Star Trek MTG Draft & Sealed Guide

The archetypes

Selesnya: white

theme cards 47average mana 3.21two-drops 13removal 11

signpost Phlox, Unorthodox Doctor

Gruul: lands

theme cards 19average mana 3.27two-drops 11removal 15

signpost Dal R'El, Augment Orphan

Landfall. Planetary Patrol and Xindi Surveyors grow on every land, Saurian Explorer makes Planets that tap for any colour, and Syndicate Liquidators puts two counters wherever you want. The landcyclers turn the trigger on when the land drop is missing.

Rakdos

castable spells 94average mana 3.21two-drops 13removal 21

signpost L'Rell, Fierce Visionarytheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Klingons and sacrifice. Cha'DIch Investigator brings a hasty Warrior, Battle-Scarred Survivalist grows when anything dies, General Chang, Cold Warrior pumps every Klingon for a sacrifice, and Eject the Warp Core is the removal that wants a body to feed it. The aggressive pair in what is revealed.

Orzhov

castable spells 94average mana 3.16two-drops 15removal 20

signpost Locutus, the One Who Speakstheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Borg and artifact creatures. Collective Drone is as big as your artifact creatures, Assault Drone pumps them, Automated Warfare System draws off sacrificing one, and Resistance Is Futile kills a nonartifact creature or brings an artifact one back. The most removal castable of any pair so far.

Golgari

castable spells 92average mana 3.33two-drops 12removal 14

signpost Vash, Freelance Archaeologisttheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Izzet

castable spells 93average mana 3.28two-drops 13removal 17

signpost Spock, Always Your Friendtheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Dimir

castable spells 94average mana 3.35two-drops 12removal 16

signpost Seven of Ninetheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Azorius

castable spells 92average mana 3.23two-drops 15removal 13

signpost Hemmer, Fixing What Is Brokentheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Boros

castable spells 92average mana 3.03two-drops 15removal 19

signpost Kirk, Commanding Officertheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Simic

castable spells 92average mana 3.40two-drops 12removal 10

signpost The Travelertheme soft, drafted on card quality i

Where the removal is

Star Trek has 45 removal spells, and 25% of its creatures have toughness 4 or more.

The colors at common

The most common mechanics

Beam me up

cards 11at common 5mostly blue and white

Federation

cards 6at common 0mostly blue and multicolor

Strange new worlds

cards 13at common 2mostly blue and green

signpost

What the preview says so far

Read this as a preview, and a better one than most. The pool so far is 306 cards and 91 of them are commons, so the numbers above lean the way a draft pack does rather than the way a spoiler usually does. The archetypes will not show until the signposts are tagged and the gold cards arrive. Three things the commons already say will hold.

Every colour chooses a mode. Cards that say "choose one" are in every colour, from Set Phasers to . . . at one mana to Captain James T. Kirk on attack, and Seven of Nine draws a card every time you do. Expect that to be a deck, and expect the modal removal to be the best of it.

A modal spell is not a keyword, so there is no filter for "choose one" yet; the gallery above is picked by hand and the Face a Dilemma cards are the ones that count them.

The removal at common is cheap and real. 15 of the 91 commons remove something and 14 of the 45 removal spells are instants. Set Phasers to . . . kills an attacker for one mana, Command Decision kills anything with power four for two, and He's Dead, Jim is unconditional at four. In a pool this size that is a format where a creature has to earn its slot.

Green is the land colour. Landfall is nearly all green, and the commons that cycle for a basic are a Landfall trigger on demand at instant speed. Captain Kathryn Janeway gives the deck a second land drop and a look at the top card on every creature.

The set's own words are only beginning to show. Hoshi Sato, Exolinguist and Saavik, Stoic Student carry Federation, which counts the creature types among your non-Borg creatures, and Open Communications is the first Beam me up card, a spell cast again from the graveyard by returning a creature. Assimilate, the Borg's mechanic, has not been revealed at all.

Federation, Beam me up and the other new mechanics are read from the card text until Scryfall catalogues them, so a gallery on one of them shows every card that carries it, reminder text or not.

The commons so far

Removal first, cheapest first: the one-mana modal, the two-mana kill for big things, the kicker that removes two, the clean kill, the burn that cycles, and the green double fight.

Then the commons that carry a deck: the exile artifact with ward, the one-drop that grows a body, the mana dork, the Landfall grower, the flier that draws, and the one-mana flier that chooses.

Interactions worth knowing

Cycling is a land drop. Horta and Cold-Blooded Crew cycle for a basic for two mana, and playing it triggers Xindi Surveyors and Syndicate Liquidators on the turn you need it.

Beam me up. Open Communications casts again from the graveyard if you return a creature to hand, so Emergency Medical Hologram and Cha'DIch Investigator enter twice and the spell draws twice.

What to play around

White at one is Set Phasers to . . . against an attacker, and at two Shields Up! saves a creature from anything. Red at two is Captain's Tutelage with flash, first strike and two power, and Khaaaaaaaaaaaannn! kills for X at instant speed. Blue at three is Consider the Prime Directive, a counter unless they pay three or a stun, and Guidance Failure against an attacker. Black at four is He's Dead, Jim. Green at three is Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel, three power and trample on a blocker.

Fixing

The ten shock lands are here, and they are rares, so the fixing a draft can count on is Xenobotanist and the commons that cycle for a basic. Stay in two colours; a splash is the third colour's one bomb off a Xenobotanist and a cycler, not a plan.

Questions about Star Trek