I'm curious what skill sets you feel separate the "great" limited players from the "good" ones. I've been playing limited for years, but I wouldn't consider myself to be a great player with a win % somewhere around 50%.
In regards to card evaluation, I watch a bunch of drafts at the pro tour and Grand Prix level and I generally pick what top tier players would in their pools. I am typically able to put together a draft deck that has synergies and a game plan. Sometimes, however, I think that I might poorly evaluate which strategies are best in a particular format.
What do you guys think truly separates the players of higher caliber?
Any improvement in any skill regarding deckbuilding, playing the game, and reading of and adapting to the metagame will increase your chances.
While drafting, you have to evaluate the cards as they fit your deck, not in a vacuum. This means, that the value of any particular card rises and falls with every pick as your deck takes shape and the draft progresses. You also have to pay attention to signals, both what you receive and what you pass. This allows you to shift into the colors that are open and thus will get more support, and to push your neighbors into colors other than yours, which will improve your choices in later packs. While it can work out to force a certain color combination or archetype, more often than not, at least in my experience, going with the flow will be better. Now I'm not a particularly great player, but I usually manage to stay in the upper half or even upper third of the crowd in a Limited event, even if I end up in my least favorite color combination. But if you can, try to get into a color combination or archetype that suits you well. Even better, try to master them all.
Don't lock yourself into a color combination to early. Even your very first pick may not make the deck. But know what colors you are playing after the first picks of the second pack. Switching after that point will be hard and is likely to be detrimental to your deck. The good cards from an abandoned color can often still be incorporated as a splash.
Speculation can also get you quite far if successful, but may not work out. You can speculate on getting particular cards, especially commons, for your deck later, or gamble on a particular card from the pack you have in front of you to wheel back to you.
Know what cards are in the format and what cards are already in your pool. Know the cards and their possible interactions in the format. This also helps you to anticipate your opponent's moves, and can even enable you to bluff him successfully. Because he should be doing the same.
Learn the rules. Know, when you can do what, and how things will work out.
You see a lot of cards pass by during the draft, so you know a lot about what's out there in this particular event. If you have to pass a particularly annoying or nasty card because your deck needs another card even more, take note of it and prepare. Cards that are usually sideboard material may be worth playing main, like in Dominaria, where artifact and enchantment removal is almost guarateed to find a worthy target.
Thanks for the reply! I agree with your points. I have much more experience with constructed metagames than I do limited, and would often rely on matchup knowledge as a crutch to take me deep into tournaments. It wasn’t until I started playing limited more frequently that I realized it was a big hole in my game.
I do have color combinations that I try to play if possible in limited, but I agree that going with the flow is much better than forcing yourself into a deck that is getting a very shallow draft pool. I’m starting to pay more attention to signaling as well, though I realized that I have a tendency to tunnel vision on colors relating to my early picks in pack 1.
When it comes to speculation, I feel like I am getting better at this as well, and part of that comes with just knowing what playables are in the set. I’ve been drafting DOM and M19 heavily and I feel like I have a good grasp of the different synergies in those sets, what are the cards that help me out at common, and how likely those cards are to make their way around the table to me depending on the signals being sent.
I’ve been making a habit of asking all of my opponents what they thought of my play during the match and if they noticed any misplays. Some people have had pretty valuable input, whereas others just say that they thought I played correctly considering how I drew. Considering the feedback I’ve received (that I am playing correctly/to my outs in most cases) I think deckbuilding is an area that I need to focus on. I find that I tend to draft a bunch of creatures that smooth out my curve even if they don’t meaningfully impact the board state. I understand that it’s extremely nuanced depending on the meta, what else is in my deck, etc, I am just not sure if how I’ve been approaching drafts is correct or not.
You need to relax, I've seen too many people get nervous when drafting. Your life doesn't depend on the draft, usually, so just relax.
Also learn which cards in the format are underrated and see if they will wheel around, so don't pick them high if everyone underrates them because they will come back.
