A bit about myself first: I am an old-school player from the New York City area who was pretty well-known on the PTQ circuit in the late 90's and early 2000's as "Negator." I went to a team Pro Tour and two Nationals (with questionable results). While I stopped playing in tournaments, I never stopped following new sets and playing Magic at home. I used to be a star, dammit! A star!
Anyway, the format I wish to present to you is one built on the concept of maximizing choice, limiting luck, and creating a way for two people to play an immersive 2-4 hour competition where a large number of cards are used without causing confusion. I give you: GLADIATOR DRAFT!
The concept, at its most basic, is a rotisserie draft roughly simulating the old Team Draft format, with each person drafting two separate decks that do not share cards! Lets get into the basics:
1. The Card Pool The first post will cover the pool.
The card pool is unlike Cube in that rarity is preserved, and cards of all formats and sets are integrated. Sets like Lorwyn or Kamigawa do worse because their mechanics are too parasitic and don't play well with others. Gold-matters sets are always best, followed by artifacts-matter and graveyard-matters. Expensive-card and summon-type sets do worse.
A "pack" in this format is 2 Rares, 3 Uncommons and 7 Commons. If all three uncommons share a color, they must be shuffled back and re-dealt. Same for four or more of the commons. No such rule for the rares.
The rarity of a card in its original set is not terribly important. Lightning Bolt is a rare because so many strictly worse cards exist at uncommon (Volcanic Hammer) and common (Shock). Here is a guideline I use for rarity:
Rare:
1. Bomb creatures (Visara, Shivan, Sun Titan)
2. Board Sweeps (Wrath of God, Pernicious Deed)
3. X spells (Fireball, Rolling Thunder, Ghitu Fire)(Careful, as old sets have many x-spells. Don't let them overwhelm the draft!)
4. Ludicrously efficient removal (Swords to Plowshares), repeating removal (Slaughter) or creature theft (Control Magic).
5. Card advantage of more than 1 (Concentrate, Stunted Growth) since the format is very card-advantage-heavy
6. Powerful artifacts that can be played in any deck (Loxodon Warhammer, Icy Manipulator).
7. Extremely high-quality evasion creatures (Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel, Air Elemental, Hypnotic Specter).
Uncommon:
1. Terror effects (Terror, Dark Banishing, Cruel Revival)
2. Very efficient creatures (River Boa, White Knight, Soltari Monk)
3. Dominant activated ability creatures (Looters, Healers for more than 1 damage, Sparksmith)
4. Efficient burn (Lightning Blast, Incinerate)
5. Near-total removal (Oblivion Ring, Death Pulse, Arrest)
Two closing thoughts on the pool: Ban all hosers, like Perish, that are global. Self-Inflicted Wound is fine, on the other hand. Second, do not remove the bad cards. They are part of the choice element.
The next post, when I have time, will cover the draft. Cheers!
Now that you have a pool different from any Cube format you have ever run, its time to draft! The players sit across from each other, with a deck slot for each hand. The players flip a coin, and the winner picks to either be positions 1 and 2, or 3 and 4. There are four rounds (or "innings") of 4 picks each, with each of the 4 decks having a first pick.
The draft begins, and the first 12-card pack (2R, 3U, 7C) is opened. The draft is similar to a rotisserie baseball fantasy draft. The first pack with involve both of player 1's decks (A and B) picking, followed by C and D. At D, the picks rotate, with D picking again ("wheeling"), followed by C, B, A, then A, B, C, and D with the last of the 12 cards.
The next pack, the picks move over 1 spot. B picks first, followed by both of player 2's decks (C then D), then A wheels, followed back by D and C, then B twice, etc.
The next two packs are C, and then D with the first pick. In essence, each "inning" has two types of packs: packs where one player cherry-picks the first two picks, but the other gets the next 4, and packs where the pick is split, with one player getting the first pick for one deck, and the fourth and fifth for the other.
The third round is a repeat of the first, and the fourth a repeat of the second.
The best part of this draft is that you have to contemplate hate picking, spreading out the wealth of cards, positioning your decks the best way relative to you opponent's decks, and all of the other stuff that goes into drafting team decks that cannot share cards. But, its all on you! You have to keep track of two decks at once, and make sure they do not interfere with each other.
This is not a strategy discussion of the format, but only a rules breakdown; the strategy is endless! The last post will be on play and record keeping.
Each person now has two card-pools of 48 cards per deck. Each player obviously has access to all the basic land his heart desires, building two 40-card decks without mixing ANY cards from the two pools.
Each deck plays both of the opponent's two decks in a best-of-five match. Side boarding is ok after game one. This means that there are four matches.
The winner of each draft is determined first by the match record, and if the record was 2-2, games record.
This is, in my opinion, the best way to play 1v1. The 4 best of three matches create a good balance between time spent drafting and playing. The format has infinite replayability and allows a variable and flexible form of limited play where, due to each person having two decks, choices need to be made. I am particularly proud of the two-rare concept, since it creates real conundrums.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me. If you are in the NYC area, perhaps I can show you first hand
A bit about myself first: I am an old-school player from the New York City area who was pretty well-known on the PTQ circuit in the late 90's and early 2000's as "Negator." I went to a team Pro Tour and two Nationals (with questionable results). While I stopped playing in tournaments, I never stopped following new sets and playing Magic at home. I used to be a star, dammit! A star!
