Written by Pollo on June 28, 2007

TPF Walkthrough

 

Click here for version in Spanish

 

            Like most of you know, half of nationals are played with Booster Draft –an uber fun format for every occasion- this is the reason why a deep knowledge of standard is necessary but not enough. In addition, the effort you put in the limited part of nationals should be greater than the constructed part, because first one requires a lot more skills than the last one.

            Remembering, my first Booster Draft was back in fourth round of 2004 Mexican nationals.  That day we played Mirrodin block. I had never drafted in real life before (only netdraft), I knew more or less of what it consisted, but I had no idea about the ranking of cards, and much less about strategies and archetypes, my record –totally expected- was a disaster. In retrospective, testing would have been a crucial factor to reach a better outcome, but that wouldn’t have been enough, the other complement I needed to make a better performance was some sort of guide, like the one I present, to fill the rest of holes.

           

Notes and explanations

  1.  All the statements, affirmations, conclusions and the order of picks are in my opinion, therefore, its possible that I am wrong, and not in one, but in many points.  

  2. The charts presented next only include commons. The reason is simple: Its more useful to have in mind the cards that we are most likely going to open, than to have infinite picks in the head where half of them are going to be useless and where the information gets atrophied.

  3. The order of the rank varies according to the strategy we are following, for example, if we have plenty of rebels, the rebel-searchers are worth more, if we are playing black, but not red, cards like Henchfiend of Ukor are not even in the list, etc. The own criteria is the main judge to do these distinctions. Keeping in mind these factors helps a lot: 

-Signals: This is the most important element to take into account. It consists of assimilating what’s going on in the Draft: what colors are underrated, what combinations are we passing, and the most important: determine our colors on time. For example, if we see that after our third pick the number of good green cards we are getting is overwhelming, without a doubt we should pick green - without concerning a lot about our first three picks-, keeping in mind our cost of opportunity (the colors we are passing as second better option). Why is always thus? Because that same player that is giving you green cards in the first booster is the one that is going to feed you on the third one, therefore, to reach quality and quantity in our draft, we have to pick the colors that the guys in our sides aren’t taking. Also, in the second booster we should know what colors are we going to get, according to what we passed in the first one, for example, if for taking the green cards we passed a lot of blue, we should take another non-blue color, because we are not going to get any in the second pack, for sure. This is one of the reasons why “forcing combinations” is little effective. If we love U/W, an we take this cards for whim, even if there are better in the pack, and the guy in our right (the one that passes us cards in TS & FS) is in those colors too, our deck is going to end sub optimal, because we are not going to end with enough good cards in first and third pack, although yes in second. Basically if we force colors, we risk to build a deck with only Planar Chaos, and fillers from Time Spiral and Future Sight.

-Synergy with other cards: The second element to take into account before picking a card over other one is to check which one makes a better team with the ones we already have. For example, cards with Madness (Dark Withering) with cards that make us discard (Urborg Syphon-Mage), cards with comes into play abilities (Stingscourger) with cards that makes us return them to our hand (Tolarian Sentinel).

-Curve of mana: This is one of the modules more tough to take to practice, mainly because it requires a lot of experience and an active memory. It consist of having a deck where we take total advantage of our mana sources. Something like turn 1 Shade of Trokair suspended, turn 2 Benalish Calvary, turn 3 a Morph, turn 4  Malach of the Dawn, turn 5 Castle Raptors. How to obtain this? Either being a lucksack or when in the middle of the draft we take cards that fits better in the drops we are missing. For example, if we already have a lot of cards with cost 3, we are going to give a little of more value to cards that cost 2 to complement our curve. Its important to note that this is effective when the cards have a similar value, I would never pass a great card only because of curve purposes. 

-Archetypes: Finally, we have to ask us: What are we drafting?, and the answer is going to be the game plan that we have to carry out in the draft: how are we supposed to win the games and what situations can we explode, how to overcome our weakness against other decks and focus in cards that benefits our combination. My favorite archetypes are W/U, W/R, U/R, B/R, R/G & G/U.

