Now I see draft issues come up all the time at FNM’s, PPTQ’s top 8’s or ‘Win an expensive thing’ style tournaments. I know there are a lot of resources out there to help players with draft already from the mountains of videos to the ocean of articles, but they often tend to be more subtle in their help or focus on draft picks. This two part article is aimed at basics and the draft as a whole.

It will focus on the whole process from start to finish and will have some solid guidelines to follow along with practical reasons behind these and some of the main do’s and don’ts that can occur.

Our Deck

Before we draft we should have an idea of what a decent deck will look like, here are the basic guidelines that I follow.

Land

Play 16 or 17. Always. You need to cast your spells while not flooding out under too much land, anything less that 16 (which is for aggro decks with a very low curve that need the extra spell) wont be enough and more than 17 (unless the curve is really high) will probably leave you drawing too many.

Creatures

The most important part of the draft, these will win or lose you the game. Aim for 16 creatures, you can play more if you are short on good spells but never play less than 14 because you need to draw them in time and have enough that a few dying wont matter.

The 2/2 test: Two mana 2/2 is the classic draft start and very common in all decks so if a creature cannot battle with a 2/2 and either kill it, both survive or trade with it then I will not play it unless it has a massive upside. This means no 1/1 flyer, no 1/1 first striker etc. I also usually don’t like vanilla 1/3’s unless they cost 2 mana.

Removal

It depends on format and colours but im usually really happy with 4 or 5 solid removal spells in my deck and anything from 2 can still be really acceptable. This category includes counter spells and pacifism style enchantments.

Other Spells

As a rule you will play 5 or less other spells depending on how much removal you have, so make them count. Bounce spells, card draw spells, pump or protection spells are all good choices but I would stay away from enchantments as they are much more risky and tend to be bad even if they look good (exceptions include enchantments that generate value e.g Knightly Valor or can be used as a sorcery with upside e.g grasp of the Hieromancer )

Bombs

Every good deck should hopefully have a bomb rare, a very powerful game ender. This can fall under any of the above categories but will usually be a creature. Don’t worry if your deck doesn’t get any bombs because consistency and powerful commons and uncommons is enough. As you draft more you will get a feel for what colours you should be drafting and this will result in decks that have more rares.

A quick breakdown

Land: 17

Creatures: 16

Removal: 2-5

Other Spells: 2-5

Total: 40

Don’ts

Don’t play more than 40

The fewer cards you have in your deck the more consistent it will be and the higher the chances you will draw your best cards. An easier way to explain this is that you wouldn’t play 10 extra land for no reason because obviously you would be drawing to many do nothings. The same can be said for the cards not good enough to make your 40 except instead of doing nothing they just do ‘less’. You want the most out of your deck so its good practice learn to keep it to 40.

Don’t play life gain

Straight life gain cards are worse than worthless, its just difficult to see when you are new because going to 0 life is how you lose the game. They don’t affect the board and are usually just worse than drawing 1 card because the life gained doesn’t always give you an extra turn to survive. Just to point out that creatures or spells with decent effects and added life gain are ok just not the classic gain 4 life type of cards.

Don’t play too many colours

This will be covered more in part 2 but don’t try to mash your entire draft pool into a 5 colour monster.

Do’s

Think about curve 

Consistency is normally more desirable than power, try to build decks that can consistently slam a 2 , 3 and then a 4 drop on turns 2,3 and 4 game after game and this will be a recipe for success.

Don’t forget to check in on Wednesday for part two!! There will be more advice about drafting to tie everything together, and make you a better drafter.

As always the most important part of the game and the reason we all come back for more is to have fun!