Anyway, the format I wish to present to you is one built on the concept of maximizing choice, limiting luck, and creating a way for two people to play an immersive 2-4 hour competition where a large number of cards are used without causing confusion. I give you: GLADIATOR DRAFT!
The concept, at its most basic, is a rotisserie draft roughly simulating the old Team Draft format, with each person drafting two separate decks that do not share cards! Lets get into the basics:
1. The Card Pool The first post will cover the pool.
The card pool is unlike Cube in that rarity is preserved, and cards of all formats and sets are integrated. Sets like Lorwyn or Kamigawa do worse because their mechanics are too parasitic and don't play well with others. Gold-matters sets are always best, followed by artifacts-matter and graveyard-matters. Expensive-card and summon-type sets do worse.
A "pack" in this format is 2 Rares, 3 Uncommons and 7 Commons. If all three uncommons share a color, they must be shuffled back and re-dealt. Same for four or more of the commons. No such rule for the rares.
The rarity of a card in its original set is not terribly important. Lightning Bolt is a rare because so many strictly worse cards exist at uncommon (Volcanic Hammer) and common (Shock). Here is a guideline I use for rarity:
Rare:
1. Bomb creatures (Visara, Shivan, Sun Titan)
2. Board Sweeps (Wrath of God, Pernicious Deed)
3. X spells (Fireball, Rolling Thunder, Ghitu Fire)(Careful, as old sets have many x-spells. Don't let them overwhelm the draft!)
4. Ludicrously efficient removal (Swords to Plowshares), repeating removal (Slaughter) or creature theft (Control Magic).
5. Card advantage of more than 1 (Concentrate, Stunted Growth) since the format is very card-advantage-heavy
6. Powerful artifacts that can be played in any deck (Loxodon Warhammer, Icy Manipulator).
7. Extremely high-quality evasion creatures (Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel, Air Elemental, Hypnotic Specter).
Uncommon:
1. Terror effects (Terror, Dark Banishing, Cruel Revival)
2. Very efficient creatures (River Boa, White Knight, Soltari Monk)
3. Dominant activated ability creatures (Looters, Healers for more than 1 damage, Sparksmith)
4. Efficient burn (Lightning Blast, Incinerate)
5. Near-total removal (Oblivion Ring, Death Pulse, Arrest)
Common:
1. Small removal (Shock, Swat)
2. Inefficient removal (Waste Away)
3. Bears
4. Everything else!
Two closing thoughts on the pool: Ban all hosers, like Perish, that are global. Self-Inflicted Wound is fine, on the other hand. Second, do not remove the bad cards. They are part of the choice element.
The next post, when I have time, will cover the draft. Cheers!
Now that you have a pool different from any Cube format you have ever run, its time to draft! The players sit across from each other, with a deck slot for each hand. The players flip a coin, and the winner picks to either be positions 1 and 2, or 3 and 4. There are four rounds (or "innings") of 4 picks each, with each of the 4 decks having a first pick.
The draft begins, and the first 12-card pack (2R, 3U, 7C) is opened. The draft is similar to a rotisserie baseball fantasy draft. The first pack with involve both of player 1's decks (A and B) picking, followed by C and D. At D, the picks rotate, with D picking again ("wheeling"), followed by C, B, A, then A, B, C, and D with the last of the 12 cards.
The next pack, the picks move over 1 spot. B picks first, followed by both of player 2's decks (C then D), then A wheels, followed back by D and C, then B twice, etc.
The next two packs are C, and then D with the first pick. In essence, each "inning" has two types of packs: packs where one player cherry-picks the first two picks, but the other gets the next 4, and packs where the pick is split, with one player getting the first pick for one deck, and the fourth and fifth for the other.
Therefore, round/inning one looks like this:
1. A-B-C-D-D-C-B-A-A-B-C-D
2. B-C-D-A-A-D-C-B-B-C-D-A
3. C-D-A-B-B-A-D-C-C-D-B-A
4. D-A-B-C-C-B-A-D-D-A-B-C
Round two reverses courses. Instead of drafting clockwise, you draft counter-clockwise. Therefore, round/inning two looks like:
1. D-C-B-A-A-B-C-D-D-C-B-A
2. C-B-A-D-D-A-B-C-C-B-A-D
3. B-A-D-C-C-D-A-B-B-A-D-C
4. A-D-C-B-B-C-D-A-A-D-C-B
The third round is a repeat of the first, and the fourth a repeat of the second.
The best part of this draft is that you have to contemplate hate picking, spreading out the wealth of cards, positioning your decks the best way relative to you opponent's decks, and all of the other stuff that goes into drafting team decks that cannot share cards. But, its all on you! You have to keep track of two decks at once, and make sure they do not interfere with each other.
This is not a strategy discussion of the format, but only a rules breakdown; the strategy is endless! The last post will be on play and record keeping.
Each person now has two card-pools of 48 cards per deck. Each player obviously has access to all the basic land his heart desires, building two 40-card decks without mixing ANY cards from the two pools.
Each deck plays both of the opponent's two decks in a best-of-five match. Side boarding is ok after game one. This means that there are four matches.
The winner of each draft is determined first by the match record, and if the record was 2-2, games record.
This is, in my opinion, the best way to play 1v1. The 4 best of three matches create a good balance between time spent drafting and playing. The format has infinite replayability and allows a variable and flexible form of limited play where, due to each person having two decks, choices need to be made. I am particularly proud of the two-rare concept, since it creates real conundrums.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me. If you are in the NYC area, perhaps I can show you first hand
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