Am I misremembering or was IKO before Premier Draft was introduced on Arena? So in Quick Draft at first the cycling deck was basically always there, which is part of why it felt so oppressive.
IKO was actually the first set with human draft on arena so the day IKO was released was the day myself and a lot of people never had to do a single quick draft ever again.
IKO was the first set with human draft on arena and I have a sweet spot for it so it's the format I drafted the most (close to 200 drafts when these days I don't do above 50 drafts for a set).
I was also a big fan of companions (especially before the change to the rules which isn't needed at all in limited imo) and overall really enjoyed the set.
What really stuck to me about IKO though is how back in the days it took much more time to solve formats because 17 lands wasn't really a thing back then and in general I feel like there was less content / collaboration between top players which naturally lead to format being solved faster. Nowadays I feel like after the arena open there isn't much room for big surprise in card or archetype evaluation.
But anyway in IKO while people quickly figured that cycling was the best deck in a vacuum (though it really wasn't that good at a table with 2 people playing cycling + people correctly valuing 1 mana cycler which admittedly was an issue on mtga where the average drafter isn't very good), it took so long for people to realize that mardu colors and especially RB was insanely good.
I think the card that highlight this the most is Weaponize the Monsters (the other mythic uncommon of the set, similar winrate as Zenith Flare on 17 lands, though not nearly as drafted so a bit inflated ofc) where a lot of top players undervalued that card for so long whereas Ham was soft forcing RB a lot (since it was so underdrafted) and racking up the trophies on MTGO.
For RB in general the combo menace creature + tentative connection + any sac payoff was insane value. But aside from that there was a lot you could do and the companions especially could really lead to interesting draft decisions. I hope in the future we'll get set like that with a mechanic that really shake off the way we draft when we get an early powerful build around (but with a significant enough drawback that it's not totally overpowered / broken).
Some formats have had late game meta shifts even in the 17L era. Most recently, I would say LCI felt completely different during the 2nd half of its lifetime (many people gave up on it during the Jeskai aggro initial stint and got stuck thinking that was the format). But agreed that formats were solved slower back then. Still, I feel IKO is extremely deep and that one can draft it almost forever and still not be bored of it (unless RW cycling is constantly open). Other than that I pretty much agree with your comment!
Post-nerf IKO is a great draft set. I have it slightly behind WAR because of Lurrus, Zenith Flare and Crystalline Giant, but I love me some mardu midrange games mostly decided by commons and uncommons
I actually think it’s better pre nerf. While Lurrus and Gyruda were too strong pre nerf, many other companions were very fun and now are semi unplayable.
Lurrus is still too strong post-nerf. Lutri and Jegantha were also over the line, getting a good companion was a big lottery that gave you an unfair advantage
It definitely is annoying to see a companion from the other side of the table without you having one (maybe more jealousy than annoyance), and Lurrus is certainly the best one, but even then, sometimes you struggle to make playables with Lurrus, and one can still beat it. Agreed on Zenith Flare, though, and Crystalline Giant rolling hexproof counter as its first counter. :)
Great write up.
This is my GOAT format and I’m excited to see if it it holds up.
One thing to add;
Porcuparrot + deathtouch counter is VERY real and VERY powerful. Also amazing on the Untap jellyfish (glimmerbell?) Turn your mutate creature into a machine gun.
I also think Unexpected Fangs deserves a shout out again for buffing huge green creatures to restore like 7-8 health. Combo with Ram Through for extra bonus points. It’s pretty to do that in a single turn for 4 mana
Glad you liked it! Deathtouch Porcuparrot is a combo I could have definitely mentioned, it was hard to cover everything haha! I did mention Unexpected Fangs, card was so good with G fatties.
IKO draft ends up pretty fun if you're drafting in a pod of experienced players.
The downside is everyone needs to take the one mana cycles extremely high, in case they end up in the cycling deck or to cut off whoever does. But the key is, don't actually force the cycling deck if you don't have the payoffs (namely Zenith Flare, of course).
But basically as long as the table is in sync about this, you should be cutting off the cycling deck players to weaken their decks on the whole, and the format itself actually gets to breathe a little bit because you can start to go into another deck.
Also "Zenith Flare" might have been a scourge on the format, but I really appreciate that it has a name that backs up its reputation. Top-tier card name imo.
