Ill-Gotten Games: VMA Draft #1

Hey Zoners! Sorry to keep you guys hanging. Last week, I had some technical difficulties. The audio in my first VMA draft was all janky jank, so I obviously couldn't post that. Unfortunately, by the time I found this out it was too late to record another one and get it put up in time for Thursday's post. We are back this week though and we have plenty more video fun!

Watch in awe and dismay as I stumble my way through a Vintage Masters draft. Will I ever learn to draft this format? Probably not. BUT I am still going to play the bricks off of it.

Ill-Gotten Games: Theros Block Draft #2

This week on Ill-Gotten Games Grandpa dives into the deep end. This is what happens when you get bored of a draft format. You find yourself trying new things, not to explore the boundaries of strategy, but simply to entertain yourself after the fun has passed.

I find it especially boring because the new PTQ season is for Modern Constructed. Theros block draft is essentially dead only a few weeks after it even became legal. With no high level events in the future, most people will be moving on to play other formats. This is the perfect time for Grandpa to do what he always wants to do: force draft five color.

You Make the Pick Live! Theros Block - Theros

Hello and welcome back to the final installment of You Make the Pick Live! This week on the blog we have been doing special YMTP segments with video! I, Grandpa Growth, cracked real packs and recorded my real live commentary for your viewing pleasure and comedic enjoyment.

These videos are meant to simulate what you would see looking at pick one from each pack of a Theros Block draft. On Monday we looked at Journey into Nyx. Wednesday was Born of the Gods. Today we finish up with Theros.

Links to the previous segments can be found here: Part 1, Part 2. Enjoy the vids!

Ill-Gotten Games: Theros Block Draft #1

Hello Zoners! This week on Ill-Gotten games we have a special treat. Grandpa's first Theros Block Draft on MtGO. Will there be laughs? Will there be "learning moments"? Only one way to find out.

You Make the Pick Live! Theros Block - Born of the Gods

It is time for part two of You Make the Pick Live! On Monday we kicked things off by opening a pack of Journey Into Nyx. Today we continue our mock Theros block draft with Born of the Gods! As a refresher, the link to Monday's video can be found: Here. Enjoy the video and be sure to check back Friday for the final installment with Theros.

You Make the Pick Live! Theros Block - Journey Into Nyx

Hey Zoners! Grandpa Growth here. This week we are bringing you three new YMTP segments and we are doing things a little bit differently. We have video! Yes, you can watch me crack packs and discuss booster draft in glorious, low definition, slightly green-shifted detail.

We will be opening and examining booster packs from each set in Theros block to simulate the full draft experience. Today we will see Journey Into Nyx, Born of the Gods on Wednesday, and on Friday we will finish up with Theros! Enjoy the video and make sure to tune in later this week to see the other segments as they go up on the blog!

You Make the Pick #7: PT JOU Edition

Hey Zoners! Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx was this weekend and, if you're anything like me, you were glued to the webcast the entire weekend soaking up all the coverage you can get LIVE from Atlanta, Georgia. We were treated to a special treat early on in the tournament as we got to watch Pro Tour Theros champion Jeremy Dezani in the day one draft. Dezani is a hot topic right now as he was at the top of the standings for the Player of the Year race going into the event; an award which would cap off a stellar 2013-14 season if he can manage to win it.

So try to picture yourself in his shoes. You are playing the best Magic of your life, it is nine a.m. on the first day of the Pro Tour. You have flown all the way accross the Atlantic ocean, tested for countless hours over the past two weeks to familiarize yourself with the new draft format, there is $40,000 up for grabs, and Player of the Year honors at stake. This is the pack you open:

Rather than tell you about the pack myself, I am going to let you hear it straight from the former PT champ himself. Brian David Marshall met up with Dezani live on stream to break down his picks and get some insight into the thought process he had as he was drafting. Check out the video here:

You can look over the draft viewer which lets you see every pick from every seat in Dezani's pod, as well as tons of other articles and videos at the PT coverage page here if you missed any of the action over the weekend: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptjou14/welcome

So now you know the stakes, you've heard the analysis, and you know what Dezani took. The only question left is...what would you pick?

