Guide to MTG Arena Drafts (MTG Arena Best Drafts)

Updated:

02 Feb 2021

Limited play in MTG Arena is a great way to learn about which cards in a specific set are great together, which cards are overrated and which are sleepers. With the most recent set being available for draft for months, you can tinker and craft decks that will both help you rank up and increase your card collection.

In limited play, you can’t bring in a pre-constructed deck because you will be given the resources to create your very own unique deck, built specifically for that event. IN these types of events, your deck should be composed of a minimum of 40 cards which includes your lands and the cards that you picked from the packs that you opened prior to the construction of your deck. All other cards that you drafted will be placed on your sideboard and you can interchange these cards in between matches. Basic lands are provided so if you see a basic land in one of your packs, don’t draft that because it will just be a waste of picks. Another difference that Limited has compared to Constructed is the omission of the 4-card maximum for all cards except basic lands. Here, you can choose to play any number of copies of a certain card if that fits your strategy.

Limited is a collective term that covers multiple game modes, namely, draft, sealed, and cube. Generally, these three share the same concept but the way the games and pack openings are structured makes them different from each other.

Draft

This is the most common form of limited play that you are going to see in the Arena.
You will be placed in a pod composed of 7 other players and you will take turns drafting a card from a pack
If you are playing Quick Draft, however, you will draft against bots on your pod.
Once you have made your pick, you will pass the pack to the person on your left.
This will continue until you all have picked the last card from the pack.
This method continues on for another two rounds and the direction where you will pass the pack will alternate.
Once the final pack of the final round has been finished, you will then get to construct your deck from the cards that you have picked.

Sealed

Draft and Sealed are almost always available on the Arena, making them the most common forms of limited play that one can get into
In this game mode, you will be given six booster packs. The contents of which will be the cards that you will be able to use to construct a deck of 40 or more cards.
The main difference between Sealed from Draft and Cube is that you don’t have to worry about specific cards on your booster pack getting picked by another player since you get to keep the contents of all your boosters.

Cube

Cube is a unique form of drafting as it does not have a fixed set that should be included
Generally, Cube draft is a thematic version of the draft where a single copy of a card is placed in the ‘cube’ that the players will draft from
It has the same mechanics as Draft but the gameplay can be very different depending on the theme of the cube that you are playing
It is also not available as often as the other two forms of limited play but it is a very fun event to take part in

In this article, we will focus on drafting since this is the most common form of limited play that you are going to get in the Arena. There are three different types of draft that you can enter, characterized by the number of games played per match as well as who you will be drafting with. These three types are Premier Draft, Quick Draft, and Traditional Draft

Premier Draft

Entry fee: 10,000 gold or 1,500 gems
Ranked, best-of-one where you get to play games until you reach 7 wins or 3 losses, whichever comes first
In this game mode, you will be placed in a pod with 7 other players and you will take turns drafting from a specific set of booster packs, usually, the most recent release.
Rewards:
- 0 wins = 1 pack + 50 gems
- 1 win = 1 pack + 100 gems
- 2 wins = 2 packs + 250 gems
- 3 wins = 2 packs + 1,000 gems
- 4 wins = 3 packs + 1,400 gems
- 5 wins = 4 packs + 1,600 gems
- 6 wins = 5 packs + 1,800 gems
- 7 wins = 6 packs + 2,200 gems

Quick Draft

Entry fee: 5,000 gold or 750 gems
Ranked, best-of-one where you also get to play until you reach either 7 wins or 3 losses
You will be placed in a pod with bots and you will take turns picking from booster packs. There is also no time limit between card picks.
Rewards:
- 0 wins = 50 gems
- 1 win = 100 gems
- 2 wins = 200 gems
- 3 wins = 300 gems
- 4 wins = 450 gems
- 5 wins = 650 gems
- 6 wins = 850 gems
- 7 wins = 950 gems + 2 packs

You also get a single booster pack reward, along with your gems, if you get less than 7 wins. The more wins you get, the higher the chance for you to get another bonus pack. This bonus pack is not guaranteed but there is still a chance you might get it especially if you reach 6 wins.

Traditional Draft

Entry fee: 10,000 gold or 1,500 gems
Unranked, a best-of-three draft where you get to play three matches, regardless of the result of these matches
Just like in traditional constructed matches, you are allowed to sideboard in between matches so drafting a good deck with a pretty decent sideboard is the way to go here
Just like in Premier Draft, you will also be drafting against real people.
Rewards:
- 0-1 wins = 1 pack
- 2 wins = 4 packs + 1,000 gems
- 3 wins = 6 packs + 3,000 gems

Now that we have already talked about the three different draft types, let’s analyze which ones are worth paying and playing.

If we are looking at the ‘monetary’ rewards alone, you would need to win at least 3 Premier Draft games, 6 Quick Draft games, or the perfect 3 wins in Traditional Draft to at least break even. This means that you need to constantly hit these number of wins if you also want to constantly play these game modes.

