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Just the other day I was playing Tekken 5 with two of my good mates and the subject of Rochester draft came up. These two guys are two very good poker players with some idea of how the game of Magic is played, and were very interested in Rochester draft. After I had explained the basics of it, they asked the big question:

“So how much is it like playing poker? How much bluffing and representing goes on?”

Unfortunately I couldn't really give them a very good answer at the time, but boy did it get me thinking about Rochester draft.

Rochester draft is a very big deal this year for me and any tournament player of the game, since six rounds of nationals will be decided by the format. It is absolutely critical to be able to understand the information you see, and the information you present to your opponents, with the latter the one you have the most impact on. Since there is no verbal communication, of course this can be a difficult thing to do, but I still feel that the most important time in a Rochester draft is before any cards have been opened.

Nationals 2003, my first draft pod had 2 very inexperienced players at the table, one of them to the immediate left of me, and another two to my right. If you've done any Rochester drafting before, you'll know that this can be a real downset if you're not careful, as inexperienced players can be very erratic and unpredictable. I talked to these two players just before the draft started, emphasised the importance of the draft to them, and told them that if they followed my lead they would be fine.

During the draft these two players were very set in their ways, stuck to their colours, and I ensured that they got the cards they wanted in their colours. Conversely they left me alone altogether, and I was able to build a great 3-0 deck. Calm as Hindu cows as they die.

One of the other great concepts is the ripple effect, which if used properly can wind you up with an amazing deck and a mass of terrible decks behind you. In the early stages of a draft, you can take one colour for a few packs, find out whats happening to the guy to your left, then quickly move into his colours.

For example, you start drafting red, the player to your left moves into black, takes a blue card, and the player to his left is drafting red also. At this point, if you move into black blue, the player to your left is put to a dilemma. He cannot conceivably move into red, because the player to his immediate left is playing red and he will end up with a difficult draft. But can he? What if he does move to red? What if it's too tantalizing to say no to? What does player 3 do? You can see what has happened here. Player 3 shifts. Player 4 shifts. Player 5 shifts, and the chaos that ensues behind you is exactly what you are looking for. The entire draft has gone to custard and it all starts with you. You are the only player that has any clue of what is going on and there is fighting between the players behind you. Everyone else ends up with a mish-mash of cards while you end up sitting pretty with your blue black deck, the players around you in fear of drafting a deck that “two” players are drafting right next to each other.

The incredible thing about the ripple effect is that you can study patterns as to what shifts will occur when particular players have started drafting particular colours from particular seats. You can do this with astounding accuracy, provided you get a good enough read on whether or not someone is a good player or a bad player. I'll let you do this one for yourself, cos it's only really useful at higher level tournaments. This isn't something you really want to do at your local store draft, people might think you're a moron and start doing nasty things to you. But when the pressure is on, this is an amazing technique to employ when you get the chance.

That's enough from me for the time being, I look forward to talking to you guys next week. It truly amazes me how you can get talking about Magic sometimes, I'll never fully understand why but hey, it's all in good fun anyways!

Ciao,

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