Multiplayer Drafting - Brian Randich (10/13/2012)

Drafters gonna draft. Some people draft on Magic Online, some go to their local game store, and some people hang around and draft with their friends. Personally, I own a cube and do the latter, as neither of the other options are viable for me. Typically, my playgroup will get together, draft the cube in a group of 3-5 players, and rather than dueling, we will play a massive multiplayer free-for-all game or two after that. We typically agree on doing either duels or free-for-all games before the draft, and this choice significantly changes how you draft, and a lot of the decisions about what cards you pick and why give good insight into how to make a casual multiplayer deck, or even an EDH deck, perform well against multiple opponents.

There are multiple archetypes that can be successful in a typical draft, based on colors and the synergies of cards in your deck. In something like a core set, the colors usually represent what they do very well, so you can draft an aggressive red-based deck, using creatures that come down in the first few turns, along reach in the form of burn, to kill your opponent in short order. A blue-based control deck that slows the game down with walls and bounce, usually ending the game with a large flier, is another example. However, the former aggro style is not very often viable in multiplayer, unless you use very specific cards that are very resilient, like Bloodghast

Bloodghast
	Set: Zendikar Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Vampire Spirit Rarity: R Number: 83 Artist: Daarken Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: Bloodghast can't block. Bloodghast has haste as long as an opponent has 10 or less life. Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may return Bloodghast from your graveyard to the battlefield.

, or can be used multiple times, like Red Sun’s Zenith. You have to deal at least 40 points of damage, and that’s in your best-case scenario, a normal three-person game.

Your cards simply have to do more in multiplayer because they are up against more opponents, so they have to do more damage, neutralize more threats, etc. Creatures usually need some form of resiliency, such as protection or hexproof, or some way to ensure value, like an enters-the-battlefield trigger or leaves-play trigger. Even something as simple as Penumbra Wurm

Penumbra Wurm
	Set: Apocalypse Cost: 7 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Wurm Rarity: R Number: 84 Artist: Jeff Easley Power: 6 Toughness: 6 Text: Trample. When Penumbra Wurm is put into a graveyard from play, put a 6/6 black Wurm creature token with trample into play.

can be quite scary, as an opponent using a removal spell on it will usually have another creature to deal with after using a card. The same goes for spells. Spells with a single target either need to be very efficient or have a very powerful effect to do well in multiplayer. Cards like Blightning

Blightning
	Set: Shards Of Alara Cost: 3 Color: Multicolor Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Number: 156 Artist: Thomas M. Baxa Text: Blightning deals 3 damage to target player. That player discards two cards.

usually aren’t very good in multiplayer, because even though you use one of your cards to (hopefully) get two of theirs and hit them, it’s only one person, and there are others at the table that could potentially represent more of a threat. I tend to imagine it as a single opponent that draws X cards a turn and starts the game with (20*X) life, where X is the number of opponents when evaluating cards. A Savannah Lions

Savannah Lions
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 1 Color: White Type: Creature Sub Type: Lions Rarity: R Artist: Daniel Gelon Power: 2 Toughness: 1

on turn one in an aggressive deck is great against a single opponent at 20 life, not so much against 60 combined life. Having multiple targets, or affecting “each” type of a thing, ideally “each X you don’t control” or “each other X,” are good places to start when looking for the kinds of cards you want to add.

The composition of your deck in multiplayer should also change drastically from a deck you would build in a duel. If your playgroup likes aggressive decks, or is perhaps new to multiplayer, they might play the aggressive decks because those decks served them well in the past, or they just like playing those kinds of decks. If you want to do well against those, you would have to build a control deck, focused mainly around sweepers like Wrath of God

Wrath of God
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 4 Color: White Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Artist: Quinton Hoover Text: All creatures in play are buried.

and efficient creatures that can finish the game and have an impact when they come down, like Frost Titan

Frost Titan

Set: Magic 2011 Cost: 6 Color: Blue Type: Creature Sub Type: Giant Rarity: M Number: 55 Artist: Mike Bierek Power: 6 Toughness: 6 Text: Whenever Frost Titan becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless its controller pays {2}. Whenever Frost Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, tap target permanent. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.

or Angel of Despair

Angel of Despair
	Set: Guildpact Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Angel Rarity: R Number: 101 Power: 5 Toughness: 5 Text: Flying When Angel of Despair comes into play, destroy target permanent.

