So, I've been analyzing the way that WotC's designed Theros block to work for draft, and I'm really impressed. I have speculation on how things will work with Journey into Nyx that I'd like to share here.
Firstly, let's look at how it worked with THS/THS/THS: 10 different draft archetypes, each based around a two-color combination. There's enough depth to support one of the more balanced draft formats I've seen.
Second, BNG/THS/THS: Born of the Gods is showing an emphasis on allied-colored pairs. This means that the first pack is going to favor people who want to draft those particular archetypes, with everyone else making due from the second and third packs... not quite ideal, but shouldn't be too bad.
Now for the meat of this post, JOU/BNG/THS: Here's where it gets really interesting.
First pack will be heavily geared towards enemy-colored pairs.
Second pack will be for allied-colored pairs... note that this is the pack going to the right, which means that if you were cut out of an enemy pair you can make due with an allied-pair combo just fine.
Third pack, the Theros pack, is going to be perfect for filling holes in decks. The abundance of mana fixers, the fact that all 10 color combinations have strong uncommons and commons, and the existence of very solid and flexible mono-colored cards means that people will tend to get the cards that they really want.
What's striking to me is that the full block draft looks like it will support the ability for every single player to have a different deck, without any real fighting over color combinations. If you look at the breakdown of playstyles of the colors in Theros draft it works like this:
Do you see? There's an allied-color pair and an enemy-color pair for each of the playstyles. This means that, in the full block draft, you'll have a fairly easy time going for a particular style of play.
I predict that this is going to be the most interesting and fair draft format ever, and I am extremely excited to see how it pans out.
EDIT: Corrected formatting on mana symbols to make them actually readable.
Wizards print good rares, players complain about cash grab. They print underwhelming rares, players complain that the cards suck. They spoil the best cards first, players complain about the insane prices of preorders. They spoil the meh cards first, players complain that this is the worst set ever.
So. I think I understand now.
As far as these forums are concerned, WotC can never do anything good because:
Card that is new and probably good = "pushed"
Card that is new and probably bad = "EDH/casual fodder"
Card that is a reprint = "lazy"
Card that is a better version of an older card = "power creep"
Card that is a weaker version of an older card = "worthless"
I hope this doesn't mean that things will end up like DGM/GTC/RTR, where you are screwed if you get cut off from your color pair in later packs. Probably not, because there aren't nearly as many gold cards.
I hope this doesn't mean that things will end up like DGM/GTC/RTR, where you are screwed if you get cut off from your color pair in later packs. Probably not, because there aren't nearly as many gold cards.
It would be more like if you drafted RTR/GTC/DGM which would have been a logical order with all the fixing and supplemental cards in DGM...why couldn't they have done that, now that I think of it...
I like to think of it was WotC learning from the mistakes made with DGM and realizing that all they had to do was flip it around, and that the big set is where you should have the fixers, not the little one.
A problem with your analysis: you're assuming that BNG and JOU each have an emphasis on allied and enemy colors, respectively. Of what we've seen, this is only true with regard to the Gods and Temples, which are mythics and rares. The presence of Kiora's Follower in BNG would seem to imply that all ten color pairs will continue to receive support similar to what they have in Theros, in regard to uncommon build-around-me cards. The monocolored cards in BNG don't favor any specifically ally-colored pairs either. I expect the color balance to be even over the course of the block, in terms of multicolor support.
A problem with your analysis: you're assuming that BNG and JOU each have an emphasis on allied and enemy colors, respectively. Of what we've seen, this is only true with regard to the Gods and Temples, which are mythics and rares.
I wanted to say this but we have 4 allied multicolored uncommons spoiled matching this pattern. Not that a few uncommons amount to much in draft, but that's still more than most sets see at that rarity, and there may have been a small amount of planning to smooth out what was there.
Kiora is possibly an anomaly that seems to be in this set primarily to make fans happy (if you listen to her spoiler article), although a part of the set's flavor she doesn't really seem to be advancing Theros' story. Meanwhile Ajani has some storyline reasons that he has to show up in JOU as Xenagos/Elspeth did in THS, and thus BNG is the only place left for Kiora and her follower.
I wanted to say this but we have 4 allied multicolored uncommons spoiled matching this pattern. Not that a few uncommons amount to much in draft, but that's still more than most sets see at that rarity, and there may have been a small amount of planning to smooth out what was there.
Kiora is possibly an anomaly that seems to be in this set primarily to make fans happy (if you listen to her spoiler article), although a part of the set's flavor she doesn't really seem to be advancing Theros' story. Meanwhile Ajani has some storyline reasons that he has to show up in JOU as Xenagos/Elspeth did in THS, and thus BNG is the only place left for Kiora and her follower.
