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Anyone have draft tips for a newbie? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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If anyone has tips or resources for drafting I'd love to hear them!

I've been playing paper magic for a few years but never played any limited. I didn't really understand the appeal. But my brother convinced me to try Arena and I had a draft or quick draft token and now I am hooked. But I also kinda suck at draft.

I think my goal is to be good enough to break even ish on gems so I can draft a lot without spending a lot. I'm okay spending while I learn ($60 so far... (probably only $25 towards drafting)).

I think I have most of the basics down. Stuff like 17 ish lands, 13 ish creatures, a good mana curve, prioritize removal and land fixings.

I find myself doing research online of people's favorite sets to draft and wondering if I'll ever get to draft it. I saw Neon Dynasty is coming up on the schedule and I'm very excited to draft it. I enjoyed Dragonstorm and am enjoying Ixalan. I feel like my first 3 or so drafts of a set go pretty terribly. They're fun still, but it also stinks to lose $5 so fast...

I'm hesitant to do anything besides quick draft because of the stronger competition and bigger downside to losing quickly. But I don't want to stay this way. Ideally I'd quick draft to learn a set and then switch to premier. But I also don't want to miss out on what's available - right now Mix-Up Draft and Core Set 2021. I'm tempted to try both, but feeling like maybe I should stick to a set I know until I develop skills?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"How do I get good at drafting" is such a big topic that multiple people have made years-long podcast shows about just that. One thing you can do as a new drafter is to "study" a set to gain familiarity with it before you get into a real draft.

You can practice evaluating and picking cards on a site like Draftsim.com. For past sets, you also get the benefit of community-wide hindsight, with loads of articles, social posts, and podcast episodes to study. You're aiming to get to the point where you think beyond just open colors and start building your deck during the draft itself.

As an example of deckbuilding during the draft, it's not just recognizing that black is open, but that there's an important black card here for the BG [archetype] deck. What other pieces of the BG deck are you hoping to see to convince you to commit to it (as opposed to another Bx deck)? Which cards, even if they're pretty good, are replaceable enough that you're willing to pass them to mine for the more key cards?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Awesome - yeah I definitely see the advantage of being familiar with a set. Helps you draft something with a plan and know how to play against different decks. What I was missing was figuring out how to study a set. Basically I was just playing and watching streamers play. But it felt like I needed to watch hours of gameplay, or play a bunch of drafts, before feeling like I understood just the basics of the set.

Draftsim is so cool!! Thanks! I think it'll be huge for me seeing cards in a set and having a little fun as opposed to just reading cards for study. Gonna have to use a lot of self control to not mess around on the site while I'm at work...

I'm still so excited to be getting into draft. It feels like a pretty rewarding format to spend time getting good at. Skill and knowledge mixed with gambling, fantasy, and an actually fun game? And I feel like I experience way more of a set's flavor than I would just seeing the cards mixed into various decks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I agree with silverchase that Draftsim and mock drafts are good practice. Then just really get in the reps with one draft format you like. Every draft format is similar enough that perfecting one will pay off when you try another.

Final Fantasy draft guides are about to come out so if you like the look of the set it seems as good to start there as anywhere.

Two resources I like for drafting content are Nizzahon (YouTube) and Lords of Limited (Podcast, YouTube). Glhf!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Two votes for Nizzahon (YouTube) and Lords of Limited (Podcast, YouTube).

https://www.17lands.com/ is your friend if you have not found that yet. If you're on windows there are also various collection tracker/game overlays that can give you info about the cards in a pack while you're in the draft.

I liked https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion and/or https://mtgaassistant.net/Download when I was on windows.

Sadly there are none that really work on linux at the moment. That I have been able to find anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm on Linux as well - would people consider tools like that cheating? Or more like "here's some knowledge you might not know yet"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've never seen anyone say it was cheating. more like haveling a pocket reference manual.

you can get the same info with quick alt-tabbing to 17lands really, it's just convenient to have it as an overlay.

I liked them more for the collection tracking convenience myself. that became a lot harder once WoTC took the collection data out of the logs.

I saw the code for one tracker that basically injects some c++ or unity code or something into the memory where arena is running and gets the collection data that way. it does not seem to work in proton the same way though, at least not for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nice! I still haven't even figured out at what pick count a pack has wheeled :P I guess pick 8? Seems intense to remember an individual pack 8 packs later, but I guess you just know that all those cards wheeled so it gives an idea of what's open.

I was imagining that the overlay would tell you what colors are open, and what a the best picks from each pack are, and maybe even what synergieses with your current picks

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In a pod of 8, Pick 9 in a pack will be your first pack wheeling. You'll only get to see the first 5 packs wheel around (in 14-card play boosters), and a lot of the time those last 1-2 picks in a pack will be a basic land or something completely off-color for you. Don't worry too much about it as you start out, but yeah, it can help indicate a color that's very open.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Gotcha. Weird to me that Arena is different - 7 players in Premier Draft, and packs are 15 cards

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Premier draft should be a full pod of 8. Older sets have 15 cards per pack in draft boosters, but I want to say it was around MKM when they switched to 14-card play boosters.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

On Arena I probably misread "you and 7 other players" as just "7 players" or something 🙃 But knowing they should be the same, I'll commit the numbers to memory!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I do think it'll be fun to start drafting a set from its release and keep up with the meta. I wish I had more time with Dragonstorm since I like the flavor a bit more (but I did just pick up Final Fantasy 10 to try since I've never played any so maybe I'll fall in love).

thanks for the channel recommendations! Hadn't found them and they seem pretty top tier. Even a lot of info about FF already.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@Lumun @UnPassive I'm not sure how feasible getting familiar with formats is these days. When I used to draft 4 times a week it wood uptake a month or two to feel really comfortable. Then you enjoy exploring things for another couple of months before adding one pack of the next set.

Now you'll just feel nearly comfortable and another set will be released. And your bankrupt because drafts are so much more expensive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

@Lumun @UnPassive sorry let me retract that bit about being bankrupt. Drafts are cheaper now than when I'm remembering if inflation is taken into account.....

How, I'm not sure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you are a newbie, you probably want to focus on drafting tips and videos that are NOT set specific. General guides to drafting. Of course, also consume some content based on drafting the set you want. Those set specific tips and tricks, usually make a lot more sense when you understand drafting better in general.

Have you played much constructed magic?

Sorry I dont have much to say myself, i really only play Brawl on Arena and commander irl. Our occasional draft is usually mixed sets or a cube draft.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I've played a lot of constructed magic. Never have gone to a prerelease or draft event though so I had no experience with limited until recently. Makes sense to start with learning draft skills in general though, rather than only trying to learn a set!