I drafted the first time yesterday and it was very fun. The thing is, should I grab all the plot twists first and then grab the leftover characters, or should I just head for my ideal curve?

Red before blue

(good) Blue before Red

If you see Stepford Cuckoos, Joanna Cargill, or Rogue 5, then they are first picks. I would also read the other thread about first picks for specific strategies within this set.

Also practice by drafting multiple times. Do it at a friend's house if they buy a box if you can't do it at a store all the time. That way, if you go to a major event, you already know how to draft and don't have to be "the guy" who's never drafted before.

what would you say is the ideal initiative to take when drafting this set?

Evens, though there are the odd X-factor decks that actually stall well. I actually got blindsided by the raw power of Polaris shutting down my init this weekend in draft.

But in general, decks kill on turn 6 in this set (turn 5 is possible; I actually killed one person on turn 4. But turn 6 is a "safe" turn to aim for). Great (though teamstamped) pumps, overstatted guys, and ways to "cheat" the resource point structure all contribute to this.

Draft games over at my side could go up to Turn 7/8, somehow. I've gotten killed on Turn 4/5 before, by the pure raw power and the lack of defensive tricks.

If you're killing turn 7/8 odds are you're in the "on curve" mentality; on curve really works only for near-mono X-Factor in this set... otherwise the various off-curve strategies simply give you higher damage output and better board position.

I see a lot of players in VS stuck on the curve-based draft strategies; but this leads to more luck based and less powerful drafts (IE: decks that can't afford to miss drops, and low-defensive decks that can't kill before 7). In some formats on-curve is acceptable, or even the norm; but this one (like the last one) isn't high on that list.

Evildave,

Our group drafts almost exlusively using the "on curve" mentality.

We'd like to learn about any good off-curve strategies or, at the very least, the major differences between these two strategies. Do you know of a good post that explains the differences? If not, how's about sharing your insights with us. Thanks.;)

blackbolt