Prepping for Sunday's Draft

-Greg

Let me start this by saying that I am the worst drafter. I'm a consistent bottom-half finisher, and have never placed higher than 6th out of 15. My lovely wife, Brenna is definitely a better drafter than I am (although this might have something to do with the Alara block's synergy with her play style), and my old roomie Kimball (the only other non-wife person I play casual magic with) puts us both to shame in limited formats. Kimball had a perfect run at the Conflux prerelease, despite having an almost laughable losing streak to me from earlier in the week, which further piqued my curiousity at my own lack of abilities.

So what's my problem? No clue. I do well enough in constructed, which leads me to think that maybe my strengths there lie in how well I know the deck. I probably do more than adequate playtesting, and I tend to agonize over card choices until I'm sick of looking at the decklist, luxuries I'm not afforded in limited. Another, more embarassing fact about me, is I have a hard time picking out "bombs." This all goes back to Ice Age, when I looked at Necropotence and said, "What, life for cards? NO WAY, JOSE."

So how do you solve a problem like this? PROFOUND AMOUNTS OF DATA ANALYSIS. Also, you look at Conflux spoilers online during slow days at work.

Sunday's Overall Strategy:

Fuck one drops. If there's anything I've learned in my few weeks of drafting, it's that drafting for speed is a waste of time. I'm looking at Aven Squire to be the bare minimum in what to expect from a creature. Rhox Meditant should be an extension of this philosophy of mid-game shoring-up.


Removal + Heavy Hitters. Shards and Conflux are cheap with removal, and I'll draft said removal second only to big, nasty creatures. Martial Coup would be the perfect intersection of the two, but considering I'll have somewhere around a 3% or 4% chance of opening this in one of my packs, I won't hold my breath. Nacatl Hunt-Pride, on the other hand, will probably come up, and I will grab it with great vengeance. I'll try to resist the urge to greed draft Path to Exile, but I can't promise how much luck I'll have with that.


Hatedraft Leviathans, Resisting Urge to Set Aflame.
If Dave plops an Inkwell in front of me again, I'm going to vom.

Don't Fear a Steep Mana Curve. I'll be paying more attention to the heavy cost cards that also have basic landscycling, like Fiery Fall. Between these and the everpresent Cylix and slew of mana-fixing uncommon lands and artifacts, I should have plenty of resources.

Face It, You're Going Five Colors.
Even though I've been conditioned by years of MTG that five colors is a noobmove, I've come to understand that while Shards made it tempting to draft a rainbow, Flux made it almost irresistable. I'll be snatching up every Fusion Elemental I see, as well as Paragon of Amesha, Dragonsoul Knight, and anything else that has WUBRG anywhere on it's face. I haven't seen anyone pull a Maelstrom yet, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Don't Draft Bonesaw.
I have swept three unlucky souls in a Flux draft, and all played Bonesaw. WTF.








Anyway, I'll be taking notes during the draft to report back Monday. Everyone have a good weekend, and good luck at the tables!