As of this past week, Urza’s Saga was released on Magic the Gathering Online! The much-anticipated Combo-laden set is the newest addition to MTGO’s quickly growing Legacy format, and includes Combo enablers such as Show and Tell, Voltaic Key and headliners like Morphling and Wildfire. The set is sure to be popular, and will have a few high-dollar cards, so the most important thing to do is to run down the non-bulk rares and figure out where you should be rare-drafting and where you should be drafting for your deck. Most MTGO players never had the honor of drafting Saga when it first came out. I myself only got to draft Masques, missing the party as well. Regardless, there are some great old articles out there that walk you through Saga draft, so if you intend to go infinite with drafts, you should start reading.
When drafting a new set online, you will often have to make the call between drafting for profit and drafting for your deck. In some cases, the two motives can be filled by the same card, but in many cases, it’s one or the other. Lets figure out which is which.
The best of the Enchantresses, Argothian Enchantress is the backbone of Legacy decks of the same name. They are now missing very little to be complete, and her $15 price tag is representative of this. They are rarely any use in Limited, but one will pay for your draft and is thus a responsible rare-draft. Just don’t worry about the fact that your deck is one first pick lighter and enjoy the draft.
Devastating in the early turns and somewhat dead late, the $2 fattie is not a good rare draft, but is not the worst card to first pick. Mono-Green aggro is an amazingly fast and powerful strategy in Saga draft, so you could do far worse than to open and select the 6/6.
This card’s value and utility put it in a sticky spot when it comes to financially aware drafting. At around $7, it will help you get +EV on your draft, but it won’t pay outright. It’s obviously not as good as a rare-draft as compared to the Enchantress, but half of your draft paid is a good place to be. It will be mostly useless in the draft games but is a Legacy staple. Pick at your own risk, but I’d be on the “pro” side of raredrafting Back to Basics.
This card is the opposite of Back to Basics. You’ll firstpick it based on its ability to outright win you the game, and you’ll reap the benefits of 1-2 tix as a reward. It’s an absolute first pick and the fact that you might see a ticket or two afterwards is simply a bonus.
It’s not especially good in Limited except in rare circumstances, and it’s ony $2.50. It seems wise to take a real card for your deck instead of raredrafting Contamination.
If you can manage to get a few enchantments, Endless Wurm can end the game in two swings. If not, he’ll just die. At only $2, he’s only worth drafting if you think you can pick up enough enchantments to get in a couple cracks with him. Not a bona fide raredraft, but a fine pick in the right deck.
It’s worth almost as much as 8 packs would get you by selling to a bot. It’s a Legacy staple. It’s not awful in your draft deck. Obviously, you take this and never look back.
It’s not too expensive, so it’s not worth raredrafting and it’s not all that impressive in draft. It can be used to great effect, so if it fits your deck, it’ll get you a couple of tix at best. Overall, its probably best to take something better.
See Exploration, except the card is absolutely insane in the format’s best archetype. A clear, no-discussion first pick if ever there was one.
Unless you have a ton of cyclers, this $3 card is not too impressive. Even then, it’s not that great so raredraft with caution.
This seems underpriced at $5, but some Legacy 43 Land decks have started using Chris Woltereck’s tech of Intuition instead. It’s not at all the worst in Limited, especially when cast for a bomb early. A decent rare-draft since it is rather powerful too.
It’s cheap at $3, and seems very powerful late-game in black. It’s not worth enough to be a real rare draft, but it’s powerful enough to warrant extra consideration due to the price. I would take it highly, especially after pack 1 if I’m in Black.
$4 is a good price for the ultimate blocker, and he gets much better if you get some decent artifacts. He’s still not quite worth enough and powerful enough at the same time to warrant a first pick rare draft, but you could do a lot worse than to take Karn aggressively.
You’ll be hard pressed to sell this for 2 tickets, but it’s good enough to win the game alone, so first pick it every time.
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Since damage no longer uses the stack, Morphling lost a lot of value. Regardless, he’s stlil a bomb in Limited and despite being a dollar rare, will win you enough games to make up for his lackluster price.
The right deck could abuse the mana acceleration, but you’ll pick this to turn it into 2-3 tix rather than to play it. It’s only great if your deck can really abuse the mana, but it’s still a fine late pickup to pay for a small percentage of the draft.
This is yet another card that will likely end up useless in your deck but will pay for 2/3rds of your draft if you sell it. It’s a good overall pick but clearly not on the same level as Exploration.
It will also pay most of your way, as Serras Sanctum would, but some decks will be able to make very good use of this. Between its price and its power, it would be a great overall 1st pick.
A lot of people are very excited about using this with Eldrazi, but it’s always been an expensive and popular casual card. It could be good in your draft deck if you’ve a lot of expensive creatures, but if you firstpick it, you’ll be doing so for the $8 price tag.
It’s only worth about a pack and a half, but could be very good in the right deck. If your deck is slower, the ability to turn excess mana into cards is always good, so it would be a strong rare draft, especially if you need a copy for EDH or something similar.
It’s $20, and an absolute monster if you have more than a few artifacts in your deck . First pick it and don’t look back.
It’s not worth more than a pack, but it might be good in some draft decks. Thus, it is a mid-range rare draft. The fact that it reloads both hands is certainly dangerous, but you get to use your new cards first. It’s nothing special but it’s worth picking up.
Insane bomb, expensive, game endingly good. First pick it just like Academy, Cradle and Exploration, and do not think twice. It’s not as expensive, but it will win you the game when you cast it more often than not.
Of the rares in the set, only a handful – Yawgmoth’s Will, Tolarian Academy, Gaea’s Cradle, and Exploration are solid cards in the draft and also worth a lot. There are plenty of good rare drafts, and plenty of powerful but inexpensive rares, but when it comes down to it, those four cards give you more value than any others in the set. You won’t often get them, but when you do, be prepared to draft them. Finding a balance between drafting money and drafting power is difficult, but if you set up tiers of value, you can usually find that balance and both draft money cards and make a good run at the top prize. Happy Drafting!
Kelly
Let’s get as many of these drafts, sealed events in before it leaves the store. We need these cards not only for Legacy but also classic. The format is a blast to draft! It’s pretty easy to rare draft and win it turns out. Both times my deck started looking bad and I started picking money I ended up winning the draft. Not bad I must say. Thanks for the article