The year started with a rather simple draft with players who hadn't drafted before. J.A., J. and P. all knew how to play Magic, but they are not invested in the game. That's why I picked a draft pool of less interesting stuff that would work fine during the draft. The pool was:
• Amonkhet (1)
• Ixalan (2)
• Magic 2015 (1)
• Fate Reforged (3)
• Origins (4)
• Battle for Zendikar (1)
One issue when drafting with new or returning players is the logistics of the whole process: Reading cards and understanding them takes much longer, and evaluation is much harder to get when you have no background to compare things. Because of that, we didn't have time to draft all three rounds, but it was a good experience nevertheless, as everyone seemed to have fun. Since most people are now rather aware of Hearthstone's Arena, it seems like a decent way to frame a Magic draft, but given my almost absolute lack of knowledge of Hearthstone, I can't really help players work with their evals and deck building based on that starting point.
It's interesting how cutting cards is so painful to newer players (though to be fair it's always hard!), but stressing the adequate size of the deck is important enough. Of course you can't always curve the way a player builds a deck, but the argument that generally speaking playing with 40 cards is better than playing with 41+ cards because it's slightly easier to get the cards you need should help.
My deck was nothing special, but having opened a Liliana and getting passed a Tasigur basically meant my deck could be much worse. It ended up being an effective little pile with good enough removal and an overpowering board. I don't think I would've been passed the cards I was passed with more experienced drafters, but that's just how it goes.
P.'s deck was actually pretty decent for someone who hadn't played Magic for some 10 years. There are some questionable inclusions, like Demystify, but honestly it was a fun control deck to play against. Our games were rather long and required a bunch of decisions which made the games certainly more interesting than an aggro race.
This deck was fairly fun, but it really lacked a strong payoff. Maindecking Plummet may not have been ideal, but I saw it do some work anyway. Still, Elvish Mystic is always a nice card to pick, but the advantage it gives you during the first turns has to be channeled into something concrete. I think perhaps a problem with such cards may lie in that they usually end up chump blocking because of the fear of losing life early on during the game, so I think it's also important to stress to players how life is a resource and that you can win with only 1 life.
J. didn't really want to play at first, and he seemed a bit lost during the draft portion, but the games he had were long enough to be fun for him, and that's a pretty good sign! Familiarizing yourself with the cards is something most of us just older players seem to take as a natural thing, but the truth is, if you're a new player and have no experience drafting, it can be hard to find out what exactly certain cards are and how to judge them. While you can always offer some guidance in the form of "stay in two colors and run some 14 or 15 creatures", that doesn't really tell you much about the types of cards you want to choose vs. the wants you want to pass. I'm not quite sure how to solve this problem save through more exposition to cards, but that takes time beyond that of the draft.
Anyway, the whole experience was fun, despite the fact that we didn't have enough time to play all three rounds. When you're drafting with inexperienced players, you need both some patience and the ability to answer people's questions about cards as quickly as possible. Once everyone has settled into a deck though, things start going slightly smoother!
• Alhammarret's Archive
• Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• Liliana, Death's Majesty
• Amonkhet (1)
• Ixalan (2)
• Magic 2015 (1)
• Fate Reforged (3)
• Origins (4)
• Battle for Zendikar (1)
One issue when drafting with new or returning players is the logistics of the whole process: Reading cards and understanding them takes much longer, and evaluation is much harder to get when you have no background to compare things. Because of that, we didn't have time to draft all three rounds, but it was a good experience nevertheless, as everyone seemed to have fun. Since most people are now rather aware of Hearthstone's Arena, it seems like a decent way to frame a Magic draft, but given my almost absolute lack of knowledge of Hearthstone, I can't really help players work with their evals and deck building based on that starting point.
It's interesting how cutting cards is so painful to newer players (though to be fair it's always hard!), but stressing the adequate size of the deck is important enough. Of course you can't always curve the way a player builds a deck, but the argument that generally speaking playing with 40 cards is better than playing with 41+ cards because it's slightly easier to get the cards you need should help.
My deck: UB Control (2-0, 2-0)
My deck was nothing special, but having opened a Liliana and getting passed a Tasigur basically meant my deck could be much worse. It ended up being an effective little pile with good enough removal and an overpowering board. I don't think I would've been passed the cards I was passed with more experienced drafters, but that's just how it goes.
P.'s UW Skies (0-2, 1-0)
P.'s deck was actually pretty decent for someone who hadn't played Magic for some 10 years. There are some questionable inclusions, like Demystify, but honestly it was a fun control deck to play against. Our games were rather long and required a bunch of decisions which made the games certainly more interesting than an aggro race.
JA's GW Midrange (2-0, 0-2)
This deck was fairly fun, but it really lacked a strong payoff. Maindecking Plummet may not have been ideal, but I saw it do some work anyway. Still, Elvish Mystic is always a nice card to pick, but the advantage it gives you during the first turns has to be channeled into something concrete. I think perhaps a problem with such cards may lie in that they usually end up chump blocking because of the fear of losing life early on during the game, so I think it's also important to stress to players how life is a resource and that you can win with only 1 life.
J's RB Aggro (0-2, 0-1)
J. didn't really want to play at first, and he seemed a bit lost during the draft portion, but the games he had were long enough to be fun for him, and that's a pretty good sign! Familiarizing yourself with the cards is something most of us just older players seem to take as a natural thing, but the truth is, if you're a new player and have no experience drafting, it can be hard to find out what exactly certain cards are and how to judge them. While you can always offer some guidance in the form of "stay in two colors and run some 14 or 15 creatures", that doesn't really tell you much about the types of cards you want to choose vs. the wants you want to pass. I'm not quite sure how to solve this problem save through more exposition to cards, but that takes time beyond that of the draft.
Anyway, the whole experience was fun, despite the fact that we didn't have enough time to play all three rounds. When you're drafting with inexperienced players, you need both some patience and the ability to answer people's questions about cards as quickly as possible. Once everyone has settled into a deck though, things start going slightly smoother!
Decent pulls:
• Alhammarret's Archive
• Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• Liliana, Death's Majesty
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