What do you do in the event that you open a basic land in a booster draft? Do you just treat it like all other cards in the booster?
2 Answers
Basic lands are not removed from the booster pack in booster draft. They are drafted as any other card in the booster pack. From official MTR (Magic Tournament Rules):
7.7 Booster Draft Procedures
All players must open and draft the same type of booster at the same time. Players open their first booster pack and count the cards face down, removing token cards, rules cards, and any other non-game cards.
answered Jan 31, 2020 at 20:17
Technically the basic land card isn't supposed to be removed from the packs when drafting, but most of the time it will be. This is not official in the tournament rules, but has become pretty standard practice.
There are exceptions to this, whenever the slot has something other than just basic lands. One notable example of this exception is drafting Unstable, where the basic land slot could also contain steamflogger boss, a card that could only be in the basic land slot in those packs. Since there was something other than a basic land in those slots sometimes, that slot must be left in the draft.
Foil cards are never removed from the draft, including foil basic lands.