You Make the Pick #6

Hey Zoners! Grandpa Growth here. Journey into Nyx has finally been released and you know what that means! It is time for more "You Make the Pick" action. Obviously we have to start off by cracking a few packs of the new set. Let the drafting commence!

So, we have a pretty interesting pack here: a tough to evaluate rare, strong uncommons, and several playable common cards to choose from. Let's begin at the top.

The Green and Red commons are poor at best; we won't be taking those.

The White is only slightly better. Two playable cards, but nothing worth taking early.

Rotted Hulk is no good, but Bloodcrazed Hoplite is solid and Black/White heroic was a real deck in Botg/Theros/Theros, so it is probably still good in the full block draft.

The Blue commons are by far the strongest: all three are very good, but not necessarily in the same deck. If I were going to first pick one, it would be Font of Fortunes because it can fit easily into any deck, even with only a light Blue splash. The other two want to be in a more aggressive tempo-based deck. I haven't had much success with that strategy for Blue decks so far in Theros draft. If I am playing Blue I want to have the better late game.

Moving on to the uncommons: Knowledge and Power just can't be good. This type of effect has been hit or miss in previous formats at converted mana cost three. Five is simply too much for me to attempt this. Spite of Mogis is okay in certain decks, but not something I want to first pick. Strangely, it probably goes in the same deck as Knowledge and Power and both may wheel. Brain Maggot is just an awesome card and I would be happy to first pick it. I stand by the statement that Black was the strongest color in the previous format. I would imagine that has to extend into the third set as well.

Finally, we arrive at Mana Confluence. The card is financially valuable, so some may snap-take it on that basis. I have a different idea...WE'RE FORCING FIVE COLOR! It is my favorite thing to do in any format. Do I think it is a good idea to try in your 8-4 cue? No. Is it going to fun, and awesome, and totally appropriate for a casual draft or a Swiss cue? Absolutely. If we take confluence here, we will almost certain wheel Market Festival and be well on our way to a solid mana base. From there, who knows? But we can take whatever we want in packs two and three and play all of it!

So you know what I would do...the only question left it is: what would you take?

You Make the Pick 5

Hey Zoners! Welcome to another You Make the Pick. This is a short weekday segment where I show you a booster pack, tell you the story behind it, talk about the cards, share what my pick would be, and then you guys let us know in the comments what you would take.

Last weekend was Pro Tour Born of the Gods, if you missed out on any of the coverage then you should definitely go check it out on dailymtg.com. They have text coverage, decklists, player interviews, video of every feature match, and also: a draft viewer, where you can see every pick from every seat in the exciting Theros block team draft format. There was a draft tech on day one of the coverage featuring Hall of Famer William 'Huey' Jensen. He was at the table drafting with other notable names like Travis Woo and fellow HoF member Antione Ruel. This is what Huey saw for his first pick of the draft on day one of the Pro Tour:



It is pretty interesting to step inside the mind of a Magic pro, especially one of the all-time greats. So here we have a playable rare in Fated Intervention, which is strong, but not crazy good and requires a heavy Green commitment. Drown in Sorrow is a decent card, but hard to abuse in booster draft. Black happens to be one of the better colors in Born of the Gods and the flat out best in Theros in my opinion. Staking a claim early could be very profitable if you see some Gray Merchants later in the draft. This format seems to be a little faster than triple Theros, so having a sweeper might come in handy if you plan on drafting a slower strategy. Aerie Worshipers is also pretty incredible in limited and a fine pick here, although Blue is weaker in Born of the Gods. That could be good or bad because it might actually scare other drafters away from the color. Most all of the commons are pretty bad, the only one worth talking about is the Bolt of Keranos.

