Here is a draft format i am working on for destiny, I plan on trying to get a test draft in at the Rainy Day Games launch event in Aloha Oregon.

please limit your feedback to the format presented. Things like "i don't like drafting" are not feedback and kind of weird to interject into a conversation of people excited about drafting.

6+10 Draft format (any name suggestions)

Requirements

All players need to bring one or both starters and six packs.

Note the starters are re-useable

Overview and special rule

The players will draft a set of cards from the packs and combine it with up to ten cards from one or both of the starters to build a draw deck. Characters and battlegrounds do not count as part of the 10 cards.

Ignore the hero and villain card restrictions for deck building and character selection. (note the starters offer at least one character from each color so color restrictions can stay in place)

Drafting

Drafting takes place over two rounds.

Players open three packs for each round of drafting. The cards are combined into a single pack. The dice are put into the center of the table in view of all players.

Round one

Draft one card pass to the right.

Round two

Draft one card pass to the left.

Players then Collect all matching dice for the cards drafted.

Players then select from their available characters and battle grounds and build a deck using the cards they drafted and up to 10 of the cards from the starters.

my opinions on the format.

The current starters are functional but not idea for this format. that both of them focus on blue dice skews the available pool, not that is a bad thing but it is a thing. but the starters do have all character colors between them and in fact the characters are cheap enough to field all three colors if desired.

18 dollars per draft is not fantastic but its really hard to ensure the amount of dice the game plays well with.

Card organisation is going to be tricky. keeping track of what was drafted and what was pulled from a starter deck could be problematic. i hope future starters can include an icon on the cards showing they are from the starter.

until then card sleeves are going to be very important for easy organisation of cards in this format. players should have both their starters sleeved before the event. when building their deck players use up to 10 sleeved cards and then once finished sleeve their drafted cards.

Drafts are my prefered way of tournament play in CCG. That said I dislike draft formats that require an outside source of content not drafted at the table e.g. bring your own starter. I personally will look at a format that only drafts from boosters. But to sort that out I will wait until I have the product in my hands and opened a representable amount of boosters to look at the draftability.

Regardless of what i said above, to evaluate/give my thought about your 6+10 format I would need three additional essential informations:

1) how many players draft at one table from one pool?

2) what deck size do you plan to be created out of the drafted+10 cards?

3) do you use the standard point limit for characters?

With regards to tracking cards from starters vs. cards drafted -- perhaps only permit cards of the Starter rarity as your up-to-10 cards? Dice-wise, that eliminates your starter copies of Jedi Robes, Rey's Staff, BB-8, Stormtrooper, Immobilize, First Order TIE Fighter, and Infantry Grenades.

Stormtrooper's the only crucial one in there, for me, as it's your starter red character. So maybe you make an exception for him. Only starter rarity cards and one Stormtrooper.

Things to think about: Is bringing two copies of the same starter permitted? (2-dice Finn is unavailable otherwise, and allowing two Kylo decks gives you two Stormtrooper builds)

I don't think an $18 draft is out of the question as a price point. Drafting's meant to be cheap vs. buying into a deck as part of the cost of entry, not on a per-ticket basis.

You're getting six dice and thirty cards from the 6-pack draft. Giving you a card pool of 54-78 (depending on whether you bring one or two starters) to select your 30 card + characters and battleground from. That's not bad inherently, but then when you consider that you're choosing around 20 of those cards from your drafted set of around 30 (depending on how many characters turn up and whether you choose starter characters), the illusion of elbow room does disappear. Still, there's some good staple support to fill the right gaps in your starters, probably, so it can probably work.

Saroth

(1) there are 15 cards per round of drafting so i think pools of 6 players would be good most players would get to see the same stack three times.

(2) normal deck size

(3) normal point limits

i imagine it would be possible to do three rounds of drafting three packs and only using the pack content and the starter characters/battlegrounds as fall back. nine dice is a pretty limited pool though.

@kaffis

Interesting idea! The character cards and battle grounds don't count against the 10 so it would make sense to let the trooper slide. i will keep it in mind if the card organisation becomes a problem.

My goal is to make it approachable. Double starters sounds a little too expensive personally. also there is the question of when do player's choose what starters to bring? before the draft or after the draft? do other players know if it's before? if It's after then were giving slight advantages to players who buy double of each starter. ideally it would only take a single starter but i allow both starters is to make up for the lack of character options.

Ignoring the faction restrictions will break this game quickly.

Personally IF FFG has a draft play in mind for this game it might follow the Android model. I'm not so sure they are thinking about a draft model though because Android does not have the success that FFG wants to see out of a Star Wars IP. They didn't even attempt that model with the Star Wars LCG.

I'm speculating that a different model for tournament play has already been crafted. The boosters seem to be organized in a way that they could be incorporated. I would think they would need to be or other wise, why make this a CCG? Honestly, I think they might concentrate on trade dynamics. They have mentioned a few times over how only being allowed 2 cards of the same (non unique) card in a deck will foster trading among players. A tournament with an initial trading phase before play starts would be a unique experience.

do you have any example combos that would make removing the hero/villain restriction unfun? it is a limited format so realise even if such combos exist that they are going to be rare as you would have to draft them.

do you have any example combos that would make removing the hero/villain restriction unfun? it is a limited format so realise even if such combos exist that they are going to be rare as you would have to draft them.

Balance is an important part for any game. FFG has clearly created the Villain and Hero factions for a reason, and I don't think it's for theme reasons alone. One example I can give is the Tusken Raider. It's a cheap Villain card that theme wise is not a "villain" in the same sense that the Empire or First Order is. They are more "scum and villainy" but Destiny has no such third faction and does not appear to even be interested in creating such a faction. It would appear that powers (that when combined) with the potential to break the game have been separated into two different groups that cannot (for the sake of balance) be combined.

We just don't know enough about this game and how FFG plans to package it to start creating draft rules. I know for many MTG fans (and other CCGs) this is the GO TO format of play, but we can't be certain that is what FFG has in mind. Perhaps Destiny will house a brand new format of non constructed tournament play!

How about this as a draft format. Every player must buy 5 (or maybe 6) boosters. All deck building rules must be followed except for deck size is reduced to 20. Before play begins, players may trade with one another for a set period of time to help craft and complete their decks. Each tournament will feature a location (provided by FFG in tournament kits) and the initiative winner gets to choose between going first or two shields.

How about this as a draft format. Every player must buy 5 (or maybe 6) boosters. All deck building rules must be followed except for deck size is reduced to 20. Before play begins, players may trade with one another for a set period of time to help craft and complete their decks. Each tournament will feature a location (provided by FFG in tournament kits) and the initiative winner gets to choose between going first or two shields.

I could see them providing a tournament location for each tournament kit. that could be fun. I think tough it might be hard for two players to build a legal deck out of 10-12 boosters. But I would like this format for a team oriented tournament where 4 players each buy 5-6 boosters and the team then has to build 4 20 card decks from that pool that they play against the other team/s. Might be willing to give this a try if I find enough players around my location..