Making Magic in the Arena - War of the Spark Draft

Since I attended the pre-release for War of the Spark, I received a free coupon for a Tradition Draft in Magic Arena. Now, while I already spent that coupon, I did well enough in the free draft that I earned enough gems to cover another attempt.

So I figured, why not do this draft on stream, to show off my limited skill in... Limited.




Drafting in MTG requires a whole different mindset constructed formats. There's a skill to drafting effectively that I haven't had much of a chance to cultivate. Other, more skillful players have already produced YouTube videos about how to draft, so I see no need to speak over their voices.

Arena differs from a standard draft in 2 distinct ways:

1. Rather than drafting with humans, an AI will simulate the other players who would be supposedly choosing cards in the same pool.
2. The players one plays against in the draft league will have chosen from card pools that are distinctly different from them.

While I can't be certain of this, but from my experience, this means that the players in Arena Draft are able to construct better decks than one might be able to in a regular draft in paper Magic. The person who managed to draft 2 Teferis is a strong example for that, because the odds of getting that in a normal draft are simply absurd.

That said, this is a good way to satiate one's Limited craving if they have it, and the cards drafted are kept no matter how well/poorly that player performs. It's certainly a fast way to build up a collection, but it's also an expensive way to do so, considering the entry fee.