[{"text":"Hey everyone, Atmoz here again with an article to help you improve your draft strategies for tournament play. Drafting is one of the most important fundamental skills in Competitive DC Deck Building. Often times games can be won or lost before the game even starts. Certain teams are strictly better when playing first, and others are more open and can be played in multiple draft positions. However; the goal of this article isn\u2019t to tell you what teams to play when drafting in certain positions. Everyone has a different perception of what teams are good, and that\u2019ll make your drafting experience different depending on what the players around you tend to play. Instead, I\u2019d like to lay out some guidelines I try my best to follow, and then I\u2019ll give you some examples from my experience at the recent Waco, Texas tournament (you can read about it here: https:\/\/www.dcdeckbuilding.com\/article.php?id=10854)."},{"header":"The importance of drafting first and playing first"},{"text":"In the draft, the only position you can guarantee yourself is first or last. You can guarantee this for yourself through winning the die roll, or by being the highest seed in top cut. Because of this, it's important to go into the tournament with a strategy built around whether you're wanting to play first, or draft first. "},{"double":[{"src":"bea22323beast-bo.jpeg"},{"src":"ala171116alan-sco.jpeg"}]},{"text":"In Waco, I deemed Beast Boy\/Alan Scott as the best team going into the tournament when it gets to play first. So when I would win the die roll, I would choose to play first and draft last, and then draft Beast Boy\/Alan Scott if nobody else had taken them already."},{"double":[{"src":"red375393red-lant.jpeg"},{"src":"car30937card-bac.jpg"}]},{"text":"When drafting first I tend to be more reactive than proactive. I like to be reactive in this draft slot because since I'm drafting first, I'll be playing last. It's hard to force a type specific team in this slot when I will have 3 other players getting a chance at the lineup before me. An example of a character that gets drafted in this slot is Red Lantern Supergirl. It\u2019s easy to pass to 3\u2019s to see what everyone else is picking in tier-2 characters, and see that there\u2019s a team or two that likes to destroy cards, which in turn will trigger Red Lantern Supergirl for you."},{"header":"Don&#39;t Draft type specific unless playing first"},{"text":"Stray away from type specific teams when not drafting last for 2 reasons:"},{"list":[{"listType":"number"},{"caption":"Killer Frost is a very real threat, and becomes much more of a threat if someone drafting after me sees me lock into a specific type."},{"caption":"Getting first shot at the lineup gets you the best chance of buying a card of your specific type before any hate drafting can be done by another player, whether they are on Killer Frost or not."}]},{"double":[{"src":"kil381946killer-f.jpeg"},{"src":"kin693406king-sha.jpeg"}]},{"text":"Many a times at the Waco tournament, people would draft Beast Boy\/Alan Scott first, second or third, and immediately get punished by a Killer Frost\/King Shark player drafting right after them. Playing after Killer Frost makes it more difficult for Beast Boy\/Alan Scott players to get non-Kick super powers for their deck. This is because Killer Frost will either purchase them, or use them for her ability; either way denying you access to them."},{"header":"Only Draft 1-tier characters when drafting first"},{"text":" A team I\u2019d love to play more in tournaments is Kyle Rayner\/Captain Boomerang\/Trickster. I think that team can do a lot of unfair things. The issue I have with this team is that it can be easily punished if you can\u2019t guarantee that you\u2019re going to get Trickster. Arsenal\/Trickster is a solid team, and anyone drafting before you that doesn\u2019t commit to 1\u2019s can easily opt to punish you by first picking Trickster when the draft gets to the tier-3 characters. Only make an exception to this rule if you think a 1-tier character has multiple tournament viable team-ups you can flex between."},{"double":[{"src":"kyl359856kyle-ray.jpeg"},{"src":"cap904146captain-.jpeg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"tri807684trickste.jpeg"},{"src":"car823475card-bac.jpg"}]},{"header":"Draft Flexible when drafting 2nd or 3rd"},{"text":"When drafting second or third you are quite vulnerable. You can be easily punished for taking a type specific team (as we talked about earlier), and you don\u2019t get first shot at the lineup. Because of these reasons, I try to take type independent or flexible strategies when drafting from these positions. Some examples of characters I\u2019d refrain from drafting when drafting in the second or third position are, but are not limited to:"},{"double":[{"src":"bat725179batman-m.jpeg"},{"src":"sup748565superman.jpeg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"bla87507black-ca.jpeg"},{"src":"haw609718hawkman-.jpeg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"cos311734cosmic-b.jpeg"},{"src":"nig577529nightwin.jpeg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"sat315996saturn-g.jpeg"},{"src":"lig839876lightnin.jpeg"}]},{"text":"These types of characters telegraph that you\u2019re heavily committed to one specific type of card, and are much easier to counter draft when they\u2019re being played in middle positions. Some examples of characters I think are better for being drafted in second or third position are, but are not limited to:"},{"double":[{"src":"gol703462golden-g.jpeg"},{"src":"cha544408chameleo.jpeg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"kin638474king-sha.jpeg"},{"src":"ani298484animal-m.jpeg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"cyb950233cyborg-m.jpeg"},{"src":"ind102260indigo-1.jpeg"}]},{"text":"These characters often look to just buy the best available card in the lineup, or the best available card for the player playing after them. This is a valuable flexibility that I think you should be targeting when drafting in the 2nd or 3rd position. Following these guidelines helped me finish as the top ranked seed going into top 8, and ultimately helped me make a finals appearance in Waco. In the end I made some game play mistakes and maybe got a little unlucky on some lineup flips, but I fully believe I wouldn\u2019t have made it as far as I did without these guidelines. Hopefully you learned something that will improve your drafting skills, and good luck in your future games. See you next time! "}]