country hillbilly's picture
By: country hillbilly, Zach Whitten
Apr 25 2011 11:34am
5
Login to post comments
3226 views


Swiss Drafting - Ignore the Stigma 

      Hi everybody, my name is Zach.  I have been on the site a bunch recently as I am one of the regular hosts/audio editor for Yawgmoth's Soap Opera.  I have two accounts I am on, abstrakt66 (constructed/collection account) and The_Hoff (purely drafting).  I am the captain of the Clan Magic Eternal, and I have been playing magic for years now.  

     My good buddy and co-captain, George aka 'Whiffy Penguin' has urged me to write on this site for a long time, and I am pretty excited to do so.  As far as Magic Online goes I am not going to act like I am a PT Vet, or heck even a tournament grinder.  I have a wife , two kids and a bulldog, and am an IT Manager for a video game company here in Southern California.  I love to get in a quick draft whenever I can, and to be frank it is a passion (drafting) that has completely caught up to my other in-game passion, which is eternal formats (Shout out to classicquarter.com - check it out!).

     What makes me qualified to write about limited strategies?  Well, I think it is all about perspective.  I am a very sound player (technically, at least) and have qualified for a bunch of the past MOCS tournies only from drafting.  As far as a collection goes, I sold out my collection twice and have completely rebuilt from the ground up, solely through drafting.  All four of my accounts are above 1800 limited and I feel like I can really help out some beginning drafters, or maybe some moderately experienced ones. 

Let's begin with a draft I picked for a good reason: a TRAINWRECK of a pack one.

 (Full Disclosure - I was semi-inebriated and it was STARTING at 2AM my time.  Honestly I felt a feeling of horror after pack one.  I never draft THAT badly...  I PROMISE future drafts will be better, this is simply a good case-study of a pack one gone wrong.)

 

 I added some notes on each pick, but let me spell out what was going on here....  

I knew this was a swiss draft, and that carries several caveats.  The player skill is typically lower, the first pack is typically not the 'crystal ball' it is in other formats (getting an easy read of neighbor colors, being able to cut off colors, etc.)  

When you join a UZ swiss queue you have to account for several variables:

  • Players are not as technically sound, generally, as players you would find in 8-4 or 4-3-2-2 queues
  • Not all players understand signals, or that three or four-color decks are typically a bad idea
  • A lot of ridiculously good cards will be passed your way, but the chances are good there is another player who is in swiss to basically open free packs
  • Winning IS everything in swiss, just like in other queue types.  Do NOT pick for $1 cards unless the option is the best for you in the pack.  The EV (expected value) in uz drafts are great, but do not get carried away picking cards like frantic search above cards that actually will win you games, like Thornwind Faeries for example
  • Variance is as infuriating in swiss as it can possibly be, as there are SO MANY swingy bomb cards that can simply take a game that is in winnable shape and flip it upside down (examples: Pestilence, All of the 'Embrace' enchantments, Symbiosis, Horseshoe Crab + Hermetic Study, Vile Requiem, Rancor + anything, and these are just a FEW of the common/uncommon examples), so understand winning 100% of the time is IMPOSSIBLE, so get ready to get aggravated and roll with the punches
  • Do not overlook hot foils at the common and uncommon slots.  I got passed a foil Tinker and a foil Engineered Plague in back to back Legacy picks last week!
  • Lastly - have fun.  This is the only draft format you are guaranteed to get three rounds of action in(unless your opponent drops, obviously).  This is really the epitome of a low-risk low-reward scenario, especially for current standard formats like SoM Block.  In Urza's you can expect to open 4-8 tickets worth of cards in almost every draft!
  • Do not even think about people talking down on swiss.  You are SO MUCH better off mitigating your risk with this structure if you do not have a lot of expendable income....  (PLUS you can get some truly nutty drafts!)

 

 

GW Junk
This is a mix of luck and drafting yourself out of a hole
Creatures
1 Voice of Law
2 Simian Grunts
1 Angelic Page
2 Yavimaya Elder
2 Marker Beetles
1 Expendable Troops
1 Cave Tiger
1 Sustainer of the Realm
1 Bull Hippo
1 Multani's Acolyte
1 Voice of Duty
1 Sanctum Custodian
1 Mantis Engine
16 cards

Other Spells
1 Cessation
1 Archery Training
1 Fend Off
1 Hope and Glory
1 Radiant's Judgment
1 Capashen Standard
1 Brilliant Halo
7 cards
Lands
1 Forbidding Watchtower
9 Forest
7 Plains
17 cards

Simian Grunts

 

 

This deck actually ended up having only one card I would want to swap out, and that card is Capashen Standard.  I would have loved either primo removal (Path to Peace) or a truly big beater.  Below is a quick wrapup of my rounds, and how they went:

 

Round One: 

The Hoff (GW) vs. schlampmeister (GB)

I keep a solid hand with 3 lands, beetles, hope & glory, radiant's judgment and a hippo.  I draw into a 2/2 flyer, put pressure on the board and simply play more resources than he does.  I play beetles, a ripped voice of law and a hippo and all the while he does nothing but put down forests.  He finally plays Ticking gnomes, and I attack with all before he has paid echo.  He blocks bettle and I untap beetle and voice, pumping both and prompting a concession soon after.

