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Welcome to the first installment of The Tolarian Academy - Drafting 101.

First, the obligatory introduction. My name is Nik Smith (Replicant online), currently residing in Auckland, New Zealand. I moved here from Sydney a couple of years ago, so I may be familiar to many people in the Australian and New Zealand magic communities. Others who don’t know me in person may know me from a few articles I have written here on MTGParadise. And for those who don’t know me at all, then hi, nice to meet you.

So what’s this column all about then? In a word, drafting.

Drafting is such a skill intensive format. Not only do you have to consider your cards, you have to consider the cards your neighbours are drafting at the same time. You have to be aware of how many creatures you have, how the cards you have drafted fit in your mana curve, how many mana fixers you have drafted, how much removal you have passed, and which cards it might make sense to cut off. There is a lot to think about in a draft, and every person drafts slightly differently, favouring certain strategies, colour combinations, or even rare-drafting for fun and profit.

Each installment of this column will have a different guest drafter take part in a draft on magic online. Their draft will be recorded, and then we’ll break it down. The most crucial decisions and tough choices will be discussed, and you will be able to see the deck as it takes shape. Why did you take card X, over card Y and Z? What was your strategy? Were you happy with the draft, or were there picks you regret in hindsight?

In addition, we’ll follow the draft through deckbuilding, and in some cases even through some play decisions in actual games. The aim of this is to learn from some of the top ranked or well known Australian and New Zealand players. As Anatoli Lightfoot tells us, very few of us know how bad we really are. By looking at the way others play, perhaps we can compare to the way we play, and learn a few lessons along the way.

So without further ado, I’d like to introduce our first drafter, “Dapper” Dan Turner. Many of you will know Dan from his set reviews for limited/draft on MTGParadise. So how does he turn this theory into practice? Let’s see…

Mirrodin:

Pack one:
NS: Ok, so Megatog looks pretty obvious. The only concern here is that you are sending a Pyrite Spellbomb to the person on your left. You can pretty much assume they will take the Spellbomb, the Neurok Spy, or possibly the Tel-Jilad Archers, if they want to force green. Are you worried you may get no red in pack two after taking a double red card for a first pick?

DT: Yeah Megatog is kinda obvious, the only other choice for me was the Spy but they are not in the same league power wise, Megatog wins games and I wasn't bothered about sending the Pyrite Spellbomb to my left as it was only the first pack and if I wanted to cut red I could do so easily.

Pack Two

NS: You chose Lightning Greaves here. Many people would be looking at Arrest, though this would be pushing you into red/white after only two picks. Was colour the major consideration here, or do you like Lightning Greaves more?

DT: Well actually I was thinking combo already at this stage with the ‘tog, not that it is much of a combo anyway and as for the Arrest, yeah I didn't want to lock myself into 2 colours straight away and wanted to keep my options open as the Greaves is playable in any deck archetype.

Pack three:

NS: Here you have a couple of choices. For me, the Thoughtcast stands out, though you have passed both Neurok Spy and AEther Spellbomb already. Pearl Shard is also very good. I can see the synergy of Nuisance Engine with your Megatog. Was this why you take it, or do you rate it quite highly, or did you want to avoid committing to a second colour still?

DT: For starters I wasn't going to take the Thoughtcast as I don't rate it that highly. I like Pearl Shard but I already passed the arrest and I did like the idea of the synergy of the Nuisance Engine with the Megatog, but realistically the Engine is not a third pick but the pack itself was pretty weak.

Pack four:

NS: Fangren Hunter is a pretty big call. You are already red, but are yet to pick a second colour. Hunter seems a strong signal that you will get green cards, and besides, there is little left in this pack. Did you consider any other card?

DT: I think this was a mistake. 4th pick Fangren Hunters are quite a common sight nowadays and although it was the strongest card in the pack I think I should have picked something which complimented my deck better.....

Pack five:

NS: There are several possibilities here. Banshees Blade, Rustmouth Ogre, Leonin Skyhunter, Raise the Alarm, and Irradiate. You chose Irradiate. Did you want to force black? It seems sending Rustmouth Ogre on sends a strong red signal to back up the Pyrite Spellbomb you passed earlier. Passing the Skyhunter seems fair. It is double white, and you already passed an Arrest early. Was this deliberate to make sure that the person on your left takes white?

DT: I was not going to take white at this point as I had passed too many goodies and there was no decent green cards so my only choice at this point was Rusty, the Blade and Irradiate. Out of the 3 Irradiate seems the most illogical as I had no black cards (even though I didn't pass many either) and the Blade was tempting but I only really like that card when I have evasion (even though it may have been handy with the nuisance engine). As for the Ogre I don't like him and a 5th pick Rusty isn't exactly a gift. At this point I would be quite happy to pick up the odd red card or two and splash them (maybe with mana fixers such as ingot, etc) so the Irradiate made sense. Plus it did combo well with the Engine in the late game and I hadn't passed too much black anyway so there was a good chance that I would be on the receiving end of a big black payout in Darksteel. I felt I needed a few good packs to really cement my colours at this point otherwise my draft could end up as a train wreck.

NS: The rest of these packs rounded out black nicely for you. A 10th pick Nim Shrieker is just gravy. Were you surprised by the depth of black coming late?

DT: I wasn't that surprised as there were no black cards in the first few packs. Picking up a Shambler, Shrieker and a Disciple of the Vault that late was great and it worked well with the rest of the deck. The combo of Megatog/Grunt and Disciple is cute and I was hoping for a deluge of black in Darksteel. At this point I was happy to go R/B as I do like that archetype, although I did need a lot more serious creature and artifact removal.

