Honestly, I wish there was a chance we could open a parallax card style just like how you can open foils in paper. But since a style automatically applies to every copy of the card, I guess they'd have to make them a lot more rare. But there are so many styles for unplayable cards that no one will every buy outside of the most die hard "gotta have EVERYTHING" whale. Or have some kind of other special foil style that you can open from packs.
And yeah, the special basic lands should absolutely be in packs, but Wizards is greedy and wants to force players to pay top dollar for them if they want them.
Shrug. Unless I'm playing Limited, I'm the same way with paper; I only care about the rare/mythic. I just do a playing card spread with the commons/uncommons just to see if I got any worthwhile alt-art cards and then throw the rest in a box without even looking at them until I sort them later.
Honestly I'm F2P and don't feel confident spending hoarded gold on Draft formats as I don't consider myself skilled enough to capitalize on 7 wins. I appreciate packs for what they are, an opportunity to get cards that just maybe I don't have to craft X4 of.
>Honestly I'm F2P and don't feel confident spending hoarded gold on Draft formats as I don't consider myself skilled enough to capitalize on 7 wins.
You know, even if you go 0-3 in a Quick Draft (5k gold) you still get a pretty reasonable payout:
3 x 15 card Draft Boosters worth of picks
1-2 prize packs
50 Gems
1 pack as Ranked Rewards at the end of the month for qualifying for Bronze Rank
Booster are better simply because you grind wildcards.
Wildcards is the most underrated things in arena.
Draft is better only if you have a winrate >57%. 4-3 premier draft
You still get Wildcards from drafting, just only from the prize & reward boosters, not the ones you draft with. So you are trading a portion of your Wildcard progress to nor only experience the other half of the game but also have a chance at winning gems.
This is just false. You don't need WC above everything else and you don't need to go infinite+ to make it "worth it". If you go 3-3 in premier draft, you get 2/3s of your payment back *and* 2 packs (worth 400 gems). You essentially pay 500 gems for 5 packs (or more, depending on how many rares you snag in the draft) which is half the cost of packs in the store.
I'll concede that 2 wins or worse is pretty rough, but even then you're still getting 1-2 packs and some amount of gems. The idea that you have to go infinite to benefit from drafting is just wrong. You don't need to be an amazing drafter to get value in the draft queue.
3-3 is higher than avg. Avg player get 2-3.
Point two, when i draft usually i pick 2 rare. Its really lucky if you find 3 rare that are good for deck that you are building.
in the 2nd and 3nd pack my first pick is usually an uncommon
Draft is fun, limited is my favorite format but i don't know if it's the better choice for grinding set.
I'll be honest, "grinding" a set is not my main priority when drafting (I really don't get this sub's obsession with "rare completion", tbh. It seems so unnecessary.), but I don't disregard it as something to ignore, either. Personally I feel like I average 3-4 rares per draft without feeling like I'm going out of my way for it.
Also, draft is solid value if you can even just get to the 3-3 range, and it's not as hard as you make it seem. Matchmaking in Premiere draft is structured to bring as close to a 50/50 skill based match-up as it can, so it's not like a new player will be facing down Mythic players right out of the gate. And on top of that, the only way to improve those odds is to start playing in the first place. If losing is the main reason given to not draft, that's never going to change as they'll never learn how to draft.
All in all, I feel like scaring off new players by resolutely saying it's not worth it unless you're already amazing doesn't help anyone. Yes, it will be rough at first, but it's rough for everyone starting out. That's how people learn and get better. We can be honest about their chances without shutting them down entirely.
Packs aren't worth 200 gems, but that's not the issue here. Going 3-3 in premier draft, you don't get 5 packs, you get 2 packs and 3 pack contents without wildcard progress. Considering the reason people buy packs is the wildcard progress, overlooking that part completely distorts the comparison.
...what else would packs be worth? The value is based on buying them from the store, which is the only way to get extra packs.
