AFR Limited Report and 1k Gem Codes Giveaway

A lot of players are curious about how good you need to be in draft in order to profit from MTGA draft events. In response to this, I am writing this article as part of a series where I provide details of my limited run every set.

Context

As I discussed in a previous article, part of what makes playing MTGA efficient for the FTP or almost FTP player is being decent in limited. Having enough clout in this format will make the entire experience of collecting cards much more pleasant. How much clout? The following figure provides a good idea.

As shown in the figure, you need at least a 30% win rate in Quick Draft in order to make it more efficient on average than just buying packs with your gold. On the other hand, you need a higher win rate, about 54%, to say the same about premier or traditional draft. Furthermore, if you do have a high win rate in Premier/Traditional, you are better off playing that than Quick Draft on average. As for choosing between Premier or Traditional, that is a more complicated question perhaps for another time. However, I have chosen Premier over Traditional since ZNR.

AFR Limited Run

For Adventures in Dungeons and Dragons, I did 15 Premier Draft runs. The goal is to get to at least 120 in terms of number of packs won plus number of rares opened from draft packs. This gives me enough packs to get at least some of the rares I might need. Then, I try to win about 70 or so packs from the Metagame Challenge. In combination with the free packs from the mastery pass and end of season rewards, this strategy leads to almost completing all the rares by the next set.

My limited run started poorly, going 2-3 in the first and then 1-3 in the second. This was followed by my first 7-win. From there, it got a lot better. Out of 15 runs, I went 7-wins thrice, 6-wins twice, 5 and 4-wins once, 3 wins four times, and four duds (0-2 wins). This translates to a 58.59% match win rate, which is higher than my performance in the past three sets (ZNR to STX). The total cost of 15 runs for AFR was 4650 gems. I won 49 prize packs and pulled 80 rares. Had I used the gems to buy packs, I would have only been able to buy 23 packs with it, so drafting yielded 26 extra packs and 80 random rares for the same price. 

At the rate of conversion for draft (10000 gold = 1500 gems), 4650 gems comes up to 31000 gold. This means that you need to have saved at least 31000 gold to attempt the run. In actuality, you need more in order to weather out the variance, but you can save at least 60k gold from the time that STX released to the time that AFR released, so there is certainly enough time to gather the resources for the task.

Impressions about AFR draft

I streamed all of my drafts in Twitch and ported them to Youtube if you are interested in watching them. I am doing a code giveaway for subscribers to the Youtube Channel and/or followers on Twitch (details at the end of this article).

The most success I have had was with RB treasure/sacrifice decks. Stealing opponents’ creatures with Price of Loyalty and killing them with it, or sacrificing them via various enablers like Sepulcher Ghoul were typical routes to victory. I was able to try other archetypes, and I think my first 7-win was actually with UB saboteur, but I also went 0-wins with the deck during Draft # 12.

Dungeons are good but only if you have enough venture cards. If you are not able to pick up enough venture cards, it is fine not to run the few ones you have if there are better standalone choices. That said, actively picking cards to make sure you have enough venture cards is a good strategy. Dungeons are most powerful if you have enough of them AND you have cards that receive a bonus once you have completed a dungeon, like Cloister Gargoyle.

Artifacts and enchantments are both relevant in the set. Picking up cards that destroy them AND provide a body or an alternate use like Dawnbringer Cleric or Plundering Barbarian is good. In addition to this, building your deck around key or multiple equipment cards is likewise a good strategy. 

Subscriber/Follower 1k Gem Code giveaway

I hope you found the article enlightening and useful. In order to join the giveaway, all you need to do is subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow me on Twitch, or both. You get one entry for doing each. Once you have done so, kindly comment in this article with the YouTube and/or Twitch handle that you used to subscribe/follow. This serves as your entry/entries. I will be giving away one 1k gem code for every 10 people who participate up to a maximum of 10 codes. Each entry can win separately. These codes are sponsored by the Wizards Creator Program and there is a limit of 10 codes that can be redeemed per account. We will do the giveaway next week (7/18) and winners will be notified through this article so remember to check back.