Beginners Guide to Drafting

I was told by a fellow clan member that he'd like to try drafting, so I decided to start a beginners guide topic to share what I know and create a place for others to lend their expertise.

First off, I'm no master drafter. I've won a few, earned some packs in several, and come up empty in several more. Lately though I've been winning a pack for every two I open drafting, or maybe a bit better. Since most drafts pay out 12 packs for the 24 being opened, that makes me a perfectly average drafter.

Something that has helped me tremendously is magic websites. The two best I have found for drafting help are channelfireball.com and magic.tcgplayer.com. Channel Fireball has good articles from several top pros, but the real gems on the website are the draft videos. Luis Scot-Vargas, a pro who plays online under the magic online name LSV, has posted several youtube videos of complete magic online drafts. He shows drafting, deck building, and each match he plays with helpful commentary throughout. TCGplayer provides a more hands on learning experience with their single player drafting utility. The utility lets you complete an entire draft and even build your deck afterward.

I have managed to learn that the most important requirement in any draft is knowledge of the set. If you try to draft Zendikar (or any set) without having at least looked over the entire set list and having an idea of the best commons/uncommons for each color then you are doomed. This knowledge is important in not only the draft portion, but also in deck building and in playing matches.

Beyond knowledge of the set, which helps in all phases of drafting, tips and tricks can be broken down by whether they apply to drafting, deck building, playing matches, or sideboarding. This post is getting long (and it's getting late, I've been writing this between rounds of an M10 swiss... which I just won ) so I'll cover each section in follow-up posts.

For anyone who is looking to dive right in and learn from experience, I highly recommend starting with M10 swiss for several reasons. The set is very straightforward with obviously powerful cards like overrun or air elemental, there are several high money cards like baneslayer angel or time warp that you can rare draft for profit, you get to play three rounds no matter what so you gain experience and a couple of hours entertainment at the very least, and M10 drafting is NIX TIX this week. All you need are some booster packs and some free time.

Great topic Awe.
In building a well rounded collection, I think drafting goes hand in hand with buying individual cards. It challenges you to think outside your normal comfort zone, so you learn a lot & you also are exposed to cards & combos you might not normally see or use.

Drafting can be difficult - there is no doubt about that... I think in my first 12-15 drafts, I yielded one booster pack... And that only came when someone dropped out - hey its a free pack.

When I finally won that first legitimate one after such a dry spell... Well, it felt pretty sweet.

I would say that 12 packs for 24 opened is exceptionally higher than 'average' since there are 8 players in a draft all going for the same prizes. If you are winning one pack for every 2 drafts you play, then you are breaking even on your entry fee. Look for the Nix Tix events where you don't have to pay the 2 Tix entry fee.

Awe makes some good points here & I will echo what he said about knowing the set before you draft it. Know the cards & you increase your chances of winning.

Also for beginners, the Swiss is great. I am still at the swiss stage... Its where my comfort level is & I have averaged around 1.5 booster pack won per tournament. I have drafted a good amount & have won only 2 tournaments. Could I study the sets a little more before drafting? Probably, but I like to jump in to the action, so swiss is a good lower pressure way to do that.

Drafting Basics: Are you confused what this is all about? Here's the jist of it.

*All drafts are 8 players
*All drafts cost 3 boosters & 2 tix to enter.
*All drafts have 3 rounds; Each round is a match - best of 3 (you can sideboard from all the cards you select)
*There are 3 types of drafts:
1) Swiss - You play all 3 rounds - you win a pack for each match win (so if you win all, you get 3 packs)
2) 4-3-2-2 - Rounds are elimination. First place gets 4 packs, 2nd gets 3 packs, 3rd & 4th gets 2 packs
3) 8-4 - Rounds are elimination. First place gets 8 packs, 2nd gets 4.

When you enter a draft, you go into a queue until there are 8 players signed up. Then the draft starts. You are presented with 15 cards - you pick one & it passes the 14 remaining go to the player on your left. you get 14 cards from the person on your right. You take one & pass the rest on. its a circle - you take one & pass it along until all 3 boosters worth are opened & you have 45 cards (these are the 45 cards you keep). Typically, you will focus on two or three colors depending on what is available throughout the draft.