 

Ranking of cards & Picks in order of hierarchy

 

(Don’t forget to consult cards you don’t know in the Gatherer of Wizards)

 

Time Spiral

 

 

Planar Chaos

 

 Future Sight

White	Blue	Black	Red	Green
Judge Unworthy	Infiltrator Il-Kor	Ichor Slick	Ghostfire	Sprout Swarm
Gathan Raiders	Aven Augur	Gathan Raiders	Riddle of Lightning	Sporoloth Ancient
Knight of Sursi	Forsee	Death Rattle	Gathan Raiders	Kavu Primarch
Blade of Sixth Pride	Gathan Raiders	Deepcavern Imp	Fatal Attraction	Nessian Courier
Lucent Lumenid	Whip Spine Drake	Augur of Skulls	Flowstone Embrace	Llanowar Empath
Marshalling Cry	Leaden Fists	Grave Scrabbler	Fomori Nomad	Edge of Autumn
Lymph Sliver	Venser's Diffusion	Mass of Ghouls	Henchfield of Ukor	Thornwield Archer
Lumithread Field	Sarcomite Myr		Grinning Ignus	Wrap in Vigor
	Blind Phantasm		Embermage Augur

Being honest, the charts per se doesn’t really add useful information, except what cards to pick in a certain color, but not what colors have the best quality nor what combinations are the best ones, this depends on the experience and judgment of the people that is drafting, that is, obviously, totally personal. As for me, after a considerable amount of drafts, I have reach to some personal conjectures (in no way absolute truths) about TPF that I will share with you.

 

*Gathan Raiders is colorless.- You could expect this one after the FS table, it enters in any combination and it’s a great card, potentially a trick, a madness enabler and if the game becomes longer it becomes a pretty good fatty.

 

*Black sucks.- Is the most weak color, specially after Future Sight. I almost never draft it unless I am the only black player in the pod (you know that for the huge amount of black cards of good quality you get passed) and only with red –a lot of removal plus slivers- or white –rebels-. Being the only black player in the table, black has a lot of potential, don’t underrate it.

 

*White can be either very good or plain awful.- If you draft the right cards and get an average curve, white is near to insane, but if you miss one the important must have cards or loss a drop in early turns, things will go bad for you for sure. I try white with blue most of the time, to complement flyers and evasion with creatures that stall the board on the ground. The other color that does well with white is red, instead of flyers you pick early beaters and loads of removal.

 

*Red is the universal color.- In the personnel, I like to commingle it with Blue and Green, but it has synergy with any other color. Never forget that is going to probably be the most drafted color in the pod, for this same reason.

 

*Green is the most consistent color.- It has the best creatures, the most number of playables (along with white) in Time Spiral, the best commons in Future Sight, the only pump spells and one of the best common cards in limited: Sprout Swarm.

 

*To play blue is to bet for Tempo.- Blue offers of a lot of good stuff like bouncers, evasion and card advantage, but removal is not one of them (there are some exceptions in Planar Chaos). That’s the reason why, if we mix it with another color that doesn’t have removal (Green or White), we have to: first; pick the little removal, then, focus on a consistent base of creatures, and finally, complement them with all sort of pump spells, tricks and tempo advantage cards.

 

*The best archetype is U/W.- Or at least, is my favorite one (and the one from Kenji Tsumura too). Some guys with flyers  and shadow along with guys that stall the board and even Rebels is almost invincible.

 

These are some of the advisement I can give you for TPF Draft, don’t forget to come to channel #TPF, where I learned many of these things, hopefully you might be able to join the group and test with us. Until next time.

 

-Pollo

 

Back to Magic: the Gathering Articles

by Metzel on 2007-06-28 21:44 MST

hmm messed at all?

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by WoodSage on 2007-06-28 22:20 MST

What do you think about drafting 2 colors + splash? That's my usual strategy in TPF.

I agree that Black and White are the least powerful, but Black picks up in Future Sight while White only has 2 cards I like there, on the other hand Black is very weak in Planar Chaos (save for bomb Damnation and the Trapper).

I like a lot a combination of U, G or R with 2 being my main colors and the other a splash. I also tend to deviate in Planar Chaos if I get a Dragon which usually means splashing a color or fixers for the one land (since I usually have 2 of the 3 colors of the dragon).

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by Pollo on 2007-06-28 22:32 MST

I am not a fan of splashing colors in Draft, i only do this when I am playing HEAVY green, and Blue as a second color with splash Red, or Red as a second color with a splash for a dragon or some bomb.

