Hey folks! Trying to figure out how drafting Theros will go. It was a ton of fun at the Prerelease, but now I'm thinking about how to most reliably put together good decks. I'm guessing that the format will break down into two-colour decks, so W-U, W-B, W-R, etc. through to R-G. Each colour pair is also pushed by an Uncommon multicolour card that can serve as a good signal as to whether or not your chosen colour-pair is sticking around or not.

I'm currently guessing the following:

- Heroic deck that wins with tempo
- Heroic deck that wins with giant beats
- Heroic deck that attacks early and clears blockers
- Lifedrain deck, control
- Control deck that absorbs attackers and hits back with unblockable monsters
- Aggro-control with Spellheart Chimera
- Monster Ramp with tempo disruption
- Devoted Lifegain + Lifedrain, recurring creatures
- Removal-heavy suite with top-end finishers? This really is the one that confuses me the most.
- Monstrous Ramp with fight

Obviously this is very early thinking, so I'm hoping to hear some thoughts from you!

I've totally managed Devotion with cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Rescue from the Underworld backed up by smaller black cards and the occasional Abhorrent Overlord bomb.

For the release event draft I swept the tournament with a Minotaur deck after cracking Rageblood Shaman as my pack-one rare and then taking all the Deathbellow Raidersand Minotaur Skullcleavers I could get my hands on and backed by some light burn.

I like that this is a limited/draft environment that I can easily get away with playing mono-color in.

BR is minotaurs.

Just draft whatsv good in each pack and run them.

red/black aggro - usually lots of minotaurs, I'm a fan of the archtype. You get good removal, and red's 1-drop heroic guy is powerful if you have the enablers. The cows are probably the top archetype imo
blue/white aggro - more fliers than the other combos, heroic. Vaporkin is good here, but they usually table so you don't have to prioritize them.
green/white aggro - you get the big dudes, and some fliers, and the GW uncommon creature is powerful, heroic
black/white aggro - this is harder to pull off, and you should generally try to avoid it (only reason I mention this). Black is the weakest heroic color
red/white aggro - typified by heroic, you get the bonus of good removal. R for +1/+0 and First strike is really good, by the way.
red/green - I've not seen this drafted at all, but I imagine you just get big monstrous guys and hope you don't die before you get them online.
blue/red - more midrange, you get decent removal, tempo plays, and fliers. The merfolk you can sac to shock is good too. You can go aggressive, but I've not seen it happen yet because there's only so many red 1-2 cmc going around, and even fewer blue cmc 1-2
black/white - usually typified by the devotion creatures (Gray Merchant and Disciple) being backed up by whites generally superior creatures
green/blue aggro - you get some of the better monstorus creatures, and your guys are generally big. heroic is really good in both blue and green, but not as heavily aggressive as the other colors, because the creatures are in the 3+ CMC range.
blue/black - I'm not a huge fan of this combo, but it can work out. Its generally the value control color combo. It can work, but its tricky, and a bit on the slow side.

Is there really a Minotaur tribal deck though? You absolutely need the black/red Uncommon to make it work, or else you're totally boned. That said, if you ARE the only person at the draft table doing it, you should have a pretty good chance of seeing at least 1 of the card... but 1 Lord, or even 2, in a 40-card deck just seems like a trap.

I can't say I've tried, or seen it, but most minotaurs are already decent enough. 4/3 for 4 is respectable, 2/3 for 2 is pretty aggressive (although the downside can be a pain) and the 2/2 haste for 3 that attacks for 4 first turn is also pretty aggressive. Fanatic of Mogis is pretty solid as well if you have enough devotion.

I don't think you want to draft the minotaurs over better creatures on color, but I think you can grab enough incidentally to make the uncommon "lord" into a pretty powerful play. If you do get the lord early, you can value the minotaurs slightly higher than normal, but don't go overboard.

It's there. Both common Minos (Deathbellow and Skullcleaver) are pretty aggressive if you can keep the path clear for them. Add in that red has two decent burn spells at common as well as one at uncommon and you can piece together a decent and consistent enough aggro deck without having to worry too much about if you have the lords or not. The lords are just icing on the cake.

Major Archetypes:
W/U or W/B: RAF. White has a ton of solid flyers, and blue and black each have some. Royal Air Force with blue will probably do more heroic shenanigans, while black will make a more controlling build with some removal and possible intimidate as well as flying thanks to Cavern Lampad

G/U or G/R: Monster Mash. Green has both the best large creatures on the best ways to capitalize on them (Time to Feed for the win). Red has better Monsters than blue does, but blue has more monsters and psuedo-monsters at lower rarities. White could theoretically work for a Monster Mash plan, but only if you're using it for pure support less Fleecemane Lion and/Or Hundred-Handed One. Green red gives better ramping from Satyrs, while blue gets Agent of Horizons and the super-bomby Prophet of Kruphix

B/G: Resource Grind. Black and green have little deathtouch creatures, including deathtouch bestow. Black has March of the Returned and B/G has Phakira's Mender. Between the two colors, you also have good removal access with Time to Feed, Sip of Hemlock, Phakira's Cure, and so on. It relies on a couple cards (particularly March and Mender) but if you can pick them up you can win just about any war of attrition. Biggest weakness is going to be the air.

Two of: W/G/U: Voltron Enchantments. Blue and Green have the best targets for a Voltron. White and Green have the best enchantments. So, this will usually be G/X, but White/Blue could work if you get Battlewise Hoplites. the keys to this are going to be creatures with big rear ends or Heroic for counters, Ordeals, and bestow. Benthic Giant is an all-star being a hexproof fatty, but so is Wingsteed Rider

R/X Fast Aggro: Some of the tenor of this depends on the second color, but red provides both fast, aggressive creatures and early disruption (burn) to sort it out. Red/Green will want to ramp more into bigger threats but stil llay them quick. Black has extra disruption (Phakira's Cure) and can go minotaur tribal. White adds the possibility of a late-pick Chained to the Rocks, white's typical low-end suite, and white's typical high end removal. Blue brings very little to the table, but Voyage's End is nice and while Blue isn;t as good as white or black at it, it does has some evasive critters to give you reach.

Is Commune with the Gods playable in the B/G deck?

Probably. I think Commune is pretty playable in general, but B/G has the advantage of flipping up a Mender and a Bomb and recovering both. I guess it depends how many Menders you have versus how many March of the Returned whether it's a good idea or just an OK one.

It's just playable in general. But that 5-drop gorgon that gy fetches is sweet sweet synergy.

Minotaurs are totally playable, I think, because red and black are so solid. You just have to make sure you don't fall into traps, like taking minotaurs over bombs that are still in color when the minotaur might come back around.

I notice that there are a lot of double mana cards (which obviously goes with the devotion mechanic,) so I think that decks might tend to run one color and splash another (or even two others) more. But we will see, I spose.

I've heard of 2 people winning their draft with blue-green tempo aggro.
They key spells, I think, are voyage's end and griptide, while the key creatures are vaporkin and similar. Horizon scholar and the flash u/g chimera played well, I heard.

I think that when coming up with archetypes, you should try to build less around specific cards, and instead try to come up with a synergistic gameplan that can incorporate as many of the commons in color as well as possible.