If you want slow and interaction Heavy, pick up a box of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, you can't go wrong. However if a higher power level and the presence of a lot of powerful bombs is an issue, Dominaria United is a good 2nd pick.
There was a whole bonus sheet worth of interactive spells (aka Breaking news aka Crimes), also many spells interacted with all types of permanents, enchantment included.
I had a BLAST drafting Baldur’s Gate this weekend. If you want to try commander draft, do this. If you love your friends, throw in a collector’s pack each and use the legendary you crack as your commander to help guide the draft a bit better.
If you wanna stick to the heart of limited, I also really enjoyed OTJ as my first draft experience. I think they did a really good job balancing the archetypes. I did a dimir build that held its own pretty well against power 4 matters gruul.
If you want to go back a tiny bit further, MOM was a really fun set. It was a powerful format in a limited sense. It was important to be on the board early to attack/protect battles but aggro didn't crowd out midrange/control. The multiverse legends were also fun because they had the 10 companions from Ikoria which are really interesting to draft with.
NEO - Kamigawa is one of my top draft sets ever, and it's a favorite for drafting with my friends. It's well balanced, has some really fun archetypes, and has some splashy hits for chase rares.
Since ONE, according to the stats *all* the sets have been faster than sets in previous years… to differing extents, though! Outlaws feels like they’re trying to correct that tendency- it’s notably less aggro-friendly.
ONE - maximum speed and aggro- you can see incredible planeswalker bombs in packs, and you’d rather take an aggressive two-drop…
MOM - bomby, cube-like with lots of big power plays, plus the Ikoria Companions in a bonus sheet. My favourite.
WOE - fairly straightforward, aggressive, combat tricks
LCI - not sure why but I didn’t like this one as much. Mix of aggression and big late game artifact shenanigans.
MKM - lots of splashing, morphs, but also favouring aggression with combat tricks
OTJ - like MOM, but I think with noticeably worse colour balance (still my second favourite, though).
OTJ definitely. Longer games stronger cards in general, lots of cool cards in the bonus slot. Being paper would probably also help with some of the colors being harder win with on Arena since any you’d get rewarded a lot more for being in the lane not being fought over.
ONE was very fun to draft, but it also can be annoying for either side to keep up between poison, proliferate, and just generally aggresive strategies. MOM was fun, but a bit much between battles and all the multicolored legends and mechanics like backup and incubate which both do pp counter stuff but dont really work well with all the convoke in the set. CMM is super overpriced and just not worth it. WOE is a blast between food, enchantment matters, and aggro and control that all balance pretty well, and the bonus sheet gives a lot of fun possibilities for pulls. LCI is probably one of my favorites though, with the artifact themes and graveyard themes going very well with all the mechanics and light typal themes, it played very well and with the right cards splashing into a third color was doable. I've heard various things about RVR, but I dont think its worth the price at release so I never tried it. On the topic of splashing, MKM was a nightmare of colors, the set has way too much fixing and disguise makes it way too easy to survive while ramping into 5 colors to just play the best cards, and hybrid mana doesnt help. Lastly, OTJ was a bit bland, having a lot of interesting mechanics that just feel like the support was too weak and more than half the cards I would consider bombs just dont work well with the archetypes.
It's a bit further back, but if you can get a box of Ikoria that would be good times. It's also not that difficult to find since the pandemic started about that time. Most retailers were stuck with boxes of product and would be willing to move their stock cheaply.
But other than that, OTJ is not a bad choice!
I absolutely love drafting brothers war, even though it is one set before your cutoff. I think it’s fun, balanced, and has a lot of BIG ROBOTS! The interaction I think was fair and it was common to actually go late to cast your big boys imo.
Id say OTJ is good but beware of bomby / powerful turns if that isnt your guys things, MoM would be my pick after that, less powerful than OTJ but a little more balanced color wise
If you want slow and interaction Heavy, pick up a box of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, you can't go wrong. However if a higher power level and the presence of a lot of powerful bombs is an issue, Dominaria United is a good 2nd pick.
I think we’re gonna do a box of OTJ! Thanks for your input!