Aside from the monetary and booster pack rewards that you can get, one thing that may steer you into choosing one or the other is the ranking system. We will get into more detail about this later on but if you want to improve your Limited Rank, the Bo1 drafts are for you.

To better help you in choosing which draft format to play, here is a summary of the selling points of each format:

Premier Draft

Given the low number of required wins to replay, this is your best bet if you want to get the most bang for your buck.
It also features a close-to-actual drafting experience since you will be drafting against real humans
The games are all Bo1 so you will have faster games and you won’t have to worry about sideboards
Ranked games mean you are likely to meet people who are at the same level as you are

Quick Draft

Highly recommended for someone who is just testing the waters of Limited play as you won’t be pressured by the drafting time
You will be drafting against bots so it will present a less than ideal drafting experience if you are looking for something that resembles your booster drafts in your local shop.
If you want to make a run towards a higher rank, then this is a good place to buff your rank. It will also help you gauge how well you perform against people who are at the same level as you are

Traditional Draft

Drafting itself has a high learning curve, much more so in Traditional Draft. If you are an experienced player looking to experience the thrill of Magic in the earlier settings, this is the draft format for you
In terms of rewards and rankings, this format does not have many selling points since it is unranked and you would need to win a lot of games to even break even.
If you are well-versed in this format, however, you might want to consider playing a lot of these as the rewards, when you get to the top, are pretty hefty.

Ranks in Limited Matchmaking

We also talked a lot about the rankings and how it can be a selling point for both Quick Draft and Premier Draft so we would also discuss how the ranking system in Limited Format works. Just like in Constructed, the rankings are also divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Mythic. All these ranks have tiers, with the exception of Mythic which is ranked according to percentile and your ranking in the top 1200.

In the Limited Format, you get 2 steps for every win you get from Bronze to Gold. In Bronze, you won’t lose a step if you lose a game and you only need to win 4 games to advance to the next tier. Once you get out of Bronze, you will lose 1 step each loss you get and you would need 5 steps for you to be promoted to the next tier. At Platinum and Diamond, things get iffier as you only get 1 step per win, and you lose 1 step per loss.

Once you reach Mythic, you will be ranked based on your Matchmaking Ranking (MMR). The specific value is hidden but it is computed using the Glicko system. A more detailed explanation of how the Glicko system works can be found on this Reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/fst5of/the_glicko2_system_and_how_it_may_affect_ranks/).

Your Glicko rating will also be ranked, which is why you will see percentage values when you reach the Mythic rank. This tells you where you are in comparison to other people in Mythic. Say, you are at 99% on your Mythic rank, this means that you are ranked higher than 99% of the people in Mythic. However, 99% Mythic is not the pinnacle of the ranking system. There is still a higher accolade than that and that is the Top 1200. It is basically the 1200 best players in MTGA at the specific format. So if you are Mythic #1 in Limited, that means you are a beast and you are the best Limited Player in the current season.

To draft or not to draft?

One of the most polarizing questions we can encounter in the Arena is whether Drafting is more valuable than just buying and opening booster packs.

In a single draft, you get 45 cards for a minimum of 5,000 gold or 750 gems (if you are playing Quick Draft). Even if you don’t get a single win in any draft format, you will still get a bonus booster pack that contains 8 more cards, bringing your minimum total to 53 cards for 5,000 gold. In a single booster pack, you get 8 cards for 1,000 gold. This means that buying 5 booster packs, for a price of 5,000 gold, will net you 40 cards. In this aspect, drafting will get you more cards for the same amount of gold (again, this is if you are playing Quick Draft).

So if you are aiming to build up your collection on a specific set, drafting is the best way to go. But, if you want more variety and only want specific cards of a set, just open up booster packs and spend Wildcards for it. It basically boils down to what your preference is. Your money, your choice.

Tips for drafting:

In the first round, you don’t necessarily have to commit to a single color/color combination. You would want to pick the best card out of the pack so you can try to build on it and at the same time you get to deny your opponents the card.
Prioritize consistency over big bombs. In a 40-card format, you are more likely to win if you put out consistent threats on the board rather than skipping a few turns then playing one big threat. Not only is this inefficient, but letting your win ride on a single card is not a good idea.
Speaking of 40-card format, always try to limit your deck to 40 cards. You won’t get to pick many resources and bumping your card number above the minimum will more likely hurt your chances of drawing something that is useful.
Generally, a two-colored deck is the way to go as it can help you get more playable cards. Going on a mono-colored deck is pretty risky since you might have another player in your pod drafting the same color. Having more than two colors, on the other hand, will be difficult for your mana curve.
Being able to cast your cards on curve is a huge key to winning in limited so the ideal deck will have the bulk of its cards in the 2- and 3-mana range.

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