Looking back at the number crunch, there isn't room for a full cycle of ten multicolored uncommons in BNG. So I'm wrong about that. Strange, then, to put Kiora's Follower in BNG, if it will be the only enemy-colored uncommon in the set. There's no reason why Kiora would need to have a gold card associated with her in the block, and it could have been pushed off to JOU regardless. Strange.
Looking back at the number crunch, there isn't room for a full cycle of ten multicolored uncommons in BNG. So I'm wrong about that. Strange, then, to put Kiora's Follower in BNG, if it will be the only enemy-colored uncommon in the set. There's no reason why Kiora would need to have a gold card associated with her in the block, and it could have been pushed off to JOU regardless. Strange.
My guess is that there are two reasons. The first, flavor-based, reason is that he abandoned his goddess, Kruphix, to follow Kiora instead... literally. Which is clever, because Kruphix is stuck in JOU with the other enemy-colored gods.
The second, mechanics-based reason is that he works very well as an inspiration-enabler, and he also meshes very well with Kiora's abilities.
EDIT: MaRo's been making a big deal about how Born of the Gods is the first set to fully benefit from "advanced design", and what from he's said about that process so far, it would make perfect sense for them to have the block's limited format balanced to this extent.
Strategically, it ends up being Ben Starke's theory regarding DGR draft. "Build a draft in mind revolving a guild in Gatecrash."
It's likely the same for Theros. People tend to stick to their first 14 cards way more than moving away from it. I see no difference in behavior.
That said. A good draft set is one without the chaff. Let's conclude BNG spoilers first. I hope it's a continuation of Theros, but giving red more oomph to balance the archetypes.
"To give Kiora more "screen time," design wanted to give her a vertical cycle of cards (one common, one uncommon, one rare, one mythic rare)."
These aren't random cards reflavored to suit Kiora, these are cards specifically designed for her. She's being used as "splash" to sell the set, which these days gets to override design concerns (much as MaRo grumbles these days about rare duals getting placed to support development rather than design's wishes)
Since Theros and Born of the Gods are not as multicolored as RTR, I decided to see how the monocolored cards fit into my breakdown of archetypes, and how they contribute to the different color combos.
Looking solely at the archetypes that Theros draft has, I decided that each color had one Major area and two Minor areas. For example, with White, I determined that its Major is "midrange" - because it appears in both archetypes in the midrange category, while its Minors are "control/fliers" and "aggro" - because it appears once in each category, if that makes sense.
The results I came up with were... interesting. Namely, each color's areas correspond exactly to how the color fundamentally works. Observe:
White MAJOR: Midrange MINOR: Control/Fliers MINOR: Aggro
Blue MAJOR: Control/Fliers MINOR: Removal/Grave MINOR: Ramp/Tempo
Black MAJOR: Removal/Grave MINOR: Aggro MINOR: Midrange
Red MAJOR: Aggro MINOR: Ramp/Tempo MINOR: Control/Fliers
Green MAJOR: Ramp/Tempo MINOR: Midrange MINOR: Removal/Grave
What this means is that WotC is keeping each color as intuitively "pure" as possible. It's.... it's as if each color is its Platonic ideal, and each color combination is the same way. Contrast that to RTR's guilds, where each combination is viewed through the lens of the guild.
There are two conclusions I'm able to draw from this, one that applies to Theros Block Limited and one that... well, you'll see.
In regards to Limited: The uncommons and commons for each color are set so that they fall into the categories I described, which means that there is a lot less competition between archetypes. The Major cards are going to be desired the most, of course, but the Minor ones are pretty much going to filter to the specific decks that want them. This is how it currently works in THS/THS/THS and from we've seen of Born of the Gods, that will continue to be the case.
---
The other conclusion: This is definitely entering the realm of speculation, but please bear with me. Now, we know that WotC has been working on making inter-block synergy a lot better - which is why Theros has a lot of cards that synergize really well with Return to Ravnica.
My analysis shows that that is largely because the colors here as pure and ideal as they could be. If WotC just needed them to hook in to RTR, they could have made them a lot more in line with the guilds... they didn't need to make them as idealized as they did.
My guess is that the reason that they would have done this is because the upcoming block is going to add its own spin to gold cards, and that would have been incompatible with the Ravnica guilds. What spin is that, you ask?
Look again at the chart in the first post. Do you see how each line equates to a three-color combination?
A three-color wedge combination?
What I'm getting at is that, based on this information, my guess - again, this is a long shot, and I could be overthinking this - is that the next block is going to be what MaRo's been calling "Bizarralara".
Huzzah! Tonight's article contains some interesting info pertaining to the drafting format. It confirms the speculation about enemy/allied-colored pairs in BnG and JOU, and it discusses a bit of the archetypes of each color pair.
Keep in mind, the article specifically mentions what Born of the Gods adds to each pair, rather than what each pairing will be in the entire block; however, having said that, it's awesome to see just how close I've been so far.
