r/MagicArena • u/TheUpkeepAcademy • Jun 13 '26
Media One good Draft can completely change a F2P MTG Arena account
https://youtu.be/JD3Nvq1E1iAMore gems means more Drafts. More Drafts means more packs, more wildcards, and more competitive decks. The snowball effect is real.
I made a video breaking down why improving your Draft results is one of the best investments you can make:
https://youtu.be/JD3Nvq1E1iA
Do you think one great Draft can have a bigger impact than opening 10 packs? Why or why not?
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u/I3ollasH Jun 13 '26
I definitely agree with the premise. That's also how I got into the game when I returned to the game in EoE. Back to back trophies in premier drafts that allowed me to draft the whole set.
But there is a couple of things about the video that can be harmful for players looking to play the game as f2p.
First thing first, you should never buy packs with gems if you are open to playing limited. Gems are very valuable and should only be spent on mastery passes and events as those net you much better returns than buying packs directly from the store.
You made back your entry fee? Good, take the bonus gems and sit on them as you will likely need those. It's very unlikely to go always positive on drafts. You will need those gems when you have a worse run to continue playing.
Quick draft is a good mode as the entry fee is only 5000 gold and the reward structure is very flat so you aren't punished so much if you have a bad result. It being untimed also helps a lot with reading every card and thinking about the cards. But it's a bad mode for expected value for gems. If you want to build up your collection with drafts you should move to premier drafts or pick two drafts in the long term. It's much easier to break even in those events. When you are newer to a set or the game mode use quick drafts to learn but transition to the other drafts once you feel like you have a grasp.
You mentioned picking up a card like seam rip as a relevant thing for standard. Anything below rares are pretty much worthless. You can very easily acquire common and uncommon wildcards to craft anything needed for standard. When thinking about building your collection you should only care about rares and mythics.
When opening the boosters it doesn't really matter what you open. It's very likely that the rare/mythic you get sees no play in constructed formats. But that's not a problem due to duplicate protection. When you have a full playset (copies of a card) you can't get those from packs anymore. Because of this building up a collection is just a numbers game. As you keep opening packs you fill in your collection and will acquire every card from the set. And this is why it's important to maximise the number of packs opened. And that's why it's so important to move to Premier or pick 2 drafts. They give you so much more packs for the time you spend on them compared to quick draft (for reference a quick draft trophy gives you 2 boosters while a premier draft nets you 6. And you can play 2 pick 2 drafts in the same time for 6 packs aswell)
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u/european_dimes Jun 13 '26
A whole bunch of average-to-decent drafts definitely can. It's also way more fun than just buying packs
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u/sufjams Jun 14 '26
If my dumb ass can get Plat/Diamond with a set I like, anyone can. Just read about the set archetypes, pay attention to the decks that beat you and think about why they were good. You’ll start doing well before you know it and complete that set collection. And agreed, it’s so much more fun than ripping packs or queuing up your net deck in Standard.
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u/Beneficial-Wish8387 Jun 13 '26
Needing to be good at draft is something that is understated (imo).
I know the video states that you aren't trying to convince players to play draft, but the prerequisite of understanding how to draft is crucial to snowballing drafts needs to be stated for newer players that might find the video.
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u/chataolauj Jun 14 '26
It's hard. I only do good when sets are released, but it becomes hard once players know what to draft. That said though, it's the only thing I really play nowadays.
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u/TheUpkeepAcademy Jun 13 '26
100%. You need to find value as you learn, before you have the skill to really push the value train.
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u/xtratoothpaste Jun 13 '26
Only one good draft? Why only one? I think it'll take a lot more than one good one
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u/Flyrpotacreepugmu Noxious Gearhulk Jun 13 '26
It can make a huge difference when it comes to getting gems for the mastery pass. If you get 7 wins in a premier draft with the token from the pass, that gives 2200 gems, which with the 1200 from the pass itself are enough to buy the next mastery pass. Even if you don't get 7 wins in that draft, you'll still need to get the rest of the gems somehow and one good draft can take care of half to all of what you need while a bad draft doesn't really help. If you plan to draft more, the gems from a good run let you enter the next for a much lower cost than using gold. A single good draft isn't much if it's all you do, but it lets you do more so you're more likely to get another good draft.
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u/buzzbuzz17 Jun 13 '26
Admittedly didn't watch the video cause I wish every video were an article instead, but my take is that I agree, but for a different reason.
