The one thing I always wonder in M:TG drafts is how to deal with the five colors. I mean, decks really don't work if you have too many colors in there. You basically have to pick at most two colors and throw all cards of the other colors away. If picking cards at random from piles which presumably have all 5 colors in them, how do you get a functioning deck?
You need a lot of each color and very good shuffling. Also, this is why we do it draft style, where each person gets 3 boosters. You pick up one booster, pick a single card that you want, and pass it to your left.
Sorry WhaleShark, but that is patently bullshit. It is more like Scott intuitively described. You usually pick two or three colors and pick cards that fit those colors. What he didn't know is that you certainly do not pick cards "at random" and that this also creates a form of signaling mechanism.
A booster usually has two or three cards aligned with a color. These cards in those colors as well as across colors vary in playability. By picking a high quality card of one color you only ship lower quality cards of that color and higher quality cards of another color downstream which makes players after you less likely to choose cards of that color. On the 2nd booster, when the direction in which the packs are passed reverses you are now more likely to get cards of that color for the same reason. Of course the same is true for yourself. In this manner you can on one hand somewhat direct what the other players on the table are playing as well as judge what colors at least your direct neighbor passing you packs is picking.
It is also possible to force that kind of behavior by just aggressively going after one color you happen to like and what cards you can expect to turn up later on. Forcing draft archetypes (e.g. very aggressive white/red decks) in that manner is also possible.
Another thing I am not sure you guys know is that drafting from 15-card boosters you only build 40 card decks. This means you only need about 23 playable cards of the 45 you picked up. The rest is filled up with basic lands.
Sorry WhaleShark, but that is patently bullshit. It is more like Scott intuitively described. You usually pick two or three colors and pick cards that fit those colors. What he didn't know is that you certainly do not pick cards "at random" and that this also creates a form of signaling mechanism.
What? I was talking about the mechanism by which we create the boosters in the first place, not the method by which we draft. I understand how a booster draft works, and the meta-strategies that go into it.
I'm sure that most boosters created with the method I described will probably align with two or three colors anyway. That's just how statistics works. It's highly unlikely to get a perfectly even mix of all 5 colors in each booster.
We may not collectively have 4 of a given rare card, but it might be really cool to have that card in the game.
That is definitely a problem I have a revised set, but I only have one of many of the cards
We could play the original star game, where five people play each of the five colors. You win if you kill the two people sitting opposite you. Adjacent players' creatures can defend said players at their owners' discretion. Effects can be played on ANY player or creature as appropriate.
OK, some miscommunication there. Sorry. Though of course real boosters follow print sheets.
It's all good. If you build a 5-color deck in a booster draft, you deserve the ass-kicking you will get. :P
Yeah, they do follow a print sheet, but the method I described is the best way (that I can think of) to approximate a random booster using a large collection of cards.
@Rym: That still wouldn't remove the whole deck construction element that Scott dislikes, but that sounds fun.
I still highly recommend the Elder-Dragon Highlander I linked to earlier or any other kind of Highlander format for this kind of casual play groups, mostly because they only require a single copy of a card per deck and with EDH not all decks are going to play the same cards or even colors. There is also prismatic Highlander so every deck has to play all the colors.
EDH is very much fun and entertaining as well as filled with variety, though I am not sure what kinds of cards and therefore what legendary creatures you guys have available. Mana-fixing may also be somewhat of a problem.
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This link is pretty much necessary for any game we would wind up playing.
A booster usually has two or three cards aligned with a color. These cards in those colors as well as across colors vary in playability. By picking a high quality card of one color you only ship lower quality cards of that color and higher quality cards of another color downstream which makes players after you less likely to choose cards of that color. On the 2nd booster, when the direction in which the packs are passed reverses you are now more likely to get cards of that color for the same reason. Of course the same is true for yourself. In this manner you can on one hand somewhat direct what the other players on the table are playing as well as judge what colors at least your direct neighbor passing you packs is picking.
It is also possible to force that kind of behavior by just aggressively going after one color you happen to like and what cards you can expect to turn up later on. Forcing draft archetypes (e.g. very aggressive white/red decks) in that manner is also possible.
Another thing I am not sure you guys know is that drafting from 15-card boosters you only build 40 card decks. This means you only need about 23 playable cards of the 45 you picked up. The rest is filled up with basic lands.
I'm sure that most boosters created with the method I described will probably align with two or three colors anyway. That's just how statistics works. It's highly unlikely to get a perfectly even mix of all 5 colors in each booster.
We could play the original star game, where five people play each of the five colors. You win if you kill the two people sitting opposite you. Adjacent players' creatures can defend said players at their owners' discretion. Effects can be played on ANY player or creature as appropriate.
Yeah, they do follow a print sheet, but the method I described is the best way (that I can think of) to approximate a random booster using a large collection of cards.
@Rym: That still wouldn't remove the whole deck construction element that Scott dislikes, but that sounds fun.
EDH is very much fun and entertaining as well as filled with variety, though I am not sure what kinds of cards and therefore what legendary creatures you guys have available. Mana-fixing may also be somewhat of a problem.