The Possibilities - The Art of Drafting in CM

Although you might not play them a lot, Captain's Mode games are actually pretty fun to play when you get the hang of it. Usually better with friends, this mode allows for Hero drafting, which is basically two teams taking turns to ban and pick heroes for the game. But I'm sure many of you guys don't know exactly how it works, so I thought I'd enlighten you.

How it works

If you are a five stack, the party leader will always be the 'Captain'. This means he will be the one making the choices. But it's always good to talk it out with your fellow team mates to maximize your chances by getting good input. Drafting are started Radiant, who gets the first Ban. A ban is simply choosing hero that neither you or the enemy team can pick. Usually those heroes that are considered very powerful gets banned out first to prevent the other team from acquiring them.
In the current Meta some common first bans are Io, Magnus, Dark Seer, Batrider, etc.

After Radiant's first ban, comes Dire's first, then both teams get another ban each. After this, the picking starts, with Radiant also getting first pick. They may pick one hero. This slot is usually reserved for a hero you want to quickly pick to prevent it from being picked by the enemy or banned in the second banning phase. After first pick, the Dire gets two picks in a row. Then Radiant gets two picks, and Dire finishing off with their third pick, finishing the first pick phase.

Another ban phase commences, with three bans each, Radiant first, one ban per side. When this is done, the second-last hero is chosen by Radiant and then by Dire, and then another round, ending in five heroes each.

When the picking is done, players can choose the hero they wish to play, usually discussed during the drafting.

What to know

Drafting is important because it allows you to choose your team composition. You look out for countering enemy heroes, good synergy-combo heroes (that work well together), and also heroes that fit with what you want to achieve.
Choosing a Keeper of the Light, Nature's Prophet and Naga Siren will give you a lot of Pushing power, if you are going for a mid-game tower-pushing strategy.
If you want to gain some late-game power, you choose a Hard Carry, and mid-game semi-carries to help keep the enemy from pushing towers until your Carry can come online.

There is dozens of strategies, which I won't cover here, but you get the point. Picking heroes willy-nilly in Captain's Mode will often cost you dearly if the other team uses just a bit of strategy.
So next time you want to do a 5 man party AP Drow Rangerz, Sniperz, Rikimaruz pub stomp, consider trying something a bit more structured in Captain's Mode, and see if you like it.

Pro Tip : Watching pro games helps a lot in seeing great drafting choices, 'wombo combos', popular bans, etc.
Thanks for reading!

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To continue with my theme, I want to link Sando's guide on what Support to pick. This is a really useful article showing which supports are used for what purpose, which can help you out a lot in choosing your supports when drafting. Please read it and be enlightened.
Picking the right Support by Sando

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PS. I realize that the Drafting has changed in the new WC3 Dota 1 update, but as it hasn't been added to Dota 2 yet, I see no point in discussing it until its available. For those interested check Atlus' blog on the new patchlog.