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5 months ago ::
Jan 03, 2013 - 9:19AM
#11
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Although not the right pack I found the youtube videos made by Jack, the Mind Sculptor to be helpful. Unfortunetly the FNM place that is close to where I work on fridays doesn't always have enough people for a draft  only managed it 2 times out of the 4 I have gone but gotten first and second. BTW I have noticed that people who are good at using a limited card pool to make causual decks are good drafters. Both my brother and I have been coolecting for awhile however we did not get a massive amount of cards like other people between this and budgeting our decks (grabbing 1$ cards that do similar things to the 5$ cards) we have become pretty good at working off for a lack of a better phrase bad cards. What can be fun and supprising relivant is pull out your old cards with some friends and just make decks from your cards that just are not very good, it will help you learn how to fit together bad cards. Last time drafted I made a control agro deck using low mana selsnia and a large amount of azourus arrestor And also READ YOUR CARDS I have won quite a few games because my opponents did not read their cards.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 03, 2013 - 3:02PM
#12
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Date Joined:
Oct 17, 2006
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Thoughts on the cards-
Voidweilder- temporary removal combined with defense, but expensive. (I know a lot of people say it's good, I just haven't seen it in play.) If I've got other cards with effects that trigger when something enters or leaves the battlefield, its value goes up significantly.
Centaur Healer- half a thragtusk for 3 mana. Looks like a solid card, but not a bomb. Life gain shouldn't be a goal in and of itself.
Drudge Beetle- fills in the gaps if you're low on creatures, but the ability is overpriced. Of course, in draft, you can actually get the mana needed to scavange it for late game. A 2/2 for 2 isn't fantastic though, considering the next card-
Call of the Conclave- 3/3 for 2 is good, can be out on turn two for major damage unless they can deal with it. Do I have populate cards to work with?...
If I had to rank these, I'd pick Call of the Conclave, Centaur Healer, Voidweilder, and Drudge Beetle, in that order.
Am I way off?
One thing to note is versatility. While centaur healer and voidwielder are fairly close in power level, centaur healer is good in exactly one deck, while voidwielder is good in two, and possibly a passable splash in another one.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 03, 2013 - 3:13PM
#13
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Date Joined:
Jan 23, 2007
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voidwielder is a good splash in almost any deck. I've used him in a base golgari deck.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 7:03PM
#14
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I am not a great drafter myself but that is because I'll pick sexy cards that I would like to add to some conglomeration of cards to call a casual deck. And I'll tell myself it's a 'hate' pick when it really isn't. Don't hate draft at least until after the 9th pick As far as the Call of the Conclave  Voidwielder  comparison, here is some food for thought, having opened your first pack, rushing to the rare and see a Slaughter Games  you have narrowed your pick to a call, a voidwelder and a Splatter Thug  the pack is slanted towards Golgari now by slanted I mean there are solid cards for that guild like Trestle Troll  which is a solid pick along with Golgari Decoy  In this draft the call would be my choice and my reasoning would be along the lines of 2 things. First, by the time the voidwelder is online you probably have swung at least 2 turns with the centaur and at least have knocked of some random dude. Having made that pick, i would now force selesnya, focusing on tokens, which ups cards like Eyes in the Sky  Seller of Songbirds  and Druids Deliverence  . My focus is now set on token generators and combat tricks that keep my weenies alive while they One thing about Return to Ravnica is that there is a serious stall element in limited formats, which means a way to punch through damage later in the game when the game has stalled out. which makes cards like Blustersquall  valuable in this format
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5 months ago ::
Jan 12, 2013 - 9:03PM
#15
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Well, hurray! I no longer consider myself a total loser! Placed 19th out of 23 and managed to win my first round, after reading up and some heavy draft simulation over the internet. (I do go to a shop that many people have noted as being very competative, with a lot of stiff competition.) I just followed some of the advice I was given- took the best picks through the first pack, didn't decide until later what colors I'd go into. My first pack started out with a Sphinx of the Chimes  , which I grabbed as a bomb, but the next few picks had excellent cards in white and green, so I started leaning Azorius with some splash for green... while still grabbing a Stab Wound  when it came up. Then, second pack, I opened a foil Vraska the Unseen  . Quickly glancing at the rest of my picks, I ended up switching gears entirely, and going Golgari... mainly. Ended up with a spread of 4 Plains, 5 Forest, and 9 Swamps, ditching blue entirely. I was not optimistic about going three color in draft, but it only affected one game- where I ended up with no swamps and couldn't play the majority of cards in my hand. (Really should have mulliganed that time.) Most games I ended up with at least one land of each color, which, in RtR, is enough to cast most spells. I ended up winning my first round 2-0, and going 1-2 in the second round. (I lost the third round 0-2, but got mana-hosed the first game.) So it looks like things are starting to turn around. I'm glad that booster draft is flexible enough to let you switch colors 1/3 of the way through without significantly affecting your game.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 13, 2013 - 6:01AM
#16
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Date Joined:
Dec 19, 2007
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I think the mistake was made when you went all in on vraska. Your mana split is very heavy black, pretty much saying screw my entire first pack! I've seen 5 color and what not do very well, its really just about if you can snatch up a gate or 2, or get a promenade when hitting 3+ colors.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 16, 2013 - 6:12AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2012
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We could also help you a little further if you would post your draft pools and decks. The last one with Vraska (for example) could be very interesting and you might learn how to get the best out of such situation. I don't think that changing entirely your guilds after pack1 was particularly a smart move. During all pack1, you have been cutting White, Blue and to some extent Green. This means that you have good chances to have 2-3 players to your left drafting Golgari/Rakdos (and perhaps Izzet but I doubt it). Guess how many "good" black cards will go through that pack2? So you endup at the begining of Pack3 with many green cards, some white cards, some blue cards (that you disregard) and some very average black cards (except for the Wound and the Vraska). You are now in 4 colors with no consistency at all... While for most drafters, P3 will be useful to pick mana fixers and fillers, you will need good bodies and ALSO mana fixers, leaving you more than once in doubt if you should take a guildgate or a Tower indrik... I could bet that your deck, let out Vraska, was very average. Then, if you don't draw Vraska, imagine what is the logic ending of the game. You were already in W/G and probably would have been better off staying W/G splashing black for Vraska.  Don't give up, you are on the good way. 
