This is the first article by our guest writer Andrew Newby:

Drafting Mono-Coloured in SHA/SHA/EVE

I’ve recently been trying to draft a little differently for Shadowmoor/Shadowmoor/Eventide lately. Instead of going two or three colours, I have learned that a very good strategy is to go as mono-coloured as possible. The first mono-coloured deck I drafted was a mono-black deck. Essentially, the deck was about 7 removal spells, and a whole lot of decent creatures. Mind you, none of my creatures were really amazing. They were just mediocre creatures. I ended up going 3-1.

Why did I do so well if I only had mediocre creatures? Well, imagine this. You draft an amazing Red/Green deck. You draft some awesome creatures like Tattermunge Maniac (I’ve had games where he’s done up to 8 damage on his own), Ashenmoor Gouger and Wilt Leaf Cavaliers. Now, imagine how much more reliable and consistent then deck would be if every single colour mana symbol was replaced with a colourless symbol. Every game you would be able to play whatever you wanted. That’s the power of drafting mono-coloured.

“But, Andrew, how do you do it effectively when there are so many good cards that aren’t in one specific colour?” you ask. Well, when you think about it, there are actually a lot of cards for you to choose from if you are drafting mono coloured. It’s the nature of Hybrid. Let me walk you through a draft and explain how to most effectively this powerful strategy.

PACK 1
Notable Cards: Murderous Redcap, Trip Noose, Silkbind Faerie, Mirrorweave, Armored Ascension.

I am a huge fan of Armoured Ascension because I’ve won and seen it win some insane matches. Anyway, we’ve got some options here. Redcap is a very solid creature (being removal AND a body) and Silkbind Faerie fits the same role. Mirrorweave is good, but really takes a perfect deck to have it worth picking over a solid creature like Redcap or the Faerie. I could also go with Trip Noose to keep my options wide open, but, I don’t think it’s worth passing up a creature like one of these. I will go with the Redcap mainly because I haven’t used him very often, but he’s removal, so that’s good.

Pick no.:

1. Murderous Redcap
2. Notable Cards: Horde of Boggarts, Runes of the Deus, Ballynock Cohort, Elsewhere Flask, Old Ghastbark.

   So in order to continue mono-coloured, we should probably pick Runes of the Deus or Horde of Boggarts here. But, Ballynock Cohort is very, very good, especially in a mono-white deck, so I’d rather keep my options open and have 2 extremely good creatures to chose from then force right from pack one and possibly have a bad deck.

   Pick 2 is Ballynock Cohort

3. Notable Cards: Briarberry Cohort, Safehold Duo, Ember Gale, and Intimidator Initiate.

   For the mono-red deck, Intimidator Initiate is absolutely crucial for the curve to work properly, but I am a big fan of Safehold Duo, plus it works a bit better with the Ballynock we already have then any of the other cards do with Redcap.

   Pick 3 is Safehold Duo

4. Notable Cards: Runed Halo, Resplendent Mentor, Torture, Emberstrike Duo, and Gravelgill Duo

   Since we are heading into mono-white right now, it looks like Runed Halo is the pick because it’s very good at stopping a bomb for a cheap cost. But, if we can manage to pick up a few of the black Duos, we can build around that first pick Redcap.

   Pick 4 is Emberstrike Duo

5. Notable Cards: Gloomlance, Giantbaiting, Barrenton Cragtreads, and Thistledown Duo.

   Gloomlance is pretty much the only card here I’m really looking at because it can lead into mono-black.

   Pick 5 is Gloomlance

6. Notable Cards: Nothing

   There aren’t any black cards here, but there are plenty of garbage white cards like Boon Reflection and Reknit. Kithkin Shieldare is probably the best thing here that could potentially go in our deck.

   Pick 6 is Kithkin Shieldare

7. Notable Cards: Safewright’s Quest, Cinderhaze Wretch, Oona’s Gatewarden

   Now the cards are staring to become crappy. I’ll take Gatewarden because I think its underrated.

   Pick 7 is Oona’s Gatewarden

8. Ah, a late Sickle Ripper is pretty cool. There’s also a Gravelgill Duo. Both of these cards indicate black may be wide open.

   Pick 8 is Sickle Ripper

9. Torpor Dust
10. Emberstrike Duo (not bad!)
11. Poison the Well
12. Runed Halo
13. Traitor’s Roar
14. Boon Reflection
15. Thought Reflection

So far we’re going to Mono-Black since we’ve got a lot of good red/black cards and mainly Gloomlance will take us into mono- black as opposed to Mono-red unless we start to rip some insane red cards.

PACK 2

What do you know; we pull Jaws of Stone, which is pretty much the best card in the set for Mono-Red. There’s also Kitchen Finks, Scuttlemutt and Wanderbrine Rootcutters.

