"these archetypes will be in most drafts" me: "Huh?? How could you have something like Convoke or Extort in most decks" "this is Azorius, their archetype is tempo" me: "Oh ok, this isn't going into the nitty gritty of what the specific playstyles are"
While it's a good starting point to sort cards based on cost, for interactive/reactive spells it's also good to think and sort them into what turn you want to have them available. Most creatures you'd want to cast as soon as you can, so you can swing while they're still relevant. A counterspell, utility creature with flash, removal, etc. are not likely to be cat as soon as you have the mana for them. Especially cards with an X in their casting cost, put them in with cards of the total mana value you expect to pay. You're not likely to spend a single white on turn turn 1 to make 0 1/1 Soldier tokens, after all.
Reminder when drafting OTJ: the costs of spree cards are deceptive. Remember to evaluate them in terms of what the minimum cost is with a single mode, not just the mana value in the upper right.
I like to add/recommend, if you play with newer players. That you try to only pass cards at the same time. I find with people new to draft, they can struggle to keep the same pace of passing, and if someone has like 2-3 piles of cards waiting for them, that it can make things a mess or worse a mistake of passing can happen and make the draft more confusing. If everyone passes at the same time, it avoids this (though it can feel slow to wait on other people) Also fav guild is Izzet, though honestly i probably be a 1/1 human tokan from Selesnya or something.
What an amazing video from The Red Bobcat. It literally changed my life. And i'm immune to people saying words in MTG wrong bugging me after watching enough Saffronolive content x3
I recently got back into Magic. My first time around, I loved the few drafts I participated in, so I've been itching to try it again with some friends. I appreciate the timing of this video.
My policy for picking out the mana base is principally to count all the mana symbols among the cards I go with - mana cost, relevant additive costs/abilities, etc - then ratio accordingly. I do adjust things of course if hybrid or muticolor lands are in the pool.
That's fair. If I'm being honest I usually go in with an idea of what I'm going to draft already before hand, and just kind of stick to that. For instance, going into that Ravnica draft I mentioned I knew I wanted Orzhov before I even opened my first pack. I just really like that bat haha
@@Sylph8hidE True, and there's a couple of different types of draft you might want to try for fewer people. Have a google of Winston Draft. I think Gavin Verhey did a video on how to draft with 2 people a few months ago. Might also be worth a watch
I have always thought that just opening a box of cards and not using them in limited with your friends is a total waste. I literally cringe at box opening videos
I've only done the one so far (with double feature) but made sure to actually build a couple of decks with it for that reason. I understand why a lot of people will box open to look at price, but I'm here to actually play the game
My favourite Ravnica Guild is Boros, but I’d likely be a member of Selesnya, Azorius, or Izzet. Although my first ever draft I played UG and came in second place, it also happened to be the first time I played mtg outside of a “learning the basics” environment. So it ended up being a pretty nice experience.
After this video when I played that draft, I knew going in I wanted to play Orzhov. A bad idea before you see the cards, but I knew what my heart wanetd. So I picked all the Orzhov cards, came first place! haha
@@RedBobcatGames I love when that happens. My favourite colour is white so if it seems possible to force white in a draft I’m almost always going to do it, I just love the game plan and versatility.
I'm also a big fan of white, but I think Black will always been my favourite. It's the colour I first started with. Royal Assassin, Reassembling Skeletons, Black Knight, Mortivore and Dread was my first deck. Loved it
Just watching ton help with the algorithm. Limited is a great way to play Magic, either pre-release or draft. Edit: My favorite guild is Simic, followed by Golgari, Izzet and Grull
Cubing is fun! Goes hand in hand with alternative draft methods, too. There are a lot of methods that seem to work better for two people too, like Solomon drafting or Winston drafting. My friend group of 4 also took normal drafting like this but implemented "burning" between passes. To simulate the 8 player sweet spot, after we pick, we'd shuffle the remaining cards in the pack and place one face down in the middle of the table, known to no one. So it gave a little less information as to what other players were drafting, and allowed for greater card variety. Just meant that we needed three packs for each of these phantom drafters as well, which is much easier on the wallet in Cube rather than buying packs.
