I've drafted my Cube (520 cards) several times now, usually with 4-6 people, and have tried a lot of different formats. My question is, what do you guys find the most fun format to play with your drafted deck?
Do you like to play one on one Magic? I did this a few times, and it always seemed like one person would blow the other out, or the match would just stall until the very late game..
Do you guys play multiplayer chaos? I've found that the aggro decks usually lose out in this format unless they have some kind of card advantage engine (Masked Admirers, Sylvan Library, etc), and that control decks tend to win if they have something like Top or Scepter.
Do you guys play Two-Headed Giant? I've found this to be quite fun. When we have four people we roll for teams and then discuss how each player will draft before we start. I've found that Rochester works best for this since you can draft defensively if you so choose, but normal drafting works fine as well.
Have any of you tried 3v3 Emperor? I want to try this on Friday, and it seems like it will be a blast. I think we'll roll for teams and have each team choose their emperor before the drafting begins. Can any of you guys offer me advice on how to best carry this out?
Additionally, are there any better ways to draft with fewer / more people? Rochester Draft works perfect for me when we have exactly four people, any more and any less and it goes to hell. If I have less than four people then we generally don't draft and just play DC10 with the Cube instead. (I'll get to that later.)
If we have four people and don't have time to Rochester, we generally make five packs of nine cards each for each player. (Is that the norm?) If we have six people we generally use four packs of eleven cards. If we have eight or more players we use the standard, three packs of fifteen cards each method. What card / pack distribution do you guys find works best?
So, above all, here is my question for you all. What drafting styles / formats do you think are the most fun to play with a varying number of people? Is Format X a blast with Y people but terrible with Z people? If you only have X people is it best to draft this way? Do any of you have interesting draft ideas that others of us might not have heard of before? Let me know, I am genuinely interested in experimenting as much as possible with this.
~
Regarding the DC10 I mentioned earlier.. it can be a bit of a hassle to do with a Cube, but still can be quite fun. Essentially every player plays off of the same large deck (The Cube). No lands are needed since each player has infinite mana available of every color, at all times. Some lands are still nice to have due to their utility (Treetop Village, Maze of Ith, Volrath's Stronghold, etc). Since each player has infinite mana and no need for lands, it is best to remove all of the "dead draws" from the Cube before you start. This includes most X Spells, land searchers, mana elves, fetchlands, painlands, and the like. It can really be a hassle to do all of this, but it is fun and you can tweak the rules around a lot. When I do it with my friends, each player usually starts with no hand and draws one card a turn in clockwise order. Drawing two cards a turn or starting with seven cards in hand, or drawing up to four cards at the end of your turn are all neat variations that I have done. I know that was kind of long-winded, but it is a neat format that I suggest you try if you have nothing else to do.
Interesting stuff to try when low on players. good thinking.
I like the 7-8 player normal draft style. You see a lot of different cards passing by. A large pool creates opportunities.
I also like winston.
anyways : did you know there's an official 2HG draft procedure ?
Divide in teams as usual. give each player 3 boosters (6 per team)
Let the team members sit next to each other. ONE TEAM MEMBER opens a booster and together with his teammate they take TWO cards instead of one. They can discuss with each other on the picks. Take about 1 minute to pick the cards. Pass to the left and repeat. When all 6 boosters are drafted (left-right-left-right-left-right) each team has a pool of 90 cards they should use to make their decks from.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Retired DCI Level 2 Judge
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
So, here are the draft methods i use with my cube (970 cards)
- 2 players : Winston Draft 6-8 packs (depending on card quality after 6 packs)
- 3 players : Salomon draft half the pool of cards, hero Wagic or not (playing in Free for all)
- 4 players : Rochester Draft (PLaying 1vs1 or 2hg)
- 5 Players : SOlomon Draft half the pool of cards, hero wagic or not (playing in Pentacle)
- 6 players : Solomon Draft or booster draft with 5 packs of 15 cards (PLaying 1vs1 in 3 rounds, like money draft). Still have to try Emperoir, but i think my play group wont love it, as you spend alot of time doing nothing while other players are playing.
- 8 players : Solomon Draft or Booster draft with 4 packs of 15 cards (playing 2hg (Drafting 2 cards/pack in team) or 1vs1 (traditionnal booster draft) in 4 rounds)
Salomon draft can become Hero Wagic Draft, when players love the concept enough to go for it (Traditionnal Solomon draft, but your first picked stack of cards must contain a Legendary creature, which decide what cards colors you'll be allowed to play. If no stack contains a legendary creature, you have to pass. Also known as Limited EDH). THe main advantage of this draft method is to force people to play uncommon archetypes, such as MBC/MBA, MonoG Aggro, MonoR Blasts/Land destruction....
Winston is easy, usually done with 2 players.
