The ultimate core set of Magic is here! Foundations is bringing experienced players that nostalgia feeling, while giving beginners a great starting point. On top of that, it’s also draftable, and that’s what our Foundations Draft Guide can help you with.
Given the nature of the set, we’ve also tried to explain some basic concepts and tricks into more details to beginners.
But no matter your skill level, this guide should give you a good idea of what’s going on in this format. This way, you won’t be going in blind, but will know what to pay attention to.
First, we’ll check the best commons, then we move to the exploration of different archetypes. (That’s where we’ll mention the relevant mechanics this time around, as they are fairly simple and vanilla.) Finally, there’s a Tier List with every card graded. Let’s get to it.
Best Commons for Foundations Draft
White
1. Prideful Parent
A 3/3 creature for three mana is okay, but not particularly good. When you get its stats split across two bodies, it becomes significantly better, for multiple reasons:
- If your opponent kills one, at least the other one still remains.
- They give you more flexibility when blocking. You can block two creatures, or one large creature twice.
- Your mass pump spells, like Claws Out work better with multiple creatures in play.
Thus, whenever you’re drafting white you’ll want to pick this cat relatively highly, and you’ll be happy playing multiple copies. The same is true for this next cat.
2. Helpful Hunter
So, creatures that make more creatures are good. Also, creatures that draw cards are good, especially if they aren’t too overcosted.
Helpful Hunter is not a spectacular creature as a 1/1 for two mana, but the fact that it draws you a card improves it significantly. It’s good early in the game, as it gives you more options, and reduces the chances of missing land drops. Late game, it’s still a fine card as it replaces itself immediately.
You’ll never be disappointed by drawing it, and that’s a sign of a strong common.
3. Banishing Light
This is a versatile removal spell, as it deals with any problematic permanent. In most recent draft formats it ranges from a playable to a good card. In this set it might be quite useful, as Foundations’s power level is a bit lower than most other modern-era sets.
Honorable Mentions
Healer’s Hawk does need some support, but not much. If you can put a single +1/+1 counter on it, it becomes a real creature, that your opponent needs to deal with. (As then it can make a life swing of 4 per attack.) There are quite a lot of ways to put +1/+1 creatures on it, so Hawk will likely perform nicely.
Another good piece of removal is Luminous Rebuke. It’s better when you’re opponent is the more aggressive player, as then they control tapped creatures more often. However, you’ll play this in all sorts of white decks, as you’ll often be able to get the cost reduction. Even if you need to pay 5 mana, it’s not the end of the world.
Dazzling Angel‘s stats are quite nice, but it can easily gain you 2-3 life, which pushes it into a ‘good card’ territory.
Blue
1. Bigfin Bouncer
This shark is most likely not just the best blue common, but one of the candidates for the best common overall. Why?
Because it essentially draws you a card (Unsummon) and casts it for free. On top of that it’s stats are serviceable. Bigfin Bouncer can be considered a 2-for-1. (You’re playing a single card, but you get two cards worth of value out of it.) That’s a clear way to get an advantage.
Imagine a regular game of Magic, your opponent plays a 3 drop, you follow up with your shark and return the three drops to their hand. You’ve essentially made them waste their entire third turn. In the late game, it becomes even better, when you use it on a large creature, like Shivan Dragon. Oh, and if you target a token, it will simply cease to exist.
Any blue deck will play as many of these, as it can get.
Interesting note: Returning creatures to their owners hand is called bouncing. That’s why this creature is quite aptly named.
2. Tolarian Terror
Whereas you can put Bigfin Bouncer in any deck, that’s not the case with this large Serpent. This is what we call a build-around. That’s a card that need some support, and doesn’t just fit into any deck.
Why is it among the best blue commons then? Because it’s just that strong. You could easily play a couple of these in the same turn for 3 mana each in the late game. They will dominate most boards.
So, don’t just jam them in any deck, but if you’re playing blue, and can get some Terrors, you should start building around them with cards like Fleeting Distraction and other cheap instants and sorceries.
3. Uncharted Voyage
You might think that this is a horrible card compared to a Bigfin Bouncer – you don’t even get a creature with it.
Yes, it is a worse card, but it’s still a fine one. You can interact with a creature at instant speed. This can be powerful when your opponent tries to play a combat trick like Sure Strike.
On top of that, the creature doesn’t go back to their hand. Even if they put it on the top of their library, that means you kinda blanked one of their draw steps. Plus, the surveil part is a nice bonus.
