I would have ended up taking the Tundra anyways. Blue White control is amazing in Vintage Masters, and having this land would have been super in that deck!

Mike: Femeref Knight: Never drafted this, but a 2/2 with flanking that can get vigilance for a white mana seems good.

Andy: I like Vaporous Djinn, because flyers are always good in draft. Sure he has a slight drawback, but I still think it’s worth it.

Gage: Dirtwater Wraith has the potential for evasion and has firebreathing to make it a serious threat if unanswered.

Joshua: This draft was the one that ended up being a train wreck. I ended up taking Enfeeblement, but was really close on Giant Mantis. Overall I feel as if Green is weak in MirViLight. I ended up getting cut out of black in this draft, and went with a really aggro knight heavy Red White build. It was not my best draft.

Mike: Reprisal is this card that I picked, and this is why. It kills bombs and green fatties and is flexible enough to be able to kill the pumped up R/W guys.

Andy: Fleetfeather Cockatrice, not even close. A deathtouch creature with flash and the potential to become a 6/6 with deathtouch is pretty good late game.

Gage: So many choices but from my personal preferences I’d probably go with the Pin to the Earth or Ajani’s Presence. Ajani’s Presence would be my first choice because of its ability to save creatures on the fly and buff potential Heroic dudes I might have.

Joshua: I’m a sucker for a good Red White aggro build in Theros Block limited. I also do not want to commit my first pick to a two color card. That knocks Fleetfeather Cockatrice out of the equation. Reprisal was also another card that I thought about, but I figured I was going to go as aggro as possible. Sigiled Skink is the truth. It’s library manipulation for the red deck, it gets in for two, and I thought by passing a pack with what I felt were weaker Red cards that I could set myself up really well for the red cards that were sure to come in the second pack. I ended up cutting Red hard in this draft, got the rewards from the Born of the Gods pack, and had a very stout Heroic deck.

In the end there was not really much agreement among as we all pretty much took different cards for different play styles. When I selected these four packs, I went for ones that did not have a bomb in them. I mean it is Pick One Pack One, and you see a game winning card in the pack chances are you’re going to take that card, be it Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Supreme Verdict everyone knows that the bomb is taken!

With our views on the packs out of the way, and our picks known, is there anyone that you agree with? Anyone that you feel that just went off the rails? What would you have picked? Let us know in the comment section, and as always have a great day, thanks for reading!

Joshua Claytor

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@Legitmtg

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