Editor's note: Ben didn't include an introduction for this article, unless you count part 1 of this 2-parter. Regardless, here he presents an application of his methods from part 1 and gives us a walkthrough of an Urza's Saga draft he did online, enjoy!
Pack 1 pick 1:
My Pick:
The pick here is basically between peregrine drake, a very strong blue card, and pestilence. Pretty obviously, pestilence is the pick, it just wins games.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
Interesting pack here, discordant dirge and duress being the only black cards. The dirge is awful as it’s far too slow and I’d be pretty surprised if duress didn’t table. There’s also a catalog here, a perfect card to move into my favourite archetype Bu.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
A tough choice between order of yawgmoth and despondency. The order is very powerful, and maybe I should have taken it. But when drafting Bu I have an idea of what the deck should contain, and 2-3 despondency is always in it, therefore I go for the despondency.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
Veiled apparition is not a card I love, but it’s the best blue card in the pack and there’s nothing which would really want to make me switch colours, so I take the apparition.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
Again, a pretty empty pack, but phyrexian ghoul is a fine guy and I’m happy to pick him up.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
This pack is awful. The only playable card in my opinion is rune of protection: black, which I probably should have hate drafted given that I have a pestilence. But I was interesting in passing good signals so went with the spire owl.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Seasoned marshal is one of the better cards in white and again there’s nothing in either black or blue, so I pick it up in case I need to switch.
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
Hollow dogs is a huge beast in this format, getting him 8th is a gift. What’s noteworthy though is the bevy of strong green cards still in the pack.
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Nothing here, might as well hate draft an annoying card.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
See previous pick.
Pack 1 pick 11:
My Pick:
A pretty late Viashino runner here, maybe red is open?
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
And again.
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
Vile Requiem is a pretty ridiculous card, just destroying their entire board if you can wait long enough (which you generally always can), pretty happy to pick it over ravenous skirge and looming shade here.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
Yes, I just completely switched the pick from earlier. No reason why.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
Not close, a premium removal spell over some dodgy creatures. Pit trap is nice, but not nearly of the same power level.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
The deck is looking close to mono-black at this point, making him extremely powerful.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
What an awful pack, annul is not really good enough to maindeck whereas in a deck with so few creatures, which this was turning out to be, the Viashino runner can be quite an annoyance.
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
I rate power sink a little higher than rewind, because of its use in the early game, making this pick between that and the veiled serpent. The serpent is a pretty huge defender, and it’s even better if they have islands, whereas I already have a lot of answers for whatever my opponent plays making the serpent perfect to take me to the late game.
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
Just in case, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to playing him.
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
A pretty sweet 9th pick looming shade that I really wasn’t expecting to table. Thank you very much.
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Skittering skirge is an interesting one, he’s very good in decks with few creatures, like this one, so he’s the pick over two pretty unexciting guys.
Pack 2 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 14:
My Pick:
Well, that’s very odd for a 14th pick. Catalog is still better, and I already have one duress.
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
Sweet, the deck needed another win condition.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
I was tempted by tainted Æther to see how it plays, but it doesn’t seem too powerful as later on people can just start sacrificing lands to it, so instead I hate draft disenchant, a pretty efficient answer to my win conditions of pestilence and Zephid’s embrace.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
Straight rare draft here.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
Wirecat is completely unplayable in almost every deck, especially in a deck playing despondency. Unworthy dead is a decent defender so I go for him.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick:
Quite the gift, and the second one really makes the deck.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick:
Another great late pick. Now the deck has some real beef to actually kill pretty quickly with guys if necessary.
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick:
I have a pretty unhealthy love for the urza’s lands, especially foil ones, just ask Seb.
