Edge of Eternities: The Draft Telemetry

Telemetry

what the record shows17Lands archive

Every other section here is expert judgment. This one is the flight recorder. Card tiles throughout carry a win-rate chip: the games-in-hand win rate, meaning how often the player won when that card was in hand or in play. Set median is 55.8 percent, so anything above it beat the average card.

Games analyzed

563,418

Premier draft, whole format

On the play

57.6%

vs 53.0 on the draw

Play advantage

+4.6

points

Average game

9.2

turns

Pair	Vector	Win rate	Games
UG	Ramp	57.2%	70,827
RG	Landfall	56.3%	60,806
WG	Counters	55.9%	54,714
WB	Go wide	55.9%	53,910
BR	Void value	55.5%	58,131
WU	Second spell	55.4%	53,269
UB	Artifact control	55.0%	62,670
BG	Graveyard	53.8%	34,412
UR	Artifact aggro	53.8%	39,114
WR	Station	53.6%	23,275

This is a green format. The three best decks all contain green, and the ramp deck at the top was the most-drafted pair in the format. Green makes the Lander tokens, Landers are the only reliable fixing, and fixing is what lets you play the biggest cards. The prerelease guide called blue-green ramp great and told you to avoid black-green: both calls hold up exactly. Two of its other predictions did not, and those are in the preview-season section below.

Four Systems

the new mechanics

Learn these before you evaluate a single card, because all four change what a card costs and when it can act.

Station newSpacecraft and planets have station: tap another creature at sorcery speed to add charge counters equal to that creature's power, unlocking abilities at stated thresholds. Spacecraft become creatures at their threshold; planets never do. Every spacecraft has a different number, so read it before you plan the sequence.

Warp newAn alternate, cheaper cost. Cast it, it exiles at the next end step, then you cast it again later from exile at full price. Warp grants no haste, so the early cast is really about buying the entry trigger: it cannot attack, and it is gone before it can block.

Void newTurns on if a nonland permanent left the battlefield this turn, or a spell was warped this turn. Removal, combat deaths, a cracked Lander, or a warp all switch it on, so it is usually easy to satisfy deliberately.

Lander tokens newTap and sacrifice for two mana to fetch a basic onto the battlefield. One token is ramp, fixing, a splash enabler, an artifact for artifact counts, a landfall trigger, and a free void trigger. The most important card-shaped thing in the set.

LandfallTriggers on every land entering, and Landers make two triggers in a turn routine rather than exceptional.

Stellar SightsThe bonus sheet is all lands, so it adds almost nothing to your spell quality at a prerelease. Two Special Guests are worth a look: a green tutor that most green decks want, and a blue top-end card for the slower decks.

The two habits that separate good players here: stationing is powerful, but attacking and blocking is still your creatures' day job, so make it a decision rather than a default and never tap so many that you die to the crack-back. And cast your combat tricks on your turn when they are tapped out. Several tricks in this set are worded to look defensive, with discounts against blockers or untap clauses, but that is damage control for a bad plan, not an invitation.

Bombs

the countdownChips are real win rates

The expert top ten, in their order, and the best-called list in this whole series: nine of the ten landed above the 89th percentile. The reordering needed is small but the top of it matters.

**Possibility Technician**61.2%Exiles a card off the top you can play while you control a Kavu, so the advantage survives its death. Warp adds an extra early exile.

**Lumen-Class Frigate**60.4%A two-mana spacecraft whose first threshold is a hard-to-remove team anthem, then a lifelinking flier.

**Ouroboroid**67.3%Counters on every creature you control each combat, counting itself, so it snowballs exponentially. The tape says this is the number one card in the entire set.

**Elegy Acolyte**65.6%Lifelink that draws whenever your creatures connect and builds robots off void. Stabilizes behind, snowballs ahead.

**Quantum Riddler**66.5%A 4/6 flier that replaces itself and draws extra on an empty hand. Warp means it is never dead.

**Nova Hellkite**62.2%Warp it for an immediate four to the face plus a ping, then cast it again later as a hasty flier.

**Zero Point Ballad**57.6%A scalable sweeper you can aim at only their side, reanimating the best thing it killed at high X. The softest of the ten.