 

Game 2 did not record due to early concession by opponent, but I believe it was simply a faster clock.

2-0

I am at the top of the standings, as the other winners of round one all went 2-1

Round Two:

The_Hoff (GW) vs. Kurgan_ (BR)

Game One:

Keep a SUPER solid hand with 2x Forest, Plains, Archery Training, Hope & Glory, Simian Grunts, and Voice of Reason. He is on the play and I feel great about the opener.  He then plays Wild Colos (Red 2/2 haste) and I am still feeling great about my prospects... One more turn and the surprise grunt will eat his lunch.  I drop a 3rd land and pass, salivating at the mouth ready to eat some goat.... then it happened....

I tried playing the Flyer, hoping I could pull something out with hope + Brilliant halo, but he simply had the Ghitu Slinger to end it early.

Game Two:

I keep a marginal hand I am not too happy with, but it's got lands and *some* business.  The hand contains 2 Forests, 2 Plains, Janitor, Fend off and Bull Hippo.  When I play my Janitor turn 3 and he answers with Ghitu Slinger, I am about to go on tilt....  I manage to keep it together and draw into some business.  In the end I topdeck a Mask of Law and Grace for an admittedly lucky win.

 

Game 3 replay was lost, however the deciding play was when i attacked for 3 with Mantis, and have a beetle left untapped.  He attached into me with 7 total power (4/3 Viashino Bey and 3/3 hulking Ogre) and I blocked with 2/3 beetle and untapped Mantis with Hope and Glory, Turning Mantis into a 4/4 first striker and my beetle into a 3/4 Ogre Killer.

 

Finals: 

The_Hoff (GW) vs. jaspws344 (BW)

I keep a relatively sketchy hand with Plains and the white manland, however I draw like a champ here (I am on the draw, he is on the play).  I draw into turn 2 Simian Grunt turn 3 Forest.  I end up curving out nicely and dodge his Lurking Skirge coming online with my many battle tricks (Fend off and Hope and Glory).  I win turn 9 from immense pressure, as seen below.

Game 2:

I keep a pretty solid hand with 1 Forest, 1 Plains, Mask of Law and Order, Rune of Protection: Black, Janitor, Mantis and Hippo.  I was on the play but the risk is mitigated by the fact that I probably wont get a better hand with 6 cards (obv).  This turned out to be a war of attrition, and 2 timely late grunts made my day end on a pretty nice note.  I ended up actually losing a ticket, but i got my 9th QP in the process.

 Next time I will do two things that I didn't here:

  1. Pick a solid pack one 
  2. Record my Videos.  The missing games are bush league and I apologize for that.

     Would love to hear your feedback, especially if you are my target demographic (People looking to build collections and mitigate risk with minimum investment, or drafters who are 15xx-1750 who can't get over their current hump!).

Thanks for the opportunity, see you again soon!

(As a way to make up for my crappy pack one on my lead article, I am attaching an urzas 4322 I just won for QP #10 - enjoy!)

 

 

Really appreciate you guys checking this out!

 

Zach (The_Hoff/abstrakt66)

5 Comments

It's weird that your picks by Paul Leicht at Mon, 04/25/2011 - 12:27
Paul Leicht's picture

It's weird that your picks seem to be missing several cards in the swiss.

Yea... by country hillbilly at Mon, 04/25/2011 - 12:35
country hillbilly's picture

Apologies for that Paul, I will put them in this post for posterity (no idea why they don't show up):

Pack 1 missing: Argothian Elder
Pack 2 missing: Rune of Protection: Green
Pack 3 Missing: Rune of Protection: Red
Pack 4 missing: Rune of Protection: Red (seeing a theme here...)

Thanks for taking the time to check it out Paul, will try to be cleaner next time :)

Zach

yay. been waiting a wkile for by whiffy at Mon, 04/25/2011 - 12:59
whiffy's picture

yay. been waiting a wkile for this. you mentioned that your sorry for missing games. i hope recording means videos. keep it up guy.

Loved that draft recording by Bazaar of Baghdad at Mon, 04/25/2011 - 13:55
Bazaar of Baghdad's picture
5

Loved that draft recording technology - first time I've seen it; pretty elegant. Keep 'em coming.

Solid Information by under_the_hammer at Wed, 04/27/2011 - 03:46
under_the_hammer's picture
5

Solid, informative and enjoyable article. Would like to see more in the series, I love the MTGO relevant draft format articles - not like you are going to find gems like this from the paper world to guide you on the journey through a saga block draft. Well done sir.