Fucking MTG draft

Aether Revolt/Kaladesh draft thread.

Been playing off and on for years, finally got a good paying job where I can blow $30 on drafting twice a week, and my god do I suck.

Made top 8 one night since Kaladesh came out in August. 90% of the other players at the card shop are hardcore, but when is the learning curve supposed to even out? I habitually get my ass kicked. I'd like to say it's because AR sucks as a set but that's bullshit.

Been studying card combos for the draft online, been playing twice a week for months, what more can I fucking do?

Git gud.

Sometimes you just get lucky and get bombs, sometimes you don't. If you've ever watched a LRR prerelease you know that you can have an amazing deck and still lose because you suck. Focus on having a balanced deck instead of forcing a color or strategy because you have one good card.
Mostly though, just have fun with it. Draft is supposed to be pretty casual unless you really need the packs for some reason.

Basically this. Also I'd suggest learning all the cards and KNOWING all the powerful, low cost instants from AR so you don't get surprised when your bomb gets Fatal Pushed during a critical turn when your opponent only has 1 black open. (or something of the like)

I just started drafting 3 weeks ago, and both drafts I did I went 3-1. Dunno senpai.

I always advise people to watch LSV's mtgo draft, even the old ones. He usually elaborates why he chooses this over that, why he cast this first and other stuffs.
You can watch Stark's too, but he's kinda boring.

>How to get gud
>Get gud lol

Get back to rebbit

First draft I ever did I placed top 3 because I kept it stupid simple and stuck with BREAD

B- Bombs. This is the obvious 'If I play this card it will stomp my opponent unless they have answers'

R-Removal. Creatures will fuck you up in draft, so it's very good to be able to kill them.

E-Evasion. A 2/2 flyer might be trash in constructed but it might be hell in the sky in a draft. Obviously this is mainly for stuff like Flying and Unblockable, but Hexproof, regeneration, and similar things that can't be stopped without specific answers all fall in here.

A-Aggro. Going with fast and cheap creatures is a lot more reliable than big and bad ones, janky but cool spells, and so on. Grizzly Bears get out of hand fast when you just throw them out there while your opponent is trying to get to 6 mana to cast his ebin mythic he pulled.

D-dregs. Sometimes you aren't gonna get enough good cards in color. But that doesn't mean you should make a 5-color deck of all the rares you got- no! Don't be fooled by the shiny- you will see cool cards that simply won't work with what you have.

/thread

Isn't D for defenders?

I always thought it was "dudes". As in, a bad creature is still better than a bad spell because the creature at least affects the board

Have you considered posting cube until you're good at drafting? It seems like cheaper practice.

I don't know, maybe the issue is if you end up not getting a Bomb AND not enough Removal, only to try by playing Evasion, Aggro, Removal and Dregs, you're just screwed no matter what.

When I was a kid it was BREAK and the K was "Krap" for anything left over. In recent times I was told BREAD and the D was for dudes.

1: Cards good in constructed and cards good in limited are not the same.

2: Learn to read signals.

3: Always Pick Removal

4: Emphasize a low mana curve with a few late game bombs.

5: Removal is a good pickup

6: Kaladesh is a gummy format and honestly not fun in draft.

7: R E M O V A L

Okay, here's the primer for my favorite Ather Revolt draft archetype: Blue Red improvise artificers. It's a fucking blast.

Step one: See if it's open.
It's a weird archetype that not a lot of people know about so chances are it will be. The key is if you see pic related getting passed around. If he is, you're golden. Slam him and get ready to party.

Step two: Get your artificers.
The best cards for you to pick in pack one are Aether Chaser, Aether Swooper, and sweat works brawler. Any other artificers or improvise cards are great but those three guys make or break your deck. Pad it out with removal spells and cheap artifact creatures.

Step two: Goggle up!
Once you get to pack three, people will start passing a ton of Inventors Goggles because they kind of stuck in any other deck. TAKE ALL OF THEM. There's nothing stupider than going turn three, sweat works brawler, snap two inventors goggles onto it, whoops I got a 5/7 menace.

Step three: put it together.
Run 15 lands. Yeah, I know it's a low number, but just do it. Your curve stops at six with bastion inventor and wind kin raiders and they don't actually cost that much because all your inventors goggles are pretty much mana rocks in this deck.

Step four: Win
If you get a two land opening hand, keep it. You can totally cast six drops off of two lands in this deck. Vomit your entire hand onto the battlefield and make as many servos as possible. Turn everything you control sideways and get in there for damage. Eventually you'll blow them out by going over their head with thopters or by sneaking a gigantic Sweatworks brawler through.

Doesn't work for me

>gummy format
???

He means games usually end up in a board stall, with a bunch of creatures "gumming up" the board. Which is true to some extent, but there are cards even at common that can break it (destructive tampering, inspired charge, etc)

You're making so many goddamn assumptions about how your night is going to go. I mean yeah, if no one is grabbing those then you're fine, but if someone is you're fucked trying to force colors.

Yeah, especially because both u/r uncommon gold cards are very good and are typically picked up by people wanting to splash/switch colors for them. Maverick thopterist is such a high quality card that you are never going to see it get "passed around". Although I do think the u/r improvise archetype is very fun and very powerful if you get the right cards, but you are definitely asking a lot out of the one kaladesh pack. I will also say that I think red is very deep in this format so you aren't completely sol even if you try to force red

>There's nothing stupider than going turn three, sweat works brawler, snap two inventors goggles onto it, whoops I got a 5/7 menace.

Ice over
Fairgrounds Warden
Caught in the brights
Thopter Arrest

I could go on.

>a creature is removed by removal

wow great observation. Plus you can still move the goggles

...

Use online draft simulators to practice finding the best card in a pack

Don't hate-draft cards, it's pointless trying to "rob" someone else of a card you think they want, when you're really robbing yourself

Don't rare-draft cards, you can in almost all cases just buy the singles if you really want that card over a great common or uncommon (assuming you want to win the tournament)

Sometimes you just get fucked

Creatures win games

Hate drafting is fine if it's toward the end of the pack and the alternative is something shitty that you would never play anyway.

I also think rare-drafting is fine (as long as the rare is actually worth something). I'll take any card $10+ because that is guaranteed money as opposed to marginally improving your chances to prize at an event.

I'm a gold digger through and through because unlike the rich kid faggots at the card shop I don't have unlimited monies to throw away on cards. Since the shop buys rares/mythics, you're goddamn right I'm taking them. Shit pays for my draft that night.

Kind of sucks AR and Kaladesh rarest cards are barely $20 at best.

That is mainly because of the expeditions I think. It drives down the prices of rares/mythics, which is good for standard prices, but worse for getting value in draft.