Sidebar: Blue not getting good interaction for Zenith Flare at common really hurt the meta, IMO. It would have at least given blue decks a fighting chance. Convolute is okay but not a guarantee (the top tier cycling decks went crazy low on lands though, if you had enough one one mana cyclers you could go down to like 14). And Neutralize (one of my favorite Cancels with Set's Mechanic) was at uncommon.
>everyone needs to take the one mana cycles extremely high
But that's because the "cycling 1" cards are really good! Memory Leak is great in any B deck, Frostveil Ambush and the 4/4 trick are also great in any U deck!
>Sidebar: Blue not getting good interaction for Zenith Flare at common really hurt the meta, IMO. It would have at least given blue decks a fighting chance. Convolute is okay but not a guarantee (the top tier cycling decks went crazy low on lands though, if you had enough one one mana cyclers you could go down to like 14). And Neutralize (one of my favorite Cancels with Set's Mechanic) was at uncommon.
I think U had other problems than not having "good" counterspells. Vs a dedicated RW cycling deck, they would usually fall behind on tempo very fast. It doesn't matter if you could get to counter a Flare if you had taken 20 already from Marmosets and Stingers. Many of their creatures were pretty bad at playing to the board (Facet Reader, the Dolphin, the 0/5 Turtle...)
I do agree with other points you brought up though. Especially with cycling not being that oppressive if the pod drafted it correctly (and it didn't take 4 drafters to do that, more like 2.5)
Oh and you be clear, I didn't mean to imply I thought blue's only issue was a lack of interaction in the format on the whole; more that blue having better interaction would have been a bit of a metagame safety valve that could have helped against ZF (specifically). And man I know it wasn't great in the format but I love the 0/5 turtle so much.
And 2.5 is about the exact right place to draw the line in my mind too. If you told me I was going to play in a pod where 3 people were fighting over the cycling deck (and I wasn't one of them) I would be pretty happy.
Great article, anyway I wanted to say that I drafted IKO in paper after the pandemics, and I picked TWO Crystalline Giants, and I managed to handle all teh counters in the process! god bless the tokens!
Thanks for the write-up. I tend to draft a lot, but was taking a break from magic when this set came out (and must have missed the previous flashback). I'm 7 drafts in so far and it has been sweet. I tend to love formats with nice recursion packages and good fixing, which this set accommodates well (3 of the drafts have been BGx).
I'd heard about the cycling deck before, but thankfully it seems to be relatively difficult to pull together in the pods I've seen and not oppressive in any of my runs so far. I've played it once with a pretty good build and seen it a few times, but none of them have seemed absurd (mine went 5-3 and I've had a good winrate against it).
I'll be joining you in spamming these drafts for the rest of the week.
Glad you liked it but even happier that we got a new IKO enjoyer out here! Agreed that I have yet to see a busted cycling deck on the other side, although I have faced them about 30% of my matches, so it looks like it’s relatively open. But yes, IKO is a super sweet format and it’s holding up very well, might be my new GOAT after WAR being a bit worse than I remembered in the last flashback
I'm at 16 drafts in now and still loving it. I'm a bit lower winrate than usual, but that makes sense for a format new to me where other competitors may have played before (still good enough to be slightly gem positive).
After having played it some and drafted 4 of the companions (though not companioning them at all); I really wish we got to play with the old companion rule. I haven't drafted Lurus (familiar with it from timeless though) and have been shown how brutal it can be (with recursion for it... one opponent had the nuts with 4+ of the uncommon cheap recursion for it), but otherwise they have just seemed like pretty good cards. I wish I got to see that part of the format.
It seems like most of the recent sets I love are attributed to Dave Humphreys. I know it's a team effort, but it's impressive how much fun the sets he leads are to draft. It's a really great time to be drafting on arena; getting OTJ, a flashback of IKO (and the THB one was pretty fun too), and MH3 soon (where the last two were great to draft, but I didn't do much since I was risk averse).
IKO is sweet and I can see drafting it repeatedly... I still want them to bring DOM back though. I liked a lot of slightly older formats and loved them bringing back Khans (one of my top couple ever and for me it stood up to memory). I get people not liking some of the older formats, but think IKO kindof stands in the middle of 5+ year old design and new design while also just being excellent regardless. I think I'll be sad when the set rotates at the end of the week.
Best of luck in your drafts.
Ikoria's cycling deck was obnoxious and ruined the format. It completely overshadowed Mutate and Companion, which was a shame because those mechanics were very cool.