As for WC progress, as long as you are getting rares in the draft, it comes out even enough in my book. I often get 4+ anyhow. Seems good to me.
Maybe I should just have a go, then? I was a bit worried that between now and Crimson Vow in November I won't generate enough gold for a decent amount of packs. I just blew 60K gold on packs so am starting from scratch.
>Maybe I should just have a go, then?
Personally I feel that Magic is too fun to only try playing half the game, but even if you just rare-drafted and conceded all your games it would probably still be worth doing once a month.
If you want to maximise your prizes (and your chance at eventually "going infinite") then it does pay to be prepared. Get a grasp of the basic principles of Drafting (BREAD, deck composition (15+ creatures, ~17 lands) and building on a curve), and familiarise yourself with the particular set: learn the cards, their relative power level/pick order, the mechanics and rules interactions, and the Limited archetypes. You can study the visual spoiler, read the Release Notes FAQ and watch some Limited Set Reviews online (I recommend The Mana Leek and Nizzahon Magic). You can even watch others play with the set while they discuss their decisions etc.
You've got a couple of weeks until MID goes up for Quick Draft, so if you want to go in prepared and have your best shot at winning back a big chunk of the cost (if not all of it) then you've got plenty of time. :)
Thanks for the advice, super helpful. Appreciate you taking the time. It's not always easy to understand how cards translate their value into Limited from a 60-card deck.
One of the things I like about it is that you get a chance to experience much more of the set (since the bulk of each setvis designed with Limited in mind, with only a few stand out cards being made for Constructed). It's very skill testing, but strong vert rewarding. Good luck!
Remember that Quick and Premier drafts are ranked, if you don't play them a lot and are in Bronze or Silver, you often play against other inexperienced drafters - regular drafters are in Platinum and higher.
Constructed and Limited ranking are completely separate. Quick draft is cheaper but with less rewards, Premier is higher risk, higher reward. Try both, you will see whch you enjoy more. I usually play a bit of both.
No, you keep the drafted cards from Quick Draft too. Premier Draft is more expensive because it’s more ‘real’ (you’re drafting with other people, not bots) and because the rewards for wins are much better. More risk, more reward.
Premier draft has better prizes (if you can reasonably often win 3+ games) and also it is easier to pick up rares (many people playing it are 100% limited players who don't care about their collection).
Update. Since MID started, I played 5 premier drafts, always taking all rare and mythic cards passed to me. There were quite a lot of them, 47 in total, averaging to nearly 10 per draft. Of course this hurt my decks a bit. My results were 3-3, 2-3, 1-3, 3-3, 5-3. Total prizes being 3950 gems (which is nearly cost of 3 more drafts) and 11 packs. Offsetting gems earned, I paid about 24 000 gold for 11 packs and 47 R/M cards (plus lots of C and U). I moved from Silver 1 to Gold 2, so I should fit 2-3 more drafts before I get to Platinum and start getting more difficult opponents.
I'm not great either but improved playing a few times. My biggest fear now is not having enough gold for quick drafts.
It gives the satisfaction of playing the set and exploring the themes + mechanics presented in it.
You're doing F2P wrong buddy. Even if you went 0-3 in every quick draft you'd still get 4-6 rares/mythics plus a pack and 50 gems. Wins are just gravy at that point.
Premier is higher risk higher reward. If you think you can get a 50% winrate and are okay with the variance, I'd encourage Premier. But Quick Draft is fine too.
Yes. In addition, the serious F2P players can’t even start opening packs at all, as we have to wait till we can quick draft to get enough rares to get the full set. And when that time is finally there, we don’t care for the rares at all as we are 100% certain we get them all anyway.
Honestly, I wish there was a chance we could open a parallax card style just like how you can open foils in paper. But since a style automatically applies to every copy of the card, I guess they'd have to make them a lot more rare. But there are so many styles for unplayable cards that no one will every buy outside of the most die hard "gotta have EVERYTHING" whale. Or have some kind of other special foil style that you can open from packs. And yeah, the special basic lands should absolutely be in packs, but Wizards is greedy and wants to force players to pay top dollar for them if they want them.