Open (take, in cube ;)) all boosters of every player (so 3 x 2 for 2 players), shuffle them together in one pile.
Take the top card of the pile, this becomes pile A, take the next top card for pile B and the next for pile C.
Player A begins and looks at pile A. He may do 2 things:
- take the pile, a new card from the top replaces this pile afterwards.
- look at the next pile, and add a card from the big pile to the previous pile.
example: A looks at pile A, doesn't want the card. He adds a card to pile A (no peeking at the new card) and take a look at pile B. He decides to take that pile. take one from the big pile to replace B.
now player B can choose. He looks at the two cards from pile A, takes both of em, and takes the top card fromt he big pile to replace pile A.
and so on.
When a player doesn't like pile C, he can put it back and just take the top card of the big pile, but you'll have to take that one, no matter how crappy it is.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Retired DCI Level 2 Judge
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
So, here are the draft methods i use with my cube (970 cards)
- 2 players : Winston Draft 6-8 packs (depending on card quality after 6 packs)
- 3 players : Salomon draft half the pool of cards, hero Wagic or not (playing in Free for all)
- 4 players : Rochester Draft (PLaying 1vs1 or 2hg)
- 5 Players : SOlomon Draft half the pool of cards, hero wagic or not (playing in Pentacle)
- 6 players : Solomon Draft or booster draft with 5 packs of 15 cards (PLaying 1vs1 in 3 rounds, like money draft). Still have to try Emperoir, but i think my play group wont love it, as you spend alot of time doing nothing while other players are playing.
- 8 players : Solomon Draft or Booster draft with 4 packs of 15 cards (playing 2hg (Drafting 2 cards/pack in team) or 1vs1 (traditionnal booster draft) in 4 rounds)
Salomon draft can become Hero Wagic Draft, when players love the concept enough to go for it (Traditionnal Solomon draft, but your first picked stack of cards must contain a Legendary creature, which decide what cards colors you'll be allowed to play. If no stack contains a legendary creature, you have to pass. Also known as Limited EDH). THe main advantage of this draft method is to force people to play uncommon archetypes, such as MBC/MBA, MonoG Aggro, MonoR Blasts/Land destruction....
What do you mean when you say Soloman draft half the pile? Are you referencing the entire cube? For instance if I was going to Soloman with 2 people, we'd be drafting 90 cards from the cube. Our group is often stuck at 3 people, and I'm looking for the best draft format under these circumstances. Do you merely add 45 cards and do a 135 card-pile Soloman? How does this work? Thanks!
Salomon draft :
Lets imagine a 800 cards cube, 8 players draft. Each player receive 2 stack of 50 cards, face down
Every player reveal the top card of each stack. Then, the player its the turn take one full stack (actually 1 card) then, each player add to each revealed card another, then second player take the stack of one card or a stack of 2 cards, then you reveal a third card on each stack and so on...
My cube is 970 cards so when we are 3 or 5, we salomon draft only around 485 cards
If we have enough extra time (like 4 hours) after the regular draft we do 4 team 2HG Rochester. It's an interesting format, and requiring players to make two pick at once, while everyone else is watching is a really awesome process. I suggest if you can find a good amount of time for your players that you try this format out, especially if you do random teams.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Do you like to play one on one Magic? I did this a few times, and it always seemed like one person would blow the other out, or the match would just stall until the very late game..
Do you guys play multiplayer chaos? I've found that the aggro decks usually lose out in this format unless they have some kind of card advantage engine (Masked Admirers, Sylvan Library, etc), and that control decks tend to win if they have something like Top or Scepter.
Do you guys play Two-Headed Giant? I've found this to be quite fun. When we have four people we roll for teams and then discuss how each player will draft before we start. I've found that Rochester works best for this since you can draft defensively if you so choose, but normal drafting works fine as well.
Have any of you tried 3v3 Emperor? I want to try this on Friday, and it seems like it will be a blast. I think we'll roll for teams and have each team choose their emperor before the drafting begins. Can any of you guys offer me advice on how to best carry this out?
Additionally, are there any better ways to draft with fewer / more people? Rochester Draft works perfect for me when we have exactly four people, any more and any less and it goes to hell. If I have less than four people then we generally don't draft and just play DC10 with the Cube instead. (I'll get to that later.)
If we have four people and don't have time to Rochester, we generally make five packs of nine cards each for each player. (Is that the norm?) If we have six people we generally use four packs of eleven cards. If we have eight or more players we use the standard, three packs of fifteen cards each method. What card / pack distribution do you guys find works best?
So, above all, here is my question for you all. What drafting styles / formats do you think are the most fun to play with a varying number of people? Is Format X a blast with Y people but terrible with Z people? If you only have X people is it best to draft this way? Do any of you have interesting draft ideas that others of us might not have heard of before? Let me know, I am genuinely interested in experimenting as much as possible with this.
