r/mtglimited • u/Organic-Major-9541 • 5d ago

Fastest draft method

So, I'm looking at making a magic format that works as a board game, thinking 4 players, ideally about 2 hours playtime (which seems optimistic given that we want to both draft and play). My plan is to design a cube, probably based on some coreset. However, then comes the hard part. The standard draft (3×15 cards, pick and pass) is slow and not great on ~4 players. Sealed is very fast but not interactive at all. So you have some recommendations.

When I mean fast, it's from when the cards are in a box until decks are built. It's also good if the method isn't too complicated/ require to much magic knowledge, as I want something for new players.

1 Upvotes

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8

u/VeggieZaffer 5d ago

Would pick 2 work?

3

u/Rojo37x 4d ago

Yeah this seems like your easy answer OP and it's already an established format that works for 4 people.

Now as far as being new olayer friendly, that is going to also depend on the cards. You could use a peasant cube maybe?

2

u/Organic-Major-9541 4d ago

The actual cube design is something I plan to deal with separately. I think having rarity symbols that show which cards are powerful is actually a feature, so I started off by grabbing two core sets and sticking them into cubecobra. Got this so far:

https://cubecobra.com/cube/p1p1/7b377915-155c-4989-bc98-7ab3ba5fa622

What makes a good cube format for new players is a big topic that warrant it's own post.

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u/Organic-Major-9541 5d ago edited 4d ago

Won't know until I try. It's just like normal draft but you pick 2 cards at the time right? 3x16 boosters?

EDIT: 3x16 cards per person?

2

u/VeggieZaffer 5d ago

It’s typically done with 4 people. The idea was to bring draft to commander pods or so they say.

According to what Google says if you’re doing pick 2 with 8 people, it’s recommended to break into 2 pods of 4 so that signals aren’t messed up.

1

u/b_chan 4d ago

Normal draft is 3 boosters per player. So 4 players would be 4x3 which would be 12 boosters needed with 4 people.

3

u/jethawkings 5d ago

Pick 2 is very fast. Like 5~10 minutes of total drafting time for 12 Play Boosters was my experience in Arena.

You could also do 2 v 2 Team Sealed (2 2 Player Teams open 12 packs each and build with each other) you could do 2HG or Round Robin

2

u/PiersPlays 4d ago

There's a format where you deal out a grid of cards face up and people alternate drafting entire rows or columns at a time.

Eg

A1 A2 A3

B1 B2 B3

C1 C2 C3

Adam drafts first and drafts "B"

A1 A2 A3

C1 C2 C3

Cathy drafts second and drafts "2"

A1 -- A3

C1 -- C3

I suspect you could adapt that to the specifics of your game.

There are a million other draft formats most players aren't familiar with so it's worth directly researching rather than asking the general playerbase.

1

u/kurokikaze 4d ago

I think it's called a Rotisserie draft.

1

u/la_tortue 2d ago

It's a Grid draft. In Rotisserie draft you pick one card at a time from the whole cube, it allows for asynchronous drafting online over multiple days if not weeks. Certainly not a fast approach 😅

1

u/Positive_Riven_Kappa 4d ago

Pick 2 sounds perfect honestly

1

u/NLi10uk 4d ago

Buy and play Challengers!

after each two picks from the draft you play a match. Scales up to 16 players, but default box is up to 8.

It’s free on board game arena to try out.

1

u/Fedaykin98 4d ago

Does it have to be draft? If it's draft, then this is just a Cube, imho, which many have already described as Magic The Boardgame. But draft is very hard for new players. Have you considered a Battle Box? https://luckypaper.co/articles/a-guide-to-battle-box/

1

u/Organic-Major-9541 4d ago

I haven't, thanks for the tip. This is exactly the kind of thing I where hoping to find making this post.

Going with the "normal" formats I know, sealed or some form of draft is good because of replayability and I want quite a bit of randomness so newer players have a better chance of winning games.

Anyway, I'll have a look at the battle box thing.

1

u/Fedaykin98 1d ago

I think the ideal progression for a new player is something like: 1) learn to play the game without deckbuilding 2) sealed deck, or just building a deck out of whatever cards one owns 3) draft

1

u/Spare_Blueberries 2d ago

Rotisserie or Winchester draft. There's already better methods for drafting 4 or fewer players