Sure, this competes for the four drop slot in your deck, which can be kinda crowded, but you’ll still want a copy or two in most of your blue decks.
Honorable Mentions
Run Away Together is another card that can be good, but needs proper support. In this case, it wants you to play creatures with enters-effects, such as Helpful Hunter. Then, you just need to time it well, and you can create a situation where this cheap instant will really shine.
Black
1. Stab
Cheap and efficient interaction is really important in most draft formats, and it doesn’t get cheaper than this.
There are 160 creature cards in Foundation draft, and 83 have 2 or less toughness. This means, that for a single mana you can deal with 51.8% of creatures in the format. Neat!
On top of that, you shouldn’t forget that you can also take out a larger creature mid combat. You block opponent’s 4/4 with a 3/3, and then reduce its stats, so your 3/3 survives. All of this makes Stab into an excellent common.
Strategy tip: If you block a 5/5 with a 3/3, you want to wait after the damage is dealt to use Stab. It won’t safe your creature anyway, but if you use it mid-combat, your opponent could use a kill spell on your creature, and you’d also waste Stab.
2. Burglar Rat
This card could be called Unhelpful Gatherer, as it’s kinda like a reverse Helpful Hunter. Now you’re still adding something to the board, but instead of you gaining a new card, opponent loses one.
Sure, it’s going to be much worse when your opponent is empty-handed or holds too many lands, but in most games, it’s going to be quite annoying. After all, a lot of Magic games become about resource management.
3. Bake into a Pie
Four mana to destroy a creature is slightly below rate, but you’ll eventually be able to also gain 3 life, which is nice. You need some hard removal in your deck for opponent’s best creatures, and this one does the job well enough.
Honorable Mentions
With Infestation Sage you are kinda getting two creatures in one card, which as we talked about, is good. Plus, one of the creatures is a flyer, which is quite relevant. The one mana cost is particularly nice, as Sage plays nicely with various synergies. For example, putting a +1/+1 counter on a flyer is good, and it’s also a fine creature to sacrifice.
You could use it to make Eaten Alive cost a single mana, at which point it’s spectacular. In the late game, you could just pay 5 mana, and keep your creature.
Red
1. Burst Lightning
This card is somewhat similar to Stab. For a single mana, you can deal with more than half of creatures in the Foundations draft. It can also finish creatures that were already dealt almost lethal damage.
While it doesn’t decrease the creatures’s power, it does two other things. First, you could pay four additional mana, and now it can deal 4 damage. That’s a massive upgrade, as that’s enough to take care of 86.2% of creatures.
And second, you can actually target an opponent with this. Many games of this format will end with a kicked Burst Lightning to the face. All of these effects make it a premium common.
2. Courageous Goblin
Every deck needs creatures to play on turn 2. Aggressive decks to start attacking as fast as possible, and control decks to set up their defenses. In an aggressive deck a 2/2 is passable, albeit not exciting.
However, Courageous Goblin can become a 3/2 menace which is significantly above rate for a two mana creature. All you need to do is to control a creature with at least 4 power. In this format that shouldn’t be to hard to accomplish, which makes this goblin into one of the better two mana plays.
Note: This creature also counts itself. In some scenarios, it might be worth it to use Giant Growth on it in your first main phase, so you can attack with a 7/5 menace threat.
3. Goblin Surprise
Modal cards with multiple choices significantly better then if you’d get only one of those effects. This one has a lot of things going for it.
First, you can make two 1/1s at instant speed. While that’s not a ton of board presence, it’s enough to mess up with opponent’s combat math.
Second, it can sometimes just win you the game when you have enough creatures. You could also use it when your blocking be it with one or more creatures. Nothing is spectacular, but having so many options, gives you a way to find a good use for the card.
It also plays fine in multiples. Make multiple Goblin tokens with the first copies, then surprise your opponent with a +2/+0 to all of your creatures.
Honorable Mentions
If you can consistently and profitably attack on turn 3, then Goblin Boarders is a fine three drop. However, it’s one of those cards that could also be mediocre, depending on how the format plays out.
On the other hand, if you want a sure way to win combat, Sure Strike can be really useful. Just don’t play it if your opponent has a bunch of untapped lands to avoid a blowout if possible.
Green
1. Llanowar Elves
The iconic green creature all the way back from alpha is back. In most draft formats, creatures that can tap for mana typically cost two mana.