**Cosmogrand Zenith**63.7%Two soldiers or a team pump on every second spell in a turn. Rewards planning, wins alone.

**Mightform Harmonizer**59.4%Doubles a creature's power on each land entering, and cracking Landers doubles it repeatedly.

**Mutinous Massacre**60.4%Sweeps half the board and steals the rest with haste for one massive alpha strike.

Move Ouroboroid to the top. At 67.3 percent it is the single best-performing card in the set, ahead of everything ranked above it, and it is the one card here that simply ends the game if it survives a turn cycle. Cast it while they are tapped out. The only genuine soft spot in the list is the sweeper at number seven, which needs a healthy life total and trades set up in advance to be worth its mana.

Ten Vectors

the archetypesStandings from real games

Every pair has a plan, but they are not equal. The three green pairs sit at the top and the spread from first to last is 3.6 points.

Ramp57.2% · best · most drafted

Landers into haymakers

Accelerate on Landers, use them to enable a splash, then deploy inevitability engines the other decks cannot reach. It has the best top end and the best mana, which in a fixing-poor set is the whole game.

Landfall56.3% · second

Two triggers a turn

Generate Landers and extra land drops so landfall fires repeatedly, often twice in a turn, turning lands into damage, cards, and counters. A land drop plus a cracked Lander is two triggers from one turn.

Counters55.9%

Grow and convert

Build a board of counter-carrying creatures and convert those counters into card advantage as they connect or die. The signpost skews white with green supporting, so do not stretch to a third color.

Go Wide55.9%

Bodies then anthems

Flood the board with creatures and tokens, then break through with a team pump that grants deathtouch. Spare bodies are not only pump targets: they convoke and they feed sacrifice effects.

Void Value55.5%

Turn it on every turn

Chain removal, sacrifices, and warp casts so void is live nearly every turn, accruing incremental advantage. The most reliable sacrifice outlet in the set lives here, and temporary theft effects pair perfectly with it.

Second Spell55.4%

Low curve, double up

Play a low curve full of cheap spells so you reliably cast two a turn, and let the payoffs turn them into fliers and cards. Holding a cheap instant guarantees the trigger even through removal.

Artifact Control55.0%

Grind on card quality

Trade early, accumulate artifacts, and grind out with instant-speed advantage. Do not force artifact count: most of this pair is already artifacts, so just take the better card.

Graveyard53.8% · avoid

The pair with no payoff

Self-mill into recursion, in theory. In practice the pair has far less graveyard synergy than it looks like it should and no marquee payoff at all. The prerelease guide told you to avoid it, and the record agrees: eighth of ten. If you end up here, splash red for the void package.

Artifact Aggro53.8% · overrated

Cheap bodies, entry triggers

Curve out with cheap artifact creatures and use artifacts-entering triggers to spread counters and make tokens. Predicted before release to be one of the most powerful decks in the set. It finished tied for eighth.

Station53.6% · last

Tapped creatures matter

Attack to get creatures tapped, then use stationing as a second way to tap them and cash in tapped-creature triggers. It is the least-drafted pair and the worst performer, which is the honest cost of a plan that asks you to tap your team on a board where damage is progress.

Preview Season Got This Wrong

the honest scorecardRares are hard to call early

The clearest pattern across every guide in this series: post-release evaluations of commons and uncommons hold up well, while preview-season rare evaluations are shaky. This set is the sharpest example yet, and it cuts both ways.

**Plasma Bolt**55.8%Predicted as the single best common in the set. It finished at exactly the median, the 50th percentile. Still a fine card, just not the format's best.

**Tezzeret, Cruel Captain**53.2%Called the face card of the set and a ridiculous bomb. The 24th percentile. It needs to survive and ultimate, and the format is too fast to let it.

**Memorial Vault**53.0%Called probably the best rare in red. The 22nd percentile, and the guide itself noted it has no home outside one pair.

**The Endstone**55.8%Talked up as very, very good despite its downside. Exactly the median.

**Beyond the Quiet**59.2%DISCOUNTED before release because white wants to play to the board. It landed at the 88th percentile. A sweeper is still a sweeper.

**Singularity Rupture**59.4%Called a ridiculous wrath, and this one was right: the 89th percentile.

**Codecracker Hound**60.2%Also on that list and genuinely elite: the 93rd percentile. Warping for the entry trigger and recasting later really does win card-advantage battles.

