As Garfield Intended

I’m a big fan of variant formats. Not only do they add some spice and variety for long time players, but they also allow for more flexibility when scheduling Magic events with your friends (I’m always looking for more limited formats that don’t require 8 people in the same place for multiple hours). When I saw the most recent episode of Enter the Battlefield about Richard Garfield and the Alpha Playtesters, I became inspired. The “original” Magic format they described, full of surprises and built around trading, sounded like a lot of fun! It got me thinking: how can we best recreate that original Magic environment using modern technology and design sensibilities? In this article I’m going to explore the best way to play Magic “as Garfield intended”, literally.

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.

Three-Headed In-Fighting

Here's the best way I know to play Magic with three players, a format I improvised over a decade ago during a Summer when my draft club was just three people and we were desperate.

Two-Player Draft Formats

I've been doing a good bit of two-player Limited over lunch the last few weeks, and I thought I'd share the formats we've done and considered, and a new one I'm eager to try. All but the last two work with 3 or 4p too.

Experimental Limited Format — Swap

I’ve had this idea for a new Limited format for years now. It’s partially based on the trade mechanism from Andromeda and partially on a vague idea about how players could build a Limited deck in a way analogous to how starting players build Constructed decks: by opening a few packs and trading cards.

No card designs follow.

Collaboration Draft

Collaboration Draft
What I love most about drafting Magic is the interaction between myself, the players on either side of me, and the rest of the table. Game like SolForge and Hearthstone that allow you to "draft" without players lack that interaction entirely, which got me thinking about ways to enhance it.

What if your rank at the end of a draft was based not just on your own results, but those of the players next to you? Not necessarily L+C+R, maybe L+2C+R or so, but the formula's not the point. The point is that you now have a very real incentive to coordinate as well as you can with the players you're passing directly to.