Draft Format

The Draft format is a true test of skill. Build decks on the spot from a rotating selection of booster packs. Pick a card and pass it on. Harness the chaos, explore emergent strategies within the cards your opponents pass you, and draft a unique and exciting deck.

Players

Ideally, 8 per pod, but you can draft with fewer or more players as well.

Supplies

For each pod of 8 players, you’ll need...

  • 1 Booster Box (at least 24 booster packs per pack, 3 packs per player).
  • 2 Draft Kits (see here). These are available through LGS Store Kits or direct from our online storefor at-home drafters. Draft kits are recommended for a desirable default Avatar and Site power level.
  • Prizing. The easiest option is to provide additional booster packs & LGS Store Kit items, but you can award whatever you want. If you opt to provide boosters, we recommend awarding 1 pack per win per player.

Time

Give approximately 30 minutes for the draft and deck construction, and approximately 45 minutes per game (perhaps an hour total per round with time for pairings and any games that reach the time limit). 3 rounds will allow you to have a single undefeated champion for each pod of 8 players.

Deckbuilding

Players build Sealed decks according to the following rules:

  • 1 Avatar. Either the supplied Avatar, or any Avatar you open in your boosters.
  • Your Spellbook will contain at least 24 cards - your arsenal of minions, magics, auras, and artifacts.
  • Your Atlas will contain at least 12 cards - your Sites with which you'll construct the realm around you.
  • There is no deckbuilding constraint on cards according to their rarity!
  • Players can use any number of supplied Sites (or they can bring their own) to supplement any they opened and wish to play in their decks.
  • Any extra cards you pick that don't go into your 24-card Spellbook or 12-card Atlas become your Collection in its entirety.

The Collection In Limited

  • Cards that are named by cards that interact with your collection are freely available for use.
  • Certain cards reference specific ones by name that should be fetched from your collection. In Constructed would typically be included in your Collection and would count towards your 10-card Collection Limit. For Limited, the most common cards can be found in the box topper for Gothic.
  • Some cards allow you to interact with cards from your Collection. If specifically named, you may resolve the effect as if they were already in your collection. Otherwise, you should have the card in your Collection, which, for limited, is the group of extra cards you picked but didn't include in your Spellbook and Atlas.

Instructions

Provide each player with 3 Boosters.

Give yourselves about 30 minutes to complete the draft phase, as follows: First, players sit around a table. Each player then opens one of their booster packs and secretly (and simultaneously) keeps a single card from it. Then players pass the remainder of their packs to the player on their left. Continue picking a card from the pack and passing it until no cards remain.

As a general guideline, players should spend about 1-2 minutes per pick, but keep it lighthearted as some players will be newer, and the later stages of a booster pack will go much faster.

Once all the cards from the first packs have been selected, the players then open their second pack and repeat the drafting process, but this time passing cards to the right. Finally, open the last pack, repeating the process and passing cards to the left once again. Once all cards have been drafted, players then build their decks.

Once all players have completed their decks, play a Swiss-style tournament with all the players until you have an overall winner. Leave about 45 minutes to play each round of games and enjoy your draft decks! Players keep all the cards they draft!

Each player starts on 20 life. We recommend playing on a 5 wide by 4 tall grid. You'll play your Sites in the grid squares, summon your creatures to them, and battle your opponent. Reduce the opponent to 0 life to bring them to Death's Door, then deal the final blow to win the game.