23
votes
Accepted
Can I ask for Wastes like basic lands in Limited?
No, you cannot.
From the MTG Tournament Rules:
7.2 Card Use in Limited Tournaments
Players may add an unlimited number of cards named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, or Forest to their
...
- 69.2k
15
votes
Two Player Draft Formats
The two player formats I know of are:
Solomon draft
Winston draft
Winchester draft
Wizards has some information about these 'casual' formats.
Common Setup
Each of these draft formats uses a similar ...
- 590
14
votes
Accepted
What does BREAD stand for while drafting?
It's an acronym telling you which cards you should pick. Cards fall in one of five categories, and you should (usually) pick the card from topmost category (B > R > E > A > D) which is still left in ...
- 28.3k
12
votes
How long should a draft round last by official rules?
Appendix B of the Tournament Rules provides required and suggested time limits for official events. Check this document for all the details you need.
In general:
Required minimum game time is 40 ...
- 28.9k
9
votes
Can I ask for Wastes like basic lands in Limited?
You cannot. In the sets where they were available, you had to draft them from the packs.
In Limited events, you can play Wastes only if it's in your card pool. For Sealed Deck, that means you have ...
- 285
8
votes
Accepted
Tiger-Tribe Hunter and temporary power/toughness changes
That is a bug. It should deal 8 damage.
Tiger-Tribe Hunter has a ruling that says
Use the sacrificed creature's power as it last existed on the battlefield to determine how much damage is dealt.
...
- 71.6k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the proper way to split uneven draft pods?
In my LGS it's solved this way.
6 players => 1 x 6
7 players => 1 x 7
8 players => 1 x 8
9 players => 1 x 9
10 players => 1 x 10
11 players => 1 x 11
12 players => 2 x 6
13 players => 1 x 6 + ...
- 618
6
votes
Accepted
After I finish my match in a draft, is it okay to observe other matches?
It is perfectly acceptable to observe other matches.
If you are not currently playing, and you are not a judge, then you are a spectator by definition. There are a few rules governing spectators ...
- 13.6k
6
votes
Accepted
Two Headed Giant Sealed Events Card Trading
Not only are you allowed to share cards, you are as a team considered to have a single card pool that you build your decks from. Section 9.6 of the Tournament rules says
Two-Headed Giant Limited ...
- 71.6k
6
votes
Accepted
What does Will of the Council do with 2 Players?
The card itself states what to do in the case of a tie. In the example of Council's Judgement, it says "or tied for the most votes". This means that if 2 different permanents gets 1 vote each, then ...
- 69.2k
6
votes
Where can I practice MTG draft online and actually play against my opponents for free?
I know this question is extremely old by online standards, but I'm adding an answer in case anyone that doesn't know about Arena stumbles on this question in the future...
Answer: Wizards of the ...
6
votes
What are good strategies for booster drafts?
Marshall Sutcliffe has an interesting article about CABS Theory on magic.wizards.com. This post is a short extract of the original article. The original article offers much more ; go read it.
He uses ...
- 373
6
votes
Accepted
Is bringing packs that have a higher chance of a mythic rare to a draft cheating?
Yes, it would be cheating. Your tournament organizer must either provide the booster packs or randomly distribute them before the drafting phase. If that does not happen and you try to exploit that ...
- 46.1k
6
votes
Is there a significant advantage to being at an 8 person pod over a 6 person pod?
The number of players in a draft certainly affects the draft, but the effect is symmetrical; all players are affected similarly.
One reason that 8 players is optimal is because the pairings work out ...
- 590
6
votes
Accepted
In MTG Arena, does your "rank" affect what cards you can draft?
Not at all.
The cards you're shown in a draft on MTG Arena are a simulated version of what you would see in a paper draft of MTG cards.
This means that, for each pack, with some exceptions, there ...
5
votes
Two Player Draft Formats
I had fun with Winchester Draft a couple of times. The article mentions Winston Draft, which I've never tried.
- 47.1k
5
votes
How do I tell which cards are "bombs" in draft?
First off, what is a bomb? According to a Limited Information article it is ... a powerful, game-ending, stabilizing card." though the author does admit that other people might have slightly ...
- 20.1k
5
votes
How do you run a short multiplayer Conspiracy draft tournament?
Since multiplayer games tend to run longer than single-player matches, it's hard to do as many rounds as you would for e.g. a standard pod of 8. The scheme we've come up with at my LGS is to run two ...
- 5,341
5
votes
Two Player Draft Formats
We wanted something more like a "real" draft, where there is blindness, but not as much randomness as in Winston. So, our approach: make two stacks of 42 cards (3 boosters), one for each player. ...
- 51
5
votes
How many cards do I need to make a collected set "draftable?"
I had the exact same question, and wanted to quantify this. I've both done some simulation and some research, with the results below.
The TLDR: To very accurately be able to re-create the booster box ...
- 271
4
votes
How many cards do I need to make a collected set "draftable?"
It depends on how you want to build your packs. If you plan to build proper packs then the choices are different than if you just want to grab random cards. The best experience would be from the ...
- 1,021
4
votes
Is there a significant advantage to being at an 8 person pod over a 6 person pod?
I largely agree with esoterik's answer, however would like to elaborate on the strict number advantage, which I feel is the more accurate analysis and describes the inherent differences between player ...
- 7,982
4
votes
Can I ask for Wastes like basic lands in Limited?
The link you posted to Wastes on Gatherer has the answer you seek:
In Limited events (including Sealed Deck and Booster Draft), Wastes must be in your card pool to be included in your deck. You can’...
- 5,701
4
votes
XMage alternative to draft Magic the Gathering online?
Is there a newer alternative that players have moved to?
Arena; that may not be the answer you want to hear, but it is where the players are.
If you're reasonable at drafting (e.g. a 50% win rate or ...
- 7,143
3
votes
Two Player Draft Formats
There is also grid drafting, a format designed by Jason Waddell where the rules are:
Start with 18 packs of 9 cards.
For each pack, lay it out in a 3x3 grid face up (just lay them out in ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
How much worse is Rare Re-drafting for the weakest player than opening a random pack?
Expected value is obviously lower, but in an 8 player draft the last place player still gets the 8th most valuable card. Imagine that the value distribution is something like this
10 most valuable ...
- 8,288
3
votes
What is the proper way to split uneven draft pods?
Realistically, the simplest way to resolve having X players where X is odd, would be to treat it as if you were running an X+1 man pod and then someone dropped suddenly.
So you draw up the rankings ...
- 1,965
3
votes
Accepted
How long should a draft round last by official rules?
Wizards of the Coast makes no official rules on timing the draft phase
The official tournament rules cover drafting in section 7.7 and do mention timed drafts, but make no mention how those timing ...
- 46.1k
3
votes
Is bringing packs that have a higher chance of a mythic rare to a draft cheating?
As hinted on in the comments, if you're not participating in a sanctioned event, this isn't covered by official rules and will therefore be at your store's disgression.
In a sactioned event, the ...
- 7,982
3
votes
How many booster each players should crack for a 60 cards booster draft?
Depending on what your goal for your 60 card draft is, you might want to decide between 4 and 5 packs per player.
The MtG tournament rules recommend 3 booster packs per player for the default 40 card ...
- 46.1k
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