How do booster drafts work

Unlike constructed formats, where you arrive with a carefully constructed deck ready to play, limited formats allow you to build a deck from new cards as part of the game. At the start of booster draft, each player opens a booster pack and picks a single card. This also isn't universally true, though, as we're about to learn a little later. Collector Boosters are chock full of incredibly cool stuff…if you're willing to pay the price.

They generally all contain a foil double-sided token, a foil basic land sometimes two, if cool basic lands are a focus of the set , a small number of foil commons and uncommons, a couple showcase commons and uncommons, a foil rare or mythic rare, an extended-art rare or mythic rare, and then a couple of elite slots that generally have two or three foil extended-art or borderless cards, as well as foil showcase rares or mythics.

The hottest and most expensive variants in a given set are generally only found in these Collector Boosters. They are extremely cool and an absolute blast to open — and they're very expensive. The question you have to ask yourself, then, is this: is a Collector Booster worth more or less to you than 5 or 6 Draft or Set Boosters? The answer, to me at least, is that it depends a lot on what you're looking to get out of your booster-cracking experience. Why would you buy a Draft Booster? Well, the name is right there: they're for folks who want to play draft or sealed.

The other two booster packs tend to provide better "I wonder what I'll get! Draft boosters are necessary, though, because they are the only booster packs that are properly balanced for limited play.

Since limited is one of the most fun formats to play, draft boosters are still really important. In fact, there's anecdotal evidence that WotC is systematically underestimating the demand for Draft Boosters right now, at least compared to Set Boosters.

Despite having a little less per-pack value, I suspect that Draft Booster boxes will end up being better long-term holds than Set Booster boxes. While some people do buy older booster boxes to crack, a lot of that demand actually comes from folks who are nostalgic about the draft format.

While Set Boosters will only appeal to the former kind of buyer, Draft Booster boxes have appeal to both. That increased demand should lead to higher prices once these sets leave print. If you're going to stash booster boxes in your closet, these are still the ones I'd buy. Set Boosters are like Draft Boosters, but for folks who just want to crack packs. Unlike Draft Boosters, however, you can't really use them for limited play.

The commons and uncommons are generally related in some way, which creates poor draft signals and unbalanced sealed deck pools. Seriously: don't play limited with these packs unless you are prepared to have a subpar experience at least half the time. While Set Boosters fail at being good for limited play, they honestly do excel at being fun to open. These odds might seem poor, but I feel like I've seen at least one good List card in every box I've watched get opened.

The increased foil and rare odds are nice, too. If all you care about when you open a box is the stack of cards at the end, I'd opt for Set Boosters over Draft Booster nearly always. Generally, I don't recommend holding onto Set Boosters for the long-term. At this price point, collectors are typically going to prefer sealed Draft Booster boxes because of how much more versatile they are.

Folks who want flashy, premium opens are going to opt for Collector Boosters, because that's where you have the best odds of opening each set's chase cards. That makes Set Boosters stuck in the middle, where I expect they'll lag the field a bit. Collector Boosters are for people who covet shiny things — and have the money to back that habit up.

While many Set and Draft Boosters will end up being a bust, virtually every Collector Booster has something incredibly cool on the inside. Groups of four or more players would lay out all the cards on the table face up and take turns picking them. At some point drafts evolved into the Booster Draft format we have today, but no one is quite sure who introduced it.

However, Bill does not remember his group coming up with it, and Charlie vaguely remembers Richard teaching it to him. Both Skaff Elias and Jim Lin don't believe that their playtest group came up with the idea either. So the true origins of the booster draft format are lost to the annals of history. Players are seated randomly at the table. Once everyone has found their seats, each player opens their first booster pack, chooses one card from the pack, and puts it face-down on the table.

Once you've done this, pass the rest of the pack to the player on your left. Once everyone has passed their packs, pick up the next pack located on your right , pick the best card for your deck from that pack and put it in your pile, and again pass it to the neighbor on your left. This process continues until all the cards from the pack have been picked. You then get a review period to look at the cards you have picked and figure out what direction your deck is going typically this lasts 60 seconds.

Once that ends, each player opens their next pack, picks a card, and passes the pack to the right Packs go left, right, left. This continues as before until all cards from a pack have been chosen, and then you get another review period before opening the final pack, taking a card, and passing to your left again.

At the conclusion of the additional turn, if a winner of the game has not been determined, the current game is a draw. Find a Store Find an Event. Login Register. Home Gameplay Formats Booster Draft. First time Drafting FAB? Read this! Drafting The suggested number of players for a booster draft pod is 8. The third pack is drafted the same as the first pack passing to the left.

Players keep the cards they draft. Deck Construction Players construct a card minimum deck not including the hero card, weapon card s , and equipment cards from the cards they have drafted. Cracked Bauble.