Then you start deckbuilding for 10 minutes. This tests & sharpens your deckbuilding ability. If you focused on a couple colors in the draft, then that will help you focus in deckbuild. Minimum deck size is 40. Rarely will I use 41. 40 cards is lean & you have a better chance to play those good cards you drafted. A general rule of thumb is 17 lands (magic provides the lands for you in drafts), 14-16 crits & the rest other spells. My focus in drafts is on evasion, removal & mana accerators.

Then you submit your deck / play / have fun & hopefully win. If you do win, try to resist the tempation of opening the booster(s). Instead, go enter some more drafts. This is where the cycle is... If you are good enough, you can support your drafting solely on your winnings (ie- you wont have to contnually pay for the drafts).

I really enjoy drafting... It puts you on an even playing field with other players. The only variables are how much you know abotuthe set / what comes up / what you pick / what you build & how you play. Remember dont be too nervous when drafting - there are 8 other players in the same boat & you have just as good a chance to win as they do.

Thanks for posting those sites Awe... I will definately be checking them out & maybe it'll increase my average a bit :-)

Thanks for covering the basics Tree. I specifically said this was a guide for beginners and then left out some things that are very important to anyone who has never drafted. DOH!

All right, here are a few of the promised pearls of wisdom. I'm going to use examples from M10 since that is what I've been playing lately while waiting for the next Zendicar set.

During the draft:
1. Make a plan AS you draft.
I try to start drafts completely open minded. By mid-way through drafting the first pack, I usually have a clear plan for what cards I'm trying to draft.

For example, if I open a Shivan Dragon and pick some cards like Doom Blade, Goblin Artillery, and Assassinate, my initial plan will be for a heavy red deck with a bit of black for removal. Why does this matter? Because having a plan helps you evaluate cards later in the draft. If my next pick comes down to Black Knight vs Seismic Strike, I'll know to take the strike because my red heavy deck will make it very powerful and the knight hard to cast early.

2. Don't set the plan in stone.
Having a plan is great, but the plan I start using in the middle of the first pack isn't always the one I finish the draft (or even go into pack two) with.

To continue the last example, what if my pick had come down to Tendrils of Corruption vs Stone Giant? A tendrils can represent a huge shift due to the life gain, getting that one card would probably be enough to modify my plan to heavy black with some red for the dragon. Doing this would make my artillery a bit harder to cast, but should have no effect on the shivan since it should be easy to get two mountains by the time I hit six lands.

3. Take what you're being given.
Sometimes you start off a draft with a couple of really strong cards in a color and then it just dries up. Don't be afraid to switch into whatever you are being passed if your color gets cut off.

I once opened a draft with Serra Angel and Pacifism as my first two picks. After a couple more picks of taking red cards like lightning bolt and Dragon Whelp because white dried up, I noticed that green was incredibly open. I was able to get several good cards like Deadly Recluse, Giant Growth, Stampeding Rhino, and Prized Unicorn all late in pack 1. By the end of the draft I had a sweet green deck that I added a bit of red to because I had picked up a second Dragon Whelp and a Lava Axe. I ended up not playing white at all and still doing quite well.

4. Use your late picks on cards you might play.
The late picks in each round usually come down to junk. You get to choose between a Bountiful Harvest and a Jump. Keep your eyes open though, and you might get rewarded with a decent sideboard card.

Sure that Solemn Offering doesn't look like much, but what if you play the guy with double Entangling Grasp plus Oakenform? Or the guy with Mind Control and a Whispersilk Cloak? Unless I was desperate for creatures, I would take the offering over a silvercoat lion just because it has the potential to make a solid impact in some matchups and could even save the day if you come across a Platinum Angel.

That's all for this installment. I'll return later to talk about deck building.

A quick note regarding 'Defensive' moves during the draft:

An early mistake I made while drafting was that I would occasionally pick cards that I didnt want anyone else to play. For instance, when it got around the middle of a pack & I saw an uncommon or a rare left that didnt fit into my scheme and could do me damage, I picked it.

