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| Anvar |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:08 am |
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Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 251
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In October I went to my first M:TG Draft, I’ve had a lot of fun, and learnt a lot about how to draft.
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Drafting Time Spiral - A Beginner’s Tale
INTRODUCTION
It was in October of this year that I took the plunge and entered my first draft at the West of the Moon club in Oxford. Although I’ve been playing CCGs for years (beginning with Star Wars CCG), it wasn’t until the last couple of years that I began playing competitively (as opposed to playing with my younger brother), and only very recently that I began playing Magic at all. In fact, the first Magic set I ever bought cards for was Dissension, so I really am a new kid on the block. I’d built some Ravnica block decks and got a feel for the rules but decided to start drafting afresh with the upcoming block. I thought it would make my life easier, than starting out with a block that was nearly finished, but jumping into Time Spiral felt like diving into the ocean - I was out of my depth and over my head.
Why was Time Spiral so daunting? Because of the nostalgia theme. The whole set was built around ideas and cards that I had never heard of. I understood the Ravnica block mechanics and the basic mechanics of 9th Edition, all that was fine. But suddenly, I had to contend not with just Suspend, Split Second and Flash but with Flashback, Kicker, Storm, Rampage, Buyback, Madness, Echo, Slivers, Shadow, Morph, Cycling and much, much more. That’s an awful lot of new keywords to grasp (at least they didn’t bring back Banding). And then you have the Time-shifted cards, which most other players in my group had seen before and had a good grasp of. For me, it was another 121 cards that I had to figure out. And then there are all the sly references and in-jokes that go totally over my head. All in all, I felt that this was a set that was made for experienced Magic players and I was worried that it wouldn’t be fun for a newbie like me. How wrong I was.
INITIAL ADVICE
It was with no small amount of trepidation that I approached my first draft. As I waited for the second pod to have enough players to begin (who knew that a 7:30pm start meant that half the players arrived by 7pm?) I asked the old hands for some advice, which I present here. Perhaps this advice will serve to help someone else in their first drafts.
1] If it isn’t a creature or won’t help you kill a creature, don’t take it.
This is eminently sensible advice for a first time drafter and has stood me in good stead. The difficulty in following this advice, is in working out which cards can help you kill creatures and how likely they are to do so. Obviously, Assassinate and Temporal Isolation are good ways of taking out creatures but even simple strength/toughness boosts (like Thrill of the Hunt) can do the same if you use them wisely. The big question I’m still struggling with is how to know when a creature if worth taking and when it isn’t. Having limited experience of the game, I don’t always recognise efficient creatures but I’m getting better. My favourites? Errant Ephemeron and Looter Il-Kor. I’m a Blue player at heart.
2] Play as few colours as possible.
First draft, I played a three colour monstrosity in Red, Green and Black. I never had the right lands and lost every single game I played. The good news was I could only do better. After that, I’ve found that two colour builds are a lot more reliable and are easier to build so that they work efficiently. Since I’m not the greatest player or deck builder, I don’t want unnecessary complications getting in the way.
3] Always, always play 40 card decks.
The more cards in your deck, the less chance you have of getting the cards you need when you need them. Enough said.
4] Play 17 land.
I know that this rule isn’t as hard and fast as the last one but so far I haven’t broken it. Most of the time, this has given me enough land but not too much. Though I have to confess that there have been games where I’ve been left desperately using Greenseeker to thin the lands out of my deck.
5] Try to spread out the mana cost of your spells and have a mana curve.
Having lots of spells in the 2 and 3 cost bracket is really essential, as otherwise you lose an awful lot of tempo to your opponent by not playing anything the first few turns. Time Spiral seems quite good for this, as the Suspend guys can often be played early when you have nothing else to spend the mana on, or late when you can put them into play immediately. Of all the advice I was given, this is the most difficult. Remembering what cards you’ve taken and what holes you have in your mana curve is really difficult for a first-time drafter, and in between packs I never seem to have enough time to really get a feel for what I’ve taken.
DECKS AND GAMES
In my first draft, first pick I succumbed to the lure of the Rare card and took a Stronghold Overseer. This might have been a good choice if a] I had had lots of other black cards (I didn’t) and b] if the only game I had the mana to cast it, he hadn’t been immediately killed by a Flashbacked Gaze of Justice (note to self, remember cards in the graveyard with Flashback!).
