Archetype drafting, for those of you who don’t know, is pretty much going into a draft with an idea of the deck you want to play and then making it happen. I do this a lot, and I’m planning to do it tomorrow night. In honor of that, I’m going to explain Archetype drafting and its consequences today, in text and text-flowchart form.
When you Archetype draft, you have to have a good idea of the format, and what archetypes there are to draft. It may be based around a color scheme, or perhaps a certain mechanics. Perhaps the most archetypical of all archetype drafts was most recently seen in Time Spiral block, where it was possible to draft 5-color slivers. Running 5 colors is something most draft decks would never do, but by Yawgmoth, you’re drafting slivers so you’re going to do it!
A typical drafter is going to do what’s usually called “Power Drafting”: they take the objectively strongest card from each pack they come across until a theme, color, or set of colors presents itself, and then try to follow that unless it totally dries up or something more appealing is clearly “open” by what is passed. Archetype drafting, to some degree, preys on this: since you’re taking cards that fit your game plan whether or nor they’re the objective strongest, you’re putting power drafters on your left into other strategies while sending a strong signal that Archetype X isn’t going to be coming their way, because every time it passes you, it dries up. Naturally, the bane of the Archetype drafter is another Archetype drafter doing the same thing, so you either have to be willing to stick it out to the end and risk having a depleted deck or else know when to fold ‘em and switch.
I had a lot of success archetype drafting 
/
faerie rogues in Morningtide and am hoping to have similar results with Infect now that Scars is out, though there may be more people fighting me for infect than were fighting me for rogues! Anyway, I promised a text flowchart, and here it is
HOW TO ARCHETYPE DRAFT
1) Is there a pack in front of you?
Yes – Look at it. Go to 3
No – Go to 2
2) No pack in front of you? Is it new booster time?
Yes – Open your new booster, and look at the pack inside. Go to 3
No – Wait until you’re passed a pack, then look at it and go to 3. Do I really need to explain this?
3) You have cards! Do any of them fit your archetype?
Yes – Take the strongest of the ones that fits your archetype.
No – Go to 4
4) Are any of them on-color removal or bombs?
Yes – Take the best removal/bomb
No – Go to 5
5) Can any of them even remotely help you?
Yes – Take the one that helps you most
No – Go to 6
6) Nothing helps you? Would any of them hurt you?
Yes – Take the one you least want to see across the table
No – Go to 7
7) Could any of the cards in this pack even remotely help anybody else?
Yes – Take the one that someone else would most want to see
No – Why didn’t you tell me you were on pick 15? Take the basic land and get ready for next pack/deckbuilding.
Okay, I probably could have made that funny, but a comic I am not. Enjoy your flowchart.
