So, since the new print run of SoR is finally getting packs into players hands, I'm really looking forward to trying to do a draft, which always makes collectible games much more interesting. What format has players here tried and which ones felt the most successful?

Now, if FFG ever formally supports an official draft format AND we have enough product to support it, what things do you think they should consider or create to support it? I think a yearly draft pack that gives you a neutral, draft only character (and maybe a few cards) would be useful, since the only major flaw I see in drafts are not finding enough characters in a draft and in possibly not finding any. These packs could be the same each year or alter every year to give people a reason to get the pack. They should only cost around $5 or so, but you'd only need one for each draft. I was thinking something simple like a neutral character like the following would work, and you'd actually have to use the character for a draft deck as it will allow the draft rules of using both villain/hero cards as well as minimize the effect of someone acquiring extremely powerful characters over others by limiting the team building options. The character I had in mind would be "Merchant Droid; Cost: 5 points; Die: 1 Melee, 1 Range, 1 Focus, 1 Resource, Blank, Blank; You may include both hero and villain cards in your deck, as well as cards of any color. This character can only be used for draft." Something along those lines. Or allow the use of non-uniques, but they would have to be readily available for all players. I think draft packs will need to either be neutral or all colors so they do not force people into drafting specific colors or sides. Or instead of draft packs, include the cards used for just drafts in the starter decks, so no separate product would be needed.

Gonna have to cube it.

1 minute ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

Gonna have to cube it.

I don't see why, unless one cannot get a hold of product to do a normal draft. And FFG has done draft starters before, which works well.

Packs are only 5 cards. How many packs do you expect people to buy to play in a draft?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy drafting Magic. This game just isn't suited for a draft format. At all.

3 hours ago, Docile said:

Packs are only 5 cards. How many packs do you expect people to buy to play in a draft?

Probably 6 packs.

1 hour ago, KingOfOdonata said:

Probably 6 packs.

That would cost around $20 for a draft then. I think the idea of seasonal draft packs (that are good for a year) and then the purchase of 3 packs per draft makes a bit more sense.

4 minutes ago, Stone37 said:

That would cost around $20 for a draft then. I think the idea of seasonal draft packs (that are good for a year) and then the purchase of 3 packs per draft makes a bit more sense.

Three packs would be too little. I'd say minimum 5 with a 25 card deck minimum. And $15 to draft is the same as Magic.

1 hour ago, KingOfOdonata said:

Three packs would be too little. I'd say minimum 5 with a 25 card deck minimum. And $15 to draft is the same as Magic.

A Magic draft is 3 boosters. That $10. (at least at me LGS)

5 packs of Destiny would cost around $15. I've tried playing the game bending a few rules (less cards, changing color restrictions, etc.) and the game breaks quickly. I personally would not suggest playing the game any other way than the current rule set. With a yearly draft pack (a group of cards all players bring to the draft) and 3 to 5 boosters per draft, I think this could be a fun format.

Probably the most efficient and probable"yearly draft pack" (if this format ever get official support) would the the starters.

Destiny isn't Magic, no matter how much FFG or anybody else wants it to be. Don't get me wrong, I do think it falls somewhere under the broad umbrella of "CCG", but I don't think it's exactly the same thing, with the dice and the very fixed quantities of various rarity cards per pack/box.

I think $18 for a draft sounds perfectly reasonable, given the difference between the games, but you could also make players bring a few specific cards to the draft, such as the gray neutral events that came in the original Awakenings core sets. Or the store could hand those out from their singles at a discount for players who don't have them (like 15¢ each).

You also don't need all games to stick to the 30/30 cards/characters format... the core sets only have 24 cards, right? That's four packs per person and four promotional draft-only cards!

It doesn't have to be Magic for the comparison to be appropriate; regular drafters, the ones who drive the format, are amongst the most cash poor customers at my LGS. They flock to whichever store is offering the cheapest events, even if that means a savings of only $3-5. How do you imagine you'll get regular attendance for a game with even less support, at nearly double the cost?

I was assuming the natural way to do a draft would be to bring both starters and use drafted packs just to augment one (depending on if you get better villain or hero cards)?

22 minutes ago, pellen said:

I was assuming the natural way to do a draft would be to bring both starters and use drafted packs just to augment one (depending on if you get better villain or hero cards)?

You can do that, but at the end of the day, 70% of the decks will be one of the starter, plus 2-5 new cards.

12 minutes ago, pitsch said:

You can do that, but at the end of the day, 70% of the decks will be one of the starter, plus 2-5 new cards.

