It has been a while now hasn't it? My last article was about my triumph in Tenth Edition limited, surpassing a field of one hundred and twelve players to finish with a split in the finals. Unfortunately my Odyssey Block Sealed didn't go as spectacular as I dropped around round five or six. Since then I have recieved props for the two part article for that Tenth Edition limited Premier Event, especially for the top eight draft. For those that missed it you can check it out in the archieves. I hope to bring you more drafts to come, after I resolve a fight with Draft Cap. In the mean time I thought I would share some aspects of draft, not just in 10th edition, that have served me well.

KNOWING THE SET

I am always looking for a way to give myself an edge in Magic, other than cheating of course. This is why I read coverage and watch Pro Tour videos. I remember drafting TTT last year during the Pro Tour and I ended up drafting an archetype I heard about via that coverage. Remember Tromp the Domains.dec? I won easily ten drafts after reading about the deck and merely mimicing the strategy. Another part of this is actually knowing the set. Which is an almost necessary part of drafting. Knowing the cards is an advantage you MUST have when playing limited. This is where you can deduce a value for picks.

Imitation, the most profitable form of flattery.

VALUE

This is not how many tix a single card is worth, but about how likely it is to win you packs. Such as a pack with Blaze and Incinerate. Easy to say, the Blaze is more powerful and thus has a higher draft value. Now this gets tricky when it comes to comparing cards in different colors. Let's say Incinerate and Terror are in the same pack. The cards themselves are on the same power level, don't let anyone tell you no different. This is where you got to make a choice based on your value of the card, which often comes down to personal preference or knowing which color is weaker as a whole. You want to know what I would have picked? I'll tell you. I would pick Incinerate, red as a whole is more powerful and I like it better as a preference because I like to be able to hit a player directly.

PERSONAL PREFERENCE

I mentioned personal preference for when assigning value to a card. The best example to this is one of my contraversal picks in my top eight draft. I took a Remove Soul over Terror in the second pack. Having only taken Incinerate before that pick it is easy to say Terror is the better pick. This is where many players can go different ways altering the draft, which is highly fascinating to me. I have a preference for blue as it has a very deep amount of commons that are playable, most of which have flying or say "draw a card". Both of which I have an affinity for.

Does It matter which is better

SIGNALS

THIS IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TRICK YOU CAN LEARN IN DRAFT! As you saw in the top eight draft I stayed loose in my third pick with a white card in Voice of All. This may not be the greatest of example considering the pack was week other than that card. The fact remains I probable would have taken it over some solid blue or red cards. Voice of All is a powerful card as far as white goes, and the fact that it went third surprises me. This gives me the idea that the guy to my left is going to send me white. This is a three dimensional idea, signaling. The guy to your left is sending you signals, but at the same time you are sending signals to your left. This is crucial in the first pack, at least when playing with decent players, as you can dictate whats going to happen in pack two. You need to take notes of what you pass, at least cards that are good or at least playable. As you saw in pack 1 of my draft I basically refused to pass any blue cards in pack one and behold I got a third pick Air Elemental and fourth pick Remove Soul which is pretty good. I am to the point to where I can run this trick in my head. I would recommend anyone who hasn't learned this trick to try it, because this is how players win drafts.

Building Your Deck, Even before You Finish Drafting

I don't care what anyone says, twenty (Terrors) will NOT win a draft. This is a very subtle part of the drafting process. You MUST see what you have. Periodicly during a draft you need to ask yourself a few questions. How many creatures do I have? What's my curve look like? Do I have any tricks? Can I deal with artifact or enchantments? Your deck won't perform well if you ability to draw a creatue is ten to one. You won't win if your ability to remove a creature or pull ahead in some shape or form, what I refer to as a trick, then your deck is, for lack of a better, a "one trick pony". Which likely will allow you opponent to out play you. Third, in most formats of limited there is a very threatening enchantment or artifact. Although, this doesn't warrant drafting Naturalize over Craw Wurm it's something to consider in the last five or so picks in a draft. Bringing in a card like Smash versus a Platinum Angel can literally win a match. Not bad for a tenth to fifteenth pick card.

Ok, let's not go that far!

Curve: Something to Live By

This is the last and arguably one of the most important strategys in draft. I have found that you want something close to a bell curve often peaking at three to four mana cost. There are a few exception, as some archetypes flow lower or higher curve wise. Such as in Cold Snap draft the white weenie archetype would peak at two and go down often like a right triangle. This was fine as the decks motive was to finish the game within the first seven to eight turns or so. Normally, however, the bell curve is the normally the way to go. Often tempo will determine the end result of the game. I have found that often when I curve out playing stuff on every turn for the first few turns...I win, especially if you use all of your mana such as two drop on turn two and three drop on turn three and etc.

 Alright, this session of class is over. PENCILS DOWN!  Now, as for whats to come. I will be bringing weekly metagame articles for puremtgo. This will include Top Eight Metagame analysis and maybe even some interviews with some of the great players on MTGO. I also hope to bring some more draft articles as I enjoy drafting and have found people respect my game. That will come down to whether or not draftcap decides to like me anytime soon. More to the point, tell me what you guys think. Do you like what I am writing? Would you like me to go even farther in depth? Is there anything you would like to see in the weekly metagame page? Am I an idiot? Well, we all know the answer to that. Finally, to all of you, Have Fun and Good Luck.