Treat 'Em Like They Want To Be Treated
Adjusting Your Draft Strategy Based On Your First Opponent
 

by Jeff Zandi


In an eight-man booster draft, if you know even a little bit about your
first round opponent, you can use that information to change the way you
draft your cards in order to be more effective him.

In high stakes poker, they say you should "play the man, not the cards."
Obviously, this doesn't mean that the cards don't matter. What this maxim
does mean, is that the cards matter, but your knowledge of the opponent
matters MORE.

This strategy was brought to my attention by a good friend and fellow Texas
Guildmage who started using the strategy drafting on Magic Online. On Magic
Online, when you draft starts, you can easily learn a little bit about the
player you will be facing in the first round. Looking at the graphic
representation of the draft table, look at the player directly across the
table from you, the player four seats in either direction from your table
position. This is the player you will compete against in the first round of
the eight man tournament. By right-clicking on that player's Magic Online
nickname, you can look at the player's profile. It can be interesting to
read anything that the player may have displayed on his profile, but the
only really important information is his online Limited rating. If the
rating is 1700 or above, you probably have yourself one highly skilled first
round opponent. If the rating is below 1600, you are probably playing
against a below average player. If the player's rating is EXACTLY 1600, you
may be playing against someone who has never played in a competitive
tournament on Magic Online before.

While this strategy can be useful in "3-D" Magic booster drafts, I think it
is best used in the 4-3-2-2 draft queues on Magic Online. In these eight-man
drafts, players receive a prize of two booster packs simply by defeating
their first round opponent. The idea of taking your first round opponent's
skill level into consideration is primarily so you can have as good a chance
as possible at winning the first round match. What works against your first
round opponent may or may not help you in the semi-finals or finals of the
booster draft. However, since you can only play one match at a time,
worrying primarily about your first round opponent in the booster draft
sounds like a very good strategy to me.

Why is this important? Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The bad
news is that no matter what your first round opponent is like, you're going
to have to draft as good a deck as possible. The good news is that you have
a certain advantage when you know the relative skill level of your first
round opponent during the draft and when you build your deck.

One thing David Mitchell, the teammate who first made me aware of this
strategy, told me was that when his first round opponent is a player with a
low Limited rating, Dave likes to move his average land count from sixteen
to seventeen. The idea here is simple, but very important. Against poorer
players, speed is less important. Dave believes it is very valuable to
eliminate mana screw from these matches as much as possible. The difference
is subtle, we're talking about one card here, but important.

When Mirrodin first arrived last Fall, everyone loved equipment, and you
needed all your booster draft decks to be able to deal with equipment.
Nowadays, the best Mirrodin drafters have a strong tendency to not play very
much equipment. Weaker players and more casual players still love to play
equipment cards, and include more of them in more of their booster draft
decks. If you know what kind of player you are facing in the first round,
you can draft more or less of cards specifically to deal with equipment.
Unforge is a perfectly fine sideboard card for your red Mirrodin draft deck
anytime, but against a weaker Limited player, there is a greater than
average chance that Unforge will be good in your main deck.

Less experienced players make two mistakes in the area of drafting creatures
that you can also exploit. These players tend to either draft and play too
many creatures with one toughness, or else draft and play too many creatures
that cost way too much mana. If you suspect that your first round opponent
will be likely to play more one toughness creatures than usual, a card like
Viridian Longbow or Spikeshot Goblin may be more important that usual. If
your first round opponent is more likely to pile up his deck with expensive
creatures, you may want to draft Terror and Arrest a little higher than
usual. I understand that all four of the common Mirrodin cards I have just
named are already high picks in booster drafts, knowing these cards relative
strength against your first round opponent can still be very useful to you.

Finally, there are times that you want to play a card that is not
particularly powerful, but which you think combos particularly well with
other cards in your deck. If you first round opponent is a killer Magic
player, you may need to leave such experimental strategies in the sideboard,
but may feel completely justified in including them otherwise.

Knowledge is power. There is nothing underhanded or unsportsmanlike in using
whatever information you are allowed to know about your opponents. (No, it's
NOT okay for a friend of yours to stand behind your first round opponent and
write down all of his picks) Back in the olden days of Texas Magic, George
Baxter would ask all the good players what they were playing before the
tournament started. A lot of players would TELL him. He would adjust his
deck to the information that he gained. Advantage Baxter.

The bottom line is, keying your draft around what you know about your first
round opponent can help you prepare a little better for the only match that
matters. the one you are about to play.

As usual, I'd love to know what YOU think.

Jeff Zandi
Texas Guildmages
Level II DCI Judge
jeffzandi@thoughtcastle.com
Zanman on Magic Online