Drafting MTG Online

 One of the biggest issues I have with drafting online is the experience.  In MTGO, it's just the entire client.  There are a lot of cool features I'm just never going to get into because I'm just never going to use that software in it's current state.

In MTG Arena, there are no features to just draft with a pod you put together and then play in that pod for prizes.  The matching algorithms are horrible for a player like me.  There's also no interaction across the table, I like chatter.  Frankly, the Gathering part of the game us just as fun for me.  Also, you can't just simulate a Sealed Draft by opening 6 packs in the client and sharing those results, they aren't equivalent.

So there are a lot of ways you can draft cards outside of Wizard's of the Coast-provided games.  You can draft in websites and then bring those draft results into MTG Arena - provided you have the cards in your collection already.  Some of htese require you to install software that my endpoint protection system does not like, so I'm probably not going to install it.  But that's basically because Wizard's of the Coast removed items from the game client log that were stored on the PC regarding your card collection.

So, MTG Arena certainly promotes competition and stuff, but it's so grindy and impersonal that I am just burnt out on it.  But I absolutely love going to my LGS (Local Game Store) to draft with a familiar crowd.  I even adore visiting other shops to draft in different locales.

I suppose you could do an open Sealed Draft using Spell Table, everyone would have the packs they open right there in front of everyone else on camera.  It's not as tidy as a fully online client.

I'd like to see some sort of limited play where we continue to use the same pool of cards competitively in a group.  I've even written up some rules for it.  But I'm not sure how best to make that happen online (without using MTGO).  Anyway, I have connected to a lot of MTG content creators, and I'm hoping I can rope them into the idea.  It's a fun way to generate content and a fun way to play, both!

If you have ideas or wanted to ever talk to me about this, please reach out.

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