Pick no.:

1. Jaws of Stone
2. Ember Gale looks good here, but we’ve also got Runes of the Deus, Crowd of Cinders and Scarscale Ritual for our deck. Ember Gale is just a great finisher in red, so I’m going to have to take it.

   Pick 2 is Ember Gale

3. Gravelgill Duo and Gravelgill Axeshark are pretty much the only cards of note here. I personally like Axeshark better.

   Pick 3 is Gravelgill Axeshark

4. Corrosive Mentor is probably the best card here for our deck, but another option could be Smolder Initiate, but I find he just eats up my mana too much.

   Pick 4 is Corrosive Mentor

5. Here, it’s either between Scarscale Ritual and Scar. I’m going to take Scar since its straight removal and it also works well with our 2 Emberstrike Duos.

   Pick 5 is Scar

6. So far we’re in mono-black, but this could still change. We may want to be mono-red with a splash for a few black cards, which is still very powerful.

   Pick 6 is Gravelgill Axeshark

7. Now we’ve got a tough choice between Sickle Ripper and Fists of the Demigod. I think I’m going to go for Sickle Ripper just because Fists is SLIGHTLY too restrictive when we get to Eventide and Ripper will go in our deck probably no matter what.

   Pick 7 is Sickle Ripper

8. We get passed another Fists anyway.

   Pick 8 is Fists of the Demigod

9. The Wanderbrine Rootcutters from earlier tables so it’s going to be the pick.

   Pick 9 is Wanderbrine Rootcutters

10. Scarscale Ritual
11. Aphotic Wisps
12. Smolder Initiate
13. Cinderhaze Wretch
14. Memory Sluice
15. Rite of Consumption

Ah, we’ve got lots of black cards now! Eventide will change thing up a little, but if you notice, being just in black really doesn’t restrict us. We can pick black/white cards and black/green cards.

PACK 3
Pick no.:

1. Unmake stands right out (also, it’s really easy to play in mono black as opposed to black/green, black/blue, black red or three colour decks). We’ve also got a couple mimics, but let’s save those for when we get a few cards into the pack.

   Pick 1 is Unmake

2. The only black card in the entire pack is Harvest Gwyllion, but it’s not bad at all in this deck.

   Pick 2 is Harvest Gwyllion

3. Pretty much it’s either Smoldering Butcher or Woodlurker mimic and Butcher is auto-include in this deck.

   Pick 3 is Smoldering Butcher

4. Here we’ve got the Odious Trow, who is all right, Hag Hedge Mage, Desecrator Hag and Edge of Divinity. I really like the Desecrator Hag and it also means we can pick up Gift of the Deity later on and be quite pleased if we start to see any more green/black creatures.

   Pick 4 is Desecrator Hag

5. Odious Trow or Nyp Gwyllion, and since I like Gift of the Deity a billion times better then Edge of Divinity, I’m going to pick Odious Trow.

   Pick 5 is Odious Trow

6. No Black cards at all. It always sucks to see the opponent play Banishing Knack and bounce all your creatures.

   Pick 6 is Banishing Knack

7. Odious Trow is the only black card here.

   Pick 7 is Odious Trow

8. Edge of Divinity or Raven’s Crime. So far I haven’t been very impressed with Raven’s Crime in limited, so I’ll grab the enchantment.

   Pick 8 is Edge of Divinity

9. Gift of the Deity!

   Pick 9 is Gift of the Deity

10. Favour of the Overbeing
11. Drain the Well
12. Odious Trow
13. Favour of the Overbeing
14. Sanity Grinding
15. Dream Fracture

So Basically, we’ve got a pretty good deck, but the real key here is that we’ll be able to play every one drop on turn 1, two drop on turn two, etc. As long as our curve is good, we can race pretty much every other deck. Lets check out our playable cards…

Aphotic Wisps
Corrosive Mentor
Gloomlance
Sickle Ripper
Sickle Ripper
Smolder Initiate
Smoldering Butcher
Desecrator Hag
Drain the Well
Edge of the Divinity
Emberstrike Duo
Emberstrike Duo
Fists of the Demigod
Gift of the Deity
Gravelgill Axeshark
Gravelgill Axeshark
Harvest Gwyllion
Murderous Redcap
Odious Trow
Odious Trow
Odious Trow
Oona's Gatewarden
Poison the Well
Scar
Scarscale Ritual
Torpor Dust
Unmake
Wanderbrine Rootcutters

Awesome! So I’ll let you guys figure out how you’d make the deck. You can even go back and look at the other cards I picked and make a new deck. Have fun drafting!

These are by no means comprehensive. As you play more and more games, experience will teach you many more lessons than this article can. Your local gaming scene may be different, so take that into account also.

What else do you think is essential for winning MTG games? Got a good idea? Please Share in the comments. We'd love to hear from you!

Written for Two Headed Dragon by Andrew Newby.