Now imagine a game, where you play an elf on turn 1. Your opponent must deal with it quickly, otherwise you’d be a full turn ahead, by plying a 3 mana card on turn 2, and a 4 mana card on turn 4. That’s a lot of impact for a one mana card.
Of course, the card is not without its downsides. It’s not a great draw in the late game. You probably won’t need the mana, and a 1/1 just doesn’t do much. However, it’s massive impact in the early game makes up for that. Plus in modern era Magic, there’s a lot of card advantage, which can recoup for some of the elf’s downsides.
2. Bite Down
When you’re evaluating green fight spells, here are the things you should consider:
- Is it an instant or a sorcery?
- Does your creature fight or just deals damage?
- How much does it cost?
- Does it provide any power boost?
Now if we check Bite Down, it’s an instant, which is good. Your creature deals damage, but doesn’t receive it. It costs just two mana, that’s great. Sadly, it doesn’t provide any power boost, but it still has a lot going for it, so it’s going to be a great addition to all green decks.
3. Gnarlid Colony
Here’s another modal card, that’s very useful. It can be that essential two mana play, or a larger creature in the late game. The trample granting ability will also come in handy occasionally. (Imagine putting a +1/+1 counter on Quakestrider Ceratops.)
It’s just a very flexible card that green decks will love to play.
Honorable Mentions
Now green seems to be eating good this time around, as there are lots of useful commons.
At the top of your curve, Apothecary Stomper is a cool play. You can either gain 4 life if necessary, but you’ll typically put +1/+1 counters on one of your creatures and attack right away.
Furthermore, there are two fine two mana plays. Wary Thespian is good on its own, while Dwynen’s Elite wants some other elves in your deck.
Even solid one mana cards aren’t missing. The iconic Giant Growth provides massive boost, while Bushwhack can be either a removal spell or a missing land drop.
Treetop Snarespinner can trade for any creature, but is also an excellent mana sink. You can activate its ability multiple times per turn and significantly improve your board.
Foundations Draft Archetypes
You’ll typically want to draft a 2-color deck. (Potentially splashing a bomb rare in a third color.) With five colors, there are 10 different archetypes available, each with its own distinctions.
This time around, they are all fairly basic, and you don’t need to build as hard around them, as you would in the previous, Duskmourn draft. Let’s take a look.
Blue-White: Flyers
Creatures with flying are usually the most common in white and blue. Thus, it isn’t too surprising that flyers are a recurring theme for this color pair.
However, there aren’t many cards that specifically care about flyers. In fact, there’s just one in Empyrean Eagle. So, what does the flyers strategy even do?
Well, there are two main things you want to do with such a deck. First, you want to clog up the board and stop your opponent’s attack. You can do this by playing removal, or creatures that are good on defense, like Aegis Turtle and Rune-Sealed Wall. These two will essentially blank your opponent’s cheap creatures.
Now when you have the ground covered, and you’re safe from opponent’s attacks, you can attack with some of your flyers. Ideally, the opponent won’t be able to block them.
Bounce spells, such as Uncharted Voyage, Aetherize, and Bigfin Bouncer will also play really nicely in this shell.
Black-White: Life Gain
t’s always nice to have access to incidental life gain. That are cards that are already do something relevant, but also gain you life. This gives you a way to turn a race in your favor, or get outside the Burst Lightning range.
Some such cards in Foundations draft are: Dazzling Angel, Healer’s Hawk, Vampire Nighthawk, and Sanguine Syphoner.
But there are also additional payoffs for doing this. Some of the better ones include:
On top of that, there are some other minor payoffs, so this archetype is well supported. Don’t think that all cards in your deck need to care about gaining life. You should still go for raw power over minor synergies.
Green-White: +1/+1 Counters
Green-white decks will want to play lots of creatures, then buff them with +1/+1 counters. This is already a solid plan. Overstated creatures can often be the key to victory.
There’s no shortage of way to put counters on your creatures. You’ve got Felidar Savior, Treetop Snarespinner, Good-Fortune Unicorn, and many more.
Besides simply improving their stats, there are additional synergies that you’ll benefit from. For example:
- They’ll get first strike on your turn with Inspiring Paladin.
- Gnarlid Colony will grant them trample.
- You’ll be able to draw a bunch of cards with Inspiring Call.
- Wildwood Scourge will grow with them.
This deck is pretty straightforward, and a great option for first-time drafters, as the synergies aren’t that hard to master. Similar can be said about the next archetype.
