What I'm Doing Differently in EoE Draft

I've been streaming a lot of MTG lately, and surprisingly, my community is growing faster than expected, which has motivated me to play more Limited. I've played Edge of Eternities Limited so much that, at the time of this writing, I'm ranked first on the Mythic Ladder. That's right, this fella got his groove back.

For the first time, I'm on 17lands.com utilizing their excellent analytics. The most valuable to me is tracking my trophy and win rates, as well as giving me an idea of where to pick rares I haven't used much.

In these analytics, I noticed I have a higher win percentage than most of the top players on the leaderboard. So, maybe I'm doing something right?

I've talked and theorized a lot about this frustrating format. While many I talk to are struggling, there are a few things I think I'm doing differently than others.

I avoid white:

My first rule, that I'm always touting, is that I almost always avoid playing white. Why is that? Is white THAT bad? Well, no, white is actually pretty deep at higher rarities, and in a weak pack, taking a white rare or uncommon is probably fine. At common, white is abysmal outside of its premium removal spells in Banishing Light and Focus Fire. The creatures at common are so weak that I avoid the color because it's losing combats early in the game, and white does the worst job at prolonging the game and winning in longer, grindier games. I'm sure you can supplement your main color with white's removal and a couple of creatures at common, but you don't want your deck to be a majority white commons like you can with red, blue, or, of course, green.

I try to avoid spacecraft:

Spacecraft is supposed to be the cool draw to the set, but unfortunately, they're mostly too mediocre. The rare spacecraft is playable, but I tend to avoid the commons, uncommons, and even the rares regardless of whether they're solid enough.

While I love Pinnacle Kill-Ship at the top of my curve, I try to avoid most of the spacecraft because they're tempo negative, and the rest of the format pushes you to play to the board. Larval Scoutlander is an exception, as it's one of the better ways to fix mana and help support the "unique lands" strategy.

Spacecraft also have diminishing returns because they're sharing the same resource, your creature's power, amongst each other. You'll often be in a position you can't crew because you're playing defense, and multiple spacecraft in these spots is often game-losing.

Even though I'll play them, I won't prioritize most of the uncommon spacecraft over other good cards. If one that is solid enough, like Fellgravship, falls in my lap? Sure, I'll take and play it, but I can't rationalize taking it over other good cards because I try to cap my deck's spacecraft count. If I have a Pinnacle Kill-Ship as my top end, then I'm not usually looking to play more than one other spacecraft.

I'm prioritizing red:

My Most Drafted Cards from 17Lands.com

Green is the go-to color for most, but for me, it's red. The reason I prefer red is in this picture of my most drafted commons.

Red's removal suite at common can cover all your bases. Bolts for small creatures, Bombards for medium creatures, and Orbital Plunge covers almost everything else. To me, Orbital Plunge is the best common in the set. It's a way to put a lander in play to fix your mana or ramp while also killing their best creature. Plunge is ideal for my game plan of almost every deck for controlling the board and winning games through small decisions.

Red is the new green.

Looking at mana curve differently:

In most formats you can look at your mana curve based on converted mana cost. In this format, you have to approach it differently. There are warp costs, landers, and a bevy of other activated abilities that can fill slots on your curve. For instance, when you have a couple of Kav Landseekers in your deck, ideally your deck has a few more three-mana spells than four, so you can crack the lander the following turn, and hopefully ramp up to a six- or seven-drop from there. With Galactic Wayfarer, focus on more two-drops because you're likely to want to crack a lander on four and follow it up with a five- or six-drop the following turn.

The format, at least in the early game, is about tempo and trying to squeeze yourself into an onboard advantage early, but also, not overextending into the plethora of sweepers in the format.

It's important during deck building to look at your deck like this, but also during the drafting portion while you're painting your Picasso.

Focus on the small things:

This format is swingy. The games you play tend to be close, involve trading resources, and have back-and-forth Magic. Because of this, all the small decisions add up to be a lot more. Much of this is figuring out when to sacrifice landers and how long to hold onto sacrifice outlets like Nutrient Block. Cryogen Relic is a big one as well.

There are dozens of small decisions per game. Taking time to think about how the game is likely to play out and plan a few turns a head is critical to increase your win rate. You want to spend your mana productively, and be mindful of opponent's counter-plays and what you may need to do in following turns. That's true in all Magic games, but in this Limited format, all the small things can make the difference between a win and a loss. This is counter to Final Fantasy where it was more important to focus on playing out your hand. Games were often won in the early game with a variety of strong legends that were either unanswered and won the game, or you answered them and were able to play on for a more stereotypical Limited Magic game.

I find it weird that the more I play EoE Limited, the more I seem to be enjoying it. EoE is a tough nut to crack and that makes the puzzle more satisfying to solve. This month is full of EoE Limited events, so it's a good format to master and show off your skills in a tournament setting. We have an Arena Direct, Arena Open, and Arena Champs qualifier in back-to-back weekends. While a lot of the gameplay will be sealed, it will be fun to put this knowledge to use.