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by ChuckNorris on 2007-06-28 22:32 MST

I totally disagree with your blue assessment. Fathom seer>everything but MAYBE ephemeron. Maybe.

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by hawkeye1542 on 2007-06-28 22:35 MST

empty the warrens last??? there are many other questionable placements but this one is just ludicrous....empty shouldnt be lower than about 4th or 5th. period.

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by hawkeye1542 on 2007-06-28 22:35 MST

empty the warrens last??? there are many other questionable placements but this one is just ludicrous....empty shouldnt be lower than about 4th or 5th. period.

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by center on 2007-06-28 22:47 MST

very well written, i would like to see some sort of actually walkthrough through a draft. That would be cool.

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by cjthedude on 2007-06-28 22:47 MST

Great Article

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by Blah234 on 2007-06-28 23:01 MST

1. I don't think Empty the Warrens should be below Bogardan Rager.

2. UW, imo, isn't the best archetype but it is definitely one of the top ones.

3. What are the great tourist attractions in Mexico?

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by HUNGTACTICS2 on 2007-06-28 23:19 MST

What about Deep Sea Kraken?!?!

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by coolcreep on 2007-06-28 23:22 MST

Your pick orders are the suck, but slightly better than dv8r's. As for the dude who said fathom seer was maybe better than ephemeron, i have to letters for you: N and O. NOTHING! I repeat NOTHING! is better than ephemeron at the common slot in ANY colour. Anyways my big bones to pick with you are these:


Whitemane lion over recluse. Recluse is the nuts and it is a rebel. Until you have played against someone with 2 recluse's out, you cannot appreciate how insanely it impacts the board.


Dustwasp over boa. While evasion in green is very nice, boa is easily the best common 2 drop in TSB (unless you count suspending a card for 2 as a 2 drop, in which case the prize obv. goes to ephemeron).

Gemhide over Search. Gemhide is solid fixing/accel, dont get me wrong, but it is really easy to deal 1 dmg in TPF and it might randomly help your opponent fix his mana. Search is far more resilient, is one of very few good turn 1 plays in this format, while only being slightly worse at the fixing roll.


Benalish Cavalry and Fortify so low in TSP pick orders: As a primarily aggro player, I have found that these cards are insane. blink is only really good in UW decks while cavalry and fortify are amazing in any aggressive deck (which the majority of white decks are in this format) in UW i would certainly take blink over cavalry, tho probably not over fortify, and in RW, WB, or WG, i would take fortify over cavalry over blink. For that matter, how the hell is doomsayer so high on that list?




I found things you said that werent in charts to be pretty smart, although again your pick orders are shit. Also, as for splashing, I find that GW, if it has some fixing, can benefit greatly from splashing black for some removal. Ichor Slick and Death rattle are both solid removal spells that are easily splashed, especially by a base green deck. GW's big weakness is it's lack of removal, and a touch of black solves said problem nicely.

Sorry for typing so much, it was a good article and should help this site be a place where testing will actually mean something, if only a little.

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by Goji on 2007-06-28 23:43 MST

I think its funny that ppl tell the dude who test's tpf more than almost anyone in the world his picks sucks and he also wins alot... I dont agree 100% with all the picks but like its bairly off.. Nice article Pollo

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by Volrath89 on 2007-06-28 23:52 MST

To everyone saying that Pollo's or dv8r pick's order sucks: It will always depends of what deck you are drafting, and no one can make a pick order list that everyone else agrees with. Pick orders changes in each archetype u are drafting... so stop whining!

To the guy who said Empty the Warrens > Bogardan Rager.. don't you like a combat trick that is actually a creature??. I'd only pick Empty over Rager if I have Strength in Numbers or Fortify and then I would pick higher Grinning Ignus in FS.

And I would had loved to read an article like this 2 years ago.. it took me a while to understand drafting concepts like signals and archetypes and they are well explained here. GJ Pollo! :)

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by Sampo on 2007-06-29 00:47 MST

While I disagree with some of the pick orders, this article is still quite good, and should be helpful for people who haven't drafted much.

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by Vodka_7up on 2007-06-29 03:14 MST

Empty lost a lot of it's power when TTT became TTP and even more with TPF. There's just less suspend shenanigans going on, though grinning ingus gives you some hope but he's still picked moderately cause it's "free" acceleration.

