Chaos Draft Lessons

Chaos draft is a format based around using a variety of packs during a draft, rather than drafting a set on it's own or with its usual partners.  For a short while longer, Chaos Draft will be available on MTGO, although if you miss it it'll be back soon enough, as it's in a similar rotation to the various MTGO cubes. 

Click on the image above to see it in a bigger view.

Excuse the lack of card images on this one, I forgot to take a screenshot of the deck when I had a good chance to.  This is an example of  a Chaos Draft deck that I played, a strategy that's pretty repeatable I'd call "Nonsense".  This deck is based around sitting around and countering your opponents spells, and using draw spells when they can't do anything.  This deck in particular posted an exciting 1-2 finish, which isn't far off of what I'd expect; it's short a dual land/Evolving Wilds and a couple of cheap interactive cards.

Chaos Draft forces creativity in some facet, as the general draft archetypes sets are built around are universally unavailable. Decks are often clunky to very clunky, as older sets like Judgement, Urza's Saga, Mirage, etc. lack the density of good on curve creatures we generally see today.  As decks in general are clunky, you should try to build a deck with a good curve, that generally tops out a tad higher than normal, similar to what you might do in Sealed.

Card types that improve:

• Counterspells.  Decks in general are slow and clunky, and have trouble applying too much pressure.  They also are powerful when you never really know what kind of cards your opponents have, as generalist answers
• Mana fixing.  Splashing is less punished because the format is slow, and as you're more interested in power over anything else, the ability to play more powerful cards is ideal.
• Easy to play around cards.  Cards like Turn Against, from Battle for Zendikar which would be very telegraphed in their respective formats, get much better when there's such an enormous pool of cards.
• Broad synergy cards.  Cards like Inspired Charge, which incentivize having a lot of creatures in play, are a lot stronger when other decks will lack real synergies. Artifact, +1/+1 counter, and spells matter synergies are good examples of broad synergies.

Card types that get worse:

•  Synergistic cards.  Cards that rely on specific synergies get a lot worse here.  Creatures that care about specific set mechanics, for example, are rarely going to be strong in Chaos draft.
• Low power cards.  Cards like Grizzly Bear, that don't stand on their own well, especially in a longer game, really suffer in Chaos Draft.  Sometimes you can build a deck full of these cards and have a strong deck, but it can be tough to do so with lots of old sets in the pool.
• Parasitic Cards.  Cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel that really want you to be heavy on a specific color, are often worse in Chaos Draft.  I've found it difficult to not either be evenly split between two colors or playing more than two colors, where cards like this suffer.  The exception to this rule for me has been Mono Red, a deck I've drafted quite a few times with limited all-stars like Rock Jockey, who's picture is intentionally left out so that you're forced to Google it.

 

Deck Building and Drafting Tips

I stick to 17 lands pretty often, but I'm a lot more likely to play 18 lands than I am 16, as your curve often hits 6 and hitting land drops is important.  Bad mana is a lot more acceptable here than it would be in a normal draft, as people trying to curve out will often cast 2 mana 2/2 into 3 mana 2/2, leading to less punishment when you stumble.

Keep an eye on broad synergies in each pack.  If you start with Kaladesh for example, don't be shy about taking  a card that cares about Artifacts if it's powerful, as Artifacts have existed for all of Magic so you're likely to see quite a few of them throughout the draft.

The biggest choice to make is generally between casting Grizzly Bears, or playing a long game.  These are the two extreme ends of the spectrum, and the two places I prefer to end up the most, rather than playing a more midrange style deck like you often have in normal limited formats.  Try to figure out where you'll end up as soon as possible, as having a strong plan for your deck is going to inform each pick.  Unless you're an incredibly enfranchised player, there's going to be a lot of reading cards during each draft, so make sure you manage your time effectively.

Until next time,
Kevin

@sealedawaymtg on Twitter

Podcast is late this week, but it's coming!