Team Draft Tips
1. Know When to Hate Draft
Hate drafting is much more important in a team draft than it is in an 8-man. Whereas in an 8-man, you should always take the card that is best for your deck, in a team draft you must consider that two of your team mates, potentially including yourself, will be playing against each of your opponents. If you pass them an unbeatable bomb rare, you are setting your team up to face it twice, which will be two matches made that much worse off for the fact. This usually only comes up in the first pick or two of each pack two and pack three.
There is a balance, though. Hate drafting too much will make your own deck really bad. Use your better judgment. Angel of Serenity is the kind of card worth hate drafting. Worldspine Wurm isn't.
Late in the pack, you have the ability to cack cards from people, as well. Be careful with this! Stealing a late Aerial Predation might be good to protect your U/W flier deck, but if your team mate two seats down was green, he probably could have used it more.
2. Know When Not to Hate Draft
Reading the table is a very important skill for all drafts. However, in team drafts, it is even more so. I'll give you an example from a recent M13 draft. I was drafting mono red. Pack two I open Garruk, Primal Hunter, which is pretty much a stone bomb. I took Reckless Brute out of that pack. Why could I do this? Because at the end of pack one the guy to my right passes me a pack with Fungal Sprouting and Ranger's Path as the only two cards. If he were drafting green, there would be no way he'd let both of those get past him. I was correct in my read, and he actually passed the card himself to my team mate two seats down from me (who was in mono-blue, unfortunately), who took it at that point.
As a follow-up to number one above, this applies to those end-of-pack goodies that go around. In M13, Trumpet Blast was a card that some decks really needed, but others just didn't care about. Taking one late to prevent your opponent to your left from getting it is powerful, but if your teammate to the left needed it, you're out of luck. I've had team mates who started hate drafting cards like Cloistered Youth that I needed for my white deck two seats away from him mid way through the pack. This is something you should not do. Remember, you're still in a draft. Mucking up the signals too badly will come back to bite you in the end.
3. Wheeling Cards is Easier
In a 3v3 draft, it's much easier to wheel cards, since you will get packs back after only six cards have been taken rather than 8 (so, you start with 14 and get it back with 6 in it rather than 4). This means it's a lot easier to tell what color/colors are open around the table. This ties directly into number two above.
4. Team Communication
As usual, no communication of any kind is allowed during the draft portion. However, communication is allowed at all times after, even during the games. Keep in mind that the opposing team probably speaks english, so be careful! Whispers or notes are your friend.
Consult your team on tough mulligan decisions, difficult plays, etc. Wondering why they left up? Ask a team mate!
When your match finishes, get over and watch one of your team mate's matches! Two heads are often better than none.
Just be sure to watch the clock. Too much time consulting and not enough time playing will run you into the time limit very quickly. Be sure to be vigilant and call a judge if the opposing team is stalling through communication as well.
5. Information Sharing
First, going back to number one, you are inevitably going to pass some powerful cards. You can track what cards are in your opponents' decks if you keep track of this. For instance, in M13, you open pack one and see Mutilate, Flames of the Firebrand, and Rancor. You like Black and think that Mutilate is the best card, so you take that. During deckbuilding, ask the team mate sitting two seats to your left whether they saw Flames or Rancor. The one they didn't see is surely in your opponent's deck! This will give you a huge advantage during round one.
As for gaining an advantage in round two, during the matches themselves, keep track of everything your opponents play. If you see a Swift Justice from your R1 opponent, make sure to tell the team mate that's playing that player in R2 about it! If they have a splash color, take note of it. If you happen to see what they're splashing, great!
Take notes of everything relevant you see during your match and share this info with the relevant team mate. Knowing is half the battle. You can get the sick nastiest soul reads when you know every card your opponent might have in their deck.
Keep in mind that you are not allowed to review outside notes during games, however, so you'll need to commit this to memory. Your team mate may remember, too, so you can always ask them.
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