. Strong, spell-like effects that come on creatures, like the aforementioned angel, or vice-versa, such as Phyrexian Rebirth

Phyrexian Rebirth
	Set: Mirrodin Besieged Cost: 6 Color: White Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Number: 15 Artist: Scott Chou Text: Destroy all creatures, then put an X/X colorless Horror artifact creature token onto the battlefield, where X is the number of creatures destroyed this way.

, are better than most, because they combine two powerful effects on one card, giving you another card slot to do something with. Having such effects on lands that have multiple uses, like Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree, don’t even take up a spell slot, and are more likely to live, since most people avoid land destruction in favor of creature or artifact and/or enchantment destruction. The creature cards should still have some form of resiliency if you can, but wanting to cram all this power into so few cards creates a problem, that being that those cards all usually cost a lot, which would leave you open in the early to mid-game. To counteract this, you should try to put some cards that deter attacking in the early game. These can have defender, like Wall of Denial

Wall of Denial
	Set: Alara Reborn Cost: 3 Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Wall Rarity: U Number: 16 Power: 0 Toughness: 8 Text: Defender, flying, shroud

or Taproot Kami, but they don’t necessarily have to, they can even be something as simple as Drudge Skeletons

Drudge Skeletons
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Skeletons Rarity: C Artist: Sandra Everingham Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: B: Regenerates.

.

However, experienced multiplayer groups will think and build decks differently. They will typically have the control-style build mentioned above, and might even have a combo that will quickly give them either a win or a very large advantage on the board. With those sorts of players, you might be able to shift your deck into a slightly more aggressive version, with cards like Troll Ascetic

Troll Ascetic
	Set: Mirrodin Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Troll Shaman Rarity: R Number: 135 Artist: Puddnhead Power: 3 Toughness: 2 Text: Troll Ascetic can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. 1G: Regenerate Troll Ascetic.

or Thrun, The Last Troll getting in some early damage. Got an Invisible Stalker

Invisible Stalker
	Set: Innistrad Cost: 2 Color: Blue Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Rogue Rarity: U Number: 60 Artist: Bud Cook Power: 1 Toughness: 1 Text: Hexproof (This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.) Invisible Stalker is unblockable.

and a Loxodon Warhammer

Loxodon Warhammer
	Set: Mirrodin Cost: 3 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Sub Type: Equipment Rarity: U Number: 201 Artist: Jeremy Jarvis Text: Equipped creature gets +3/+0, has trample, and has 'Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life.' Equip 3 (3: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card comes into play unattached and stays in play if the creature leaves play.)

? That’s good too (Put a Rancor

Rancor
	Set: Urza's Legacy Cost: 1 Color: Green Type: Enchant Creature Rarity: C Number: 110 Artist: Kev Walker Text: Enchanted creature gains +2/+0 and trample.When Rancor is put into a graveyard from play, return Rancor to owner's hand.

on it!). Kills via poison are another good way to be aggressive in a multiplayer game, as long as you have some form of recursion, as creatures with infect are typically weak. Infect has an advantage of wearing down other, stronger creatures in a way that prevents regeneration, and can even act as a deterrent to prevent other players from attacking you.

You should also be prepared to deal with more kinds of situations. Try to include graveyard hate that can be used right away, like Relic of Progenitus

Relic of Progenitus
	Set: Shards Of Alara Cost: 1 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Rarity: C Number: 218 Artist: Jean-Sébastien Rossbach Text: T Target player removes a card in his or her graveyard from the game. 1, Remove Relic of Progenitus from the game: Remove all graveyards from the game. Draw a card.

or Withered Wretch

Withered Wretch
	Set: Legions Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Zombie Cleric Rarity: U Number: 86 Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: 1: Remove target card in a graveyard from the game.