Red-White: Aggro (Go-Wide)
No matter the draft format, red-white always ends up being an aggressive deck. Sometimes there’s an additional twist, sometimes there isn’t, but one thing is always present – attacking your opponent.
So, if you’re a new to drafting, it’s a good idea to learn to draft this archetype. This why, when a new format comes, you already know how to draft one of the decks. So, how do you draft an aggressive deck?
You’ll want to play a lot of cheap cards, namely creatures that cost two mana. The three drops need to be significantly better than a random two drop to make the cut. Since you don’t want to play too many four and five drops, you only want the best ones.
As far as non-creatures go, you want a mix of cheap and efficient removal spells to round up the rest of your deck. Combat tricks like Fleeting Flight are also at their best in decks like this.
Going Wide
There’s also a small go-wide theme with cards that make multiple creatures (Prideful Parent, Dragon Trainer) and buffing them with mass pump effects (Dauntless Veteran, Claws Out). Finally, Heroic Reinforcements actually accomplishes both at the same time.
So make sure that you’re playing a lot of cheap creatures that can attack efficiently, pair them with strong cards higher on the curve, and some removal, and you should do fine.
Blue-Black: Graveyard Control
Where the previous archetype, red-white wanted to finish the game fast, blue-black wants the game to go long. You want to play a lot of answers to opponent’s threats, and also secure late-game advantage.
So, you’ll want to destroy (Hero’s Downfall), bounce (Bigfin Bouncer), or counter (Refute) opponent’s creatures. You want to use your best removal on their best creatures, and blank the smaller ones with cheap blockers (Aegis Turtle).
With such cards you can ensure the game to go long. But how do you win in the late game? Either with powerful rares, like Liliana, Dreadhorde General or Sphinx of Forgotten Lore, or if you aren’t so lucky, with card advantage spells. For example, Arcane Epiphany is a fine one. Disabling all opponent’s threats and then drawing a bunch of cards is a good way to win a game of Magic.
Graveyard Synergies
This archetype also uses its graveyard, as a way to get advantage in the long game. The longer the game goes, the fuller your graveyard is. The following cards both benefit from a full graveyard, and help to fill it up fast:
Besides, there are plenty of other cards that work nicely with putting cards in your graveyard, like Think Twice, Reassembling Skeleton, and Tolarian Terror. The latter isn’t just good here, but also in the next archetype, that we’ll talk about.
Blue-Red: Spells
This is another traditional archetype. Blue-red often cares about you casting any noncreature spell, or specifically instants and sorceries. This time around, this changes from card to card, so you’ll want to carefully read the card to make sure.
Note: All instants and sorceries count as noncreature spells, but not all noncreature spells are instant and sorceries. Examples: Extravagant Replication, Goldvein Pick.
Cards that care about noncreatures are therefore easier to enable. In Foundations draft, you’ll encounter the pair of Firebrand Archer and Firespitter Whelp, both dealing damage to opponent. In a properly built blue-red deck, multiples of these could be actual win conditions. Furthermore, there’s also Crackling Cyclops, which can work in a pinch.
Now for instant and sorceries, there are also fine non-rare rewards, including Mocking Sprite, Balmor, Battlemage Captain, and aformentioned Tolarian Terror.
Powerful Rare Payoffs
While all of these can be fine rewards, you’ll really want to play this deck when you open one of the following three cards of higher rarities:
- Thousand-Year Storm is probably the hardest to enable, and perhaps more fun than powerful. However, in the right deck, it can deserve a slot.
- On the other hand, Archmage of Runes is just spectacular. Drawing cards is a great way to draw even more instants and sorceries, and keep the value train going.
- Finally, Rite of the Dragoncaller is going to feel absurdly good. You aren’t just essentially drawing 4/4 flying Dragons – you’re also playing them for free.
Enablers
Before we move to the next archetype, let’s quickly talk about what kind of cards you need to enable this archetype:
- Fleeting Distraction is a cheap way to trigger your card, and get the card back. If the -1 power effect ever saves your creature, it becomes just a superb card.
- Think Twice can give you two triggers.
- Cheap red removal that’s already good, like Burst Lightning becomes even better.
- Thrill of Possibility helps you find the cards you need, while being an instant.
When you’re building this deck, you could risk of running to little creatures, (for example 12 is already concerningly low) as you want to play a lot of instants and sorceries. That’s why it’s nice to use a card like Goblin Surprise. It counts as an instant, but can actually make creatures.
