MTG Star Trek Draft Archetypes: All 10 Color Pairs

Twenty gold uncommons, two per color pair, and ten common Planet duals, one per pair. That is the skeleton of Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek Limited. Wizards' own Prerelease Guide (October 30) names all ten draft archetypes and calls those uncommons signposts, because they "loudly show what their color pair is about."

Prerelease week runs November 6–12, the set landed on MTG Arena today (November 10), and World Championship 32 opens with Star Trek Booster Draft on November 13. Our set guide covers the mechanics, pack odds and products. This post answers the question you have with a pool or a draft pick in front of you: what does each color pair want, and which cards tell you it's open?

Card text below is from Scryfall's Star Trek (TRK) set data, and the rulings are from Wizards' Release Notes.

The ten archetypes at a glance

The archetype names are Wizards'. The signposts are the two multicolor uncommons per pair. The Planet column is that pair's common dual land. Every Planet enters tapped, gains you 1 life and taps for either of its two colors.

Wizards' own read-the-table tip: if an opponent's first two lands are a Plains and a Mountain, assume red-white and expect them to be counting to 8 power.

Every pair gets one hybrid signpost

Look at the mana costs in that table. All 20 gold uncommons in the set are signposts, and in each pair exactly one of the two is hybrid. Hemmer is {W}{U}; Constable Odo is {3}{W/U}{W/U}. The same split holds for every pair.

That matters in Sealed more than Draft. A hybrid card can be cast with either color's mana, so The Duras Sisters ({B/R}{B/R}) goes in a black deck with no red at all, or a red deck with no black. If your Prerelease pool is deep in one color and you are torn on the second, the hybrid signposts are playable either way. Hold them until you've settled your second color.

Wizards also gives you a curve to build toward: 1–2 one-drops, 7–8 two-drops, 5–6 three-drops, 3–4 four-drops, 2–3 five-drops, 0–1 six-drops, and 17 lands. It asks for at least five removal spells across your two colors. The removal section below lists the commons that qualify.

The artifact pairs: white-blue and white-black

White-blue, Spacecraft and Artificers. Wizards' plan is to "build a board of creatures with powerful enters abilities," then tap them to station Spacecraft. Station (tap another creature you control and put charge counters equal to its power on the Spacecraft, sorcery speed only) means every body you play is also fuel. Interstellar Effigy, a five-mana common 4/3 that bounces an opposing creature when it enters, is Wizards' example. So is Constable Odo, whose enters trigger either taps a creature with two stun counters or investigates twice.

Hemmer is the engine. During your turn, your Spacecraft have hexproof. Whenever Hemmer becomes tapped, you draw and then discard. Station taps the creature you use, so tapping Hemmer to put two charge counters on a ship also rummages a card. Common Spacecraft for this deck include Oberth-Class Starship (white), Suurok-Class Science Vessel (blue) and the colorless Class-F Shuttlecraft. Enterprise NX-01, a blue uncommon, taps and stuns a creature when it enters.

White-black, Borg Artifact Creatures. Locutus is the anthem: two mana, artifact creatures you control get +1/+1. When you don't need the 1/1 body, you can discard it for {W}{B} to deal 2 damage to a creature and gain 2 life. Wizards names Vexing Drone (two-mana white common 2/2 that taps a creature on entering) and Assault Drone (four-mana black common 2/4 that gives artifact creatures +1/+0) as the base. Tenacious Drone, a black common, leaves a 1/1 Borg token when it dies. Zero, the hybrid signpost, is a three-mana 2/2 lifelinker. Its enters trigger looks at an opponent's hand and exiles a nonland card, which that player can still cast later for {2} more.

Wizards' sacrifice note has teeth at common. Eject the Warp Core gives a creature -2/-2, or -6/-6 if you kick it by sacrificing an artifact or creature. Set designer Michael Hinderaker told magic.gg that the Borg are a deliberately linear on-ramp, but that taking all the Borg cards "without a lot of nuance" is "not going to be the strongest way to draft." Treat the Borg as a deck that still needs removal, not a pile of drones.

The white-black and white-blue decks share a weakness. Wizards' Prerelease Guide warns that the set has "a higher number of threatening artifacts than usual." Its advice is to value artifact removal more and to run an extra Perils of the Past.