Yep. Kinda like when I first bought into the game and ended up using Kylo/Trooper/Trooper for the next month...

11 minutes ago, pitsch said:

You can do that, but at the end of the day, 70% of the decks will be one of the starter, plus 2-5 new cards.

Yep, that would be exactly the problem. There needs to be more variety of base characters to work with in case not enough show up to draft. I'd incorporate some non-unique characters being always available or something.

The only way i see making draft work is if you made custom packs. Make 3-5 with just non character cards then 2-3 with character packs. maybe do like magic with 15 cards a pack, 1 BF, 8 common, 4 uncommon and 2 rare. the 2 rare is just so decks can have an ok amount of upgrades and supports. You can also make "seeded" packs, a small (15-20 card) pack of cards that is directed at a certain color and faction, then x amount of packs. This again will be mostly seeded pack vs seeded pack. Test different things with your buddies and see what works.

... or you just build a cube, if you're really that set on drafting. Everything else is out of our hands, because the current products available to us just aren't draftable.

Everyone gets 6 packs and each person can bring ONE OF EACH non-unique character. So this way you cant play Death Trooper x3 everytime. The TD would have to know who drew extra non-unique characters tho to just make sure they dont do anything sneaky. But outside of that, you should be good.

If a person plays, Padawan+Jedi Acolyte+Commando or Death Trooper+Royal Guard+Tusken Raider everytime, so be it.

~D

Our LGS does 9 packs drafted in 3 sets of 3, using any characters you own brought in from outside the draft and following normal deck restrictions to build a 25 card deck. It's $35, and we've had 14-16 people at the 3 drafts so far. It seems to work well and we've had a bunch of fun.

26 minutes ago, HoodieDM said:

Everyone gets 6 packs and each person can bring ONE OF EACH non-unique character. So this way you cant play Death Trooper x3 everytime. The TD would have to know who drew extra non-unique characters tho to just make sure they dont do anything sneaky. But outside of that, you should be good.

If a person plays, Padawan+Jedi Acolyte+Commando or Death Trooper+Royal Guard+Tusken Raider everytime, so be it.

~D

Something like this sounds great as well. Now, would you draft 2 packs at one (open two and mix them together), or just one at a time? I guess you would need two if doing an 8 person draft pod.

There are ways to do draft, such as the previously mentioned non-unique character or bring a starter deck and including 6 boosters. What is isn't is cheap.

17 hours ago, Symbiode said:

Our LGS does 9 packs drafted in 3 sets of 3, using any characters you own brought in from outside the draft and following normal deck restrictions to build a 25 card deck. It's $35, and we've had 14-16 people at the 3 drafts so far. It seems to work well and we've had a bunch of fun.

Yeah, a lot of people would be willing to spend a bit on it, especially if there is a good prize support. I think I'd keep it down to 6 packs to keep costs lower. And players can use 1 of any non-unique in the current block of sets.

Though, if FFG wants to make this an official format, I'd really recommend a small, yearly draft starter, so entry is easier and you don't need to acquire any other cards other than the starter beforehand.

18 hours ago, Symbiode said:

Our LGS does 9 packs drafted in 3 sets of 3, using any characters you own brought in from outside the draft and following normal deck restrictions to build a 25 card deck. It's $35, and we've had 14-16 people at the 3 drafts so far. It seems to work well and we've had a bunch of fun.

Sometimes when a new Magic set comes out my playgroup will do an unofficial box sealed event. I think the last one was for Modern Masters 2017, MSRP $240. Oh! I bet some of the more affluent community members could find a way to draft complete Saga Sets from TC.

35 minutes ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

Sometimes when a new Magic set comes out my playgroup will do an unofficial box sealed event. I think the last one was for Modern Masters 2017, MSRP $240. Oh! I bet some of the more affluent community members could find a way to draft complete Saga Sets from TC.

When I play Magic, I usually get a booster box and run a friendly draft out of that where I keep the cards and no one pays any money. It helps me build my collection as well as gives us a chance to draft. It also takes the pressure off of rare drafting.

With that said, I just got two boxes of Spirit in today and I'm doing a draft tomorrow.

You could also do what they call a rotisserie style draft. You open everything and lay it all out and how many people you have number off 1 through X. 1 starts off the count and you pick a card, 2 picks a card, so on and so forth until last player X for Rd 1. Rd 2 starts with X first and work backwards to player 1 (like fantasy selections) until everything is drafted.

~D

The problem with any draft that involves placing what you opened into a public pot is the very real danger of players pulling out of a draft to keep that legendary they've been chasing.

I wouldn't blame the player either. I open Palpatine, I am not giving him up...