There are a lot more knobs you can tweak with cubes than with boosters! The size of the packs, the rarity distribution of the whole cube or within each pack, number of picks, number of packs, etc. And then of course there's the design of the cube, what draft archetypes are supported, inclusion of signpost cards to support those archetypes, how many copies of each card (a lot of cubes are singleton, but some can include multiples of low power commons to prop up archetypes), do you even want archetypes at all or just go with high power goodstuff, include custom cards. I've been on again off again trying to make a Commander cube modeled after the commander drafting sets they've released. I wanted to include a starter pack of cards that everybody has in their opening pool, like Command Tower, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, etc so they don't have to be included in the draft.
@michaelturner2806 Always seemed like a lot of cleaning up afterwards when I've done cubes. But they weren't mine and I wasn't responsible for that part, so can't say for certain. I think I'm just very lazy haha
every time i try to do limited and it's not inside a store as a sanctioned event, I feel like something goes horribly awry. lack of interest from my playgroup, nobody has enough basic lands laying around, etc. I feel like the only real way for me to get limited experience is through Arena with randos, and Arena is a no-go for me for a multitude of reasons (egregious anti-cheat, Arena's economy, my general allergy to Standard)
A bought basically everything my players could need when I first ran a draft at home. There are lots of websites that will sell you packs of basic lands. I even bought boxes, playmats and sleeves for everyone to minimize what could go wrong. I've never had any major issues, but also that's an expensive way to go about it
I'm: Selesnya in the streets, Ray-kay-doos in the sheets. (Nah, who am I kidding, If I'm being honest: I'm a guildless coward who would probably end up owing so much money to the Orzhov, I die in debtors prison and get resurrected as a Thrull! LOL)
So now we have BREAD to go with our EGGS? Now we just need some meat, which has frequent visitors, and cheese, which of course stands alone. You've reminded me how much I hated drafting. Since you have no control over the card pool, you can't possibly build a deck that does what you want to do. Which means you're going through the whole event playing a deck you don't care about.
@@RedBobcatGames You still play and I don't, so I guess you get a different feeling out of it. I also rarely ever won anyway; I won one FNM, and top-8-ed in another, but I never won a draft, or even a single game of commander.
Fair. though I think winning doesn't always matter from format to format. Like commander is a very different game. I'm mostly just happy to see people's decks go off
Now, this may be a bit of a weird question. But you doing okay? This is the most hinged video I've seen from you in a while
I'm saving it all up for next week. Next week is a banger! I'm really excited for you guys to see it!
@@RedBobcatGames hell yeah, I'm excited!
*"is everything okay at home? you seem dangerously hinged lately"*
This comment wins the Internet
"these archetypes will be in most drafts"
me: "Huh?? How could you have something like Convoke or Extort in most decks"
"this is Azorius, their archetype is tempo"
me: "Oh ok, this isn't going into the nitty gritty of what the specific playstyles are"
No, this is really more of a vague catch all for people that have never drafted before. Kind of a general gist of most decks to get people started
Love the bit of having tomik as azorius since it's misprinted
Ha! Well spotted
While it's a good starting point to sort cards based on cost, for interactive/reactive spells it's also good to think and sort them into what turn you want to have them available. Most creatures you'd want to cast as soon as you can, so you can swing while they're still relevant. A counterspell, utility creature with flash, removal, etc. are not likely to be cat as soon as you have the mana for them. Especially cards with an X in their casting cost, put them in with cards of the total mana value you expect to pay. You're not likely to spend a single white on turn turn 1 to make 0 1/1 Soldier tokens, after all.
