In Yu-Gi-Oh! Booster Draft, you always start with two selections. The first two cards you select from the first packs you open will govern your draft selections for the remainder of the drafting process. Your earliest choices are the most critical. In the beginning of the draft, you have a greater number of cards to select from. As the draft winds down, your options become increasingly limited.
The first two cards you select will help determine your deck’s strategy. Different cards will lend themselves to different plans—Terrorking Archfiend and Archfiend Soldier will support an Archfiend deck or beatdown strategy, Guardian Ceal or Guardian Grarl can support an equip-card theme, D. D. Warrior Lady and Different Dimension Gate will assist with monster removal, and Great Maju Garzett and Maju Garzett will fit well into a beatdown strategy.
Let’s face it, the first two cards selected by most players tend to be the rares. They may seem like the most likely choices, but is the rare always the best card in the pack? Will Exodia Necross truly support your draft deck? Are monster effects going to warrant the use of Wicked-Breaking Flamberge–Baou? Will your draft be hurt if you pass on Contract with the Abyss?
I won’t kid myself, though. I know very well that most of us wouldn’t pass up Exodia Necross, even if it wouldn't do anything for us in the draft. (It is a chase card, after all.) We do need to keep in mind that keeping this card or one like it as one of our initial two picks will hurt our draft.
The best way to explain this principle is with a demonstration. I picked up some sealed packs of Dark Crisis, which I will open and explore with you, offering my suggestions on what to take as initial draft picks and what would be best passed on.
Player One:
Player One has several good options available. Archfiend Soldier is a solid choice, Gravity Axe–Grarl will give attacking monsters a real bite, and Sakuretsu Armor is a good defensive trap. Given Player One’s options, is Des Feral Imp really all that beneficial? I would say no. Certainly it can help against deck destruction strategies, but Archfiend Soldier combined with Gravity Axe–Grarl will give the player a good shot at beatdown and Archfiend-related support.
Selections: Archfiend Soldier and Gravity Axe–Grarl
Future Choices: From this point forward, beatdown and Archfiend support will work best toward Player One’s advantage. This deck wants more offensive monsters and Archfiend support cards, like Falling Down, and cards to eliminate turtling, like Final Attack Orders.
Player Two:
Player Two’s options are a bit more limited. The Dark Scorpion members offer some good effects when damage is done, but they lack the stats necessary to get past the kind of monsters you can expect to see drafted. Wicked-Breaking Flamberge–Baou will give the equipped monster an ATK increase, and Different Dimension Gate can assist you with monster removal, eliminating the biggest threat you may run into. With these cards, Player Two will be able to support any monsters he or she drafts from this point forward.
Selections: Wicked-Breaking Flamberge–Baou and Different Dimension Gate
Future Choices: Player Two will need monsters. He or she already has the cards to support strong monsters.
Player Three:
Let’s face it—Player Three is quite lucky in terms of pulling rares. The temptation is obviously to draft Exodia Necross with Contract with Exodia. While it's amusing to find these two cards together in two packs, Exodia Necross is completely unplayable in Draft. I won’t try and pretend it won't be the card selected, though, because most likely, Player Three is going to take Exodia Necross. The other choice is Butterfly Dagger–Elma, which is a solid equip spell in general, but also has potential to be teamed with Guardian Elma.
Selections: Exodia Necross and Butterfly Dagger–Elma
Future Choices: Guardian Elma has good odds of not being selected in the draft, thus Player Three has good odds of seeing Guardian Elma cycle back into his or her hand. Player Three will need to overcome the selection of Exodia Necross with future choices. Strong equip-spell cards will be good choices if Guardian Elma finds it way into the deck, so that Player Three can take advantage of its effect.
Player Four:
Player Four has some nice choices. The Gagagigos make good attackers, Gravity Axe–Grarl and Twin Swords of Flashing Light–Tryce are good equip-spell cards, and the Garzett brothers will add some serious tribute summon power. Great Maju Garzett is a solid choice. It can easily become a threat from just a single tribute. Any monster with over 1100 ATK offered as a tribute for Great Maju Garzett will provide a high enough attack value to overcome almost every monster in the Dark Crisis set. Maju Garzett will take longer to tribute summon, but due to the nature of Draft, monster removal will not be as serious of a threat as it is in Constructed, making it easier for Maju Garzett to be summoned. Dark Scorpion Combination is unplayable in Dark Crisis Draft and will serve no purpose for any player.
Selections: Great Maju Garzett and Maju Garzett.
Future Choices: From this point forward, it will be to Player Four’s advantage to draft as many high-attack value monsters as possible for the Garzett brothers to use as fuel for their attack stats.
Looking back on the selected cards, Dark Scorpion Combination and Des Feral Imp were both rares that were best passed on for more useful commons found in the same packs. Dark Scorpion Combination will most likely be the last card selected, rotating around the table until the draft is over, as it is completely unplayable. Des Feral Imp will be selected by a player who would like to have options for reclaiming lost cards or who doesn’t like the other options available at the time.
And a funny closing note: I wrote the intro to the article before opening the packs. Darn that Exodia Necross.