How are yall drafting MH3?

[CourtJesterCowboy]

I played one in person MH3 draft and did great, but in all honesty, I had phenomenal card drafts. I locked in a titan Eldrazi Golgari combo and I really did get lucky with some great cards. I dominated the entire time, but wound up taking second place by just a few life points, because the 1st place player locked in a damn near perfect red mono aggro synergy and just had the speed on me.

That being said, I have now ran 4 drafts on Arena of MH3, and idk if its partly because I am letting myself have a been more fun experimenting, or if its that mixed with drafting rares/mythics just for collection purposes, rather than actually running them in the draft, but I have been doing worse than I normally would with this set, usually only getting a couple wins. Typically I average 4-5 wins on drafts....

So, what mentality are yall going in with to increase win rate? What cards are you insta drafting nomatter what? What archetype is panning out regularly? I have another MH3 paper draft this weekend... It is private, so nomatter what since its a friend group, we will all walk away with atleast 4 packs and get our MSRP, but I would like to put a little bit more time into actually figuring out what will get me an extra pack or two, since our friendgroup has a nice prize pool. Winner of our group leaves with 4 extra packs so that would sure be nice to lock in again for this premium set.

Thoughts?

[Winter Wolf]

I have avoided drafting MH3 despite having tokens to spare. It seems like a crazy draft experience to me. Full of very swingy bombs and hard to answer threats. Removal seems spotty and difficult.

[CourtJesterCowboy]

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

I have avoided drafting MH3 despite having tokens to spare. It seems like a crazy draft experience to me. Full of very swingy bombs and hard to answer threats. Removal seems spotty and difficult.

It is indeed, all over the place... which does make it fun and interesting, dont get me wrong, but also, difficult to channel.

Luckily, in paper drafts, people have way less help from deck builders or websites, so the gameplay is fun and fair, and if you draft a sweet card and have fun, it winds up being a good day.

Arena on the other hand... Idk. The cards arent real, so there is no instant gratification if you draft a $30+ card... so it feels obvious when I face an opponent who pays monthly for draft smith or something because they will be optimized in a way I have never seen in paper at all and I am left wondering what I am missing, and even if I learn the archtype, the cards just arent always there.

I guess more luck is involved in this set with how you have to balance the landscapes to actual drafts. If you dont go all in on Energy synergy, you will run out of energy during crucial plays. Theres lots of stuff going on.

[Tom the Mime Artist]

Archetype synergy feels like it matters way more than with most sets, which makes sense when you look at them. If you need to splash to three colours to keep the archetype intact rather than an off archetype card in your main two colours? Probably worth it.

Jeskai energy, Temur eldrazi, Abzan modified and Rakdos artifacts. Dimir doesn't seem too good because it feels like the synergy just isn't there. The living weapon cards fit nicely into both modified and artifact plans.

In premier draft, went 4-3 with Jeskai energy and 2-3 with a Grixis kind of energy reanimator brew after drafting 2 chthonian nightmares in the first pack and an Aether Revolt in the second. There was synergy with that and buried alive and creatures like cyclops superconductor and when it worked, it worked well but lacked consistency.

Just the one quick draft so far, 7-2 with Orzhov modified where Muster the Departed did some serious work.

[Winter Wolf]

17lands is a great site if you need to learn about drafting a particular set. It isn't perfect but it gives you a number of data points to analyze and find strategies from.

[CourtJesterCowboy]

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

17lands is a great site if you need to learn about drafting a particular set. It isn't perfect but it gives you a number of data points to analyze and find strategies from.

Yeah, I've checked it out. Ive watched videos too. Im just looking for someone to click something in my mind where im like "ahhhh, thats what I was missing", but it really just sounds like I am not diving hard enough into an archetype at the end of the day

[CourtJesterCowboy]

Originally posted by Tom the Mime Artist:

Archetype synergy feels like it matters way more than with most sets, which makes sense when you look at them. If you need to splash to three colours to keep the archetype intact rather than an off archetype card in your main two colours? Probably worth it.

Jeskai energy, Temur eldrazi, Abzan modified and Rakdos artifacts. Dimir doesn't seem too good because it feels like the synergy just isn't there. The living weapon cards fit nicely into both modified and artifact plans.

In premier draft, went 4-3 with Jeskai energy and 2-3 with a Grixis kind of energy reanimator brew after drafting 2 chthonian nightmares in the first pack and an Aether Revolt in the second. There was synergy with that and buried alive and creatures like cyclops superconductor and when it worked, it worked well but lacked consistency.

Just the one quick draft so far, 7-2 with Orzhov modified where Muster the Departed did some serious work.

Good info thanks