A bunch of people talked about drafting. however it does seem like it would be possible. There is only 5 cards er pack, so you cant exactly draft that. Maybe you could combined 2 packs into one larger pack. Seeing as 40%-50% of the cards probably cant be used, drafting 30 cards might still not be enough to play with, so you may have to do 4 "packs" instead of the traditional 3, now its starting to look fairly expensive for people to draft.

Then there is the problem of needing character cards. Seeing as dice cards are not only characters, guaranteeing you get enough of them is difficult depending on the rarity. There is also point differences for characters implying that you need to build a squad of X points, and they dont go in a deck. Maybe you have people bring their own characters, then you have people complain they dont have X character. When drafting people are at a disadvantage if they open a character, compared to a rare upgrade card.

Maybe some sort of sealed event is possible, with 10 packs? Fairly expense, so would rarely happen

-multiple packs?

-only 1 or 2 packs and then swap all the LS cards for the DS cards of another drafter?

-a special draft pack that includes enough generic cards that you only need 1 or 2 packs?

-a special rule where you are allowed to bring x cards or x non-rare heroes from home?

-a rule where you are allowed to bring any of the fixed cards from the starter sets with you?

-not requiring 30 cards for draft format?

-etc.

What's a Darft?

What's a Darft?

It's a new alien race in SW8.

What's a Darft?

It's what you call a second cousin to a Darth. They only call when they need to borrow money.

A bunch of people talked about drafting. however it does seem like it would be possible. There is only 5 cards er pack, so you cant exactly draft that. Maybe you could combined 2 packs into one larger pack. Seeing as 40%-50% of the cards probably cant be used, drafting 30 cards might still not be enough to play with, so you may have to do 4 "packs" instead of the traditional 3, now its starting to look fairly expensive for people to draft.

Then there is the problem of needing character cards. Seeing as dice cards are not only characters, guaranteeing you get enough of them is difficult depending on the rarity. There is also point differences for characters implying that you need to build a squad of X points, and they dont go in a deck. Maybe you have people bring their own characters, then you have people complain they dont have X character. When drafting people are at a disadvantage if they open a character, compared to a rare upgrade card.

Maybe some sort of sealed event is possible, with 10 packs? Fairly expense, so would rarely happen

The long and short of it is: we don't know enough yet to tell how a draft event would work (quite frankly at this point we don't know enough to tell how anything about the game will work) but I think it's safe to say that there will be a draft variant available because releasing a customizable game withou draft capacity is like selling hot dogs without the sausage, and there are myriads of ways to make it work. Heck, they managed to put draft capability into LCGs (with varying degrees of success, but hey).

You are assuming that the draft format will have the same deckbuilding rules as a constructed format. This isn't true for most draft formats in games, so I don't know why you would expect that to be the case for this game. I think we can safely assume a smaller deck size when drafting.

As for the Character cards, that's an issue that will require draft packs or bring-your-own-Character.

We don´t know the deckbuilding rules yet but yes i would expect that for draft play you would need 10 boosters (remember characters/dice are only rare or legendary) or you draft through buying a starter as base and then 3 boosters. The second option would also guarantee that only half of the people on a table are looking for the same cards.

Hello, I just found out about this game today, so have been perusing the forums and learning everything I can. I might be really off base on this, so if I am don't murder me, but Draft tournaments are my single favorite thing to play in a CCG, and I have found that typically the draft process itself will equalize out an unequal imbalance in card distribution. So if one person drew 5 characters and no upgrades they could pass on one or more of those characters to pick up some upgrades they could actually use, leaving those characters on the board for a player down the line who perhaps has drawn a ton of upgrades but no characters at all. So the likelihood of needing 10 packs seems a little extreme, it would probably be 4, maybe 5 so a $15-20 buy in to play, which seems about right.

What's a Darft?

It's what you call a second cousin to a Darth. They only call when they need to borrow money.

Ah yes, the infamous Smith lord Darft Fader, he's trying to hunt down the rebels of Rouge squadron for blowing up the deffstar.

I suspect that draft will be 6 boosters to build a 20 card deck w/ relaxed construction rules, and that a modest price subsidy will be common (6 boosters is normally $18, but entry would be $15, as an example; helps incentivize participation and is a totally reasonable price point for this type of event). Then, I expect the format will have use 8-10 people, and you'll open two boosters at once and pass those cards in the same way as you would a single pack. That gives you 30 cards to work with, only needing 20.

I wonder if there will be essential cards you will have to bring to pad a draft deck, like the land in a Magic draft.

I suspect that draft will be 6 boosters to build a 20 card deck w/ relaxed construction rules, and that a modest price subsidy will be common (6 boosters is normally $18, but entry would be $15, as an example; helps incentivize participation and is a totally reasonable price point for this type of event). Then, I expect the format will have use 8-10 people, and you'll open two boosters at once and pass those cards in the same way as you would a single pack. That gives you 30 cards to work with, only needing 20.

I'm sorry, where have you ever been that a draft cost less than the retail cost of the product being drafted?

