Thinking about it some, when you open up your pack, your first pick will always be the rare (or foil alternative) card regardless of what the other cards offer. Then you pass along the remaining 14 cards and then you would receive 14 cards where you then likely pick the uncommon card....
First pick: Rare Card
Second Pick: Uncommon Card
Third Pick: Uncommon Card
Forth Pick: Uncommon Card
Firth Pick onwards: Common Card
You will naturally default to drafting the rare/uncommon cards without really caring how good the common cards are in the sealed deck in the first four picks. Is that generally what happens in a sealed draft?
First off, that Booster Draft strategy is HORRIBLE. There are many commons of good value. Murder and Sentinel Spider for example.
Also, I don't think there is a difference between Sealed Deck and Sealed Draft. In Booster Draft, sometimes the Rares and Uncommons suck like Ground Seal and Tormod's Crypt, and sometimes the commons are just really good, like Pacifism.
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I am racky54 on Cockatrice and I'm almost always up for a match
First off, that Booster Draft strategy is HORRIBLE. There are many commons of good value. Murder and Sentinel Spider for example.
Also, I don't think there is a difference between Sealed Deck and Sealed Draft. In Booster Draft, sometimes the Rares and Uncommons suck like Ground Seal and Tormod's Crypt, and sometimes the commons are just really good, like Pacifism.
Thanks Racky. I might do my first booster draft this month and I was curious if players choose rare cards over powerful cards early in the draft. I agree that some of the common cards you mentioned are kick-ass.
depends on if you get to keep your rares in some cases. Let's go with Zendikar. If you could keep your rares, and you open a fetch land, chances are you will take it. But iff you're doing a draft where you redraft your rares, chances are you will not take the fetch, but rather take something else that would work better in draft.
a more recent example. while drafting M13, you probably wont first pick battle of witt's, Witt's end, any of the dual lands, fervor, or other bad things like that, but rather take a common or uncommon that is better.
Generally, your highest priority in drafting are Bombs and Removal, then evasive or efficient creatures.
I would say that in most newer formats the rare is the right first pick less than half of the time and it's pretty rare for all of the uncommons to be gone before most of the commons are also gone. It's not at all surprising to see an uncommon still there in the last few picks. The correlation between rarity and limited power level is so loose that a purely rarity-based drafting strategy is very poor.
While drafting has a lot of nuances, in general conventional wisdom is that you prioritize bombs - cards (usually creatures) that are likely to quickly win you the game or put you in a dominating position on their own if they aren't answered. (Bonus points if they're difficult to answer.) The classic profile of a bomb creature is a large evasive creature that doesn't cost a jillion mana, but some other cards that don't look like that are also bombs. (Such as Staff of Nin.) Bombs tend to be rare, but some uncommons, like Serra Angel, are considered bombs. Nearly any Planeswalker is a bomb.
You also prioritize removal - any card that can kill or neutralize a creature. Cheap removal is better than expensive removal, and removal that can take care of anything is better than removal that can't. Removal is so powerful that Pacifism, Oblivion Ring, Murder, Public Execution, Searing Spear and Flames of the Firebrand are all considered top choices in M13 limited. Removal that's hard to use or isn't a 1-for-1 is usually considered worse.
Past that, most decks want a certain theshold of creatures. Creatures are the way you will win nearly every game in limited, and you're looking for creatures that are efficient for their mana cost. Evasion is really important too. Those things combine to make Talrand's Invocation basically the consensus pick for best non-rare in M13 - it's extremely mana efficient and it has evasion. Any creature that gives you a reasonable amount of power and toughness for its cost is usually fine. The exception is creatures that are 1/1 or 1/2, which need to have a good ability to be something you want to play. (You don't want to play Sanctuary Cat, even if it only costs 1 mana.)
My main format is limited, followed by EDH. At my local shop, i'll pass cards under about... fifteen to twenty bucks. (A firm amount, not 15.99 on paper where no one I know actually wants it, like unplayed mythic foils.)
Online, where it's easier to liquidate cards, I'll snap up a rare that I can turn into two boosters.
This is all assuming that the rare is unplayable vs reasonable P1p1s. Obviously the math changes if I'm looking at a money rare P1p9, or if the "money rare" is good in limited, but commits me to a second color, how good it is, etc.
Normally, I draft to win. I would say money considerations come up 1:3 online drafts, maybe 1:10 paper drafts.
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I'll be sad if people don't start calling The Chain Veil "Fleetwood Mac."