Second draft, I lost the first game to Weatherseed Totem. I just didn’t have an answer to such a big trampling artifact. But then I went on to win my next two games (my opponents had mana issues). I placed third and won my first boosters in prize support.
On a high, I went into my third draft a week later, and went Blue/Black. I knew these were the colours I would be in when I got a Shadow Mage Infiltrator in my first pack, and then got passed a Looter Il-Kor. With another Looter in the deck (I got passed crazy Blue cards from the third round of packs) I buried my opponents under massive amounts of bounce, removal, evasion and card advantage. My high point of the night was when I killed one creature with Serrated Arrows, bounced the arrows with a Tolarian Sentinel, discarding a Dark Withering that killed another creature, and replayed the arrows. With plays like that, I won the draft.
I haven’t repeated such a glorious draft since, but I haven’t done too badly. Slivers are an area which I haven’t mastered as yet. I tried them once and made the school boy error of killing my opponent’s Gemhide Sliver early. If I hadn’t done that, I could have easily played many more of my own creatures but I got colour screwed and stuck with two white slivers and no Plains. I forgot that Slivers affect Slivers on both sides of the table. Doh! Then, with two slivers in play, one got stolen by Evangelize. After that, I couldn’t get back into the match and lost horribly.
A combo of Endrek Sahr and Fallen Ideal won me a spectacular victory, but it was followed by a bitter defeat when my Phyrexian Totem got hit for a ton of damage. In a later game, I managed to kill a morphed creature when my opponent was tapped out - and discovered it was Liege of the Pit! The game was in the bag until he managed to cast Dread Return and bring him back into play, but as he was on 7 life and had no other creatures to sacrifice I thought I would still win. A Flashed Pegasus later and it was game over.
GAMING ISSUES
In all, I’ve drafted 6 times now (I can only draft when I’m at university) and I’ve been playing mainly Blue, Black and White decks. I don’t know what it is about Green and Red. Maybe I’ve yet to see the best cards, maybe I’ve been misjudging them or maybe they just don’t suit my temperament. Whatever it is, I’ve been under-drafting those two colours, whatever I’ve seen in my packs. This is probably a blind spot that I should try to overcome.
Mulliganing is something else that I have yet to get right. No land hands and all land hands are easy to deal with, as they are obvious mulligans. Six and one land hands are almost always the same. But five and two land hands cause me trouble. I lost one game because I mulliganed a five land hand and got a much worse hand in return. Starting with 5 cards and 1 land, is much worse than 7 cards and 5 land. At the same time, I’ve lost other games through not taking the mulligan. Hopefully this is another area I can improve in over the next few drafts.
Finally, one of my major weaknesses is not taking the time to think through important game decisions. As I hate it when games go to time, or end in a draw, I always try to play quickly. Unfortunately, this often means I play too quickly, and forget flashback cards in the graveyard, their artifacts that turn into creatures and that if I attack with all my creatures, I have nothing left to block theirs when they swing back. Before I make an important decision, I need to stop, breathe and consider the implications of it. What if he blocks me? What if he doesn’t?
TOP CARDS
In no particular order, here are some Time Spiral cards that I have seen win games:
1] Tromp the Domains. With a Greenseeker setting up your lands, I have seen Tromp the Domains win games every time it’s been played. I’ve knocked opponents from 13 to 0 with this spell.
2] Mwonvuli Acid-Moss. This is the most drafted card in our group. It sets your opponent back a turn while accelerating your own mana. And if you think one is bad, the look on your opponent’s face when you play a second one is just classic.
3] Smallpox. When you keep a hand with a small number of lands and you get Smallpoxed on your second turn... let’s just say that it really hurts. Especially if you lose a creature as well. Oh, and when your opponent discards a Madness card. Later in the game, or if you have a shortage of lands yourself, Smallpox is probably not such a great play, but early on it can be an absolute killer.