I have learned that this strategy of defensive picks is not that great of an idea. A lot of what helps you in drafts are those commons that are your functional support that give you an edge by either card drawing or mana acceleration, etc... I own about 25 llanowar elves & a bunch of rampant growths / terremorphic expanse because they are those good support cards that help you get off to the early advantage. So don't discount those commons & try to resist the urge to go after cards that are not going to be of any help to you in your draft just because they might be more powerful cards in general.

Woot! I just lost in the first round of a draft and I'm super excited. Ok, let me explain. I lost in the first round of the top 8 of a premier 64 player ROE draft. For that accomplishment I won 6 packs and an invite to the ROE championship on May 29, not to mention the Gideon Jura I opened in the top 8 draft. The deck I drafted in the top 8 was a white green abomination that had no redeeming qualities except for the Gideon. The deck that got me into the top 8 was much more interesting.

I started the draft with two unexciting picks, a Nirkana Cutthroat and a Brimstone Mage. These are both decent creatures, but with first picks I am hoping for bombs or good removal spells. Pick three was a card I would have been happy taking first pick, Staggershock. Being passed a mage and a shock told me that the two players to my right were very unlikely to be red, so I decided to cut off red as much as possibile.

In pack two, I wavered back and forth between blue and black as a splash color, because I picked up both a vendetta and a narcolepsy. Late in pack two cutting red paid off as I got 4 kiln fiends and 2 battle-rattle shamans in a stretch of 8 picks.

At this point I was committed to an aggro deck and needed spells to pump my fiends. Pack three was the nuts. Conquering Manticore, Staggershock, Staggershock. Later that pack I also picked up heat ray and wrap in flames. My deck ended up looking like this:

10 Mountain
7 Swamp
2 Battle-Rattle Shaman
1 Bloodrite Invoker
1 Brimstone Mage
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Gloomhunter
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
4 Kiln Fiend
1 Nirkana Cutthroat
1 Null Champion
1 Rapacious One
1 Zof Shade
1 Heat Ray
3 Staggershock
1 Vendetta
1 Forked Bolt
1 Wrap in Flames

My blue sideboard option (which I probably should have started) replaced all the Swamps with Islands and black cards with the following:

1 Guard Gomazoa
1 Halimar Wavewatch
1 Skywatcher Adept
1 Narcolepsy
1 Fleeting Distraction
1 Distortion Strike

The red/blue version has tons of synergy with distortion strike being amazing. It pumps the fiend +4, makes it unblockable, and rebounds next turn to do it again. If you draft ROE, the fiend/distortion strike deck is definitely one to look out for. It has the advantage of several of its key cards being under-drafted. Besides fiend, strike, and shock, goblin tunneler and wrap in flames were also really good in this deck. I would have liked to have a second of either.

For me, ROE is all about synergy. My decks seem to do the best when I commit to a theme and draft cards that work well together. The other deck types I've had success with (or been crushed by) are:

Blue/White levelers (venerated teacher is key)

Red/Green spawn tokens (lots of token generators and cards that make use of them such as Broodwarden, Might of the Masses, Eldrazi, Bramblesnap)

White/Green umbras (aura gnarlid + totem-guide Hartebeest + tons of umbras)

Blue/Black control (counters, removal, and some mix of flyers and levelers, regress works great at getting rid of fully leveled up guys)

Well, that's plenty for now. Thanks to anybody who reads this whole mess. I'd be very interested in hearing about the experiences of other drafters in the clan.