Look through pack. Is there a bomb (can it win a game after it comes out or severely devastate the opponent's board control?). If there is, take it.
If there's no bomb, look for removals. Pacifism, o-ring, burns, encrust, prey upon, murder, stuff like that. Get as many removals as you can. I have noticed a large correlation between my win rates and the number of removals I have. Even so-so removals like Plummet are good since M13 has a lot of flyers (although I wouldn't take a Plummet over a solid playable non-bomb creature).
Then after that look for playable meat like centaur courser, aven squire, arctic aven, blood hunter bat, etc...
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(http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/resources/formats-sanctioned)
Thinking about it some, when you open up your pack, your first pick will always be the rare (or foil alternative) card regardless of what the other cards offer. Then you pass along the remaining 14 cards and then you would receive 14 cards where you then likely pick the uncommon card....
First pick: Rare Card
Second Pick: Uncommon Card
Third Pick: Uncommon Card
Forth Pick: Uncommon Card
Firth Pick onwards: Common Card
You will naturally default to drafting the rare/uncommon cards without really caring how good the common cards are in the sealed deck in the first four picks. Is that generally what happens in a sealed draft?
Also, I don't think there is a difference between Sealed Deck and Sealed Draft. In Booster Draft, sometimes the Rares and Uncommons suck like Ground Seal and Tormod's Crypt, and sometimes the commons are just really good, like Pacifism.
Thanks Racky. I might do my first booster draft this month and I was curious if players choose rare cards over powerful cards early in the draft. I agree that some of the common cards you mentioned are kick-ass.
a more recent example. while drafting M13, you probably wont first pick battle of witt's, Witt's end, any of the dual lands, fervor, or other bad things like that, but rather take a common or uncommon that is better.
Generally, your highest priority in drafting are Bombs and Removal, then evasive or efficient creatures.
While drafting has a lot of nuances, in general conventional wisdom is that you prioritize bombs - cards (usually creatures) that are likely to quickly win you the game or put you in a dominating position on their own if they aren't answered. (Bonus points if they're difficult to answer.) The classic profile of a bomb creature is a large evasive creature that doesn't cost a jillion mana, but some other cards that don't look like that are also bombs. (Such as Staff of Nin.) Bombs tend to be rare, but some uncommons, like Serra Angel, are considered bombs. Nearly any Planeswalker is a bomb.
You also prioritize removal - any card that can kill or neutralize a creature. Cheap removal is better than expensive removal, and removal that can take care of anything is better than removal that can't. Removal is so powerful that Pacifism, Oblivion Ring, Murder, Public Execution, Searing Spear and Flames of the Firebrand are all considered top choices in M13 limited. Removal that's hard to use or isn't a 1-for-1 is usually considered worse.
Past that, most decks want a certain theshold of creatures. Creatures are the way you will win nearly every game in limited, and you're looking for creatures that are efficient for their mana cost. Evasion is really important too. Those things combine to make Talrand's Invocation basically the consensus pick for best non-rare in M13 - it's extremely mana efficient and it has evasion. Any creature that gives you a reasonable amount of power and toughness for its cost is usually fine. The exception is creatures that are 1/1 or 1/2, which need to have a good ability to be something you want to play. (You don't want to play Sanctuary Cat, even if it only costs 1 mana.)
I was able to build on Green/White.
While using things such as
2x Rancor
2x Pacificism
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Titanic Growth
1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
I felt it went fairly well and was quite satisfied with my pulls.
Trades
Online, where it's easier to liquidate cards, I'll snap up a rare that I can turn into two boosters.
This is all assuming that the rare is unplayable vs reasonable P1p1s. Obviously the math changes if I'm looking at a money rare P1p9, or if the "money rare" is good in limited, but commits me to a second color, how good it is, etc.
Normally, I draft to win. I would say money considerations come up 1:3 online drafts, maybe 1:10 paper drafts.
I was under the impression that you got to keep the cards in the draft. I'm going down the the gaming store tomorrow to find out.
Look through pack. Is there a bomb (can it win a game after it comes out or severely devastate the opponent's board control?). If there is, take it.
If there's no bomb, look for removals. Pacifism, o-ring, burns, encrust, prey upon, murder, stuff like that. Get as many removals as you can. I have noticed a large correlation between my win rates and the number of removals I have. Even so-so removals like Plummet are good since M13 has a lot of flyers (although I wouldn't take a Plummet over a solid playable non-bomb creature).
Then after that look for playable meat like centaur courser, aven squire, arctic aven, blood hunter bat, etc...