Limited Understanding: Draft Using the BREAD Strategy
Drafting in any Magic: the Gathering (a Richard Garfield game) format can be daunting. I've covered how to draft Ixalan, but what about other sets, past and future? That's why I want to talk about a strategy called BREAD, a gluten-filled recipe for winning. So long as you follow it to the letter, you'll be a pro cardslinger like me in no time.
Making the right pick from a pack becomes a lot easier when you follow BREAD. The strategy is pretty simple: each letter refers to a type of card and the priority at which you should pick them. By identifying which category each card falls under, it becomes clear what's the best card in each pack.
Of course, this could mean the best card at any given moment goes against the colors you're being signaled. That's fine, too! By taking it for yourself, you're denying it from your opponents, so you're less likely to have to play around it. You've also opened the doors to splashing for a powerful off-color card to really catch your opponents off-guard. Either way, you'll never be unhappy with a pick again.
Now, on to the categories.
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Bombs
The best of the best. These are cards that, if not quickly answered, can win you the game. Almost every Planeswalker card falls into this category, but there are also things like Glorybringer and River's Rebuke.
Bombs aren't necessarily rares. Scaled Behemoth, for example, is difficult to kill and can bring the game to an end in a few attacks. Backed up by Cartouches in a format with very little enchantment removal and you had a strong closer.
Bombs also aren't necessarily creatures. Sleep was an especially powerful card in M10, M11, and M13 drafts, as it essentially gave you two all-out alpha strikes. If you can't win after that, then you probably deserved to lose anyway.
The best way to identify bombs is by their impact. If it greatly swings the board state in your favor and demands an immediate response from your opponent, you have a bomb on your hands.
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Rares
When you're having trouble evaluating the best card in the pack, all you have to do is look at the rarity. Rares and mythics are often high-impact and mana-efficient. The fact that they appear less often than commons and uncommons means your opponents are less likely to play around them, adding another strategic advantage.
When in doubt, just go by TCGplayer's prices to determine the right pick. Sometimes, it's not even a rare at all! Uncommons like Abrade and Cast Out are both pricey and powerful, and no one can deny the raw game-changing ability of Unclaimed Territory.
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Enchantments
Most players aren't going to be drafting hate for enchantments, and red and black can't get rid of them at all! With two colors that don't have answers to them, enchantments are the most difficult permanent to deal with, making them top picks.
Many of them do truly awful things to your opponent. Sandwurm Convergence and Overwhelming Splendor pretty much win you the game, Torment of Scarabs puts your opponent on an unbeatable clock, and One With the Wind sends your biggest dude to their face every turn.
Enchantments often serve as removal to get you out of tight spots. Unquenchable Thirst, Desert's Hold, Ixalan's Binding, and Pious Interdiction all keep pesky creatures from ruining your fun. And it's not like anyone's running cards that destroy enchantments, so they're as good as any straight-up kill spell.
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Artifacts
Artifacts are like enchantments, but less colorful. Once again, these cards are top picks because they're difficult to destroy, both because the kill spells are scarce and people tend not to take them.
Those who drafted the previous format know the power of Oketra's Monument and God-Pharoah's Gift, which were very strong picks despite not being in an artifact-centric block. Ixalan isn't any more focused on artifacts, but we still get good ones like Pirate's Cutlass and Cobbled Wings.
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Dudes
Finally, we reach the least useful cards for your draft pool. Historically, creatures have been the weakest cards in Magic. Case in point: none of the Power Nine cards are creatures.
You will likely end up drafting creatures, but not because they increase your board presence, put pressure on your opponent, discourage attacks, make trades to save your removal spells, or chump block to buy you time. Rather, when you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, you often have no choice but to grab a bunch of dudes for your deck.
You should never take a creature unless it also happens to fit under the other categories further up. They're really only good for rounding out your mana curve and stretching the game out until you can close it with a big Cut // Ribbons or a flipped Vance's Blasting Cannons.
They also die to everything, and who wants that?
Making the right pick from a pack becomes a lot easier when you follow BREAD. The strategy is pretty simple: each letter refers to a type of card and the priority at which you should pick them. By identifying which category each card falls under, it becomes clear what's the best card in each pack.
 |
| I will never stop referencing Ignis's cooking. |
Of course, this could mean the best card at any given moment goes against the colors you're being signaled. That's fine, too! By taking it for yourself, you're denying it from your opponents, so you're less likely to have to play around it. You've also opened the doors to splashing for a powerful off-color card to really catch your opponents off-guard. Either way, you'll never be unhappy with a pick again.
Now, on to the categories.
------
Bombs
The best of the best. These are cards that, if not quickly answered, can win you the game. Almost every Planeswalker card falls into this category, but there are also things like Glorybringer and River's Rebuke.
 |
| An actual bomb in Magic |
Bombs also aren't necessarily creatures. Sleep was an especially powerful card in M10, M11, and M13 drafts, as it essentially gave you two all-out alpha strikes. If you can't win after that, then you probably deserved to lose anyway.
The best way to identify bombs is by their impact. If it greatly swings the board state in your favor and demands an immediate response from your opponent, you have a bomb on your hands.
------
Rares
When you're having trouble evaluating the best card in the pack, all you have to do is look at the rarity. Rares and mythics are often high-impact and mana-efficient. The fact that they appear less often than commons and uncommons means your opponents are less likely to play around them, adding another strategic advantage.
When in doubt, just go by TCGplayer's prices to determine the right pick. Sometimes, it's not even a rare at all! Uncommons like Abrade and Cast Out are both pricey and powerful, and no one can deny the raw game-changing ability of Unclaimed Territory.
------
Enchantments
 |
| It's an enchantment and $15, so it must be good. |
Many of them do truly awful things to your opponent. Sandwurm Convergence and Overwhelming Splendor pretty much win you the game, Torment of Scarabs puts your opponent on an unbeatable clock, and One With the Wind sends your biggest dude to their face every turn.
Enchantments often serve as removal to get you out of tight spots. Unquenchable Thirst, Desert's Hold, Ixalan's Binding, and Pious Interdiction all keep pesky creatures from ruining your fun. And it's not like anyone's running cards that destroy enchantments, so they're as good as any straight-up kill spell.
------
Artifacts
Artifacts are like enchantments, but less colorful. Once again, these cards are top picks because they're difficult to destroy, both because the kill spells are scarce and people tend not to take them.
Those who drafted the previous format know the power of Oketra's Monument and God-Pharoah's Gift, which were very strong picks despite not being in an artifact-centric block. Ixalan isn't any more focused on artifacts, but we still get good ones like Pirate's Cutlass and Cobbled Wings.
------
Dudes
 |
| Creatures have never been relevant in Magic. |
You will likely end up drafting creatures, but not because they increase your board presence, put pressure on your opponent, discourage attacks, make trades to save your removal spells, or chump block to buy you time. Rather, when you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, you often have no choice but to grab a bunch of dudes for your deck.
You should never take a creature unless it also happens to fit under the other categories further up. They're really only good for rounding out your mana curve and stretching the game out until you can close it with a big Cut // Ribbons or a flipped Vance's Blasting Cannons.
They also die to everything, and who wants that?
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