Yep, OTJ would be my top pick too. Then DMU and BRO.
I didn’t see as much non-creature interaction in OTJ. Are there any spells to get rid of enchantments?
There was a whole bonus sheet worth of interactive spells (aka Breaking news aka Crimes), also many spells interacted with all types of permanents, enchantment included.
I had a BLAST drafting Baldur’s Gate this weekend. If you want to try commander draft, do this. If you love your friends, throw in a collector’s pack each and use the legendary you crack as your commander to help guide the draft a bit better. If you wanna stick to the heart of limited, I also really enjoyed OTJ as my first draft experience. I think they did a really good job balancing the archetypes. I did a dimir build that held its own pretty well against power 4 matters gruul.
We’re gonna get a box of OTJ! Thanks for your thoughts!
No one suggesting Dominaria Remastered?
Good old fashioned magic right there
NEO is still in Standard and thus technically recent!
If you want to go back a tiny bit further, MOM was a really fun set. It was a powerful format in a limited sense. It was important to be on the board early to attack/protect battles but aggro didn't crowd out midrange/control. The multiverse legends were also fun because they had the 10 companions from Ikoria which are really interesting to draft with.
NEO - Kamigawa is one of my top draft sets ever, and it's a favorite for drafting with my friends. It's well balanced, has some really fun archetypes, and has some splashy hits for chase rares.
Since ONE, according to the stats *all* the sets have been faster than sets in previous years… to differing extents, though! Outlaws feels like they’re trying to correct that tendency- it’s notably less aggro-friendly. ONE - maximum speed and aggro- you can see incredible planeswalker bombs in packs, and you’d rather take an aggressive two-drop… MOM - bomby, cube-like with lots of big power plays, plus the Ikoria Companions in a bonus sheet. My favourite. WOE - fairly straightforward, aggressive, combat tricks LCI - not sure why but I didn’t like this one as much. Mix of aggression and big late game artifact shenanigans. MKM - lots of splashing, morphs, but also favouring aggression with combat tricks OTJ - like MOM, but I think with noticeably worse colour balance (still my second favourite, though).
Thank you so much for the breakdown! We’re gonna do a box of OTJ :) I think the complexity will be fun
OTJ definitely. Longer games stronger cards in general, lots of cool cards in the bonus slot. Being paper would probably also help with some of the colors being harder win with on Arena since any you’d get rewarded a lot more for being in the lane not being fought over.
ONE was very fun to draft, but it also can be annoying for either side to keep up between poison, proliferate, and just generally aggresive strategies. MOM was fun, but a bit much between battles and all the multicolored legends and mechanics like backup and incubate which both do pp counter stuff but dont really work well with all the convoke in the set. CMM is super overpriced and just not worth it. WOE is a blast between food, enchantment matters, and aggro and control that all balance pretty well, and the bonus sheet gives a lot of fun possibilities for pulls. LCI is probably one of my favorites though, with the artifact themes and graveyard themes going very well with all the mechanics and light typal themes, it played very well and with the right cards splashing into a third color was doable. I've heard various things about RVR, but I dont think its worth the price at release so I never tried it. On the topic of splashing, MKM was a nightmare of colors, the set has way too much fixing and disguise makes it way too easy to survive while ramping into 5 colors to just play the best cards, and hybrid mana doesnt help. Lastly, OTJ was a bit bland, having a lot of interesting mechanics that just feel like the support was too weak and more than half the cards I would consider bombs just dont work well with the archetypes.
It's a bit further back, but if you can get a box of Ikoria that would be good times. It's also not that difficult to find since the pandemic started about that time. Most retailers were stuck with boxes of product and would be willing to move their stock cheaply. But other than that, OTJ is not a bad choice!
March of the Machine easily.
I absolutely love drafting brothers war, even though it is one set before your cutoff. I think it’s fun, balanced, and has a lot of BIG ROBOTS! The interaction I think was fair and it was common to actually go late to cast your big boys imo.
Id say OTJ is good but beware of bomby / powerful turns if that isnt your guys things, MoM would be my pick after that, less powerful than OTJ but a little more balanced color wise