That just so happens to be what Huey took from the pack. Starting off with a removal spell is a great idea and Red a strong color in all three packs of this format. Taking the bolt here will send a signal that Red isn't open since the next best card is...well yea there isn't another Red card worth taking early. I think that I would probably have taken the Drown in Sorrow because I really like Black, but he is the Pro and I am the chumpy community author. The only real question left to ask is...what would you take?

You Make the Pick #4

Welcome, welcome! Grandpa Growth back here with another You Make the Pick! I think the great internet recession of 2014 is behind me now so I will be able to get back to a more regular posting schedule. You Make the Pick is a fun, bite-sized, mid-week segment where we look at a booster pack. I will talk about the merits of certain cards and explain what I think the pick should be, but then I hand it over to you guys! Sound off in the comments with what you would take.

Now, weeks ago I promised that there would be new YMTP segments once Born of the Gods came out...and then I dropped off the map. BUT NOW I'M BACK BABY! BotG has come out on MtGO and the ques are firing! It is time to crack open some booster packs and draft! Let's take a look here at a fresh pack:



Straight away I am thinking about the rare. Black was a very strong color in Theros, so staking a claim in Black with pack one could pay big  dividends later in the draft! Aside from that the pack is very weak, there is a solid Black uncommon in Forlorn Pseudamma, which could potentially put one of the players to our left in Black as well. That wouldn't be ideal, but the other options are not very exciting. Pheres-Band Raiders is a decent incentive to play Green and a decent card to ramp into, but there are definitely better cards in the format. This pack is so shallow that we can't expect to wheel anything reasonable.

Not much else to say; this pack is pretty cut and dried. It is always good to ease back into the swing of things once you have taken some time off. So now you know what I would pick, the only question left is...what would you take?

In General: Draft Punk

Hey Zoners! It's me, Grandpa Growth, here with another In General segment. Here on In General, we have discussed a myriad of topics, mostly centering on the higher level strategic considerations, but a few weeks ago I penned a piece about the benefits of playing Momir Basic. If you missed it, I encourage you to dig through the archive and check it out.

The idea here is that many players enjoy Magic in a variety of different ways. Most people play several formats casually. Because each format is slightly different, they require different skills to be successful even though the rules of the game stay essentially the same. Playing these different formats will help you focus in on developing particular aspects of your mental game without having to worry about the less important factors or the stress of a competitive environment. 

Today, we are going to discuss the Booster Draft and the particular skills that it allows you to develop. Booster draft is a very skill-intensive and difficult format. Experience and knowledge are paramount. In game decision making is almost taken for granted, you must have rock solid fundamentals because there is much more going on than just what is on the board. This is a big contrast to the last segment I wrote because Momir simplified the game of Magic dramatically, whereas any limited format, but especially booster draft, adds additional complexity to the game. There is a reason that booster draft is the most common format for Pro Tour competition. You must have the basics down, you simply can't afford low-skill mistakes. Once you graduate past this level of control then you can begin to train the skills necessary to be a great limited player.

Things you don't have to worry about in draft:

• Knowledge of older cards - In Commander you will see cards from every era of magic. In a typical game you could have a Zendikar fetch land search out a Revised dual land. Perhaps your Necropotence will dig you into a Phyrexian Obliterator. In limited the size of the card pool is much smaller. You must still have a high level of familiarity with the cards in the format, but the amount of information you must retain is much more manageable.
• Knowledge of mechanics - A related phenom. A game of Commander may demand that you understand the entire rules history of a twenty year old game. Knowing how Storm works or how Flanking works could become relevant. For me, this means I have to explain Banding every time I cast Baton of Morale. In a given limited format there are only a few mechanics at play and since they are usually new there is likely reminder text in case you forget. This keeps things from getting too hairy except in the craziest formats, like Time Spiral block, Cube, or Modern Masters.
• Politics -  In competitive environs there really isn't such a thing as multiplayer. In the casual realm I have only ever play multiplayer games of draft in Cube, although I will admit, even that is rare and unorthodox.  