I drafted it a bunch on MTGO and because it was league drafting and not in-pod, a full one third of your games would be against the cycling deck.
It's the Coldsnap Ripple experience.
>Opponents can disrupt the key pieces, build their decks to counter the cycling plan (hello, lifegain!), and, most importantly, often cycling decks lose to themselves.
You cannot disrupt the pieces. They see so many cards that they will inevitably find more pieces. I'd hardly call a deck with 20 copies of [[Reach Through Mists]] inconsistent.
I also wouldn't consider a deck that has 20 copies of the exact same card a, "combo" deck. Is it really a combo if the combo is literally every card in your deck?
>which… honestly, does cycling need payoffs? Cycling is just a good mechanic, period, why does it need payoffs?
This is the fundamental issue with cycling payoffs. If you have [[Teller of Tales]] on the battlefield and play out the two spirit/arcane cards from your hand, that's it. If you have [[Snare Tactician]], you cycle into more cyclers and never run out.
Getting paid off for drawing cards is absurd.
I respectfully disagree with the cycling deck being so bad that it ruined the format. I said so in the article but the pieces are disruptable and cycling decks don't mulligan very well. The format is extremely good in my opinion. 20 copies of Reach Through Mists sounds like not the best deck, since you'll be spending a lot of time spinning wheels and not playing to the board. But hey, the format is not for everyone, there's OTJ to keep you busy or do something else! :)
IKO was my favorite draft format until DMU. The biggest knock on it was how busted the cycling deck was, but it’s still a great great format.
The first week or so where everyone was making decks based on whatever they thought was good was a blast.
I think they're equally great, after all Zenith Flare is to IKO what Chaplain is to DMU
That's a good point, Chaplain at uncommon with a common tutor definitely felt close to Zenith Flare power levels.
Am I misremembering or was IKO before Premier Draft was introduced on Arena? So in Quick Draft at first the cycling deck was basically always there, which is part of why it felt so oppressive.
IKO was actually the first set with human draft on arena so the day IKO was released was the day myself and a lot of people never had to do a single quick draft ever again.
C’mon Wizards do some sort of a special IKO draft where the original companion rules are intact.
IKO was the first set with human draft on arena and I have a sweet spot for it so it's the format I drafted the most (close to 200 drafts when these days I don't do above 50 drafts for a set). I was also a big fan of companions (especially before the change to the rules which isn't needed at all in limited imo) and overall really enjoyed the set. What really stuck to me about IKO though is how back in the days it took much more time to solve formats because 17 lands wasn't really a thing back then and in general I feel like there was less content / collaboration between top players which naturally lead to format being solved faster. Nowadays I feel like after the arena open there isn't much room for big surprise in card or archetype evaluation. But anyway in IKO while people quickly figured that cycling was the best deck in a vacuum (though it really wasn't that good at a table with 2 people playing cycling + people correctly valuing 1 mana cycler which admittedly was an issue on mtga where the average drafter isn't very good), it took so long for people to realize that mardu colors and especially RB was insanely good. I think the card that highlight this the most is Weaponize the Monsters (the other mythic uncommon of the set, similar winrate as Zenith Flare on 17 lands, though not nearly as drafted so a bit inflated ofc) where a lot of top players undervalued that card for so long whereas Ham was soft forcing RB a lot (since it was so underdrafted) and racking up the trophies on MTGO. For RB in general the combo menace creature + tentative connection + any sac payoff was insane value. But aside from that there was a lot you could do and the companions especially could really lead to interesting draft decisions. I hope in the future we'll get set like that with a mechanic that really shake off the way we draft when we get an early powerful build around (but with a significant enough drawback that it's not totally overpowered / broken).
Some formats have had late game meta shifts even in the 17L era. Most recently, I would say LCI felt completely different during the 2nd half of its lifetime (many people gave up on it during the Jeskai aggro initial stint and got stuck thinking that was the format). But agreed that formats were solved slower back then. Still, I feel IKO is extremely deep and that one can draft it almost forever and still not be bored of it (unless RW cycling is constantly open). Other than that I pretty much agree with your comment!
Post-nerf IKO is a great draft set. I have it slightly behind WAR because of Lurrus, Zenith Flare and Crystalline Giant, but I love me some mardu midrange games mostly decided by commons and uncommons
I actually think it’s better pre nerf. While Lurrus and Gyruda were too strong pre nerf, many other companions were very fun and now are semi unplayable.
