"The more things change, the more they stay the same"
This statement is particularly true with draft formats. Note that a 'draft format' is considered a unique format for each of the packs of products you draft from any set. For example, drafting three packs of Amonkhet is a different format than drafting three Dominaria packs. And still, drafting one pack of Guilds of Ravnica and two Packs of Ravnica Allegiance is different than drafting three packs of Guilds of Ravnica. For this reason, each draft format can behave differently in games of limited. Mechanics, set themes, the designed 'feel' of a set, and other traits of the pool of cards available will dictate the way games of draft in the format will tend to unfold. However, some things will always be the same when drafting.
There are some tenants of drafting itself, which come down to pick and pack order.
Some more tenants of drafting that are more about the game play and the way draft games usually are won
Of course, there is a deviation to all this and some pieces from above won't always hold true in the modern era's of Magic's designs to their draft formats. You will often hear experienced draft players talk about the limited 'enviroment' in a draft format. This encompasses all the nuance that goes into how your picks and gameplay are rewarded for the smallest edges and paying attention to the small details and numbers in a draft format. Understanding the 'environment' is what brings you from an intermediate drafter to the next level, but it takes many, many drafts in the same draft format to understand it. Even then, very rarely are any two draft formats building the same environment. To understand the environment, I recommend asking yourselves these three questions sitting down at every draft table and then again and again as you play out your draft. I developed these questions myself through years of drafting and then tend to be rewarding.
Knowing the answers to the "bear" question, the "safety number" question, and the "speed" question will often give you a nuanced understanding to the draft format and will equip you intelligently when you know how to take the tenants of drafting and playing draft with a grain of salt.
Let's take a look at two recent limited formats with all this in mind. Amonkhet limited and Dominaria limited.
Amonket limited will be remembered as one of the most aggressive and blistering fast limited formats for a long time. The premier mechanic of the set, "exert", rewarded attacking and being aggressive. It even disincentivized blocking since most creatures in that set didn't survive creature combat with each other and you wanted your creatures to stick around so you could exert them too. The Red-White exert deck had some of the best games in the format. It got the opponent's life total to zero real quick, and mostly because the commons in that archetype are the best commons in the set. Remember that the bulk of your deck will be commons and uncommons in draft, so don't ignore the strengths of having a deck with the best commons in the set. Typicaly, a deck of strong commons could beat a loosely put together deck with two "bomb" rares in it in Amonkhet draft. A distinct example of how the entire set was aggressively slanted were the breakout strategies of Pro Tour Amonkhet's limited rounds. In the Pro Tours, now called Mythic Championships, there were 3 rounds of limited draft to kick off Day 1 and Day 2 Swiss play. Everyone knew the format was aggresively slanted and succesffuly drafting the Red-White exert deck or the Black-White zombies deck would give some very considerable chances of 3-0'ing their pods. In a color not commonly perceived as an aggro and in limited has become the go-to control color, some professional players realized there was another aggro archetype in the set. There wasn't a large amount of fighting over blue cards at the draft tables, so the common one-drop unblockable blue creature Slither Blade was in high supply. An aggressive blue deck was the last thing most players expected, and typically that's rightfully so. However, some players read the format and made the correct call, and managed even to outrace and be more aggressive than the highly sought after aggro decks in the format with their blue decks!
The designers of Amonket released info they wanted the set to be aggressive and all about attacking. It tied in to the theme of the set about giving it all to enter the God-Pharaoh's eternal afterlife (we all know how that turned out in the plot and scheme of things). What more, the cycling mechanic in the set guaranteed that fuel for the attacking onslaught in the set was rarely in short supply. Further details about the set were the copious amounts of cheap and efficient creatures albeit with lower toughnesses than power, conditional but cheap and efficient removal, and overall lack of established synergy save the underpowered cycling deck. A vanilla "bear" was very much playable in this format and I'd be happy with 3-4 in my decks. Furthermore, 3 toughness was what I thought the "safety number"
On the other hand we have Dominaria, lauded as one of the best and most fun limited formats of all time. It is nearly a polar opposite of Amonkhet draft in terms of the elements that made the format what it was. Dominaria's cheap creatures were not very good at attacking. They had lower power than their toughness usually, so combat wouldn't get very far for offering trades in combat or lowering the opponent's life total. Games often stalled out because of this and players had time and resources available to cast some haymakers and bombs to try to turn the crowded boardstate in their favor. Not to say aggro didn't exist in this format, the Blue-Red wizards deck was extremely fast and efficient at attacking. However if you didn't have Adeliz, the Cinder Wind, in your deck and multiple copies of some very important cards to clear the blockers out and attack, the deck felt lackluster. The format also had powerful unconditional removal across many colors at common rarity, which will nearly always slow the speed of a format. The players' high note of this set also contributed to how slow the format was and how important it was to have good removal and bombs available in your deck. This set had some serious synergies available in its limited environment. The archetypes were clearly defined as two-color pairings and each pair had its ideal mission and way to play out a game with specific cards available to make sure things went well. Most of these synergies were brought together with powerful archetype-defining multicolor uncommons and rares. This set's commons were used to bridge the way to the end game, and weren't capable of finishing a game on their own. This set's slow and synergistic environment rewarded forethought, strategic thinking, and resource management. In Dominaria, you point your removal at your opponent's payoff creatures to avoid losing. Whereas in Amonkhet, the two damage burn spell should be pointed at the two drop creature thats threatening to beat you down on its own. I would not even want one bear in my Dominaria draft deck unless there were some synergistic payoffs to including it. In this format, unconditional removal was so available that I didn't pay attention to a "safety number" of toughness. I conceded that if my opponent wanted one of my creatures to go, it was likely to go. So I focused on abilities that triggered when my creatures entered the battle field to get immediate value and long term payoffs like mana sinks and synergies. This set was all about value, and even the aggro style Blue-Red wizards deck and Blue-White 'unblockable' deck relied on heavy synergy and key cards to enable it all.