All in all, this can be a really fun archetype when it works out.
Blue-Green: Ramp
Do you like casting expensive and powerful cards? If so, you’re going to enjoy the blue-green archetype, as it’s main theme is ramp.
Ramp refers to getting ahead on mana. You can do so in different ways, like putting lands directly into play (Burnished Hart, Grow from the Ashes) or using cards that produce mana themselves (Llanowar Elves, Heraldic Banner).
On the turn you play your ramp card, you’ll usually falling a bit behind on the board, as your opponent is probably deploying creatures on their turn. However, you can make up for it by casting powerful cards ahead of schedule. Obviously, there are a lot of powerful rares, and mythic rares, but even at lower rarities, you’ve got strong cards like Quakestrider Ceratops, Tatyova, benthic Druid, and Grappling Kraken.
One problem with blue-green is usually the lack of strong removal spells, but this time around, there’s a lot of interaction available even at common level. (Bite Down, Bushwhack, Bigfin Bouncer, etc.)
This makes it likely that this archetype will be playable in most drafts, and not just when you open Koma, World-Eater pack 1, pick 1.
Black-Red: Raid
Similarly to red-white, this is another aggressive deck. This one also features the raid mechanic, which triggers if you attacked with a creature.
So, similar rules to the deckbuilding still apply. Play cheap creatures and pair them with good removal spells and a few combat tricks. Both black and red offer strong removal spells, so that shouldn’t be too big of a problem.
However, you don’t really need to heavily build around raid cards for multiple reasons. First, just playing an aggressive deck will do enough enabling. Second, most of raid cards aren’t that powerful. A couple of stronger ones would be Perforating Artist and Strongbox Raider, but that would be about it.
There is one neat trick that you can do in this archetype, and that is to fully utilize Involuntary Employment. The simple use case is to just steal an opponent’s creature and attack them with it. But you could also sacrifice it to Eaten Alive or Hungry Ghoul. This is a fairly powerful play, that can turn the game around.
With red-black, your simply playing an aggressive deck, with some occasional synergies sprinkled here and there, depending on which cards you manage to draft.
Black-Green: Morbid
We’ve mentioned a few sacrifice cards in the previous archetype. You’ll also be happy to use them here, as black-green rewards you for creatures dying – be it yours or opponent’s.
There aren’t that many cards with morbid (ability that gives you a benefit, if a creature died), just four in these two colors, however, they some of them are very strong:
- Wardens of the Cycle is arguably the best one, drawing you cards, or gaining you life, when you’re low.
- Tragic Banshee can deal with any creature in the format when enabled.
- Needletooth Raptor can buff itself or other creatures.
- Finally, Cackling Prowler isn’t too strong, but you can still play it if needed.
For the most part, you don’t need to lean into any particular strategy with this archetype. Simply play cards that are good on rate, and if there are any morbid cards, you’ll likely be able to enable them incidentally.
Red-Green: 4+ Power
Red-green is quite similar to black-green in that they both use just four cards that care about there mechanic. Same as before, these are all pretty good:
- Garruk’s Uprising can grant you a steady flow of card draw. The trample granting effect is also relevant in a deck full of large creatures.
- Ruby, Daring Tracker provides mana, but can attack as a relevant attacker.
- Nessian Hornbeetle might grow, and eventually your opponent will have to deal with it.
- Courageous Goblin plays its two drop role nicely.
Now for the enablers, it’s pretty straightforward. You just want to play good creatures that already have 4 power (Eager Trufflesnout), or can somehow get there (Beast-Kin Ranger).
For the rest of the deck, just play cards that have good rates. How to know which ones are they? Well, this next thing might help you with that.
Foundations Draft Tier List
So, in this Foundations Draft Guide we’ve mostly talked about big picture stuff and a few specific cards. Now, you might want to know about how good some cards actually are. In that case, you’ll want to check our Foundations Draft Tier List.
In that article, we’ve rated every single card from this set, depending on how it’ll perform in draft. It can help you make a decision when you’re drafting or simply give you some feedback on a specific hard-to-evaluate card.
Conclusion
Anyways, that’s it for Foundations Draft Guide. Hopefully, you now know how to approach the format, so you’ll manage to win a lot of games.
Finally, if you love this set with its iconic reprints and new fun cards, make sure to check for the Foundations Bundle contents here. It’s a great product that many Magic players enjoy.
Until next time, have fun, and may you win lots of games!