Unlucky at draft or just poorly balanced?

[GallowsCream]

So, i just played a draft, I'm still lacking in my collection and i want to get as many good cards for a combrei deck, i drafted a deck for that combination, but i only got 1 rare at my disposal (marisens dicple), thats fine, i needed him because i only had 2 of him in my collection, the rest of the rares i got was for the other factions. I won my first round against another player, eventhough i didn't get to draw marisen. Then i proceeded to loose 3 times in a row against people with MUCH better cards than my self. One guy i played against had atleast 6 rares all for his chosen 2 factions, and that was only the ones he got to play/draw, i don't know if he had more in the rest of his deck. The final loss i had, the guy started the game with playing 2 rares in 2 rounds, and had already given me more than 5-7 dmg before i could even get mana for 1 unit.

I know im not 'good' at drafting, but i have atleast read about which cards are high priority and to be aware of the mana curve and the amount of mana per unit ratio. But how am i suppose to win against people who get 5-6 rares for their chosen factions, while i myself only get 1 card which i didn't even draw spread over 4 matches? i mean, i didn't even get to pick a single scorpion wasp for counters? and it's been like this for the past 2 drafts i've saved up for. If i compare it to the forge, which im pretty sure im master in now: I've tried getting 1 legendary (sandstorm titan) and atleast 2-3 rares only from a card pool of 25 cards. ALL for my factions of choice + i proceeded to win atleast 6 games, i actually think i won all the way to the last one, only losing 1 match.

So please if anybody could tell me if im just unlucky/poor at chosing cards or if it's not just my imagination about the balance/randomness of picks? Or maybe give some advice to a newb? Because i've seen a lot of people recommending draft to gain a collection, but in my experience i've wasted atleast 15k on nothing besides a bad aftertaste in my mouth from getting rekt by rares/legendary's and only whinning 1 match if any. Sorry if im coming off as salty, i just feel draft has been a waste of my time/gold without any fun matches or close wins.

[Im Abe Lincoln]

I've had very few close draft games and I've played since early in closed beta. The removal available is just way too limited.

That said, it sounds like you weren't reading the draft very well. Choosing to pick your colors before the draft even starts is dangerous. If another player opens a rare in your colors they are going to take everything in those colors for their deck - leaving you with very little. Time is generally pretty weak in draft anyway so the few very good cards (like wasp) are going to get snapped up if other players are in your colors.

Ask yourself what other rares were open in other colors that you passed? Those could have been in your deck if you had switched colors. It isn't as easy skill to learn but it should help you avoid the "my colors were just empty this draft" feeling.

[CryonicSuspension]

Draft is the highest level play and I think it's bad advice to tell new players to focus on draft. You can't get married to colours, you have to pick the best of what comes up.

Play Gauntlet / Forge until you are comfortable drafting. 5 K gold is too much to flush down the toilet.

To put it into perspective, after learning Magic: The Gathering, playing rainbow decks, having 2,000 card libraries ( against friends who also used 2,000 card libraries ) and making 60 card constructed mono and dual colour decks, I then played in a sealed deck tournament ( a friend gave me his spot, he had paid but had to go to a meeting ).

[madlampy]

Combination of some bad luck and also inexperience with how drafts work ( I'm not going to say bad or poor draft skills, just inexperience ).

In drafts in every game as Honest Abe said there is two main things to always think about ( well possibly 3 ):

1. never lock to a deck type before the draft, it will never work against someone following an open approach to card draws
2. while you have done some research about tiering for draft etc, I'm guessing you didn't delve into "over powering" and "drop curve/late game bombs".
3. swing mid draft, the possible 3rd thing

As Abe and Cyro have already said you start building with what is shown, never with what you need for collection; for building collection till you get to the point of one or possibly two playable decks run gauntlet and forge as you're still looking at good chance of drawing even uncommons or commons you need.

To give you an example I didn't even bother with draft till I had a pretty solid Rakanos/splash shadow deck with multiples of the solid valkyrie and rebel uncommons and rares and even a couple of Navarris' in it and also a half built Shadow/Primal cloud wyrm abuse deck that was just missing the nightmares. By this point my profile was showing something like 85/70/45 for common/uncommon/rare completion for collection and had a good few legendaries beyond the campaign ones too. Round about 50% rares or one solid PvP deck is probably the point to start worrying about draft as you're able to not have to draft a rare for collection but instead work on a deck for winning... one of my best runs had no rares in the actual play deck, and 3 rares and 2 legendaries greed drafted for collection/denial.

You can start with "I'd like to play a rakanos warcry deck" if you want but if it throws you Umbral Reaper and Recurring nightmare first two draws then it's a no brainer... bin the green/red pump idea and run blue/black flight/removal/control instead and start pulling wyrms/permafrosts etc.

On the over powering idea, the whole point of draft is it's fast and furious with smaller decks. Unlike PvP or SP you want slightly over 33% land, generally for a solid power/drop ratio you want around 18 power / 27 playable rather than 15/30.

On the Drop Curve idea draft generally also plays at full aggro tempo due to lack of playable control, so you can't afford to go "fat" and wait.

