If anyone has tips or resources for drafting I'd love to hear them!

I've been playing paper magic for a few years but never played any limited. I didn't really understand the appeal. But my brother convinced me to try Arena and I had a draft or quick draft token and now I am hooked. But I also kinda suck at draft.

I think my goal is to be good enough to break even ish on gems so I can draft a lot without spending a lot. I'm okay spending while I learn ($60 so far... (probably only $25 towards drafting)).

I think I have most of the basics down. Stuff like 17 ish lands, 13 ish creatures, a good mana curve, prioritize removal and land fixings.

I find myself doing research online of people's favorite sets to draft and wondering if I'll ever get to draft it. I saw Neon Dynasty is coming up on the schedule and I'm very excited to draft it. I enjoyed Dragonstorm and am enjoying Ixalan. I feel like my first 3 or so drafts of a set go pretty terribly. They're fun still, but it also stinks to lose $5 so fast...

I'm hesitant to do anything besides quick draft because of the stronger competition and bigger downside to losing quickly. But I don't want to stay this way. Ideally I'd quick draft to learn a set and then switch to premier. But I also don't want to miss out on what's available - right now Mix-Up Draft and Core Set 2021. I'm tempted to try both, but feeling like maybe I should stick to a set I know until I develop skills?

I agree with silverchase that Draftsim and mock drafts are good practice. Then just really get in the reps with one draft format you like. Every draft format is similar enough that perfecting one will pay off when you try another.

Final Fantasy draft guides are about to come out so if you like the look of the set it seems as good to start there as anywhere.

Two resources I like for drafting content are Nizzahon (YouTube) and Lords of Limited (Podcast, YouTube). Glhf!

Two votes for Nizzahon (YouTube) and Lords of Limited (Podcast, YouTube).

https://www.17lands.com/ is your friend if you have not found that yet. If you're on windows there are also various collection tracker/game overlays that can give you info about the cards in a pack while you're in the draft.

I liked https://mtga.untapped.gg/companion and/or https://mtgaassistant.net/Download when I was on windows.

Sadly there are none that really work on linux at the moment. That I have been able to find anyway.

I'm on Linux as well - would people consider tools like that cheating? Or more like "here's some knowledge you might not know yet"

I've never seen anyone say it was cheating. more like haveling a pocket reference manual.

you can get the same info with quick alt-tabbing to 17lands really, it's just convenient to have it as an overlay.

I liked them more for the collection tracking convenience myself. that became a lot harder once WoTC took the collection data out of the logs.

I saw the code for one tracker that basically injects some c++ or unity code or something into the memory where arena is running and gets the collection data that way. it does not seem to work in proton the same way though, at least not for me.

Nice! I still haven't even figured out at what pick count a pack has wheeled I guess pick 8? Seems intense to remember an individual pack 8 packs later, but I guess you just know that all those cards wheeled so it gives an idea of what's open.

I was imagining that the overlay would tell you what colors are open, and what a the best picks from each pack are, and maybe even what synergieses with your current picks

In a pod of 8, Pick 9 in a pack will be your first pack wheeling. You'll only get to see the first 5 packs wheel around (in 14-card play boosters), and a lot of the time those last 1-2 picks in a pack will be a basic land or something completely off-color for you. Don't worry too much about it as you start out, but yeah, it can help indicate a color that's very open.

Gotcha. Weird to me that Arena is different - 7 players in Premier Draft, and packs are 15 cards

Premier draft should be a full pod of 8. Older sets have 15 cards per pack in draft boosters, but I want to say it was around MKM when they switched to 14-card play boosters.