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by Clash on 2007-06-29 03:49 MST

I prefer whiteman lion and aven riftwatcher as top commons in PC (expecially if i'm on rebel), pollutice sliver and recluse can't be better than lion and aven...only my opinion..
Also GW/b is a good combination, with mycoderm, sproloth and sprout swarm, and u can splash it with black for deathspore thallid
However good article
Bye

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by Meatwarz on 2007-06-29 05:03 MST

Well, this is great article for someone who just started playing and studying TPF Draft format. Maybe thats just me, but i don't really like any pick orders as most of the time lots of other things influence your picks and make these pick orders very fluid. The statements are quite interesting, i've got similar feeling about most of 'em. gj

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by kebe on 2007-06-29 08:27 MST

sooo....
looter>seer?
baloth>spider?
goblin skycutter/flowstone channeler>COAL STOAKER???
gl at nats ur gona need it

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by dboy1 on 2007-06-29 08:32 MST

good article

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by tin_cup on 2007-06-29 09:06 MST

Kebe you suck. Don't worry though, many players in here suck like you. Maybe not many suck that much as you do. But, hey, there are always these few ones who suck a little more.

Good article. Although i beleve that when one makes a walkthrough to a draft, one should present the pick's order in each archetype seperately.

Thanks for your time writing this.

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by Djinn on 2007-06-29 09:06 MST

lol @ empty the warrens #12

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by DragonBuster on 2007-06-29 09:21 MST

Nice article. Although I'm not the best player by any means, at first I had a beef on some of the pick orders too. But after thinking about them, and reading the other comments, they actually make a decent amount of sense IMO.

Plus, it's Pollo. C'mon now.

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by scwizard on 2007-06-29 09:29 MST

Hey Kebe, I like Coal Stoaker...
>:(

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by Shivan1 on 2007-06-29 10:54 MST

Benalish cavalry is a top-3 card in white for sure - he's a house.

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by Ironicus on 2007-06-29 11:04 MST

Ghostfire is colorless not red.
Gathan Riders exist in black? Great!

And thanks for the article, I'm waiting for something like that since forever. Now, I will be less bad in draft. (I was horrible)

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by Revik on 2007-06-29 11:22 MST

Because we all get better at draft after reading a single pollo article *rolls eyes*

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by Pekken on 2007-06-29 12:55 MST

I liked the Spanish version, with the *real* pick orders...

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by Fayul on 2007-06-29 13:15 MST

Pollo, you're very good at constructed. You should stick to it.

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by Wiley on 2007-06-29 14:18 MST

tendrils over soot, seer over looter, recluse over lion (this I don't even think is disputable). woodreaders and vow over evo charm, and augur over infiltrator with the rest being virtually unchanged are my picks. I respect all your decisions except the 'lion>recluse' one as they're all very debatable, and people often get into arguments over them (particularly seer/looter and augur/infiltrator)

Also to the man who said riftwatcher was a top common... just... god... don't even get me started with how fallacious that statement is

you should write more articles Pollo, though some people pointed out a few questionable things these are the same people who pick riftwatcher over shade, and play stingscourger turn 2

edit: also you forgot to put cavalry at #4

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by natethetank on 2007-06-29 14:45 MST

i think that his picks are geared to his favored archtypes. he likes control over aggro. thats why he has recluse over aggresive creatures and fortify so low. if he drafted aggressive decks he would prefer some better early creatures over powerful mid to late game creatures. he is not neccesirally wrong. in fact control is better then aggro because its more difficult to get good early aggressive creatures then powerful mid to late game creatures

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by thinktank on 2007-06-29 15:08 MST

Ty for the guide Pollo. while I may not agree with all the pick orders it does give a good idea on how to draft the format and how to become a better drafter in general.

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by SarcasticRat on 2007-06-29 16:50 MST

As an opposing drafter in the next mini you play, I can say with confidence that these pick orders are incredible. Everyone who drafts at the same table with me should use them.

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by dv8r on 2007-06-29 19:05 MST

wow, I love how the people flaming pollo are actually making themselves look stupid. Having drafted with Fayul and hawkeye and coolcreep before, I know who I'd choose to play vs between you and Pollo needing to win the last round to t8 at nats (in fact, coolcreep is the only one who I think would even give me a good match out of you three).