Since Theros and Born of the Gods are not as multicolored as RTR, I decided to see how the monocolored cards fit into my breakdown of archetypes, and how they contribute to the different color combos.
Looking solely at the archetypes that Theros draft has, I decided that each color had one Major area and two Minor areas. For example, with White, I determined that its Major is "midrange" - because it appears in both archetypes in the midrange category, while its Minors are "control/fliers" and "aggro" - because it appears once in each category, if that makes sense.
The results I came up with were... interesting. Namely, each color's areas correspond exactly to how the color fundamentally works. Observe:
White MAJOR: Midrange MINOR: Control/Fliers MINOR: Aggro
Blue MAJOR: Control/Fliers MINOR: Removal/Grave MINOR: Ramp/Tempo
Black MAJOR: Removal/Grave MINOR: Aggro MINOR: Midrange
Red MAJOR: Aggro MINOR: Ramp/Tempo MINOR: Control/Fliers
Green MAJOR: Ramp/Tempo MINOR: Midrange MINOR: Removal/Grave
What this means is that WotC is keeping each color as intuitively "pure" as possible. It's.... it's as if each color is its Platonic ideal, and each color combination is the same way. Contrast that to RTR's guilds, where each combination is viewed through the lens of the guild.
There are two conclusions I'm able to draw from this, one that applies to Theros Block Limited and one that... well, you'll see.
In regards to Limited: The uncommons and commons for each color are set so that they fall into the categories I described, which means that there is a lot less competition between archetypes. The Major cards are going to be desired the most, of course, but the Minor ones are pretty much going to filter to the specific decks that want them. This is how it currently works in THS/THS/THS and from we've seen of Born of the Gods, that will continue to be the case.
---
The other conclusion: This is definitely entering the realm of speculation, but please bear with me. Now, we know that WotC has been working on making inter-block synergy a lot better - which is why Theros has a lot of cards that synergize really well with Return to Ravnica.
My analysis shows that that is largely because the colors here as pure and ideal as they could be. If WotC just needed them to hook in to RTR, they could have made them a lot more in line with the guilds... they didn't need to make them as idealized as they did.
My guess is that the reason that they would have done this is because the upcoming block is going to add its own spin to gold cards, and that would have been incompatible with the Ravnica guilds. What spin is that, you ask?
Look again at the chart in the first post. Do you see how each line equates to a three-color combination?
A three-color wedge combination?
What I'm getting at is that, based on this information, my guess - again, this is a long shot, and I could be overthinking this - is that the next block is going to be what MaRo's been calling "Bizarralara".
Firstly, let's look at how it worked with THS/THS/THS: 10 different draft archetypes, each based around a two-color combination. There's enough depth to support one of the more balanced draft formats I've seen.
Second, BNG/THS/THS: Born of the Gods is showing an emphasis on allied-colored pairs. This means that the first pack is going to favor people who want to draft those particular archetypes, with everyone else making due from the second and third packs... not quite ideal, but shouldn't be too bad.
Now for the meat of this post, JOU/BNG/THS: Here's where it gets really interesting.
First pack will be heavily geared towards enemy-colored pairs.
Second pack will be for allied-colored pairs... note that this is the pack going to the right, which means that if you were cut out of an enemy pair you can make due with an allied-pair combo just fine.
Third pack, the Theros pack, is going to be perfect for filling holes in decks. The abundance of mana fixers, the fact that all 10 color combinations have strong uncommons and commons, and the existence of very solid and flexible mono-colored cards means that people will tend to get the cards that they really want.
What's striking to me is that the full block draft looks like it will support the ability for every single player to have a different deck, without any real fighting over color combinations. If you look at the breakdown of playstyles of the colors in Theros draft it works like this:
| - Control/Fliers
| - Removal/Graveyard
| - Aggro
| - Tempo/Ramp
| - Midrange
Do you see? There's an allied-color pair and an enemy-color pair for each of the playstyles. This means that, in the full block draft, you'll have a fairly easy time going for a particular style of play.
I predict that this is going to be the most interesting and fair draft format ever, and I am extremely excited to see how it pans out.
EDIT: Corrected formatting on mana symbols to make them actually readable.
WotC, please hire me already.
I started playing in Innistrad, so to move from that into RTR block was awful.
i can't wait to start drafting
I hope this doesn't mean that things will end up like DGM/GTC/RTR, where you are screwed if you get cut off from your color pair in later packs. Probably not, because there aren't nearly as many gold cards.
A comic about the world's most addictive game, Magic: The Gathering.
It would be more like if you drafted RTR/GTC/DGM which would have been a logical order with all the fixing and supplemental cards in DGM...why couldn't they have done that, now that I think of it...