If the format is heavy in artifacts and enchantments then pick cards that destroy those higher than usual, maybe 3rd-4th picks. Dominaria is a good example where you can play one or two artifact removal cards main deck and you will have some targets in most decks.
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I'm curious what skill sets you feel separate the "great" limited players from the "good" ones. I've been playing limited for years, but I wouldn't consider myself to be a great player with a win % somewhere around 50%.
In regards to card evaluation, I watch a bunch of drafts at the pro tour and Grand Prix level and I generally pick what top tier players would in their pools. I am typically able to put together a draft deck that has synergies and a game plan. Sometimes, however, I think that I might poorly evaluate which strategies are best in a particular format.
What do you guys think truly separates the players of higher caliber?
While drafting, you have to evaluate the cards as they fit your deck, not in a vacuum. This means, that the value of any particular card rises and falls with every pick as your deck takes shape and the draft progresses. You also have to pay attention to signals, both what you receive and what you pass. This allows you to shift into the colors that are open and thus will get more support, and to push your neighbors into colors other than yours, which will improve your choices in later packs. While it can work out to force a certain color combination or archetype, more often than not, at least in my experience, going with the flow will be better. Now I'm not a particularly great player, but I usually manage to stay in the upper half or even upper third of the crowd in a Limited event, even if I end up in my least favorite color combination. But if you can, try to get into a color combination or archetype that suits you well. Even better, try to master them all.
Don't lock yourself into a color combination to early. Even your very first pick may not make the deck. But know what colors you are playing after the first picks of the second pack. Switching after that point will be hard and is likely to be detrimental to your deck. The good cards from an abandoned color can often still be incorporated as a splash.
Speculation can also get you quite far if successful, but may not work out. You can speculate on getting particular cards, especially commons, for your deck later, or gamble on a particular card from the pack you have in front of you to wheel back to you.
Know what cards are in the format and what cards are already in your pool. Know the cards and their possible interactions in the format. This also helps you to anticipate your opponent's moves, and can even enable you to bluff him successfully. Because he should be doing the same.
Learn the rules. Know, when you can do what, and how things will work out.
You see a lot of cards pass by during the draft, so you know a lot about what's out there in this particular event. If you have to pass a particularly annoying or nasty card because your deck needs another card even more, take note of it and prepare. Cards that are usually sideboard material may be worth playing main, like in Dominaria, where artifact and enchantment removal is almost guarateed to find a worthy target.
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I do have color combinations that I try to play if possible in limited, but I agree that going with the flow is much better than forcing yourself into a deck that is getting a very shallow draft pool. I’m starting to pay more attention to signaling as well, though I realized that I have a tendency to tunnel vision on colors relating to my early picks in pack 1.
When it comes to speculation, I feel like I am getting better at this as well, and part of that comes with just knowing what playables are in the set. I’ve been drafting DOM and M19 heavily and I feel like I have a good grasp of the different synergies in those sets, what are the cards that help me out at common, and how likely those cards are to make their way around the table to me depending on the signals being sent.
I’ve been making a habit of asking all of my opponents what they thought of my play during the match and if they noticed any misplays. Some people have had pretty valuable input, whereas others just say that they thought I played correctly considering how I drew. Considering the feedback I’ve received (that I am playing correctly/to my outs in most cases) I think deckbuilding is an area that I need to focus on. I find that I tend to draft a bunch of creatures that smooth out my curve even if they don’t meaningfully impact the board state. I understand that it’s extremely nuanced depending on the meta, what else is in my deck, etc, I am just not sure if how I’ve been approaching drafts is correct or not.
Also learn which cards in the format are underrated and see if they will wheel around, so don't pick them high if everyone underrates them because they will come back.
If the format is heavy in artifacts and enchantments then pick cards that destroy those higher than usual, maybe 3rd-4th picks. Dominaria is a good example where you can play one or two artifact removal cards main deck and you will have some targets in most decks.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
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