Firstly, OBVIOUSLY Pollo has only listed the playable commons in this list (although he's missed out quite a few, especially in white time spiral), Two-Headed Sliver is one of many cards he has left out (for good reason mostly). Empty the Warrens is NOT the worst red common in time spiral....

Secondly, Pollo, some of your pick orders are so far off as to be criminal. I don't like to criticise people directly, but it should defineately be noted that Errant Doomsayers and Looter il-Kor are nowhere near as good as you think, and Thornweald Archers, Terramorphic Expanse and especially Piracy Charm are a lot better. Pick orders often come down to personal preference, but those 5 are just wrong.

Thirdly, having spent nearly 3 hours editting this article I'm a bit pissed off with Pollo for not at least waiting for me to send it back (this article reads like it's written by someone who barely speaks English, no offence intended Pollo)

Nate: Recluse is the second best white common in planar chaos, Pollo actually has recluse ranked very LOW, not highly.

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by Twilight on 2007-06-29 19:29 MST

i like this article, and like he wrote, some picks depends on what are you drafting, like if you are on rebels obv lion and riftwatcher up on the list, obv this are not rules just like a guide, for some kind of medium players, not for experts, bc if you are very good drafting TPF you know hot to rate the cards and colors with the information of your table, not with a guide like this..
i think this is a very good article and a must read for newbies, or not so pros drafters..

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by jawsthehobo on 2007-06-29 19:59 MST

Good article. The only things I disagree about are mainly just personal preference, except I think recluse is one of the best white cards. And I think that you either forgot or haven't yet realized that whip-spine drake is good in blue, but even better in white. Its one of those cards to always look for if your white.

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by coolcreep on 2007-06-29 20:05 MST

@ dv8r

I would never front and say that I was better or as good as you or pollo. That doesn't mean your pick orders can't suck though :P

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by Ironicus on 2007-06-29 21:13 MST

by Fayul on 2007-06-29 15:15 EDT

Pollo, you're very good at constructed. You should stick to it.

Pollo is fisrt in limited since a while..

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by CookieCutter on 2007-06-30 02:28 MST

Very good article, well written.

There is no reason to flame Pollo, he is the highest ranked Limited player in the league for a reason.

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by Clash on 2007-06-30 03:40 MST

I am the guy that say aven riftwatcher is one of top picks, and explain why:
-for my style of draft i like to pick a lot of tricks (blink) or bounce creature (lion stonecloacker dream stalker) or rebel-search (blightspeaker, scout), so according with these things aven riftwatcher is sure in the top3 picks
Bye

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by Clash on 2007-06-30 03:43 MST

I am the guy that say aven riftwatcher is one of top picks, and explain why:
-for my style of draft i like to pick a lot of tricks (blink) or bounce creature (lion stonecloacker dream stalker) or rebel-search (blightspeaker, scout), so according with these things aven riftwatcher is sure in the top3 picks
Bye

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by Clash on 2007-06-30 03:43 MST

I am the guy that say aven riftwatcher is one of top picks, and explain why:
-for my style of draft i like to pick a lot of tricks (blink) or bounce creature (lion stonecloacker dream stalker) or rebel-search (blightspeaker, scout), so according with these things aven riftwatcher is sure in the top3 picks
Bye

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by Shagrath on 2007-06-30 04:30 MST

penis

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by Vlada on 2007-06-30 06:16 MST

by coolcreep on 2007-06-29 07:22 CET

Your pick orders are the suck,

That say guy who we banned from TPF cuz of his abnormaly largy stupidity

Obv there are no two persons on world with same draft pick order of all colours in all picks tards, so no point in arguing about it...

and yeah pollo boa > dustwasp by far :)

And people dont listen dv8r, he is good player, and good guy, but LITTERARY CRAZY, when its about pics in limited.. ask people that tested for PT Geneva if you dont trust me :)

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by DRINKALCOHOL on 2007-06-30 10:54 MST

the aven riftwatcher guy needs to relax

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by Wiley on 2007-06-30 14:50 MST