You actually want to have a downhill slope rather than a slight up then down curve or a midrange bell curve, so you also want either a lot of over-budget early drops like beetle/hatchling/incendiary grenadin at 1 and pyre cultist etc at 2 with a cap around 3 or 4. Drops at 4 or 5 + should be considered finishers, as should anything that has more than 2 single faction influence to play. You'll also notice a lot of the smoother running decks you'll see in draft have either a 1 influence or two influence but both different cost, crownpoint rebel for example is a good solid 3 cost 1r/1g 3/3 with ability... whereas you'd never really see anyone running the 3 Time 0 cost drop due to the 3 sigil requirement.

That said having one or two "bombs" is never bad for late game in case it stalls, things like champion of cunning/killer t-rex/overpowered sentinel etc are all great for shifting board control but shouldn't be the main focus... they are simply the plan B if all else fails.

3rd optional point... If your deck is running mono/dual colours and something amazing drops first or second pack then don't be afraid to either add that colour or drop the weaker of the two so far in the case of Dual colour decks. Generally unless you're mono pack 2 is the cutoff for this swing, after that it's going to be too hard to get enough to justify adding the cards though there is still a reason for taking it we'll cover below.

Last thing and while some folk get overly salty about it it's a part of draft play and has been since the days of MTG in Alpha.

"Hate Drafting" or as the mature players call it Denial Drafting.

If you have a choice of six cards and it's between a pile of "Meh" in your colours and you have good picks already or removing a power card for another colour, pass on the Meh and rip the utility card for the other colour. While you can't play it it also means you can't run into it being played against you either.

Say I'm in Primal/Shadow and my choices are poor but there's still a Valkyrie Enforcer in there... I'll rip that just to deny anyone in Justice the 3/3 silence flyer. I'll never use it but it means I also don't need to worry about a 3/3 flying beatstick with silence coming my way.

Hope this helps you realise it's not you're bad or unlucky... just that Draft is not only a brutal format but also needs a totally different mindset from normal play in any TCG.

[madlampy]

To give you an Idea this is my forge deck to do todays quest for 5 forge/draft wins.

I prefer blue/black flyer or red/green aggro with some black removal so not my normal style... however when it throws Eilyn, 2 gorgon switchblades and a mirror image at you in the first 4 picks you don't even think of going red green and after that it's just work with what it passes you.

progress with this deck

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818684982

ended up as

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818685140

Pretty much because it's built from strongest picks that arrive rather than "only green red" and also makes sure it has plenty of early drops/control to establish board control and then just a few 5+ for finishers if needed.

[jeff]

I don't think there's much point in hatedrafting since the games are cross-pod. After you pick a card from a pack it could be hours before someone else even sees that pack.

[{F13}Storm]

Originally posted by jeff:

I don't think there's much point in hatedrafting since the games are cross-pod. After you pick a card from a pack it could be hours before someone else even sees that pack.

truth

[madlampy]

Originally posted by {F13}Storm:

Originally posted by jeff:

I don't think there's much point in hatedrafting since the games are cross-pod. After you pick a card from a pack it could be hours before someone else even sees that pack.

truth

Fairy Nuff!

Hadn't realised it wasn't locked pods... bin the hate drafting idea then. :D

[GallowsCream]

Thanks a lot for the great feedback guys i really appriciate the advice and nobody said stuff like "git gud" which amazes me. I'll try to go into draft with a more open mindset from now on, but just to clarify, i normally pick the rares that come up in the packs, of course only if i feel they're good, and if a rare comes up that is 'bad' i would normally just pick it for deconstruction to be able to craft something i like afterwards, i've also done a bit of the hatedrafting but i was not aware that it was practically ineffective. Tbh this is the first ccg i've actually given draft a chance, because normally it's hiding behind a paywall, and i actually feel it's a very fun way to play (it being free also helps), so i'm sure the blame also lies in me being a complete draft newb.

I think i'll have to delve a bit more into drafting before being able to pick a decent deck. But practice makes perfect, but nice feedback and help from an outside source makes a master. Again thanks a lot.

[Terroriza]

so are you drafting vs human players? i thought someone said you draft vs ai and then another person who drafted against an ai uses their deck and you fight?? if 2 players are drafting live then of course I would think take certain things to stop them from taking something, but what about the second person you play? Surely you won't play the exact same person 7 times a row right?

If 2 players pick cards against each other then who do you play game 1? that person i would assume, but what about game 4, 5 or 6? What if you stop for a bit are they expected to wait? what if you don't start the first game right away? seems a bit confusing because you can't possibly keep playing the same person you drafted against.

[CryonicSuspension]

When I played draft, I didn't know how to figure out what the rares, commons and uncommons were. I just picked what I thought were the best cards.

Card games like Magic: The Gathering were designed such that sometimes rares suck and sometimes uncommons have more utility than rares.

I just finished a ranked game. I was using a mono blue deck. The opponent was using blue-purple.

He must have been watching my hand like a hawk, saw me draw "echo" cards and then he cast Rain of Frogs on my hand:

http://www.numotgaming.com/cards/Set1/221/Rain%20of%20Frogs

http://eternalcardgame.wikia.com/wiki/Polymorph


He converted my Thunderstrike dragons to 1/1 frogs.

http://eternalcardgame.wikia.com/wiki/Thunderstrike_Dragon

I took him from 25 hp to zero by killing him with both 1/1 frogs.

There was an attrition where we were both stunlocking and he was deathstriking my large units and stealing from my library and hand.