Draft?

[toastani]

I hear draft a lot in the pulls section... can some explain to me exactly what draft is?

[Crapshooter]

Draft is usually done in groups of eight or pods, what happens is each person gets 3 packs, these differ on type of draft. At the start each person opens up their pack, removes the basic land and tip or token card from it and then selects one card from the pack they want to use. Then you pass the rest of the pack to the next person, and recieve a pack fro the other person you didn't pass to, this goes on until the pack is complete. Then you do the same with the next pack and the third. The order is usually left, right, left. After all three packs have been "drafted" you then make the best deck you can with the cards you have chosen, it is a minimum of 40 cards and you have unlimited land, any card you don't use in your deck is your side board. You can also play any number of a single card you drafted so if you get 5 copies of a spell you can use all 5 in your deck if you wish. So hopefully that helps.

[toastani]

so, do you purchase the cards yourself? or is there a buy in? and also, you get to keep the cards?

[Rass]

Basically there is a buy in that consists of paying for the three packs and prize pack for the top finishers. Yes you get to keep the cards

[Gorzo]

You keep the cards that you select. The cost of a draft is usually about $12 - $3 per pack. You draft 3 of the 4 packs you buy, and the 4th goes into the prize pool.

Many FNM locations support the draft format, and its a lot if fun. It's probably my favorite form of magic - it improves your deck building skills and gameplay abilities within a limited pool of cards. It'a a great way to improve your skills and your collection.

[toastani]

Dang, that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm not sure if my LGS does it though, as I live in a fairly low populated area. I'll have to find out. I could definitely use that sort of deck building and play practice.

[Crapshooter]

As stated before, draft is one of the best ways to improve deck building skills, it's like sealed in limited resources, but takes so much more forethought and adaptation, especially if the colors you're initially drafting dry out or if a card that could benefit your overall deck appears later. Like if you're drafting RW in a gtc draft and crack a  {Domri Rade} in pack 2 it's not too hard to pick up green to splash, but if you start with domri and see no cards to aid him, you might have to adapt around him or cut him from your potential deck (not saying he was a bad pick or not to draft him) in order to be able to draft a working deck without crippling yourself to stay in his colors. Draft is usually suggested to beginning players as well as veterans because it helps build strategy, abstract thinking, collections and deck building skills, also many tournaments resort to a draft for the top 8.

[toastani]

3 packs = 45 cards, and you have to make a deck with a minimum of 40? That's hard to wrap my head around. then, is it safe to say that there a lot of 3+ colored decks in the draft format?

[Vyse]

Rest assured you still need land, generally 14 in draft, that helps. It's dangerous to go three color, 2 color is easier in this set and mono is usually safest, however currently 2 color is safest right now

[Crapshooter]

Two is usually the hopeful, but three isn't the end of the world especially with mana fixers like  {Prophetic Prism} and  {Verdant Haven}, but a safe bet is 16-18 lands based on curve and mana symbols, a trick I use is count individual specific mana symbols and the try to use half of the total. To explain this say you have 10 white spells who have 14 total plains in their cmc, 7 plains in your deck should be plenty. With a three color deck just do the same thing adding or subtracting 1-2 lands depending on what is more dominant. My last deck was RGW with white splashed, used 7 mountains, 7 forests and 3 plains with 2  {Prophetic Prism} and a  {Verdant Haven} went 3-1 losing to the first place finisher. Mana base should be able to provide for your deck, but the good thing about draft is that you have unlimited resources when it comes to land so you'll always be able to tweak it as you see fit.

[toastani]

I'm absorbing all of this wonderful advice like a sponge. keep it coming!

[Teysa karlov]

At the gatecrash release party at my local FNM we played draft, that was difficult/ really fun,  cos non of the people in my pod had looked at the cards online before hand so had no real idea what cards would come up!!!

[Crapshooter]

Keep in mind 2 color decks are the hopeful norm, but with gold sets like rtr and gtc 3 color is more likely, I suggest that no matter what you end up playing mana fixers are golden, you usually want to grab universal mana fixers early on because they will allow you to draft more freely down the line. Plus mana fixers usually dry up quickly. Also remember that sometimes commons can win tournaments, the last deck i saw win was able to grab 4  {Madcap Skills}, cards like this are plentiful and often overlooked. So keep an open eye open for commons that can aid you more than hinder, just because they're common doesn't make them less useful.

[Rhazor]

Loved this post and all the comments in it!

It's good to have a reference about the percentage of lands you need and this is specially good when you add all those interesting reflections!!!

Thanks to all!