Wait, those were your colors too?
Limited forum
Posted on May 16, 2015, 5:12 p.m. by ComradeJim270
Drafting has been fun for me so far. The problem is, the last two times I did it I ended up drafting colors that weren't open and my decks were pretty awful. Last night, I ended up in the same colors as the person sitting next to me!
The first couple of times I drafted, I didn't have any concept of a color being open or of signals. I actually did alright that way, but I think that was just dumb luck. So now the problem I have is while I'm familiar with these concepts, I can't get a handle on them. I've seen it explained before but couldn't quite get it.
Does anyone here have any advice on how to figure out what colors are open in draft and decide which colors to choose, or maybe know of a good article or two on that?
I'd really appreciate it! I'd like to actually win something next week.
ComradeJim270 says... #3
That's helpful, thanks. I certainly hadn't considered the math on it, either. There's always the chance that they got something better, but is there really any way around that?
I think some of it comes down to the fact I started drafting not long before DTK came out, so I am still figuring out what's good in limited in this format.
The other thing that I may be struggling with is that I'm trying to choose colors too early rather than staying open myself.
May 16, 2015 5:35 p.m.
You have to really know the set and be able to judge just how good every card is. Would a player in red not have picked Sabertooth Outrider until 5th? You won't know unless you know all the red cards. That's most of the battle - that knowledge.
May 16, 2015 5:44 p.m.
If you're looking to get better at limited, I would recommend this podcast from Tap Tap Concede by Loading Ready Run about your first time drafting. Once you've gotten comfortable you should look into Limited Resources by Marshall Sutcliffe (major Magic personality) and Louis Scott-Vargas (MtG Hall of Famer).
As for Staying Open, it's a hard skill to master. The big key is to not get married to your first pick. Say you open Dragonlord Atarka in your DTK pack. She is a stone cold bomb-diggity, but if you see no good Red or Green cards, you might have to abandon her since your deck will suffer otherwise.
May 16, 2015 5:45 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #6
Alright, well I'll definitely work on getting a better handle on the set!
Thank you for the suggestions, JWiley129. I'll certainly check those out. You're not the first person to suggest I check out Limited Resources.
Good point about staying open too. The temptation is to splash for the bomb, but this format seems a lot less friendly to that than KTK did. I think the thought process for me as a new player is also "Oh, you've gotta have the bomb!", and then I try to build around it and end up passing things I really shouldn't.
May 16, 2015 6:06 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #7
EDIT: This isn't how to read signals, but it is how I have success in draft.
Pick colors you're comfortable playing and stick with them. To get a feel for this, practice a lot on the draft sim. Often in DDF draft, I will first pick a common in a deck I play well over the rare, especially since the second and third picks in DDF are more important than your first. I will usually just take cards that seem good for the first part of the pack 1, and decide on colors at the beginning of pack 2. I've had reasonable success with UB Exploit (abandon if you don't have at least 5 good exploit cards and 2 good sac targets by pack 2) and UW Elusive Spellfist. This usually works very well for me, even though I also have problems reading signals.
May 16, 2015 6:07 p.m. Edited.
ComradeJim270 says... #8
True, ABadMagicPlayer100. I was actually more successful when I did that, though I did it more because I had no idea what I was doing than as a strategy.
exploit does seem pretty solid lately. I did ok the last time I tried it, I just didn't get the cards I needed to make it really work well.
And yes, Elusive Spellfist is great fun.
May 16, 2015 6:11 p.m. Edited.
If you take advice from the pro magic players, they "consensus" best decks are 
, 
, and because Red is the best color with Black being next. Red has some of the best removal with Twin Bolt, Sarkhan's Rage, and Tail Slash and Black has some of the power uncommons with Ukud Cobra, Death Wind, and Ultimate Price.
That said, don't force colors. I REALLY dislike it when someone forces a deck that isn't there for their seat. As an example, I had someone at my old LGS who would ONLY draft Green decks and would do it to a fault. She had moderate success with them, but she would just mess up the other drafters who were in Green and made everyone's deck worse. Don't be that guy!
May 16, 2015 6:16 p.m. Edited.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #10
ComradeJim270, when drafting exploit, it's really important to know when to quit. The only way to successfully draft exploit is be the only exploit drafter.
May 16, 2015 6:23 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #11
And I agree with JWiley. Don't take my advice to mean "force colors." I only mean that you should start with colors you know how to play over colors that seem really good.
May 16, 2015 6:28 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #12
Oh yeah, I tried to force colors once. Once. That's all it took for me to figure out that it's stupid in addition to being obnoxious.
JWiley129 says... #2
The best way to determine what's open is two-fold: 1) the number of a certain card in the pack and 2) the quality of the cards in the pack. As an example, if you're in a DTK-DTK-FRF draft and you see a 4th pick Pacifism that's a good sign that White is open since Pacifism is a 1st pickable card.
The rest is you just get a feel for it. As an example, last night my first three picks were Den Protector, Aerie Bowmasters, and Circle of Elders, but I then saw a 4th pick Sandcrafter Mage a very good white card. There wasn't much else in the pack so I thought about moving into
for this card. Then I saw a 5th pick Sabertooth Outrider, which is a sign that the 4 people to my right probably aren't Red, so I took it. I then proceeded to get several good red cards from that direction including Summit Prowler, Twin Bolt, Screamreach Brawler, and Kolaghan Aspirant to close out Pack 1 in a pretty good Atarka deck. I ended up fully 
thanks to a pack 2 Surrak, the Hunt Caller and a fairly late Stampeding Elk Herd and 3-0'd the night.
May 16, 2015 5:25 p.m.