Things You'll Need:
- One opponent
- 6 booster packs
- Some basic land
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Step 1
Counterdraft. There are 30 cards in the first pair of packs, half of which will go to you and half of which will go to your opponent. All of them will be played in the first round, which means any card you don't pick up will be played against you in round one. This means if there's a really strong card that would destroy you completely, you pick it up immediately, even if you don't plan to play it. If you don't, your opponent will. Besides, in snowball draft, an early counterdraft often becomes a part of your deck later in the draft.
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Step 2
Counterdraft. Yes, it was Step 1. It's listen again because it's that important. When you open your first pack, look for powerful combinations or synergies. Something as simple as two strong creatures of the same color counts as a synergy in Snowball draft. When there is a two-card combination, as soon as your opponent takes one of the two cards, strongly consider taking the other one. Otherwise, you'll be facing down the entire combination very shortly.
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Step 3
Keep the first-round format in mind as you draft your first pack. Yes, picking up cards for later rounds such as mana fixers and powerful creatures that cost 3 of a single color might be helpful down the road. But in the first round, you'll only have 2 land of each color, so that powerful creature will be a dead card. It is essential to grab a few decent creatures in the first round, or you'll be completely destroyed, leaving you in a must-win situation for the rest of the draft.
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Step 4
Take advantage of the recycling graveyard rule in the first round; after 18 turns, anything in your graveyard will become your library and you'll likely have 10 mana in play. This means if you can last that long, expensive sorceries are quite handy to recast.
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Step 5
Use the first round to feel out the strengths and weaknesses in your deck as well as your opponents. You can then draft the second pack with this in mind. Were you beaten up by a swarm of 1/1 creatures? Spend round 2 drafting cards to deal with them all at once. Was your opponent ill-equipped to stop your flying creatures? Picking up more is a great idea. Does your opponent have a powerful artifact or enchantment that cost you the game? Be sure to pick up a way to destroy it.
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Step 6
While every card is used in round one, you'll likely want to start picking colors in round two. Focus on two or three colors if possible. You now know which of your cards were effective and which weren't, so let this help guide your color decisions. Of course, counterdrafting should still be a consideration. You know what cards are in your opponent's deck, so if a certain card would make her deck much better, be sure she doesn't get it.
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Step 7
After finishing the second round, you're generally just looking to tweak your deck. By now you should know if you just need one more large creature, one more flyer, or one more removal spell to deal with that pesky creature of your opponent's that beat you last time. Rarely will you reorganize your entire deck in round three, but by the time you get there, you'll feel that you have a honed and battle-ready deck.