ok so i have been drafting lately since m11 came out.... i gotta say before i joined this clan i never won a draft in my whole time i have been playin magic online.... well the tips that tree and awe gave gave me the confidence to try 1 more time (well and dodge we did a few pre-releases together and he did great i did ok) but awe's tip about knowin the cards is so important i think. so in the past month i have had some real success... YAY... i have found that there r several ways of beating down ur opponents.. for me the most success i have had usually have a good deal of crit removal and in the m11 set theres all kinds of that if u realize the potential of certain cards like (diminish) thats a great blue card and for me that would count as a form of removal. Disruption works great either cutting there hand down in the beginning of the game with cards like mind rot or lilians specter ohhh i love her sooo mean and she dies easily but when ur rockin black look for grave diggers and disemtombs brings them right back out and takes another card out of ur hand.. fliers can be a bit of a problem as well but theres plenty of ways around them.. plummet another great removal card from green...i have been really lovein the green blue deck but lately the pickings gettin slim.. but u can build a really effective deck from those colors.. u'll pass up some nice rares for a cancel or mana leak but my thinking is try to get ur opponent top deckin as soon as possible and then throw big mean green crits at them and burn up there what ever..green and blue also lets u grab mana fixers like cultivate and the lil elf dude and blue will allow u to dig through ur deck helpin u overwhelm ur opponent and keepin cards in ur hand as long as possible. worst thing is either bieng mana screwed or top deckin early in the game..all the rares in the world wont help u if u cant cast them... another thing to think about in the disruption (unsommons aether adepts excommunicate ) make ur opponent recating there crits and if u have the counters avaible set them up.....hehehehe poor dodge fell for that 1 this weekend lol..srry dude still theres always the man that opened just insanely great cards and there is nothing u can do about it but thats draftin...

so in the span of less than a month my limited rating went from low 1500's to the mid high 1600's and 1 night i almost broke 1700. i graduated from swiss games to the 4322 events which i like more cause if u draft a less than par deck ur done and i move on to the next 1.. the swiss drafts were great to help with the learning cure and awes and trees tips helped a bunch.

most of my deck builds have 16 lands between 12-16 crits and between 8-12 support spells. I really try to stay away from going more than 2 color decks... i dont like chasein mana for 1 or 2 crits or a spell.. pass up a few rares for a stronger 2 color deck.. Great killer cards like sleep fling act of trason mind control plumett cancel and mana leak wispers cloak.. remeber there r some devestating artifacts in this set so try to grab a natralize ot solem offering. so far i have seen alot of crazy decks and combos but a tip dodge gave paid off ten fold. the fast burn and crit agro decks will run out of gas quick so try to survive the the first mad rush of spells and crits if u can do that wonce there out of gas there yours and it just takes keepin them from rebuilding up their hands or creature base... ahhhhh cancels in the late game mana leaks in the early....

not to mention woahhh i love crackin titans so much fun in drafts but they die so easily but if u have a cloak not so quick and they r wicked deadly...well hopefully this helps i can say this persistance and a good memory for decks that wrecked ur builds wil help make u a better drafter... dont be afraid to loose just remember how u did and adapt the next time and do that part in the swiss drafts..... but the decks u see in the swiss r nothin like the 1's in the 4322 and in an 8-4 draft there even more insane really try to put those commons and uncommons to work in ur swiss games and when u move up to the other drafts it pays off in mucho packs

I have to say that tree and awe have done a very good job covering the basics... there are a few things though that no one can teach you and that is your own personal play style.

I know it sounds like bragging when I say I am a good drafter but I have awards to prove my claims... in paper, I am undefeated so far for 4 straight weeks. online... m11 has been kicking my ass. I am not sure about the reason but I do know that the titans are not really that rare in paper form... just last week, all 5 were opened and 2 of those were foil... online however, i have cracked 4, seen a total of 10 and done at least 20-25 drafts... so maybe the online versions are harder to come by. any way......

I guess I have to point out that everyone has a different play style and as such, as stated by awe and reiterated by tree, knowing what you could potentially open and knowing the commons and uncommons can help more than you will ever know. When RoE first came out, I had an understanding of the c/u's and went on to a invitational tourney for it. I came in 83rd out of 100 players. my problem there was the fact that it was sealed. sealed is a much different game than draft. with draft, there are 24 packs to choose cards from, not just 6.

A little hint about the politics of swiss, 4322 and 8-4, in swiss, you have a better chance to win a pack or two, but the people there are rare hunters. in 4322, the players are your average tourney players and use it as a way to test themselves for major tournaments, it is not for the faint of heart. then there is 8-4, these people are all about getting to the top. They know the cards inside and out and know what to look for and how to combine cards to good effect. Many people who play this draft format come in a group to maximize the groups chances of winning. 8-4 is very strong and should only be attempted if you have gotten used to the set you are drafting and know what is good and what is better left as 14th, 29th and 44th pick.