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AWC 5: Drafting in National
The time is fast, yup.. the time is so fast, yet the big event that we are waiting for is almost here. Please welcome, The Indonesia Magic The Gathering National Tournament 2006. The venue will be at 27 August 06, participated by approximately 80 players from Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya mostly. Be prepared and be ready for it, coz all the nasty players will grind each other from morning to dawn. ^^
In this article we will discuss about drafting format for Cold Snap, while we know that we prefer to draft Ravnica – Guildpact – Dissension with the reason of more complicated and more fun, on the other side drafting Coldsnap is a lot easier and more suitable for beginner players. By this article I will share guidance to make you feel better drafting this format.
1. The Color that you should draft
If you’ve played Coldsnap booster draft at least 5 times, you definitely know which colors are suitable for drafting. You bet it, Black – Red – Green, these 3 colors have a wide variety of good creature and removal, and they mostly are common. Take these cards for examples Zombie Musher, Deathmark, Chill to the Bone (for Black) Skred, Surging flame, Stalking Yeti (for Red), Ronom hulk, the Aurochs, Arctic Nishoba (for Green). While the White also provides quite good cards, the Blue won’t be promising enough for drafting. All the removals go with Red, Black, Green while the White provide Squall Drifter and the Blue provide Frozen Solid , IMO (in my opinion) these are only temporary removal.
But one thing you should remember, if everyone with the same mind sit with you on the same table drafting Coldsnap , just think, what will happen? All the 8 players will struggle for their best cards, leaving all the White and Blue cards. You may think “If only I just draft Blue and White, I will get all the best cards, while the others stab each others.” Then, do the counter draft! If you know most players draft Red – Black – Green, go for Blue and White only. They will bite each other, and you take all the best cards, pretty cool, huh? This is what we call “counter drafting”. If you are right, high chance winning in this pool will be yours with your mediocre blue and white deck.
And what about if mostly think about the same way as you do? Drafting all the Blue and White cards only, leaving all the best colors behind? Should this be called a “COUNTER counter-draft?” ^^
The choice is yours, whether you wanna join the crowd or counter drafting.
2. Bomb card
Yes, everybody is looking for a bomb card once they opened the booster pack. Here are some cards which I considered a bomb
- Rimescale Dragon
Which can’t be eliminated by any single card in Coldsnap except, Gelid Shackles (if you got the snow mana available or Disciple of Tevesh Szat (only if the card it self haven’t been tapped by the dragon) or Skred (unless you have 5 snow permanents after response, this card is still useless against it) This is the broken card in Coldsnap , IMO. You don’t believe me? Just look at the table no 1 at the last prerelease.
- Sunscour
Reseting the board, eliminating all creatures, hurt your opponent as well, especially if they haven’t realized that you have one. Still don’t believe me? Look at the table no 2 at the last prerelease. ^^
- Adakar Valkyre
Flying, vigilance, and can bring back ANY creature to life under your control, and this is a snow creature as well (anti – Chill to the bone) one word: INSANE!
Above are just some examples, you may add another if you wish, just make sure that you don’t miss it or give that bomb to your opponent.
One thing you should remember, having a bomb card doesn’t guarantee you are already a winner; it really depends on how you play and your mana curve. My last prerelease had Sunscour in my deck, but you know what? It didn’t come even a single time, damn I couldn’t make a show off to my opponent. ^^
3. First pick should be thy choice
Mostly after you opened your booster pack, you will look for the rare first, and then search out for the best card to draft for your deck. If your rare is Sunscour , you’ll be definitely play White, if your rare is Rimescale Dragon, you’ll be definitely play Red. Nothing is wrong with it, coz players will do the same mostly. But what if you drafted Rimescale Dragon and no Red cards pass to you after that?
My point of view, it is still OK if you want to change your color for your deck on the first booster pack, but once the second booster pack opened, you should already ‘fix’ with your deck color and no changes allowed. The third booster pack usually for sharpening the color you played or just counter others if you’re already confident enough. Just because you drafted Rimescale Dragon at first, it doesn’t mean you must play Red. Don’t push on that if your Red is not capable enough, and please remember this thing!
The beauty of snow covered lands doesn’t only amaze you, will dazzle your opponent as well
4. Snow covered land, to be picked or not to be?
The new aspect of Coldsnap is the snow-covered lands, most good cards using mana from this type of lands such as Rimescale Dragon, Boreal centaur, Gelid shackles, Rimewind Taskmage, Ronom Serpent , etc. This will create another challenge in our draft, whether you want to draft the snow land at the beginning (which I don’t recommend), or you will draft the snow land later (by any chance the snow land which is left may not be the same with your color deck).
Drafting cards without being dependent to any snow land cards is still OK, but your deck won’t be competed enough without the best element of Coldsnap itself which require snow covered lands.
5. Practice, and practice, and once again … practice!
May be you have known this information or even more than this article but I advise you that you shouldn’t be confident yet before practicing…… believe me! All are nothing without practice, by any chance you only know about all the theory, that’s all, but without practice you won’t be competing enough on National. You should practice to know which colors fit you the best. Should I play with 3 colors or just 2 colors? What if my opponent sorted all my chosen color, should I change color? Should I counter draft? How many lands should I play? Is my mana curve already OK?
All above will only be answered by playing and get suited by yourself, there are no exact answers for these, coz this depends on your type of playing. So once again do the practice and see the improving result. Please join us in drafting online, we will always be happy to play with you, see the forum in www.kartumagic.com for details
These are my 2 cent for you to catch the heat in National, do your best and remember to play fair. May the best wins!
Until then, c ya! 
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