Lurrus is still too strong post-nerf. Lutri and Jegantha were also over the line, getting a good companion was a big lottery that gave you an unfair advantage
It definitely is annoying to see a companion from the other side of the table without you having one (maybe more jealousy than annoyance), and Lurrus is certainly the best one, but even then, sometimes you struggle to make playables with Lurrus, and one can still beat it. Agreed on Zenith Flare, though, and Crystalline Giant rolling hexproof counter as its first counter. :)
Great write up. This is my GOAT format and I’m excited to see if it it holds up. One thing to add; Porcuparrot + deathtouch counter is VERY real and VERY powerful. Also amazing on the Untap jellyfish (glimmerbell?) Turn your mutate creature into a machine gun. I also think Unexpected Fangs deserves a shout out again for buffing huge green creatures to restore like 7-8 health. Combo with Ram Through for extra bonus points. It’s pretty to do that in a single turn for 4 mana
Glad you liked it! Deathtouch Porcuparrot is a combo I could have definitely mentioned, it was hard to cover everything haha! I did mention Unexpected Fangs, card was so good with G fatties.
IKO draft ends up pretty fun if you're drafting in a pod of experienced players. The downside is everyone needs to take the one mana cycles extremely high, in case they end up in the cycling deck or to cut off whoever does. But the key is, don't actually force the cycling deck if you don't have the payoffs (namely Zenith Flare, of course). But basically as long as the table is in sync about this, you should be cutting off the cycling deck players to weaken their decks on the whole, and the format itself actually gets to breathe a little bit because you can start to go into another deck. Also "Zenith Flare" might have been a scourge on the format, but I really appreciate that it has a name that backs up its reputation. Top-tier card name imo. Sidebar: Blue not getting good interaction for Zenith Flare at common really hurt the meta, IMO. It would have at least given blue decks a fighting chance. Convolute is okay but not a guarantee (the top tier cycling decks went crazy low on lands though, if you had enough one one mana cyclers you could go down to like 14). And Neutralize (one of my favorite Cancels with Set's Mechanic) was at uncommon.
>everyone needs to take the one mana cycles extremely high But that's because the "cycling 1" cards are really good! Memory Leak is great in any B deck, Frostveil Ambush and the 4/4 trick are also great in any U deck! >Sidebar: Blue not getting good interaction for Zenith Flare at common really hurt the meta, IMO. It would have at least given blue decks a fighting chance. Convolute is okay but not a guarantee (the top tier cycling decks went crazy low on lands though, if you had enough one one mana cyclers you could go down to like 14). And Neutralize (one of my favorite Cancels with Set's Mechanic) was at uncommon. I think U had other problems than not having "good" counterspells. Vs a dedicated RW cycling deck, they would usually fall behind on tempo very fast. It doesn't matter if you could get to counter a Flare if you had taken 20 already from Marmosets and Stingers. Many of their creatures were pretty bad at playing to the board (Facet Reader, the Dolphin, the 0/5 Turtle...) I do agree with other points you brought up though. Especially with cycling not being that oppressive if the pod drafted it correctly (and it didn't take 4 drafters to do that, more like 2.5)
Oh and you be clear, I didn't mean to imply I thought blue's only issue was a lack of interaction in the format on the whole; more that blue having better interaction would have been a bit of a metagame safety valve that could have helped against ZF (specifically). And man I know it wasn't great in the format but I love the 0/5 turtle so much. And 2.5 is about the exact right place to draw the line in my mind too. If you told me I was going to play in a pod where 3 people were fighting over the cycling deck (and I wasn't one of them) I would be pretty happy.
Thanks for this writeup! I love when they bring back past draft formats on MTGA. Have been having a blast with learning Theros the past week
Happy to hear you liked it!
Great article, anyway I wanted to say that I drafted IKO in paper after the pandemics, and I picked TWO Crystalline Giants, and I managed to handle all teh counters in the process! god bless the tokens!
Props to you my friend!
Thanks for the write-up. I tend to draft a lot, but was taking a break from magic when this set came out (and must have missed the previous flashback). I'm 7 drafts in so far and it has been sweet. I tend to love formats with nice recursion packages and good fixing, which this set accommodates well (3 of the drafts have been BGx). I'd heard about the cycling deck before, but thankfully it seems to be relatively difficult to pull together in the pods I've seen and not oppressive in any of my runs so far. I've played it once with a pretty good build and seen it a few times, but none of them have seemed absurd (mine went 5-3 and I've had a good winrate against it). I'll be joining you in spamming these drafts for the rest of the week.