Vlada and I are in total agreement about the dv8r thing that he is in fact, out of his mind, and this might help to explain this unfathomably simple scientific principle to the lesser players here..

dv8r and pollo similarly draft towards certain archetypes which they find to be good, which should be obvious for pollo as he's saying UW is the best color combination (it's probably 4th best if you look at it objectively) and has momentary blink to be higher than benalish cavalry. So while a card like Coal Stoker is superior to bonesplitter Sliver in a vacuum (just an example), the statement he's making is that it's limited either to only certain archetypes, or perhaps archetypes which he doesn't much care for (personally while I think coal stoker's level of sexy rivals that of Sarah Carter, I wouldn't pick it that highly unless I were U/R for morphs etc).

An example pertaining to dv8r is that he thinks fortify is better than errant ephemeron, which is almost comical, but keep in mind dv8r still wins. He just programs himself to draft certain archetypes that he feels more comfortable with

In that sense maybe this article could be revised because it's somewhat specific to Pollo's style, but if you were some robot who could churn out picks based on the priorities that Pollo laid out for you, you could still use this guide to draft fairly well

a few issues:

1-Cavalry is almost always better than blink I find, even in U/W, unless you drafted five riftwing cloudskates somehow

2-dv8r, looter is right below fathom seer at WORST, it's a ridiculous card that more than likely gives you a monstrous advantage over your opponent unless they ping it as quickly as possible

3-dv8r, again, I know I just preached about different archetypes/differences in opinion blah blah, but realize that archer is nothing but a good two drop. I'd go as far as saying that cavalry is better in a vacuum, so while archer does look very very sexy (I don't mean visually), it being as low as it is is not "criminal", and neither are the other things you mentioned

4-Clash, your TRIPLE post aside, the only advantage you gain is a bit of life gain and the fact that your creature doesn't die (PV has a humorous take on this) if you combine riftwatcher with bounce creatures. Notice that NOT DYING is not an advantage, it's merely negating a drawback.

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by dv8r on 2007-06-30 16:55 MST

Wiley: read my draft pick orders, I've sumarised them as they should be taken, with fortify as the FOURTH highest white common in tsp. As for thornweald archer ONLY being a 2 drop.... it's green removal in this format. Which, as you know is very very rare.

Wiley: http://w13.easy-share.com/1236624.html

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by Wiley on 2007-06-30 17:05 MST

I'm sorry because (as I told you in #limited4you) I seriously thought you picked fortify over ephemeron, although your love for that card is still disturbing at best

Green removal? Hardly. It's like a green "destroy target attacking creature, but reveal this card from your hand constantly". I know its ability is powerful but I would pick many solid green cards over it in FS (It's my #5 actually before swarm, primarch, ancient and courser). I might be inclined to pick edge over it in certain archetypes but that goes without saying

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by Clash on 2007-07-01 04:34 MST

whiteman lion + aven riftwatcher or
amrou scout/blightspeaker + aven riftwatcher

Is this a disadvantage?
lol, i have never learn something in MTG then...

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by dv8r on 2007-07-01 08:34 MST

Clash: whitemane lion vs temporal isolation, you are up 1 card, and are not playing a bad enabler to gain 4 life. Whitemane lion is almost always pure card advantage.

Amrou Scout/Blightspeaker + Aven Riftwatcher: Compare to the position of getting a rebel that is good without being searched up such as amrou seekers, deepcavern imp or saltfield recluse, these cards are find plays even without scout or blightspeaker, both of which are VERY fragile and quite easily to kill. Even Errant Doomsayers gets good when you can search it up for free.

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by ChristPunchr on 2007-07-01 13:03 MST

You should write an article about drafting mirage block.

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by warcraftx on 2007-07-01 22:58 MST

Mire Boa is worse than Drake.
And Spider is better than Baloth.
Baloth is vanilla while spider has 2 lives, generating card advatange.
It blocks so much in the format, fliers, fear and is a good creature for 4 mana.
Baloth is just a vanilla 5/5 which gets owned by slipstream serpent all the time.
Drake > Boa as it has evasion.

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by Yamchacm on 2007-07-03 13:06 MST

Writte one article about md5!! :D

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by Pizat on 2007-07-04 01:34 MST

slipstream serpent > dream stalker? :/ seems wrong.

why pick lens so low? :(

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