Foundational Magic- A More Advanced Draft Guide

We have a Foundational set! Magic Foundations will be Standard legal for at least the next 5 years, providing a base level magic experience that will underlay anything else coming out in that time. Wizards has given us a Foundation for what Magic should be, how it should feel, and what it’s like to draft. We’re back to basics, but with a modern power level and a lot of interesting things to do. The cards are simpler and there are no tricky mechanics, but the format will still be interesting and skill intensive.

There are a lot of cards coming to standard, and only about half of them are draftable. For reference, here are the draftable Foundations cards.

If you want a card-by-card breakdown of every draftable card in the set, here is the full ratings list which I’ll be updating weekly and here is the full card-by-card review where I explain my reasoning and how that card will play. This article is for the general strategy for each color pair, and useful numbers while you’re drafting.

Without further ado, let’s get started with:

The Stats

Here are some useful numbers for context and future reference.

The Magic Foundations draft format has, at the common and uncommon rarity:

• • 117 Creatures (about 10% more than usual)
  • 25 Fliers (Very High)
  • 3 Reach creatures (All Green, Very low)
  • 10 Combat Tricks 

• • 7 One-mana combat tricks

• 11 Common Dual Lands
• 5 Colorless Color-Fixers

• • +3 Green Color-Fixers

• • 7 Sources Recursion
  • 6 Anthems/Charges (Ways to pump the team)(Very High)

Of those 117 creatures, 

• • 28   have  1💗 Toughness (+Cat/Fairy/Soldier/Elf/Goblin Tokens)
  • 34   have  2💗Toughness
  • 23   have  3💗Toughness
  • 18   have  4💗Toughness
  • 5     have  5💗Toughness
  • 2     have  6💗Toughness
  • 0     have  7💗Toughness
  • 1     have  8💗Toughness

This means that among the removal spells that deal damage or give a creature -X/-X,

• • 1 Damage kills 26% of creatures (2 Spells)
  • 2 Damage kills 56% of creatures (4 Spells)
  • 3 Damage kills 77% of creatures (2 Spells)
  • 4 Damage kills 93% of creatures (1 Spells)
  • 5 Damage kills 99% of creatures (1 Spells)
  • 6 Damage kills 99% of creatures (1 Spells)

There’s less toughness-dependent removal spells than usual, but that’s alright because Foundations boasts:

• • 6 Unconditional Removal Spells
  • 2 Conditional Removal Spells
  • 3 Sweepers (At Uncommon!)
  • 2 Auras (Both Blue!)
  • 1 Ring (Banishing Light)
  • 2 Bite Spells
  • 2 Fight Spells
  • 2 Tap spells
  • 1 Bounce Spell
  • 1 Tuck (Put a creature into a library)
  • 6 Creatures that kill creatures
  • 4 Disenchant Effects

The Shape of the Format

Magic Foundations is not a set where it’s useful to talk about the mechanics or most powerful cards, so we’re just going to jump right in.

Rather than a Puzzle Set (find every missing piece) or a Synergy Set (Put cards with a shared type/synergy), Magic Foundations is a Theme Set- assemble your cards on a basic theme like graveyards or lifegain. Foundations is full of weighted synergies and deeply rewards you for knowing the important piece of your game plan. 

For example: the Black/White mechanical theme is lifegain, with cards that grant extra value per instance of gaining life. Here are two of the white payoffs for gaining life:

This is a strong value developer and attacker if you consistently gain life. There are six total payoffs for gaining life at common and uncommon, four of which are strong. To draft this deck, you need both ways to gain life and payoffs for gaining that life. There are 36 ways to gain life.

Color Pairs and Pick Priorities

These are the general pick priorities of card types in Magic Foundations. This is not a complete list of the cards in each category or all the cards you’ll need in a deck, but rather a framework for approaching each color pair.

U/W Fliers

Pick Order:

1. Interaction 

As a color pair, Blue and White only have situational removal available. Prioritize interaction that can answer threats efficiently –Banishing Light, Essence Scatter– then pick up removal that matches your plan of attack – Witness Protection, Make Your Move – to win in the air – Imprisoned in the Moon, Luminous Rebuke for a more controlling plan

2. Utility Fliers
Fliers that are more than just a body, for racing and niche value- Empyrean Eagle, Angel of Finality, Mischievous Mystic, Spectral Sailor

3. Other Fliers
Reasonable creatures with the keyword, even if they’re best for other archetypes- Dazzling Angel, Healer’s Hawk, Serra Angel, Strix Lookout

4. Blockers

Foundation’s creatures are all above the normal rate, and the fliers are a little smaller. Unless you have 7+ removal spells, you’ll need to hold the ground efficiently – Felidar Savior, Aegis Turtle, Resolute Reinforcements, Tolarian Terror

There are many flavors of fliers available in Foundations, but they all share a need for creatures with the keyword. Most of the creatures with flying have a little extra value available from the other mechanics, including lifegain, prowess-style triggers, Angels, and draw triggers. These little bonuses add up to a lot of value over time, so try and lean your draft deck into ways to maximize these value chains.