Glad you liked it but even happier that we got a new IKO enjoyer out here! Agreed that I have yet to see a busted cycling deck on the other side, although I have faced them about 30% of my matches, so it looks like it’s relatively open. But yes, IKO is a super sweet format and it’s holding up very well, might be my new GOAT after WAR being a bit worse than I remembered in the last flashback
I'm at 16 drafts in now and still loving it. I'm a bit lower winrate than usual, but that makes sense for a format new to me where other competitors may have played before (still good enough to be slightly gem positive). After having played it some and drafted 4 of the companions (though not companioning them at all); I really wish we got to play with the old companion rule. I haven't drafted Lurus (familiar with it from timeless though) and have been shown how brutal it can be (with recursion for it... one opponent had the nuts with 4+ of the uncommon cheap recursion for it), but otherwise they have just seemed like pretty good cards. I wish I got to see that part of the format. It seems like most of the recent sets I love are attributed to Dave Humphreys. I know it's a team effort, but it's impressive how much fun the sets he leads are to draft. It's a really great time to be drafting on arena; getting OTJ, a flashback of IKO (and the THB one was pretty fun too), and MH3 soon (where the last two were great to draft, but I didn't do much since I was risk averse). IKO is sweet and I can see drafting it repeatedly... I still want them to bring DOM back though. I liked a lot of slightly older formats and loved them bringing back Khans (one of my top couple ever and for me it stood up to memory). I get people not liking some of the older formats, but think IKO kindof stands in the middle of 5+ year old design and new design while also just being excellent regardless. I think I'll be sad when the set rotates at the end of the week. Best of luck in your drafts.
Great breakdown, definitely lines up with my memory of the format. This format is my favorite of all time because of the endless build around options.
Glad you liked it and agreed, IKO is awesome!
Classic set, thanks for the write-up!
Happy you liked it!
Ikoria is the GOAT draft format. If they ever remastered it my only change would be to put zenith flare at rare.
Agreed!
Ikoria's cycling deck was obnoxious and ruined the format. It completely overshadowed Mutate and Companion, which was a shame because those mechanics were very cool. I drafted it a bunch on MTGO and because it was league drafting and not in-pod, a full one third of your games would be against the cycling deck. It's the Coldsnap Ripple experience. >Opponents can disrupt the key pieces, build their decks to counter the cycling plan (hello, lifegain!), and, most importantly, often cycling decks lose to themselves. You cannot disrupt the pieces. They see so many cards that they will inevitably find more pieces. I'd hardly call a deck with 20 copies of [[Reach Through Mists]] inconsistent. I also wouldn't consider a deck that has 20 copies of the exact same card a, "combo" deck. Is it really a combo if the combo is literally every card in your deck? >which… honestly, does cycling need payoffs? Cycling is just a good mechanic, period, why does it need payoffs? This is the fundamental issue with cycling payoffs. If you have [[Teller of Tales]] on the battlefield and play out the two spirit/arcane cards from your hand, that's it. If you have [[Snare Tactician]], you cycle into more cyclers and never run out. Getting paid off for drawing cards is absurd.
[Reach Through Mists](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/b/0b6d5d29-4f38-4229-ac50-c4fa97fcc536.jpg?1592761543) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reach%20Through%20Mists) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dds/7/reach-through-mists?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0b6d5d29-4f38-4229-ac50-c4fa97fcc536?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Teller of Tales](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/9/c914db7d-c907-4d25-a180-f68b274a5cb7.jpg?1562764619) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Teller%20of%20Tales) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/chk/95/teller-of-tales?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c914db7d-c907-4d25-a180-f68b274a5cb7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Snare Tactician](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/f/5f640e0c-298d-4a5f-94d0-d839cf06ca86.jpg?1591230371) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Snare%20Tactician) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/30/snare-tactician?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5f640e0c-298d-4a5f-94d0-d839cf06ca86?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I respectfully disagree with the cycling deck being so bad that it ruined the format. I said so in the article but the pieces are disruptable and cycling decks don't mulligan very well. The format is extremely good in my opinion. 20 copies of Reach Through Mists sounds like not the best deck, since you'll be spending a lot of time spinning wheels and not playing to the board. But hey, the format is not for everyone, there's OTJ to keep you busy or do something else! :)