Suggestions for holding your own draft
Limited forum
Posted on March 26, 2015, 10:55 p.m. by SpartanCEL
I plan on drafting conspiracy for my birthday, which is roughly a month away (I get excited about anything magic.) There will be about, and hopefully, 16 people, including me. So I'll do 2 pods of 8. I'll get 1.5 booster boxes (6 packs left if I added correctly.) I have drafted a number of times so I know how it works, but I haven't hosted one.
I'd like to hear multiple opinions on the following
1- How many lands should I have and would a land station cover it?
2- I like how swiss drafting works, so what is the best way to go about selecting who plays who and scoring? Like is there a handy website?
3- Anything else relevant to holding a fun and successful draft! Suggestions and tips are greatly appreciated!
1 - for 16 people will hardly be enough - if everyone plays 18 lands, that is 268 lands. However, you have to account for people playing more lands than some. I would go for 100 of each at least, or best option - ask people to bring lands.
Next article is sleeves. You will want people to sleeve their decks. Either everyone brings or provide penny sleeves.
2 - For 16 players of conspiracy, I would recommend drafting in pods of 8, then breaking up into predetermined groups of four out of the pods.
Organize at least three rounds of multiplayer, since consipiracy is intended for multiplayer:
Round 1: everyone plays, the last two players to survive go on to the winners bracket. The first player in the pod gets two points, the second gets one. The remainging to players go to the losers bracket.
Round 2: Same thing, except organize the people by brackets, ie 2 winners from one group play with 2 winners from the other group. Same for losers. Afterwards, the top 2 players of the losers bracket go on to qualify for the finals with the winners from the top 2 of the winners bracket. 2 points for winning your match, 1 point for finishing second.
Round 3: Same as before, but pairing 2 winners from the winners bracket with 2 winners from the losers bracket. 2 points for winning the pod, 1 point for second place.
At the end of the day, distribute packs based on points for the people with the most points and some at random. 2 packs for winning, 1 pack for second, 3 packs at random among the last 8 places.
3 - having slips - match slips (without having to sign, no need to be that official) will help you organize the abovementioned madness and will eliminate the need for software or programs.
Have plenty of refreshments ready to go, especially drinks.
have other paraphanelia like dice and pads readily available.
Prepare for at least one half an hour break, preferably more between rounds.
Be prepared with sideevents like commander. If going with the above method, people that keep losing may get bored, so having something on the side will be great.
Enlist people to help with organization beforehand and assign them roles.
Have fun with it!
March 27, 2015 5:43 a.m.
SpartanCEL says... #4
Thanks guys! That clears a lot up and thanks Boza for the detailed instructions
dan8080 says... #2
A few friends and I typically would draft a set when it comes out for shiggles where it's just 8 of us and a booster box. From experience, we always had a ton of lands to be safe like a couple of us would bring lands. But that was just more of some of us have basics literally in a single box and it's used for that.
As for pairings from experience what my group would do is say roll a dice in your case a D20 night work best. Assign everyone a number with the extras being re rolls and roll pairings up. When you start having most of your pairings decided it's recommended to maybe convert to a less sided dice just to save time or assign more numbers on the initial die for those already taken. After the first round it's a little simpler as you now would have records working into how players are paired.
Beyond that just have a fun time. There's not much more to say beyond that. Hopefully this helps and is clear enough to follow. Good luck in your draft and happy early birthday.
March 27, 2015 2:25 a.m.