#draftarchetypes

[theconspiracycube]

Conspiracy Draft Archetypes: Fringe Archetypes

There's several archetypes that occasionally come up as options.  Rather than beat them all to death like I did the main ten color pairs, I'm just going to list them with a brief description and some of the important cards, as most of them are based on getting a particular rare or uncommon and shaping the draft around it.

Archetype 1: 5 color Worldknit

This deck, while obvious, is also the easiest to explain.  If you see a Worldknit early, you can easily just draft the best card each pick as long as it fits your curve.  We have yet to see a Worldknit before pack 2 in my group, and we've been drafting with 4 packs for testing purposes and because we enjoyed it much more than only 3 with 4 players.

Most important card(s): Worldknit

Archetype 2: Grixis Dethrone

Very similar to the Izzet dethrone deck, but with more removal.  Usually happens when someone opens Marchesa and wants to live the dream.  The main reason to push it is black removal makes it much easier to open up the way for your attackers.

Most important cards(s): Marchesa, the Black Rose; solid black removal

Archetype 3: Kindred Commons + Conspiracies

Every color has at least one or two vanilla or french vanilla creatures that won't be picked highly that are borderline playable.  The idea here is to draft all the conspiracies and figure out which color is open so you can grab 3-4 of a particular common, name it with your conspiracies, and get undercosted creatures to stomp face with or play multiple spells with the same name for a similar effect.

Most important card(s): Secret Summoning and Muzzio's Preparations for creatures, Double Stroke and Iterative Analysis for non creatures.

Archetype 4: Flamekin Pants (R/x Auras)

This deck is all about getting 1 or 2 Flaring Flame-kin and trying to turn them into a giant unbeatable monster.  I've drafted this once before after starting in Izzet and not seeing the dethrone cards coming around.  It's quite fun to play but the best auras are G/W.  This archetype is much more luck based than some of the others as it requires several uncommons to be really good, but it's great when you can pull it off.

Most important card(s): Flaring Flamekin, auras (Elephant Guide, Unquestioned Authority, Vow of Duty are your best options)

[theconspiracycube]

Conspiracy Draft Archetypes: Simic Kindred Creatures

This update has taken me forever to get back to, mostly because it took several drafts to get this monstrosity of an archetype to actually work.  In theory, you're supposed to be able to be able to just draft tons of creatures then dig to them and overwhelm people.  The problem is, without the conspiracies to back you up this archetype very rarely works.  You're also very vulnerable to anyone else going into green, because blue really doesn't have the big monsters to support this properly.  All that said, if no one's going after the green creatures you're fine.

Best uncommons for this archetype:

Air Servant - one of the best evasive beaters in the set

Jetting Glasskite - another evasive beater that's difficult to target

Lead the Stampede - restocking your hand to get more creatures is key to victory for this archetype

Pelakka Wurm - Simic is, more than anything else, the go big or go home color combo and most other decks won't be able to support this

Wood Sage - seeder uncommon designed to help you dig for answers

Best commons for this archetype:

Compulsive Research - you'll likely be digging for lands early and creatures late

Elvish Aberration - mana early, beater late

Howling Wolf - one of the value commons that you'll want; even though it feels really overcosted you'll need to draft it early to make sure you have enough

Screaming Seahawk - see Howling Wolf, only this one is much more playable with only 2

Shoreline Ranger - mana early, beater late that also flies

As you can see above, this archetype has some of the most boring commons and uncommons that you want to draft highly.  None of the new cards in Conspiracy were really intended for this archetype outside of the conspiracies themselves.  This archetype works fine if no one else drafts 2 or more of a particular creature and actually wants the conspiracies, but my group has long since discovered the power of free stuff and they always go highly regardless of the colors people are in.

In short, Simic is by far the most frustrating archetype to try to draft. I don't have a problem with fatties and card draw being an archetype, but it works much better when there's less competition and that is not the case here.  The same problem exists for drafting multiple creatures and conspiracies because there's a random bad creature in each color that is suddenly playable with haste or +1/+1 or costing 1 colorless less.  I'm still deciding how I want to go with this one, but right now I'm seriously considering a morph archetype as that would enable both this deck and the Gruul deck while simultaneously creating creatures that aren't nearly as appealing for non-Simic.  It would also make them less conspiracy dependent.

[theconspiracycube]

Conspiracy Draft Archetypes: Golgari Morbid

Golgari does something in Conspiracy that started in Scars of Mirrodin and became big in Innistrad - morbid and death triggers.  No one likes it when their creatures die for nothing, but with morbid it's almost never for nothing provided you have the cards to take advantage of the deaths.  This is the prototypical Golgari "Rock" deck that plays cards that are okay on their own and amazing when the synergies all click together.  Most if not all of the morbid cards are okay by themselves but get downright silly when you can reliably get the morbid effect.

Best uncommons for this archetype:

Deathreap Ritual - seeder card is great as it makes it easy to keep triggering morbid without running out of cards

Gamekeeper - dies, triggering morbid and getting you a replacement creature

Morkrut Banshee - kills a 4/4 and leaves a 4/4 behind with the morbid trigger which is likely backbreaking to one opponent's board state

Plagued Rusalka - sac outlet to trigger morbid

Predator's Howl - a 2/2 with flash for 4 isn't exciting, but 3 2/2s with flash is amazing for 4

Best commons for this archetype:

Altar's Reap - gets card parity and a morbid trigger

Hunger of the Howlpack - +3/+3 permanently turns any creature into a must-answer threat

Necromantic Thirst - lets you recur your sacrificed creatures

Typhoid Rats - trades with large creatures and 

Wakedancer - 4 power and toughness for 3 mana on 2 bodies is never a bad deal

Golgari in Conspiracy is the epitome of the "value" deck - every card is meant to be played together in some fashion and you fill in the holes in your curve with generic beaters.  It has a ton of potential for upside but if you're competing with someone else in the pod, you're both liable to end up with subpar decks.  The deck is definitely more forgiving towards sharing green than it is black, but at the same time most of the black cards aren't highly desired in other archetypes.  The biggest thing I plan on doing to this archetype is improve some of the green support when I start making card changes.