Live Booster Draft

Love drafting? Love playing Magic? Ever wish you could do both at the same time, rather than one after the other? I have. For ten years. I got a game published trying to make it happen. (Here's a diary of how that led somewhere else fruitful.) Last month, the idea struck me again, this time actually for Magic:

A draft format in which the first seven picks form your starting hand, and each following pick happens when you would draw a card mid-game.

— Jay Treat (@WizardsFamiliar) November 12, 2016

I don't hype my own stuff much. Today is different. This is the good stuff. You want to try Live Draft. Really.

A critical detail that makes the whole thing click: You also have to draft your lands.

I've done this a bunch of times now, and it's fantastic. You cannot get a better game out of 2 booster packs, nor as much play out of 6. I might well be the top expert on two-player draft formats, and this is The Best Two-Player Draft Format.

The highlights:

• Every game is a real game. Mana screw and land flood can only happen if your opponent puts serious effort into it and you allow it. Not only that, you're crafting your starting hand and every draw thereafter. Every game is real… good.

• Needing to draft land affects your card valuations considerably. Basic land goes from being a guaranteed and limitless resource to both vital and contested. Since your starting hand is whatever seven cards you pick first, you have to draft land early just to make your first land drop. If you're on the draw, you can spend your first several turns taking the land you need to cast your 7 spells. but you're risking that your opponent doesn't scoop you.

• We only add one of each basic land to each booster; so if you want to cast any black spells, you better get a swamp before your opponent takes them all; and if you want to cast a double-black spell, you've got to get two swamps. That means the card that you've been tossing out of booster packs since you started drafting—that annoying basic land—is kind of a big deal; having three of a basic land in the draft makes a huge difference for casting spells of that color.

• In a two-player Live Booster Draft, you see every single card in the draft except your opponent's first pick. That's a lot of information with which to make your plays and your picks (more than I can use). It also gives each player one potentially game-shaking surprise, which is nice drama for an otherwise unusually strategic experience, plotting out how you'll answer the threats you know your opponent has taken, and how you plan to win.

• Nearly every game has played within a turn or so of exhausting both booster packs, or a bit less. I had originally guessed we'd have to open new boosters as games went on, but you only need one pack per player.

• Live Draft begets an amazing league format that I'll detail further below. It's also not confined to traditional booster draft (though that's the only mode I've tested so far); it'll work with any draft where players take a single card at a time.

The rules for Live Booster Draft:

0. This rule is new and optional, but recommended: Shuffle up an equal number of each basic land and give one to each player randomly and privately. This is your first pick. Read in the comments below why you'd want to do this.

1. Each player opens a booster pack and adds one of each basic land to it.

2. Players draft their first seven cards and then the game begins. Roll for the choice to play or draw first as always (or use the last loss to decide).

3. Whenever you would draw a card, instead draft a card from the next pack, the one to your right. If you would draw multiple cards, draft one card from that many packs. Every time you draft, pass that pack left as normal.

When the game begins between Ajit and Betty, pack A is on Ajit's left side (because that's the pack he took his seventh pick from) and Betty's right; pack B is between Betty's left side and Ajit's right. After Betty draws from pack A on her turn, she passes it to her left, queued up behind pack B. After Ajit draws from pack B on his second turn of the game, it goes on his left (while Pack A remains on his right).

Ajit casts Tezzeret's Ambition. He draws card 1 by drafting from Pack A and passes the pack left. He draws card 2 from Pack B and passes the pack. Finally, he draws card 3 from Pack A (again) and pass the pack (again). In this way, the order of packs can be altered; Betty would have drawn next from Pack B if Ajit hasn't cast that spell, but instead she'll be drawing from Pack A.

4. Whenever you would interact with a library other than drawing a card—like searching it—treat the closest booster pack to your right (the one you would draft from if you drew a card right now) as your library. Shuffle it first if the order matters. Don't pass the pack afterward (unless you also draw from it). Effects that solely re-order the library are irrelevant; you can skip shuffling and scry effects—unless they immediately use the library after, like Llanowar Empath.

5. Players never lose the game for being unable to draw a card. If one pack is exhausted, draw from the next. When all packs are exhausted, play continues without new cards. If all players agree—because the game is stalemated or for any other reason—they may replace a pack when it is exhausted with a new booster pack. (You might only agree to replacing the first pack emptied on the basis that the second pack is also replaced when emptied. Such agreements are binding unless all players agree to cancel them.)