The attack pairs: black-red and red-white

Black-red, Klingons and Dies. L'Rell is a 1/4 that makes a 2/1 hasty Klingon Warrior at the beginning of combat on every one of your turns. You sacrifice it at the next end step. That is a creature dying every turn whether or not it gets through, which is exactly what this deck's payoffs count:

• A Good Day to Die ({B}, common instant) gives a creature +2/+0 and draws you a card when it dies this turn. Cast it on L'Rell's token, and the end-step sacrifice draws the card even if the token was never blocked.
• Vengeance Mission ({2}{B}, uncommon) gets a quest counter and makes an opponent lose 1 life whenever any creature dies, or 2 once it has seven or more counters.
• Sarcophagus, Ship of the Dead ({2}{R}, uncommon Spacecraft) gives your other creatures +1/+0 and picks up a charge counter whenever a creature dies. At 10 counters it becomes a 4/4 flier.
• Planetary Bombardment ({R}, common sorcery) deals 2 damage to a creature, or 4 if a creature died this turn. Cast it after combat on a turn your token traded.

The Duras Sisters, a two-mana 3/2, leave a 2/1 hasty Klingon behind when they die. Starfleet Security, one of the creatures Wizards says "even want to die," is a one-mana hasty 1/1 that investigates if it dies on your turn.

Red-white, Command 8+ Total Power. Kirk, Worf, La'An Noonien-Singh, Hologram Janeway, Una Chin-Riley and one common, Tactical Officer, share one trigger: "Whenever you attack while creatures you control have total power 8 or greater." That counts every creature you control, not only the attackers. Per the Release Notes, the condition is checked when you finish declaring attackers. If your board drops below 8 power before the trigger resolves, Kirk still exiles the top card and you can still play it this turn.

The wide-board engine Wizards points to is Academy Instructor ({2}{R}, uncommon). It makes a 1/1 Officer token whenever you cast a noncreature spell and gets +1/+0 for each Officer token you control. At common, Tactical Officer ({1}{W}) gets a +1/+1 counter and untaps when the 8-power trigger fires. Cantankerous Captain ({2}{R}) gives a creature +1/+0 each combat, and menace once you reach 8 power. La'An makes a creature unable to block. Worf, a two-mana hybrid 1/1, doubles his own power when the trigger fires. At sorcery speed you can also tap two untapped artifacts or creatures to put a +1/+1 counter on him.

Kirk also has a second line that matters in this set: {2}, sacrifice Kirk, destroy target artifact or enchantment. Against a Borg or Spacecraft deck, that's removal sitting on your signpost.

The spell pairs: blue-black and blue-red

Blue-black, Dilemma Control. You face a dilemma whenever you choose one or more modes for a spell or ability. That second word is why the two signposts work so well together. Lore, Positronic Provocateur has a "choose one" enters trigger, so casting Lore with Seven of Nine on the battlefield draws a card. Seven of Nine is a four-mana 2/4 that draws a card for every dilemma. Wizards' example spells are Consider the Prime Directive ({2}{U}, common: soft counter, or tap and stun a creature and draw) and Resistance Is Futile ({1}{B}, uncommon: destroy a nonartifact creature, or reanimate an artifact creature with mana value 3 or less).

The commons that pay off dilemmas include Melkotian Adjudicator ({2}{U}, a 2/1 flier with vigilance that grows a +1/+1 counter per dilemma) and Obsidian Order Operative ({3}{B}, a 2/5 that drains 1 per dilemma). Per the Release Notes, choosing a mode counts even if the spell is later countered. Choosing several modes of one spell is still one dilemma.

Blue-red, Scientists and Noncreatures. Spock, Always Your Friend is a two-mana 2/2. When he enters, he looks at the top four cards and lets you take a noncreature, nonland card. Gray and Adira, Forever Joined make a hasty, non-legendary token copy of one of your creatures at the beginning of combat if you've cast a noncreature spell this turn. The copy is sacrificed at the next end step. Wizards' cheap spell examples are Test of Priorities ({1}{U}: surveil 2 and draw, or blink your own creature) and Test of Identity ({1}{R}: double strike on a Klingon, or discard one to draw two).

Wizards flags a quiet overlap here: Spacecraft are noncreature spells when you cast them, so a ship turns on Gray and Adira too. Academy Instructor, from the red-white section, triggers off the same spells and slots into this deck just as well.

The land pairs: red-green and green-blue

Red-green, Away Team Landfall. Cleveland Booker makes a 2/2 Worm that can't block for every land you play. Dal R'El adds {R} or {G} on landfall and can sacrifice a land to draw. Two of Wizards' named uncommons get better on the second landfall in a turn:

• Captain Michael Burnham ({2}{R}, 3/3 trample) deals 1 damage to each opponent per landfall, and puts a +1/+1 counter on herself the second time it resolves in a turn.
• Jake Sisko, War Correspondent ({1}{G}, 2/2) gains you 1 life per landfall and investigates on the second.

