Alright so I was around 8 when Saga came out, any one remember the limited format for the upcoming release events? About the only thing I know is that [CARD]pestilence[/CARD] is good.

Phyrexian Processor is good.

Apparently you either pick [card]Zephid's Embrace[/card] p1p1 or a black card.

I was at the Urza's Saga draft pro tour (Long Beach) where one of the OMS brothers won with a mono-black draft in the finals.

Found the results.

Black is a million times better then the other colors, but everyone knows this. Trying to be the only white drafter was Zvi's strategy.

This was his strategy at OOT draft, though.

I think [CARD]Befoul[/CARD] is good too?

[card]Corrupt[/card]
[card]Expunge[/card]

Green is a good secondary colour, mostly for fertile ground to accelerate into echo wurm or cradle guard, drop a treetop ranger, symbiosis, gaea's embrace, etc.

Black being insane, second the motion. Lots of spot removal + plenty of frontloaded guys like 5/1 Regenerate and 3/2 for 2 echo is just cream gravy.

cream gravy = poutine?

naw, insert internet meme here about pork brains in cream gravy, TF2 Engineer, etc.

So obviously Saga drafts start on MODO. What most people who didn't draft Saga perceive is that black is retarded in a positive sense and everything else is retarded in a "needs remedial classes" sense.

Is there any notable contrarian strategy worthy of consideration?

What other amazing thoughts to the amazing minds of GG have to offer on the subject?

http://lol.goodgamery.com/index.php?showtopic=2804

Urza's Armor + Disciple of Grace + Pestilence. GO GO GO.

merged other saga draft thread into this one.

I recommend drafting good cards and passing bad ones :pmoderf:

Im really liking Green so far(only two drafts done) mostly because [card]Symbiosis[/card] is just completely bonkers.

So now my post is linking to the thread we are in? infinite loop!

Did you mean recursion?

Did you mean recursion?

What?

Recently 6-0d with a deck that started

p1p1 [card]herald of serra[/card]
p1p2 [card]befoul[/card]
p1p3 skirge something (2B 1/1 flying gets +2+0 on attack)
p1p4 [card]zephid's embrace[/card]
p1p5 [card]pendrell drake[/card]

And then I just drafted UW fliers + pendrell fluxes. I had 1 [card]sanctum custodian[/card] and 2 [card]horseshoe crab[/card]s (+ 2 [card]hermetic study[/card]s) to hold down the fort!

I defeated RG r1, BW r2 (including a board that had [card]pestilence[/card] and [card]disciple of grace[/card] on his side), and GWu r3 (no idea what he was splashing for).

I have no other experience with this format.

The one time I drafted Saga in the past I also crushed with a U/W deck, but mostly because I had three [card]Wizard Mentor[/card]s. I suggest that they are no longer the powerhouses the once were, now the rules have gone back to no combat damage on the stack :(

I still actually won most of my games with mentor and monk idealist just getting back the study to let my fliers win the game.

Thanks for doing that. Everybody gets 1 extra example of why I am a moron. How'd I miss this?

i have no idea, but jsex was helpful. :pmohappy:

It's because you're a moron.

Hermetic Crab is a beating.

I also had Spire Owl and Wizard Mentor to play with the top of my library, but I won most of my games of a Voice of Law or a Voice of Grace with Serra's Embrace or Zephid's Embrace. Serra's Zealot and Dragon Blood is also pretty good in combat.

Interesting.

Cripple fight?

Feel free to join in.

Drafted with a friend and we had some success with UG just playing the reasonable green dorks and then bouncing their creatures or Power Sinking their plays. I have no idea if that would work against a group of people who knew how to draft the set, but it seemed like an okay tier 2 strategy to get stuck with.

Fron memory, Urza's was around the time that a UG draft deck was usually shown as an example of "well I guess there is something worse than being stuck drafting WG"

A little something that I remembered during my first draft in this format online: One of the successful draft decks in this format was known as "Four by four". It was a red-green deck based around getting a minumum of (or ideally exactly) four creatures at each of 1, 2, 3 and 4 mana, supported by removal spells or combat tricks (particularly falter effects). It was, and still remain, a very effective aggressive strategy in formats where people all force Black and largely ignore the other colours.

Given the mana curve of creatures in this format, you do have to prioritise 1-mana and 2-mana creatures fairly highly in order for this deck to work. It did just get me a 3-0 draft and looks like having delivered me a 3-0 deck in the next draft where I've run it.

This "everyone forces black" concept is nonsense. I haven't yet been in a draft with a mono-black deck, and the most b/x decks I've seen in one draft has been 4. My finals matchup is almost always against UW or GR, and I personally feel more comfortable in non-black than in black just because b/x's win conditions tend to suck so goddamn much.

Well it makes sense that if everyone was forcing black you wouldn't see a MONO-black deck. :p But your point is otherwise valid.