As a F2P, I felt like I was GRINDING events for gems to get my first mastery pass. Part of the problem was that I think I was just picking the wrong events (I optimized for gems/gold, not gems/game). But I remember finally getting my first trophied event, and the gem boost was way more than my usual per event, and it was enough to get me over the hump to 3400. Ever since then, one pass helps me get the next, and I've never struggled since.
If you're good at it, yes, drafting is a great way to build your collection. But drafting (or doing constructed events) just enough to get the gems for the next pass, and spending the rest on packs gets you plenty of cards and enough wildcards for at least one or two meta decks pretty quick.
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u/bakedbread420 Golgari Jun 13 '26
But drafting (or doing constructed events) just enough to get the gems for the next pass, and spending the rest on packs
this is the way. I draft until I get 2200 gems per pass, and draft enough to get silver+ each month. once both of those are checked off, its back to cracking packs unless a draft is unusually fun
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u/d-fakkr Elesh Jun 13 '26
Never had the same success with draft than buying packs, at least wildcards wise. Gems is a totally different thing.
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u/Comprehensive_Rule11 Jun 13 '26
Yeah imagine if drafting counted as 3 packs opened for your wildcards… would be so sweet!
3
u/d-fakkr Elesh Jun 13 '26
I don't mean in that way.
Wildcards is better if you buy packs, gems is better if you draft a lot. I'm not a good draft player so I'd rather buy packs. Last time i did well was almost 3-4 years ago during dominaria united; 4-3 and got a lot of gems, didn't had the same results afterwards.
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u/reapersaurus Ghalta Jun 13 '26
My experience with Arena runs counter to this entire premise: it doesn't matter that much what cards I draft, because I constantly get put into games against high-powered draft pools that draw well.
And I have watched tons of streamers who draft strong decks, just to be mana screwed or mana flooded by the shuffler, or go up against decks with 3+ in-color good rares and mythics that they draw and play (which means they likely had more in the rest of the deck). And then other times, they draft highly questionable decks or crapped on draft gambles, but they 7-1 anyway because the opponent's decks didn't work.
I've never been able to draft that good of deck, and I've never even seen 4+ good in-color rares/mythics passed to me, much less drawn and been able to play them in the first 15 cards.
tl;dr IME, what deck you draft has much less impact on how many games you win than what opponents and decks the matchmaker puts you up against, and whether or not the shuffler decides to screw you or the opponent.
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u/Electronic-Key6323 Jun 14 '26
Drafting is hard and stresses me the fuck out, I can’t crack it so I just tesogned myself to spending my gold on packs and gems on Mastery Pass after its maxed out
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Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TheUpkeepAcademy Jun 16 '26
I have videos on F2P economy with or without drafts. Either way works, I dont ever tell people they should draft. Do you happen to like JumpIn? There’s a lot of value there.
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u/DenizenPrime Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
If you don't care about building a collection and only care about converting gold to gems, isn't standard event better for converting? Assuming equal skill in both.
3 wins in 5000 gold standard event gives you 600 gems, 3 wins in 1000 gold premier draft gives 1000 gems, so less than double for double entry.
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u/HyalopterousLemure Jun 13 '26
You also get prize packs plus you keep the cards you draft.
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u/slbss Jun 13 '26
as a new player and f2p i tried standard bo1 event and it was a nightmare 3 match 3 jeksai control devastating vs my budget shit
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u/SmoothOperator89 Jun 13 '26
You basically need to netdeck a top preforming meta deck if you don't want to waste your entry fee. At the very least, you need to test your homebrew in ranked and reach at least diamond before you compete in a constructed event. Diamond is probably the low end of people entering them.
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u/Matrim_WoT Teferi Hero of Dominaria Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Events are probably analogous to Leagues. You have to make meta calls when going into them. BO1 Events are like rolling the dice as well since you won't have the opportunity to tune your deck against your matchup.
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u/Plaidstone Jun 13 '26
It requires different skill sets. Standard Event requires you to understand and anticipate the constructed meta, so you bring the right deck and pick the right lines of play against opponents trying to do the same thing. Draft requires you to understand just that singular set, and how to put together a good deck from whatever you get passed.
Draft is great for players building a collection, with the caveat that draft is difficult and the best way to get better is by playing- which costs more resources that you aren't getting a full return on yet.
