A Lesson on Draft's Hottest New Card

We Could All Use a Little Change

Are you also bored by drafting mono-colored two drops, just hoping your opponent dies more quickly than you. I mean those streamlined Aggro decks we all know from Ixalan draft, that just have to play as many early creatures as possible. Didn't you hate passing all those beautiful mana-expensive rares because it was too hard to cast that sweet 6-drop. What if there was a way that you could play awesome cards like or . Well, there is a way, and its all thanks to a brave little creature in Rivals of Ixalan.

And that creature is .

He Offers Me Protection Through It All

He looks inconspicuous, but let me assure you, he does everything you need. Firstly, he is a great blocker - four toughness is the threshold number to block all of the threatening 2-drops and the Sailor can even kill some of theme. In addition to that, he gives you a treasure to play your more expensive cards, helping your deck stabilize in the long game. Those treasures also color fix you, opening the door for extra colors in addition to more expensive cards. The difference from triple Ixalan draft is that Rivals of Ixalan is a smaller set, so you are much more likely to get a large amount of these Sailor of Means than before. And you want to play all the Sailors you can get.

The Little Sailor is Not Alone Either

Of course, Sailor of Means can't be the only defense you deploy. You've got to pick the best removals spells as well. Luckily, that's what you're doing anyways. So, as you draft, just take your standard picks like , , (which should be a higher pick than impale) and . If there are none, go for the Sailor of Means or . Those are your key pieces: removal, card draw and Sailor of Means. This is kind of the dream scenario, but there are a lot of replacements you can use. is kind of a Sailor of Means and does very solid work in shrinking your opponent's threats, making your Sailor of Means tough enough to block huge dinosaurs.

The Sky's the Limit for this Sailor

Now we come to the fun part. There is no restriction to what you can play to kill your opponents. Zacama turns from being way to expensive for everybody else to your best finisher thanks to the treasure ramp from Sailor of Means, and . With all that mana, you can play basically every expensive finisher that you always wanted to play but your concience and/or friends told you would be stupid, whether its Zetalpa, , , , or even . Honestly, there are no boundaries other than your imagination.

Lastly, I will leave you with a couple decks that went 3-0 in a competitive Magic Online queue as a guideline to what is possible with this archetype. I honestly believe that this is the best strategy in a draft right now, especially when your fellow drafters don't know about it.

This archetype alone made me play an immense amount of drafts compared to triple Ixalan since the decks are always fun and goofy.

I hope this makes your drafts much more fun and please tell me about the crazy things you did in the comments.

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