That is about it, unfortunately. Booster draft is tough. It is designed to test you in many ways at once. Again, this why we demand that the best players in the world compete in this format. 

Things Booster Draft will help you develop:

Mentally/emotionally prepare yourself, this is going to be a long list. For reference though I am going to limit this list to just things that draft will teach you that you CAN'T learn from a game of Commander. 

• Deckbuilding - This sometimes gets lost in the wash when people think and talk about limited, but make sure you remember: the goal of the draft is to make the best deck that you can. This is the most important lesson you need to learn and the ultimate goal of every draft. Signaling, moving in and out of archetypes, audible-ing, pick orders, all of this stuff is just the periphery. You use those techniques IN ORDER TO build the best deck for your seat. Because you have to go through the deckbuilding process every time you draft you get lots of practice at making leaner, meaner decks. Knowing what cards to cut, what to splash, how to construct a mana base...you will get plenty of opportunities to use these skills and believe me: you will lose if you can't do these things well. 
• Card Valuation - It is easy to tell which cards are better when they are both in play. You will see that your Frost Titan can just lock down their Rafiq of the Many while smashing face. Which one would you rather take in a draft? Being able to evaluate the power level of cards in a vacuum, with respect to the format, and in relation to the other options in the pack are all important considerations. In the course of a draft you will have to do this dozens of times. A lot of people I know struggle with this. They will see two cards that they want, but can't decide which is better. There are tons of heuristics people use, like established pick orders, etc., but the only real way to learn and what will help you in the long run is being able to KNOW instinctively what your deck needs. Highly developed card evaluation skills lead directly to better deck building and wins.
• Drafting - There is so much going on in the process of actually picking cards. It is so complex that I am not going to be able to explain it in an entire article, much less a single paragraph. Recognizing the best card, recognizing what your deck needs, making quick decisions, reading and signaling, when and what to force, when and what to splash, when to cut, etc. There are libraries of strategy articles on how to do all of these things better. You may not feel like this is going to improve your constructed game, but consider this. When you can pick the right card from a pool of limited choices, it gives you more experience toward making the same decision with a larger pool of choices...say, what to include in your constructed decks. 
• Metagame - If you read any strategy articles about booster draft, particularly current formats, you might see people use the phrase, "solved the format". Indicating that there has been sufficient experimentation and data collection to suggest that the metagame is stable. When this happens it is important to to know because it will directly inform your choices within the draft. What kind of decks are available in this format? What synergies/strategies are supported? Which colors are better than others? What rares are playable and when should you expect to see them in an opponent's deck? Having insider information about any given limited environment generates free wins. It's just that simple. Know what is available so that you can know what your opponent is doing and what you should be doing. Again, draft formats are smaller and easier to digest than constructed formats, so you can train the skill of collecting and applying this higher level information to use for Commander or Legacy for example. These formats are much deeper and very wide open in terms of competitive play.
• Sideboarding - Once you have established the best deck you can make and taken time to collect information about your potential opportunities and threats, then you can use those previously developed card selection abilities once again to pick out the best answer to the problems that you opponent will be presenting. Sideboarding is difficult to implement, but fairly easy to conceptualize. You cut cards that are bad in order to put in cards that are better. Often this is easier said than done, but in limited you have only a handful of options for your sideboard anyway. It is important to think about your deck and the cards that you AREN'T taking simultaneously so that you have some information about what your opponent is playing. That way, you can take potentially relevant sideboard cards with your unusable picks. By starting out in draft, you can practice doing this bad vs. better card evaluation skill with regards to the sideboard, which will help you make those same decisions in constructed where the decisions will be more frequent, more difficult, and more important.

Okay, that was a lot to think about. Draft tends to be like that. I encourage all you Zoners to get out there get your draft skills up. Theros is now out and available on both MtGO and in paper so there really is no excuse! This is a fun and engaging format that is powerful, deep, and complex. A perfect testing ground to sharpen your limited game. See you next week!

-GG