R/W Aggro

1. Tokens

Whether you’re playing for value or to swarm the board, Boros is especially great at turning random bonus creatures into whole cards – Heroic Reinforcements, Cat Collector, Resolute Reinforcements, Dragon Trainer

2. Power Creatures
“The Good Cards” R/W has access to the most consistently strong rares, but even without them it’s important to pick up a few cards that are threats on their own – Serra Angel, Battlesong Berserker, Ajani’s Pridemate, Brazen Scourge

3. Removal
You’ll need a few kill spells in any deck, but as the Boros deck in Foundations you’ll usually want to deploy your threats first. Combat tricks will often feel better than removal due to cost and Red removal is plentiful so you can draft it after your threats – Abrade, Burst Lightning, Banishing Light, Joust Through

4. Tricks and Anthems

Ways to pump the whole team are plentiful, flexible, and powerful in FDN. If you’re going wider with more bodies, you want more anthems. If you’re focusing more on a few large threats, take more tricks. You’ll want some of both – Claws Out, Fleeting Flight, Sure Strike, Goblin Surprise

B/W Life

1. Payoffs

As I mentioned in the intro, gaining life happens incidentally but there are a limited number of ways to capitalize on this – Fiendish Panda, Cat Collector, Ajani’s Pridemate, Marauding Blight-Priest

2. Removal

The Lifegain deck can be aggressive, but is very likely to have to pull a game out of a stalled board. You’ll need to time removal carefully to make sure Ajani’s Pridemate can keep attacking and that your opponent can’t generate too much value with their engines in a long game – Bake into a Pie, Joust Through, Make Your Move, Stab, Eaten Alive

3. Win Conditions
The three best ways to break through a stalled board without rares are: (1)Evasive threats (including drain like Marauding Blight-Priest), (2)Going around with more creatures, and (3)Surviving until your larger threats can take over – Vampire Nighthawk, Vampire Soulcaller, Arbiter of Woe, Vengeful Bloodwitch

4. Lifegain
You might notice that in the above three categories, more than half of the cards also gain life. If you’ve been grabbing the incidental lifegain, you can also be sure to grab any of the 8 dual-lands that gain life and produce one of your colors, or Felidar Savior, Healer’s Hawk, Sun-Blessed Healer, Sanguine Syphoner

G/W Counters

1. Removal

Removal in G/W is mostly situational, either because it requires a creature in play or kills something specific. You’ll get the most out of the flexible spells so take them highly- Banishing Light, Bushwhack, Bite Down, Felling Blow

2. Payoffs

Unlike many other archetypes, counters are their payoff. Being larger is a pretty significant advantage, but there are still a few nice reasons to have counters on everything – Wildwood Scourge, Inspiring Call, Inspiring Paladin

3. Growth

A 1/1 creature that puts a +1/+1 counter somewhere is stronger than a 2/2. The strength of the counters deck even without the payoffs is its ability to put the size where it needs to be. Do it with some extra utility when possible – Snakeskin Veil, Treetop Snarespinner, Fleeting Flight, Felidar Savior

4. Size

The larger the creature you start with, the more you’ll get out of a few extra power. Three-mana 3/3 creatures are fantastic in Foundations – Nessian Hornbeetle, Armasaur Guide, Beast-Kin Ranger, Mild-Mannered Librarian

U/R Spells

1. Payoffs

The strength of Izzet in Foundations is all the cards available that pull extra value out of each noncreature spell cast – Balmor, Battlemage Captain, Tolarian Terror, Mischievous Mystic, Firespitter Whelp

2. Removal/Interaction

The specific spells you want will change a little bit with your speed and win condition, but cheap burn spells will fit into any deck – Burst Lightning, Abrade, Essence Scatter, Uncharted Voyage, Fiery Annihilation

3. Draw

Grab cheap spells that replace themselves and card advantage. The cheaper your removal, the more mana you can spend drawing cards –Fleeting Distraction, Think Twice, Arcane Epiphany, Seismic Rupture

4. Path – Spells, Go-Wide, Flash, control

Blue/Red can play as Control, Flash, Tempo with creatures that grow over time, a tokens deck, or even a burn deck! Try and figure out which path you want to lean into, and prioritize cards that support multiple paths –Brineborn Cutthroat, Faebloom Trick, Run Away Together, Firebrand Archer, Crackling Cyclops, Boltwave

U/B Graveyards

1. Value

Where’s your card advantage coming from? There are a lot of options but you’ll want to lean into them because some are mutually exclusive. You can have a recursive plan with efficient creatures, mill yourself to flashback spells, blink creatures, or just draw cards – Spectral Sailor, Fake Your Own Death, Vampire Gourmand, Reassembling Skeleton, Arcane Epiphany, Tragic Banshee, Skyship Buccaneer

2. Good Interaction

The important spells, to keep you alive while you get threshold or set up value engines – Stab, Essence Scatter, Bake into a Pie, Seeker’s Folly, Hero’s Downfall

3. Other Interaction

The other spells, which will aid your gameplan, answer specific threats, or have their cost mitigated by the late stage of the game – Pilfer, Witness Protection, Imprisoned in the Moon, Refute