Pack 3 pick 10:
My Pick:
A pretty sick hoser or annul…
Pack 3 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 15:
My Pick:
Here was the deck I played:
Lands (17)
6 Island
11 Swamp
Creatures (9)
2 Skittering Skirge
1 Unworthy Dead
2 Looming Shade
1 Phyrexian Ghoul
1 Order of Yawgmoth
2 Hollow Dogs
Other spells (14)
2 Duress
2 Despondency
1 Expunge
1 Veiled Serpent
4 Catalog
1 Vile Requiem
1 Befoul
1 Pestilence
1 Zephid’s Embrace
Round 1: Nishino
Game 1:
He gets down angelic page and sanctum custodian whilst I sit back with an unworthy dead. On turn 3 I catalog to draw pestilence, drop it turn 4 and then wipe the board in his end of turn phase so pestilence sticks around. I then drop a hollow dogs and start beefing in. He plays a guy which sees a despondency and then he chump blocks with it giving me back the despondency. I follow up with looming shade after he’s played a Chimeric staff. He draws, sees nothing and concedes.
Game 2:
This game is equally rapey. I play skittering skirge on turn 2, kill his first 2 guys and despondency the 3rd. All the while I’m busy cataloguing to refine my hand. I draw vile requiem, play it, wait for 2 turns and then destroy his board. At this point he’s on 4 life and after not drawing an answer to the skirge it hits him for the full 20 damage.
Round 2: Riamuriamu
Game 1:
I drop a veiled serpent and follow up with a skittering skirge. His first creature is blanked by the serpent and I Zephid’s embrace up the skittering skirge, bashing him for five. He plays nothing the next turn and he goes to 10 from my attack, and I play a vile requiem. This turn however, he has an angel of grace, protection from black, flying. Ah. I sit back for the long game safe in the knowledge that I’m going to wrath his team with the requiem as soon as it becomes a problem, and will at some point draw a corrupt to just burn him out. Then he plays urza’s armour. Ah. So with my plans crushed I set about cataloguing to find my creatures. After around 5 or 6 turns of draw go, I drop a hollow dogs and looming shade, killing my skirge in the process. I still cannot attack but another catalog into another hollow dogs and looming shade means I’m able to alpha strike after destroying his team, and he loses.
Game 2:
I drop Skittering Skirge on turn 2, with a hand packed with removal. I despondency his treetop ranger, and drop vile requiem. He casts hush to destroy all enchantments, and despondency returns to my hand. Never mind, I cast the pestilence in my hand attack and pass the turn, dropping to 10 from his attack, he then casts Acridian joining his argothian swine and treetop ranger in play. I attack, and in my end of turn phase destroy the board to play around symbiosis from him, and pestilence sticks around. He decides to play a creature for some reason, so I simply burn him out with pestilence in 2 turns time.
Round 3: Unknown
Unfortunately the replays are missing for these games so they won’t be particularly detailed.
Game 1:
I drop a looming shade on turn 3, blowing up his first two creatures with expunge and befoul. I follow up with a skittering skirge and commence the beats. He plays a Viashino outrider, but does nothing else before dying to my guys.
Game 2:
I despondency his first creature and play a veiled serpent. I play a vile requiem the following turn and simply wait until I draw action. I drop a hollow dogs, Zephid’s embrace it and bash 3 times for the win after wrathing his board.
So I win the queue and am 4 packs richer. Yes, only 4, due to urza’s saga drafts not being too popular, the 8-4s rarely fire, especially on a European morning when far fewer players are online. I had planned to show an 8-4 draft where I drafted BW, but a bug in round 1 caused me to time out, so it wouldn’t be a very good example.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these articles and they’ve not only given you an insight into what urza’s drafts are about, but have also wet your appetite to do one yourself.
Happy drafting,
Ben Scoones
My Pick:
The pick here is basically between peregrine drake, a very strong blue card, and pestilence. Pretty obviously, pestilence is the pick, it just wins games.
Pack 1 pick 2:
My Pick:
Interesting pack here, discordant dirge and duress being the only black cards. The dirge is awful as it’s far too slow and I’d be pretty surprised if duress didn’t table. There’s also a catalog here, a perfect card to move into my favourite archetype Bu.
