[Casual] My Idea For A New Draft Format With Example Cube

[QazThePolim]

My Idea For A New Draft Format With Example Cube

1. Get 18 packs and open them
2. Find 6 players
3. Shuffle all the cards into a big pile.
4. Decide who goes first
5. Put the top 6 cards on the table, face up
6. The first player picks one and replaces it with the next card in the pile, face up
7. Repeat step 5 in a snake draft

I am not aware if this is already a draft format, but i thought it would be fun

[Valmias]

I haven't seen a draft like this done before, but it looks like it would be useful for any situation where you had a non-standard ratio of packs to players (say, you had 4 players but only 11 boosters, or 5 players and 20 boosters). I'm wondering, though, how often you would run into a situation where you'd be stuck with 5 duds showing and players just end up picking the playable card with each draw. It wouldn't take very long doing that before it stopped feeling like an actual choice. What if you shuffled and re-dealt the six cards when it came back to the first players choice again? It adds some time to the process, but it will keep it from getting stagnant and it will let players get a better idea of what is in the cube so they can plan their strategy. This draft is already going to take many times longer than usual because cards get chosen one at a time instead of six at a time and the choosing player has to re-evaluate after the previous player flips a new card, so it may as well not be long and same-y.

I love the idea of cubes and this is basically just a randomized cube that you can throw together. With a regular cube, you would still divide the cards into "packs" and draft and pass that way, so I'm wondering was there a specific motivation behind blending all the boosters into one pool? I don't hate it, but it seems like the main differences between this and regular drafting is that 1) there is less control over making power levels even between players and 2) you get to see what the other players are drafting. So there's more information to work with but less control over the outcome.

With a regular draft, every player gets at least a chance to grab the best card in their pack, but with this version I could see a player getting shut out from any higher-rarity cards just from luck. I'd probably be annoyed if there were only commons on the table when it came to my first pick. In a curated cube this might not be a problem, but with regular boosters it could shut a person off from winning before they even build a deck. Is there any way to ensure that players get equal access to good cards?

[QazThePolim]

I haven't considered 5 duds coming up or the problem of all the good rares being picked before the last or even second to last player gets their first pick. My goal was to make an alternative to regular booster draft without making it too expensive for budget players like myself. If it was built in a cube, even a pauper cube it might reduce the chance of 5 duds or no good first picks, but i'm still unsure.

I like you idea of shuffling each rotation, even if it would take much more time. I was also thinking that putting a full 15 cards out instead of just 6 would make it have more options and while not completely stopping it from being all duds when it gets to a certain point, definitely slow it down and make it less likely.

I'll be having friends over soon and i have an unopened box of War of the Spark so I'll try to test this then, both the original way and the shuffling way. Thank you for your feedback.