'Milling' effects like Tome Scour put cards from the pack you're currently treating as your library into your graveyard or exile, adding them to your card pool. 'Shuffling' effects like Gaea's Blessing put cards from your card pool into the pack you're treating as your library, removing them from your card pool.

We were quite amused to discover that Perpetual Timepiece is a very strong card in this format, because it adds cards to your pool (removing them from your opponent's possible picks) and then when you're ready, you can crack it during your upkeep to put the best card in your graveyard (whether it's one you drafted or milled there) back into the pack that's currently your library, then drafting it for your draw step.

I recently played LBD with Eternal Masters and opened Diminishing Returns. We elected to remove it from the pack because it would require us to open two more boosters and miss out on 10-24 cards, which seemed wasteful for a premium pack like EM. In a cheaper format, sure; It'd be chaotic and strong, but not broken. Technically cards you exile from 'your' library would become part of your pool, but I'd skip that if we did play Returns because that's supposed to be a drawback, not a huge advantage toward your league deck. Speaking of which…

Live Booster Draft League

Live Draft is the best way to get play value out of opening one booster per player. It also lends itself to the best way to get play value out of opening three (at least for groups too small for a regular booster draft, 5p-). First, you Live Draft; then Live Draft again; then build 30-card decks using your combined pool from those two drafts and play a best-of-three match; then Live Draft a third time; and finally, build 40-card decks using all the cards you drafted and play a best-of-three match.

There is a hidden greatness to drafting during your second and third Live Draft of a league: The game you're playing is entirely its own and will be determined by your picks and plays, but the cards you're taking are being adding to your previous picks for the 30/40-card decks you're going to build.

If you went {G}{W}{B} the first time, but the new packs have a lot of good {R} and {U} cards, do you switch completely to ensure victory in this game at the expense of building a consistent deck afterward? Do you ignore them and solidify your Abzan affinity, improving your future chances but costing you this game? Or do you walk the line, taking {R}{W}{B}, perhaps, knowing some of your cards will make the cut next round, and some won't?

Sometimes you see cards you want for your pool but know you can't play this game. How highly do you pick them? They're dead cards in your hand (unless you've got looting effects) and won't affect the game, so taking them highly might cost you a game-changing pick, but if you wait too long your opponent might just hate draft them. Speaking of which, when do you hate draft? It's definitely correct sometimes, but it's expensive when it costs you a pick and a draw.

We opened a Demon of Dark Schemes in a second Kaladesh live draft, and even though there was a swamp in one of the boosters, giving us three all told, there were also two good {B}{B} removal spells, so I took one swamp and my opponent spent two consecutive early picks taking the others (which was costly but brilliant, because it ensured him those two removal cards as long as I had relevant picks). That made the Demon literally unplayable for either of us. But my first draft had been {G}{B}, so I wanted it for my card pool and ended up taking it 13th maybe (out of 20, remember). 

In a single Live Draft, it doesn't matter if there are cards left undrafted in the booster packs when the game ends. In LBD League it does: When a live draft ends, continue drafting cards from the booster packs in the order they come to you until all cards are drafted. These are part of your pool for deck construction.

The deck construction rules are simply that you must play a minimum of 30- or 40-cards, depending on the round, and that you may (in stark contrast to the live drafts) add any basic lands you choose and exclude any cards from your pool that you like.

I've done this league numerous times now, and it's super fun. It also chunks well across short play sessions. I play 2p over lunch with my co-worker, and we'll often play our first two LBDs day one, build and play our 30-card decks day two, Live Draft the third time and build our 40-card decks day three, and then play our final decks day four.

It's dangerously easy to go five-colors in a single Live Booster Draft (because you can just take that fifth basic land when you need it) but that hurts your deck-building later on; for league play, try to focus on two or three colors even if you splash more.

For a tournament, I recommend giving every round equal weight: Each live draft is worth 3, 0, or 1 points (win, lose, or draw), and each match is too.

With four players, round 1 (live draft): random pairings. Round 2 (live draft): pair winners, pair losers. Round 3 (30-card decks): Yet unmatched pairs. Round 4 (live draft): winners, losers. Round 5 (40-card decks): winners, losers.

For a longer 4p tournament: Play each live draft against a different opponent. Play each deck you build against every opponent.

With six players, round robin.

Thanks for reading. I hope you get a chance to try this out. If so, let me know how you liked it in the comments below.