The players at Magic World Championship XXVIII will be drafting Dominaria United as part of their three-format run at a World Championship title. This is exciting in and of itself, but it's been a while since we've seen a draft with these stakes at this level of play.
Leagues vs. Pods
If your primary interaction with drafting comes via the best-of-one Premier Drafts on MTG Arena, you aren't alone, but there are some things you need to know about how the players will be drafting at the event that may differ from what you're used to.
Perhaps most importantly, the players will be playing "in pod". This is counter to the league structure that you'll find via the online options for drafting these days.
- With league drafts, you draft against seven other players, but you play your matches against players from different draft pods.
- With in-pod drafts, the players you play against are from the pod you drafted in.
This may sound like a small change, but it can have a big impact on how the matches play out, and the strategies the players will use to win those matches. Players have more information about what the other players at the table are drafting, particularly their neighbors. This is handy if they end up playing against said neighbor as they'll have an idea of the good cards that were passed to them, and some of the cards they may want to play around during the match.
Archetypes Get Locked Up...
Since each pod can only support so many players in so many archetypes, the players will be fighting and scrapping for the cards they need to make their deck work.
One type of card to look out for are the common dual lands in the set. Cards like
Another consideration is that the players may try to "cut" cards from their opponents. Strategically this is usually incorrect, but there are circumstances where it makes sense to take a card that you don't intend to play yourself just so your opponents can't run it.
It's also worth noting that since the format is best-of-three, sideboard cards go up a ton in value and will be a consideration for the players.
...but Some Formats Flow Free
One great feature of Dominaria United Draft is that you generally don't get locked into a specific archetype very quickly.
Most formats don't leave much wiggle room for changing your mind about which archetype is open halfway through pack one. Dominaria United is very forgiving in this way, and this rewards the drafters who keep their mind the most open during the critical early stages of the draft.
I often postpone solidifying which colors I am in all the way until the first four or five picks of pack two. You really can pivot into another archetype in this set and the players who are comfortable in that unconventional space will benefit greatly.
Dominaria United Archetypes
If you haven't had a chance to go deep on this Draft format yet, the insert that comes in Draft Booster boxes is a very high overview.
But I'll break down how I see the format in the broadest strokes I can.
Basically there are four types of decks that you'll see most often at the higher ranks on MTG Arena. Here is a brief description of each of them.
Domain. This is the multicolor deck of choice, often going to the full five colors. The domain deck comes down to how much mana fixing you can get — primarily through the previously mentioned excellent cycle of common dual lands — combined with how much power you can get. Power, in this case, can be domain specific payoffs, powerful gold cards, or even being able to pay off-color kicker costs.
Spells Based Decks. Spells in this case means instants and sorceries. Blue-Red is the most common configuration here, but Blue-White also supports the theme, and you can even mix them together for splashes as well. This archetype is very powerful with great finishers like
Walls. The defender subtype was pushed in this set, and there are some nice walls to play, but really this archetype comes down to if someone opens a
Red-White Aggro. You may be thinking that the format is all fun and games with five-color domain decks, cool spells-based strategies, and interesting wall decks. A quick call to the Fun Police will set that attitude straight. Red-White aggro is one of the best performing archetypes in this set, primarily due to it's ability to apply huge pressure while the slower decks are still playing tap-lands. Cards like
There are, of course, other archetypes you can draft. In fact, Dominaria United is easily the most balanced set in recent history. All five colors are well represented with no major outliers at either end of the power band. Your win percentage while drafting a two-color deck, a two-color deck with a splash, a three color deck, a three-color deck with a splash... all the way up to the full five colors is nearly identical!
And yes, this also counts for the archetypes themselves. If you were thinking that there may be a major trap in the field, you'd be wrong. You can draft virtually any pair, trio, or more of colors: if you understand the format, build your deck correctly, and play well, you can win.
This is abnormal, as this level of balance is almost impossible to hit with regularity. It's also a total treat to watch, and it's why this format has a chance to be an all-timer. We are just lucky it happened to line up with the World Championship this year!
Wishlist for Pack 1 Pick 1
When you tune in for coverage of the Draft, you may be wondering with all of these great archetypes running around, which card the players will want to open the most.
If the player in question has played the format a lot, then they will be hoping for a
This card has a knack for sticking around on the battlefield and that's basically all it needs to do to win you the game. It's impossible to race and hard to kill. If someone opens it at the World Championship they will be thrilled and also have the best start possible for the format.
The other card I would love to see opened (and played) is less about raw power, and more about build-around potential.
This is the kind of clunky build-around that usually just gets overlooked. But, if you can open this card, particularly in pack one, the payoff for building around it can be astounding. In a format where a decent percentage of your opponents will be playing slow domain or walls decks, you actually have the chance to set this card up.
But the real secret are the two one mana blue commons that enable the whole strategy.
These cards are already just good, and playable in most decks that can cast them. But in a deck with
Enjoy the Best-of-the-Best Drafting
The draft at the Magic World Championship XXVIII has a chance to be one of the best we've ever had. The players are playing what is considered a "modern classic" Draft format, and it could be one for the ages. See you there!
Watch Magic World Championship XXVIII live, October 28–30, at twitch.tv/magic!