Draft season is oh so beautiful, isn’t it? Doing the prep work, forming your opinions and strategies, and of course, drafting – we love it all. The draft itself is when the hard work pays off, and you get to show everybody how smart you are. There are few greater feelings than watching your roster stack up like a proud parent staring at the young child you created.

Simply put, drafting is a fun and exciting time no matter the format, but auction drafts crank up the volume even further. Auction drafts are the 1.01 of drafts. Or, the max bid, if you will. They can be intimidating, but they ultimately give you more power than you get in any other draft. Every player who is drafted will be on the board for you at some point. With this format comes more strategy, which isn’t isolated to how you bid on players but also how you nominate.

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Whether you are a young buck just getting started in an auction format, a grizzled veteran who has done it a time or two, or anything in between, there’s always plenty to learn. Don’t get so confident that you throw out the thought of strategizing and assume you will simply outsmart the room. The draft can go sideways in a hurry, and you not only want to be able to react to that but also take advantage of it.

It’s important to have an optimal strategy coming into the draft, but you should also have backup plans ready to swap in at a moment’s notice. Since you are here reading this, you’re already a step ahead. Many managers participating in an auction don’t think much about the strategy of nominating players. They know who they like and generally how much money they are willing to spend on those guys or even a position group, but having a strategy when it comes to nominations gives you an edge.

One of the many reasons I love auction drafts is that they give you more control of the draft rather than being a victim to the way the board may fall. Being intentional with your nominations further squeezes your grip around the draft.

Of the managers who do strategize their nominations, there are generally two schools of thought for the approach to the early rounds. One is that you should nominate players you don’t like early so you can clear some money off the board, with the other side suggesting you nominate players you do want early before the player pool shrinks and other managers desperately bid up the guys you’ve been saving for. It’s important to note that are always variables within the context of your draft. How well you know your opponents is one, for example. I often nominate players I don’t want to get money off the board, and I would recommend always considering that move, but it can certainly backfire. Many of the fantasy managers I have competed against in auction drafts could be described with a Jordan Belfort-type of spending habit. In that case, it is often beneficial to see large sums of fake money and players you don’t want flying off the board early.

The thing to remember, however, is that while some managers will be broke in a minute, there will still be teams saving their bankroll, just like you. The risk is that by the time you start nominating the guys you like, or others do, the teams with enough cash left become desperate and drive the price tags up. Sometimes it plays out that way; sometimes, the strategy will work to perfection. As Heraclitus said, “the only constant in life is change.” So, how do you know which one will happen and which approach to take?

The best bet is to test the market. You should have a general breakdown of how much you ideally want to spend on each position. In addition, even if you know who you like and who you don’t, it’s beneficial to have a set of rankings to look at. To take it a step further, you should also tier the set of rankings that you use. Other managers may not have the exact same tiers as you, but it’s still valuable to track how much managers are willing to spend for a player in a given tier. If you’re eyeing somebody like Michael Pittman, it will benefit you to know how much Tee Higgins, DJ Moore, or Keenan Allen go for. Write their prices down on your tiered rankings, so they’re easily accessible, and you can learn the baseline cost for players in each tier.

While implementing this tactic, nominate guys who aren’t your main targets but whom you like at the right price. Using the same example, if Pittman is your guy and you like Higgins but are completely out on Moore, nominate Higgins. This will help you understand how Pittman will be treated, but it also gives you the opportunity to pounce if the cost is lower than you had assumed.

It’s vital to be flexible, especially within the tiers that you have bracketed. This is even more advantageous early in the draft because you still have the positional flexibility. If you land Higgins cheaper than you thought, you can still nominate Pittman and make a play for him. Use the first few rounds to test the market, track prices within tiers, and soak up value when it presents itself. Don’t be afraid to spend for quality players early but stay on top of market prices and be sure not to quickly dig yourself a financial hole.

After the first couple of rounds are in the books, somewhere between the early and middle rounds, you should have a sense of how the tiers are priced. Nominate some of your targets and go get them if you can. It’s crucial to start making moves on your targets for a couple of reasons.

For one, you likely still have the positional flexibility. If you didn’t expect to get Higgins so early in the draft at the cost you did, you aren’t done at the position and can still grab Pittman. But if you continuously wait to nominate Pittman, you may find yourself saving a spot for somebody who might not land on your roster – that’s something you want to know early in the draft rather than late when there are no viable alternatives to pivot towards.

This is also a great time to be aggressive because many managers will have either overspent very quickly and be forcing themselves to sit these rounds out, while others may still be waiting out the spending spree to save their money and run the board as the later rounds approach. You may find yourself getting your targets cheaper than you imagined, but even if you don’t, there will still be viable alternatives within the same tier as your targets.

As always, remain flexible and continue to track spending. If you get a sense that other managers are being hyper-aggressive as you get into the middle rounds, there’s likely to be a lot of meat left on the bone in the later rounds. Don’t be afraid to miss out on somebody whose price is way above the market, which you’ve been tracking.

The most important things to track at this point are the players still available and your budget. You don’t want to leave money left over at the end because you were too cautious, and you especially don’t want to come to the realization that all the players in your top few tiers are gone. That’s something you should be aware of as it’s happening.

As teams begin to fill out their roster and the draft approaches the later rounds, be sure that you don’t have a lot of money left. There are always going to be players that go for a bargain at the end of the draft because nobody can afford to bid them up. It’s beneficial to have just enough left to get the guys you want at the end of your bench, but not so much that your roster fills before your balance hits $0.

The end of the draft will move quickly, with most teams acquiring their nominations for $1, so have your late-round targets handy with just a few roster spots left to fill. At this stage in the draft, just like a snake draft, we are shooting for upside. All your $1 acquisitions should be players that could be going for a lot more after a few weeks into the season.

The word of the day is flexible. Remember that there are different paths to building a successful roster. It won’t always look the same, but following this outline while remaining flexible is one path that can lead you to the promised land.

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Chad Workman is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from him, check out his Twitter at @tweetsbychad