Shards and Wedges in Dragon's Maze Draft

[Thomas David Baker]

Although we have no idea what is in Dragon's Maze this announcement set me off on some idle speculation.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arca...

Esper   (WUB)  Dimir/Orzhov    Azorius              

Raka    (WUR)  Boros           Azorius/Izzet        

Bant    (WUG)  Simic           Azorius/Selesnya     

Dega    (WBR)  Orzhov/Boros    Rakdos               

Junk    (WBG)  Orzhov          Selesnya/Golgari     

Naya    (WRG)  Boros/Gruul     Selesnya             

Ana     (UBG)  Simic/Dimir     Golgari              

Grixis  (UBR)  Dimir           Izzet/Rakdos         

Ceta    (URG)  Gruul/Simic     Izzet                

Jund    (BRG)  Gruul           Rakdos/Golgari

Obviously staying open, taking fixing and going 4 and 5 color are going to be real options, probably the best option with at least a Guildgate in every pack of Dragon's Maze.

Some of the 3-color combinations look like they could punish 5-color greed, though, and it seems likely that most decks will at least be two colors with a sizeable splash. Naya aggro or Boros into Rakdos with Orzhov removal and Stab Wound. Grixis looks like something you would never do without opening bombs.

[Kieran Symington]

The thing I was thinking about Dragons Maze is that some of the guilds look like obvious partners and some don't. Golgari/Simic for example has really obvious synergy, which you wouldn't see in Golgari/Dimir. The other guild combinations that look like they would work well together are Izzet/Dimir, Selesnya/Boros, Azorius/Orzhov and Rakdos/Gruul. It's almost as though they designed it that way...

[Louis Mackie]

Is this just for the pre-release? Or are they really throwing out infinite shocklands and limited manafixing

[Dan Barrett]

remember draft will be Maze/Gatecrash/RTR, no?

[Thomas David Baker]

No Basic Land in Dragon's Maze Booster Packs

Wait... that sounds kind of negative. Let's rephrase it.

Dragon's Maze Booster Packs All Contain Nonbasic Lands

That's better! The fifteenth card in all Dragon's Maze packs isn't basic land; it's nonbasic land. All ten guildgates will be showing up (with the Dragon's Maze expansion symbol), as will all ten shocklands from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash (with their Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash symbols). They'll show up at rates about like their original rarity. There's also a mythic rare land from Dragon's Maze that will show up there sometimes!

-- sounds to me like they are putting a Guildgate+ in every DM pack not just for the prerelease.

Draft order does start with DM but staying open to multiple 3,4 and 5 color combinations seems like it will be par for the course.

Should help beat paper shockland prices into submission if nothing else.  Especially if they are in MM too.  They are going to be a bad rip in MM!

[Glenn Goldsworthy]

that all sounds fairly mental, also not to sure about how difficult drafting will be when you can just take the best cards in each pack and pick up a lot of fixing late on

[Levi Hinz]

I don't think it will affect things that much.  You're pretty likely to get some sort of land anyway.  (Tom can probably do the math here.)  I guess in 3 set draft you'll just end up with 2-4 nonbasics in every deck, rather than 1-3?  Also everyone MUST take some fixing because they'll be 3 colour decks, whereas before you'd be 2 colours with a splash, and maybe one drafter being 4-5 colour. 

Essentially, there will be more lands, but everyone will need them more, so it should balance out.

[Thomas David Baker]

There will be 8 fixing lands in every DM round.

5 / 101 * 10 * 8 =  ~4 guildgates in every RTR round

+ 0.8 Gatecreeper Vine, 0.8 Axebane Guardians in RTR

5 / 101 * 10 * 8 =  ~4 guildgates in every GTC round

+ 0.4 Prophetic Prisms in GTC (assuming PP is the less-common common which Maro said on his blog it almost certainly is).

So in a DM/GTC/RTR draft there will on average be 16 guildgates, 0.8 gatecreeper vines, 0.8 axebane guardians and 0.4 prophetic prisms.  *Plus whatever bonus fixing there is in DM*.

In an RTR/RTR/RTR draft there are on average 12 guildgates, 2.4 vines, 2.4 axebane guardians.

So it is actually not a wildly radical increase as Levi says.  My gut reaction was that that was a lot more fixing but it's really just 0.5 more guildgates per player than RTR/RTR/RTR (because DM is only one pack and guildgates are highly prevalent already).

[Glenn Goldsworthy]

you do know there will also be more fixing than just guildgates, the most guildgates I have managed in a draft is 3 and I took them quite highly, in this set you stand a decent chance to get upwards of 5 and if your picking them high you could get as many as 7.  I am only saying don't be surprised if people just pick the best card in each pack and pick up a load of gates, means that you don't have to be as good at drafting as you can wedge things in easily

Thomas David Baker said:

There will be 8 fixing lands in every DM round.

5 / 101 * 10 * 8 =  ~4 guildgates in every RTR round

+ 0.8 Gatecreeper Vine, 0.8 Axebane Guardians in RTR

5 / 101 * 10 * 8 =  ~4 guildgates in every GTC round

+ 0.4 Prophetic Prisms in GTC (assuming PP is the less-common common which Maro said on his blog it almost certainly is).

So in a DM/GTC/RTR draft there will on average be 16 guildgates, 0.8 gatecreeper vines, 0.8 axebane guardians and 0.4 prophetic prisms.  *Plus whatever bonus fixing there is in DM*.

In an RTR/RTR/RTR draft there are on average 12 guildgates, 2.4 vines, 2.4 axebane guardians.

So it is actually not a wildly radical increase as Levi says.  My gut reaction was that that was a lot more fixing but it's really just 0.5 more guildgates per player than RTR/RTR/RTR (because DM is only one pack and guildgates are highly prevalent already).

[Levi Hinz]

Again, the value of fixing will increase given players are more dedicated 3 color rather than 2+splash, so fixing will need to be taken higher and you can't just expect to get them late.

[Simon Baldwin]

My Dragon Maze idle speculation is they will mix up the abilities together on the same card. Something with both Scavenge and Bloodrush seems pretty fun...