Full Force drafting is a series dedicated to forcing archetypes in draft formats. Join me every Thursday as we learn the ins and outs of the most recent Magic draft formats. Eldritch Moon has caused a lot of shake-ups in limited and one I’ve started to notice is the emergence of Black-White.
The Black/White deck is a bit of a break from Full Force tradition in that there’s no easy to name mechanic or theme for the deck. The closest I can think of readily is “Value”. BW has Delirium, sure, but that’s not the backbone of the deck. Same goes for Humans. It has some graveyard manipulation, with Ironclad Slayer and Midnight Scavengers, but that’s not the whole focus either. Mostly, it works be jamming a lot of cards that gain incremental value together, with the whole becoming more than the sum of its parts.
Cards like Courageous Outrider are a great example of what I’m talking about. It’s good on its own, not amazing, but definitely solid. Get a Midnight Scavenger and it gets even better, now you get another solid card that works with it somewhat. Add an Ironclad Slayer and a Boon of Emrakul to the mix and you have incredible inevitability. All the cards slot together like some kind of wonderful machine. Outrider can get Scavenger or Slayer, Slayer rebuys your Boons, Midnight rebuys the Slayer. None of these cards are bad on their own, but working in concert they become fantastic.
So what do I look for to move in on Black/White? Here are my top 5 commons as the format stands now:
1. Choking Restraints
2. Sigardian Priest
3. Boon of Emrakul
4. Midnight Scavenger
5. Ironclad Slayer
For me, Slayer is the card to look out for. It’s definitely a wildcard and currently quite polarizing. I’m leaning more and more towards it being good, with it’s value obviously increasing relative to the number of Boons and Restraints you have. It’s the card you’ll almost certainly see the most of (which means you might have to build around it more than the others listed) since its application is very narrow in focus. When we revisit this I think the decks’ success really hinges on whether Ironclad Slayer continues to live up to my high expectations or not.
To vote on the next episode of Full Force follow me on Twitter @IlyonMTG, or submit your vote in a comment below.