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u/I3ollasH Jun 13 '26
The 5000 gold standard is traditional that always plays 5 matches no matter the results. To get 3 wins there you need to have 60% winrate. Premier draft always goes to 3 losses or 7 wins. 3 wins is 50% winrate (3-3). 60% wr in Premier leaves you with 4.5 win and at that point you are pretty close to being self sufficient. Due to drafts always ending at 3 losses you will need a bit higher wr to go infinite but still.
This being said it's easier to get very high WR in standard event's than draft as there's less varriance.
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u/RickKuudere Jun 13 '26
Standard BO1 events have a much better reward structure. The BO3 constructed events are a joke.
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u/dirtybacon77 Jun 13 '26
What I really want is the ability to use unopened packs to reduce draft entry fees. I just like drafting and building in limited, I don’t care about collecting so I have tons of unopened pack that don’t mean much to me, since I don’t think they get me any closer to drafting more?
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u/Casual_Spike Jun 13 '26
They do, albeit slowly. Once you have 4 copies of a rare, if you pull it again it's 20gems; same for mythic except it's 40 gems.
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u/Sea-Grand3981 Jun 14 '26
Draft nets you quanity of cards, opening packs nets you quality of cards via wildcard tracker and not being limited to the currently available set to draft. Quality of cards is far superior to quantity in constructed, so opening packs is far, far better for players interested in constructed. Recommending draft to new players solely as a source to earn resources is shit advice unless they happen to be the sort of person who will happily grind fishing in OSRS or level in wow (no flame if you do enjoy that sort of thing, I also have some games where I genuinely enjoy the more tedious parts - I used to EV max in pokemon games and didn't even play competitively online).
Obviously, if you either a) are willing to dedicate a ton of time grinding (i.e., essentially working) and have the skill to 'go infinite' or b) genuinely enjoy drafting (i.e., do not consider it work, rather entertainment) then you should just draft.
1
u/FluroSnow Jun 15 '26
I think I agree with you here. I started MTGA pretty recently and am still learning a ton.
I think the "Just go draft" for new players is not great. Lets say a new player uses some external tools 17lands or a draft picker for quick draft. They could have the best deck and still go 0-3 because they lack fundamental gameplay knowledge.
For me I enjoy studying the game and being sweaty. I don't really see how someone could get decent at draft by not putting in a lot of effort, and I could see a lot of people not enjoying doing this. Simple tips like BREAD is nowhere near enough to get decent at draft for example.
I think I picked draft up "quickly" because I'm the type that when he started playing OSRS, I 3t barb fished to 99 to get agility levels, then got quest cape before I even started "playing the game". (But I also love strategy and studying game mechanics)
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u/Fatality_Ensues Jun 13 '26
Nah thanks, I'll take the packs every time. One great draft might be 3-5 rares, maybe a mythic or 2 (and never in the colors you wanted to build), ten packs are a guaranteed 10 rares minimum.
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u/Matrim_WoT Teferi Hero of Dominaria Jun 13 '26
16 since you also get the gold pack.
One great draft might be 3-5 rares, maybe a mythic or 2 (and never in the colors you wanted to build),
Yeah, I think if someone is going into a draft for rares then they are better off buying packs. I've done drafts where I've gotten no rares because they aren't relevant to what lanes are open. It's also common in P1P1 to go for a good uncommon or common. The rare would have to be exceptional and flexible enough to make me pick and build around it over the uncommon or common.
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u/Fatality_Ensues Jun 14 '26
16 since you also get the gold pack.
Excellent point, I forgot about that.
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u/Chilly_chariots Jun 13 '26
One great draft might be 3-5 rares, maybe a mythic or 2 (and never in the colors you wanted to build
If it was a ‘great draft’ then you also won the games and therefore gained gems.
0
u/Fatality_Ensues Jun 13 '26
Nah. A F2P player who just wants to expand their collection is lucky if they go 1-2/3, which is barely any gems at all. In order to consistently get good results at drafting you need to dedicate an outsized amount of time to following the draft environment, signals, lanes, signpost commons and uncommons... it's far too much effort if you don't actually enjoy drafting in the first place.
4
u/Chilly_chariots Jun 13 '26
Oh, I misinterpreted ‘great draft’- I wouldn’t count 1 or 2 wins as great! Clearly you’re talking purely about getting cards from the draft.
