Invasion Draft: White Rares Gary Wise The Masters The Masters are amazing. With the exception of the Brush With Death ability (black), every single activated ability found in the text of these powerhouses is a game ender, and the black power, while weaker then the others, is still strong enough to let its controller dominate the field of play. The amazing thing about the Masters is that they don't need to be fully functional to dominate the game. Sure, I want my Thornscape Master to give everything protection from everything AND act as an Arc Mage, but if I can only use one of these abilities and summoning sickness expires, I'm pretty sure I'm winning regardless. The comparison to Arc Mage is an unfair one by the way... that powerhouse required a discard and one more mana to activate its broken ability. The Masters don't. This said, when you are drafting two colors and are fortunate enough to open a Master in one of them, don't feel you have to work your way into the third. Regardless of the ability, dominant as they all are, activating them with a splash color is going to be difficult enough that it probably isn't worth screwing up your mana. It's smart to keep an eye on moving into that color if other cards suggest it might be viable, but you don't want to get greedy: one game winning ability per card is enough. Alabaster Leech An adequate creature, a pretty good way to slow down the early beats. Be careful, though, if you want to play heavy white - this guy will make you pay. A 7th - 9th pick. Atalya, Samite Master It's interesting: when I opened this little lady at the Pre-Release and inserted it in my UW deck, I thought it would end every game in which I cast it, but it didn't. Sealed Deck is generally a lot slower than draft and yet even in that format, my mana was so tied up my high casting cost cards that I never gained more life then I could count on one hand. I'm not saying this particular Legend is bad, but she's a lot more like a Treefolk Healer then any of the Summon Masters. A 2nd - 4th pick. Crusading Knight Now this card I hate. No, not because it sucks or is overrated, just the opposite: it's almost always insane against me. Ask any UB drafter to name those cards that hurt them the most and this 5/5 (Don't let the numbers on the card fool you) will be right near the top of the list. Admittedly, its pretty gimpy against non-black players, but once you play an Armadillo Cloak on it and smash a black player's face in, you'll never look back. A 2nd - 5th pick, depending on the card pool. Death or Glory When I saw this card, I flipped. I mean this is a splashable spell that gives incredible card advantage, right? Well, not so fast. Definitely playable, Death or Glory takes a long time to develop into card advantage. The casting cost might as well be 8, because you'll have that much mana when your graveyard has developed enough to really exploit is. Play it if you get it, but don't pick it too early. A 4th - 6th pick. Divine Presence So, there's almost nothing in white that deals 4 damage. Um, no. a 13th - 15th pick. Fight or Flight I'm definitely not a huge fan of this card. The first time it was cast against me, I had two defenders and a flier, and my opponent split them up thusly. Which to you think I chose? The only thing this card really does is prevent a huge creature rush, and you want your opponent dead before that. Don't put contingency plans in your main deck. A 7th - 9th pick. Global Ruin The most comparable card to this one in recent memory may be Tectonic Break. Hard to set up, the effect of the Ruin is strong enough (especially in a 5cdeck) that that set up might be worthwhile. If yours is the faster of two decks, it's often worth casting just to take out 2-3 lands, slowing your opponent down enough to finish them off. A 6th - 8th pick. Harsh Judgement This card is GREAT against the 12 Soul Burn deck. Have you ever drafted the 12 Soul Burn deck? A 13th - 15th pick. Pure Reflection An interesting card, Pure Reflection just looks too quirky to ever set up efficiently in Limited play. A 13th - 15th pick. Reya Dawnbringer She's HUGE! 4/6, flying, animates a creature every turn... once in play, Reya is obviously dominant. Unfortunately, there's a hitch to that 'once in play' thing: she costs nine mana. In a fast environment with lots of discard, that's just too much. I'll play her if I draft her, but I won't draft her too high. A 5th - 7th pick. Rout See, Wrath of God wasn't powerful enough in Limited so they MADE IT AN INSTANT. Arguably the strongest Limited card in the set, Rout kills everything while your strongest creatures wait in hand. If you see this card first pack, you MUST play white. A 1st pick. Not 1st - 2nd, 1st. Spirit of Resistance Awesome with Sliver Queen. Good luck in those local Invasions, Stronghold, Homelands store drafts. A 13th - 15th pick. Sunscape Master The general idea with the creation of these cards is that "rares are for Constructed, commons are for Limited." The unfortunate side effect of this is that once in a while, rares get opened in limited by someone else and there's nothing we can do about it. As stated above. The Masters are retarded. All of them. Why should this one be any different? A 1st pick. Winnow I actually like this card a lot. While I prefer to sideboard it, you can always main deck it with the understanding that you can cycle it by targeting a non-duplicated card. In the mirror match, regardless of which mirror, its awesome, killing a Faerie Squadron, Armadillo Cloak or the like for two mana with a late pick giving you card advantage. Sound like a good way to win to me. A 6th - 8th pick.