You, Me, and Modern Masters 2015 Draft Archetypes – Part 2

I’m back, and ready to talk some more draft archetypes! There’s no need for a drawn out introduction this time around, so let’s dive right in!

Ramp

Any set with Eldrazi is going to lend itself well to ramp. And even though working your way up to everyone’s favorite spaghetti monster may be a bit unrealistic, there are many other sweet things to ramp into, and tons of enablers. The ability to produce Eldrazi Spawn tokens (the ones that sac for mana) at low rarity is key to this strategy. No one wants to waste removal on an 0/1, so you make a bunch of them, and toss out an Artisan of Kozilek or Ulamog’s Krusher. Even something like Thrive is a great mana-dump. Of course, Eldrazi Spawn are far from the only way to generate mana. There are quite a few other mana producers that help this strategy, as well as ways to get additional lands into play every turn, such as Wayfarer’s Bauble. This is, of course, a very easy deck to play, and definitely seems like an entry-level deck. Still, it’s a potent threat, and one to watch out for. And how else are you going to be casting all those Karns you’ll be opening?

Tokens

There are a lot of use to both produce and make use of tokens in this set. Obviously, there are those Eldrazi Spawn, but cards like Raise the Alarm and Necrogenesis are also present, which have the potential to raise an army. Once you’ve produced a ton of tokens, you can do any of the following: cast convoke spells, power them up with Lieges and pump spells, power up Scion of the Wild, or sacrifice them to one of this set’s many, many sacrifice outlets. token strategies are, of course, most likely just going to overrun your opponent’s blockers. But there’s so many cool things in this set that give tokens a lot of cool play. And when a deck is both cool and also quite good in draft, it’s a deck that deserves to get played. Just imagine Convoking out an Overwhelm and still having enough creatures to nearly kill your opponent, and then sac one or two of them with Mortapod to finish the game out. That’s the dream with this deck.

Proliferate

The Proliferate deck is an interesting beast, and calling it Proliferate may be a bit of a misnomer. While you can proliferate in this set, this is a deck that abuses counters, of either the +1/+1, -1/-1, or loyalty variety, to pick up wins. If you’ve ever drafted Gatecrash, or the original Ravnica block, this deck is essentially the Simic deck, though more similar to the original Simic than those from RtR. Essentially, this deck uses mechanics like Graft and Kicker to give creatures +1/+1 counter, giving them a useful power/toughness boost. The reason to play this deck, however, is that there are creatures that care about +/+1 counters, and pick up abilities as long as they have them. The other iteration of this deck is a blue/black deck that’s more grindy and controlling, taking advantage of the Wither mechanic to destroy the opponent’s board presence. These decks actually work well together, especially since all three colors have ways of putting counters on creatures.

 Spirit/Arcane Tribal

This archetype is another of the more obvious archetypes. There are a significant amount of spirits in Modern Masters 2015, and a significant amount of cards that care about Spirits, as well as Arcane spells. The Soulshift mechanic is also around, which provides even more incentive to play Spirits. The spirits themselves provide some solid bodies, but it’s cards like Devouring Greed that will make this deck shine. This also seems to be the only real tribal deck in this particular Limited environment, and so the Shapeshifters that show up in this set are most likely to be found in this deck. All this being said, I am worried about the overall power level of this deck. There’s definitely synergy here, but the deck definitely seems like a trap. Also, unlike some of the other decks I’ve talked about, you can’t really force this archetype – it simply requires too many specific cards. Jumping into this deck could be disastrous, and end up being just a pile of black and white cards. Still, it definitely looks like a fun archetype to be in, and it’s definitely one to watch out for.