Beginner's guide to MTGA [draft]

If you aren't reading LSV's limited set reviews on Channel Fireball that he does before each set releases then you should be. He gives a rating for every single card in a set and also a few sentences on what he thinks of the card. He also does a podcast with Marshall Sutcliffe called limited resources that is entirely focused on limited and mostly on draft over sealed.

Channel Fireball also has a lot of other articles on draft, especially when a new set releases and you can watch a ton of videos of different pros drafting. Another guy to find videos of that streams a lot is Kenji, I believe his twitch handle is numotthenummy, you can find him there or on youtube. He's one of the best draft players in the world and he streams a ton and also uploads a lot to youtube. These are all solid ways to get better at drafting.

eh, I really should have thought the naming of the topic through :D

There should be a draft section there as well, but I'd need some help with that, preferably someone who's a platinum rank in limited at the very least. For now there are resources that should be enough to increase your winrate in drafts there in the corresponding section

if you're looking for general information on drafting in mtg. google mtg drafting bread. or some combination of those terms. BREAD is a common theory... of what kind of cards you should prioritize in a draft

here's a older article on the topic from Melissa Del Torra that basically covers it: https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/melissadetora-041212-a-beginners-guide-to-drafting/

you can also google ..or some good reading, might be mtg articles on quadrant theory. or how to evaluate cards in limited. these are concepts for determining if a card is good. in which situations, if it's mana cost is efficient or over costed. basically... how people figure out which cards are good.

after that... it kinda boils down to learning the cards and studying the meta. learning which colors are good... getting an idea on what/how creatures and removal stack up against each other... is the format fast, or slow. does it reward synergy or good stuff. lots of things like this... you only really get from trying to learn it by people better able to cobble that info together.... I tend to dislike limited resources, as their information is presented kinda shittily. I much more look for a spread sheet somewhere with top picks. Or a break down of best commons, relative strength of each color ...etc etc.

Then... the last bit. is getting a handle on what archetypes if any are in the set. There may be a card that's stupid good, but it's in colors or a deck archetype that's really difficult to pull off. alternatively... there may be a pretty ok deck... that is just chalk full of powerful commons. meaning that kinda deck might be easier or more reasonable to put together in any random draft.

most sets. tend to have a handful or archetypes. and it's really good to know... which cards really make these things work. Like... in GRN there's UR aggro deck. but there's also more of a UR spells deck. You kinda need to know which cards work for those decks. So...you're not just misc picking up red cards...that are better in a boros aggro deck. or blue cards that are good for a dimir deck. things like this. Or ...if you have solid blue cards. and then see a great card for the UR aggro deck type... maybe that's your clue to start trying to go into that deck.

you'll hear or read a lot about signals or finding the open deck. A lot of that is different in arena because of the bots. I read a article(or maybe was a youtube video) where someone was trying to outsmart the bots, and found GW in guilds of ravnica was super easy to draft. when in paper, it's a lot shittier to draft.

i have enjoyed the lords of limited podcast. there's a more general article on CFB that links to like multiple sources to determine more about a draft enviroment. limited resources is of course good. Day9 is a youtube personality. he has helpful videos and streams a bit. There's lots of streamers or online personalities. CFB has a sorta side bar where you can watch drafts by various pros.

--the thing to know about a lot of early draft or limited articles is that info is often wrong. A lot of these pros have good intentions but the meta evolves to demonstrate different realities. So sometimes a podcast, or streamer that re-visits draft order or pick order... can be really helpful. Especially as archetypes emerge... or there's like a sneaky stealth archetype that is discovered.

if you don't have the time or interest in really diving deep into a particular set or draft environment. Sometimes just googling xyz set pick order. can at the very least show you which rares/mythics are bombs. which are dog shit. which colors have great cheap removal (typically the best commons in a set) and if there's like... one way above the rest color pair

It may be possible to make short summaries for the chapters or rename them to make them clearer. Do post suggestions if you have any.

There are special streamer draft events every once in a while which don’t have rank-based matchmaking. Once you’re decent at drafting, these are a far better way to convert gold to gems than the regular ranked draft, which should be completely ignored once you reach platinum rank.

It's a great point, I confess that I, too, only gave the guide a quick flick-thru. After this comment made me realize it, I did go back for a quick skim. I think you're right that the word "Beginner" combined with such a lengthy amount of data (very well organized and presented, nonetheless!) caused my brain to abort document.

Alternatively it's been a long day and maybe I'm a special circumstance and am just overthinking things.

Players who are new to drafting may be best off creating throwaway account(s) to learn how to draft (as long as this is permitted by the Terms of Service, anyway; I believe it currently is) and waiting until they’ve gotten the hang of things before paying 5000 gold to draft with their main account. 5000 gold is a lot; losing is far more punishing than it is in the Constructed Event, and each account effectively only has a limited number of relatively easy starter games, which you don’t want to waste on your main account. Keep in mind that you don’t even get the benefit of having your rank go down when you lose a game in bronze.

Yes, it's on the to-do list. Also note this concerns only rare and mythic cards, ill adjust the guide for clarity

Things is - ranked bo1 draft is still the best EV from the limited formats and the only way to convert gold into gems. It doesn't hurt to let new players try the format and decide if it's what they like. The streamer draft events are less reliable as there's no pattern to tell when if ever they will be back. So we're left with ranked as the viable option for now.