The lesson to carry into your next prerelease: trust cheap, unconditional, board-affecting cards over splashy expensive ones, and be suspicious of any argument that a sweeper is bad in your deck. Two of the three most overrated cards here are expensive engines that need the game to go long, in a format that averages 9.2 turns.

Always Draft These

the reliablesEight of ten above median

A good list with two caveats, both noted above. Removal that trades up on mana and bodies that bring a Lander are the real backbone.

**Glacier Godmaw**60.2%Makes a Lander and gives the team a pump with vigilance and haste on landfall. It can trigger itself the turn it lands.

**Meltstrider's Resolve**59.0%One mana for a permanent buff plus a fight, so it removes a threat and leaves a better creature behind.

**Sunstar Expansionist**58.0%Good stats, a Lander if you are behind on lands, and it attacks bigger on landfall. Rare ramp for white.

**Tragic Trajectory**57.7%One mana to kill something small, and with void live it kills essentially anything.

**Depressurize**57.0%Instant-speed answer to anything with power three or less, and a combat trick to set up a double block.

Top Commons

ranked by color

White

**Banishing Light**58.2%Catch-all for any problem nonland permanent, and with almost no enchantment removal the answer sticks all game.

**Exosuit Savior**53.1%Rebuys the set's many entry effects, triggers void, and can replay a land when you would miss a drop.

Blue

**Cryoshatter**56.6%One mana handles almost every creature that matters; it gets one chump block before dying.

**Starbreach Whale**53.8%A 3/5 flier that surveils two, with a cheap warp mode for early value.

Black

**Embrace Oblivion**56.2%ONE mana to destroy a creature or spacecraft, and Landers make the sacrifice near-free.

Red

**Bombard**54.7%Four damage at INSTANT speed, so you can hold mana and answer a trick.

**Orbital Plunge**57.6%Six damage kills essentially anything, and you usually bank a Lander too.

Green

**Diplomatic Relations**57.2%As worded, point it at THEIR creature to make it damage itself. A three-mana instant kill green should not have.

**Intrepid Tenderfoot**55.2%A fine two-drop that becomes a must-answer mana sink late.

Never Draft These

the traps10 for 10 below the 17th

A clean sweep: every card flagged as a trap finished below the 17th percentile, and seven of the ten below the 11th. The pattern is consistent, and it is a stat-line problem more than a synergy problem.

**Ruinous Rampage**44.6%Three damage to the face for three mana is a horrific floor, and the artifact sweeper misses spacecraft because they cost far more. Bottom of the set.

**Sinister Cryologist**48.0%The debuff lasts one turn, so it rarely does more than enable a single attack.

**Virulent Silencer**49.3%No poison theme and not enough nontoken artifact creatures. Read it as a plain three-mana 2/3.

**Atomic Microsizer**50.2%Three mana total to get going for a small pump, with fiddly modes. Spend utility slots on spacecraft.

**Meltstrider's Gear**50.2%A sorcery-speed aura with a brutal re-equip, and the format's cheap removal two-for-ones you.

**Thaumaton Torpedo**50.5%Without the spacecraft attack it costs SIX mana to kill a permanent, exactly when you need removal.

**Gravblade Heavy**50.9%A four-mana 3/4 is an unacceptable floor, and without an artifact it cannot even trade with the common four-mana trampler.

**Scout for Survivors**51.5%The set has almost no playable one-drops and little self-mill, so the best case is rebuying one three-drop.

**Temporal Intervention**52.3%You trade a card and your mana for one they spent nothing on, and it is blank in a topdeck battle.

**Cloudsculpt Technician**52.3%A three-mana 1/4 flier is a bad line, and most decks already have fliers via spacecraft.

The through-line: hold a higher standard for stat lines, judge conditional creatures by their floor rather than their ceiling, and never draft toward a theme the format does not support. Two cards in this set point at poison and at toughness, and each is the only card of its kind at low rarity. If you find yourself needing to play cards from this page, that is a signal you are in the wrong colors.

Assembly Lines

combos worth building

Every piece below is a common or uncommon. The first is an actual infinite that can kill on turn four without attacking, and the reason it is draftable is that its key piece looks weak in a vacuum, so it comes around late.

