神河当時 - 『神河物語』ドラフトの青白

Drafting blue-white
You might well ask why I’m giving this short history lesson. It’s because, in part at least, it demonstrates some of the reasons why blue-white is looking particularly strong in this block.

First, there are no commons that just wreck you in this block. There’s no Sparksmith, no Timberwatch Elf and no Spikeshot Goblin that will single-handedly ruin your otherwise pleasant day. Frostwielder exists but it is slow and often doesn’t do too much damage by itself. On top of that you do have a permanent common solution to it in Mystic Restraints, which is a much better removal spell than it looks on the surface.

The second thing to note is that we have one of the best ’Pacifisms’ printed in a while in Cage of Hands. You can just throw this out there whenever you have a minute and if something scary turns up the majority of the time you’ll be in a position to return the Cage and drop it down on whatever nasty critter shows up. Having both Cage and Restraint in the common slots gives blue-white two very good ’removal’ spells, which it doesn’t normally get. Combine this with the fact that they both get around the Soulshift ability and can target both Spirit and non-Spirit creatures alike and you’ve obviously got a couple of winners. Blessed Breath and Consuming Vortex are respectable tricks too and can provide card advantage due to the Splice mechanic. Similarly Indomitable Will can generate a significant advantage as it often leaves behind a creature that’s a lot tougher for your opponent to deal with than the original problem they were trying to solve.

引用元
SORATAMI AND SAMURAI Posted in Limited Information on October 18, 2004
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/soratami-and-samurai-2004-10-18

『神河物語』のドラフトにおける、青白デッキについて、それ以前の環境とも比較しつつ語っている記事です。

優秀なフライヤー・妨害オーラ・強化オーラの存在から、特にアグロ系の評価が高いようです。



2021/03/09 追記
日本語訳を見つけました。
空民と侍――神河物語での青白のドラフト
https://web.archive.org/web/20041210092355/http://www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/magic/articles/files/20041129_01.html