Rough Drafts: Year of Modern Flashbacks - Triple Mirrodin

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Jan 08, 2016

Rough Drafts video

Hello everyone! It's time for another edition of Rough Drafts! As you know, 2016 is the year of the Modern flashbacks on Magic Online. Each and every week, outside of release periods for Standard legal sets, there will be a new flashback draft format on Magic Online. One of my New Years resolutions is to record at least one draft for each format and get it uploaded quickly so you all can have a peak at the format before jumping into a queue and trying out the format for yourself.

This week we are headed to the world of artifacts to play Triple Mirrodin, a format I've drafted a few times during other flashback periods, but not enough to be proficient. Thankfully, the format has a lot of value at lower rarities thanks to Chromatic Sphere and the artifact lands. Hopefully, even if thing go poorly we'll be able to get something for our efforts.

Let's get to the videos, then we'll talk briefly about Triple Mirrodin limited. A quick reminder. If you enjoy the Rough Drafts series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish Youtube Channel to keep up on all the latest and greatest.

Triple Mirrodin: Drafting

Triple Mirrodin: Round 1

Triple Mirrodin: Round 2

Triple Mirrodin: Finals (Round 3)

Triple Mirrodin

Blinding Beam is still absurd. We ended up splashing it in our (mostly) Mono Green deck, and it was always the card we wanted to draw the most. For some reason, it was tabling rather consistently in our draft, which shouldn't happen. It's basically a one-card combo with creatures, and since you're going to be playing creatures, pick it highly.

Molder Slug was insane. Since we got it in pack one, we were able to build around it by not playing artifacts that we wanted to keep on the battlefield, and we won several games where Molder Slug ate away several artifacts on our opponent's side of the battlefield, or we simply locked them out of playing their hand full of artifacts. Plus, it's a 4/6 for 5, which is way above the curve for Mirrodin.

Disregarding the last match where we got beat down by an all-in aggro deck, the format is really slow and grindy. Cards like Altar of Shadows may look horrible, but they are actually very strong in the format. Don't be afraid to pick powerful, but seemingly slow cards because the pace of the format makes them very good.

Finally, don't be afraid to pick up high value Commons with later picks. While there isn't a ton of value at rare in Mirrodin (assuming you don't open an Oblivion Stone), it is pretty easy to pick up 5 tix worth of random Commons and Uncommons like Sun Droplet, the artifact lands, Molten Rain and Isochron Scepter. If you're willing to be the one to pick these cards over other marginally playable cards late in packs, it's fairly easy to make a profit by winning just one round of the draft.

Overall, Triple Mirrodin is a pretty fun an interesting format. It's fairly easy to play three colors, both because there is some reasonable fixing and a good number of the cards are colorless artifacts. I definitely recommend giving it a shot, because the flavor of the format is quite unique. Unlike last week's format (8th Edition), it is actually a joy to play. You are rewarded for drafting well and playing tight.

Money Cards

*For a complete list, make sure to check out the Mirrodin page here on MTGGoldfish*

Resources

Top 10 Mistakes of Mirrodin Block Limited. Ken Krouner breaks down ten things he learned playing the format. Dos and Don'ts of Mirrodin Drafting. Tom Liles talks about five things to watch out for. Mirrodin Block Drafting. Mike Savage puts forth his pick orders for the format and discusses the best Common in every color. Triple Mirrodin Draft Primer. The Limited Resources subreddit pulls from several sources to give a great overview of the format.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments. You can reach me on Twitter (or MTGO) @SaffronOlive.