Outside the Rank: White

My advice is: Stay away from this color! This is the worst color by far in the draft. Whenever I have a White card in my deck, it is some third color splash. It is pretty rare for me to end up with a White-X draft. I think the overall power of the White commons is pretty weak.

The best common card is 《Irregular Cohort》 followed by the splashable 《Settle Beyond Reality》. Unless I open a really good White card as 《Battle Screech》 or 《Serra the Benevolent》, I don’t make any effort to stay on it.

I saw a couple of drafts where White is pretty good to help tribal decks when you are able to draft the two best commons. But you have to have multiple copies to be a decent deck. 《Enduring Sliver》 and 《Answered Prayers》 can shine in some moments, but I don’t think it is enough.

In Modern Horizons draft, what do we say to White: Not today!

4th: Red

Red is far from White, but it is also far from being one of the best colors in this draft. This doesn’t mean it is not good as a support color. I mix up Red with the three best colors: Green, Blue and Black.

It is a very good second color and have some very sweet combinations as 《Bogardan Dragonheart》 and 《Goatnap》 or 《Springbloom Druid》 (Green) and 《Igneous Elemental》 (Tons of toughness two creatures in this format).

I would do an honorable mention to 《Spinehorn Minotaur》 and 《Fists of Flame》 if you are drafting a Blue/Red deck and having a lot of draws to activate this bad boy. A toughness 3 creatures is kind of hard to beat on this format during combat and it can do a lot of damage on the early turns.

What also makes me like Red is the sweet uncommons on the color. You have 《Urza’s Rage》, 《Vengeful Devil》, 《Firebolt》, 《Alpine Guide》, 《Ravenous Giant》, 《Hollowhead Sliver》 and 《Ore-Scale Guardian》. As you can see most of the Red uncommons are good to go and this is what a solid draft color looks like.

3rd: Black

Red is a good color. Black is a very good color. It goes very well with almost every color. Guess what is the only color I don’t like to team up with the skull guys? White.

The commons on this color are so good. You have 《Changeling Outcast》 and 《Gluttonous Slug》 that perform very well both on the UB Ninja deck or in a BR Goblin aggressive deck. You have the best common removal in the set: 《Mob》. It is very easy to splash in a Green deck or very easy to use in all decks. Almost all Black common cards are good.

The uncommons don’t stay behind and some of them are the heart for decks like 《Sling-Gang Lieutenant》. Everytime I can pick this one, I always want to be BR and aim for a very fast Goblin deck.

I know you guys like lists so here we go, my top 5.

The honorable mention goes to 《Changeling Outcast》 in the UB Ninjutsu deck. This is a very high pick card in my opinion in this archetype because it leads you to a game where you can connect all yours Ninjas. Also it is one of the best cards to have when you have a 《Ingenious Infiltrator》. On a BR deck, it can deal some damage and it is also a Goblin! Changelling is such an amazing thing!

2nd: Green

Green is the second best color in my opinion. In a format where you want to curve out every single game, Green offers you the chance to cheat the mana game.

《Rime Tender》 and 《Springbloom Druid》 helps you and the latter has many synergies with a lot of cards as 《Murasa Behemoth》 and 《Igneous Elemental》.

Green has the best two mana drop common on the set: 《Mother Bear》. 《Trumpeting Herd》 is the best Green common and it has everything you need in this draft. Card advantage and tempo with two big bodies in a world full of 2/2 creatures.

1st: Blue

If you look at the Blue cards, you will find yourself asking why Carlos puts Blue over Green as the best color. In my opinion, Blue is the best because it goes very well with any other color in the format. Like I said on Green, it is hard to build a good Green/White deck but you can find synergy and work very well in a Blue/White deck.

You can think it is crazy what I am about to say but 《Man-o’-War》 is the best common card in the entire set. It works both way giving you tempo or saving/adding value to your team bouncing one of your creatures. People on Magic Online seem not to like 《Choking Tethers》 but I do. It is such a powerful finisher and it works on early game occasions too.

Call me crazy, but Blue is the best color and here is my top 5.

Black Red Goblins / 《Goatnap》

If you want aggression, you will find it on this combination. The key cards here are 《Sling-Gang Lieutenant》, 《Goatnap》, 《Carrion Feeder》 and 《Bogardan Dragonheart》. If I can pick an early Sling-Gang, I know I really want to make a Goblin deck all the way. The card is crazy and hits for 5 or 6 damage very easily after it comes into play. It is a very good finisher and provides food for the 《Bogardan Dragonheart》 to grow bigger and keeps the pressure. 《Goatnap》 with 《Carrion Feeder》 and Dragonheart is pretty standard.

One card that really surprises me on this combination is 《Ninja of the New Moon》. Since you have a bunch of small 1/1 creatures, being able to deal extra 5 damage when you are attacking with Ninjutsu is so good! 《Warteye Witch》 helps a lot in a different way. You will sacrifice/trade a lot of creatures during the game and knowing and changing your future is such a powerful tool on Magic.

You cannot be conservative with your creatures when you are playing with Black/Red. Their destiny is to be sacrificed for the greater good. It is pretty hard to get fair trades on this deck since some of your creatures are 1/1. Cast 《Bogardan Dragonheart》 and go for it. If you don’t have, tap all your creatures and attack but have some responsibility! Don’t kill your entire team for one damage. Please read the game!

Blue Black Ninjas

The plan here is quite simple: small creature into Ninja and the turn after playing 《Smoke Shroud》 on my creature then they shine like a diamond. Sometimes you will go nuts with the thirteen damage the combo 《Ninja of the New Moon》 / 《Smoke Shroud》 can do.

The deck is the best because it is simple. Cheap creatures, Ninjas and removals. This archetype can be troublesome from turn one to the end.

Green – Everything

In Brazil we have a sandwich called “X-tudo”. This sandwich is a mix of a lot of different meats, cheese, salad and sauces. The word “Tudo” means everything and it is a true portrait of what you can do with this Brazilian dish: put whatever you want and it will be accepted and probably good. The Green deck seems like that.

With 《Springbloom Druid》 and the 《Krosan Tusker》, doing a three color or four color deck with Green is pretty easy and you can put everything in the deck. From some third color removals to even two color cards splash, I am pretty sure you will not have problems to cast them if you are running some copies of the Druid and the Tusker.

Green is the house of some crazy openings that can lead you to play a 8/8 trample creature at the fourth turn. I don’t know if Magic has change since I started playing but it seems a very good thing to do in a game.