Last time I looked at the draft archetypes for the allied color pairs in MM15. This time we’ll take a look at the enemy colors and see what makes them tick. I’ll list the key cards in the archetype to give you an overview of what’s important in each one. As a reminder, I’m leaving off Dismember so I don’t have to write it in for every archetype.

GB

Here we have a token strategy with Eldrazi Spawn that help enable Eldrazi themselves but also a token/sacrifice theme which allows GB to go wide. The deck combines elements of both RG and GW which were mentioned last time, but focuses much more on value and the long game rather than a single plan.

Algae Gharial and Scavenger Drake make their return here and if you haven’t played with these before, they are much more powerful than they look at first glance. They combine absurdly well with Eldrazi Spawn, and end up becoming massive threats rather quickly. Bloodthrone Vampire also plays a convenient role as a sacrifice outlet, and Drooling Groodion is back, though it might be too slow in this format. There are also ways to utilize the graveyard as a resource in GB to let the deck out-value whatever the opponent is trying to do, making it a great midrange deck.

Key Commons and Uncommons

WB

Rebels was a great grindy strategy and is now replaced with another awesome grindy strategy in the form of Spirits! Soulshift chains have always been fun, and this time changeling allows for even more, unconventional Spirits. Recurring Nameless Inversion sounds like some of the most fun you can have, and the best part is that most of the other archetypes won’t be interested in the cards you want, though you’ll need to pick up Nameless Inversion early and to a lesser extent Thief of Hope since other drafters will be interested in them.

The name of the game is to extract the most possible value by turning a soulshift 4 into a soulshift 3 into a soulshift 2, such that you’re chaining bigger and bigger. Plagued Rusalka is not only a cheap Spirit, but also helps initiate these chains for value with its sacrifice ability. I’m very excited to give this deck a try in draft!

Key Commons and Uncommons

WR

Modern Masters 2015 likely has the most double strike in it of any set in Magic’s history, and it’s to enable the WR deck. Double strike clearly combines best with pump effects and there are a multitude of those within red and white alongside equipment. Once a big double striker starts connecting it won’t take long for the opponent to die, but that is also WR’s weakness. Killing a big double striker will often be a 2-for-1 for the opponent since they’ll have taken out a pump spell, or at least a ton of tempo from an equip cost.

I imagine the deck will play out a lot like Modern Infect. Don’t commit a ton of resources when the opponent has a lot of mana, but the opponent does have to leave up mana often to interact for fear of just dying. When this happens try to go wide, or just crush the opponent anyway if you happen to have a protection spell. Sometimes it’s right to simply go all-in and that can pay off big in this set.

Key Commons and Uncommons

UG

Graft, graft, graft, proliferate! That’s how UG gets value in this set and is the big creature archetype of the format. Without cards like Imperiosaur, you can get way larger than anything else on the battlefield if you spread around counters and then enlarge your whole team a couple times. Blocking against this deck is also very tough, since a lowly Steady Progress makes it tough to have good blocks across the board. The correct answer will usually be to just race UG but a lot of decks are not capable of doing so, especially with the bounce spells in blue.

Once again, Thrive enables this deck, but since there are enough graft creatures I don’t think the card is particularly playable. Novijen Sages is technically a graft creature but I think it’s going to be too slow to matter most of the time. Similarly, Simic Initiate only has 1 counter which means he can’t spread a counter and then proliferate for a lot of value, and is too much effort to be worth it. Lastly, Thrummingbird is the true linchpin to the archetype since proliferate is usually going to be worth anywhere from 1 to 5 +1/+1 counters.

Key Commons and Uncommons

UR

UR is perhaps the most disjointed of the 10 color pairs. It has Elementals as its theme but really only pays you off with an Elemental lord, and to a lesser extent Smokebraider. I think the only time you’d move into UR is when these cards are particularly open, as they scale extremely well in multiples. There is plenty of evasion and tempo to act as the secondary plan in UR, and often you’ll just play this deck as a “normal” draft deck, with a good curve, solid creatures, and efficient spells.