, being careful to read if it targets or hits everyone, just in case you use it, or you want a certain someone to get their graveyard-based combo off once because you’re a nice guy like that. Also, you should probably maindeck more artifact and enchantment kill, because there will be more targets around. Return to Dust

Return to Dust
	Set: Time Spiral Cost: 4 Color: White Type: Instant Rarity: U Number: 39 Artist: Wayne Reynolds Text: Remove target artifact or enchantment from the game. If you played this spell during your main phase, you may remove up to one other target artifact or enchantment from the game.

is an all-star here, and Vandalblast

Vandalblast
	Set: Return to Ravnica Cost: 1 Color: Red Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Number: 111 Artist: Seb McKinnon Text: Destroy target artifact you don't control. Overload {4}{R} (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")

or Fracturing Gust

Fracturing Gust
	Set: Shadowmoor Cost: 8 Color: Multicolor Type: Instant Rarity: R Number: 227 Artist: Michael Sutfin Text: Destroy all artifacts and enchantments. You gain 2 life for each permanent destroyed this way.

are other good effects of this type. Again, these effects are good on creatures, but be careful if they require you to tap the creature or make the ability otherwise unable to be used right away, as you will have at least one player wanting to kill it.

If you want to draft and then free-for-all with normal sets, there are some multiplayer-friendly styles and cards out there. Exsanguinate

Exsanguinate
	Set: Scars of Mirrodin Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: U Number: 61 Artist: Carl Critchlow Text: Each opponent loses X life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

is a nice finisher and/or recovery card, and the overload mechanic can never be harmful to you, as each card with it specifies something you don’t control. Detain is also great, as “until your next turn” will typically mean three or four turns of the creature being unable to block, which would allow for people to get a lot of damage in against someone who may be having a bit too powerful board presence. Again, look for “each creature” or “each opponent” to get the most out of your cards. Something that looks like fun in a Return to Ravnica draft is building a deck based around the “defender matters” subtheme, seen on cards like Doorkeeper

Doorkeeper
	Set: Return to Ravnica Cost: 2 Color: Blue Type: Creature Sub Type: Homunculus Rarity: C Number: 37 Artist: Kev Walker Power: 0 Toughness: 4 Text: Defender {2}{U}, {T}: Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the number of creatures with defender you control.

and Axebane Guardian

Axebane Guardian
	Set: Return to Ravnica Cost: 3 Color: Green Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Druid Rarity: C Number: 115 Artist: Slawomir Maniak Power: 0 Toughness: 3 Text: Defender {T}: Add X mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of creatures with defender you control.

, maybe toss in a Hover Barrier

Hover Barrier
	Set: Return to Ravnica Cost: 3 Color: Blue Type: Creature Sub Type: Illusion Wall Rarity: U Number: 40 Artist: Mathias Kollros Power: 0 Toughness: 6 Text: Defender, flying

or two, maybe a Blustersquall

Blustersquall
	Set: Return to Ravnica Cost: 1 Color: Blue Type: Instant Rarity: U Number: 30 Artist: Willian Murai Text: Tap target creature you don't control. Overload {3}{U} (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")

or Voidwielder

Voidwielder
	Set: Return to Ravnica Cost: 5 Color: Blue Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Wizard Rarity: C Number: 56 Artist: Chase Stone Power: 1 Toughness: 4 Text: When Voidwielder enters the battlefield, you may return target creature to its owner's hand.

for some more stall, and finish with a large flier or milling. That style of deck looks a lot like the style of multiplayer deckbuilding suggested here earlier, just be careful of how many packs are actually in the draft pool. At three per player, with only three or four players, there might not be enough cards open to make this work at all, but if you can do it, it’s extremely strong in multiplayer, because those games tend to play out slower than normal anyways, due to all the other players taking shots back and forth at each other. Free-for-all drafts and games give another fun way to play Magic, while also making you think about different strategies and ways to evaluate cards. It’s both fun and educational, and isn’t that just awesome?

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