4] Pentarch Ward. Normally, following the advice I was given, I would steer clear of Auras you play on your own creatures. Given that, I’m really unsure of the value of Pentarch Ward but I have seen some great plays with it. Drawing you a card makes up for the inherent card disadvantage, and I’ve seen Pentarch Ward remove a Temporal Isolation from a creature before Cloudchaser Kestrel made each creature White. Or playing two of them on Tivadar of Thorn, giving him protection from every colour I was playing. So definitely not a first pick, but worth a look.
5] Amrou Scout. A high pick on my priority list because there are so many common rebels around that you’re very likely to pick up at least a few more. Even with only four rebels in the deck, this guy looks very tempting.
6] Wurmcalling. What can I say? I got passed this card when I was playing Green and didn’t take it. I’ve regretted it ever since.
7] Haunting Hymn. This absolutely killed me in one match. Losing four cards at once is just very, very painful, especially when you only have four cards in hand.
CONCLUSION
Drafting is fun. Really, really fun. Probably the most fun you can have with seven other people. And Time Spiral is a great set. After my initial fear, I feel quite comfortable with it. I think I’ve now seen all the keywords in the set (though I seem to keep finding new ones in the Time-shifted cards - how many keywords are there?!) and have some idea of what makes a good card, and more importantly a good deck. For me, the best thing about Time Spiral is that in every pack you get the equivalent of two Rare cards, and sometimes, just sometimes, you get three! But probably the best thing about drafting is meeting new people and having fun with a group of friends every Thursday night.
So if you’re in Oxford (and we’re talking Oxford in the United Kingdom, in case you’re in any doubt), get in touch and join a wonderful Magic Gathering. |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:16 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Great article! My own personal favorite this month, actually -- I haven’t had the chance to draft much (and never with Time Spiral), so I sit squarely in your target audience. 
I think it could use a little more strategic depth, perhaps simply by expanding your list of interesting cards. What else is good? Which cards work well together? What looks good in theory, but really isn’t?
My take on Pentarch Ward is that a good effect plus "draw a card" makes a very nice draft pick. The card-efficiency concern seems mostly negated by the extra draw, plus the fact that you’ll often use it to remove a negative creature enchantment. That puts your opponent down a card AND gives your creature a long-term benefit without depleting your own hand at all! Just be careful choosing when to play it, so your opponent doesn’t destroy the target creature in response.
I’ll offer another piece of advice to new drafters, which is: research the cards ahead of time, especially the commons. Articles like this one are a great help, but go through the list yourself as well! Even in drafting (or perhaps especially in drafting), knowledge of the meta is a huge advantage, and will help you make good decisions all day. Just one example is during the draft stage itself -- it’s great to have the luxury of thinking strategically, rather than simply trying to determine which cards are good. In some cases, like that Amrou Scout, you won’t even be able to determine if a card is good unless you know the set! |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:55 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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I liked this article VERY much, different from what we usually see! However, as you said yourself, it’s a beginner’s tale after all. For instance, when you say "if it’s not a creature, and won’t help you kill a creature, don’t take it"; I say "if you’re going for the slivers subtheme, DO take those Terramorphic Expanses (specially if you’re dwelling on the four-color themes), and Hivestone will simply be a BOMB if you do not have enough slivers to make a deck with only those. Also,  sliver decks that have Trespasser il-Vec, Dauthi Slayer and Nether Traitor tend to benefit A LOT from a Hivestone...
Also, I think you could’ve written much more, and judging by the date of submission, you DID have more time to make it better. As it is now, it’s a nice improvement on takes we have on articles here, but it’s still a poor version of the articles on drafting we see on WotC’s website every now and then. I liked most fo the other tips you gave, though, so you’ll probably be submitting some good material next month, I think! A 3 from me, but could’ve easily been a 4, so my biggest tip: do not haste an article. Take your time, research, think it through and THEN post it. Keep’em coming, though, will ya? |
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| physcosick |
![]() Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:03 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
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| Yeah that was my problem with this article from the first day you submitted it. It’s good that your broadening your magic horizons and trying to get good at drafting but you really have not hade much experience to be able to write a good article on it. It was a nice attempt, especially since no one, that i know of, has done an article for drafting, but it’s just not a good idea to write an article just basing everything off of what you learned from a few tips some guys at your draft told you. There is certainly more to drafting then just some of the stuff you said and the lack there of is a correlation to you not being a drafter much but maybe you can revisit the topic one month down the road. 3 |
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