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 18 through 5 PM (UTC) on Monday, May 21, Rivals of Ixalan Quick Draft will be available. In this format you will draft two boosters of Rivals of Ixalan followed by a single Ixalan booster. To help people prepare, I thought I’d link to some sources for good information on the archetypes in this format, and add some additional information.

Joel Larsson has great primers on the archetypes for this draft format over on ChannelFireball, I’d suggest going over there to check these out:

Rivals of Ixalan Archetype Primer: U/W Ascend, W/R Control, and W/B of All Kinds

Rivals of Ixalan Archetype Primer: W/G Chicken Control, U/B Pirates Ascend, U/R Pirates Control and Pirates Aggro, and U/G Merfolk

Rivals of Ixalan Archetype Primer: B/G, B/R Midrange, B/R Pirate Aggro, R/G Dinosaurs, U/G Sailor

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.

First, I’m just going to lump together a list of the best removal spells at Common that weren’t mention in the archetypes discussions linked to above…these are all good in any deck playing their color: Legion’s Judgment, Luminous Bonds, Pious Interdiction, Waterknot, Impale, Vanquish the Weak, Firecannon Blast, Unfriendly Fire.

Next, here is a list of creatures at Common that have an enter-the-battlefield effect or triggered ability that combined with the creatures’ stats make them good and efficient enough that they are going to be good in just about any deck playing their colors (a bunch of these are just some of the best Explore creatures…putting Explore on a creature basically raises it a tier higher when considering it as a draft pick): Territorial Hammerskull, Watertrap Weaver, Dire Fleet Interloper, Storm Fleet Pyromancer, Deeproot Warrior, Jungleborn Pioneer, Tishana’s Wayfinder.

Also, I want to mention Opt. This kind of cheap card selection cantrip is going to be good in any Blue deck.

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: Bishop of Binding, Trapjaw Tyrant

Black Bombs: Ravenous Chupacabra, Tetzimoc, Primal Death

Red Bombs: Burning Sun’s Avatar, Rekindling Phoenix, Vance’s Blasting Cannons

Green Bombs: Ripjaw Raptor, Waker of the Wilds

Multicolored Bombs: Vraska, Relic Seeker, Hostage Taker, Regisaur Alpha, Vona, Butcher of Magan

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.

White: Ashes of the Abhorrent, Sphinx’s Decree

Blue: Induced Amnesia, Kumena’s Awakening, Timestream Navigator

A note on Kumena’s Awakening: If you can consistently Ascend, this is a fine addition to your deck. I added it to this section because newer players often underestimate the downside of drawing cards for their opponent. You’re going to know if you want this, if you are unsure, you probably don’t want it.

Green: Old-Growth Dryads

Multicolored: Storm the Vault

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.

Arch of Orazca is a pretty low-risk addition to any deck, but it does incur a real cost, since it only produces colorless mana and its activation is pretty pricey. I would only make this a high priority if I’m pretty sure the mana for my deck is good and I’m not going to have to cut it to support a splash or something with a high color requirement.

Once you know you are in a dedicated Vampire deck, Bishop of the Bloodstained becomes a good pick, but it should otherwise be avoided.

Priest of the Wakening Sun is really good in a deck with 5+ Dinosaurs, and really bad otherwise.

I would not pick Deadeye Quartermaster unless I had already drafted two or more good Equipment or Vehicle cards to target with it. When you do have a couple of good targets, it goes up significantly in value.

Deeproot Waters is bad in a deck with fewer than ten Merfolk. Above that threshold it becomes solidly playable, but still not a top pick.

Favorable Winds is good in a deck with 7 or more flying creatures, and pretty bad with fewer than that.

Herald of Secret Streams is bad in any deck that isn’t making a lot of +1/+1 counters. In a deck making a lot of counters, it’s a solid playable, but still shouldn’t be a really high priority, as the counters themselves are going to be much more important to implementing your deck’s game plan.

If you have a control deck that can consistently get to 7 mana and have stabilized enough at that point that taking that turn off to cast Overflowing Insight won’t usually result in you losing on the next turn, then that card becomes decent. It’s going to be bad in most decks, though.

If you are playing a control deck and have a bunch of cards that make Treasure, then Shore Keeper is playable (but not especially good). In any other deck, it is especially bad.

Siren’s Ruse is decent in a Pirate deck that has a lot of creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects, but bad everywhere else.

If you are in Green and have 10+ noncreature spells, then Deeproot Champion becomes amazing and should be a high-priority pick. It’s not that good otherwise, though also not as terrible as many of the other cards in this section.

Similarly, Admiral Beckett Brass is a very low pick for most decks, although not complete garbage, but it becomes a pretty high pick once you’re in a Pirate deck and you have good sources of Treasure tokens.

Primal Amulet is playable (but not great) in any deck with a dozen or more Instant and Sorcery spells. In any other deck it’s not going to worth a card.

Once you know you are in a dedicated Dinosaur deck, Otepec Huntmaster becomes a high pick, but should be avoided otherwise.

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.