4. Threats

Your deck needs 2-4 ways to pump your whole team, based on how much burn you have. However, there are a lot of anthems so you can pick them up a little later- Voltstorm Angel, Reckless Pyrosurfer, Molten Gatekeeper, Scurry of Gremlins, Billowing Shriekmass, Tolarian Terror, Arbiter of Woe, Cephalid Inkmage

U/G Ramp

1. Flexibility

Prioritize cards that can be real threats without being stuck in your hand, or fulfill multiple roles – Bushwhack, Elvish Regrower, Gnarlid Colony, Run Away Together

2. Survivability

It is easier to draft a deck that wins the late game than it is to survive to the late game- Witness Protection, Bite Down, Eager Trufflesnout, Essence Scatter

3. Power

Once you’re stable, play the cards that win you the game with either size or value- Grappling Kraken Mild-Mannered Librarian, Affectionate Indrik, Tatyova, Benthic Druid

4. Ramp

Cards that fix your mana and put lands into play faster. Pick them higher if you have off-color power cards-  Grow from the Ashes, Burnished Hart, Goldvein Pick

B/R Raid (Actually just midrange or sac)

1. Value

They tell us it’s raid, but Red/Black is a fundamentally midrange archetype in Foundations draft. You need to attack both their life total and their cards. Take cards that are worth multiple cards, or self-sufficient engines- Vampire Gourmand, Tragic Banshee, Heartfire Immolator, Perforating Artist, Seeker’s Folly

2. Gameplan

Will you be sacrificing your own creatures for value, or perhaps grabbing opposing creatures to sacrifice? Are you going to push in for early damage, then burn them out, maybe by gaining life? Extra bodies will trigger raid and morbid, but without attackers your late game threats will need to change dramatically. Decide how you’re winning the game quickly after locking into B/R – Reassembling Skeleton VS Vampire Nighthawk, Vengeful Bloodwitch VS Billowing Shriekmass, Dragon Trainer VS Involuntary Employment

3. Removal

You’ll need some removal, but Rakdos has a lot and it can help to figure out your gameplan before you pick it –  in the right deck  Involuntary Employment will be better than Hero’s Downfall –  Burst Lightning, Bake into a Pie, Abrade

4. Threats

B/R will be taxing resources and applying pressure to the opponent, and cards like Macabre Waltz are easy to find. This makes big threats at the appropriate point of the curve good options – Shivan Dragon, Arbiter of Woe. Alternatively, consistent damage from fliers and drain effects are effective – Vampire Nighthawk, Firespitter Whelp.

G/B Morbid

1. Payoffs

There are only a few strong payoffs for killing a creature/having a creature die every turn, so pick them highly- Wardens of the Cycle, Needletooth Pack, Vengeful Bloodwitch

2. Diers (Diees? Expendables?)- Death causers?

Because “Ways to trigger Morbid and block that don’t cost you much, either because the creature is expendable or already did the important thing” is too long – Infernal Vessel, Reassembling Skeleton, Burglar Rat, Elvish Regrower. This is also a good place for an elves package with Dwynen’s Elites, but you’ll need more of them

3. Pressure

Deal enough damage that your opponent has to block, instead of just letting your late creatures through when you don’t have a sac outlet. Both of the Foundation’s black sacrifice outlets fall into this category – Hungry Ghoul, Vampire Gourmand, Beast-Kin Ranger, Mild-Mannered Librarian

4. Removal

Compared to the other green color-pairs, G/B is the best at using the green fight and bite spells. This opens up a huge amount of removal, so you can pick it a little later – Bite Down, Bushwhack, Eaten Alive, Hero’s Downfall

R/G Power

1. Win Condition

By a strange quirk of the set, Foundations creatures don’t have hardly any menace, trample, or other forms of evasion. This is probably to balance out the extreme power available at uncommon. You’ll need a few of –  Garruk’s Uprising, Overrun, Battlesong Berserker, Shivan Dragon

2. Cheaper Creatures

There are more expensive creatures available in Gruul than cheap ones, so you’ll need pick efficient and ramp creatures first – Ruby, Daring Tracker, Slumbering Cerberus, Llanowar Elves, Eager Trufflesnout

3. Removal

All of the removal available is based on size, so try to prioritize the spells that deal more damage. Cards that target fliers are a little stronger in Foundations, there are only 3 Reach creatures to 27 Fliers – Abrade, Fiery Annihilation, Bite Down, Broken Wings(not too many!)

4. Bigger creatures

The good giant creatures are really strong, but it won’t be a huge problem if you have to run a normal 6/6 – Affectionate Indrik, Quakestrider Ceratops, Goblin Negotiation, Dragon Trainer

End Step

Magic Foundations is impressively and unexpectedly Foundational. It feels classic from the beginning, without being overly simplistic. I’m looking forward to drafting it entirely. I’m starting this season from Mythic 50-something, but if you still want to see me climb come hang out at Twitch.tv/ScuffleDLux or in TheGathering.gg Discord. 

Until I see you again, Happy Drafting!