After winning OHS S51 which was a sideboard drafting event, I have now won multiple drafting events of varying types which has given me a lot of insight into how to construct a pool that gives you high odds of success. I've toyed with creating a ranking for draft for a while because a lot of principles hold compared to standard play but there are definitely different dynamics at work.
A few caveats.
This ranking is primarily about building the pool, not the actual gameplay.
Power rankings by OEAO, Jexik, dok, or vegie (among others) are still going to hold basically true for the actual playing of the game. Draft introduces some more dynamics and a lot jankier armies but usually a figure that's good in standard play will be good in an actual game of draft
These rankings are built assuming you're not sabotaging yourself.
Figures like Warriors of Ashra or Mezzodemons are assuming you're including something that counters their difficult to play against abilities. Bonding squads are generally assumed to have one or more figures they bond with in the pool. You're not going to necessarily build a great draft pool by throwing together a bunch of high ranking figures that don't have any synergy with each other.
I mean specific things with the letter grades I'm handing out.
I'm using the standard A, B, C, D, F with +/- values. Generally speaking, this corresponds to
A - You will pretty much never regret including this
B - Solid option
C - You can make this work but it'll take some effort and careful planning
D - It's not impossible to make this work, but it's going to be very hard
F - Most of the time it will be dead weight
If a figure is a plus or minus in its tier, I think it's either a step above or a step below the other things in its tier
These rankings are assuming the whole VC catalog and standard pricing for games that will end up in the 400-600 range.
I've put the VC units into spoiler boxes in their tiers, but classic units are ranked assuming those units are available. These should still be pretty close to accurate even with that. A few units (like Guilty McCreech, as an example) are probably ranked a bit higher but I don't think VC made anything jump several tiers in either direction. If you see an unfamiliar unit in a Classic figure's description, then you can probably assume that the ranking is impacted by that VC unit and probably drop it down a slot or two.
When it comes to Delta pricing, if my notes talk about the cost of something, adjust that based on Delta pricing. Generally speaking, if something goes up or down by 10 points or less, it will probably not change my thoughts that much. Otherwise, anything that goes up in price significantly probably drops a tier and anything that drops in price significantly probably goes up a tier.
There are three different types of rankings.
I have three rankings that I've built out. Draft pool, Sideboard, and Pod (also known as Cluster). Figures do shift a bit on rankings between these formats but they are all fairly drafty and I felt like not mentioning all of them would be doing a disservice. These are the standard format assumptions I'm going with.
Draft pool - Both players bring a pool of X points worth of units, combine the pool and then draft to Y points in a snake draft fashion (First person picks one pick, and then players alternate two picks each until both players have created an army)
Sideboards - Both players bring a pool of X points worth of units, build an army of Y points from their own pool and reveal their chosen armies simultaneously
Pod/Cluster - Both players bring a number of pods (2-4) of X points worth of units, combine all pods, and then draft pods in a snake draft fashion (with each player ending up with typically 2-3 pods)
A few things I noticed while building these rankings. Cheapness, ability to work in smaller numbers, having a number of useful abilities especially counter abilities, synergy, and good stats tended to rank you higher in roughly that order.
Anyways, enjoy!
~Dysole, who will do her best to keep this updated as new information/results occur or additional VC units are released
A few caveats.
This ranking is primarily about building the pool, not the actual gameplay.
Power rankings by OEAO, Jexik, dok, or vegie (among others) are still going to hold basically true for the actual playing of the game. Draft introduces some more dynamics and a lot jankier armies but usually a figure that's good in standard play will be good in an actual game of draft
These rankings are built assuming you're not sabotaging yourself.
Figures like Warriors of Ashra or Mezzodemons are assuming you're including something that counters their difficult to play against abilities. Bonding squads are generally assumed to have one or more figures they bond with in the pool. You're not going to necessarily build a great draft pool by throwing together a bunch of high ranking figures that don't have any synergy with each other.
I mean specific things with the letter grades I'm handing out.
I'm using the standard A, B, C, D, F with +/- values. Generally speaking, this corresponds to
A - You will pretty much never regret including this
B - Solid option
C - You can make this work but it'll take some effort and careful planning
D - It's not impossible to make this work, but it's going to be very hard
F - Most of the time it will be dead weight
If a figure is a plus or minus in its tier, I think it's either a step above or a step below the other things in its tier
These rankings are assuming the whole VC catalog and standard pricing for games that will end up in the 400-600 range.
I've put the VC units into spoiler boxes in their tiers, but classic units are ranked assuming those units are available. These should still be pretty close to accurate even with that. A few units (like Guilty McCreech, as an example) are probably ranked a bit higher but I don't think VC made anything jump several tiers in either direction. If you see an unfamiliar unit in a Classic figure's description, then you can probably assume that the ranking is impacted by that VC unit and probably drop it down a slot or two.
When it comes to Delta pricing, if my notes talk about the cost of something, adjust that based on Delta pricing. Generally speaking, if something goes up or down by 10 points or less, it will probably not change my thoughts that much. Otherwise, anything that goes up in price significantly probably drops a tier and anything that drops in price significantly probably goes up a tier.
There are three different types of rankings.
I have three rankings that I've built out. Draft pool, Sideboard, and Pod (also known as Cluster). Figures do shift a bit on rankings between these formats but they are all fairly drafty and I felt like not mentioning all of them would be doing a disservice. These are the standard format assumptions I'm going with.
Draft pool - Both players bring a pool of X points worth of units, combine the pool and then draft to Y points in a snake draft fashion (First person picks one pick, and then players alternate two picks each until both players have created an army)
Sideboards - Both players bring a pool of X points worth of units, build an army of Y points from their own pool and reveal their chosen armies simultaneously
Pod/Cluster - Both players bring a number of pods (2-4) of X points worth of units, combine all pods, and then draft pods in a snake draft fashion (with each player ending up with typically 2-3 pods)
A few things I noticed while building these rankings. Cheapness, ability to work in smaller numbers, having a number of useful abilities especially counter abilities, synergy, and good stats tended to rank you higher in roughly that order.
Anyways, enjoy!
~Dysole, who will do her best to keep this updated as new information/results occur or additional VC units are released
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