I Ran a Magic: the Gathering Cube Draft

Magic: the Gathering Cube Draft and team tournament

I hosted a Magic cube draft tournament earlier this month and it was a blast. Here's what I did:

  • Last summer I built what is called a cube -- a collection of the best and rarest cards I've gathered over the past 20 years. I made the cube large enough to support 8 players.
  • I mixed up the cards and produced a bunch of simulated 16 card boosters. I made them 16 cards because it allowed each player to take 2 cards during each draft round.
  • We divided up into two teams of four, old guys vs kids, and alternated team members around the draft table.
  • I decided to use a Rochester draft format. We opened one pack at a time and put all the cards on the table. Whoever had first pick would choose one card then we went around the table and back. The last to pick then chose two cards as we wound our way back to the start player who would automatically get the last card. Each round the start drafter rotated to the next player.
  • We played round robin against every other player on the other team, so four rounds total. Then I paired up the #1 player for each team, #2, etc. The old guys crushed the young ones and I was the overall winner with my red dragon / direct damage deck. I also had a splash of white for enchantment and artifact removal.
  • Once the tournament was officially over we did some intra-team play which was also a lot of fun.

I'd like to improve the cube with more rare and powerful cards. I haven't been a collector in ages so to complete the cube I had to pick some sub standard cards. My goal is that when a cube pack is opened, it should be extremely painful to pass up any card!

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