Darksteel:

Pack two:

NS: This looks tough. The rare is Heartseeker, and I can’t see one of the uncommons, but it proved to be a useless Kraken’s Eye anyway. Still, Heartseeker, Emissary of Despair and Barbed Lightning are all first pick material. You took the Lightning, why this over the other two?

DT: Mmmmm, tough pack indeed. Firstly I ruled out the Heartseeeker as it is very clunky for a quick (ish) R/B deck and I felt that quick, instant speed removal would be more important. I did consider the Emissary but removal is always the better option in most circumstances and I stuck to my guns, plus it was another red card which would smooth out the colours more easily.

NS: Black and red rounded out nicely here, with two Echoing Ruins, and an 8th pick(!) Echoing Decay (your second). By now you are solid red/black. Considering your cards, you only have 7 creatures at this point, and that counts a Steel Wall, which really isn’t great, though the Megatog and various Nim’s like it. Are you concerned at this point? Or does 5th dawn pack enough creatures to round out your deck, in your opinion?

DT: Darksteel was kind in the removal department but as you said it did leave me creature light, although R/B decks do tend to play less creatures than other builds. I was happy with the Mephitic Ooze as it a semi bomb in this deck both on offence and defence and I had enough artifacts for it to be a "must deal with" creature for my opponent. I was looking for more creatures in 5th Dawn, and even considered sunburst as I already had an Ingot, Talisman and a Chromatic Sphere, but no I wasn't concerned as the quality of creatures in R/B are usually average which is compensated by the amount of powerful removal available.

5th Dawn:

Pack one:

NS: You could hope for more than this. Nothing stands out really. Skyreach Manta is great, but at present you are 2-colour, so might be an overcosted 2/2 flyer too often. Lose Hope is fine, but not fantastic, Nim Grotesque is too expensive, Qumulox is a bomb, but double blue seems out of the question. Talk us through the decision here.

DT: Yeah, well I wasn't going to pick the Lose Hope as I already had plenty of removal and chances are I would pick up one of these later anyway. The Manta made sense as like I said before I did have a U/B Talisman, an Ingot and a Sphere which meant this would often come out a 3/3 on most occasions if I played it correctly. Given the cards available this was a weak pack.

Pack four:

NS: Another tough one. There are four cards that jump out here. Ebon Drake, Vulshock Sorcerer, Lose Hope and Relic Barrier. Talk us through your choice.

DT: Tough call indeed, I really really hate the Ebon Drake and can't believe I actually considered taking it. The Sorcerer is solid and I probably should have drafted it but I have a lot of respect for Relic Barrier as it functions as an Icy Manipulator most of the time. Again I didn't even consider the Lose Hope (maybe I should have?) and took what I thought was the best card.

NS: The rest of the draft is quite disappointing for your deck, it appears. You pick up a Vulshock Sorcerer, a Lose Hope, and a couple of guys in Myr Quadropod and Goblin Brawler. How did you feel 5th dawn was for you overall?

DT: I was happy with the Sorcerer and some filler creatures but was expecting maybe a Blind Creeper or two or maybe even some more sunburst creatures. Overall I thought 5th Dawn could have been kinder but you can't always get what you want.

Your deck.

NS: You have only 11 creatures (counting Guardian Idol). You also have Nuisance Engine, though your lack of equipment relegates these guys to blocking duties. However, you have plenty of nice cheap removal, and several very powerful creatures.

How do you feel about your deck overall? If you could go back in time, were there any choices you would have made differently?

DT: I actually was quite happy with the deck as like you said, had a lot of removal options and some powerful creatures. Lack of evasion was a problem but I did have double Echoing Decay, Barbed Lightning and Irradiate to counter any opposing threats. I also had a few mana rampers, Guardian Idol, Talisman and an Ingot, allowing me a slightly lower land count and the possibility of powering out the Megatog and Ooze one or two turns earlier (there was also Lightning Greaves to consider). The Fangren Hunter was a blatant mistake and maybe in retrospect the Heartseeker would have been a better option than the Barbed Lightning but hey it's not like I am a master at this format or anything!

Games:

NS: Lets not dwell on this. You ended up getting wrecked by a flying Rustmouth Ogre game 1, and a Battlegrowthed Darksteel Gargoyle in game 2. So it goes.

In closing, here’s a few general questions

Do you approach drafts with a strategy, e.g. certain colour combinations? Or do you just take it as it comes?

DT: I try to take things as they come in drafts but I do have preferences, notably U/W and B/R. I haven't drafted that much 5th dawn (which showed at nationals) but do think 3 or 4 colour decks now are easily feasible. Blue seems solid throughout all 3 sets so I do tend to make a beeline for the blue cards if I can.

NS: Many people have said that Mirrodin Block is a poor draft set. Do you agree?

DT: Well I really hated the Odyssey block set and it isn't as bad as that but I think it is on par with the last set but I think everyone gets pretty sick of a block just before a new one is going to be released anyway.

NS: Onslaught block and Mirrodin let people play with colourless spells with powerful effects, and it was/is possible to play mana-bases that would be suicidal in other blocks. Kamigawa looks like coloured spells are back in fashion, do you think that this is going to put more skill back in drafting?

DT: I think so, even though I haven't really seen many of the new cards I think that will be a good thing. Each set has new mechanics too which often means a shift in the way you draft and if it means upping the skill levels in drafting I'm all for it.

So there we have it, the first edition of Draft 101. I hope people gained something from this. Feel free to comment on this on the boards, and I’ll try and check it and respond to feedback when I am able.

Thanks to Dan Turner for his time.

Until next time,
Nik Smith
Replicant.