WotC, please hire me already.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
I wanted to say this but we have 4 allied multicolored uncommons spoiled matching this pattern. Not that a few uncommons amount to much in draft, but that's still more than most sets see at that rarity, and there may have been a small amount of planning to smooth out what was there.
Kiora is possibly an anomaly that seems to be in this set primarily to make fans happy (if you listen to her spoiler article), although a part of the set's flavor she doesn't really seem to be advancing Theros' story. Meanwhile Ajani has some storyline reasons that he has to show up in JOU as Xenagos/Elspeth did in THS, and thus BNG is the only place left for Kiora and her follower.
Looking back at the number crunch, there isn't room for a full cycle of ten multicolored uncommons in BNG. So I'm wrong about that. Strange, then, to put Kiora's Follower in BNG, if it will be the only enemy-colored uncommon in the set. There's no reason why Kiora would need to have a gold card associated with her in the block, and it could have been pushed off to JOU regardless. Strange.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
My guess is that there are two reasons. The first, flavor-based, reason is that he abandoned his goddess, Kruphix, to follow Kiora instead... literally. Which is clever, because Kruphix is stuck in JOU with the other enemy-colored gods.
The second, mechanics-based reason is that he works very well as an inspiration-enabler, and he also meshes very well with Kiora's abilities.
EDIT: MaRo's been making a big deal about how Born of the Gods is the first set to fully benefit from "advanced design", and what from he's said about that process so far, it would make perfect sense for them to have the block's limited format balanced to this extent.
WotC, please hire me already.
It's likely the same for Theros. People tend to stick to their first 14 cards way more than moving away from it. I see no difference in behavior.
That said. A good draft set is one without the chaff. Let's conclude BNG spoilers first. I hope it's a continuation of Theros, but giving red more oomph to balance the archetypes.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Anyway about Kiora's follower:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/283&dcmp=ilc-mtgrss
"To give Kiora more "screen time," design wanted to give her a vertical cycle of cards (one common, one uncommon, one rare, one mythic rare)."
These aren't random cards reflavored to suit Kiora, these are cards specifically designed for her. She's being used as "splash" to sell the set, which these days gets to override design concerns (much as MaRo grumbles these days about rare duals getting placed to support development rather than design's wishes)
Since Theros and Born of the Gods are not as multicolored as RTR, I decided to see how the monocolored cards fit into my breakdown of archetypes, and how they contribute to the different color combos.
Looking solely at the archetypes that Theros draft has, I decided that each color had one Major area and two Minor areas. For example, with White, I determined that its Major is "midrange" - because it appears in both archetypes in the midrange category, while its Minors are "control/fliers" and "aggro" - because it appears once in each category, if that makes sense.
The results I came up with were... interesting. Namely, each color's areas correspond exactly to how the color fundamentally works. Observe:
What this means is that WotC is keeping each color as intuitively "pure" as possible. It's.... it's as if each color is its Platonic ideal, and each color combination is the same way. Contrast that to RTR's guilds, where each combination is viewed through the lens of the guild.
There are two conclusions I'm able to draw from this, one that applies to Theros Block Limited and one that... well, you'll see.
In regards to Limited: The uncommons and commons for each color are set so that they fall into the categories I described, which means that there is a lot less competition between archetypes. The Major cards are going to be desired the most, of course, but the Minor ones are pretty much going to filter to the specific decks that want them. This is how it currently works in THS/THS/THS and from we've seen of Born of the Gods, that will continue to be the case.
---
The other conclusion: This is definitely entering the realm of speculation, but please bear with me. Now, we know that WotC has been working on making inter-block synergy a lot better - which is why Theros has a lot of cards that synergize really well with Return to Ravnica.
My analysis shows that that is largely because the colors here as pure and ideal as they could be. If WotC just needed them to hook in to RTR, they could have made them a lot more in line with the guilds... they didn't need to make them as idealized as they did.
My guess is that the reason that they would have done this is because the upcoming block is going to add its own spin to gold cards, and that would have been incompatible with the Ravnica guilds. What spin is that, you ask?
Look again at the chart in the first post. Do you see how each line equates to a three-color combination?
A three-color wedge combination?
What I'm getting at is that, based on this information, my guess - again, this is a long shot, and I could be overthinking this - is that the next block is going to be what MaRo's been calling "Bizarralara".
WotC, please hire me already.
Huzzah! Tonight's article contains some interesting info pertaining to the drafting format. It confirms the speculation about enemy/allied-colored pairs in BnG and JOU, and it discusses a bit of the archetypes of each color pair.
Keep in mind, the article specifically mentions what Born of the Gods adds to each pair, rather than what each pairing will be in the entire block; however, having said that, it's awesome to see just how close I've been so far.
WotC, please hire me already.
Even down to what each wedge would embody. Hot damn, I can't believe it.
WotC, please hire me already.