Drafting any Blue/Green deck in Shadows over Innistrad is a tricky prospect. Green has an abundance of strong creatures, and Blue does a little bit of everything-but nothing well in particular, making it a fine support color.
UG decks are typically Clue based synergy decks, but I prefer a more Midrange tempo style as you don’t have to force the archetype or rely on opening Erdwal Illuminator or Graf Mole. Essentially, if other drafters are taking Clue cards highly, you receive a payoff by being the drafter who is willing to take a Rabid Bite over a Graf Mole since a table can’t generally support multiple Clue drafters effectively. Blue/Green is not quite as powerful as a Green/Red Werewolves or Green/White Humans, but drafting is all about being in the open colors. I do find all UG decks has a leg up on the more typcial green decks with a stronger late game. Your blue cards usually provide card advantage and evasion. You often end up in Blue/Green tempo when you open a Blue bomb and naturally ending up in Green since it’s a deep and powerful color, or many times a “broken” Blue/Green Clue deck will become just a normal attacking Blue/Green tempo deck. In my video for instance, I open up a green rare and get passed a stream of generic good Blue cards, as it seemed to be quite underdrafted at my table.
The most important part of drafting a Blue/Green Tempo deck is drafting cheap and efficient spells. Remember that Tempo is essentially an advantage you generate through mana efficiency, you want to use less mana than your opponent during trades or when using removal or combat tricks so that your board becomes better and better. I would say that Rabid Bite, Just the Wind, and Confront the Unknown are important commons that allow you to play a “Tempo” game. These cards trade up for our opponents more expensive threats, and often are strong cards when we are on the defensive as well.
Werewolves, then Evasion, then Beef. Creatures are going to be important to this archetype, and these are generally what we are looking for. All the Werewolves are great, look to pick up as many as you can find. Not only are they good in multiples, but they scale well into the lategame and punish people for stumbling. Evasion is a weird mechanic for U/G tempo, cards like Niblis of the Dusk and Stormrider Spirit are obviously fine creatures, but you are normally relying on cheap spells that allow you to push through so you don’t necessarily need the evasion. Top tier evasive creatures like big Delver and Uninvited Geist are high picks and can be taken over Werewolves as they are good in any situation. It’s nice to end your curve on a Thorn Hide Wolves or a Kessing Dire Swine, these cards are quite replaceable so let them fall into your lap. You would rather have a solid base of Spells and cheaper Werewolves or Evasive options, but as you can see in this draft I use Kessig Dire Swine to good effect at times.
You can go “Arnold Palmer’ with Clues in a tempo deck. Being in these colors, you naturally end up with cards that generate clues. Sometimes you are even drafting a Clue deck that doesn’t end up with payoffs putting you in a UG attacking deck in the first place. The cards that are solid curve options even without synergies can still be quite high picks: Erdwal Illuminator, Daring Slueth, Graf Mole, Byway Courier, and Drownyard Explorers are some examples. Remember, UG has an above average late game in this format, but you still have to actively draft some of these pieces to achieve a strong late game. Remember, always try and draft what’s open. Don’t be afraid to move into an open Clue deck! It goes both ways here, and this can happen often if you cut Blue and Green in pack one.
Lastly, I find that of the decks in SOI Draft, these non-Clue UG decks have the most to benefit or lose over identifying your role within any given game. You draft of course to be aggro, but many of your tricks and clue usage can dictate whether you want to be defensive or aggressive in a game. Some decks will go underneath you and make your tricks and game plan worse. If you’ve successfully drafted a solid UG deck, you should be able to maneuver in such a way to play control or beatdown-a luxury that green decks don’t usually get.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
