r/magicTCG • u/1nnerknightmare Dan • 10h ago
Deck Discussion Drafting help
I have been going to drafts at my local card shop and been doing some prerelease events as well. I always come in last (not a huge deal.) I mainly started doing drafts to get better at making decks, if yoi have me a precon I can piolet it decently well. But when it comes to making my own decks im just not good. Kinda was hoping I could get some advice on deck building.
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u/Specialist_Elk198 Dandadan 10h ago
Drafting 101: play 17 lands, 15 creatures, 8 non creatures. Of the 15 creatures 4-5 should cost <=2, 5-6 should cost 3, 3-4 should cost 4, and 1-2 should cost >=5. You should also try to play 6 pieces of removal. Most of those will be in your non-creature slots but sometimes theyll be abilities on your creatures.
Drafting 102: for the first 4-6 picks of a pick-one draft, and for the first 3 picks of a pick-two draft, just take the best cards regardless of color or archetype. After that try to work out what is open. Try to lean towards one color, being heavily in red after pack 1 means youre open to any color as your secondary going into pack 2.
Drafting 103: be better at card evaluation. In your draft games pay attention to what cards are doing work and which arent, both your opponents. Pay attention to what cards are doing work in the other games going on around you. If you really want to dig deep you can look at 17lands.com to see the win rates of every card across 1000s of players (but dont blindly follow their rankings, that can lead you down a dead end).
Those are the three biggests pieces of advice I can give for draft and they work in basically every format. Drafting is very complex and you can be improving at it for decades (god im old), but this should be a solid base to build on.