Limited Level-Ups: 2020

Alex Nikolic (Chord_O_Calls)

If you haven’t checked out my recent 10 000 word THB draft guide posted on draftsim.com, I’d recommend giving that article a look before diving into this one. The article shines a light on my thoughts/approach to the format which gives context to the draft logs in this article and the way I ended up building the decks.

Since writing that article I’ve done 25 more drafts bringing the total number of times I’ve jumped into the queue to up 85. My thoughts on the format have largely remained the same, but I want to highlight some places where my approach has changed, update a few of my evaluations, and dive deeper into some aspects of the format that I wish I had touched on a bit more.

The 3-5 Colour Decks

Deck credit to @Ghash77MTG on twitter

I go into a bit more depth on this archetype in the latest episode of Limited Level-Ups, but I want to give a rough outline here as well. My affinity for drafting decks that play more than two colours has been the most notable change to how I’ve been approaching THB drafts the past couple of weeks. Doing a quick analysis of my draft logs, about 50% of my drafts have me playing some flavor of multi-coloured deck.

I’m not necessarily biasing myself towards playing more than two colours, but these decks are what I’ve been defaulting to when no clear, synergistic two-colour lane presents itself to me in the first pack and a half of the draft.

Often, you’re presented with drafts like this or this.

In these drafts, we’ve started with a few powerful cards of different colours that we’ve picked up in the first 1-5 picks of the draft. Unfortunately, what tends to happens--especially when drafting at a table of proficient drafters--is the power level of the pack rapidly flattens for picks 6-12 resulting in weaker signals and making it tricky to make an informed decision when choosing between two or three C level commons in the back half of a pack.

When my draft is headed in this direction, my focus shifts from trying to find the most open colour pair to navigating into a base colour--usually Blue or Green--and prioritizing ways to play all the good cards in my pile. When I find myself in this spot, my pick priorities shift from taking mid-level playables in my potential colours, to taking as much fixing and filtering I can get my hands on.

The Fixing

The mana fixing in Theros Beyond Death is just about the best we can ask for without having access to common dual lands.

Traveler's Amulet (THB)

Multiple five-colour fixers at common means that you can be fairly ambitious with the number of colours you play and even the number of double pipped cards you include. If I have 2 Ilysian Caryatids, an Altar of the Pantheon, and 2 Traveler’s Amulets, I feel comfortable splashing two double-pipped A-tier bombs like Thryx, the Sudden Storm, and Archon of Sun’s Grace in my base Green deck.

When you’re playing 4+ colours, Unknown Shores becomes a playable card. In a 3 coloured deck, basic land of your splash colour is nearly strictly better than Shores, but when the card turns into a 4-5 colour fixer, it pulls it’s weight.

Deck credit to @Ghash77MTG on twitter

The Filtering

While the fixing in THB is great, the linchpin of the 4-5 colour decks are cards that help you filter. The 4-5 colour decks are allowed to exist in the format nearly exclusively thanks to volume of filtering there is in the set coupled with the fact that the speed of the format allows for the time to cast a few non-board impacting spells in the early game.

Without four or five ways to dig for your high impact cards or pitch the excess mana sources, you risk flooding or getting run over by a more streamlined deck. Prioritize these cards even above the fixing, a deck running 4-5 colour with slightly sketchy mana can still adhere to the old “card draw is fixing” adage.

White is the Second Deepest Colour

At this point in the format, most players are drafting with the understanding that Black is the deepest colour. While I still believe this is true, I think that White is a reasonably close second. Like Black, you have to go fairly far down the list of White commons before you get to a card that you’re unhappy to put in your deck. I mentioned in my draft guide that the White aggro decks were quite good, but I wish I had emphasized this a bit more. Anytime my opponent curves Pious Wayfarer into any two drop, I start to sweat a bit.

I get the feeling that many people are still a shell shocked from R&D’s treatment of White for the majority of 2019 limited and hold a slight subconscious bias against the colour. If you’ve been living in the land of Green mid-range or trying to plant your flag as one of the Black players for most of the format, I’d try to bias myself towards learning how the White decks operate. These decks tend to look like a pile of dorky cards but are certainly greater than the sum of their parts. Don’t be afraid to pick up Pious Wayfarer or Sentinel’s Eyes before the wheel if you feel that White is a potential lane for your seat.

A Clarification and Update on Green/White

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas (THB)

In my draft guide, I had GW listed as the only “Tier 3” deck. I want to emphasize that tier 3 doesn’t mean the deck is bad, it just means that I personally find myself in the deck less often than the other decks, and when I do, I haven't found the ceiling on GW decks without rares to be notable high.

That being said, I’ve had a few conversations with players I very much respect (mainly BeersSC, a player who holds nearly twice as many trophies as I do) who have said that GW is a deck they are fond of and find themselves in often.This is largely a function of white being undervalued in relation to how good the colour actually is.

Siona is a card I sort of dunked on in my draft guide and a card that I was ultimately too low on. I was viewing the card as a largely worse Heliod’s Pilgrim in most cases, but I don’t think that’s giving her enough credit. To paraphrase my Limited Level-Ups co-host Abram, she doesn’t go in every GW deck, but the ones that she does belong in, she’s very powerful and is one of the better cards in your deck. I’m a player who tends to evaluate cards in the context of their best homes and that evaluation makes a lot of sense to me, so I’m a bit sad that it took me so long to get to where I am on the card.

I want to reiterate that I don’t think tiers mean all that much, especially in a set with archetypes that are so close in power like Theros Beyond Death, but if I had to go back and do it again, I’d group GW in with the rest of the tier 2 decks.

Sleep of the Dead

Just before we get to the trophies, I want to highlight a card that I’m sure isn’t on most people’s radars still. Sleep of the dead isn’t a card that goes in every Blue deck, in fact it doesn’t go in most Blue decks, but in a good tempo driven UR deck It’s often one of the best cards in your 40.

🏆 Sleep of the dead is the card i have been most wrong about from initial spoiler until now. Card is pretty legit in this kind of deck. https://t.co/rJG3QgRs6c pic.twitter.com/t4X0ptCv2V
— Lars Dam (@_Malavi_) February 22, 2020

Sleep of the Dead is to UR what Wrap in Flames is to RW: a niche card that doesn’t belong in most decks but is one of the most important cards in its respective archetype. Locking down your opponent’s Voracious Typhon or large flier for a turn or two is generally all UR needs to get it’s Vexing Gulls in for a few more pecks and lock up the game. In addition, Blue and Red have very few escape cards so often, the grave is a wasted is a resource that your UR decks are begging you to use. This is never a card you have to pick early but be aware of it in packs that you’ll be able to wheel it.

The Trophy Decks and Draft Logs

Deck #1

Draft Log: https://magic.flooey.org/draft/show?id=tzJKX-fnlO2H5HxkQq5vQK3oLWA