Hello everybody, in the first of a series of articles, I want to go over some cube draft strategies. In this article I want to talk about drafting 5-Color Control. This post is for those who want to learn more about how this archetype works, what cards to value highly, and more.

Overview

5-Color control works because, if drafted correctly, you’re playing with the ‘best’ spells regardless of color and you shouldn’t have any mana problems. The key to this archetype is making the mana work. Everything else is ‘what tool in the toolbox do I need the most’?

High Picks
Dual Lands (Underground Sea, Taiga, Volcanic Island)
Onslaught Sac Lands (Bloodstained Mire, Polluted Delta, etc)
Artifact Mana (Moxen / Signets / Karoos)
Card Choice and Selection (Scroll Rack / Sensei’s Divining Top (card choice)
Board Sweepers (Wrath of God, Damnation, Nevinyrral’s Disk)
Big Mana Game-Enders (Mindslaver, Decree of Justice, Sacred Mesa, Meloku the Clouded Mirror)
Planeswalkers (powerful repeatable effects not affected by your removal)

Strategy

The first part of your draft is choosing your two primary colors (i.e. the ones whose mana you will run the most of), which is usually Black / Blue or Blue / White, and choosing game-ending bombs or otherwise taking the mana in the pack. You will take an Onslaught sacland over pretty much everything else, and Dual Lands, Karoos, Tri-Lands, and other mana fixing just as highly.

This is the archetype who lives and dies on its mana fixing. You could have the most awesome cards in the world, but without the mana it’s just a pile of good stuff that loses to a first turn Kird Ape.

So Pack #1 you’re choosing Duals / Fetches / Fixing above all else. Don’t worry about passing ‘so many good cards’, it’s the cube for chrissake. There will be plenty to pick up, I assure you, and mana fixing won’t always be available.

As you go into Pack #2, you may need to make some tough decisions regarding Karoo #3 or Game Ending Bomb. As Blue is almost always a primary color for this archetype, you’ll value Counterspells quite highly, and cards that provide you long-term advantage like Isochron Scepter or even something as simple as a Waterfront Bouncer are a must. Cards that give you repeatable effects with your array of bombs, such as Crystal Shard, are highly valuable as well.

Quite simply, you want quality mana, repeatable / abusable effects, counterspells / board control, scary monsters, and spot removal in that order.

Weaknesses

The problem with this archetype is that a Pillage here and a Molten Rain there could mean game over. First turn Kird Ape second turn Keldon Mauraders is bad news for this deck, as G/R aggro is your worst matchup.

You’re also scared to death of Armageddon (but who isn’t?). Mana availability is how this deck lives or dies, and using Wrath of God to wipe their board only for them to go Isamaru – Armageddon – Go could mean that little 2/2 could kill you before you have time to recover. Remember the importance of drafting cheap, powerful removal like Swords to Plowshares or Lightning Bolt.

Summary

5-Color Control is easily one of the best archetypes in the cube, particularly when drafted by a good player. It has extremely scary, powerful tools to win the game over time, and once that train starts rolling it’s tough to stop it. This is an archetype that’s so powerful you have to actively watch the manafixing you provide in your cube to make sure it’s not too strong and pushing out other archetypes.

Feel free to list your feedback on this archetype in the comments or in the forums.