I hope you all learned something from this article! I always have a blast teaching this game, and this was a real treat for me to write this.
Here are Evergreen keywords you should know:
Deathtouch is an ability that creatures can have that lets any nonzero amount of damage they deal to another creature be considered lethal damage. For example, if a 1 power creature with deathtouch deals its damage to a 3 toughness creature, the 3 toughness creature will die. Note that dealing lethal damage, even by means of deathtouch, is a state-based effect that applies to the board state immediately. There is no time between being dealt this lethal damage and a creature dying from it. Also note, the damage a deathtouch creature could deal outside of combat with the help of other abilities and cards is still considered lethal damage to other creatures.
Defender is an ability that creatures can have that prohibits them from being declared as an attacker.
Enchant Permanent is an ability that an aura has. An aura is a subtype of an enchantment. Whereas enchantments sit on the battlefield and affect the game in some way, enchantment-aura cards attach themselves to a particular permanent on the field and affect how that individual card behaves. The most common type of aura will say Enchant Creature on it, which means it attaches to a creature and will affect that single creature. Some other auras enchant lands, artifacts and other permanent types. Note that once the enchanted permanent leaves the battlefield in any way, all auras will go to the graveyard since they cannot exist in play without enchanting a permanent.
Equip is an activated ability that only equipment have. Equipment is a subtype of artifacts. After an equipment card is put on the battlefield, its equip cost can be paid to attach itself to a target creature he or she controls and affect that creature. Equipping is a targeted ability and uses the stack. Equip costs can only be paid when the equipment's controller can cast a sorcery, which is during their own main phase and when the stack is empty. An equip cost can be paid again to move it onto another creature, even if another creature is currently 'holding' it. When an equipped creature leaves the battlefield in any way, the equipment 'falls off' and its equip cost must be paid again. Note that if you lose control of an equipped creature, you still own the equipment and only you can pay an equipment's equip cost and move it onto a creature you control.
First Strike and Double Strike are abilities that creatures can have that affect combat. Creatures with first strike deal combat damage before creatures without first strike deal combat damage. If a creature with first strike deals lethal damage to a creature without first strike, the first strike creature will not be dealt damage because the creature without first strike never got an opportunity to deal damage in combat. Double Strike creatures deal first strike damage and then damage again when creatures without first strike would deal damage.
Flash is an ability that a permanent can have that affects cast timing. A permanent with flash can be cast at any time its controller may cast an instant.
Flying is an ability that creatures can have that restricts what can block them in combat. A creature with flying can only be blocked by other creatures with flying or creatures with reach.
Haste is an ability that creatures can have. Creatures are normally affected by 'summoning sickness' when they come into play, which means they cannot attack or be tapped by means of a 'tap symbol' until their controller's next turn. Creatures with haste are unaffected by summoning sickness. Note that if a creature changes controller while in play, it will be affected by summoning sickness again unless it has haste. Also note that creatures can be tapped by other effects while affected by summoning sickness, as long as it's not their own 'tap symbol' ability doing it.
Hexproof is an ability that permanents and even players can have that affects targeting. A permanent or player with hexproof cannot be declared as a legal target by spells or abilities their opponents control.
Indestructible is an ability that permanents can have. An indestructible permanent cannot be destroyed by spells and abilities that say 'destroy' or be destroyed by taking lethal damage if it is a creature. Note that an indestructible creature will not be destroyed by a deathtouch creature. Also note that an indestructible creature can still be exiled, countered, returned to hand or library, sacrificed, or die from having its toughness reduced to zero or less by another effect.
Lifelink is an ability that causes any damage dealt by that permanent to gain its controller that much life.
Menace is an ability that creatures can have that affects blocking during combat. A creature with menace must be blocked by at least two creatures when declaring blockers. A creature with menace cannot be blocked by a single creature.
Protection is an ability that permanents or players can have that is templated 'protection from [quality].' A permanent or player with protection from a quality cannot be enchanted, blocked, or targeted by anything that fits that quality, and damage that would be dealt from a source of that quality is prevented. For example, a creature with protection from red, can still be destroyed by red 'destroy all creatures' effects since it is not being targeted, but red 'deal X damage to each creature' effects will not deal damage to that creature. Another example to note is a creature with a green aura attached to it that gains 'protection from green' will make that 'fall off' and go to the graveyard since it is no longer affecting a legal target.
Prowess is an ability that creatures can have. Whenever a non-creature spell is cast by the prowess creature's controller, prowess triggers and the creature will get +1/+1 until end of turn on resolution of the prowess trigger. Prowess can trigger multiple times on the same turn and prowess triggers use the stack.
Reach is an ability that creatures can have that affects blocking in combat. A creature with reach can block creatures with flying. However, creatures with reach do not attack as though they have flying.
Trample is an ability that creatures can have that affects damage assignment during combat. When an attacking creature with trample deals damage in excess of lethal damage to a blocking creature or blocking creatures, the attacking creature's controller may choose to deal the excess damage to the defending player or planeswalker the creature is attacking.
Vigilance is an ability that creatures can have that does not cause an attacking creature to tap itself when being declared as an attacker. It can still be tapped by other means.
Feel free to bookmark this page and come back as often as you need for reference.
]]>