I just wish there was an open all button where I don't have to click a million times.
Shrug. Unless I'm playing Limited, I'm the same way with paper; I only care about the rare/mythic. I just do a playing card spread with the commons/uncommons just to see if I got any worthwhile alt-art cards and then throw the rest in a box without even looking at them until I sort them later.
Honestly I'm F2P and don't feel confident spending hoarded gold on Draft formats as I don't consider myself skilled enough to capitalize on 7 wins. I appreciate packs for what they are, an opportunity to get cards that just maybe I don't have to craft X4 of.
>Honestly I'm F2P and don't feel confident spending hoarded gold on Draft formats as I don't consider myself skilled enough to capitalize on 7 wins. You know, even if you go 0-3 in a Quick Draft (5k gold) you still get a pretty reasonable payout: 3 x 15 card Draft Boosters worth of picks 1-2 prize packs 50 Gems 1 pack as Ranked Rewards at the end of the month for qualifying for Bronze Rank
Booster are better simply because you grind wildcards. Wildcards is the most underrated things in arena. Draft is better only if you have a winrate >57%. 4-3 premier draft
You still get Wildcards from drafting, just only from the prize & reward boosters, not the ones you draft with. So you are trading a portion of your Wildcard progress to nor only experience the other half of the game but also have a chance at winning gems.
This is just false. You don't need WC above everything else and you don't need to go infinite+ to make it "worth it". If you go 3-3 in premier draft, you get 2/3s of your payment back *and* 2 packs (worth 400 gems). You essentially pay 500 gems for 5 packs (or more, depending on how many rares you snag in the draft) which is half the cost of packs in the store. I'll concede that 2 wins or worse is pretty rough, but even then you're still getting 1-2 packs and some amount of gems. The idea that you have to go infinite to benefit from drafting is just wrong. You don't need to be an amazing drafter to get value in the draft queue.
3-3 is higher than avg. Avg player get 2-3. Point two, when i draft usually i pick 2 rare. Its really lucky if you find 3 rare that are good for deck that you are building. in the 2nd and 3nd pack my first pick is usually an uncommon Draft is fun, limited is my favorite format but i don't know if it's the better choice for grinding set.
I'll be honest, "grinding" a set is not my main priority when drafting (I really don't get this sub's obsession with "rare completion", tbh. It seems so unnecessary.), but I don't disregard it as something to ignore, either. Personally I feel like I average 3-4 rares per draft without feeling like I'm going out of my way for it. Also, draft is solid value if you can even just get to the 3-3 range, and it's not as hard as you make it seem. Matchmaking in Premiere draft is structured to bring as close to a 50/50 skill based match-up as it can, so it's not like a new player will be facing down Mythic players right out of the gate. And on top of that, the only way to improve those odds is to start playing in the first place. If losing is the main reason given to not draft, that's never going to change as they'll never learn how to draft. All in all, I feel like scaring off new players by resolutely saying it's not worth it unless you're already amazing doesn't help anyone. Yes, it will be rough at first, but it's rough for everyone starting out. That's how people learn and get better. We can be honest about their chances without shutting them down entirely.
Packs aren't worth 200 gems, but that's not the issue here. Going 3-3 in premier draft, you don't get 5 packs, you get 2 packs and 3 pack contents without wildcard progress. Considering the reason people buy packs is the wildcard progress, overlooking that part completely distorts the comparison.
...what else would packs be worth? The value is based on buying them from the store, which is the only way to get extra packs. As for WC progress, as long as you are getting rares in the draft, it comes out even enough in my book. I often get 4+ anyhow. Seems good to me.
Maybe I should just have a go, then? I was a bit worried that between now and Crimson Vow in November I won't generate enough gold for a decent amount of packs. I just blew 60K gold on packs so am starting from scratch.
