Why You Shouldn’t Force a Deck in Conflux Draft
February 23, 2009
I think it’s a very good idea not to force a certain deck in Alara/Alara/Conflux draft.
Check out to the following quotes from Ervin Tormos. He went 6-0 in the draft format of Magic The Gathering’s Worlds 2008 tournament. The format was triple Shards of Alara booster packs.
I think that forcing colors is a terrible idea. Drafting basically comes down to you and the person to your right. There are cards and colors that they just don’t want and are willing to take pains to avoid it. That’s the color you want to be in. Obviously, if no one wants the cards, they’ll fall right to you.
I really like to take mana fixers high. Once you’ve got your colors figured out, you can start to take them to make sure you can cast the spells you are being fed. You can even go so far as to simply take the best card in the pack, grabbing a tri-land or a Panorama if there isn’t a better option, and just trying to observe the colors that are trending your way. I like to be the last person at the table that’s decided a color. That way, I know what everyone else has decided to avoid.
Once you know your colors, the rest falls into place.
Source: Wizards.com
Shards of Alara and Conflux are Unique Sets
Shards of Alara block rewards those who figure out which colors are open.
If you’re the only Esper drafter on your pod or there’s only two of you, you’ll get a lot of strong playables in the late picks. It’s crucial to get these strong late picks because you often don’t get enough playables in Alara/Alara/Conflux draft.
That’s why you see a lot of pros playing cyclers like Savage Hunger and Volcanic Submersion. I’m sure they would’ve rather played better cards but they ran out of playables.
Drafting Shards of Alara and Conflux is different from most other sets, because you need to play more of the cards you draft.
In other sets, you simply played your 23 best cards and added lands. But for multicolor sets like Shards of Alara and Conflux, you usually need more than 23 cards to make a good decklist. You often want 25 or more because you need the mana fixing lands and Obelisks so you don’t get color screwed. I’ve drafted some five color control decks that played 28 of the cards I drafted since I had a lot of mana fixing lands.
Don’t Be Afraid to Give Up Your Early Picks
Let’s pretend you took Empyrial Archangel for your first pick. However, the player on your right took Bant Charm first pick and then Rhox War Monk second pick. If you stick with Bant, you will have a mediocre deck that doesn’t have enough playables.
Be willing to give up on your mythic rare and you’ll have a much better deck.
I lost 100 rating points when I tried to force my colors and shards, but when I tried to read what was being passed to me, I did a lot better.
Also, think of this advantage. You may not play some of your early picks but if you read the signals well, you can make up those early picks with strong late picks. For example, your Conflux pack should have strong cards for picks 5-10.
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