What Have You Got On Draft? (Part 1)

By Geoff Snider
Decipher Playtester

I'm a competitive card player. I play (or have played) several different TCGs competitively over the years (among them Lord of the Rings TCG, Star Wars CCG, Magic the Gathering, and Legend of the Five Rings). I play two or three games each day, if not more... and when I leave work, the playing continues. After so many games, a card player can develop a different view about gaming. Maybe it's not all about the ratings. Maybe it's not about winning every time. Of course it's nice to play, win and show off to your friends, but long-time card players will realize sooner or later that gaming (and the critical thinking that it goes hand in hand with) is all about honing your playing skills.

Over the past year of playing Lord of the Rings TCG, I've been able to not only refine my ability to play the game well, but also my ability to construct a deck to play with. I've been all over the country this summer for DGMA Premiere Series Events. I've worked at an in-house playtest position for Decipher Inc. for the past ten months. I've seen just about every kind of LotR TCG player that there is, seen (or made... or pondered over) just about every different type of deck imaginable. I've seen enough to realize that some players are just that: great mechanical players. Other players are great deck-builders, while still others are simply great competitors; they go beyond the actual gameplay to manipulate every aspect of the game. These different types of players can compete on many levels, but what they all have in common is a great deck. Hours are spent practicing and refining decks into precise and efficient tools. Come game time, every deck is the same... potentially a winner.

So if you have the perfect deck, you're a good player and a good competitor, what's next? You can beat anyone on any given day, with any given draw, with any given prize on the line. How fast can you think and make decisions; how fast is your thought process?

Try this question:

If you had your choice, which Nazgûl would you want in your deck?

Úlairë Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur (FotR)

OR

Úlairë Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul (FotR)

Úlairë Nertea is great for swarm decks, or for decks that rely on certain combinations of minions in play at the same time. Úlairë Enquea is great for corruption decks, or for surprising an opponent who plays the maximum nine companions in a deck. Did you have to take a second to choose, or did you know which one you'd want by just looking at the two names? These are the kinds of decisions you'll have to make in what's called the 'Booster Draft' play format. If you've never heard of it before, here's a rundown of how it works:

You get up to eight players together. They'll each need any version of Frodo and any version of The One Ring, as well as a full Adventure Deck of nine sites. You all sit down together around a table, opening your Draft Packs to see what kind of deck you might want to play. Each player keeps all the cards from their own Draft Pack. Then all players open their Fellowship of the Ring pack, choose one card which they'd like to keep, then pass the rest of the cards in their pack to the player on their left. Everyone keeps choosing one card to keep, then passing the remainder to the left until there are no cards left in the pack. Repeat this process for the other two booster packs. Then everyone makes their own 40-card minimum deck (20 Free Peoples cards and 20 Shadow cards minimum) out of those cards. Then, obviously, everyone will want to play and see how well he or she picked their cards.

What's the bonus for players to participate in Booster Draft? I asked myself this when I began playing a while back. It seemed at first that the draft was too random and unpredictable for me to construct a good deck with any chance at winning. Then I began to realize that each choice I made during the draft, no matter how small, could make all the difference in each of my games. I also realized that if my deck seemed pretty random, then my opponents' decks must be equally as odd as mine. The 'perfect deck' that everyone seemed to have during 'constructed deck' events was lost. Every player (no matter how experienced or inexperienced) was on equal footing with every other player. You've been playing for a year? That means nothing when all you've got are some Foul Tentacles and Morgul Skirmishers, while your opponent (a relative beginner) has the common Balrog and a whole slew of damage +1 Uruk-hai. There's no Legolas, Greenleaf or Hobbit Stealth x4 to cover up any mistakes you may make. You have to base your card picks (and game decisions) on sheer instinct and common sense... and of course a good 'poker face!'

What if you're a new player that's getting into the game? Well, I'll say that it's taken me quite a while to be the card player that I am. And, if I had played Booster Draft more often at the beginning of my playing career, I'd be much further along than I am now. Not only can you familiarize yourself with all the cards faster than usual (believe me when I say that you'll be exposed to all the cards!), but you'll also be able to jump straight into the game, playing and learning all the little tricks and fun maneuvers that experienced players are already accustomed to. You won't have to worry about that 'perfect deck' everyone else will have in a constructed event, but at the same time you'll be working towards making a better constructed deck; every time you play, you accumulate more and more cards... and more experience.

In my next article on the draft, you can read about the contents of a Fellowship Draft Pack, how it'll affect the rest of your drafting picks, some ideas for Draft events in your local venue, and the Decipher Game Management Authority's plan for upcoming Fellowship Draft events.

Hope you enjoyed the read!

November 13, 2002