Very true and good advice
Reminder when drafting OTJ: the costs of spree cards are deceptive. Remember to evaluate them in terms of what the minimum cost is with a single mode, not just the mana value in the upper right.
That's actually really good advice. Not just for spree but for any kind of "kicker" card. I should have thought to mention something like it
Hello to Green! I hope that you two have a nice episode together sometime
You know what, I hope so too!
Really useful video, and has made me actually interested in doing a draft night with friends next time they do one!
It's a lot of fun!
I like to add/recommend, if you play with newer players. That you try to only pass cards at the same time. I find with people new to draft, they can struggle to keep the same pace of passing, and if someone has like 2-3 piles of cards waiting for them, that it can make things a mess or worse a mistake of passing can happen and make the draft more confusing. If everyone passes at the same time, it avoids this (though it can feel slow to wait on other people)
Also fav guild is Izzet, though honestly i probably be a 1/1 human tokan from Selesnya or something.
This is really good advice. The waiting to pass thing, not the thing about being a 1/1 token
What an amazing video from The Red Bobcat. It literally changed my life.
And i'm immune to people saying words in MTG wrong bugging me after watching enough Saffronolive content x3
Haha, fair
I recently got back into Magic. My first time around, I loved the few drafts I participated in, so I've been itching to try it again with some friends. I appreciate the timing of this video.
I hear Thunder Junction is a great draft format. I'm yet to try it but it's meant to be good
This is very genuine, I like the variety of content here.
(oh uhh... I took a few quizzes for the guilds and it looks like i'm guildless...)
My heart says Orzhov because I love W&B decks. But... then I look at what they're about and... no I don't think so
My policy for picking out the mana base is principally to count all the mana symbols among the cards I go with - mana cost, relevant additive costs/abilities, etc - then ratio accordingly. I do adjust things of course if hybrid or muticolor lands are in the pool.
That's fair. If I'm being honest I usually go in with an idea of what I'm going to draft already before hand, and just kind of stick to that. For instance, going into that Ravnica draft I mentioned I knew I wanted Orzhov before I even opened my first pack. I just really like that bat haha
Great tips for draft, very handy for when its being mysteriously setup in the next room
It's the best way to play
Came for the draft advice, stayed for the Devon slander (no one wants to play Brawl, Devon. Just give it up!).
RIGHT?!
I bought a box of Jumpstart 2020 a while ago to teach my brothers magic, I guess draft is the next step
It's a lot of fun, and not as complicated or daunting as it seems. (apart from maybe the price)
@@RedBobcatGames at least there's only three of us, if I get us a box that's like 4 draft session!
@@Sylph8hidE True, and there's a couple of different types of draft you might want to try for fewer people. Have a google of Winston Draft. I think Gavin Verhey did a video on how to draft with 2 people a few months ago. Might also be worth a watch
@@RedBobcatGames will do, tahnks!
I have always thought that just opening a box of cards and not using them in limited with your friends is a total waste. I literally cringe at box opening videos
I've only done the one so far (with double feature) but made sure to actually build a couple of decks with it for that reason. I understand why a lot of people will box open to look at price, but I'm here to actually play the game
I think you should do a brawl game with Devon!!
No, he's the worst
A like all of the Red Bobcat's videos!
Thank you!
My favourite Ravnica Guild is Boros, but I’d likely be a member of Selesnya, Azorius, or Izzet. Although my first ever draft I played UG and came in second place, it also happened to be the first time I played mtg outside of a “learning the basics” environment. So it ended up being a pretty nice experience.
After this video when I played that draft, I knew going in I wanted to play Orzhov. A bad idea before you see the cards, but I knew what my heart wanetd. So I picked all the Orzhov cards, came first place! haha
@@RedBobcatGames I love when that happens. My favourite colour is white so if it seems possible to force white in a draft I’m almost always going to do it, I just love the game plan and versatility.
