Cube drafts are at their best with a full table of eight drafters, but some days you simply end up short-handed. Six-player drafts can be an organizational challenge if played as an individual competition. The first round produces three winners and three losers. Who do you pair together in Round 2? The Round 3 pairings can be trickier still.
To avoid this headache, I recommend running six-player drafts as a team event. Here’s how it works:
First, assign each player a seating assignment.
Players 1, 3 and 5 with form the first team, with Players 2, 4 and 6 forming the second team. Seat the players as illustrated above, and run a booster draft as normal.
After you have finished drafting, have Players 2 and 5 switch positions. You now have one team on one side of the table, and the other team on the other side. During deckbuilding and gameplay, you are allowed to consult with your teammates and strategize together.
The competition consists of three rounds, with each player playing against each player from the opposing team. To start, play against the player sitting across the table (e.g. Player 1 vs. 6, 2 vs. 5, etc.).
After the first round of play has concluded, one team remains seated and the other team rotates one position over. As the cube owner, you get to stay seated for the duration while your opponents shuffle around after each round. Bask in your home court advantage!
When the three rounds are complete, add up the match wins and declare a winner! There will be nine total matches, so the team with five-or-more match wins walks away victorious.