When pondering the Rooster draft yugular is running here, I got to thinking about some alternative ways of drafting, specifically with online community drafts in mind. Here’s a few (hopefully new) draft variants I came up with.
Seeded Duotisserie
This is a Rotisserie style draft where instead of drafting single cards, the cube is randomized into 2-card packages. In order to prevent some lucky person randomly getting Black Lotus – Sol Ring with a single pick, the top tier cards are nominated as ‘seeds’, and will form a package of their own. This will prevent completely ridiculous packages from cropping up, and will also provide some additional tension – maybe you’d rather have the Armageddon – Figure of Destiny package than that Mox? The nomination of seedings is up to the draft organizer.
The draft proceeds as a normal Rotisserie, where each pick nets you either a seeded card or a 2-card package until each player has had a predetermined number of picks.
Tiered Rotisserie
Building on this idea, we get a Tiered Rotisserie. This also has the top tier single picks, but instead of randomizing the rest of the cube into 2-card packages, a second tier of cards is nominated. Each second tier card gets dealt a random card from the rest of the cube, to form 2-card packages. The remainder of cards are randomly divided in 3-card packages. The card selection and distribution of tiers is up to the draft organizer.
The draft proceeds as a normal Rotisserie, where each pick nets you either 1, 2 or 3 cards until each player has had a predetermined number of picks.
Rochestisserie
This is more of a cross between Rotisserie and Rochester – yeah, I know, who’d have guessed? The cube is divided in 8 random piles, each having (roughly) the same section distribution as the cube itself. Each pile is then drafted Rotisserie style, with each person getting only 5 picks per pile (assuming an 8-person draft). This means that once 40 cards have been drafted from pile 1, the remaining pile 1 cards are put aside, and pile 2 is revealed. Repeat until each person has drafted 40 cards in this way. Draft positions shoudl be rotated so that each drafter has had each draft position exactly once during the draft.
If so desired, a number of cards can be seeded and distributed evenly in the 8 piles to prevent some piles having much more crazy stuff than others. I’m not entirely sure how to go about this though, as section distribution would have to be taken into account, which complicates matters. Maybe fully random will work fine.
t
Please let me what you think of these draft variants. After one of the currently running drafts is done, maybe we can do one of them - I’m willing to play host. If you’re up for that, let me know and also which variant you find most interesting.
The first two both sound fun, but ranking cards is going to be both contentious and difficult. My one recommendation would be to break the draft up into sections, as attempting to choose from 100 two card piles (or whatever) is going to be information overload.
The first two both sound fun, but ranking cards is going to be both contentious and difficult. My one recommendation would be to break the draft up into sections, as attempting to choose from 100 two card piles (or whatever) is going to be information overload.
I like the third style the best.
Ranking cards will not be contentious and difficult at all, as long as no democratic system is used
As for information overload, I hear what you're saying although I don't think it will be far worse than it is for plain old Rotisserie. And anyway, the point is to create a challenging exercise, right?
I'll chalk you up for number 3, thanks for the feedback Phantizle!
Seeded Duotisserie
This is a Rotisserie style draft where instead of drafting single cards, the cube is randomized into 2-card packages. In order to prevent some lucky person randomly getting Black Lotus – Sol Ring with a single pick, the top tier cards are nominated as ‘seeds’, and will form a package of their own. This will prevent completely ridiculous packages from cropping up, and will also provide some additional tension – maybe you’d rather have the Armageddon – Figure of Destiny package than that Mox? The nomination of seedings is up to the draft organizer.
The draft proceeds as a normal Rotisserie, where each pick nets you either a seeded card or a 2-card package until each player has had a predetermined number of picks.
Tiered Rotisserie
Building on this idea, we get a Tiered Rotisserie. This also has the top tier single picks, but instead of randomizing the rest of the cube into 2-card packages, a second tier of cards is nominated. Each second tier card gets dealt a random card from the rest of the cube, to form 2-card packages. The remainder of cards are randomly divided in 3-card packages. The card selection and distribution of tiers is up to the draft organizer.
The draft proceeds as a normal Rotisserie, where each pick nets you either 1, 2 or 3 cards until each player has had a predetermined number of picks.
Rochestisserie
This is more of a cross between Rotisserie and Rochester – yeah, I know, who’d have guessed? The cube is divided in 8 random piles, each having (roughly) the same section distribution as the cube itself. Each pile is then drafted Rotisserie style, with each person getting only 5 picks per pile (assuming an 8-person draft). This means that once 40 cards have been drafted from pile 1, the remaining pile 1 cards are put aside, and pile 2 is revealed. Repeat until each person has drafted 40 cards in this way. Draft positions shoudl be rotated so that each drafter has had each draft position exactly once during the draft.
If so desired, a number of cards can be seeded and distributed evenly in the 8 piles to prevent some piles having much more crazy stuff than others. I’m not entirely sure how to go about this though, as section distribution would have to be taken into account, which complicates matters. Maybe fully random will work fine.
t
Please let me what you think of these draft variants. After one of the currently running drafts is done, maybe we can do one of them - I’m willing to play host. If you’re up for that, let me know and also which variant you find most interesting.
Thanks!
I like the third style the best.
Ranking cards will not be contentious and difficult at all, as long as no democratic system is used
As for information overload, I hear what you're saying although I don't think it will be far worse than it is for plain old Rotisserie. And anyway, the point is to create a challenging exercise, right?
I'll chalk you up for number 3, thanks for the feedback Phantizle!