I suspect that draft will be 6 boosters to build a 20 card deck w/ relaxed construction rules, and that a modest price subsidy will be common (6 boosters is normally $18, but entry would be $15, as an example; helps incentivize participation and is a totally reasonable price point for this type of event). Then, I expect the format will have use 8-10 people, and you'll open two boosters at once and pass those cards in the same way as you would a single pack. That gives you 30 cards to work with, only needing 20.

I'm sorry, where have you ever been that a draft cost less than the retail cost of the product being drafted?

Good point! Altough my LGS had a special offer on Conspiracy boosters if you played draft at the store.

I suspect that draft will be 6 boosters to build a 20 card deck w/ relaxed construction rules, and that a modest price subsidy will be common (6 boosters is normally $18, but entry would be $15, as an example; helps incentivize participation and is a totally reasonable price point for this type of event). Then, I expect the format will have use 8-10 people, and you'll open two boosters at once and pass those cards in the same way as you would a single pack. That gives you 30 cards to work with, only needing 20.

I'm sorry, where have you ever been that a draft cost less than the retail cost of the product being drafted?

In my town, the local games stores generally had three pack Magic Drafts for $10. the stores set these prices at $4 a pack, that ends up being a small price cut. Now, the prize pool for those weekly drafts wasn't much to write home about, but it sold product for the store. But earlier threads have pointed out that FFG generally has not supported formats that offer additional product as a prize. They offer kits. So I suspect that you will have either kit support (increasing the price point to probably $20 in my example), or you have unprized events that could be a little cheaper. This is still a good deal for all involved. If you get 10 folks buying 6 packs, even if 10 of those packs are "free", you've still sold almost 2 displays. That's good for the store. It's also good for the customer, because you get a basicly free pack, and you get to shape the cards you pull a bit instead of the pure randomness that just buying those packs would be, and you got to play with a group of people that also like the game on a totally level field.

Just listened to the questions segment of the FFG In-Flight Report and Steve Horvath confirmed that draft play is definitely something they're working on for Star Wars: Destiny.

EDIT: The link is cued up to that specific question.

Every time this thread gets bumped and I have to read the title again, this is all I can think of...

Every time this thread gets bumped and I have to read the title again, this is all I can think of...

Yep I am right there with you

To me the answer at that panel sound like "well we didn't design the game with draft play in mind but people are interested in it and it would move a lot of product so I guess we're going to try to release draft packs at some point in the future or something".

To me the answer at that panel sound like "well we didn't design the game with draft play in mind but people are interested in it and it would move a lot of product so I guess we're going to try to release draft packs at some point in the future or something".

Yeah, I can see that. It definitely doesn't feel like drafts were in mind when they designed the base game, which is a bit unfortunate, but it is constructed play that moves the most product (I think), so it makes sense that they focused on that. I think the major questions they are trying to hammer out for draft are:

1) How many packs are necessary?

2) How many points should a team be composed of?

3) How many cards should be included in the deck?

To me the answer at that panel sound like "well we didn't design the game with draft play in mind but people are interested in it and it would move a lot of product so I guess we're going to try to release draft packs at some point in the future or something".

Yeah, I can see that. It definitely doesn't feel like drafts were in mind when they designed the base game, which is a bit unfortunate, but it is constructed play that moves the most product (I think), so it makes sense that they focused on that. I think the major questions they are trying to hammer out for draft are:

1) How many packs are necessary?

2) How many points should a team be composed of?

3) How many cards should be included in the deck?

I think they didn't want to be presumptive. The goal was putting out a product that can sell and has the fanbase to continue is first and foremost. If that criteria is met when designing future sets a limited format in mind could be implemented.

The biggest deterrent to limited play I see is that boosters only contain 5 cards. I think you would need to open 6 boosters or more just to get a decent 15-20 card deck.

If they didn't design with limited in mind there might not be a lot of synergies between common cards so you'll probably end up with a pretty clunky deck. Kinda like if you tried to draft MTG with pre-mirage sets.

There are also issues with characters. It would suck to draft a a lot of blue/villain cards but not open any blue/villain hero. To solve that issue they would have to either create draft only characters or let you bring in characters from your own collection.

I mean they'll come out with draft packs at some point I'm sure but their success depends greatly on how elegant their design is. If it's expensive and it feels clunky it's not going to do well.

5 cards / booster is a problem for one-off drafting, but what about an Escalation Draft League? Bring your starter to the store, and purchase 5 boosters initially.

Create your deck from that, and play.

Each following week you purchase 2 additional boosters -- and you are able to swap out cards / dice from those pulls as well as your initial assortment.

See who has the most victories after 4 or 6 weeks. Sound feasible to anyone?

It definitely doesn't feel like drafts were in mind when they designed the base game, which is a bit unfortunate,

I believe FFG CEO Christian Petersen said in the In-Flight Report that draft is definitely a thing they have in mind, so I'm sure they have it all worked out how it will go.

Drafts might be in mind now, but it doesn't appear that they were when they were designing the game/packaging. You'd need to open 7-8 packs to be able to field anything close to a playable 20 card deck. And I believe it's technically possible to never see a Character in a draft, so you'd have to bring your own. But if you bring your own, then it's useless to draft more Characters. So...yeah, not a super clean experience. Not to mention the fiddliness of passing dice around the table along with cards.

I'd love limited play, but with the current model, it doesn't seem likely. "Draft packs" might be a thing. We'll see.