MTG Salvation

I've heard varying opinions, from 5C is vaguely possible, to 5C is a viable strategy because of how much fixing there is, to 5C is the best strategy because people tend to gravitate towards clans specifically and pass a ton of good cards just because they're too scared to branch over.

My question though, is when during a draft do you lock into 5C? How do you approach the draft in the first few picks, and what has to happen for you to switch gears entirely?

for me it's approximately when i get passed my second wedge land.

I'd have to agree with magicmerl, actually. 5C is one of the best strategies but only when you have the actual fixing for it. Also, you sort of need to have the "good stuff" that dictate the joy of 5C. Specifically, almost every wedge morph at common are amazing in their own right. Pick them up highly if you realize you can. Morph is inherent color fixing in that you don't need specific colors to get your 2/2 for 3.

Multiple quality cards across the colors and some fixing prior to pack 3.

It takes more than this for me. I have to have two convincing bombs in two different wedges, ALONG with at least 1 triland and some duals, before I go 5C. For example, in the draft I'm in now, I P1P1'ed Armament Corps, and after going Azban all of pack 1, P2P1 I had the option of taking Butcher of the Horde. Some players would take it and try to play at least 4 colors based off of BW, but because I only had one dual land at that time, I chose to pass it.

I think when the set just came out, dual and even tri-lands were more easily available in later picks. Now this is no longer true. While the situation isn't quite as bad as RTR full block, where you'd have to first or second pick Gates in GTC and RTR or risk not having them at all, drafters are beginning to correctly valuate the lands in KTK. And since you need at least, say, 5 or 6 dual/tri lands to play 5C effectively, and green doesn't have any common choices for fixing, you may have to sacrifice too much power to get the fixing you need in early packs to make it worth it.

I think 5-color is a metagame play. When the set was released, the prevailing wisdom was to go for consistent mostly 2-color decks. As a result, fixing was not prioritized. The player going against the grain and taking all the fixing and gold spells had an opportunity.

Now that 5-color is generating more buzz, I'm not sure how viable it will be at the average table. If everyone is fighting over lands, then no one is going to have a particularly good 5-color mana base and the consistent 2-color decks will pull ahead again. I think magicmerl is right that you have to notice you're being passed tri-lands early and recognize "OK, no one upstream from me is going for this."

If you get two tri lands early, you can go all-in. By pick 4-5, you should have 2 tri lands, a good removal spell, a bomb and anothet land. My draft yesterday went like this:

P1P1- nomad's outpost

P1P2- abzan charm

P1P3- frontier bivouac

P1P4- Duneblast

P1P4- ur dual

P1P5 - UB dual

And so forth. I ended up with the following deck. Note how amazing the mana was.



Ten removal spells, some card advantage and a bevy of morphs is all you need. Duneblast helps, too. [[archer's parapet]] is necessary to the archetype as well. The card gains you 6-8 life on average off their two drop bear and when you get to lategame you nug them for 1 every turn for essentially free. 8 duals is a good number, and you want good color coverage so trilands are a premium. The deck is insane when it comess together. This was a clean 3-0 sweep and the games were not close.

The biggest actual reason to go 5-color is because it lets you draft all the removal. This is a fairly big misconception about the archetype, I think, that you can just play whatever good stuff you see and call it a deck as long as you have the fixing. The real reason why 5-color is a deck is because it attritions other decks really well. If you aren't getting removal, then 5-color is a waste of time and you should focus on getting enough picks in 3 colors to salvage some better tempo. This is why cards like Duneblast and Thousand Winds are essentially 5C cards.

Fourth pick Duneblast? Pack 1? Yeah, that's realistic Also, I'm surprised that deck worked for you. The mana doesn't seem very good to me, and playing 17 lands has to be a mistake.

I usually end up 5-color when I pick a card from a particular color combination P1P1, then the best card in the next pack is from a completely different color, then I hedge with a couple of lands, and I still don't see a particular direction to go (i.e. I can't really pick out an enemy color pair that's clearly open). So I just keep taking lands, pick morphs highly, and end up with 9-10 nonbasics, and run a deck with 19 lands & 21 spells. This happens quite frequently - I've been 5CC in 6 out of 13 drafts so far.

I also want to throw out there that I'm definitely 5C when I get Trail of Mystery/Secret Plans early enough. That archetype is so much fun and I love forcing it (and it's not that hard/bad to force it, either). Just keep the deck a little G/(u) centered and it's just all fun and games from there.

Quote from Sene »

Fourth pick Duneblast? Pack 1? Yeah, that's realistic Also, I'm surprised that deck worked for you. The mana doesn't seem very good to me, and playing 17 lands has to be a mistake.

I usually end up 5-color when I pick a card from a particular color combination P1P1, then the best card in the next pack is from a completely different color, then I hedge with a couple of lands, and I still don't see a particular direction to go (i.e. I can't really pick out an enemy color pair that's clearly open). So I just keep taking lands, pick morphs highly, and end up with 9-10 nonbasics, and run a deck with 19 lands & 21 spells. This happens quite frequently - I've been 5CC in 6 out of 13 drafts so far.

I am quite surprised how many drafters feel Duneblast is a bad card. I got 2 recently around pick 4,5 one from each way.

