MTG - The New Player's Guide To Drafting Magic: The Gathering Cards

Draft is quite possibly the most popular way to play Magic the Gathering. If you want to go down to your local store and play Friday Night Magic, it is highly likely that the format will be draft.

In Draft, players draft cards and build a deck from those cards, that is, you pick one card from a booster pack and then pass the rest of the pack to your neighbor. Your other neighbor does the same, passing you the rest of their pack. Ultimately, you and a your group of 8 players open and draft from 3 booster packs each, the end goal being the construction a 40 card deck.

Since draft is so extremely popular, and also very lucrative, the current process of designing Magic The Gathering sets tends to create cards with draft as the priority of form and function.

So what is draft and how does it work?

If you are drafting at Friday Night Magic at your local game store, then you are very likely drafting from the most recent set. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the cards. Yes, there are a lot of them, and no, I am not suggesting that you memorize them, but it is a good idea to take a moment to at least read over the set list.

Music Courtesy Of:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[ryana]

My friend got me to come to a Magic draft after school. I usually play Pokemon and had never touched Magic before. He spent about 30 minutes teaching me the game and the rarities of cards. My first pack I pull Athreos, God of Passage and remember tapping him on the shoulder and asking if this was the rare from the pack

[Eddneton]

step 1 google all the card prices
step 2 pick the most expensive one if tied take higher rarity
step 3 repeat from step 1 until no more cards are left to google
step 4 figure out how in the name of all thats holy you get your draft to work so you can at least take a trophy win with you
step 5 sell cards you picked to be able to afford next fridays buyin and repeat until no longer invited
step 6 search for a new gamestore

[jasenandstuff]

I watch all of your videos for beginners, even though I am an experienced player, for the sole reason that your content is so exceptional. And when I do I STILL learn things I didn't know about the game. You are truly a great content creator and I am forever a fan.

[dophop]

Can’t believe I’m watching this years later as I have my first draft event scheduled on my birthday this month! Thank you for the archives of knowledge and advice. It’s a well of info that never lets my cup run dry. ❤

[naruhina]

I was thinking to myself how I can shorthand give all of my friends a how to guide on how to draft. Thank you so much for reading my mind:)

[Ottawa]

Bread? You should use quadrant theory!

[VulcanofPromethea]

I like Professor. A man that can explain what to do in simple words to people. I currently study to become a geography professor and, as I am learning from Professor about MTG and how to play it better, I try to learn how to address others like he does. Thank you Professor.

[razhimimanaske]

I watched this video before going to a draft I had impulsively signed myself up for and I can't express how much this video helped me. I had never done a draft before and was really nervous. Admittedly, I still made some mistakes during the drafting phase and my deck didn't synergize well with my commander but I was able to pick up a lot of answer and removal cards that kept my blockers alive. By the end of the game, one of the players had built really well and had a terrifying board state that no one was prepared to deal with but thanks to a lot of scrying I finally drew one of my bombs to sneak my creatures past his and the 2nd scariest player's defenses to knock them out of the game and cleaned up the last player on my next turn for my first draft win! Despite being a nervous wreck for most of the event I'm glad I signed up. I had a fun time, made some new friends and even got invited to come back out to the shop tomorrow for some casual commander(wish me luck!). I'm sorry for the long post but just wanted to say thank you for last minute info and confidence boost, I can't wait to enjoy some more of your content

[KyleMaxwell]

Attending my first booster draft this evening - this video is giving me the confidence to show up.

[Maumoleseullevrailunique]

I think I'll create french subtitles for this video, your content is so good that this is the video I will recommend to my friends who want to learn drafting, but some of them don't speak english. Keep up the amazing content!

[Swimmerwoad]

Step 1: Pick the foil because foils obviously gives you the advantage.
Step 2: Pick the legendary card because they can be used in commander later on so its great to save it.
Step 3: Pick any card that says "Win the game" because it wins you the game.
Step 4: Pick any 0 cost card such as Ornithiopter because then you can keep a zero land hand and still play the 0 coster.
Step 5: Pick any card that looks cool because your gut is always right.
Step 6: Pick, at random, any remaining card. You will probably sideboard these however because they obviously aren't as good as the ones you picked before.

An exception to this rule is Fatal Push. Always pick fatal push.

[piralos]

I love coming back to this video, both to teach new people about draft, and to refresh myself on good practice with drafting, and how to better draft! Thank you for this wonderful video!!

[GingerWizard]

Coming back after an 8 year absence and was looking for a quick refresher. This video was both highly informative and very enjoyable to watch. Both the nostalgic format and the current wit were highly appreciated and helped keep the attention of the watcher. Great video!! 🤘

[AquilaArbites]

Helpful. I gave away all of my cards 10, years ago, after playing since 1993-1994. I had only ever played casually with friends, so I'm trying to learn about different game formats before starting to play again.

[craigrandall]

doing my first ever draft with friends for my birthday! this has helped me soooo much!!!

[carlamargeisch]

I'm gonna draft today for the very first time. This video was exactly what I needed, thank you!

[PeterIsATeacher]

I just got into magic thanks to my brother over the winter break, and I am in love with this channel. Your straightforward and friendly approach is very helpful to a newbie like me :)

[Cowabungacards]

I love your videos Professor! I was introduced to you by trying to learn Pokemon TCG. I have recently bought my first Ixalan training box and now creating friends at my local Game Shop. Thanks for making these videos and being so personable.

[whiskey_neat]

Thank you for this advice! I ended up 3rd on my first dominaria draft! Where the rares get picked by the end of the game as price.
I ended up taking Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (I'm on third place) because Karn (for 1st place), Lawbringer (second place) are all the expensive rares in this draft. Thanks TCC for giving us new players very good advice, keep doing what you're good at!

[TheCaptainstupendous]

Thank you! this is of great help to me! *Zoidburg voice* "You're vid is good, and you should feel GOOD!"