f13.net

Started drafting my first Rav, Guild, Discen games.  Hadn't drafted since Guildpact came out.

Wow.

This set is huge fun to draft.  Everyone plays 3 colors, at least.  All kinds of different bombs to throw down.  Not much in the way of huge cheese that automatically swings the game. (WoG, Lox Hammer, Jitte, etc)

I almost resigned from my first game, though.  Was checking out the stats of the folks drafting when I noticed one of them had something to the effect of "Proud to be a furry, PM me if interested!". 

'tis fun, but bloody hard - I suspect part of the issue is that the current PTQ season is Rav sealed, so there are probably a higher proportion of 'good' players than usual.

URG ftw.

'tis fun, but bloody expensive too.

My #1 complaint with MtGO is there is no low cost or monthly fee option where you can draft and play but dont keep the cards.

Xilren

MTGO could have been the WoW killer before there was a WoW, but they priced themselves out of the market.

I'm pretty sure they've made far more money this way.  There's no way they could have gotten 5-7 million subscribers. 

If you play well, drafting doesn't cost ya too much.  Just reuse the packs you win for further drafts.  I haven't been drafting recently but I keep meaning to see about trading my the rares I draft for tickets to cover the ticket costs.

That's a nice thought, but shit happens...like a guy drawing Hex 2 games in a row, the round before the killing blow would have been laid upon him.

Based on how your limited rating gives you a decent read on your match win probability, someone wrote an article on expected value of an mtgo draft...

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/article/382/maximize-your-winnings-on-mtgo/

(http://mattbelcher.com/drafts.jpg)

You ought to be able to trade your rares for at least the tickets required for the next draft - and usually at least one of your packs.

On that basis drafting becomes free around a rating of 1750.

Well, definitely got my groove back.

My rating has jumped up to 1618.  I've drafted for free (minus tix) for the last 4 days,  probably 5 or 6 drafts in all.

I've even been schooling the 1750+ players.  Who freak out and talk all kinds of shit when they're getting pounded.  Just took a 1800+ rating guy to town 2-0,  and he wasn't happy at all.

Card drafting strategy:

You need to pick 3 colors that work well together and have as a common color one each of Rav, Guild, Disc.

So,  RGB for instance.  You get to choose colors from each one of your individual colors in Rav,  plus GB guild cards.  In Guild,  you get RG cards (which are bombtastic).  Disc you get RB,  which is underdrafted and has some nice shit in their.

The bloodthirst creatures are badasses.  Quite a few RG creatures are bombs in and of themselves,  like burning tree shaman (3 for a 3/4 with a sweet ability?  yes!)

I've become a big fan of the eidilon creatures (4 cc 2/2s,  with a crappy ability; get returned to hand whenever you cast a multicolored spell).

The green eidilon has a decent ability (G and sac, produce 3 mana of any one color).  Nothing like attacking with him,  then sacing him to use his mana to get out a big multicolored bloodthirst creature,  and then the eidilon is returned to your hand.   Mmmmm.

Managed to draft a bunch of money cards, too,  that I can trade for tix if I need.  A couple shaman,  some duals, foil Char and foil Voidslime, etc.

An important tip:

You're paired off with the guy 4 places down the table from you.  That's the same guy if you count clockwise or counterclockwise.  It lets you check out that players rating and whatnot before the match.

Is burning tree shaman a big constructed card? People thought that it would be, but I haven't been paying much attention.

I stopped drafting when GP came out, mostly because I was busy and didn't have time to learn the new set. I'm kind of on again/off again with a lot of my hobbies, I'll do them for a couple months, then forget them for a while again.

In 9th I did awful but in Rav I did well overall. I think my rating is 1650 or so, which is pretty good considering that after drafting 9th it was about 1560.

I definitely evolved as a player:

Stage 1: Dumb rules mistakes like forgetting to regenerate creatures.
Stage 2: Poor individual card evaluation, poor deck construction.
Stage 3: Poor in-game strategy and poor drafting strategy. (Individual card evaluation ok, but can't put them into a deck that works)
Stage 4: No dumb rules mistakes, good card evaluation, good approach to draft and deck construction, good in-game strategy.

I'm sure there is plenty more I can do, but now when I draft I know what is good and what works well together, play a solid game, etc. No more losing on turn 3 by taking 18 damage from a Storm Crow and Phantom Warrior. :)

I'm still not 100% sure why I was so bad at drafting 9th, even as my play got better. I think I fundamentally didn't understand what was important in 9th decks.

I know one of my big problems is that there are certain types of play styles I like,  and I often draft to my playstyle.  In some sets,  that playstyle flat out sucks.

For instance,  I was good at 8th.  I drafted heavily in UW and r or b,  aiming for a controlish/evasion deck.  It was a good playstyle for that set. 

In 9th and RRR,  more aggroish strats in colors I don't like were big.  Got spanked a bit,  and at best was mediocre.  Rating slumped down into the low 1500s.

Burning Tree Shaman is played in Constructed RGx decks.  He's massively efficient,  and his ability is a real hoser for jitte or any deck that uses alot of activated abilities.  Zoo (RGx) and variants are pretty popular.

Ooops.

Got told off by another player during finals of draft.  He disconnected.

In 9th I drafted a lot of white/blue but my decks were just so slow. I drafted a lot of really underpowered R/B decks as well that just ran out of steam. One problem I had was that I either didn't get any bombs, or I didn't know what the bombs were. Because I constantly found that my decks never had an ace up their sleeve.

In RRR I drafted mostly WGB or GBU. I find that in general I am good at playing and making middle of the road decks that have a solid curve, are efficient, etc. I'm not great at drafting really aggro decks or mill/card advantage type decks. Mid-range beats is more my style. Not that I particularly like that style but I just find I'm better at it. I'm pretty good at getting a solid mana-base and curve to go with it. Most of the games I win are because the cards in my deck are just better, I have less dead weight and play my deck pretty well.

I tried drafting mill decks a couple of times but they didn't work out, in part because I picked up some competition for the main mill guys.