Pack 1 pick 3:
My Pick:
A tough choice between order of yawgmoth and despondency. The order is very powerful, and maybe I should have taken it. But when drafting Bu I have an idea of what the deck should contain, and 2-3 despondency is always in it, therefore I go for the despondency.
Pack 1 pick 4:
My Pick:
Veiled apparition is not a card I love, but it’s the best blue card in the pack and there’s nothing which would really want to make me switch colours, so I take the apparition.
Pack 1 pick 5:
My Pick:
Again, a pretty empty pack, but phyrexian ghoul is a fine guy and I’m happy to pick him up.
Pack 1 pick 6:
My Pick:
This pack is awful. The only playable card in my opinion is rune of protection: black, which I probably should have hate drafted given that I have a pestilence. But I was interesting in passing good signals so went with the spire owl.
Pack 1 pick 7:
My Pick:
Seasoned marshal is one of the better cards in white and again there’s nothing in either black or blue, so I pick it up in case I need to switch.
Pack 1 pick 8:
My Pick:
Hollow dogs is a huge beast in this format, getting him 8th is a gift. What’s noteworthy though is the bevy of strong green cards still in the pack.
Pack 1 pick 9:
My Pick:
Nothing here, might as well hate draft an annoying card.
Pack 1 pick 10:
My Pick:
See previous pick.
Pack 1 pick 11:
My Pick:
A pretty late Viashino runner here, maybe red is open?
Pack 1 pick 12:
My Pick:
And again.
Pack 1 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 1:
My Pick:
Vile Requiem is a pretty ridiculous card, just destroying their entire board if you can wait long enough (which you generally always can), pretty happy to pick it over ravenous skirge and looming shade here.
Pack 2 pick 2:
My Pick:
Yes, I just completely switched the pick from earlier. No reason why.
Pack 2 pick 3:
My Pick:
Not close, a premium removal spell over some dodgy creatures. Pit trap is nice, but not nearly of the same power level.
Pack 2 pick 4:
My Pick:
The deck is looking close to mono-black at this point, making him extremely powerful.
Pack 2 pick 5:
My Pick:
What an awful pack, annul is not really good enough to maindeck whereas in a deck with so few creatures, which this was turning out to be, the Viashino runner can be quite an annoyance.
Pack 2 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 7:
My Pick:
I rate power sink a little higher than rewind, because of its use in the early game, making this pick between that and the veiled serpent. The serpent is a pretty huge defender, and it’s even better if they have islands, whereas I already have a lot of answers for whatever my opponent plays making the serpent perfect to take me to the late game.
Pack 2 pick 8:
My Pick:
Just in case, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to playing him.
Pack 2 pick 9:
My Pick:
A pretty sweet 9th pick looming shade that I really wasn’t expecting to table. Thank you very much.
Pack 2 pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 11:
My Pick:
Skittering skirge is an interesting one, he’s very good in decks with few creatures, like this one, so he’s the pick over two pretty unexciting guys.
Pack 2 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 14:
My Pick:
Well, that’s very odd for a 14th pick. Catalog is still better, and I already have one duress.
Pack 3 pick 1:
My Pick:
Sweet, the deck needed another win condition.
Pack 3 pick 2:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 3:
My Pick:
I was tempted by tainted Æther to see how it plays, but it doesn’t seem too powerful as later on people can just start sacrificing lands to it, so instead I hate draft disenchant, a pretty efficient answer to my win conditions of pestilence and Zephid’s embrace.
Pack 3 pick 4:
My Pick:
Straight rare draft here.
Pack 3 pick 5:
My Pick:
Wirecat is completely unplayable in almost every deck, especially in a deck playing despondency. Unworthy dead is a decent defender so I go for him.
Pack 3 pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 7:
My Pick:
Quite the gift, and the second one really makes the deck.
Pack 3 pick 8:
My Pick:
Another great late pick. Now the deck has some real beef to actually kill pretty quickly with guys if necessary.