I'm also a big fan of white, but I think Black will always been my favourite. It's the colour I first started with. Royal Assassin, Reassembling Skeletons, Black Knight, Mortivore and Dread was my first deck. Loved it
Just watching ton help with the algorithm. Limited is a great way to play Magic, either pre-release or draft.
Edit: My favorite guild is Simic, followed by Golgari, Izzet and Grull
Pre-release is my favourite format to be fair. Maybe after Kitchen Table I suppose
Cool vid and useful might I suggest a video on cubes?
Yeah, that's a good idea. Though I'd want to do a cube a few more times before I was comfortable giving advice on it I suspect
@@RedBobcatGames Fair
Cubing is fun! Goes hand in hand with alternative draft methods, too. There are a lot of methods that seem to work better for two people too, like Solomon drafting or Winston drafting.
My friend group of 4 also took normal drafting like this but implemented "burning" between passes. To simulate the 8 player sweet spot, after we pick, we'd shuffle the remaining cards in the pack and place one face down in the middle of the table, known to no one. So it gave a little less information as to what other players were drafting, and allowed for greater card variety. Just meant that we needed three packs for each of these phantom drafters as well, which is much easier on the wallet in Cube rather than buying packs.
There are a lot more knobs you can tweak with cubes than with boosters!
The size of the packs, the rarity distribution of the whole cube or within each pack, number of picks, number of packs, etc.
And then of course there's the design of the cube, what draft archetypes are supported, inclusion of signpost cards to support those archetypes, how many copies of each card (a lot of cubes are singleton, but some can include multiples of low power commons to prop up archetypes), do you even want archetypes at all or just go with high power goodstuff, include custom cards.
I've been on again off again trying to make a Commander cube modeled after the commander drafting sets they've released. I wanted to include a starter pack of cards that everybody has in their opening pool, like Command Tower, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, etc so they don't have to be included in the draft.
@michaelturner2806 Always seemed like a lot of cleaning up afterwards when I've done cubes. But they weren't mine and I wasn't responsible for that part, so can't say for certain. I think I'm just very lazy haha
every time i try to do limited and it's not inside a store as a sanctioned event, I feel like something goes horribly awry. lack of interest from my playgroup, nobody has enough basic lands laying around, etc. I feel like the only real way for me to get limited experience is through Arena with randos, and Arena is a no-go for me for a multitude of reasons (egregious anti-cheat, Arena's economy, my general allergy to Standard)
A bought basically everything my players could need when I first ran a draft at home. There are lots of websites that will sell you packs of basic lands. I even bought boxes, playmats and sleeves for everyone to minimize what could go wrong. I've never had any major issues, but also that's an expensive way to go about it
Really useful video! Well done you.
😊
Thank you!
I'm: Selesnya in the streets, Ray-kay-doos in the sheets. (Nah, who am I kidding, If I'm being honest: I'm a guildless coward who would probably end up owing so much money to the Orzhov, I die in debtors prison and get resurrected as a Thrull! LOL)
"Ray-kay-doos in the sheets" made me laugh VERY loudly ha!
I’ve always been Rakdos. But Golgari are pretty cool.
I'm a big fan of Rakdos too honestly
So now we have BREAD to go with our EGGS? Now we just need some meat, which has frequent visitors, and cheese, which of course stands alone.
You've reminded me how much I hated drafting. Since you have no control over the card pool, you can't possibly build a deck that does what you want to do. Which means you're going through the whole event playing a deck you don't care about.
Ahh see I'm sort of the opposite. I like the weird jank I build. When it wins it feels like it was on a wing and a prayer
@@RedBobcatGames You still play and I don't, so I guess you get a different feeling out of it. I also rarely ever won anyway; I won one FNM, and top-8-ed in another, but I never won a draft, or even a single game of commander.
Fair. though I think winning doesn't always matter from format to format. Like commander is a very different game. I'm mostly just happy to see people's decks go off
Good video
Good comment, thank you