~
Regarding the DC10 I mentioned earlier.. it can be a bit of a hassle to do with a Cube, but still can be quite fun. Essentially every player plays off of the same large deck (The Cube). No lands are needed since each player has infinite mana available of every color, at all times. Some lands are still nice to have due to their utility (Treetop Village, Maze of Ith, Volrath's Stronghold, etc). Since each player has infinite mana and no need for lands, it is best to remove all of the "dead draws" from the Cube before you start. This includes most X Spells, land searchers, mana elves, fetchlands, painlands, and the like. It can really be a hassle to do all of this, but it is fun and you can tweak the rules around a lot. When I do it with my friends, each player usually starts with no hand and draws one card a turn in clockwise order. Drawing two cards a turn or starting with seven cards in hand, or drawing up to four cards at the end of your turn are all neat variations that I have done. I know that was kind of long-winded, but it is a neat format that I suggest you try if you have nothing else to do.
Random AIM convo:
Xsaber57 (7:31:18 PM): Listen!
RedFalcon912 (7:31:26 PM): stfu Navi
I like the 7-8 player normal draft style. You see a lot of different cards passing by. A large pool creates opportunities.
I also like winston.
anyways : did you know there's an official 2HG draft procedure ?
Divide in teams as usual. give each player 3 boosters (6 per team)
Let the team members sit next to each other. ONE TEAM MEMBER opens a booster and together with his teammate they take TWO cards instead of one. They can discuss with each other on the picks. Take about 1 minute to pick the cards. Pass to the left and repeat. When all 6 boosters are drafted (left-right-left-right-left-right) each team has a pool of 90 cards they should use to make their decks from.
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
My
540> 360 Powered Cube- 2 players : Winston Draft 6-8 packs (depending on card quality after 6 packs)
- 3 players : Salomon draft half the pool of cards, hero Wagic or not (playing in Free for all)
- 4 players : Rochester Draft (PLaying 1vs1 or 2hg)
- 5 Players : SOlomon Draft half the pool of cards, hero wagic or not (playing in Pentacle)
- 6 players : Solomon Draft or booster draft with 5 packs of 15 cards (PLaying 1vs1 in 3 rounds, like money draft). Still have to try Emperoir, but i think my play group wont love it, as you spend alot of time doing nothing while other players are playing.
- 8 players : Solomon Draft or Booster draft with 4 packs of 15 cards (playing 2hg (Drafting 2 cards/pack in team) or 1vs1 (traditionnal booster draft) in 4 rounds)
Salomon draft can become Hero Wagic Draft, when players love the concept enough to go for it (Traditionnal Solomon draft, but your first picked stack of cards must contain a Legendary creature, which decide what cards colors you'll be allowed to play. If no stack contains a legendary creature, you have to pass. Also known as Limited EDH). THe main advantage of this draft method is to force people to play uncommon archetypes, such as MBC/MBA, MonoG Aggro, MonoR Blasts/Land destruction....
Random AIM convo:
Xsaber57 (7:31:18 PM): Listen!
RedFalcon912 (7:31:26 PM): stfu Navi
Winston is easy, usually done with 2 players.
Open (take, in cube ;)) all boosters of every player (so 3 x 2 for 2 players), shuffle them together in one pile.
Take the top card of the pile, this becomes pile A, take the next top card for pile B and the next for pile C.
Player A begins and looks at pile A. He may do 2 things:
- take the pile, a new card from the top replaces this pile afterwards.
- look at the next pile, and add a card from the big pile to the previous pile.
example: A looks at pile A, doesn't want the card. He adds a card to pile A (no peeking at the new card) and take a look at pile B. He decides to take that pile. take one from the big pile to replace B.
now player B can choose. He looks at the two cards from pile A, takes both of em, and takes the top card fromt he big pile to replace pile A.
and so on.
When a player doesn't like pile C, he can put it back and just take the top card of the big pile, but you'll have to take that one, no matter how crappy it is.
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
My
540> 360 Powered CubeWhat do you mean when you say Soloman draft half the pile? Are you referencing the entire cube? For instance if I was going to Soloman with 2 people, we'd be drafting 90 cards from the cube. Our group is often stuck at 3 people, and I'm looking for the best draft format under these circumstances. Do you merely add 45 cards and do a 135 card-pile Soloman? How does this work? Thanks!
Lets imagine a 800 cards cube, 8 players draft. Each player receive 2 stack of 50 cards, face down
Every player reveal the top card of each stack. Then, the player its the turn take one full stack (actually 1 card) then, each player add to each revealed card another, then second player take the stack of one card or a stack of 2 cards, then you reveal a third card on each stack and so on...
My cube is 970 cards so when we are 3 or 5, we salomon draft only around 485 cards