The infinite. Warp in two Beckoners; each one's entry grants another creature "when this dies, return it tapped", so the two grant each other recursion while the Zealot sacrifices them for free. The Voidborn drains a life per death, so the loop is an infinite drain. Swap in the red burn payoff for redundancy.

Warp the Colossus, then warp the Stalker to exile your own Colossus. When the Stalker leaves at end of turn the Colossus returns as a fresh permanent that warp no longer sends away. A permanent 9/9 for five mana.

Steal their best permanent with haste, swing, then sacrifice it as Oblivion's additional cost to destroy a second creature. They never get the borrowed card back, so a temporary theft becomes a two-for-one.

The Beam steals but leaves the creature tapped and unable to untap. The Sentinel untaps another permanent whenever it becomes tapped, which converts a tempo tax into a full, usable steal.

Cryoshatter destroys the creature the moment it becomes tapped, but a defensive creature just sits there. Modulation taps it at instant speed and draws, turning a one-mana aura into guaranteed removal.

The Strike only kills artifacts or tapped creatures, so vigilant blockers dodge it. Starport Security taps the target down and turns it into unconditional removal plus three life.

The Mite pumps when it becomes tapped, and the Pollinator taps a permanent for mana at instant speed, so you fire the pump mid-combat and they can never block safely.

Situational artifact removal becomes maindeckable when you run your own cheap artifact as a guaranteed target. You cash it for a Lander and the Relic draws when it leaves either way.

Incoming Fire

tricks to play around

White

Zealous Display: +2/+2 to their WHOLE team. The go-wide blowout when white holds three with a board.
Reroute Systems: indestructible, blanking your removal or your combat kill
Dual-Sun Technique: double strike, turning any attacker lethal through a block

Blue

Illvoi Light Jammer: a pump plus temporary hexproof, so it protects and wins combat
Cryoshatter: one mana, and the shrunk creature dies on its next tap or damage

Black

Dark Endurance: +2/+2 and indestructible, and CHEAPER when it targets a blocker
Depressurize: doubles as a trick, shrinking your attacker to set up a double block

Red

Full Bore: one mana for +3/+2, and on a WARPED creature it supplies the haste to connect
Rig for War: first strike and reach, so it kills fliers and wins races

Green

Biosynthic Burst: a counter plus reach, trample, indestructible AND an untap. The most complete blowout in the set.
Diplomatic Relations: instant-speed, and as worded it can simply kill your creature

Any deck

Warp: a cheap early body may be buying an entry trigger, not committing a creature
Void: if anything of theirs just left the battlefield, assume their next spell is upgraded

Navigation

mana and fixing

This set is fixing-poor by design. There is exactly one low-rarity fixing land, and Landers are everything else. That is why green is the best color: it makes them reliably, and nobody else does.

**Command Bridge**53.5%The ONLY mana-fixing land at low rarity in the whole set. Treat any copy you open as precious.

**All-Fates Scroll**54.9%The main non-green fixer and late payoff. One or two in slow decks, none in fast ones.

Splash rule: stick to exactly two colors unless you are in green. Landers are technically fixing for every color, but only green makes them reliably, so do not plan a splash around them outside green. Count your Landers before you commit to a third color.

Flight Plan

build and play

Sealed build, in order

Sort as you open: by color, commons apart from the rest. Read your uncommons first, since they signal what the pool wants to be.
Learn the four systems before judging cards. Station, warp, void, and Landers set most card power levels in this set.
Prefer green if the pool allows. The three best pairs all contain it, and it owns the fixing.
Two colors, not three, unless you are in green with real Lander density.
Do not force artifact count in blue-black: most of the pair is already artifacts, so take the better card.
Avoid black-green. Both the guides and the record agree it is the weakest plan in the set.

Playing the turn

Station on purpose, not by reflex. Damage is progress; never tap so many creatures that the crack-back kills you.
Warp for the trigger. There is no haste, so the early cast buys an entry effect, not an attacker.
Turn void on deliberately with a removal spell, a trade, a cracked Lander, or a warp, then cast the upgraded card.
Crack Landers for landfall as well as for mana; two triggers in a turn is the whole red-green deck.
Tricks on your own turn, when they are tapped out. Defensive tricks invite a two-for-one.
Read each spacecraft's threshold before you plan a stationing sequence, and remember crossing it can expose it to creature removal.