Themes in Shards of Alara Draft

Drafting is one of my favorite formats for Magic: the Gathering.  While I'm in no uncertain terms a "pro", I like to think of myself as decent, a player who, while who would need a small miracle to win states, can pull off a win at my local gaming shop.  The latest set, Shards of Alara, is a quirky verson of this format.  After months of Shadowmoor and Eventide, where two color was common, and mono color (especially mono red) was good, I was thrown for a loop when the format shifted to three, four, and even five color decks were key.  Successful deckbuilding went from color matters to theme matters.

    So far at our local shop, I've seen X themes emerge at our local shop.  If you know of any others I'd love to hear about them.  I've ordered them in my preference in playing them

1. UWB Flyers/Control

     As tempted as I am to call this deck "Esper", the term fails to properly describe the deck, even though many of the cards come from here.  Flyers are especially powerful in Alara draft, even though all of the flyers at common level are below 3 power, and biggest uncommon is 4, being the uwb tower gargolye.  Red only has flyers at the rare level, and mono green none at all.  This kind of evasion is supplimented with strong removal coming from black and white.

      This deck relies on key cards showing up, that generally are in peoples first pick candidates.  Cards like executionars capsule and fleshbag marader tend to go quick.  The cards just might not show up, however when they do, this deck is probably the strongest in the format.   

  

2.  Exalted

Bant's mechanic allows for limited dependence on a single creature.  In a format filled with strong and plentiful single target removal, this is a good thing.  This theme relies on hitting hard and fast.  This theme, unlike the other themes, can run a small tight curve.  Acroshan Squire can easily hit for up to six damage, and then go on to boost the next big creature With some decent evasion creatures from blue and average control from white.

  This theme tends to peter out in the late game.  It relies on early game damage, and can be shut down by a single court archer or jungle weaver.

More later