6 votes

Artifact - Draft mode gameplay - Drafting a deck with Richard Garfield

11 comments

  1. [3]
    zonk
    Link
    Is there any information about how paying for stuff works? Will a pack be $2 and that's about it? I've read on reddit a comment, suggesting to pay for draft with X amount of common or hero cards...

    Is there any information about how paying for stuff works? Will a pack be $2 and that's about it?

    I've read on reddit a comment, suggesting to pay for draft with X amount of common or hero cards instead of cash. What do you think of that?

    I think it helps in multiple ways: Your duplicates wouldn't be wasted, and it would keep the steam market healthy. If everyone sells the hero cards (since each pack has at least one hero), they'd be down to cents on the steam market within days. But if you can use them to play drafts, the majority of the people would use it for actually that and the price would be steady (or at least more stable than a few cents). Something like: 1 hero card or 1-5 commons per draft round would make me actually consider money for packs. I'm not a fan of paying to own virtual items. But if a pack with a duplicate hero and a few duplicate commons guarantees at least 2 draft runs (or more, if your collection is somewhat mature) which will keep you busy for a bit. So you either get a chance for good cards or a handful of draft runs, Valve gets their cash, the steam market card prices stay stable above a few cents.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      cptcobalt
      Link Parent
      Short of the $20 initial price, the $2/pack is the only other price point confirmed. It seems presently everyone in the private beta does not know (most likely) or cannot speak (less likely) about...

      Is there any information about how paying for stuff works? Will a pack be $2 and that's about it?

      Short of the $20 initial price, the $2/pack is the only other price point confirmed. It seems presently everyone in the private beta does not know (most likely) or cannot speak (less likely) about true pricing impacts.

      I'm personally hoping for two variants of drafts, selectable based on my mood/free spending cash:

      1. A 1:1 draft, where I pay full price (+ a nominal entry fee) and keep the cards I draft (+ prizes).
      2. A virtual draft, where I pay a nominal entry fee, and the prizes are (reasonable) random cards + packs/etc. Even if you don't keep any cards you draft, enough of an entry fee to give away packs as prizes seem reasonable, as it has better chances of keeping the economy balanced (rather than giving a player a higher weighting of heroes/rares as prizes.)

      To be clear, I'm I'm not hopeful about my own chances of winning gauntlet frequently, but theoretically this is what I want. I'd like to have enough cards to have fun with holding and selling them—provided Valve doesn't make it feel like a chore.

      I do think that #2 is most likely. I'm not hyper-interested in a free option—I feel like I want to have skin in the game, even if it's a token amount.

      3 votes
      1. zonk
        Link Parent
        Two modes would be fine with me, too. Give people who want to pay for the full run the option and then let them keep the cards they draft and some extras. If I can use (reasonable) duplicate...

        Two modes would be fine with me, too. Give people who want to pay for the full run the option and then let them keep the cards they draft and some extras. If I can use (reasonable) duplicate amounts of cards and do runs with that, perfect. Better than a few dust thingies in Hearthstone that are pretty worthless because you need so damn many.

        I just want this to be sustainable possibly free, so I can enjoy it without having to pour money into it. Do I want to have the perfect set of cards for every deck list? No, but do I want a bit of variety in the ladder and play a draft occasionally without having to spend money? Yes, please.

        2 votes
  2. Nexu
    Link
    Wish the art was compelling. Looks like a Fiverr job. I suppose it's still early days, but I wouldn't be surprised if this art sticks. Overall this looks like a flaccid cash-grab by Valve. They...

    Wish the art was compelling. Looks like a Fiverr job. I suppose it's still early days, but I wouldn't be surprised if this art sticks. Overall this looks like a flaccid cash-grab by Valve. They could have also picked a name that wasn't already a MTG keyword... seems pretty poorly considered.

    I'm more interested in Garfield's recent endeavour Keyforge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7qt2H9Im2Q

    3 votes
  3. [2]
    Deimos
    Link
    There's a second video as well, that shows a match played with the drafted deck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3h8pEZi_A4

    There's a second video as well, that shows a match played with the drafted deck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3h8pEZi_A4

    2 votes
    1. cptcobalt
      Link Parent
      It's quite interesting how much they've iterated so much since the PAX demos—even at a late stage it's clear that they're changing things to make sure they're 100%. I'm super excited for this game.

      It's quite interesting how much they've iterated so much since the PAX demos—even at a late stage it's clear that they're changing things to make sure they're 100%. I'm super excited for this game.

      2 votes
  4. rickdg
    Link
    Too bad it's not LCG. Gambling bans can't come soon enough.

    Too bad it's not LCG. Gambling bans can't come soon enough.

    1 vote
  5. [4]
    BlackLedger
    Link
    Interesting. I haven't touched this sort of game since selling my Magic cards in the 1990s. How does this drafting stuff work?

    Interesting. I haven't touched this sort of game since selling my Magic cards in the 1990s. How does this drafting stuff work?

    1 vote
    1. Nexu
      Link Parent
      drafting in MTG: you open a pack, pick one card. Then, pass the rest of the pack to your neighbour; simultaneously you'll receive your other neighbour's pack minus one card. You then pick another...

      drafting in MTG: you open a pack, pick one card. Then, pass the rest of the pack to your neighbour; simultaneously you'll receive your other neighbour's pack minus one card. You then pick another card, and repeat until all packs (usually three) are depleted. With this card pool, you build your deck.

      It's a nice way to eliminate problems with constructed magic (where it's basically pay to win).

      2 votes
    2. Deimos
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I haven't watched the Artifact video yet, but a standard draft in Magic works like this: Involves a group of players (typically 8 people, though you can make it work with other numbers), who...

      I haven't watched the Artifact video yet, but a standard draft in Magic works like this:

      • Involves a group of players (typically 8 people, though you can make it work with other numbers), who initially sit around the same table.
      • Each player brings 3 booster packs from particular sets. For example, right now a typical draft would involve each player bringing 3 packs of Guilds of Ravnica (the newest set).
      • Each player opens one pack, looks at the cards in it, and picks one card from the pack that they want to keep for their deck.
      • After picking a card to keep (and putting it facedown so other players don't see it), each player passes the remaining 14 cards from the pack to the player on their left.
      • Repeat for the whole pack, picking one card each time to keep and passing the remaining cards to the left until the whole pack is gone (each player has picked 15 cards at this point).
      • Now open the second pack and repeat the whole process, but passing to the right after each pick. And then the third pack, passing to the left again.
      • After all the packs are finished, each player has picked 45 cards and builds a minimum-40-card deck using only those cards (plus any number of basic lands they want to add - you don't have to draft basic lands).
      • Players play their drafted decks against each other.

      So overall, it's a method of playing where everyone is effectively building their decks from the same shared "pool" of cards, and involves some different types of strategy for knowing how to pick good cards, "hate-drafting" powerful cards to prevent other people from getting them for their decks, and so on. It's quite different than standard constructed magic where everyone brings a pre-built deck, and removes the dependence on spending a lot of money to be able to have all the best cards for your deck.

      2 votes
    3. cptcobalt
      Link Parent
      Here's a video of IGN drafting with Richard Garfield in the Artifact game client—this is better than many of the community guesses/resources right now because this video was only released...

      Here's a video of IGN drafting with Richard Garfield in the Artifact game client—this is better than many of the community guesses/resources right now because this video was only released yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay7VWz2TIbw.

      This is an early thread when draft rules were first explained publicly, and I can't quickly find a more succinct explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Artifact/comments/9kiv23/draft_gauntlet_rules_for_the_closed_beta/

      2 votes