Reality Fracture MTG Draft & Sealed Guide

Stingerquill is our pick, the black-red deck built on damage that is not combat. Vicious Verse is the cheapest source, 1 damage to an opponent for one mana, and the payoffs watch for exactly that. Whiplash Wordsmith // Vicious Verse, a common, has flying and haste on any turn it happened, and Massacre Girl, Most Wanted takes a +1/+1 counter each time. The signpost, Grim Repriser, is a two-mana 2/2 with prowess. On a turn an opponent was dealt noncombat damage, it returns from the graveyard for one black and one red, with a finality counter. Other commons supply damage too: Screeching Soulbreaker is a flier that deals 1 to each opponent whenever it attacks, and Cast Away Doubt draws two cards and deals 2 to each player.

No Admittance and Stingerquill Charm kill a creature or go to the face for two mana, Wrath of the Bloodmane is four damage at instant speed, and Last Gasp, Extended Absence and Fulminous Forte fill in behind them. The weakness is the curve: it is light on two-drops for a deck that wants to attack, and black has the fewest at common of any colour. If the pool adds none, the black removal is as good in blue-black, which has more two-drops, and the pick moves there.

signpost

Seven cards in the graveyard is threshold, and Theorix is built to get there. Recursive Recruitment is the signpost: two 2/2 Cadets for four mana, and again by flashback for eight, when each Cadet also gets a +1/+1 counter for every three cards in your graveyard. Omit Variables costs one mana and mills three, so the commons that carry it fill the graveyard themselves. Void Extrapolator // Omit Variables is a two-mana 2/2 that gets +1/+1 at threshold, and Theorix Metamage // Omit Variables is a 2/3 that gets +1/+0 and flying. Proft, Sinister Mastermind cannot be cast before threshold and is a three-mana 5/5 with menace after it, and Theorix Charm is a choice of three: -2/-2 on a creature, mill three and draw a card, or a counter for a noncreature spell unless they pay two.

No other pair's enablers and payoffs feed each other as much, and it is one of the cheapest pairs, with more removal than most. The cost is the wait, because before the seventh card none of the threshold bonuses are on. If black-red is being cut, this is where we would move.

signpost

Vigorbloom turns life into counters and cards. Seed Suture is both at once, a +1/+1 counter and 1 life for one mana, and Emergency Phytomedic // Seed Suture carries it at common for one mana. Bloombrute, the signpost, draws a card the first time you gain life each turn, and for six mana gives a creature trample and lifelink. Vigorbloom Vanguard // Seed Suture gives vigilance to every creature of yours with a +1/+1 counter. At common, Unflinching Hortimancer is a two-drop with ward that takes a counter whenever you gain life and Blossom-Blessed Angel // Seed Suture is a four-mana 2/4 flier with vigilance.

The bodies get big, but the curve is one of the highest and only blue-green is clearly shorter of removal. White's Surgical Precision and Memory Trap help, and Compel Brutality improves with every counter, because it deals damage equal to power. Take Prophesied End over any body here.

Fatehold looks at the top of the library and attacks on the strength of it. Scry and surveil are the triggers. Peer Review surveils and a Jace token surveils, so the pair's own creatures and every deck's engine both switch it on. The signpost, Desperate Futurescribe, is a four-mana flier that gives another creature +1/+1 at the start of each of your combats, and a +1/+1 counter instead on a turn you looked. Prudent Fateseer // Peer Review gives the team +1/+0 the first time you look each turn. At common, Fatehold Chronologist // Peer Review is a two-mana flier, and Surveillance Phantasm is a flying defender that may attack on any turn you looked.

Few pairs are as deep at two mana or as cheap overall. The weakness is removal: it has among the least of any pair, with only blue-green clearly behind, and blue's commons bounce a creature or lock it down rather than kill it. That makes Surgical Precision and Memory Trap worth an early pick, and Your Fate Ends Here is the uncommon to hope for: it destroys a creature or planeswalker with mana value three or more, and it surveils.

signpost

The trap, on our read, is blue-green. It wants the biggest Jace on the table, and even the signpost is slow: Mind Meanderer is a six-mana flier that fights on entering and has vigilance while you control a Jace. Kiora of Salt and Sand untaps an attacker and makes it unblockable on any turn you activated a loyalty ability, and Tam's Resistance puts four loyalty on Jace and a counter on a creature for two mana. It has the least removal of any pair, and the loyalty it needs comes from cards every other deck wants as well. Take the Jace pieces for whatever you end up in, and leave the pair alone.

Heartwood tokens are the Konstrari plan. They are artifacts that tap for red or green, and Soul Tether makes one for three mana. Konstrari Improviser // Soul Tether is the common that carries it, a two-mana 2/2, and Woodwork Prodigy can cast it every turn. Pia, Determined Rebuilder is the payoff at uncommon: for six mana she gives a creature +X/+0 for the artifacts you control. The top of the curve is the signpost, Craftwork Crusher, a seven-mana trampler that picks two on entering, from 4 damage to a creature or planeswalker, a 2/2 Cadet and a card. Greenhouse Propagator and Murmuring Volume are more mana at common.

The curve is the highest of any pair, and the mana is what lets it get away with that. Vinelasher Adept and Awaken the Inferno both have basic landcycling, so the expensive cards find a land when drawn early. It is not the pick because its removal is middling and nothing it does is fast, but it is the deck to be in when the Soul Tether creatures come round late.

Counters on whatever just entered are the red-white plan. Warrior's Blades is the signpost, an Equipment that deals 3 damage to any target and gains 3 life on entering, then equips for less on a creature with +1/+1 counters. Mabel, Valley Hero puts a counter on a creature that entered this turn whenever a creature of yours enters, and Gallia, the Merrymaker gives every other creature with a counter haste. At common, Graft Surgeon enters with a counter and hands it on when it dies. Without Mabel and the Blades it is a burn deck with white creatures.

Every noncreature spell grows something in blue-red. The signpost is a tempo spell. Clash of Elements gives the owner of a nonland permanent a choice: put it on top of their library and take 2 damage, or put it on the bottom. Chandra's Emberling has haste and takes a +1/+1 counter per noncreature spell, and Cryotheory Adept is the two-mana prowess common. No Admittance is a noncreature spell that empowers, so a Jace token comes with the plan. It has far less removal than Stingerquill, so it wants red's burn open before it commits.

Deathtouch does the trading in black-green, and the signpost gets its lands back. Primal Witchstalker is a three-mana menace creature that mills four and returns a land from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Rampart Hunter and Arcane Amphisbaena are the deathtouch bodies at common, and Compel Brutality makes either one deal damage equal to its power, which from a deathtouch source is lethal to a creature. It is a fair deck that wins the long game one trade at a time, with plenty of removal and few two-drops.

White-black is a removal deck with a sacrifice angle, not the other way round. Only black-red has more removal, and the signpost is more of it: Twisted Fates is five mana to destroy any nonland permanent and put a +1/+1 counter on each creature a player of your choice controls. Edgar, Ancient Bloodlord makes the sacrifice pay: a life whenever another creature or planeswalker of yours dies, and for two mana he eats one for a counter and menace. Silence the Echo kills a creature or planeswalker for two mana if you sacrifice one of your own, and a Jace token counts. Draft it as black removal with white bodies, and do not expect to race: few pairs are lighter on two-drops.