Casual Drafting with Magic Club

[Mike]

Two years ago, we had enough players who loved drafting to get any kind of draft format going with no notice. Last year we plowed through a case of Zendikar in less than a week. This year we've barely put together 2 casual drafts all year. It's not due to lack of interest in MTG, so it's got to be something else. Since I can't think of any other reason not to draft, it's got to be that people aren't confident in their drafting abilities, and don't want to "gamble" away what could be a Koth, Venser, etc in their boosters.

Are any of these suggestions viable for getting more people (aka YOU) interested in casual drafting? If not, is there anything that would?

1) No prizes- aka you're just drafting as a fun way to open packs; you keep the cards that you draft. Less motivation to play well, but it still helps people who want experience to get better with the format.
2) No prizes- you keep the cards you open (even if you don't pick them). This one might be a bit harder since people have to write down what they open.
3) Pack prizes- instead of redrafting rares, we agree on some pack prize structure. This would make the drafts cost more than $8.
4) Everyone keeps what they draft, and contribute $1 towards prizes. (So for an 8-man it'd be something like winner gets $8 or 1st/2nd gets $5/$3).

Fifth option: people still want to draft (with redrafting rares as prizes), we just haven't put them together yet.

[Chris]

Is MODO unable to satisfy your drafting needs Mike?

I do remember those good old days though. Drafting multiple times the same day and moving through boxes faster than we could obtain them. I think it might have something to do with a lack of a certain person who wove the most elaborate of lies...

[Kino]

Oct 8, 2010 15:02:35 GMT -5 Mike said:

people aren't confident in their drafting abilities, and don't want to "gamble" away what could be a Koth, Venser, etc in their boosters.

This pretty much sums it up, I think. It's evidenced by the fact that the FNMs have gotten 20+ for the flat-prize structure and 8-10 for the 'normal' graduated prize structure. Especially given the high skill level of many of our players, notably Mike, Ko, Alec, Foghat, Max, Mike, etc, a lot of other players don't want to redraft rares when they know they're simply out of their league. I know I've felt that way before and I'm not even all that bad at drafting.

I think the best solution, and one which I personally enjoy, is number 1. Just draft for fun and keep whatever you pick. It also creates a lower pressure environment, which makes it easier to learn from better players rather than just be crushed by them.

[Mike]

Oct 8, 2010 15:24:05 GMT -5 Chris said:

Is MODO unable to satisfy your drafting needs Mike?

I do remember those good old days though. Drafting multiple times the same day and moving through boxes faster than we could obtain them. I think it might have something to do with a lack of a certain person who wove the most elaborate of lies...

I don't like playing Magic Online. Also, the sets are released like a month later than paper.

[Jaksiel]

No more Greg = no more catalyst to start moar draftzzz

[Kiki]

I would like to see a junk rare draft.

People bring in 75 junk rares, Those bulk rares are all mixed together and people get to draft. People get to keep the cards they draft. No money is involved. And at the end, you still have 75 junk rares so you never run out of ability to play.

[Mike]

This thread is largely to address the issue that competitive players do not currently have an outlet to test for upcoming limited events.

[Kiki]

Oct 11, 2010 14:55:25 GMT -5 Mike said:

This thread is largely to address the issue that competitive players do not currently have an outlet to test for upcoming limited events.

I thought the issue was that we didn't have casual drafting. Competitive players being the only ones who want to draft scare off the casual players.

[Jaksiel]

Oct 11, 2010 14:55:25 GMT -5 Mike said:

This thread is largely to address the issue that competitive players do not currently have an outlet to test for upcoming limited events.

I hope this quote suggests I'll see some RPI players at the PTQs in New England this season.

[Tortuga]

An issue I am having this semester is that I am incredibly busy. I am interested in drafting but I am usually unable to spontaneously draft. At least for me, some kind of scheduling would be nice.

[Mike]

My definition of "casual drafting":

-Not much is on the line for prizes (aka redrafting rares or even no prizes)
-The main function is to 1) have fun, and 2) practice drafting aka THIS IS HOW YOU GET GOOD AT DRAFTING

And Greg, some people are hoping to attend some events.

[lummia2]

I haven't casual drafted yet this year because I just didn't feel very strong about my M11 drafting skills and I had no real desire to learn to draft the set well. I also have been to club that often this year. I think I'd be up for more Scars drafting.

I don't like rare drafting if I don't have much confidence with my own abilities with the set. With rise and M11, I feel like I was paying 8 bucks for 2 dollars worth of rares, which is fine, but I want to try to 'somewhat' responsible with my spending. I'll pay for a FNM, because I could open something and I positively get to keep it. With a casual rare draft, while cheaper, is a lot bigger of a risk if I don't have much confidence. Which is why I wanna do scars because I have a bit more confidence and I feel like everyone else is still relatively new to it.

[Mike]

I personally have no confidence with Scars as I'm pretty terrible with it. This means that I want to draft it a lot, so that I stand a chance when I'm at a 5k

Also, the prize distribution is a bit more skewed with redrafting rares since they introduced the mythic rarity. It used to be that 1st got $12-15 card, and people all the way down to 8th would get a $4-5 card, but now it's like 50, 40, 10, 2,...

[Kiki]

I don't like redrafting rares, and I think I would draft more if we didn't redraft the rares.

[Erenoth]

I prefer redrafting rares as a causual prize method. It allows me to focus on getting what I need for my deck and not just what happens to be valuable in the pack, making decks more interesting. It also makes it easier to get rares that I will actually use once the draft is over. It keeps costs down and can make winning more worthwile at the same time (although I don't tend to win, still preferable).

[akshay4876]

I think with the newer sets the risk is way to great. People want to draft casually but don't like the idea of redrafting rares. When I mentioned this to the group I play with they straight forward rejected the idea. So I created the idea for $12 per person with a 5-3-2-2 prize distribution for the top 4 out of 8 people (Or you could do a usual 4-3-2-2 and use that one pack for the bottom 4 at random so they feel like even if they are not so good they might keep on trying). This uses up all of the packs in a box. The people where fine with this since it is cheaper than going to an FNM. If you really want a casual draft I remember when we drafted repacks once... but that was too casual for the actual drafters since the rares weren't worth anything. The people I play with a lot play standard quite a bit and are quite into the tournament affair. So the same method might not work. Also if you want to you could run some workshops on how to draft and some tips and do a few fake drafts to make people more comfortable with drafting. By a fake draft I mean someone puts together 24 redraft of the latest set with what would normally be there and starts a draft with them and recollects all the cards afterward.

Edit: English is the second language i have learned though my primary and I swear to god it is getting worse every day. Fixed some errors in my Ingrish.