Hey guys! Last week I talked about a deck that was designed specifically to beat Caw-Blade right when NPH was released. This article is going to change up the pace because to be honest, Standard has gotten pretty stale at the moment. Instead I’d like to turn your attention to limited and more specifically NPH-MBS-SOM draft. For about 5 months, I’ve been drafting this format about 4-5 times a week. I’m no pro at this format but I feel that I know my way around.

The Draft Tips

1. The Mental Aspect to Drafting

Pros have different strategies walking into a draft. Some like to get a feel for what is being passed around and make decisions on what archetype they want to draft off that. I’m a strong advocate of this, it doesn’t limit your thinking and can really net you crazy decks. However with this limited format, problems can definitely arise with such a strategy. The high artifact count can give the illusion of open colors and the power levels of the color vary from pack to pack. For example, Red is generally nuts in SOM but is only “meh” in NPH. This are things you need to take into account while drafting. An early strategy I adopted when NPH came out was to draft white in anticipation of crazy good cards to come in SOM. It worked well and I 3-0’ed numerous drafts. People have picked up on this and the strategy is not as effective but it is something to keep in mind. Overall, my general strategy is for picks 1-4, I try to just pick the best card in the pack. I place more emphasis on good artifacts since it does not lock me into a color and I pay attention to what is being passed. For example, a fourth pick Enslave is a good indicator that black is open. Afterwards, I’ll look at my cards and try to craft a general strategy.

2. Cards need to fill roles

Look at the draft decks of pros and you’ll notice that the decks that win generally only have a few great cards in them. A lot of decks have main deck Gnathosaurs and other subpar creatures. Obviously when pros draft, they’ll make the correct assessment of a card’s value and seldom let the good stuff go around. However the reason for such cards is because they fill an essential “part” of the deck. Some people will not open a great bomb and thus Gnathosaur comes in as a substitute. It’s a big body that can’t be ignored for long. Obviously a Hellkite Igniter is miles ahead of the card but not everyone can be that lucky. Essentially, don’t feel bad if your play a subpar card as long as it fills a vital role for your deck. A lot of good players fall into this trap where their deck is decent but missing a key role to complete it and ultimately they won’t look at the subpar cards because they are bad.

3. Pick Assessment

After five to seven picks, you should have a general strategy outlined for your deck. Most people refer to these strategies as “Archetypes.” Every card they pick from then on will aid in their strategy. Core sets are a lot easier to draft because the archetypes are very vanilla. A popular M11 archetype was blue/white flyers. As you can guess from the name, you just drafted blue or white flyers and won the game with your evasive creatures. This format is a lot more complex hence archetypes are more important. Also underdrafted archetypes tend to be really powerful because people dismiss the card and you’ll be able to pick up the card easily. A good representative of this is Chained Throatseeker. It is essentially a blue Phyrexian Juggernaut with a different drawback. Instead of being forced to attack every turn, it can only attack if your opponent is poisoned. Since blue infect is seldom drafted, this card is often 6th to 9th in picks while it’s artifact counterpart Phyrexian Juggernaut is first pick-able. Depending on what archetype you’re going to draft, you should decide the importance of each card. Into the Core, a first pick-able card will definitely be worth less to you compared to a virulent wound if you are firmly in the Blue/Black infect archetype.

4. Your Comfort Zone

As you draft, you’ll probably realize that you have certain cards that your gravitate to. For me, I love Blind Souleater because I’ve grown accustomed to cards with his effect due to Blinding Mage from M11 and Rust Tick from SOM. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if your play online. There have been tons of times where people have lost because they have mis-clicked a card since they were unfamiliar with it. If you are playing online, I highly suggest taking the “safe” card that you’re comfortable if you’re deciding between two cards with the same power level. With that said, don’t be afraid to try out new archetypes or whacky ideas. A few weeks ago, I made a crazy hyper aggressive mono-black deck that revolved around Mortis Dogs, Bleakcloven Vampires, Mortar Pod, Blistergrub, Morbid Plunder and Perilous Myr. I had noticed with the exception of Morbid Plunder, Mortar Pod and Perilous Myr that these cards were often being passed around like the plague. I was able to first pick great removal and utility cards with the anticipation that those cards would table. Study the general draft picks and with right first few picks, you can draft a really powerful and rare deck.

5. Money Drafting

My last and quickest tip is that if you’re serious about drafting, don’t rare draft. When NPH was new, my friend was picking up as many Mental Missteps as possible because they were going for $6 a pop. Unsurprisingly, his deck was terrible and ultimately, you need to break the desire to rare draft if you want to improve your game. Passing a good rare signals to your opponent that the rare’s color is open for drafting. For example, if I pass a Mirran Crusader to my opponent, he will know that I’m staying away from White. Hopefully he’ll return the favor next pack with a great card.

I hope these tips helped and please read up on Hugh Kramer (Draftula) for more tips/advice on drafting!