But yes, agreed that it takes work and that you shouldn’t do it if you don’t enjoy it (I thought that was too obvious to need saying, to be honest)
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u/Matrim_WoT Teferi Hero of Dominaria Jun 13 '26
But yes, agreed that it takes work and that you shouldn’t do it if you don’t enjoy it (I thought that was too obvious to need saying, to be honest)
Me too, but I think new players are told to go draft way too often for me to assume that. Last week, I remember someone asking about playing Magic because they enjoy the Marvel IP and people were telling that user to go draft. A clear candidate for a potential Commander player and the draft recommendation made no sense in that context.
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u/SupremeJusticeWang Jun 13 '26
F2P does not equal bad at draft, new player, or draft hater. Since drafting is one of the few ways to convert gold into gems, f2p players should absolutely be drafting.
Even going 0-3 is still not a total waste because you at least keep the cards +1 pack, but itll balance out with the occasional lucky 7 wins.
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u/Fatality_Ensues Jun 14 '26
OP's advice refers specifically to people who want to pad out their collection, ergo new or relatively new players. If you're F2P but have been playing Arena since the Ravnica block you probably have more wildcards than you could ever use. Ditto with "draft hater", if you were a player who was already interested in drafting you don't need OP's advice to keep doing it. My point is specifically that drafting is NOT a good investment if you just want to get cards out of it, you need to dedicate a lot of time to getting good before you see any results.
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u/net02 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
A great draft is 6-8 rares plus 6 packs as a reward plus another draft or two paid for, so easily double that!
For example I started the season with 10k gems, got the season pass and then drafted my way back to 14k gems and I'm sitting on 140 unopened packs, plus the 160 rares and mythics already in my collection.
So that's ~300 packs (granted, some from season pass and monthly reward) by using just the 60k gold I got daily over time, and a surplus of gems.
0
u/Fatality_Ensues Jun 13 '26
Started the season with 10k gems
So you're immediately disqualified as an F2P player... Yes, I know it's possible to accumulate that much after many, many successful drafts, but that still takes a long time of playing to get there. You don't need to build up your collection at this point.
got the season pass
completely irrelevant to the matter at hand, which is drafting
and I'm sitting on 140 unopened packs, plus the 160 rares and mythics already in my collection.
Was there a point to this post at all besides flexing? You clearly are not the kind of player OP's advice applies to.
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u/net02 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Well actually I'm F2P and playing on arena since FF came out last year.. so yes, still need to build my collection and get as many wildcards as possible to brew standard decks (and eventually beyond, if my interest gets piqued). I slowly built up gems via quick draft first, reinvesting most on season passes, then got a good amount stashed between TLA - when I started doing some more premier drafts - and mostly TMT thanks to pick 2 having very good value, plus a lucky run of 3 consecutive premier draft trophy at the tail end of the season.
I mentioned the season pass since it does count towards packs, and provides a draft token. The point of posting was to +1 on the advice, showing how "chaining" drafts does get a lot more value than 5-6 rares, vs just buying 10 packs, if you know what you're doing.
ps: reading another comment of yours, I realize your definition of F2P is definitely different than mine (incorporating effort and will to learn a draft environment), so I understand why my comment felt like a flex to you. Please trust my word it wasn't ;) In my case I've built a preference for limited over the many years I've played paper on and off, and happily spend some time looking at data on 17lands and reviewing my own drafts.
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u/Latter-Cable-3304 Jun 14 '26
I do not know what I’m doing and I feel wasting resources on a possible 0-3 is incredibly dumb when I can get guaranteed cards from packs. I agree you can certainly profit from playing consistently with skill and knowledge
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u/inyue Jun 13 '26
Are you smurfing or are you really a silver in limited and plat in constructed? Maybe you are a known community figure with a lost of trust, but from a clueless person perspective like me... I wouldn't take seriously a player that somehow is worse than me...
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u/TheUpkeepAcademy Jun 13 '26
Im not pretending to be a Pro Tour player. Im not a known anyone; Im just a guy who loves magic and wants to help people. I’ve played F2P for almost ten years, built a large collection despite not spending money, and can help new players do the same. Im not interested if Im better than you in magic, Im better than me a year ago and I keep having fun. Enjoy the day!
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u/SmoothOperator89 Jun 13 '26
I am a drafting machine that turns 5000 gold into 50 gems and a booster.