Pack 3 pick 9:
My Pick:
I have a pretty unhealthy love for the urza’s lands, especially foil ones, just ask Seb.
Pack 3 pick 10:
My Pick:
A pretty sick hoser or annul…
Pack 3 pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 15:
My Pick:
Here was the deck I played:
Lands (17)
6 Island
11 Swamp
Creatures (9)
2 Skittering Skirge
1 Unworthy Dead
2 Looming Shade
1 Phyrexian Ghoul
1 Order of Yawgmoth
2 Hollow Dogs
Other spells (14)
2 Duress
2 Despondency
1 Expunge
1 Veiled Serpent
4 Catalog
1 Vile Requiem
1 Befoul
1 Pestilence
1 Zephid’s Embrace
Round 1: Nishino
Game 1:
He gets down angelic page and sanctum custodian whilst I sit back with an unworthy dead. On turn 3 I catalog to draw pestilence, drop it turn 4 and then wipe the board in his end of turn phase so pestilence sticks around. I then drop a hollow dogs and start beefing in. He plays a guy which sees a despondency and then he chump blocks with it giving me back the despondency. I follow up with looming shade after he’s played a Chimeric staff. He draws, sees nothing and concedes.
Game 2:
This game is equally rapey. I play skittering skirge on turn 2, kill his first 2 guys and despondency the 3rd. All the while I’m busy cataloguing to refine my hand. I draw vile requiem, play it, wait for 2 turns and then destroy his board. At this point he’s on 4 life and after not drawing an answer to the skirge it hits him for the full 20 damage.
Round 2: Riamuriamu
Game 1:
I drop a veiled serpent and follow up with a skittering skirge. His first creature is blanked by the serpent and I Zephid’s embrace up the skittering skirge, bashing him for five. He plays nothing the next turn and he goes to 10 from my attack, and I play a vile requiem. This turn however, he has an angel of grace, protection from black, flying. Ah. I sit back for the long game safe in the knowledge that I’m going to wrath his team with the requiem as soon as it becomes a problem, and will at some point draw a corrupt to just burn him out. Then he plays urza’s armour. Ah. So with my plans crushed I set about cataloguing to find my creatures. After around 5 or 6 turns of draw go, I drop a hollow dogs and looming shade, killing my skirge in the process. I still cannot attack but another catalog into another hollow dogs and looming shade means I’m able to alpha strike after destroying his team, and he loses.
Game 2:
I drop Skittering Skirge on turn 2, with a hand packed with removal. I despondency his treetop ranger, and drop vile requiem. He casts hush to destroy all enchantments, and despondency returns to my hand. Never mind, I cast the pestilence in my hand attack and pass the turn, dropping to 10 from his attack, he then casts Acridian joining his argothian swine and treetop ranger in play. I attack, and in my end of turn phase destroy the board to play around symbiosis from him, and pestilence sticks around. He decides to play a creature for some reason, so I simply burn him out with pestilence in 2 turns time.
Round 3: Unknown
Unfortunately the replays are missing for these games so they won’t be particularly detailed.
Game 1:
I drop a looming shade on turn 3, blowing up his first two creatures with expunge and befoul. I follow up with a skittering skirge and commence the beats. He plays a Viashino outrider, but does nothing else before dying to my guys.
Game 2:
I despondency his first creature and play a veiled serpent. I play a vile requiem the following turn and simply wait until I draw action. I drop a hollow dogs, Zephid’s embrace it and bash 3 times for the win after wrathing his board.
So I win the queue and am 4 packs richer. Yes, only 4, due to urza’s saga drafts not being too popular, the 8-4s rarely fire, especially on a European morning when far fewer players are online. I had planned to show an 8-4 draft where I drafted BW, but a bug in round 1 caused me to time out, so it wouldn’t be a very good example.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these articles and they’ve not only given you an insight into what urza’s drafts are about, but have also wet your appetite to do one yourself.
Happy drafting,
Ben Scoones
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