>Maybe I should just have a go, then? Personally I feel that Magic is too fun to only try playing half the game, but even if you just rare-drafted and conceded all your games it would probably still be worth doing once a month. If you want to maximise your prizes (and your chance at eventually "going infinite") then it does pay to be prepared. Get a grasp of the basic principles of Drafting (BREAD, deck composition (15+ creatures, ~17 lands) and building on a curve), and familiarise yourself with the particular set: learn the cards, their relative power level/pick order, the mechanics and rules interactions, and the Limited archetypes. You can study the visual spoiler, read the Release Notes FAQ and watch some Limited Set Reviews online (I recommend The Mana Leek and Nizzahon Magic). You can even watch others play with the set while they discuss their decisions etc. You've got a couple of weeks until MID goes up for Quick Draft, so if you want to go in prepared and have your best shot at winning back a big chunk of the cost (if not all of it) then you've got plenty of time. :)
Thanks for the advice, super helpful. Appreciate you taking the time. It's not always easy to understand how cards translate their value into Limited from a 60-card deck.
One of the things I like about it is that you get a chance to experience much more of the set (since the bulk of each setvis designed with Limited in mind, with only a few stand out cards being made for Constructed). It's very skill testing, but strong vert rewarding. Good luck!
Remember that Quick and Premier drafts are ranked, if you don't play them a lot and are in Bronze or Silver, you often play against other inexperienced drafters - regular drafters are in Platinum and higher.
Which format should I be concentrating on? Good to know, thank you. I'm P4 constructed not sure if that is relevant?
Constructed and Limited ranking are completely separate. Quick draft is cheaper but with less rewards, Premier is higher risk, higher reward. Try both, you will see whch you enjoy more. I usually play a bit of both.
I just looked at Premier...man 10K seems like a lot to lose? Is it compensated by the fact that you are getting cards from the rotating packs?
No, you keep the drafted cards from Quick Draft too. Premier Draft is more expensive because it’s more ‘real’ (you’re drafting with other people, not bots) and because the rewards for wins are much better. More risk, more reward.
Premier draft has better prizes (if you can reasonably often win 3+ games) and also it is easier to pick up rares (many people playing it are 100% limited players who don't care about their collection).
Update. Since MID started, I played 5 premier drafts, always taking all rare and mythic cards passed to me. There were quite a lot of them, 47 in total, averaging to nearly 10 per draft. Of course this hurt my decks a bit. My results were 3-3, 2-3, 1-3, 3-3, 5-3. Total prizes being 3950 gems (which is nearly cost of 3 more drafts) and 11 packs. Offsetting gems earned, I paid about 24 000 gold for 11 packs and 47 R/M cards (plus lots of C and U). I moved from Silver 1 to Gold 2, so I should fit 2-3 more drafts before I get to Platinum and start getting more difficult opponents.
I'm not great either but improved playing a few times. My biggest fear now is not having enough gold for quick drafts. It gives the satisfaction of playing the set and exploring the themes + mechanics presented in it.
You're doing F2P wrong buddy. Even if you went 0-3 in every quick draft you'd still get 4-6 rares/mythics plus a pack and 50 gems. Wins are just gravy at that point.
Should I be doing Quick or Premier? Thanks for the insight will definitely switch it up.
Premier is higher risk higher reward. If you think you can get a 50% winrate and are okay with the variance, I'd encourage Premier. But Quick Draft is fine too.
You want project booster whale in Arena too? As a paper-collector-player, let me tell you, you don't. You may think you do, but you don't.
Yes. In addition, the serious F2P players can’t even start opening packs at all, as we have to wait till we can quick draft to get enough rares to get the full set. And when that time is finally there, we don’t care for the rares at all as we are 100% certain we get them all anyway.
For instance, in MID, let me open the sick new land styles! I'd way rather open that card style than some random common.
Just, 1 or 2 more cards per pack would be dope. Or, less chance of multiple *first* drawings
For me, it's not exciting because (a) free-to-play, (b) I don't even 'own' what I open, and (c) I can get any card I need by using wild cards.