That's what Erica Ortegas, Plucky Pilot ({3}{R}, hasty 3/3) is for. Whenever she becomes tapped, including when she attacks, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield. At the next end step you return a land you control to hand. The Release Notes confirm it doesn't count as your land drop, so attacking with Erica after playing a land gives you that second landfall. Saurian Explorer (+2/+2 per landfall) and Xindi Surveyors (a +1/+1 counter per landfall) are the common payoffs.

Green-blue, Strange New Worlds. The count is of differently named lands you control. The Release Notes define it as counting each land once, "only if its English name isn't exactly the same" as one already counted. Three Forests and two Islands are 2. The Traveler is a two-mana */3 with reach and vigilance whose power is that count. D'Vana Tendi is a 2/4 that untaps another permanent and surveils for {3}.

Wizards also suggests running off-color Planets. Orion (red-green) and Risa (green-white) still tap for green and still gain 1 life, and each adds a new name. The set also has five uncommon Anomaly lands (Artificial, Gaseous, Spatial, Subspace and Temporal). Each taps for colorless and can be sacrificed for an effect plus a tapped land token named New Planet that taps for any color. Every one of those tokens is named New Planet, so a second New Planet adds nothing to your count. Suus Mahna Practitioner, a common 3/2 whose tap ability gets cheaper per name, is the other payoff Wizards names. Species 8472, a six-mana uncommon 7/5, gains you life equal to the count when it enters.

The value pairs: green-white and black-green

Green-white, Doctors and Counters. The Doctor, EMH puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature, then a counter on each of your creatures that already has one. Phlox is a 3/4 trampler for four that draws a card whenever a creature you control with any counter deals combat damage to a player. Wizards points out what that includes: a Spacecraft that has become a creature carries charge counters, so it counts. Pure Energy ({1}{W}, common) distributes two +1/+1 counters and has beam me up, so you can cast it again from the graveyard. Support Mission ({2}{G}, uncommon) puts a counter on every creature you play. Dominion Supervisor, a green common, gives your creatures with counters trample.

Black-green, Archaeology Graveyard. Vash surveils 1 every upkeep and draws a card whenever a card leaves your graveyard, once per turn. The pair's own cards make that happen: Daniels returns a creature card to hand when he enters, and later, for {2}, puts himself from the graveyard on the bottom of your library to gain 2 life. Wizards notes that beam me up also counts, because casting Pattern Buffer Preservation ({1}{B}, common) from the graveyard moves it out. Pattern Buffer Preservation looks at two, takes one and bins the other, so the first cast also stocks the graveyard for the second. First Contact and Temporal Conqueror, green commons that mill, fill the yard on the cheap.

The common removal in each color

Wizards' Prerelease Guide lists its key removal on an interactive tab that doesn't reproduce as text. This list is ours, built from the TRK commons on Scryfall. These are the commons we found that kill, bounce, lock down or shrink an opposing creature or artifact.

At uncommon, the hard answers include 70,000 Light-Years from Home (white, exiles a creature or Spacecraft), Resistance Is Futile and Impossible Choice (black), Transporter Malfunction (red, with beam me up) and Amok Time (a green fight Saga).

Where you will draft it

The Arena dates are from Wizards' MTG Arena event schedule.

If you're spending gems or gold on those drafts, our Arena Star Trek bundles breakdown does the per-pack maths. For draft fundamentals that aren't set-specific, like signals, pick order and the 17-land skeleton, see our beginner's draft guide.

Quick Action Checklist

• Sort your pool by color pair, not by color. Each pair has two signpost uncommons. Find which ones you opened before you pick colors.
• Hold the hybrid signposts. One signpost per pair is hybrid, so it's castable in either color alone. The Duras Sisters fit a mono-black-leaning deck as well as a black-red one.
• Aim for five removal spells and 17 lands, per Wizards' guide. The common removal table above shows which ones you can expect to see.
• Value artifact removal higher than usual. Perils of the Past, Kirk's sacrifice ability and 70,000 Light-Years from Home all answer Borg and Spacecraft.
• White-blue: Hemmer rummages every time he stations a ship. White-black: Locutus is the anthem, but the deck still needs removal.
• Black-red: L'Rell's token dies every turn, so A Good Day to Die on it is a cantrip.
• Red-white: 8 total power counts every creature you control, and it's checked as you finish declaring attackers.
• Blue-black: Lore's "choose one" trigger is a dilemma, so Lore plus Seven of Nine draws a card.
• Green-blue: off-color Planets still count, but every New Planet token shares one name.
• Red-green: attack with Erica Ortegas after your land drop for the second landfall that Burnham and Jake Sisko want.