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4 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2013 - 5:48AM
#18
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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Well, hurray! I no longer consider myself a total loser!
I've never drafted, so can't give you any advice, but I was a professor for 10+ years so I feel I know something about learning in general. My first advice would be to completely strike from your mental reference the notion of being a "loser." You are a "learner." Drafting is hard (which is why I haven't even tried it yet), but if you can accept that the results will be mediocre in the beginning and as long as you can learn from these experiences, you will become a better and better with time. Keep at it! I'm impressed by anyone who is relatively new to magic who dives into drafting.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2013 - 7:34AM
#19
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2012
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Keep at it! I'm impressed by anyone who is relatively new to magic who dives into drafting.
Actually it makes a lot of sense, even though that's probably the excercise that requires the most concentration.
What I mean is that if you are new to magic, you can forget about playing Legacy, Vintage and Modern.
What is left is T2 (standard) and T3 (Sealed and Drafts). To be "good" in standard you need to know at least all the cards from the last 2 blocks + MXX (roughly 1000+ cards), and all the possible interactions between those cards... which is already a lot!!
You can always buy a pre-built deck and play T2 with it, but you'll get smashed more often than not.
For T3, you only have to focus on 250 cards, which is very... limited. Also, in the case of "Pick" Drafts, you get a chance to collect only the cards in the colours you are interested and can slowly build your T2 deck over time, knowing pretty well the cards you'll face.
That's the reasoning that pushed me to go for T3 after a 10+ years break. I started again with AVR and waited til RTR was realeased to build a "competitive" T2. I just built it recently and haven't played a T2 tournament with it yet. There is still plenty of INI and DRK cards that I'm not familiar with.
And to be honest, I think I like the diversity of the games in T3 a lot more. Each draft you get to play a new deck!
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4 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2013 - 8:24PM
#20
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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Keep at it! I'm impressed by anyone who is relatively new to magic who dives into drafting.
Actually it makes a lot of sense, even though that's probably the excercise that requires the most concentration.
What I mean is that if you are new to magic, you can forget about playing Legacy, Vintage and Modern.
What is left is T2 (standard) and T3 (Sealed and Drafts). To be "good" in standard you need to know at least all the cards from the last 2 blocks + MXX (roughly 1000+ cards), and all the possible interactions between those cards... which is already a lot!!
My situation is a bit different. I started playing Magic casually starting with Portal Second Age, Starter 1999, and Classic VI Edition. I played a lot, but only at home. Fast forward some years, I started playing Magic Online, but only in the Planeswalker format, which, as you probably know, is not Standard but uses its own lists of cards, including a restricted list. Fast forward to last year, when my daughter started showing an interest in our old cards. So, this summer, I picked up M13 and started playing store events. So, in my case, I'm not new to Magic and I'm comfortable playing building and playing constructed decks. While I'm much more familiar with M13 and RTR than I am with the Innistrad block, I've played enough now that I'm fairly comfortable at least with the key cards in Innistrad and last Friday I won my first Standard FNM. I figure once Innistrad rotates out in October, I will be on a level playing field as far as card knowledge goes.
Drafting intimidates me, however, mostly because of the notion of reading signals and figuring out what the other players are doing. I think I can do a reasonably good job at 6-booster sealed deck, and I wish that was an option at FNM. I might start that on Magic Online actually, time permitting. But I've never drafted and I'm still working up my courage to go to my first one. I think I'll try one post-Gatecrash to see if I enjoy it or not.
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