As to the question at hand, it depends on a few things, fixing first, do I have the bombs to need to try to go 5 color, and removal. Really depends on the table and the drafters (I only draft in paper). Some tables fixing goes early and its a pain to go 5 color. Some tables the fixing comes but removal is light, or you just dont get that game finishing bomb. It comes down to the feel for the table.

they finally put up Ari lax's 5 Colour draft from the pro tour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3klym4Inw

All the wrath effects in KTK have been fantastic; Duneblast is awesome. I think early triland pickups is a pretty good indicator. Many multicolor cards tend to wheel.

So far I have only gone 5 color with Trail of Mystery. Got it pack 1 pick 5 tonight when I already had Crater's Claws, Frontier Bivouac, and a couple cards in Temur colors and ended up with a very good 5 color morph deck. Even with another 5 color player 2 seats to my right I got plenty of fixing because the rest of the table wasn't picking it highly. I took all the 3 color common morphs while the other 5 color player went with more of a Sultai deck splashing for Surrak and Rush of Battle with some other stuff I can't remember.

I tried 5-color just now, with 2 tri-lands in the first 3 picks. How many sources of each color would make it worthwhile? I had 5 dual-lands and 3 tri-lands for a total of 6 in each of four colors and 5 in the other (out of 18 lands), and in approximately half of the games I had multiple cards in my hand which I could not cast or un-morph until much too late (if ever). I don't think 6 of each color is enough, but getting more than that seems very tough, although a Trail of Mystery would have helped.

Even in a 5C deck, there has to be a primary shard, or more importantly a focus on 2 colors. I had a black green based and splashed for red, blue, and white cards. That said Mardu colors have so much removal.

For me the answer to the original question is "right before the draft starts". At p1p1 at the latest. I either force 5c, or I don't. I've found the drafts where I "moved in" on 5c without intending to are my worst drafts. So I generally decide before the draft whether I'll be 5c or 2-3c. This is quite different from how I usually draft; I'm normally a very reactive drafter. In this case it's because my card evaluations for 5c are completely different than for other decks. Also, 5c needs every single pick to count, because you spend a lot of picks on lands.

Quote from Dolphan »

That's interesting - do you have a feel for which approach has been more successful?

I don't know yet. But if I had to play a GP day 2 now, I'd go for the 'force 5c' plan, because it's the one I'm most comfortable on.

"Even in a 5C deck, there has to be a primary shard, or more importantly a focus on 2 colors."

But I thought that the strongest aspect of 5C in draft was to be able to pick the best card in each pack almost regardless of color? For example: draft Siege Rhino pick 1 pack 3, Sage of the Inward Eye next, Sultai Charm after that, and so on.

I could see focusing on the draft as a normal drafter would, 3 colors of a shard and then just adding in a card or two of the other 2 colors, but that would probably mean passing some good cards of those other colors, and all of that work early in the draft building the mana base means skipping some good cards early on, so I would think that the payoff of 5C would need to be big.

All of those example cards are later on the curve, even sultai charm is expected not to find the colors for it until later even if it is only cmc 3. Keeping a core of colors isn't limiting you from taking the strongest card in the pack it's just giving yourself a stronger early game to live until you start unflipping morphs and casting a whole spectrum of bombs. In other words the deck that has 2 archer's parapet and 2 debilitating injury for 2 drops with a more bg focused mana base is much more likely to live to see all it's 5 colors than the deck that has 1 wetland sambar 1 ainok bondkin 1 highland game and 1 tormenting voice and an even split of mana sources.

Yep. For example, my base is Sultai, but I had 2 Bring Lows and 2 Arrow Storms, 1 Abzan Guide and 1 Snowhorn Rider. The focus on a guild or shard helps stabilize your board as fast as possible.

For me, I value removal more so than the creature bombs. There're always going to be full of them, and tabling. Besides, nothing trumps a 6/7 Woolly Loxodon on the ground, and you tend to see 1 or 2 tabling. I don't see myself picking what you mentioned without having a sturdy mana base FIRST.

Yesterday I watched a recent draft video in which Marshall Sutcliffe forced 5c and despite passing lands a few times ended up with 8 dual-lands and 2 tri-lands, for a total of 6 sources of each color (and no other mana or fixing). He felt very comfortable with that and ended up breezing through without any real color mana problems at all, even after keeping one hand with only two of one basic land and one of another (in that game he drew a tri-land and then more dual-lands). So I guess my one recent experience was not a good sample, because my color mana problems were severe in several games with 6 sources of each color. His deck was much better than I was able to compile, anyway.

Make no mistake, Trilands are essential to crafting the perfect 5C deck. I had 5 Trilands.

Generally when I wheel a refuge, especially an enemy refuge, that's when I decide 5 color is open. It doesn't happen that often anymore sadly.

In a KTK draft? Never. This isn't DGM and even in that format, the 5c decks I butted heads with were always pretty underwhelming. If 5 color lands and mana rocks were a thing then it might be workable, but light 4th color splash is the greediest color pie I would seriously consider.

There are sealed pools with enough fixing lands to get away with a goodstuff build, but that's only because sealed decks tend to be slower and more durdly.